Once Glorg and his men had gathered the group set off to the south, following the directions that Fuzz had given him earlier. The valley was heavily wooded so their pace was nowhere near what it could be, but John was happy to take that trade-off, this much woodland meant a lot of resources for the clan. With the stress of the battle yesterday, none of them were in a particularly chatty mood, the rips and tears in the armour the soldiers wore were a constant reminder of how close it had truly been.
The land slowly curved down into a gentle slope and the undergrowth grew more sparse as they came to the 'shiny house' that Fuzz had reported in about. The house revealed itself to be a sprawling complex that was about the size of three or four houses and varied in height from one to two storeys depending on the area.
Despite this strange and unorganised look, the building showed exceptional craftsmanship in its clean lines and appealing design. All around the house, the undergrowth had been cleared by a few hundred feet, and the land had been tilled and prepared for crops. Well, it had been at one point, the ground now as a mess of craters and piles of dug-up earth. Despite the eye drawing chaos of the fields, however, the most exciting part of it all was that the building seemed to be made from marble, the iconic look giving the house an impressive appearance in the bright sunshine. This must have been the source of the shiny description that Fuzz had applied to it.
'That's a lot of damage to the surrounding fields, it looks recent as well,' Glorg said as they all examined the scene before them. None of the hobgoblins seemed especially impressed or concerned by the fact that the complex was built of marble, instead, their focus was on the potential threat the damaged fields represented.
'Yeah, there's not enough growth on the ground around the house for it to be more than a few weeks since the last time it was cleared. The complex looks in good condition as well, which means the owners either left of their own accord or they're still in there,' John said with a gleam in his eye.
This situation could work out well for them in quite a few ways. It would depend on who lived in that house though. They could easily be the hostile faction in the quest the altar had given him.
'What is your will, Lord?' Glorg asked after a few moments of silence while John considered their options.
'Let's approach peacefully and see what happens,' John said eventually, deciding to take the risk and see what came of it. Whoever had built that complex knew what they were doing, and he wanted that expertise for himself. 'Keep your weapons sheathed but be ready to draw after all something attacked this place and they might still be in the area.'
The hobgoblins all nodded and moved their dominant hand to the hilt of their swords in unison, the synchronous response making John roll his eyes and start down towards the complex. Hobgoblins loved their discipline and organisation. He didn't put it past them to learn to do something like that as part of their standard training.
'Lord, there is a body here,' one of the soldiers called out softly, drawing John's attention to a particular mound of dirt that had a half-buried form sticking out of it. Hurrying over to examine it in further detail, John was surprised to see that it was some form of wooden construction, the exposed upper body was made from beautifully carved wood, but it had been all but ripped apart. Carefully moving the shattered remnants of the thing's chest, John found no sign of internal organs or anything beyond carved wood, interesting.
Now knowing what to look for, it wasn't too hard to spot that there were another half a dozen or so of these things broken up and scattered in the area. Looking at it logically, either these were artificial or natural, and it didn't make sense for something that could grow things like this to have a marble house, which meant that John was leaning towards them being an artificial construct of some sort.
'Should we search for more of them?' Glorg asked, seeing the thoughtful expression on John's face.
'No, let's look for an entrance and see what's inside, maybe we'll find some answers there,' John said as they started to circle around the complex. The parts of the building they could currently see were all featureless marble, no gaps for windows or doors anywhere they could see.
'What's that?' John muttered as they came around to the southern side of the complex and saw what looked like a giant sinkhole at the edge of where the undergrowth had been cleared away. The back of his neck was tingling just by looking at the sinkhole, he hadn't seen any other sign of something like that since he'd awoken, and that made him suspicious.
'Is that a door over there?' One of the soldiers said just after John, taking his attention from the hole and across to an odd section of the wall. It looked almost the same as the rest, but it had a slightly different texture and seemed to be pushed out from the line of the rest.
'Maybe, let's take a look,' John said as they all headed over, hands still on weapons in case they were needed.
'Movement!' One of the soldiers cried before they could get more than about halfway to the potential door. The ring of steel filled the air as they all drew their swords and turned to the soldier who'd shouted. John wasn't sure what he had been expecting, undamaged versions of those wooden creations, undead, human barbarians, he had no real expectations. Despite this, he was still shocked for a moment as he watched over a dozen chitinous creatures come swarming out of the sinkhole he'd spotted earlier. He'd heard of giant ants before but had never seen them, in either life, until now. Each ant was the size of a medium dog and scuttled forwards surprisingly swiftly, their six legs propelling them at quite a speed. One look at the powerful jaws on the oncoming ants told John that they needed to be careful here, regular ants were strong for their size, so he had no desire to have a leg ripped off by a giant one.
'Form up,' Glorg barked, the hobgoblins reacting instantly to move into position around John and the head hobgoblin, close enough to support each other but not too close to get in the way. The disciplined movements and calm demeanour of the hobgoblins did a lot to ease John's worry, but then the first of the ants arrived, and there was no time for thought.
Fortunately for the defending group, there didn't seem to be a controlling intelligence behind the ants, they were throwing themselves at their targets as quickly as they could get there. This lack of care meant that instead of being buried in a wave of chitin and piercing jaws, they only had to deal with a few ants at a time.
Dodging back from the snapping jaws of the first ant to reach him, John slashed down at it with his blade and gave a savage grin as the steel chopped into the chitin and removed one of the ant's legs. Reversing the swing to come back in from the other side, John changed the angle slightly and plunged the blade into its head even as it lunged forwards to attack him. One of the soldiers had stepped between John and the oncoming ants to give him time to deal with his foe, so John repaid the favour, stepping past the now engaged soldier to attract the attention of the next ant to arrive.
Ant after ant fell to their blades and the group picked up only a few minor wounds by the time the last of the ants had its head crushed by Glorg's boot. Taking a few deep breaths to slow down his heart, John gave the hobgoblins an impassioned grin that they acknowledged with slight smiles, the hobgoblin equivalent of a broad grin it seemed. That small smile disappeared a moment later and was replaced with a stern look, one that sent a shiver down John's spine and made a lump of ice form in his gut as he turned back to the sinkhole.
More ants were coming out of what could only be a tunnel to their colony, but only half a dozen of the worker ants this time, however. John knew they were worker ants by process of elimination as a much larger ant climbed free of the hole and surveyed the area. It's antennae scenting the air before drawing it's gaze to John and his companions. Where the workers were dog-sized, the soldier ant was many times bigger and was taller than a goblin, standing around five foot tall where its legs met its thorax. John met the ant's gaze and shivered a little at the alien intelligence in its eyes.
'Form up,' Glorg barked once more as the soldier ant started moving towards them, all six of the worker ants that had emerged with it moving into an escort formation with three on either side.
'This isn't good,' John said softly to Glorg, who gave him a look for stating the obvious. Between the vast mandibles on the soldier ant and the organised actions the workers were now showing, they could be in trouble here. The biggest threat was, of course, the soldier ant, and it's powerful jaws that were just as long as the sword in John's hand. He much preferred having a longer reach than his opponents, especially when he could stab them but they could rip him in half.
As the ants drew closer, the workers moved to form a spearhead in front of the soldier and charged forwards to engage the hobgoblins. Unlike the last time, the workers were fighting more defensively now, keeping moving at all times and snapping their jaws at the hobgoblins to keep them at bay. Their chitin seemed to give them just enough armour that any blows needed to connect cleanly with the ants, a problematic proposition when they were moving so much and not committing to an attack.
The ant attacking John was incredibly agile in its movements, but was too predictable in its responses. Following his instincts, John lightly thrust his sword to one side of the ant and grinned triumphantly as it dodged by jumping the other way, straight into his swinging boot as he kicked it in the side of the head. Moving quickly while it was off-balance, John thrust his sword into its thorax, the tip of his blade punching through its chitin with ease and out the other side with an audible crunching sound.
Stomping on the worker's head as he pulled the blade free, John glanced around to see that the soldier ant was battling Glorg while the other hobgoblins were all caught up with their own worker ants. John definitely felt that the workers were fighting defensively to buy the soldier more time now, a disturbing thought as it implied a level of sentience and tactics that worried him. Glorg seemed to be doing the same with the soldier ant however, the big hobgoblin was keeping a sword's length away at all times and staying as light on his feet as he could.
Trusting in Glorg's skill, John instead ran to the aid of the closest of his soldiers, pincering his attacker between them and allowing the hobgoblin to land a solid blow on its abdomen that sent out a spray of teal blood that was a unique blend of blue and green. John hadn't noticed the odd colour of the ant's blood in the last fight, but when a spray of it went past your face, it was hard to ignore. Sending the hobgoblin he'd freed up to help bait the soldier ant, John carried on to the next closest hobgoblin and repeated the process, taking advantage of the limited intelligence the workers seemed to have.
In short order, the rest of the worker ants were down, and the whole group was free to focus on the soldier ant, which was taking hits from them now that they could swarm it, but their swords were struggling to pierce it's thicker chitin. John was considering trying some form of tactic to get up on it's back when there was a distant twanging sound and what looked like a large bolt flew over his head and blasted into the side of the soldier ant, breaching the ant's armour with ease and sinking deep into it's flesh.
The huge ant let out a keening cry of pain and stumbled away from them, but the hobgoblins reacted swiftly despite their surprise and swarmed the creature while it was recovering. While their blows couldn't crack the chitin from the outside, they could still pierce the chitin with a powerful thrust, and the soldier ant swiftly fell, it's carapace pierced in almost a dozen places.
'Quickly now, get yourselves in before any more come,' a deep voice called out to them, and John looked over to see a hulking figure standing where the strange bit of wall had been before. The wall in question was gone, and the interior of the building could be seen behind the figure, a pale light shining from within to illuminate it.
'Let's move it, I don't want to be stuck here in another soldier ant comes out,' John said and started towards the figure at a quick jog, his eyes open for any more surprises they might run across. The hobgoblins fell into formation around him as they went. John warily regarded both the figure they were running toward and the tunnel the ants had used.
The figure stepped back inside as they approached, letting them through and into the complex as a new wave of ants came boiling out of the tunnel, this time with at least two soldier ants and a multitude of workers. Before the ants could do anything more than emerge from the tunnel, however, their rescuer reached out to use a handle on an inner wall. He grunted as he gripped the handle, sliding it across to bring the missing outer wall out from a recess. He kept dragging it across, bringing it all the way before pushing forward, so that it slid into place with a booming sound.
'Well met,' the booming voice of their rescuer was even louder now they were inside. 'My name is Cain, and I'm the owner of this here complex, first things first though, is there a new invasion underway?'