I'm roused gently from my sleep in the middle of the night by Calliope when its my turn for watch. I'm on third watch, so its pretty dark, other than some moonlight, I'm supposed to keep the campfire small to keep small animals away. We set up camp in a small group of trees not too far from the river, so it helps keep the light from spreading really far across the nearby plains.
Once I've done a general check, of our surroundings, and made sure the fire was going to be fine for a while, I decide to keep watch outside our group of trees, and keep an eye on the surrounding area.
When I say a group of trees, its only really 7 trees and some shrubs together in this area, so I can still easily see in if I need to, but I feel like watching from the outside would be better.
All that said, its hard to keep track of time at night. Compounded by the fact I legitimately haven't watched the moon yet here. Does it move faster than back on Earth? If so, I might be way off on my estimate of time. Has it only been 30 minutes or so, or has it been more than an hour? When you're just watching like this, its really really hard to actually tell. I should check if there exist sand timers in this world that could be used for this.
As my boredom creeps on, I notice something on the horizon. A small creature moving roughly this direction. I position myself on the other side of the tree from it, and keep watching. Eventually, it looks this way, and takes a lower position, and starts carefully approaching. As it gets a little closer, yup, I'm sure. That's a goblin alright.
I ready my crossbow, and wait. If its just one, there isn't a reason to wake the rest of the party... probably. I scan the horizon a few more times just to make sure. Ok, I'm pretty sure there isn't another one.
It gets in range for my crossbow, but I want to try something, since I haven't had the option to really try it yet. I get ready to cast emotion control on it, and choose confusion, and hold until its a little closer before casting.
When I finally do, the goblin pauses, and looks around a little. Almost like it forgot what it was doing. After looking around, it sees the fire again, it shakes its head, and crouches again to start approaching.
Glad to see that they still experience emotions. Maybe I should feel a little bad for what I'm about to do then. I once again confuse the goblin, and while it stops and looks around aimlessly, I fire a shot straight through its head.
It drops where it was standing, and I quietly move it a little further from the camp, and begin the process of burying it, and getting its ear as proof. It doesn't need to be good, and I'm not hiding it, but I would hate to smell it in the morning.
Satisfied with the burial, I figure its been long enough now, and I go to wake Varris. I explain that a lone goblin came, but I took care of it, and show him where I saw it come from, and where the body is before going to get my last few hours of shut eye.
I was a little surprised by how awake Varris was by the time I went to fall asleep, but I guess as last shift, he might be an early riser anyway, so maybe this is a normal time for him. As I start to doze off, I can faintly see the color on the horizon change.
Its only a few hours, and I'm awake again. Not the best feeling in the world, but I suppose this is life as an adventurer. I'll just have to suck it up.
Varris speaks up as we all start to gather up our stuff and eat a small amount of preserved food to start the day, "James killed a goblin on his watch last night."
The other two look over for a response from me, so I respond while I munch on some hard tack, "It came generally from the forest direction. It was just sort of hurriedly running along on its own for a while, but eventually saw the faint glow of the fire and came this way. I waited until it was close and shot it through the head."
"You're sure it was alone?" Elys asks.
"I'm pretty sure it was, I checked four times as it was moving about, and didn't see any others. It really was just sort of running along. Why?" I say.
"Well, the concerns about wildlife yesterday might actually have a reason then. Remember how yesterday all the goblins were in groups?" Elys asks.
"Sure, they would come at us as a team." Calliope says.
"Well, if there are ones running out alone, especially at night, it probably means there are so many in the forest that some are going hungry, so they sneak off at night to try and find food. Thus scaring off things even this far from the forest." Elys replies.
"Would that really drive all the wildlife away?" Calliope asks.
"Not necessarily, but think of it this way, how often do you see wildlife near the capitol? Not often right. The wildlife doesn't want to be where its constantly bothered by humans. Here, a lot has probably moved on to another area for the same reason. Too many goblins though." Elys says.
"How many goblins do you think it is in there then?" Calliope asks, slightly concerned.
"Its hard to say, but a lot for sure. Goblins are quite a bit more belligerent than humans, so it probably takes a lot less to drive the wildlife further away, but it has to be a lot. Like we'll be here a while a lot. More than fifty, probably more than one hundred." Elys guesses.
"This is looking like it'll be a bigger job than we maybe thought." Varris says in thought, "Do you think we should go back to the guild?"
I'm content to let people who actually have an understanding of common sense in this world talk it over, so I continue just listening.
"Maybe, they're still just goblins. Its just a lot of them. We'll likely just need to be methodical about it, and maybe try to set up a slightly more permanent base camp. We can use here even, we have decent cover, and its far enough away that hopefully only stray goblins will come here at night." Elys eventually replies.
"When you say more permanent base camp, what exactly do you have in mind?" Varris asks.
"Just some basics, like clearing a better area for the campfire, and bringing some stones from the creek over to help contain the campfire. Maybe clearing the ground a little more around where we plan to sleep. Bringing extra wood back with us at night, in case something happens, and we can't go get more. Just general preparedness stuff." Elys says.
"Wow, you know a lot about this stuff. I noticed yesterday, that you knew quite a bit about the wildlife, but even stuff like this..." Calliope trails off.
"Oh, well uh, I mean, the town I grew up in is right on the border, and we have a lot of hunters and have to protect ourselves, so all of us kids are taught a bunch of basics of survival, in case something were to happen." Elys replies, flustered.
Calliope and Elys share an awkward laugh, as we finish getting ready to head back to the forest, and set off for a second day of goblin hunting.