After the spectacle from the night before, Sam explained in detail what he saw last night. Every one of them understood the severity of the boys presence. His goals were unknown, and him only making himself appear to Sam made the team feel like he was being picked out for some sick reason.
They had to move.
They had accepted a task from valdis a couple of weeks before from 'The Finders' organization. The task was to try and rescue a highly valued associate from the organization itself. He was en-route to return back to Valdis 2 months ago, but has yet returned. The report that was given to Sam was that his route back into Valdis made him pass through Goblin territory.
Leon was not just a weak human either, he is skilled and deadly, though not invincible.
Goblins are numerous and sometimes are ruled by an evolved version of themselves, the Orcs. They were many times stronger. With a huge frame, ivory tusks that jut out from their lower mouth, and a brutish strength that would make a Valdis Knights leg buckle if they block a head on attack.
It would make perfect sense if Leon was unable to escape if he was caught by one of them.
But although stronger than Goblins, it doesn't mean they're dumber either. As a matter of fact, some orcs can speak very broken Halthish, the spoken language of the Halthor kingdoms people.
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As our group goes deeper into the forest, they look for signs of Goblin territory.
Such a sight is recognizable from the wooden idols they worship, broken teeth scattered around, and crude semi-useful traps they place for humans. Although intellectually lower than humans, the Goblins are not as stupid as they seem.
It's best to tread carefully around their territory, else you see yourself strung up in the air being poked at with rusty knives and hit with large rocks until you go unconscious and wake up rotating over a fire.
With knowing the fact The Boy is somewhere near, everyone feels uneasy.
'He knows Sam's name. Why did he only show himself to him and nobody else?'
'What is his goal stalking us? does he plan to eat us too?'
Such were the thoughts of Sams friends, but the only thing he himself could think of was when the boy was going to show himself again. He knows the boy is too fast to catch up with him, even if he wanted to ask his intentions.
As he thinks about the boy, Nicholas in the front hears a few rustling leaves and a snap from a twig to the left of him.
"GOBLIN AMBUSH!!!"
As he screams those words, Clark rushes forward, shield in hand and slams into a Goblin looking to pierce into Nicks ribcage.
*CRISHKT*
The goblins outstretched arm is broken, flopping around. It screams until its neck is chopped Sam and his longsword
With a lesser spell casted by Lilith it makes Sam's senses slightly more enhanced, almost like a drug.
He makes quick work of the 2 other goblins as he lets the llast one scramble away with a cut on it's wrist.
"follow the blood trail, it will lead us to whatever encampment they have. For all we know, the target could be there, waiting for us."
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After following the blood trail, they come across a cave, no large encampment, although this is harder to assess numbers of the enemy. They would have to do some reconnoissance.
However Lilith has separate ideas, flush them out and ambush them. She calls for the group to gather a lot of debris from the surrounding area. Twigs, leaves, logs, anything that's dry.
She has them force it into the front entrance. She takes a minute to gather the Magic in the air.
She starts a small flame, and that's all they need for the debris to erupt into flame and smoke.
If the target is in there, he won't die, she's sure. He should know to go low to the ground and to cover his nose with cloth as needs be. Plus the goblins will surely leave before then.
As the smoke drifts into the cave, screams of panic come from the inside, not many apparently. 5 goblins bolt outside in a coughing fit, scratching at their throats as they struggle for air. Struggle no longer, death has come for the dirty creatures, Sam. In an instant 5 goblins die and few stragglers come outside after that. Any that do however, die swiftly. As the smoke finally clears they venture inside, searching for the target.
As they traverse the winding caves and listen to their harrowing echoes, they find no target, but they do find a crudely drawn map.
'Human made? or maybe...'
At a closer inspection it shows a map of the surrounding area, showing a drawing of goblins on certain points of it.
Goblin Camps.
The map shows all of the nearby enemy camps.
Also inside the Cave seems to be some damaged armor, a bit of copper and few silver.
The group takes the map and the money with them, no use for damaged armor however.
As they look at the map they've received, they know where they must go now, the biggest goblin drawing on the map of course. To finish their mission and retrieve Leon dead or alive.