Caledryn paced back and forth in the guildhall of the Obsidian Vanguard, trying to sort through the thoughts that pulled him to-and-fro. He had to keep moving and exercise his aching leg and flexing his hand, both of which, with the help of the guild's experienced clerics, had been restored late the night before, shortly after he arrived a bloody mess on the polished stone floor of the guild hall. Despite the full recovery he had made, the phantom pain of his severed limbs still gnawed at him.
He worked through exactly what he had encountered on his expedition and nothing made sense.
Why hadn't the Vescarids attacked the village? Why did they release him? Did that thing use logic and reason? I must be the first person to ever have a conversation with a Vescarid. The thoughts swirled round and round, unable to process them, but aware of their significance.
Caledryn was driven from his thoughts as the massive double doors to the Guildmaster's office creaked open and an attendant stepped out to meet him.
"They will see you now Caledryn," she announced, her arms swept out to welcome him in.
At the head of the room sat Guildmaster Eryndor, his previously piercing blue eyes now softer, seemingly to commiserate with Caledryn and his plight. Beside him was Ardenia, the guild's chief strategist. She locked in on Caledry, assessing him, glancing down to his new leg and back up to meet his gaze before retrieving her parchment and quill.
"Let me begin by congratulating you on a mission well done. I cannot express how vital your efforts have been to the cause. That being said, I would also like to apologize for assigning you such a hazardous mission. I should have never asked you to do this on your own, and for that, I apologize." The Guildmaster looked forlorn and exhausted. Whatever meeting he had prior to speaking with Caledryn must have taken a lot out of him.
"No need to apologize sir. I'm sure anyone with the information I had, in our position would have done the same thing. I made it back alive, and good as new sir." Caledryn saluted and awaited further direction.
Ardenia took this as her time to speak and said, "Well, we are glad you are back, and look forward to hearing your report"
"Yes sir," Caledryn affirmed before delivering his report.
"The hive near Ashvale exhibits significant deviations from known Vescarid behavior," Caledryn began, his voice unsteady as he tried to find his rhythm, still having not quite settled his mind. "The Blight, or…" he paused to recall what the creature had said in their final moments together, "The Vescora, I believe they referred to it, is expanding rapidly in all directions except toward the village." he nodded to himself in affirmation before the strategist cleared her throat.
"I'm sorry, who referred to it as The Vescora?" she inquired, rapidly documenting the conversation on the parchment that lay before her.
Caledryn went quiet, his foot began tapping nervously and he couldn't figure out what to do with his hands as he built the courage to relay this frightening news.
"I believe it was…" The words struggled to break free until eventually they slipped out, "The leader?" he stated, though it sounded more like a question. "I spoke with a bipedal Vescarid that looked remarkably human; it was the last interaction I had before escaping" he confessed, flexing his leg and clenching his once missing hand.
Eryndor shifted uneasily in his chair as he took in the troubling news. "Unfortunately, this is not entirely unsurprising due to recent accounts on the front line, but this can wait, please resume your report".
"Uh… Yes, of course." Caledryn resumed his recount. "As I was saying, the village has not been directly threatened by the presence of this new hive and the… Blight, has shown substantial decreases in its spread southeast toward the village, while in every other direction, it is going wild. This restraint could indicate hesitation, strategy, or even an attempt to avoid provoking the humans. It does not follow the behaviors of what we know Blight to be capable of."
"Perhaps we follow suit with this, leader you spoke of. I suggest we identify this new strain as Vescora due to its unusual behaviors. If there are other glaring differences, we should categorize them accordingly to compare better and contrast the different hives." Ardenia stated dryly.
After a moment of verifying it was again his turn to speak, Caledryn continued, "The hive's forces are similar to those we contend with in the way that each unit has its purpose, but beyond that, they seem to travel down entirely different skill trees. "The Vescarid and the…" he stumbled as things became more complicated, "For the sake of this report I will refer to the threat to the capital as Brutes and the threat to Asevale as… Tacticians?"
"That will be fine, carry on," Eryndor assured him.
"The Brutes and the Tacticians are distinctly different. As we know, the Brutes use sheer force and overwhelming numbers to smash their way through obstacles. They ravage the land and if left unchecked will push onward until there is nothing left. I do not believe they possess any significant level of intelligence–"
Eryndor had a brief coughing fit, as if he momentarily choked, but gestured for the scout to continue.
"--but I digress, the report is about the Tacticians. I observed at least four distinct unit types, but it appears as though there is some overlap. They have wolves that seem to act as patrols, scouts, and the general foot soldiers for the Tacticians, focused more on speed and map control over brute force. There is a form of spider, much like jumping spiders in the real world, except this variety is camouflaged and nearly invisible. They seem to serve as the eyes of the hive, but could likely serve to ambush or pick off stragglers, possibly performing flanking maneuvers simply by letting the enemy pass by them. I don't know of anything in the real world that the rangers are like, they are frail things, but appear to serve as back-line snipers and hunters. I didn't observe them taking down wild game, but had noticed several worker drones dragging prey back to the hive."
"It sounds like the Brute rangers, though we have no confirmation of them using rangers to hunt, they simply wash over an area and haul back the biomass," Ardenia interjected.
"Correct. Along those lines, this variation seems to be as closely in tune with the surrounding environment as we could expect from such an evasive species. Don't get me wrong, they are systematically exterminating everything in the area, but they are doing it more gradually, they are a much more cautious Vescarid. It doesn't explain the obscene quantity of meat they had in storage, but they do not appear to be in any hurry." Caledryn anticipated questions but when he did not receive any, he felt the need to elaborate.
"I'm talking about likely one hundred tons of raw meat." he let it sink in, "I didn't have time to verify, but witnessed them spreading the rotten portions along the Vescora. This observation in addition to the chambers entirely filled with fungi, I would say they are taking a note from the cave goblin's book, and have developed their own system of farming."
"What the hell? You're certain?" Eryndor asked, floored by this news.
"Nearly 100%, I don't see why else they would be engaging in this actions otherwise. Where was I" Caledryn asked himself before finding his place, "Workers, uh, yes, the workers. I know we haven't seen much from the brutes, but from what we know, the Tactician's workers are substantially smaller. They are essentially highly armored crabs of immense strength, designed for hauling, tunneling, and… well, farming. They may have other purposes, but I was denied access to specific parts of the hive. They had these large sentinels, essentially bears with body armor and mandibles. They were vetting every creature that passed by, only letting the drones into certain areas with the smallest gap of entry."
"Brood-mothers," Ardenia muttered.
"That is the most likely assumption," Caledryn inhaled sharply, the next part of his report weighing heavy on him. "Their numbers are staggering for how young they are and the recent casualties they suffered by the raiding party my contact established earlier in the week only add to my concern. I estimate over a hundred workers, two, maybe three dozen hunters, an unknown number of stealth units, and many Razormaw, though I only saw thirty or so. That's not including the possible brood-mother, which could easily double or triple their forces within weeks. And of course, in my escape, I encountered what might be their leader, which was oddly enough, outside of the nest at the time."
He hesitated, searching for the words to describe the figure that had captured him. "As I mentioned before, it was bipedal, intelligent, unlike any Vescarid we've encountered. It spoke to me in perfect Common, it even interrogated me, extrapolating information and weighing the pros and cons. Then, in the most surprising turn of events, it just let me go. It claimed it didn't want a fight, only a place for its hive to live. Whether that was the truth or a calculated ploy to delay retaliation, I can't say. But it made one thing clear, it's not like the others. It thinks, it plans, and appears to be capable of mercy when it when it serves its purpose."
The room was silent save for the scratching of Ardenia's quill as she furiously took notes. Caledryn pressed on. "One last thing. The Vescora itself, much like the Blight, seems to function as a hive-wide sensory network. I used advanced stealth and spells to avoid detection, but I'm certain that any prolonged contact in its presence triggers their awareness. It seems more sensitive than what the Brutes have developed, but have far less natural defenses."
Caledryn fixed his gaze on the Guildmaster. "This isn't just another Vescarid swarm. I honestly don't know how to proceed with this. It could very well grow into something far worse than what we're already facing at the capital; yet as difficult as this is for me to say, I think we might be able to negotiate with it and determine if it has connections with the Brutes."
"Just to reiterate, this leader, it determined letting you go would cause less damage than killing you and bringing our wrath down on it?" Eryndor asked, rolling the concept around in his mind.
Caledryn hesitated the image of Darian cleaving his hand from his wrist still fresh in his mind. "I don't know if it's the leader, but it's powerful. More so than anything I've encountered save the Brute's forces. If it's not the leader, then whatever commands it is on the same level as what we are fighting here."
Eryndor steepled his fingers, his brow furrowed in thought. "And yet, it chose not to kill you."
"Correct," Caledryn said. "But that doesn't make it less dangerous. It knows when to fight and when to hold back. I'm no general, no military mastermind, but it feels like we have options here, the hard part will be figuring out the right ones to take advantage of."
The room grew heavier with the weight of his words.
"And yet, we have a more immediate concern," Ardenia said, sliding a freshly inked report toward Eryndor. "The attacks on the fort near the capital have escalated. The sighting of the bipedal Vescarid wielding that massive blade... Until Caledryn's report, we hadn't seen anything like this before and now we have evidence of two Vescarid's that have some sort of leadership role within the hive. We cannot confirm that they are connected, but. It's clear that each of them is organizing for something bigger. I can only hope that it isn't the same goal."
"Which means resources will be stretched even thinner," Eryndor concluded grimly. He turned to Caledryn. "Your report is invaluable, but the priority remains the capital. We can't afford to lose the fort."
"What about the hive near Ashvale?" Caledryn asked. "If we ignore it, it could grow into an equal threat."
Eryndor pressed his fingers to his temples as he thought through the choices he would have to make. "We don't ignore it. But we can't commit the forces we need right now. We'll send scouts, and smaller teams to monitor and disrupt their growth, and possibly… negotiate. For now, the fort takes precedence."
The Vescarid near Ashvale weren't the immediate threat, but they would be soon enough. He clenched his fists, the phantom pain in his once missing limb's foot serving as a constant reminder of what they faced.
"I'm sorry to interrupt," Ardenia spoke up before Eryndor could dismiss Caledryn, "But the information you gave us involving the potential for a tenuous peace, or at least the opportunity to open diplomatic discussion with this Vescarid hive leader has made me realize that you need to be aware of recent developments." she watched a moment as Caledryn eyed her warily before continuing.
"The Alpha Swarm, or the Brutes as you mentioned, have revealed a key piece of their hive hierarchy to us. You may not have noticed, but Eryndor mentioned a bipedal Vescarid wielding a large weapon. The armor plating also may have been crafted, though it is difficult to ascertain with this species. Regardless, they are capable of arming their soldiers which could very well shift the tide of battle in their favor. In addition, this entity, through presence alone has demonstrated that it may be a level greater than even our top-tier players. It personally issued a challenge to Captain Vera yesterday at approximately 17:00 hours, after an especially tiresome skirmish. His actions have also indicated that the casualties lost by the Vescarid that day were trivial, no more than a means to send a message. Please keep this in mind should you reach out to the Ashvale hive. If possible, fish for information regarding our primary threat. That is all" Ardenia stood and saluted before passing the floor to Eryndor.
"One more thing before you leave," Eryndor spoke up, redirecting attention toward himself. "I want you to head up the surveillance operation. You will lead our efforts in Ashvale and will be given limited supplies to establish an outpost. As of this moment, you sir, are promoted to the rank Captain of Reconnaissance for the direction of this mission; I know you will not let us down. Now please speak with the Quartermaster who will requisition the necessary resources you need to begin your mission. Thank you, and good luck." The guildmaster rose and saluted Caledryne.
"Thank you, sir. I will report back once we are established." Caledryne returned the salute and began his way to the Quartermaster.