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Winter of Victory: Interlude #32
Accounting Errors "Sir, the scout is back." "Just a moment." The weary Braichdyn levered herself up out her chair and made her way out of the room. She walked down the main hall of the once elegant mansion to the front room, which currently served as the headquarters of the Brenin's Fist in Gorna. Once there, she saw Cadofyth Morgan Hazeleye speaking softly to a Ban Cantdyn, who swiftly left the room. She walked over to report. "Sir, I was informed the scout had returned." Morgan looked like he hadn't had much sleep either. "Braichdyn Katelyn. Please, come with me. The report should be interesting, I suspect." The two walked back down the hall and up a flight of stairs. The Cadofyth turned at the top and nodded to a guard at the first door. The guard saluted and stepped aside as the two entered the room. Inside, a slight, ragged looking man dressed in charcoal gray rested his head against the wall, chair tilted back precariously. He wore a partial mask, which hid most of his features, but still showed his darkened skin around his eyes. A heavy belt held tools, bottles, and rolled up pieces of parchment. A dagger hilt could be seen in one boot, and jewelry festooned the resting figure. A backpack rested against the chair. All of his equipment was smeared with blood, goo, and mud. Bandages wrapped around the man's left arm and leg. Morgan walked up and gently tapped the figure's boot with his foot. "What did you find?" "Five more minutes, Mommy." The man groaned, and then opened his eyes. They were inky black and piercing. "Oh, hello Cadofyth. Is this everyone?" He pointed at the Braichdyn. "Yes. Braichdyn Katelyn merch Ffiona is my intelligence expert. She's been gathering information." "Hmmmp. Well, I took a look around. Pretty dangerous. They have at least a dozen really excellent druids in there. Scent, blindsense, you name it, they have it. The good thing is that they can't be everywhere. The perimeter is too big." "Did you find the Olwythi squad?" Katelyn blurted out. "Yup. They got really torn up. I put them in the portable hole I brought along and left them with the Pelorites just before I came here. That was one heck of an ambush." "What happened? I mean, they're Olwythi." "Well, there's Olwythi, and there's Olwythi, if you know what I mean. For example, Arawn would have escaped, more than likely. But there's only one Arawn. Not everyone can be him. Even us old-timers can get jumped occasionally. These guys looked pretty green, from the look of their equipment. I suspect what happened was the goblins detected them, and pretended not to notice while they drew the noose tighter. By the time the Olwythi figured it out, it was too late. They were too far in to get out." Morgan spoke quietly. "Cause of death?" "I'm no expert, although I am a cleric of, well ... not Pelor. I think they were poisoned and strangled. My guess is a variant of Evard's combined with Solid Fog. I ran across that during my adventuring years. Mighty tough to beat." "In other words, they have some good spellcasters." "They have some very good spellcasters. They also trapped the place. A lot. That was fun. I haven't seen so many traps since I went to Abrozzar's citadel a couple of years ago." Morgan had been taking notes. "Traps? What kind? How many?" "Mostly mechanical. A couple of really nasty, icky, kill you dead traps, but most of them were just annoying. A few magic traps. I left everything as is, since I didn't want them to know where I had been. Here's a map of what I found." The man reached into a belt pouch and pulled out a large scrap of parchment covered with ink. "It may be a bit runny, since I sweated on it a little." Morgan took the parchment and handed it to Katelyn who unfolded it. She frowned for a moment before she finally figured out what all the lines and squiggles meant. "That's a lot of traps." She murmured. "They've been busy. Oh yeah, that parchment also includes where their barricades are, plus the location of most of their barracks. They have a lot of non-combatants packed into the buildings as well. Looks like they're here to stay." Katelyn continued to examine the parchment. "How many of them do you estimate are in there?" "The way they're packed in there? At least five thousand. And that doesn't include non-goblinoids." Morgan's and Katelyn's heads jerked up from the parchment. "What!?" They both said. "That's impossible!" Morgan nearly shouted. "Our intelligence doesn't support those numbers." Katelyn added. "We believe there are less than one thousand total." The man smirked. "Yeah? Did you walk around town counting heads? A bunch of apartment buildings are packed full. Oh, which reminds me, the sewers are open." The two officers groaned. "How?" Morgan asked. "Beats me. I thought the sewers had been almost completely destroyed too. That's good news for when the goblins are driven out, but not at the moment. It looks like the goblins are using the sewers for moving troops around." "Well, that means we'll have to put troops into the sewers." Morgan frowned. "With that many goblins, we'll have to summon the wolfpacks to help out, assemble the entire Brenin's Fist, and get as many troops from the cantreval armies as possible." "Might want to add the Griffon Guard as well." "Why's that?" "The goblins have a bunch of elite troops. About one hundred ogres. Near as I can tell, it's an intact unit, or mostly so. There's also a lot of war trolls, ettins, regular trolls, and athachs. You're going to need some serious firepower." Morgan looked a bit dazed at hearing the rapid fire list. "I don't know if we have sufficient experienced people to handle creatures like that." "Tell you what. I'll ask around and see if I can find some more volunteers. Your wolfpacks are going to need all the help they can get." Katelyn spoke. "Where are you going to find enough folks to make a difference?" The figure stood up slowly with a faint gasp and reached down for the backpack. "Darlin', let's just say that the Gyri always put something away for a rainy day. I know some people who will be...interested in the current situation. Heck, I'm interested. All those traps..." The figure limped slightly out of the room. In the doorway, the gray man turned, and the Cadofyth and Braichdyn could sense that the figure was smiling. "Don't worry Morgan. I guarantee that you will get all the support I can possibly gather. I want to go home, you know." With that, the figure disappeared. "Interesting character," Katelyn said after a moment. "Um hm." Morgan stared at the doorway. "I've got to go. The Brenin will be interested in this information. Use the numbers and information he gave us to figure out our operational strategy. We can't just storm the barricades. We'll have to be sneaky and unconventional." "I already have some ideas, sir." 
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