Once I had seen the fight, I was quite sure that we had managed to achieve our goal. Both sides were poised for a larger conflict, the Jonari had very good reason to believe that it had been a dryad-party that had attacked and killed their chieftain and the dryads had been attacked by the Jonari on their turf. Adding to that the fact that they had to know that one of their parties had vanished, it would increase their ire. Maybe they had even found the corpses of the party we had taken out, most of them dying to wounds pointing at a Jonari signature-weapon, the Lok’nar.

For the Jonari, the fact that both, Adra and I had mostly used attacks that made wounds similar to the weapons used by dryads should help in their conviction, especially as we had left depleted, enchanted darts in the few targets I had killed via the dark mind-magic. On the other hand, the nymph killed to incite the dryads had spotted Sigmir and identified her as a giantblood, before getting killed by a genuine Jonari-throwing axe that Sigmir had taken from Jongarn’s henchman.

Obviously, if both sides stopped and carefully investigated the timing would fall apart, hinting at third-party involvement, but I highly doubted that either side would do so; once blood was spilled, neither side would simply say, ‘Oh, sure, let’s talk about things.’ It was against human nature, and that was what I was projecting onto the sapients of this world. I hoped it was an universal trait, or rather, I hoped that the developers had not tried to plaster some strange traits onto their races, causing them to act in a totally unpredictable fashion. Neither Sigmir nor Adra had objected to my plan and the underlying assumptions, so I had hope that it would work.

The days after we had managed to incite conflict between the Jonari and the dryads had turned into a strange game of hide and seek. We were searching for the base-camp of the dryads, hoping to find something that we could use to completely negate the threat they posed to Adernas, while at the same time dodging groups of nymphs and dryads heading towards the direction we came from. It was rather obvious that the dryads had some way to communicate at a distance, something Adra claimed to be trivial; she was able to send messages at a distance, but neither Sigmir nor I had any skill in receiving them, rendering it moot.

Our most valuable asset during that game of hide and seek was undeniably Lenore. Her ability to scout in the air combined with her ability to see through the dryad’s habitually used concealment was priceless, plain and simple. She was griping a bit about the cold, but at the end of the day, she was smart enough to understand just how useful her scouting was. In addition, she felt my gratitude and the conviction that I wanted to repay her, as befitting a partner. She had hinted at something she wanted to do, something she wanted my help with, but had yet to tell me just what she wanted. My guess was that it had to do with her own advancement, that she wanted help to cross the first divide, but that was only a guess.

We had to dodge multiple dryad parties, all roughly heading towards the location of the fight and all in a hurry. It was interesting that the fight with the Jonari triggered such an reaction while there was no hint that the fight with the hunting party Rai had been a part of had triggered anything comparable. It was as if the dryads knew that the Jonari had a lot more people, and thus fighters, compared to Adernas.

While we probably could have fought against the parties, and it was likely that we could have won, it would have tipped them off that someone was sneaking up on them, something I was trying to avoid. A good part of the setup I had cooked up was to reduce the number of enemies around their main-camp, not increase their vigilance against a sneak-attack. There would be an overall increase in vigilance, but I doubted that it would be directed against a small party, not if they knew the Jonari. Night-raids were just not their style.

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After three days, Lenore spotted what I believed to be our target. Smoke was rising from an overgrown valley and not just from a single source, but from multiple sources, hinting at a large group camping down there. Due to the foliage, Lenore was unable to gather more information, but the simple fact that the foliage was so much more dense than in the surroundings was a hint in itself.

We would have to decide on our approach, either trying to move into the mouth of the valley during the night, hoping that we manage to dodge any guards and spells they may have there or to climb up one of the hills on the side, hoping that we were able to make a stealthy descent into the village itself. The difficulty of such an descent was totally dependant on the local geography, moving down a steep slope could be problematic, not to mention the fact that ice and snow made it extra problematic.

To make an informed decision, we needed more information, so we scouted out the area on the other side of one of the hills making up their valley and made camp in a cave there. As we scouted, I realised something I had not expected. When it came to pure stealth, without magic-usage, Rai was the best out of all of us. If we used magic, I had them all beat, but without it, Rai was able to beat out Sigmir, who was adept at stalking. Adra had the same problem as me, she was relying on her magic to bolster her ability. When we tried to find out just why Rai was so adept at stealth, something interesting happened. He blushed even worse than when Adra used him as a warming pillow, a habit she had fallen into when we had to forgo the campfire, causing all of us to become terribly curious. Sadly, he was adamant about keeping this secret, avowing that he would not tell, not even under torture. It was good to see that he was able to joke in that manner, it showed that he was getting over the ordeal with Jongarn.

But his surprising stealth-skill changed our plans a bit. I had originally planned to keep watch with Sigmir at my side, but now, I decided that Rai would be more useful, as I wanted to use a combination of mundane stealth and my magical concealment. When I asked him, I had to suppress my laughter, he looked like a happy puppy, eager to help, I almost saw a ghostly tail wagging behind him.

Before we tried to sneak up on the nymphs, we made a few trials in the valley we were camping in, measuring the limits of the combination against Adra, Sigmir and Ylva. At first, I had some problems, but Rai gave me a few useful hints and instruction, to the point that my stealth-skill gained points, despite my trait that reduced the usage I got out of instruction.

Once we had gotten used to working together, things changed. Even when the others knew we were coming and from which direction, we were able to sneak up on them, at least in the dark. When it was light, the utility of my magic took a nosedive, greatly limiting what I contributed.

So, a day after we had spotted the valley, Rai and I were heading out, looking for the security measures used by the dryads, trying to find a way into the valley.

There was one snag, the nymphs were rather careful and sent out patrols, checking the surrounding area, but luckily, we spotted them before they managed to spot us and got under cover. But it was a problem, especially if they managed to find our camp, so once more Lenore had to brave the cold air and warn the others.

We moved on, looking for a good position to keep watch on the valley and maybe see the patrol returning, allowing us to make out parts of the security.

Our search concentrated on the hillside, somewhere that would allow us to look down onto them, while, at the same time, staying away from any sharp contrast that would make us stick out. The sky, for example, was a sharp contrast if it was behind you, so the top of a hill was completely out, at least according to Rai.

I let him take the lead and he did not disappoint. At one point, he suddenly stopped and made sure that I knew that before us was something bad. He could not name it closer, but his instincts told him that something was there. We found a nice thicket to wait in, with a relatively good view onto the mouth of the valley. I was curious and kept the location he had warned me of in mind and took a closer look once Lenore was back with us. He truly did not disappoint, with Lenore’s sight, I was able to make out threads of magic, woven into the foliage close to the ground, creating some sort of warding magic.

Clearly, the dryads had learned from the destruction of Tegi.