John was placed in a room made of smooth metal, the door was filled with a slab of stone 4 feet thick and the only furniture was two chairs and a desk. He assumed that there was magic at play stopping him from suffocating as he stood there, admiring his efforts at making himself look injured and dishevelled in the shiny metal.

He was in there for nearly an hour before the mage from earlier came into the room holding a box.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. Now I'm going to start straight away if you're willing so we don't waste any more time" she said as she sat down in the chair across from him. John nodded.

"Good, " She flipped open the lid of the box, revealing what looked like a clear quartz crystal the size of her forearm. "as you may know this is a seeing crystal, it will glow red if you speak a lie in its presence. Observe. This room is made of wood." The crystal filled with a deep red mist before returning to clear in the few seconds. "see, now don't worry there are very strict rules about the kinds of questions we can ask in this interview, I don't intend to pry into your life just find out what has happened.

"Now, if you would be so kind would you please tell me what happened to fort rahsnil and the company station there."

"Yes ma'am, the day before yesterday we were attacked by a large monster and lost the majority of our company, it was strong and tough and it was a great struggle to bring it down. Those of us that survived collected the dead and returned to the fort to lick our wounds after the fight.

Later that evening a monster that had gotten inside the fort killed all of the soldiers that were not on watch or in the barracks, including the mages. It then made its way into the barracks where it was discovered in the process of killing one of the guards. The guard managed to accidentally alert all of those asleep in the barracks before his death. I was in the barracks at the time.

In a brutal fight, all of the other guards were killed and I was left severely injured. The barracks had set on fire by this point in time. It left through the window where it was attacked by the guards that had been on watch, it then proceeded to kill them all using a weapon that was most certainly not made by gnomes. I saw the bodies being eaten by it, it was definitely a monster.

I left through the window and then made my way here after taking some weapons and armour for me to use and wear from one of the dead guards. These scars are the monster's work."

The crystal had not filled with red the entire time-he was talking.

"Could you describe the monster for me? Did it seem to have any special abilities? Did you see which direction it went in When it left."

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"It was tall, bigger than a human, had 2 sets of eyes, it's mouth spit the entirety of its head down the centre when it opened it. It had dark, grey Skin, it's body was vaguely gnomish but big and with no definition to its muscle just entirely smooth. It appeared to be able to cast magic" He eyes bulged at this revelation" and I think it came this way, which is why I'm here."

Panic crashed on to her face as she looked down and saw a completely clear crystal.

"What are you, an idiot? Why wouldn't you say that earlier?" She cussed as she pulled a blue crystal from her pocket and started screaming into it to have the whole outpost on lockdown and to have squads of guards comb the entire barracks. The crystal was a bright red from all of the insults and threats she was shouting into the crystal and John took the opportunity.

"I didn't hurt anyone and I don't know anything else about it or what it wants. I didn't see it on my way here and I don't know if it would attack somewhere so soon. It was really hurt. Can I please get out of this room?"

The woman looked at him and relaxed a little but still ordered everyone on high alert and to ensure it was no-where around. She then walked over and placed the crystal back into the box and uncuffed him before ordering that the door is opened.

"I'm gonna need you to stay in the fort for a while if you remember anything else useful find me. If it attacks, you're the only person who will have fought it before so we will need you. I'm gonna leave you with Jack, he'll get you settled in."

She then led him out of the room down towards the barracks. This place was like scaled up version of the fort he had been in before, the layout was almost exactly the same there were just many more guards, he assumed that meant there were more attacks over this way.

The turned off before the barracks and into the quatermasters room where an elderly gnome was sat behind the counter and the human from earlier was busy sorting things into bins and onto shelves.

"Jack, this is Henry. He's the one from rahsnil. Get him a bed and tell him how things work around here." With that, she turned and left, not even glancing at John.

"Bloody hell lad you're an ugly bastard." The gnome said with a gleeful grin that then slid off his face "Shame what happened at the for though, monster bastards. Anyhow, I'm Jack and I know, I know you've never seen a face more pretty heard it all my life. The guy behind me is Sean Graye, silly name if I ever heard one that, not something strong like Glitterknight or goldweaver." He let out a sigh as he shook his head.

"Anyways, he's one of them humans, doesn't speak a lick of Gnomish and babel spored have gotten rather expensive since they turned up, they're strong bastards though and tough as an old boot so we've been happy to have him fighting with us.

You can help him out for a couple days whilst you recover a bit from the shit you've been through, even if we heal quick as hell now it still takes somethin' outta ya. These are yours" he pulled out a bunch of folded sheets, clothes and pillows from a box to one side.

"There's only the one bed left and it's the one on your right as you go in, it can get a bit noisy if people are walkin' about but you'll be fine I'm sure. Right lad, go get your stuff sorted and some food in ya and come back here."

John hadn't even said a word since he entered the room and was already being ushered out by this guy. He mumbled a thank you and placed his new things on his bed and headed over towards the mess room, he was getting a bit peckish.