“Move, we are losing them!” I heard Allea shot. The elven Ranger was sprinting after our prey, scrambling to put the little buggers down before they could escape.
Rather than reply, I pushed my aching legs on and barreled towards one of the escapees, intending to simply squash them under the weight of my armored body.
Out of the corner of my eye I could see a streak of white pass by me, as another of our targets was impaled by a spike of ice. The cleanup was going well, but the monsters were simply too numerous to wipe out in one fell swoop, and we were running out of gas.
Finally catching up to my target, I simply let myself fall on top of the small thing. Based on the cracks and the squelching noise under me, that should have done it. Exhausted, I rolled off of the mess I had made of that goblin onto my back, and remained in that position, trying to calm my heaving breaths.
After a short while Kallion joined me, leaning on his staff and nursing what must be the worst headache in his life so far. Our talented Mage had been the centerpiece of our plan, and the amount of essence he must have channeled in this combat was truly staggering. Allea had run out of arrows in the middle of the engagement, having to rely on her shortsword to fend off the little resistance the encampment offered after our initial barrage.
The two of us suffered in companionable silence until the others finished their rampage. The blood-covered mountain of muscle that approached us with her signature shit eating grin was the final member of our party, Astrid. She didn't even seem worse for wear, her stamina once more proving itself near bottomless.
“Well, have ya two had a nice nap? Seems like we got most of ‘em but Allea said she was tracking some towards the mountains over yonder. Might be the source of this infestation, she thinks.”
“Bloody great!” Kallion cursed. “There must be an essence well, if that's the case.”
“Let’s wait for Allea to return before we decide on any other actions.” I declared. “The quest was to clear out this group, but if there's an infested essence well, we have to do something about it, or at least report it if we can't.”
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Over the course of the next half an hour, we recovered from our exertions and checked our gains.
Everyone had gained a level, leaving both me and Astrid at level 8 in our respective classes while Kallion had reached level 9. I estimated Allea would have reached level 8 as well, or at least be on the cusp of it, so wiping out this group of goblins might just be enough to push us over the next Skill-Threshold, if there truly was an infested essence well. But as with all things an Adventurer does, this opportunity would come hand in hand with risk.
An essence well is dangerous. They are naturally formed wellsprings of essence, funneling magic into their surroundings until they dissipate again. Animals in their vicinity often mutate and become monsters, while some monsters that make their habitats around them could twist their magic in some unique ways.
Goblins being the most numerous example, could infest a wellspring, causing it to create more goblins. If even a single member of a tribe survives an extermination and finds an uninhabited essence well, the tribe will be back to full fighting strength within a couple of weeks. And the lone survivor might be hedging a grudge.
If, for some reason, a wellspring does not become infested by some monster or another, and remains stable enough for a long enough time, it might even form a Dungeon. While these were no less deadly than infested wells, at the very least they were typically benevolent in Nature. If one made a sacrifice to the Dungeon, a series of fair challenges would be issued and great rewards could be won. If one offended the spirit that seems to inhabit these places however, only ruin would come to you, or so the warnings went.
The sound of our ranger returning shook me out of my musings about essence wells, however.
“I tracked the gobs to a cave, 20 minutes that way!” she announced. “4 of them entered. A short while later, 1 of them exited again, grievously injured. Seemed to be occupied. I put it out of its misery, but didn’t dare check out the cave on my own. You are the leader Simon, what do you wanna do?” she reported and finished with a question aimed at me.
“Adventurer Guild Rules stipulate that we have to check it out if there is a suspicion of an essence well. Do you think there could be one inside the cavern?” I shot back.
“It’s not impossible.” she responded thoughtfully.
“Then we go.” I declared.
With a round of nods and grunts of assent, our party readied themselves. It seems this quest was not going to be so simple after all.
Time to explore that cave!