Journal entry 11, 49’th Marapril, We've reentered the forest and are now a short way from where we believe the goblin camp to be. It's fairly deep in the Greywood, however, the lack of animals is putting everyone on edge. Even with the sky still being mostly dark we should be able to hear early morning birds and small rodents foraging before their predators awaken. We've stopped to wait until the sun has just started to rise, that way we can actually see what's around us, a fire would be nice but with how close we are the goblins would probably be able to smell it, especially if the wind changes direction; so we’re just going to have to tough it out. The Dire ants Lance has loaned us are exceptionally well behaved, their collective personalities are almost like a stray dog, being exceptionally curious but not really wanting to be touched, well, except for the leader of the group. Scout is by far on another level compared to the rest and seems to have the intelligence level of a young teenager. To his chagrin, she has also taken a liking to Darnell. Even with his insistence on not wanting to associate or make friends with any of the ants, I did catch him lightly patting her on the head when he thought nobody was looking.

The barest amount of light is starting to peak over the mountain behind us so I pack away my journal and turn to the others, who are quietly talking while taking small bites of bread or jerky and getting in some water before we start walking again. They look back at me and I gesture with my head that we should start moving again. Slowly everything is packed up and we get on with our trek, the forest is still eerily silent but it's almost serene in its own way. We were held up for a moment after almost being spotted by a patrol of the little creatures, they were sluggish and tired from their night of no sleep which was probably why they managed to not see us. We were going to let them pass to avoid making a commotion and while lying behind some bushes and tall grass I spotted the ants slowly and silently making their way up into the trees above, their white carapaces shifting color to blend in with the shadowed wood.

Honestly, the sight of them effortlessly vanishing into the canopy gave me chills and no slight amount of anxiety, especially with how silent they were while stalking the branches, almost invisible, and not causing so much as a shaking leaf as they passed overhead. Then pulling my attention away from the ants I refocused on the goblins who had, to my utter disbelief simply stopped to take a break, three of the four laying down to catch up on sleep away from the camp, and the fourth stayed standing, hobbling over to a tree to relieve itself. Unbeknownst to them and once again to my surprise and abject horror the ants began rappelling down from their branches above on silken line, looking more like deformed attercop in the moment rather than ants their legs splayed out and jaws open each ant lowered itself silently in unison above the three now asleep goblins, and once in reach the ants all at once snapped shut their mandibles loosing the heads from their bodies and grabbing said bodies with four legs while the two free ones rapidly ascended the silk line leaving nothing but crude weapons, small pools of blood, and three very out of place heads lying on the ground. By the time the fourth goblin had turned around, there wasn't a trace. Not even blood dripped from the branches above as the ants sealed off the torn necks with silk and then carried them off slightly less quietly but much faster.

The fourth goblin had just enough time to process that its friends were now bodiless and as its face scrunched from confusion to fear a fourth ant dropped from the tree and freed the final head, not a single scream, grunt, or cry was let out, just a wet snap as the spine was severed and a gurgling sound as the air escaped from its lungs. I stood up from my bush and the others did too. Darnell and Marvik looking no worse for wear and Erb scribbling something in his notebook, Evaren for her part looked as horrified as I felt for most of what just occurred. We walked out into the small clearing and assessed the remains the ants left, as we expected it was just simple tools that had been repurposed like a rusted rock pick, and a shovel that had its edges sharpened turning it into an unwieldy poleaxe, the other two had small clubs made from the branches of some tree probably from the forest. We kicked the heads and weapons into the nearby shrubbery and continued on our way to the encampment with no further trouble. Once we were close enough to see the first wall, if you could call it that, we stopped again. The sun was now halfway over the mountain and the first rays of actual sunshine were peaking through the trees, thankfully even though we showed up later than we had planned there was little to no sound coming from the camp aside from the snores and occasional coughs of the denizens inside.

There were no guards outside the wall other than a single goblin leaning up against the corner farthest from us, it appeared to be asleep although it was hard to tell given its distance. In the middle of the camp, or what we assumed to be the middle we could see the Wells Willow towering over the wall, it was a truly massive tree, To our discontent however it was visible that there were vines of some sort of muddy red plant almost the color of rust clinging to the branches and trunk. even in its sickly looking state from what we could see, it still had an aura of majesty about it.

“Take one of the ants and head around to see if there are any more guards around the corner, if it's alone kill it and drag the body into the treeline, and be quiet about it.” I whisper to Evaren who was just crouching there studying the tree. She wasn’t the only one listening apparently, as Scout must have heard and told one of the ants which came up and tapped on her arm with its antenna, lightly chittering at her before turning ant stalking into the brush along the trees towards the goblin sentry. She soon followed suit keeping low and moving tree to tree under the shadows. I then turned to Darnell.

“I need you to head to the other corner and check around it, see if it's clear from the treeline. If it's clear give us a thumbs up, if not, thumbs down then return, Erb, Scout, Marv and I are going to discuss a strategy while you and Evaren are away.” then turning to Scout I addressed her directly.

“Can you send one of your sisters up the wall quietly without being seen so we can get a good estimate of the numbers inside, have them look for guards posted around and also take note of any buildings that might have been built by the goblins.” the ant looks away from me and twiddles her antenna at the one next to her, lightly tapping away, probably some form of touch based telepathy or something like that. The other ant scurries up to the treeline and checks both ways. As this is happening I see the lone goblin at the corner to the right get impaled by an arrow through the eye, as it slumps to the ground the ant with Evaren scuttles out of the brush nearby and latches onto the sentry, dragging it away effortlessly, only leaving a small trail of dust. The ant checking the compound has made it to the wall and is creeping up the stacked logs that are lashed in place with rather hastily made rope, and it flattens its antenna to its head as it crests the top making sure it presents as little as possible to the skyline for whoever is inside. Turning my attention to Darnell I can barely see him through the foliage but he is sending me a thumbs down. I wave him back over and do the same to Evaren who is watching us from her position. As they are making their way back the ant on the wall begins scuttling around the perimeter of the log barricade with a staggering speed and rounds the corner out of sight.

“Well, the right side is clear, but the left isn't, and we don't know what's waiting inside yet. Any ideas? I ask the others and Marvik is the first to speak.

"We could’ burn the walls, start a commotion tu’ get the lil buggers to panic.”

“No, we can’t” Erb states, “we don't know what's inside, if there's dry grass and other bedding or small huts the fire could spread to the willow, can't risk burning it.”

“Why not lad? it's’ just a tree ain't it? And it’s sick already ta’ boot.”

“Wells Willows aren't just regular trees. They only grow on extremely dense mana springs which is why they are so far and few. If we set it on fire, and the fire eats into the roots to make contact with the mana spring... we’ll have a much bigger problem on our hands than a bunch of goblins.”

Marvik stops to consider this and looks up to Evaren who has now joined us.

“How big a problem we talkin’ 'ere.” he states pulling his waterskin from his belt and downing a gulp before handing it to her.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“If magical fire ignites the spring this whole area, probably a quarter day's travel from end to end, will be a giant firestorm hellscape. And where the willow stands right now will likely become a massive spout of lava or towering gout of fire boiling up from the spring. Unconditioned mana springs are natural catastrophes waiting to happen, any destructive elemental magic can trigger a chain reaction inside the spring, transmuting its core into that element. Fire, water, ice, and lightning magics are out of the question. Unless you want to be fried to a crisp in a firestorm, drowned in a massive instant flash flood, frozen to death in a giant localized blizzard, or turned into giblets by a sudden and violent chain of lightning shooting up from the ground through your body flash boiling all the water in your body.”

“great lad so we're stan'in atop a massive pool of unstable mana.” Marvik says with a harrumph.

"At least you know stone magics." Evaren says poking fun at him

“So long as you don't send a stone spike directly into the heart of the mana spring’s core we won't be dead underneath a new lone mountain, in fact, I'd recommend just not aiming in that direction at all if you're using magic.”

“Fine, fine I ge’it laddie, no magic around th’ big tree. What’s that leave us with then.”

“We could try sneaking in over the wall.” Darnell adds as he crouches down in the half circle with us.

“The side I checked has the front gate with four standing guards, and we were not lucky enough for them to be asleep. Which means Evaren already cleared the back for us. So long as we don't time it poorly we should be able to get inside.” As the others begin discussing Darnell's idea the ant that went out on its spying mission scuttles back around the corner. Now on the ground and dragging another dead goblin behind it while beelining for the treeline, then, showing up shortly after dumping the body. Scout comes up to it and they begin their little tapping antenna thing, before too long scout comes up and begins chittering at me and I then realize my mistake, I can't understand her. Before too long I hold up my hand to stop her and I rack my brain to try and to find a way to translate what she is saying. I'm brought out of my thoughts by Erb clearing leaves from the ground to open up a patch of dirt, And he begins scratching things into the ground. A square with a squat triangle on the ground, a stick figure holding a club, or some other blunt weapon. Then a stick figure sideways. Getting Scout's attention, she turns to him.

“How many buildings were inside the walls? Draw a single line under the picture for each one.” Scout to her credit looks down at the pictures in the dirt then back up to Erb, then she taps at the antenna of the ant who I presume was the one who went spying for us. She draws two lines under the house picture, then erases the triangle to draw a shallow bowl shape over it and textures it with scratch marks.

“Huts with grass roofs, I should have guessed.” Erb says while adjusting his glasses and looking at the edited drawing. For my part, I just sat there unable to form proper words, and the others looked much the same as me.

“Alright, can you draw a line for every ten guards you saw under this picture.” he says while pointing at the upright stick figure.

Scout taps her antenna to the other ants and she looks down at the picture drawing a single line, then two much shorter lines parallel to it one above the other before erasing the longer line and looking up at Erb.

“Err.. uh, is that.. Twenty guards?” he says, his earlier confidence in this method faltering somewhat. Scout taps his question to the other ant who then shakes her body somewhat then scoots back clearing more space of leaves before drawing a large line, then a dotted line next to it before pointing at the long line and gesturing at the whole length, then at the five shorter parallel lines for their whole length, then erases three of the dotted lines and gestures at them again, stopping where the others had been erased, and then gesturing at the long line and following its length to the second dotted line and stopping. All of us just stare at the oddity of what we are witnessing before Erb sits up straight looking between the ant and the picture. It's a fraction. Two? There are two guards?” Scout taps the other ant and she chitters… happily? Maybe? Then steps forward again and taps on the sideways stickman with her antenna before looking at Erb.

“How many of them were asleep inside the walls?” Erb asks, pointing at the sideways stick figure. The ant receives the translation from Scout and draws a single line then next to it four shorter lines. “Fourteen?” Erb asks, looking at Scout who obliges by tapping and the other ant gives the same affirmative chitter.

“Ok, fourteen sleepers, two awake guards inside, four at the gate, we killed four on the way here, and two more guarding the walls. That's only twenty six, we’re missing almost twenty five to thirty goblins.” I say, shaking my head. “If we’re in there and they come back from a raid we'd be slaughtered, but we can't wait much longer, or else the goblins will wake up and we’ll lose our advantage. Have we decided on a strategy?”

“I think so.” Evaren says, you all go over the wall at the back of the compound, and start offing the sleeping bastards, I'll stay on the wall and pick off the two sentries inside and watch for any that start to wake up, the ants should be able to handle the guards at the front gate easily enough, after that we sweep the compound for any that may be hidden in the huts or around the tree if we miss any on the initial pass.” there were nods all around and we stood up from our place on the ground, the air was starting to warm up and we all knew we were running out of time so with all the silence we could muster we dropped our bags and any noisy equipment before quietly making our way to the wall and beginning to climb it, the logs make good hand and foot holds for us, and we managed to scale it rather effortlessly, aside from Marvik who had it the hardest, his heavy frame and short stature were not exactly made for climbing and he cursed quietly when his beard caught on a jaggedly cut branch nub, pulling some hairs from his chin.

Evaren and Darnell were the first to the top, followed by Erb and me, and finally Marvik a few moments later. The ants had split off into two groups, each taking one side of the wall and circling around to pincer the goblins at the gate. From our vantage point, we could indeed see a large number of sleeping bodies curled up on grass mats exposed to the open air. The two huts were side by side up near the front gate and likely only held supplies, Evaren grabbed her bow from her shoulder and lined crouched, nodding at the three of us, as we began scaling down the wall. Drawing and pinning the first goblin in her sights with an arrow, causing it to slump against the wall it was at, and the second goblin soon fell dead near the tree, however, this caused a pair of goblins to stir, their heads popping up and beginning to blink the sleep from their eyes. Evaren logged an arrow in the furthest one as it was yawning causing its head to snap backward as it fell to the ground with a grunt looking as if it was still sleeping with its head to the side, we had made it to the ground, and crouched behind some stacked firewood.

The final awake goblin looked around still tired and then laid back down, rolling over to get comfortable again, and soon its snores were added to the chorus of the other goblins around it. Marvik took the perimeter of the wall farthest from the tree and Erb took the other wall closest to it, while Darnell and I moved through the middle of the compound, stabbing through the eye to keep it as quiet as possible, their blood was slick like oil, and it brought memories of the day Felwen was sacked. The blood, the faces, my dead wife slowly growing cold in my arms as I sobbed.

I was snapped out of my emotional spiral as an arrow landed in the head of a goblin to my right that had started to stir, my footsteps had gotten heavier as I moved through the motions. And to that effect, I must have woken one up. Thankfully Evaren is as sharp as she boasts, since it's her job to silence any goblins that start to wake up. Before long we were finished with the ones sleeping in the open, and we convened at the gate, where we were witness to the strewn body parts of the four goblins that Lance's ants had unceremoniously slaughtered. The same ants that greeted us with chittering and wing flapping. They joined us in our walkabout around the camp looking for any goblins who had hidden themselves around but there was nothing. Even the small thatch huts were devoid of life, which was odd since the goblin pack's de facto leader would have shacked up in one of them normally.

A yell split the air as Darnell fell to the ground grasping his leg and cursing, a crossbow bolt with ragged black feathers sticking out of his shin, as a goblin lifted itself out of the ground and began reloading its weapon. Evaren was faster. Pelting the goblin through the chest, and it fell backward screaming in agony down the hole we had missed. it was dug under one of the massive arched roots of the willow and looked more like a shadow than a tunnel. From within we could hear the angry bellowing of goblins deeper down likely making their way towards the screaming they had no doubt heard. Darnell yells again as he yanks out the shaft, and begins looking it over.

"Fucking poisoned." he states sharply as Erb begins wrapping his brother's leg with a clean bandage and pressing a vial of light amber liquid into his hands. that'll slow the spread but I don't have an antidote on hand, I'll need to forage nearby for some ingredients."

"Take Darnell with you to the tree line. we'll deal with the goblins as they show up. Be quick about it." I say before looking back towards the tunnel.

“Looks like we found the missing twenty eh?” Darnell lets out through gritted teeth but still manages to send a grin my way. "Don't have too much fun, old man".