Erb has taken Darnell outside the encampment, presumably to the treeline to find some medicinal herbs and keep his triage away from the melee, and the rest of us are holding back the seemingly unending flow of goblins from under the tree. A few of Lance's ants had fallen under the initial wave but now we’ve reached something of a stalemate. Evaren has been picking off the archers who try to peek out of their den but the close ranged combatants who manage to make it out of the hole are being slaughtered like rabbits to a brundel. More often than not it's one of the ants relieving the creature's heads or an entire leg from their body in a swift crack of their jaws.

“Imma give us a wee moment reprieve, we all alright wi’ dat?” Marvik calls out from his position near the ants by the tree, having sent a stone spike into the back of a goblin running my way.

“Please do, I need to recover some mana.” Evaren calls out.

“Do it, I'm sure the ants could use the rest.” I say last. As Marvik begins his chant an arrow flies out of the opening and nails one of the remaining ants in the head, killing it instantly. An arrow from Evaren flies into the burrows opening in response causing another goblin to screech in pain as it falls to the ground. Finally Marvik finishes his chant and a stone boulder fills the entrance way, sealing it closed and crushing at least one goblin in the process.

“Tha’ should buy us a lil while ya’ think laddie?” Marvik calls to me and I just nod in response then find Scout out of the remaining ants.

“You all should rest a bit, you've certainly earned it.” I say as I kneel by her and she chitters softly at me before tapping antenna with two of the remaining ants who skitter off to the other two remaining.

“I’m going to go check on Erb and Darnell.” I call over to Marvik who is still inspecting his handiwork. He responds with a thumbs up as he kicks the now closed entrance to the den and nods at the new semi-permanent door. I jog out of the encampment and spot Erbs off-white coat in the thick brush ripping leaves off a low hanging tree branch and stuffing them into a pocket.

“How is he?” I ask as I make it to him, startling him out of his work.

“The medicine I gave him earlier and a poultice I applied after we got to the trees have bought us time but not much, that arrow wasn’t coated in any ordinary poison I’ve ever seen or treated before and it's causing rapid necrosis of the skin, muscle, and bone.” As he finishes stripping the leaves from the branch he turns to me.

“I don't know if he's going to make it out of this one. He’s got that ring from Lance and along with my medicine it has slowed the poison to a crawl, if he hadn’t been wearing it Darnell would have died before we got out of the camp.”

“What else do you need for an antidote” I say

“Umm…” is all I get in response as he rummages through his pockets frantically.

“Blue Hairbell roots, or the shells from a few ebony oak acorns, should preferably be newly budding.”

“I'll look for them, go start whatever remedy you're making.” I don't wait for an answer as I sprint away from him deeper into the forest and soon find myself in a small meadow. None of the flowers in the area, if there are any in the dense grass, are blooming so I scan the sparse trees until I find what i'm looking for, an old gnarled ebony oak at the far end of the clearing. Running up to the base of the tree I can truly appreciate that it is ancient, its trunk wider than I am tall and the bark is rough and cracked.

“Lepus!” I say as I cast a minor agility cantrip on myself. With refreshed stamina I begin to scale the trunk, digging my fingers into the cracks and burls of the bark, losing a hand or foothold every few feet as the bark rips away. Finally at a branch I can see acorns on, I grab onto another younger branch and pull my sword from my belt, using it to hack away at my target until its own weight causes it to snap away from the body of the tree. Sheathing my blade I begin to scale back down the tree which turns out to be much more difficult than climbing it and a little over half way I lose my grip as I grab onto a dead branch and begin my plummet groundward with a yell. Landing in a, thankfully, dense patch of foliage I hurry to my feet with a now aching back and begin stripping as many green acorns as I can fit into my coat pockets before running back towards the encampment which isn’t visible due to the dense woods outside the meadow I was in. Breathing harder than I have in a long while, I trip and land as I'm nearing my destination scattering the precious acorn cargo. I scoop about half of them out of the dirt as I right myself and finally make it to Erb and Darnell. Erb was grinding some herbal mix in a mortar and pestle while looking over a pair of splayed notebooks. Darnell for his part was laying on the ground, sweating profusely and completely motionless aside from his eyes fluttering rabidly beneath their lids. The right leg of his pants had been cut off mid way up his thigh and the skin around the arrow wound was black and green almost like a festering infection that had been left untreated for a week. The affected area had spread down to his foot and up just below the knee where Erb had used the cut pant leg as a tourniquet. I knelt down near Erb, dropping the acorns on the ground in a pile, then emptying the remaining ones from my pockets as I pulled a short blade from one of my boots to begin de-shelling the acorns as an explosion sounded out from the encampment. Both Erb and I look up to the walls then at each other where he nods and uses a hand to pull the acorns towards him. I drop the knife next to the acorns and once more spring to my feet, running off towards the walled camp where a plume of dust was now wafting into the air and the sounds of fighting was soon the be heard.

As I rounded the corner Evaren was raining arrows from her position at the wall down into the mass of green bodies that was pouring from the burrow. Marvik was incinerating individual goblins in an attempt to not set the willow alight while Lances ants were all engaged in battle as well. The three regulars fending off a small horde together while Scout had reared up on her hind legs, angling her abdomen towards a small group rushing her where she releases a pressurized stream of liquid that caused the goblins to all drop and writhe on the ground as their skin burned and they began coughing up blood due to their newly liquified lungs. The display from Scout was enough to give most of the goblins around her pause, a few even running back to the den. I unsheathe my sword and grab my buckler from its place on my back slipping my arm into the leather loops fastening it to my forearm before throwing myself at the goblins assaulting the ants. The first two had not seen me approach and they were swiftly dealt with, the third however had heard the screams of its companions. Turning to raise a shield made from rotting wooden boards just fast enough to keep me from cleaving its skull in two. With my sword still embedded in its shield it thrusts with its spear but I am able to glance the blow away from me with my own shield, ripping my sword from the wood I reel back with a bit of exaggeration and feint a strike from the right causing the goblin to block that direction but thrust upwards sending the point into the goblins chest garnering a pained screech. Catching movement to my right I look to see another goblin lining up a crossbow on me. With all my strength and grabbing the left arm of the goblin still impaled on my sword I throw my bodyweight to the left sending the goblin right between myself and the archer. With a wet thud from the other side of the goblin and an arrowhead sticking out just above my sword I remove my blade and the goblin falls limp. The goblin archer now also on the ground with an arrow in the side of its head from Evaren. Turning back I Swing my blade down across the shoulders of another goblin who is trying to free its club from the jaws of an ant, stopping the downward momentum I slash upwards across the back of its legs causing them to buckle where upon the previously occupied ant now sank its mandibles into its clavicle in repeated snapping motions. The now unburdened ant turned to its fellows and began to topple the line of skirmishers assaulting the others.

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Taking glances left and right there is a group of goblins rushing towards Marvik, trampling over the scorched piles of corpses of the previous attempts to get to him. Evaren had switched over to her daggers, presumably out of mana, her bow no longer working. Looking over to the burrow a new wave of goblins are clambering out.

“Laddie!” I hear Marvik call over the sounds of battle. “This seems ta’ be a wee bit more than jus’ fifty goblins!” while he was yelling a small pack of the vile things had locked onto me and were practically throwing themselves onto my blade.

“Yeah! I think I noticed Marv!” I yell back before dispatching the last of my assailants and a loud screeching cry emanated from the burrow causing the goblins left standing to retreat back to their den forming a defensive wall of sorts. Many of them were injured, one even collapsing from a missing arm after forming ranks, its place was taken by another goblin from within the burrow. Not wasting the opportunity, the three of us and the four ants all convened into a loose group between the goblins and the exit of the camp, waiting for whatever was going to happen next. Marvik, reaching into an inner coat pocket produced a pair of soft blue vials, tossing one to Evaren and downing the other.

“Lesser mana brew, drink it lassie, we aren’ out of this mess yet. An’ I fear we may need tha’ bow of yours soon.” Nodding the elf bites the cork off and drinks the vial while sheathing her daggers and unshouldering her bow. Her face scrunches up at the taste but she doesn’t complain as a faint green hue returns to her eyes and she half draws the string, causing one of the ethereal blue arrows to manifest.

“What are they waiting for?” Evaren asks in a low tone, but neither of us answer as we don’t know the answer. Scout, feeling the air with her antenna, looks up and around curiously, the other ants soon doing the same seemingly excited about something and she chitters at one with a cracked mandible, which skitters off and out of the camp, disappearing from our sight.

“An’ then there were three.” Marvik deadpans at the lost member of our ragtag group. Another screech from within the burrow cause us to all focus intently at the goblins which seemed uneasy, a few keening in fear as a pair of figures crawl out of the hole. One was a goblin, that much was evident from its size, however it was wearing some sort of ritualistic garb. The second was much larger than a goblin, at least three heads taller and much bulkier, a grasslands troll. Heaving itself out of the ground, its smokey gray eyes aimed at our group with hungry intent.

“Marvik, I need you to trap it about waist deep in the ground, no fire around the willow. Evaren, can you pick off the goblin fighters?”

“I don't know if I have enough mana, but I should be able to get the majority of them.”

“That will have to do, Scout, you and your ants need to keep the goblins from getting close to Marvik and Evaren.” the ant just nods and chitters at her remaining followers who chitter back. “I’m going to try and deal with the goblin leader at the back, we won't know if it's a shaman or a witch until it casts.” the group nods in unison as the goblin leader raises its hand but before anything can happen there is a deafening crack from behind us causing our group, and the goblin lines to jump in surprise. The ant Scout sent away returns chittering gleefully along with an entourage of eight other worker ants and one massive black ant that we all recognize as the patriarch of Lance's colony. Its chittering is deep and commanding as the ants encircle us facing the goblins and Onyx joins our group.

“Change of plans, Evaren kill the leader, Marvik trap the troll like before but break as many bones as you can to slow down its healing factor. Onyx, Scout, you guys are going to help me kill all the small fry that try to get to-” before I can finish the goblin leader screeches causing the fighters to spring forwards. The troll, slower on the start, begins lumbering towards us and stepping out of the shade of the willow I can see its severely emaciated, its skin is sickly and sagging in areas. Which is probably how it was able to fit into the burrow entrance. Marvik steps into action creating a pitfall under its feet, the stony earth vanishing, dropping it a solid four and a half feet, and before it can start climbing out it releases a sharp roar, a small splash of greenish black blood splattering the inside of the hole as what I'm assuming was a cage of spikes formed from the walls of the pit skewering its legs and pelvis then the hole in its entirety is filled with the dense packed dirt that was in the space previously, anchoring the troll to the spot. Moments later the goblin horde crashes upon the line of ants. Legs are severed, and chitin is cracked or splintered but the goblin line is suffering many more losses compared to the ants who have only sustained injuries. Onyx is cleaving goblins in half with his jaws, the powerful snap muffled by meat and tattered fabric. I am slicing through the goblins from behind the ants. I'm not quite able to reach any vitals but I can sever a hand here or there, and block a potentially deadly blow from landing on the bulwark of ants in front of me.

Evaren for her part spent the beginning of the fight scaling back up the wall and began raining arrows on the goblin leader. However a protective shield of goblins continues to jump up and into the arrows she sends as the air around the goblin leader starts to swirl with acrid black smoke. Finally able to push the goblins back, our line begins to push forward, slowly gaining ground until an ant is crushed under a particularly fat goblins club I wasn't able to block in time. Not allowing us to lose ground, I step into the dead ants position where I block another blow from the fat goblin. With pain like lightning shooting up my arm from where I caught the club with my shield I swing my sword in an uppercut ripping its belly open and splitting its lower jaw in half. It stumbles backwards as foul smelling entrails spill out over the ground and onto my boots. Powering through the urge to vomit I continue swinging and eventually the line is backed up to where the troll is still clawing at the ground to free itself like a grotesque plant, its clawed fingers are bleeding from manic scratching and digging. Noticing the encroaching line of ants it lashes killing a goblin and an ant by ripping its head off with a powerful blow, however it wasn't a clean strike as the ant was able to bite three fingers off of the hand that it struck out with leaving only a thumb and pinky attached to the hand. Suddenly a stone spike shoots out from the ground impaling through the underarm and out the top of the shoulder of the same arm, getting another pained roar that I could feel vibrating in my chest from how close I was to it.

The smoke that was surrounding the goblin leader exploded outward in snaking trails reaching the troll and a few somewhat healthy goblins, forcefully entering their mouths and noses and filling their eyes with a cloudy red liquid that reflected the morning sunlight. Now in an enraged state the troll swung its good arm killing another ant and continued to hammer its closed fist into the corpse turning it into a sickly yellowish green paste mixed with the dirt. Onyx, either upset at the loss of another of his brood, or sensing an opening disengage with his current fight by cutting the enraged goblins legs off above the knee and spread his wings beating them to kick up a cloud of dust into the eyes of the nearby goblins blinding them and allowing him to run past to sink his mandibles into the trolls chest from the side. Cutting off its remaining useful arm in the process and then repeatedly opening and snapping, flinging the trolls blood out in thick splashes until he was able to sever its thick spinal column and break through its rib cage. it slumped backwards being held up by the spike in its now limp shoulder, legs still buried, and torso only attached by a flap of skin and connective tissue that used to be its right side.

The death wails of their strongest warrior created panic and distress among the remaining goblins, causing the few that were not enraged to flee, leaving those few to be quickly overwhelmed and dispatched. Their leader, who was starting another intricate casting ritual, decided it would also be best to flee now that its trump card was dead. It turned to climb down into the hole where Evaren managed to land a shot at the base of the spine dropping it on the spot. The remaining goblins ignored it’s yammering and screeches as they jumped, crawled and ducked down into the den, leaving it for the quickly encroaching ants who unceremoniously delimbed and decapitated it on the spot before chasing the goblins down the hole.