Total War Points: 40.
The strike force was once again huddled around Richter’s map. One of the sprites had been sent to communicate with the main army. They were waiting for Hisako, and the rest of their forces, to come and take up positions around the entrance to the ravine. They had also collected the goblin bodies. Only a few paltry coins were found, along with some low-quality weapons. They also found several horns, one for each grouping of goblins, presumably used to signal if there was any danger.
Richter had sent Alma to fly ahead, and the dragonling was doing some necessary reconnaissance. The ravine was only about a mile long, but it zigzagged for most of its length. The longest straight stretch was only about two hundred yards long. Unfortunately, that was the area directly in front of the guard station situated at the end of the ravine.
Only a few seconds after Alma had left, four red triangles had appeared on the map, and all of their breath caught in their collective throats. The dots were only half the distance up the ravine. They all shared the same thought. That they had been detected by unseen goblins, who were even now hurrying to warn the rest.
Thankfully, they were worrying for nothing. Alma showed them that they were still maintaining zero presence. The patrol was comprised of four fighters and two scouts who were casually strolling down the ravine while they conversed in goblin-speak. Richter relayed what he had seen to the other sprites, and they realized how lucky they had all been. The goblins apparently had a patrol traveling up and down the ravine. If their timing had been wrong, the patrol might have arrived to see the final goblin being killed. They could all see signal horns on the goblins’ belts.
The point was, their luck had held. Barely. Without a word, Richter drank a Potion of Selak’s Luck. For the next three hours and forty-nine minutes, his Luck stat would be increased from twenty-one to fifty-three. After almost getting exposed by the Fire moon and now only having avoided being detected because the goblin patrol was lazy and lackadaisical, he really felt like he’d used up whatever luck he’d started the night with. Besides, like his granddaddy used to say, “Better lucky than ugly, but better lucky with ugly than alone.”
Alma continued to relay information to Richter, who in turn updated his map for all to see. She clung to the shadowy sides of the ravine, staying concealed and protected. Richter zoomed the map in so they could see what they were up against.
The goblin encampment may have only been half-completed, but they had taken the time to fortify the end of the pass. A ten-foot high wall of logs had been buried in the ground. It covered the entire twenty-yard width of the ravine exit. The top of the wall was irregular, according to the original height of each tree. The logs had been fit together closely enough that no one could pass between them, but there were still gaps large enough to see through. A crosswalk had been erected behind the top of the wall, and three goblin fighters stood atop it holding bows.
The bottom of the wall didn’t have a proper gate, just a five by five square hole cut out of the center. The goblins had also driven logs into the ground at a forty-five-degree angle facing away from the opening to the gate. The purpose was clear. The logs wouldn’t be a danger to anyone walking towards the gate, but it prevented a large force from simply barreling ahead. The defenses the goblins had erected were crude but effective. Two goblin scouts waited just inside the gate, armed with iron spears.
Alma flew over the wall, staying to the shadows and saw that the forest on the other side of the wall had been partially denuded. The goblins hadn’t needed to go far to get the wood for their defenses. Immediately behind the wall were five campfires with a total of thirty-nine scouts and goblins. Many of them were asleep and snoring, but more than a few were awake. Most of those still conscious seemed to be either half-drunk or fully slammed, but still, the group greatly outnumbered the strike force. The only saving grace, was that the goblin campfires were fairly spread out and trees and rocks blocked line of sight between the fires. Alma flew through the trees and into the grassland beyond, but could not detect any more enemies. That was a small amount of good news, but as far as Richter was concerned, she had already sent along enough bad news to ruin his whole day.
Yoshi had him zoom in on certain areas, and double check with Alma to ensure no patrols were on the way to augment the guard post. As far as Richter could see, there was no way to get close enough to take the goblins out silently. They might be able to get close enough to get kill shots on the three goblins atop the wall, but the shots would have to occur almost simultaneously. He also knew from experience that firing up at a target was definitively harder than getting a kill shot when you had the high ground.
Even if they could bag those three goblins with silent kills, and even if the fighters didn’t fall off of the narrow walkway, that still left the two scouts that were taking cover behind the gateway. There were no clear shots without getting close enough to be spotted. He was about to bring these concerns up when Yoshi took a step back and addressed his men. His message was simple and monosyllabic, “Claws.”
Yoshi’s men had apparently undergone varied and extensive training. Richter was initially confused by the sword adept’s statement, but his meaning became clear soon enough. Every member of the strike force reached inside their cloaks and pulled out a pouch. The chaos seed watched as Yoshi’s second in command, Damien, pulled out a band of metal that was the same green hue as their sprite armor. Damien slid four fingers through the band until it wedged into place over his gauntlet. A second band went over his other hand.
Two straps hung to either side, and the fighter quickly used them to tie the bands securely into place. On the inside of each ring of metal, were the “claws.” Four “L” shaped spikes were situated on the bands, pointing towards the sprite’s wrists. Richter could see how a strong tug could dig the spikes into a surface and keep the sprite secured. Still…
“Don’t tell me you’re planning to scale the ravine wall,” he said. “Those ‘claws’ of yours have to be great for climbing trees, but how do you expect to use them to climb stone?”
Yoshi motioned to Damien with a headshake, “Show him.”