There were more prompts waiting to be addressed, but Richter needed the information that the trolls had to give. Vulzal quickly outlined everything he knew. The goblins, who all belonged to the Ash Stalker clan, had been taking advantage of a recent decrease in the power of the kobold clans. The goblins didn’t know why certain kobold outposts had been abandoned, but they were expanding their own underground territory while the kobolds were distracted. In doing so, they had discovered the eastern entrance to the hidden valley.
Even this small amount of information caused a reaction among the allies. As soon as the troll said “Ash Stalker,” both Sion and Damien cursed. Richter looked at his Companion in askance, and his friend had just bleakly looked back and said, “They’re big.” The chaos seed frowned slightly and motioned for Vulzal to continue.
Apparently, as large as the goblin clan was, they had still run into issues of their own, underground. The troll didn’t know what had happened, but the goblins’ forces had suddenly been stretched thin. That was why the trolls had been hired. Vulzal knew that the goblins had found something important in the cave in the center of the encampment, but again could not clarify what. He just knew that because the goblin clan was fighting on multiple fronts, they had needed the mercenaries to fortify this position. The mercs had only arrived in the past few days and had just been sitting idly until the allied forces had attacked.
Sion pressed the trolls for any indication of what the goblins had found, but both continually denied any specific knowledge. The goblins had apparently been extremely clear that the trolls were to go nowhere near the central cave. They hadn’t even been allowed inside the central barbican. Richter was disappointed by the lack of info, but Vulzal had two more things to add that changed everything.
The troll told them that the goblins had been charging the Bloodstone because they needed a massive amount of spell power for whatever they had found in the cave. Again, he didn’t know what exactly the goblins had been planning, but Vulzal had heard one of them mention a “shield” at one point. What made Richter stop walking and grab his sword hilt again, though, was when Vulzal said there were more prisoners.
“What?” Richter shouted. The image of what that young boy and those poor men and women had to endure flashed through his head again. For a moment, he was willing to throw away his agreement with the trolls just to unleash his anger. Sion put a hand on his arm, though. Richter whipped his head around, looking for an outlet. When he saw his friend still suffering from the effects of the poison, though, his ardor to renew the battle waned. “Where are they?” he asked the troll through gritted teeth. “Where are the prisoners?”
Vulzal hadn’t missed what had just happened, and he had taken a half step back. In a calming voice, as if speaking to a growling animal, the troll said, “The goblins kept them down in the cave as labor of some sort. None of my people had anything to do with the prisoners, above or below ground.”
Richter’s nostrils flared, but he maintained control of himself. All of them had been walking towards encampment as they spoke. Most of the allied forces had left the valley to start the trip back to the village. The prisoners still needed to be taken to safety, and even before the troll’s warning about reinforcements, it had always been the plan to get back to the safety of the mists as soon as possible.
The chaos seed’s mind raced. The goblins had been destroyed, the Bloodstone had been captured, and the prisoners had been freed, or so he had thought. That had left only one objective, to steal or destroy whatever had brought the goblins to the valley. Richter had purposefully kept the last foxfire crystals in reserve in case they were needed to burn whatever they found. He had added a fifth objective now, that being the life and death price the trolls had agreed to pay, and by extension, robbing the encampment blind. The loot should help his village greatly, even if he did have to split it with his allies. The trolls’ gold was in a lockbox back at the encampment.
All of that meant the force moving towards the encampment was only comprised of Richter, Sion, Damien, Caulder, Terrod, twenty other fighters, guards, and meidon sprites. The idea was that the small strike squad could make it to the encampment, do what needed to be done, and leave quickly. With the news that goblin reinforcements were on the way, it had become even more important for the bulk of the army to get out of the valley and back to the safety of the forest. This was especially true as they would be slowed down by needing to aid the wounded and carry the dead.
The bulk of the troll mercenaries had left as well, walking in front of the allied forces. Only Ttarmok and Vulzal were left in the valley. After Richter and the trolls had reached an agreement, the chaos seed had demanded the enemy force leave. Once the mercs left the ravine, they would head east towards their home in the Azergoth Swamp, leaving the troll sergeants to catch up later. It was true that having the trolls leave armed was a risk, but hundreds of sprites would be watching them, arrows nocked. Regeneration abilities or not, the trolls wouldn’t survive an imbued volley from so many.
The chaos seed walked in silence for a moment while he digested what he had been told. As they got closer to the camp, he asked, “Are there more guards down in the tunnels?”
The troll shrugged, “Normally, there are. I don’t know if Heqht-jo emptied the mines before coming to battle, but even if he didn’t, there are normally only a handful of goblins to watch the slaves.”
Richter nodded, and the inklings of a plan started to form in his mind. Looking at Vulzal again, he asked, “How much to employ you for ten minutes?”
The grin that came over the troll’s face made his visage truly ghastly.
CHAPTER 46 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG
“They are coming!” Vulzal shouted at the top of his lungs. His goblin-speak was not as fluent as his common, but it should be more than up to the task. He ran down into the cave with Ttarmok in tow. The troll had his blade out, and it was smeared with dark red blood.
“Who is that?” A goblin grinder looked around a bend in the tunnel. “You are not supposed to be down here.” The guard hefted his crossbow while he stared at trolls suspiciously.
“And what does it tell you that we are?” Ttarmok said aggressively. “The enemy forces outnumbered us, and we had to retreat back to the inner wall! Heqht-jo wants everyone up to man the walls and fight back the attackers.” The troll may have quailed slightly when faced with the murderous human, but he was in no way intimidated by a mere goblin.
“Why aren’t one of our people down here?” the goblin asked, still suspicious. The trolls had kept walking, though, and he hadn’t fired, so their deception was at least partially effective.
Vulzal shook his head in distaste, “Many of your people were slaughtered by sprites. Even my men took serious losses. We don’t have any more time.” He held up his bloody blade. “There is more sprite blood to spill. Your commander wants all ten of you up top. Now!” The trolls stopped right next to the grinder. Two other goblin scouts had walked up.