Breakfast was warm, which was more than could be said for how Merdon felt. Not on the outside, his armor was packed away and he was dressed in heavy furs, much like Grot. His insides were what was cold. He had an unshakable sense of dread about everything after his talk with the orc. The kind of feeling that made one seek their bed and a warm fire for days on end, turning a blissfully ignorant eye to the outside. Something he could no longer do. At least, not until the hate-filled empire he had lived in had fallen into a rightful defeat. Thinking about their odds had not exactly been something he'd done. Their fight had to be fought, and there was no one better than them to do it. However, after hearing Grot talk about the previous war, learning that the Eyes were specifically created to deal with such towering opponents, and knowing that war with the orcs was something Avant now sought, all made him worry about their chances.

A chance was all they had. One single, opaque chance to challenge the kingdom of Avant. If it was even a possibility any more with the Eyes aware of their moves. Try as he might to focus on the quest ahead of them, of making sure he had the proper equipment and ability to face the challenges ahead, he could not. Merdon's eyes were cast down at the snow, trudging along behind Skyeyes, who held the map in his claws. The human's thoughts called him to distant places and times. So much that he missed the reason their group came to a halt.

Merdon looked up sharply and glanced around. Over the edge of the trail they were walking along he saw smoke rising from the distance. The village they were avoiding, or trying to avoid anyway. He squinted at it and hummed softly. It was a lot of smoke for a village, but they lived in the freezing cold. Without a better look at things, he didn't think much of it. Grot, however, had a scowl on and was stepped forward, almost tempting fate with how close to the edge he was, all to get a better look at the scant few houses they could see.

“Dammit,” he mumbled. “I can't see anything.”

Merdon shrugged. “It's a village, what's to see?”

Grot turned, his face scrunched in disgust at the human's ignorance. “That's too much smoke for a small mountain village, Merdon. And look at the color. That's no fireplace.”

“A forge?” he guessed, confused. “Why wouldn't they have a forge up here?”

Sarel dug into Merdon's pack and procured his binoculars for Grot's use. “Here,” she said, tossing them to the orc. “I bought them for Merdon when we started out.”

The chief smirked and pushed an eye up to one lens, his face too large to use them both at once. He grumbled softly as he scanned the village.

“What do you see, verakt?” Shade asked, standing at his side.

“Soldiers,” the chief-of-chiefs said with a frown. “Lots of 'em too. Looks like they've got about six or seven forges going at once down there.”

Skyeyes blinked a few times as he tried to piece that together. “Why?” he finally asked.

Grot grunted and put the binoculars down. “Simple. Weapons and armor. They're turning that place into a supply depot. I imagine there's a whole mess of wagons coming to pick up their shipments, drop off troops. In about a week, that little mountain town will be a small fort, primed to walk right through these mountains.”

Red caught on and finished, “And into the orc lands.”

“Away from many of our outposts,” Shade added. Her gaze as well was distant at the thought. “What should we do?” she asked Grot.

“Ideally, we'd burn the whole place down before it got that far,” he told her. “But we don't have the force necessary, even with a magical kobold. Second best, we should fall back and get those reinforcements.”

“And delay our objective here,” Shade noted.

“It's a bit more pressing than a magical shield for one troop.”

“I didn't say it's not,” she replied calmly to her orcish mate. “I'm saying, perhaps now is the time to divide and conquer.”

Merdon crossed his arms. “You and Grot go back to get the orcs?” he guessed.

Shade smiled. “A good idea, but what would I have to do there?” she asked. “Nothing, if I'm honest. Grot can rally the orcs himself. This temple we're going to, however, is something I should be present for.”

Grot looked indignant. “And why is it you're more important there than with me?”

“Because,” Shade told him simply, “I know more about spelunking than you or either of these four.” She looked at the others for agreement.

Sarel frowned and tapped her chin. “She might,” the thief admitted. “Picking locks isn't the same as diving into a tomb.”

Merdon shook his head. “I retrieved stolen goods. Sometimes that meant going after bandits, so I know a little but, usually, the places were already scouted for me.” Bandits tended to loot the tomb first, which helped reduce their numbers as well.

“And how do you know so much about ancient temples?” Grot asked his mate, his arms slowly folding over each other.

“Slavers would often use kobolds for checking traps or clearing away debris,” she told him confidently. “I've slipped into many ruins, disabled or used their traps to my advantage, and added to the number of those sleeping in such places.”

Still, Grot looked pained. Merdon decided to speak up, hoping to ease the situation. “Besides, the place is probably going to be boring. Traps, maybe, a maze probably, but no one to fight. If you're right about the village though, it's going to be a complete battlefield.”

Grot's face twitched as he fought back a grin. He looked at Shade and knelt down. “You're sure about this?”

“We will be fine,” she insisted. “We aren't joined at the hip, verakt. There are times us being apart is helpful.”

The orc grunted and stepped over to Merdon to retrieve one of the coins Verist had made. As he took it, the dark-skinned chief muttered, “You watch out for her, Merdon. If she gets a scratch so help me...”

The human stepped back and held his hands up in surrender. “Relax, Grot. It's an old temple. If the Avantians used it as a trap before I'm betting any traps inside the place got set off back then. It'll be fine.”

Grot grumbled and looked at Shade one last time before clutching the coin and vanishing from sight. Shade sighed and looked at the village again for a time, before turning around and nodding at the others.

“We should get moving,” she said with a smile. “The sooner we get done with this, the sooner we find out what's up with that village.”

Merdon and the other kobolds nodded back. Without Grot their trek through the snow would be easier, Merdon admitted to himself. The giant orc was like a beacon of negative light against the snowy trails. Shade was smaller and knew how to stay further back, away from the edge closer to the settlement they were keeping their distance from. Though it was possible they were spotted when they stopped to look at the place. Nothing was certain.

The knight shivered and steeled himself from such thoughts. There was no point dwelling on negativity. Their enemies had gotten the drop on them before, but now they were planning to counter-attack. If Grot was right about the mountain village being turned into some kind of fort or depot for Avant then they had an advantage already. It was up to him to use that knowledge correctly, and it was on Merdon to finish their little quest as quickly as they could. His fist clenched silently as they walked, and unclenched slowly. He felt a pressure unlike anything he'd ever felt before while thinking about this war. It loomed over them all. Even Sarel was quiet as they marched through the dense snowy ridges.

Near nightfall, their destination came into view. Calling it a temple certainly did it justice. Shade sprinted ahead and squinted at the stone ruins. There were several smaller structures around the perimeter of one much larger building. The small ones were destroyed. Only one of them was even half-standing, missing two walls and lacking a roof, while the rest were rubble. That larger building was their primary focus, however. She frowned and tried to gauge its size and purpose. That was the first rule of looting a ruin. What the building you were trying to infiltrate used to be determined what sort of traps you could expect to encounter. A cathedral might have focused on magic, signs hidden under rugs or paintings, crystals that powered arcane machines, whereas a fort would be more conventional.

The assassin frowned as she took in all the details of the temple before the sun went down completely. It wasn't possible to gauge the age of the structure, but the tented roofing and collapsed steeples on either side told her religious building. Arcane traps were possible, as well as conventional, depending on who the building was made in worship to and who, exactly, the devouts had been. They would be walking into a mystery. Merdon's prior optimism about the traps of the temple being triggered before was just that, optimism. Shade doubted even half the traps had been set off if only two groups had ever delved into the building. Caution was about to be the word of the day.

She turned back and gave the others a summary of her guesswork, which led to sour feelings all around. Ultimately, they decided it would be more cover to duck inside the temple before night, and just barely made it through the front doors as it went dark. Red lit up her claw and glanced around while Shade prodded their surroundings carefully. They were safe in the entryway, at least for the moment. The black-scaled kobold took a branch from some of Skyeyes' firewood, which had been gathered before they left camp, and took a flame from Red to scout around. In the meantime, the others set up a small camp by the door.

There was no need for a tent, but there was a definite need for a fire and more wood. Having nothing to do, Sarel opted to look around for more things to burn, as well as track down Shade.

“Be careful,” Merdon warned her.

Sarel grinned back before stepping into the dark, “I always am, verakt.”

It didn't take her long to spot Shade's torch in the dark with her own vision. The black kobold was hunched over and examining the floor, prompting the thief to approach her carefully. Glancing over her shoulder, Sarel saw Shade prying up a flagstone with something engraved on it. Once it was in her claw, she smashed it against a wall and stood up, the sound of the stone shattering sending an echo all over the empty ruin.

“I hate magic traps,” Shade complained as she turned to face Sarel. “You can't reliably see them with our vision, and you can't just smash them from above, you have to go below.”

The blue kobold nodded. “Have you learned anything more?” she asked, glancing at the high ceilings and broken windows that were letting in a slow snowfall that must have started outside. They were in for a cold night.

“There were a few mechanical traps that were already triggered,” Shade told her, pointing to some small holes along the walls. “Pressure plates were depressed and the arrows that should have been in there were gone. I'm guessing that was the trap that pushed our shield further inside.”

“Inside where?” Sarel asked next, looking around. They were standing on the far side of the building. The temple was large, yes, and there were some rooms in the back to explore for sure, but the place didn't seem too complicated. Surely the two of them could find the shield without much difficulty.

Shade, however, smirked and stepped over to a door. Setting her torch aside, the assassin grabbed the ring that served to open it and pulled. It grated along the stone, making an awful racket as it peeled out of the frame around it. There were stairs inside that led down, and a musty, decaying stench that made Sarel heave and step back. “Catacombs.”

The thief paled. “You mean... corpses?”

“Yep,” Shade sighed, lifting her torch and poking her head down the stairs. They went on further than the light reached. “No idea how far they spread either. We could be down there for days.”

“Great,” Sarel replied sarcastically. “Maybe by the time we find this shield we'll be free.”

Shade laughed and turned back. “We should check this main room over before moving on, just to be safe. Wouldn't hurt to sleep up here before going down there either.”

Sarel agreed and helped Shade check for more traps. As they went about prying up more stones or ripping out pressure plates, she couldn't help but think about Merdon. He didn't do very well in the orc cave for one night. How was he going to handle a catacomb on a mountain? For that matter, how were they going to make their way back when they were done? Verist had warned them the tokens wouldn't work inside the temple. Maybe there was a reason for that, maybe they could disable whatever countermagic was at work. The traps she and Shade were disabling seemed to fly in the face of the building being made of anti-magic stone, as did Red's use of her own magic. There had to be something else at play. Something that might have to do with the Eyes luring the shield's previous owner to the temple. A potent something that they could use, or at least destroy to keep Avant from rediscovering it. Whatever the case, she was trying to stay focused on their immediate goals. Merdon's fear of caves, whatever inhibited magic near the temple, were things to think about, but not stress over. She would remain in control of things, as much as she could, and would simply improvise the things she couldn't. That was the flexibility of a thief.