The whole column of the camp was at least fifty people. More than a proper raid group, this was a small army. The organization on display was slightly rough, with most of Dalgaard’s orders after the march was underway being relayed through intermediaries, but the results were undeniable.

A group of handpicked bow-wielders were sent ahead to scout, using the mobility and heightened awareness offered by their weapon abilities to identify monsters in the path. Dalgaard coordinated with a small group of their forces to clean up any lurking threats before the column blundered into them.

Considering how disorganized and sluggish the raiding group had been on their return trip, Kaldalis was shocked at how fast the ruins came into view ahead of them. He almost expected them to march across the clearing between the jungle and the crumbling outer walls in defiance of Dalgaard’s previous instructions. Instead, the column of adventurers took a sharp and coordinated left turn, into a nearby clearing in the jungle, which Dalgaard called the “staging area.”

Kaldalis was confused at the presence of the clearing.

For the sake of the security of whatever town this had been, it seemed a hazard to have a space outside of the town walls where an enemy could gather unseen. But after a little look around, he got the full story.

Much of the clearing was ringed with a long hump of rubble, too uneven and rounded to be a building’s wall, and with no inner rubble to have been interior walls. At one end was a gap, near to the crumbled ruin of a building with a tree growing out of it. This had been some manner of farm with an enclosed field. Somehow, either Lataxinan or Jormongumo agricultural techniques had persisted, keeping the jungle from reclaiming the field. But after however many hundreds of years since the Calamity, the jungle had done its best to reclaim the rest of the area, growing up around its ruin. That was why it was shielded from view.

Dalgaard started to walk amongst the gathered forces, issuing orders and laying out plans for the oncoming assault.

They were simplistic plans, but everyone seemed convinced of their efficacy.

A designated force would feint a normal raid, and then the entire rest of the forces would charge from a flanking position. Those forces would be split into smaller groups who would be focused on screening, clearing the way, so that the mercenary forces - led by Dalgaard - could isolate and eliminate Ara.

Dalgaard explained to them that killing other Jormongumo was unnecessary. Ara’s death would break their morale and organization and bring them to their occasionally-nonexistent knees. The rest would be dealt with soon after.

Kaldalis bristled a bit at the idea that they would be ‘dealt with,’ since he was here to prevent their eradication. In the absence of any other option, though, Kaldalis just had to trust Dalgaard’s management style. If they weren’t giving instructions to explicitly not kill the monsters, it was because they knew there would be pushback, escalation, and possible infighting.

The whole time, the mercenaries - led by Voker - went out of their way to bully Kaldalis around. Whenever Dalgaard moved, they shoved him to follow, keeping him well within the mandated range Dalgaard had prescribed. It was unnecessarily rude, but honestly Kaldalis was able to keep calm by reminding himself that their behavior was just because he’d gotten under Voker’s skin. That knowledge kept him from making a fuss. If he could make Voker think he wasn’t getting to him, that would bother the man that much more.

At length, with the forces arranged and the plan disseminated, Kaldalis began to worry. They were getting ready to attack, and there was still no sign of Balrim and Myrin.

“We’re waiting still, right?” Kaldalis asked when Dalgaard was between orders.

“Of course,” Dalgaard reassured him. “I sent Janeyin for a reason. You can be assured that I won’t start this without her, any more than you’ll want to start without your friends, either.”

Kaldalis wasn’t sure if he could trust them on that, but Dalgaard’s management took a turn. They gathered the leaders of the designated groups, and moved them aside, along with Voker and the mercenaries.

“What do we know about the interior of their settlement?” Dalgaard asked.

Everyone looked to Voker, and it took Kaldalis a moment to figure out why. Once he put it together, he couldn’t stop himself from grinning.

The man had pushed in and gotten himself killed a LOT. He’d likely spent hours worth of time as a ghost. When Kaldalis had been killed by the Infernal Horde, he had walked around as a ghost and investigated the Horde lair.

Voker had the same opportunity an unknown number of times.

“The town is all ruins,” Voker began. He drew his sword and started to draw on the ground with the tip of the blade, cutting through the grass and dirt. “But a lot of the buildings are still livable. Most of them spend their time in human form, and I’ve only seen them in battle in monster form, so I don’t know where their troops go between fights. Many of them live in this area here.” He scraped out a rough outline of the wall, and a little semicircular area within it. He carved a big circle on one side of it and tapped it with his weapon. “This large building here is some sort of official building. They don’t come in and out here much, but when they do, it seems to be with some reverence. If the leader is your target, there's a fifty percent chance you’ll find her there.”

“And the other fifty percent?” Dalgaard asked.

“There’s a building about here,” Voker continued, carving a small rectangle just inside the wall. “They started working on it when we began our raids, and now it’s a solid stone box, filled out with salvaged stone.” He tapped the wall on the rectangle towards the inside of the ruined town. “They dragged a big metal door from elsewhere on the island all the way here to seal it. I don’t know what’s inside, but it might be a bunker for her. Not impenetrable, but we’ll be working for a while to breach it. Long enough for forces to rally and reinforce if she makes it safely inside.”

“No,” Kaldalis cut in. “That’s my prison cell. When they brought me in, they threw me there. They were going to keep me in there indefinitely if I didn’t-”

Kaldalis stopped talking when he realized everyone was staring at him. The tip of Voker’s sword came up slowly to point at him.

“Are you working with-” Voker began.

“Let him speak,” Dalgaard snapped, reaching out with a bare hand to swat Voker’s sword away. “He’s under my protection. If you touch him, I’ll see to it that you lose the rest of your Aplomb before the fight even starts.”

Voker pressed his lips together in a thin line, but raised no further objections.

“If I didn’t agree to facilitate negotiations,” Kaldalis said carefully, “they would have locked me up and starved me out. You’re right that this is a sturdy structure, but the door unlocks from the outside. If she tries to hide there, we’ll get her out very quickly.”

“Why are you with us if you’re working for them?” Voker demanded. “You admit to working with them. Openly. How are we supposed to trust you? You’re either going to sabotage us, or you’re backstabbing them, which means your word isn’t worth shit. Why shouldn’t we put you in the ground right now?”

“Because they didn’t send me here to help them win,” Kaldalis snapped. “They sent me so that they can be allowed to surrender. They want to give you whatever you want so that they don’t go extinct.” He looked around the group, meeting the eyes of all Dalgaard’s lieutenants. I’m not here to help them take you down. I’m here to stop you from doing a fucking genocide.“

Kaldalis was glad to see a few of them flinch at that. From Dalgaard’s behavior towards Janeyin, Kaldalis assumed that more of the people in their inner circle would be those who had suffered at the Jormongumo’s hands. They knew the Jormongumo in human form were near-indistinguishable from regular NPCs. They would understand that it wasn’t hyperbole to reframe their crusade as a war crime.

“We take out Ara,” Dalgaard said, breaking the brief silence. “And then we can talk terms with the survivors. Those who deserve it will be up against the wall. Those who don’t won’t hurt anyone ever again. Even if I have to pull their fangs out myself. One at a time.”

“Ara will be somewhere around here,” Kaldalis said, clearing his throat and pointing to the wall on Voker’s drawing. “As soon as the alarm went off, she had to rush to bear witness to the fight. She wanted to lock me up, first, but when I resisted just the slightest bit, she dragged me to the wall here. No force in the camp can keep her from the fight.”

“Why?” one of the lieutenants asked. “She’s that foolish? Doesn’t that make her vulnerable?”

“What are you going to do?” Kaldalis asked. “Hit her with a few arrows? She has enough hit points to tank a few shots and back off. And I’m pretty sure Glass Jaw over here proves that you guys aren’t breaking through her line,” he added, hooking a thumb at Voker.

The man in black armor quietly seethed, but said nothing. No doubt he was planning some elaborate long-term revenge. Kaldlais was pretty confident he could deal with whatever this idiot could assemble.

“Ara herself is the problem,” Kaldalis continued. “There is a faction within the camp that is very unhappy with her leadership. They didn’t want to attack us at Cotanaku. They wanted to leave us alone entirely and remain distantly isolated.” Kaldalis hoped no one was going to challenge him on that claim, because he was honestly making it up as he went. “So I want survivors. I don’t want any of the Jormongumo to die, because they might be our biggest allies when it comes time to talk terms.”

There was a grumble at that, but Dalgaard was honor-bound to silence it, and did so with a harsh gesture. That had been a part of their deal with Kaldalis, and he was grateful they were upholding it.

“Even Ara, until the time is right,” Kaldalis said, “if she cries off and begs for mercy, I can’t emphasize this enough. Stay your hand. We have the power here. We don’t have to kill until the time has come.”

“Because I am finishing the job on her,” Dalgaard snapped with another firm gesture. “She does not survive to see the sun set tonight.”

They fixed Kaldalis with a glare, daring him to dispute the claim. Despite himself - and his deal with Ara - he kept his mouth shut. He was going to have to negotiate fast. Of course, that negotiation would have to wait. Dalgaard’s attention sharply turned as the Bhogad woman emerged from the jungle, Balrim and Myrin in tow.

“Our forces are assembled,” Dalgaard said, clapping their hands to call the tactical sidebar to an end. “The false raid moves out in two minutes. Flanking forces charge in twelve.” They shot another glare at Kaldalis. “Be ready when the time comes.”