Except for the fact that they were in the spacious, but modestly furnished meeting room of the Newmark town hall and not some grand war room in a palace, the scene before Edwin looked exactly how he expected a war council to look. Headman Fordwen sat at the head of the table, officially hosting the event. Newmark was large enough that his position wasn’t just a part-time job, which meant that Edwin cynically assumed that the knight probably considered himself to be much more important than he actually was. As far as Edwin was concerned, neither the man himself nor the two young men posing as his aides, ostensibly to take notes, had a place here. All the headman needed to do was stay out of their way while they did their jobs.

On one side of the table sat the military faction: Captain Vellis and Lieutenant Elm, with the three remaining Bannermen standing behind them. Opposite of them sat the three adventurer party leaders, Gerrit, Doren and Bordan, with the other adventurers lining the wall behind them. They were so many that they took up most of the standing real estate of the room, so the division wasn’t quite as clean as the headman had probably planned, but they weren’t here to pose for a painting – even though the furious scribbling of one of the headman’s aides seemed to be exactly that.

Headman Fordwen wrapped up his short speech – thankfully it had actually been short – where he thanked everyone for coming and passed leadership of the meeting to the important people.

“Thank you, knight Fordwen.” captain Vellis said politely. “This meeting has two purposes: Firstly, to get everyone present on the same page, so we can make decisions based on all the facts we have on hand. Secondly, to make our preliminary plan for the area.”

He paused, gathering his thoughts for a moment, then continued.

“We will make final preparations for the assault on the nest once we have intelligence on its location, troop numbers, armament and such, but there are a few things that we know with some certainty already. For some of you, this will not be news, but not everyone present was there for every discussion…” he nodded at Edwin, who nodded back. “We would like to get everyone up to speed. Gerrit?”

The old adventurer pulled out a map, placing it in the middle of the table. Edwin, like those around him, craned his head. It was the map they’d gotten at the Guild, the one with the circle on it. He couldn’t make out much, but he saw several new markings.

“As you all probably know,” Gerrit began, “the initial search area was determined based on an expected travel distance for hunting parties from the nest. Since defeating two more of those groups at Maff, we have more information and can refine this area. On the map, the three encounters form a rough line from the center of the circle to the southeast. If we assume that these three parties form the outside of a circle, the nest has to be in one of two places: A good distance northeast of Helwick, a place my party covered in our search, or somewhere south of Newmark.”

Gerrit paused to give the headman a polite nod, then continued. “As goblins aren’t exactly known for their intelligence and precision, the area we’ve narrowed it down to is still quite large. Also, more goblin parties might be nearby the town, and finding them would have the benefits of eliminating a threat and narrowing our final search area even further. Considering nobody in town has spotted any goblins in the weeks since the nest has been here, we assume that it is quite a distance south of us, likely more than we can cover in a day and return to town. We will therefore spend the next day or two combing through the surroundings of Newmark, making sure that we’re not leaving anything behind us, before we move south as a group. Questions so far?”

Nobody spoke up right away, then lieutenant Elms leaned forwards. “I have a question, something I can’t explain with what I know. Maybe you can clear it up?”

“I’ll surely try, my boy.”, Gerrit said with one of his grandfatherly smiles. Elms, clearly not comfortable with being called a boy, cleared his throat and continued.

“Right, so the nest has been here for upwards of two weeks as far as I understand it. Why aren’t they attacking anything? What are they waiting for? I always assumed that goblins were more or less mindless beasts, but this whole nest business with the hunting parties and their generally predictable behavior smells quite like an intelligent foe to me.”

“Actually, I was wondering the same thing.”, captain Vellis said, looking very pleased with his young lieutenant. “Do we know why they behave like this, Gerrit? I know you said we don’t understand these creatures as well as you would like.”

“I agree, it’s an excellent question.”, Gerrit said, nodding at Elm, who glowed at the amount of praise. “And while there are many areas where we lack information when it comes to goblins, this one I can answer. In fact, that was one of the reasons that made predicting nests more difficult for a long time when our ancestors first encountered them: People saw them as mindless beasts, as you said, and didn’t want to believe that there were recurring patterns in their behavior. A lot of people died before the last skeptics agreed that the methods worked.”

Gerrit paused, rubbing his weathered and scarred hands. “But even when we knew the how, the why was always a mystery. Until a while ago, that is, I think it’s been around thirty years, when a group of researchers from the College showed up. They had sent a request to the Guild to be notified if a nest was found, so when one appeared, they came running. They gathered a lot of information, much of it through magical examinations of the bodies after we were done with the nest, so I couldn’t tell you how they did most of it. What they told us afterwards, though, was this:”

The whole room was hanging on his lips. Edwin assumed that Gerrit’s and maybe Doren’s party, knew some or most of this information, but hearing it from someone who had been there was always something else than hearing it in a classroom. Also, the old man was quite simply a highly skilled storyteller.

“Goblins don’t reproduce like we do. They lay eggs. Once hatched, goblins grow quickly, reaching maturity within weeks – as long as they get enough food. In fact, that is the limiting factor on how many goblins can infest an area. And they do need quite a bit of food to fuel that quick growth. With monster attacks and infighting, many die while they’re young. Those that grow older become slightly bigger and stronger over time, but not by much. Most importantly, they become smarter, and after a few years they gain the ability to lay eggs themselves.”

“The researchers assumed that a goblin nest is started by an old goblin or some other type of leader who leaves an area that is getting crowded, which in our case means the mountains or the Clawed Woods. They grab however many others they can get to follow them and move somewhere where there’s good hunting. There, they grow their army, as even the stupidest goblin understands that more fighters mean more power. There quickly comes a point where the surroundings of the nest themselves can’t support the growing numbers, which is when the leader sends out hunting parties. With eggs waiting to hatch, moving the entire nest probably isn’t feasible.”

“Once a satisfying number of new goblins has been reached, they then start attacking settlements, where they procure weapons and armor – and more food. If they are allowed to reach that stage, they become a problem not just for the local Guild and surrounding villages, but for the entire duchy, as a well-fed and well-armed goblin horde can take down anything short of a major city.”

The room was deathly quiet, with headman Fordwen looking decidedly white around the nose, and even the aide having stopped his drawing to gape.

“Thank you, Gerrit, that was highly enlightening!”, captain Vellis said with a smile. “Of course, the whole reason why we are here is to not let it come to that. Still, it is worrying, as by your account with every passing day the goblins’ numbers go up.”

“Correct.”, Gerrit said with a nod. “But speaking of numbers going up: We are finally reaching the point where we can expect to receive reinforcements from Pel Darni. Of course, it’s impossible to tell exactly when and how many will arrive, but if we don’t find the nest within the next few days, we will start to see a continuous stream of adventurers, turn up. Several parties must already be on their way, as they would be sent after us immediately upon their return to the city from their last assignments.”

“That is heartening indeed.”, Vellis said with a smile. “Though I still hope that we won’t need them. Shall we move on to reconnaissance assignments?”

With the lesson on goblin physiology and behavior over, the meeting returned to the matter at hand and quickly wrapped up soon after. Edwin, not usually one who enjoyed long-winded meetings, found himself thoroughly happy with this one. He loved learning, and monsters in general and goblins specifically were a field Walter hadn’t spent any time on. As a city boy and the son of a merchant, monsters had been a distant threat to other people, and only manifested in added cost for his father’s business through the need to upgrade carts, train drivers or hire adventurers as guards.

By the time he’d begun to move through the wilderness himself, he’d been powerful enough that lone monsters hadn’t really posed a threat to Walter, so he hadn’t bothered thinking about them. Having heard Gerrit’s accounts of the College researchers, Edwin felt like the topic might be more interesting than he’d given it credit. Where the research group would only have had access to healers, Walter was, after all, a real master fleshmage, probably the first one since the mage wars. As such, he was much more qualified to figure out what made goblins tick than mages who specialized in merely restoring human bodies. After he was done with Edwin, maybe he would go out and fetch one or two of the monsters to bring them back to his lab.