Our tour of the camp did not yield any surprises, which was a good thing, considering that any surprises would have been most likely nasty surprises by default. Getting in touch with Tortho on the other hand did prove a little tricky. As it turned out he was indeed already quite busy. Either he had anticipated my idea or maybe it was just good sense as far as he was concerned but whatever his reason, he already was out and about getting a better picture of the area surrounding the camp beyond what we already knew.

In the end my harpy companion and I had to wait for him to return from one of his forays while Quu'za's harpies spread the word among the scouts and rangers on picket duty where he could find us. Thankfully we didn't have to wait long though. Watching Tortho's team filtering out of the woods never got old. Although I knew that they were coming I was still surprised how well they blended in with the environment. Some of them were already almost within arm's reach when I finally noticed them.

It was a good thing that our enemy had so far not fielded anyone with similar capabilities. I couldn't quite suppress a shudder. If the Devourer had any assassins in her rank that could compete with Tortho and his handpicked team they might just be able to slip a poisoned blade past all my defenses. I silently thanked the Maidens that such subtlety seemed to be beyond their fallen sister. Maybe I should consult my brother about enchantments that could protect someone from an assassin's blade sometime soon. There had to be something that could be done in that regard. Not just for me either. My trusted officers needed some kind of protection as well.

Losing Arngard had been bad enough. The man's newly formed infantry company, the Iron Hedgehog, was still busy finding a replacement for their captain. Loosing their founding captain so soon after the mercenary company's creation was devastating blow. It didn't help either, that they were the ones who had suffered the heaviest losses in this battle as they had been in the thick of battle with me and my banner. The sergeants had assured me that they would get their act together and not break contract but it was still a stark reminder how quickly things could go bad.

Finally my master of scouts slipped out of the woods as well. He greeted me with a quick wave and a friendly grin. “Just the woman I wanted to talk to.”

I returned his greeting in kind but raised an eyebrow as well. “You wanted to talk to me? Is anything up? Should I be worried?”

He waved a finger like a teacher lecturing a student. “You should always worry. Its that worry that will keep us all, or at least most of us alive. And yes, there is something up but lets talk about one thing after the other.”

I motioned for him to go on and he sat down with us. “First and foremost, I tried to follow that Ghoul King you mentioned. The tracks of a chariot are rather distinctive after all. It seems to be heading straight back to Gothol'uin. I fear that does not bode well either for us or whatever people might still be alive there. It will probably try to raise another army of undead abominations. The good news is that we might reach the city before it can take to the field again. The bad news is that fighting ghouls in an urban area is quite possibly worse than facing them out in the open.”

I groaned. He was right. “Ugh! It is bad enough if the come at you from straight ahead by the dozen. It really doesn't get better if you have to worry about them crawling out of sewers or jumping you from the roofs or the windows and doorways of houses all around.”

I offered him a tightly wrapped package of fresh bread which he immediately started handing out to the men and women of his team, keeping only one for himself. “Exactly. That is in the future though. We will worry about that slippery slope when we reach it.” He took a bite of his bred and continued after swallowing it almost without chewing it first. “The other good news is that we found no signs of any other armies or ghoul hordes anywhere nearby or on the way here.”

That was indeed good news. It meant we would have the time we needed to recover and reorganize. Hopefully we would receive some reinforcements soon as well. His choice of words troubled me a little though. “If that is the other good news, what is the other piece of bad news?”

I bit my lip almost as soon as I had spoken but he just laughed. He turned towards a darkelven woman, with lots of leaves and branches tangled up in her cloak, lurking close by. “Gene'ra? Our newest find if you please.”

I remembered her from my time with the scouts at the mountain pass, although I only learned her name just now. She was one of Tortho's sergeants. She held out a wineskin at arm's length as she moved to join us. “Careful! I think it has almost eaten through the wineskin.” As if her words had been heard and understood something in the flexible container wiggled about wildly.

I raised an eyebrow and I raised it even further as I saw Tortho clear a spot in between us of all leaves and twigs. As if that wasn't curious enough he drew a thin line of salt, which he let trickle from a small pouch, around the cleared spot. What was he up to?

Just as he finished the woman pulled the stopper from the wineskin, pouring its content into the cleared space right in the middle of the small circle of white crystals.

Quu'za and I started at the wriggly, little blue blob that now sat there in the middle of the cleared space. “Quu? A slime?” Even as the harpy spoke the wiggly little thing started forming tentacles to move about. It moved in one direction until one of its pseudo limbs touched the salt circle. Then it would shy away and move in another direction until the same happened again.

I nodded. “A slime. We don't get them much back home. I think the ash from the ashfalls doesn't agree with them.”

Not it was Tortho's turn again to share some wisdom with us. “It is the volcanic salts in the ash. They are weak against those. With sugar on the other hand you can lure one into just about any trap no matter how obvious.”

I looked up from the slime to him and then back down again. “They are creatures of the Devourer. Probably the most simple ones. But how is a slime bad news? I could squish that thin with my bare hands. Make it burst like some fruit that has been left in the sun for too long. Sure, its digestive liquids would burn me, but probably not much.”

The master of scouts watched the little, not quite transparent blue blob wiggle about for a moment. “For sure. One slime you see coming is no reason for concern. Your sister could probably pick them off by the dozen at range with her Magic Missiles as well. The problem is that we have seen a lot of them. Sure, it is autumn and the right time for them to be out and about but even that wouldn't explain the number we have seen.”

He paused briefly, to draw a dagger which he promptly jabbed down into the slimy creature. It burst almost immediately, splattering blue goop all around it. “The problem isn't the slime you see coming. Even a dozen or more wouldn't be an issue as long as you are aware of them.”

He wiped his dagger on a handful of dead leaves. They started sizzling and smoking almost right away. “The problem are the ones that might manage to slip past patrols and guards unnoticed. The problem are the ones that catch you unaware, or possibly sleeping. The problems are the ones that slip under your armor or into your throat as you are asleep. You'd wake up pretty much right away as it starts choking you and eating you from the inside but by then it is usually too late.”

I groaned and Quu'za looked a little unsettled as well. The same was true for quite a few of the others who had listened in on that little demonstration and lecture. I looked him square in the eyes as he sheathed his dagger again. “Please tell me you didn't just phrase it like that to give me nightmares. What can we do about these creepy little things?”

He beamed a bright smile at me in return. “Of course we can do something about them. First though you must get rid of the idea that all of them are small and as easily dealt with as this one.”

I groaned again. Oh Maidens, would I have to salt the whole land east of the mountains? That would not go over well with the people who would stil lwant to grow crops here. Never mind that getting that much salt would be a logistics nightmare.