Leo

The wolf scion’s tail slowly waves as he ponders the map. He’s hardly pleased with the reports he’s getting, but he’s more thoughtful than upset about them. H-14 doesn’t seem to be the base of the invaders, though it does seem to be something like the tip of their territory. Unpleasant as it is to lose scouting teams, thanks to Honey’s idea of dividing the area into sections, even a failed scouting trip gives a good idea of where the danger lurks.

Sections I-13 through I-15 haven’t had a successful wolf scout return yet, nor have J and K, 13 through 15. That gives him a three by three area of information blackout, and he’d put the actual base of their operations in J-14, right in the center. He’ll need a few more days to get the rockslides into the heart of the enemy territory, but the initial reports from H-14 give him some hope.

The rockslides have only just gotten into position in the area, but they already have important information to give: the invaders are clearing trees. Ordinarily, that might seem like something of no real consequence, but he and Honey both don’t like it. The invaders don’t seem to have a need to build, so why clear trees? If they were burning them for warmth, the smoke would be easily seen, or at least scented on the wind.

Which leaves only one option, in Leo’s mind: they’re making a road. While they’re hardly setting stones for the roads like back in Fourdock, a cleared path can only mean they wish to move a lot more invaders at once. He takes a bit of solace in that the path seems to be headed towards the killzone, but it’s also a bit early to tell at this point.

The clearing of trees does at least give him a chance to use some of the ravens and crows to try to scout, though. He was initially uncertain how to use them when the Alpha sent them, but now he sees the wisdom in having something he may not need. He may have use of it later, and later is now. He still needs to wait for them to return, but he’s feeling confident the avians will have more information for him, even if it’s just to confirm a large clearing in J-14 as their base.

The invaders haven’t shown much in the way of ranged attacks yet, so the birds should be safe. Of course, if there are other types of invaders, they could be destroyed, but at least then he’ll know he’ll have to worry about more than melee.

He does have a growing concern about the potential enemy territory. He’s sent wyrms to try to get a feel for troop numbers, and though they can feel the slow progress of the ones making the path, they can’t seem to find where all the invaders went. They can sense a bit of movement in J-14, but nothing like the numbers Leo is expecting. He’s loath to have them break the surface to take an actual look, and potentially ruin the element of surprise, but he might be forced to if he wants to ruin whatever surprise the invaders are hiding.

His gaze drifts back to the borders of the Southwood, and what he’s been having the other reinforcements get up to. The leafcutters and fruitbats were an odd choice to send, and he honestly still isn’t sure what else to do with them, other than help the Southwood’s own herbalism nodes. He’s placed them at the command of the Stag, who has them enriching various nodes to the south. There are no delvers to visit with the snow right now, though the Stag is confident they’ll earn significant returns in the spring.

The cinder ants have probably been the biggest surprise use of the myriad of denizens. They team up very well with the slimes especially, helping them keep more comfortable in the cold climate beyond the Southwood’s borders.

The few twinsnakes and other varieties of snake are not handling the cold so well. Even with the more autumnal feel inside the Southwood, they are sluggish. While he’d love to be able to use them in the killzone, they’ll probably have to be more of a last line, deeper within the Southwood’s territory.

The denizen that he’d like to bite himself for not considering are the tunnelbore ants. He only has three of the large denizens, but they’ve made digging trenches an act of simplicity, and the illusionist foxes are having trouble keeping up with them! A nice problem to have, in Leo’s opinion.

Rocky has also been invaluable in fortifying the killzone. With his ice affinity to clear the snow, and kinetic to clear the trees, Leo is feeling much more confident in being able to repel whatever the invaders are building up for.

Confident doesn’t mean complacent, however. He’s also been drilling with the bears and foxes, along with the various denizens from home, to ensure they fight together effectively. He’s even had some success with pairing vipers with the bears, as the serpents can hide in the bear’s fur, nicely warm, until it’s time to strike.

And the widows pair excellently with the foxes. The widow’s natural stealth is only enhanced by the illusions, and with clever webwork, the spiders can lend even more credence to the trickery of the foxes.

Once this is all over, he should try to get Alpha Thedeim to try to trade for a fox. He’s certain the Southwood would happily trade one or two for a wolf. The Alpha can easily expand out into the forest past the cemetery, and the Southwood could very much use a second scion. The Stag is practically running himself ragged to try to keep on top of everything for the forest dungeon.

Being able to see the Stag in his daily work has been an eye opening experience for Leo. When he was a more normal spawn, back in his old dungeon, he was vaguely aware of the few scions it had. His old dungeon seemed to use them mostly as strong encounters. While the Stag is certainly the Southwood’s strongest encounter, he’s not really supposed to be attacked. He just tries to do what the Southwood needs.

Unfortunately for him, the Southwood needs a lot of things, and especially with the invaders, the Stag just can’t do everything on his own. Even with the invaders being mostly handled by Leo, the Stag is still constantly on the move.

He can sometimes feel the Southwood watching him and the others work, though, and he thinks it will be looking into a second scion after everything calms down. A good wolf to pair with the Stag would help balance the dungeon, in Leo’s unbiased opinion. Even if the Southwood doesn’t want a wolf and just makes a scion from its current spawners, he thinks he and Honey have shown how good it is to have multiple scions, and Rocky can only be helping that idea along, too.

His ruminations are interrupted by the cawing of ravens and crows, and he focuses as a mixed group of them swoops into the tent and lands next to the map. They all try to speak at once, making an awful racket until Leo barks to get them to shut up.

He glares at them as Honey exits her hive and takes her spot on his head, before deigning to speak to them.

“You’re all the same group?”

A cacophony is the reply until another bark silences them. He points a paw at the closest raven. “You. Are you all part of the same scouting group?”

“Yeah,” comes the informal reply, and Leo does his best to not let his annoyance show. How the Marshal gets any semblance of order out of them, he’ll never know.

“What section?” buzzes Honey.

“J-14,” comes the immediate response, and Leo supposes he just needs to up his threats. The birds had, of course, mostly ignored Honey’s attempts at getting them to learn the coordinate system, until she got that dangerous glint in her eyes. Not a glint that promised pain, no, Honey is just not the type. It was the glint of having someone to teach. The looming horror of ravens and crows confined to desks so she can lecture was more than enough to get them to cooperate, at least on that front.

“What do you have to report, then?” follows up Leo.

“We took the direct route, over H and I-14. Like the rocks said: big cleared path of trees. We didn’t see too many of those weird invaders, though. Lots at the leading edge, and a steady trickle of reinforcements as the ones chopping trees die, but not the army you said to look for. I-14 was boring, just the cleared path and the trickle of invaders.” The raven pauses and looks to his cohorts, who quietly caw and consort, before the lead raven is ready to continue.

“J-14 was also pretty boring, but we’re pretty sure it’s where the invaders are coming from. It’s a big hole in the ground, some kind of cave. There’s not much movement on the surface, aside from the steady flow of the tree-cutters. Looking into the hole, we couldn’t see too much movement, either. The ant spawner back home seemed more lively. We were gonna take a closer look, but you said to not get too close, so we flew back as quick as we could.”

Leo furrows his brow as he considers the report. “No obvious defenses?”

The raven shrugs. “Nothing that really stood out.”

Leo thinks for a few moments before Honey speaks up from his head. “You mentioned the ant hill from back home. How close is the resemblance?”

The raven tilts his head at her. “The same? Just bigger? It was funny to watch them try to carry around some dirt and rocks with those weird legs of theirs.”

Leo frowns at that, not liking the idea of them digging. If they can tunnel past the defenses… then why make the road? Is it not a road? His tail thumps the ground as he thinks, but he can’t come up with anything else the line of cleared trees could be. If they’re not tunneling towards the Southwood, what are they doing?

He tail freezes as he gets an idea, and the quick buzz from Honey has Leo suspecting she thought the same thing.

“They’re not tunneling, they’re fortifying. They don’t do well on the surface, so they’re rallying beneath it, building their numbers before striking,” he says with grim certainty. He looks at the map and considers his preparations, one question at the front of his thoughts.

Does he focus on his own fortifications and hope they dash themselves on it, or does he strike them first, and hope they haven’t been able to build up too much yet?