Rebuilding Science in a Magic World

The first few hours of my return trip went well.  I wanted to reach one of our hidden safehouses far enough from the beach that sleep would be relatively safe.  Perhaps it was because it was nighttime, but I didn't run into any problems as I travelled.  This particular safehouse is a hidden underground chamber with small holes for air that is large enough to allow seven individuals to sleep within it.  There are five of us in this particular safehouse tonight.  We've put many of these safehouses around the island so we have places to hide and rest while engaging in our guerilla tactics.

The next day, I began the second part of my trek back to the city.  The first part of my trip was uneventful, which was relieving.  I'd have been very worried if, that close to the beach, I had spotted any major evidence of fighting.  As the afternoon turned to evening though, I had to slow my travel pace and start moving more cautiously.  The reason being that I noticed a few of our traps had been triggered in places, and there was the occasional dead human soldier.

As nightfall came, I had a short distance left to travel to reach a safehouse.  As I entered the safehouse, I saw a few injured goblins, and we exchanged information.  It sounds like around eighteen ships landed on this part of the island, after a handful got sunk by the coastal artillery.

Their landing crews were spread out more than ours though, and it sounds as though they've spotted some dark elves.  The dark elves have managed to avoid any of the traps and have even injured a few of our goblins that were waiting for ambushes, although the dark elves haven't killed any goblins.  I personally find that a little odd, but it sounds like most of the situations involved the goblins escaping by running through more traps despite having been injured.

The groups that landed on this side only partially consolidated their forces.  Around two thousand formed an army and have began marching along the road to clear any traps directly along it, while another two thousand formed smaller groups and have been attempting to clear out the nearby forest of any of our ambushes and traps.  Ultimately, this was within our expectations.  Both ends of both tunnels have been rigged with a small amount of explosives to facilitate a collapse once any army enters into them, even if it costs a few individuals their lives to set them off.

Tomorrow, my trek continues off the road after a few hours.  I'll be crossing into the city's valley much higher up than either tunnel.  I'll be using our secret escape tunnel to enter into the city, and getting there sometime in the late evening.  I gave the goblins here as much info as I could on the army that landed on the beach, so they could be more prepared for the coming weeks before I went to sleep.  Despite a few of the goblins here being injured, their mood improved when I told them that the beach plan to poison the opposing force seemed to have worked.

As I made my way up towards the point where I was going to enter the forest and start off road travel, I ran into an enemy scout party.  A group of ten individuals carefully checking the sides of the road for any sort of traps.  We spotted each other at about the same time, and I darted into the forest.  I recalled that there were a few different traps not that far away, so I baited the scouting party to follow me.

Given how easily I was actually evading them, I assumed they weren't that powerful.  My assumption turned out to be only partially true.  As I baited them into the first pitfall trap, one fell in and was maimed, and at the same time I positioned myself opposite the pit to them, I activated an improved earth spike and impaled another two before darting off further into the forest.

A powerful magic flew out, chasing me, and I ducked to the ground on instinct.  As I hit the ground, a tree that was in front of me was cut clean through at a slight angle, and began to fall.  Whatever that was, it had some serious cutting power.  Given my surprise at their power, I decided to run with intent to lose them, rather than bait them again, and lost them after a short time.  I realized I still have that bad habit of assuming individual's power is easily estimated based on peripheral actions.  Just because someone isn't good at tracking or running doesn't mean they don't have a trick up their sleeve, especially with magic existing.

As I travelled through the forest, I was more cautious as I climbed the tall hill separating the two valleys.  Darkness was only a few hours away, and the sun was slowly making it's way to the horizon.  As I nearly reached the top of the hill, I suddenly felt someone tap on my shoulder.

I was terrified.  I hadn't noticed a presence.  I jumped forward and turned to face whoever tapped me.  In front of me was an elf, albeit with dark skin.  They had their finger held over their mouth in a shushing gesture.  I carefully eyed them up, ready to earth spike at a moments notice.

We stood there for a few moments, silently.  They then pointed towards the top of the hill, but gestured to stay quiet.  My mind was whirring along trying to process the surreal situation.  If they'd wanted to kill me, they probably could have before. If this is a trap though, their intent would have to be to capture me alive then.  So I should be prepared to fight and run if necessary at a moments notice.  I carefully followed them up the hill, still tense as the situation unfolded.

As I reached the top of the hill, quite the sight stretched before me.  A camp of nearly a thousand individuals stretched before me at the bottom of the hill.  Around a quarter of the camp seemed to be made up of dark elves, and the rest were humans.  Judging from their equipment, it seems like this group is supposed to form some kind of scouting base.  They seem to be fairly lightly armed, but dressed well for forest travel.  It seems like this is where they've set up a base for attempting to break down our guerrilla attacks.

It's not a bad location for it honestly.  It's only about two hours from both roads if you're unfamiliar with the terrain, and less if you're following a good route.  Which lets them easily keep an eye on the surroundings of both of these roads with skilled scouting parties.  I'm not sure how many of our ambush parties might have been lost in the area already to this strategy.

More importantly, I'm not entirely certain why this dark elf is showing me this.  They gesture to stay where I am, and they start heading towards the camp.  I watch cautiously.  If I notice even the smallest change in behavior in the camp, I'll run.

After nearly half of an hour, the dark elf returns, and hands me a letter which is sealed with the same symbol that adorned the trade goods we got from the Elloetta Matriarch when Elora had returned a year ago.  I opened it, and although I couldn't read it, I could at least tell it was written in the dwarven language.  I tucked the letter away and looked back at the dark elf, and they looked at me, expectantly.

I waited a few moments, and gestured that I intended to go around the camp.  They seemed to get the gist of the situation, and started guiding me in a roundabout route around the camp.  They led the way, and diffused a few situations where other scouting parties nearly spotted me.  Eventually, I made it far enough, and we split up.

Although I lost a bit more time today than I expected, I did gain a mysterious letter and some potentially valuable information moving forward.  I made my way through the hidden tunnel back to the city, and arrived a while after nightfall...