Hank, Tom and Joe came to Kurt's now completed mansion at the top of the pillar. Kurt had made sure it included a good place for a workshop, one with a chimney, and a furnace. And lots of wide space.
"Sir Kurt," said Hank, "we have been requested to investigate something, you of course can choose not to come along, but it may end up concerning you as well."
"What is it?"
"The scouts have seen a troubling sign, there may be something coming, maybe harmless, hopefully food but, in the end it could be something more dangerous. We just need to find out what's coming, so we can prepare accordingly. Last time it was simply a few birds making a roost, somewhere off making a bunch of dust."
"Sounds interesting, and I'm a bit stuck here.," Kurt said, looking at the table in front of him with several bottles, and other glassware. Glass specifically was something the goblins were unfamiliar with, so he had gotten it from Carl's receptionist. "It would be good to get my legs going. Get my mind off the problems with the potions."
"Well, should we be going? And don't worry
we are riding this time, we should be able to keep up with you," said Tom.
"Well that's good because I don't know where I'm going yet."
Hank's Barbariape, Tom's war ram and Joe's rider hawk were all waiting for them near the entrance to the pillar. They all had proper saddles now for each of the riders. Kurt could run, or leap, with his water boot very quickly.
"Just follow me, I'll stay low," said Joe. The only flying one of them was the fastest after all. They had traveled to a part of the grasslands, formally the wastelands, that Kurt had never gone to before, he had mostly stuck to near the canyon, it was on the side that Mary was not on, but away from the canyon. Though they were much faster now, it was still taking a while. Joe stopped somewhere and the rest caught up to him.
"I think we are almost there, there is something up ahead kicking up a storm. Seems fairly localized, I don't think it's a stampede. We should rest here for a bit so we are not tired from the march in case it is something troubling."
"Sounds troubling," said Hank.
"Yes, we want to make sure we are ready for something, remember," said Joe looking directly at Kurt, "we are here just to figure out what it is."
"What are you looking at me for?" said Kurt
"No reason at all."
They had begun to start much slower in the direction of the dust cloud that everyone saw. Making sure they weren't going to draw too much attention. They soon realized that the dust cloud was coming up from a large cliff, and once they got the edge they could see it.
"What the hell are those things?" said Kurt.
"Trouble. They are sala-ri-taklr," the translation spell apparently didn't have a name that would match, so it remained untranslated for Kurt, he assumed that might change if he thought of a name for that. But he had no idea what to even call them.
It was three large monsters with scales for skin, they had six legs attached to long bodies like some kind of spider or insect, they had massive heads with jaws to match. They seemed to tower over the vegetation, easily 20 feet tall except for the cliff face. They seemed ravenous, one had some animal in its mouth chewing.
"They will find us," said Tom, "this is bad. We will need a full war party."
"I agree," said Hank, "it will be a glorious battle."
"What do you mean?"
"It's true they will find the water source we have, it's only a matter of time now, we lucky they haven't figured a way past this cliff" he looked in the distance in both directions, "I think they will find a way past."
"So Kurt don't go down there," said Joe.
"I'm not going to go down there."
The mission was accomplished, so they headed back swiftly. They remained mostly in silence, Kurt didn't need to be told those things were mostly mindless, acted on instinct. They weren't things they could make a deal with, if they decided to stick around the pillar, they would begin picking goblins and people off.
"Can we beat them?" Said Kurt, after a while.
"I believe so, we will have to use all we have," said Hank. "It will be tough, with your support victory is assured. You've never seen the goblin unleashed before. If the next brood was grown it would be even easier of course. We have a lot of advantages, they are unable to use tactics, so we can most likely control where the battle will take place, many times that will be the best path towards victory, right now we need to tell the rest of them, and determine where that is."
"Well that's good."
"Indeed, if we were caught off guard and they hadn't stopped at that cliff, we may have had a much different day," said Tom. "I still wouldn't call it good news though."
They had made their way back to the Pillar, they decided it was best for the three goblins to get the right one of them informed and that Kurt should be the one to tell Layla, as there would be a war council about this.
"Hmm, that is troubling, what are they?"
"Umm, the goblins know I haven't figured out what to call them yet. How about Giant Lizard Ants, or Just Lizard Ants? Three of them." They weren't exactly ants but their legs were similar, the head would be completely different, and the scales made them lizards.
"Ohh, those are trouble, yes we will need war councils and three of them, that is bad." The spell apparently now had a translation for them, not the best name though Kurt but did it matter. "You should stay while we wait for them, I believe the Warlord, Travis will have a plan, or a beginning of one we just need to get the details figured out for."
"Warlord Travis?"
"Ohh I don't believe you two have met, he would be in charge of the goblin's armies, he is sort of like Hank, but much bigger. You may have noticed the three breeds sometimes birth a more specialized version, there would be High Shaman Simon his difference isn't as visible, and Ranger Thomas, they will all be here I would believe. We've never had a war council before, but we have discussed it before. Typically you would call Travis a General, but as head of the council, he is the Warlord, any of the others could have had the same title. Though I believe we could change those titles in your tongue if we tried to say Admiral, Commander or whatever."
Just then three goblins walked in, Layla was right Warlord Travis was the largest toughest looking goblin Kurt had ever seen, he was the only goblin that was actually taller than Kurt, Ranger Thomas also seemed to be very fit but not in a massive bulking way.
"Warlord Travis, Ranger Thomas and High Shaman Simon, for those who haven't met this is my champion Sir Kurt."
"Glad to have you here," said Travis, in a surprisingly pleasant voice. "I think we should find a room with a table, we should prepare now, we don't know when they will move. Perhaps next time we should just have the council there, the throne room isn't exactly the best place, we should have realized that."
"I agree," said Ranger Thomas, "we have to make plans somewhere, we need a war room."
"Any room you think is appropriate, do we have a plan?" said Layla. "I will have a table made for this room for the future. I think that will be best."
"We have some options to discuss," said High Shaman Simon, "the war party has begun their preparations, and are waiting on final orders. Shaman Joe is watching them from above with his rider Hawk and will report back movements, we have some scouts making a route doing the same and to help relay communication, Joe's Hawk won't be able to do that forever and we have no more flying mounts, the Lizard Ants are known to sleep at night, so I believe we have time to develop the best plan we can."
"We will be victorious, I am certain," said Warlord Travis confidently. "We are lucky though we were able to see them coming. I still think we would have won if that happened, but there would be a great loss on our side we can avoid."