Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Once inside Simon's little base, they saw a decently sized table completely covered with a roughly drawn map of the nearby area with several dots, circles, X's and other symbols drawn all over it. The center part of the map was labeled as the village with the various circles being logging and hunting camps.

A few of the circles had X's through them, indicating that the camp had been attacked and/or abandoned.

"Before we get started, I should let you know Rena. Thomas is no longer here. He left the party a little while ago, deciding that he was not meant for this adventuring life. So you have no need to worry if you heard rumors about brothers running my party." Simon advised.

"Where is he now? It is probably for the best if we avoid him. Lucius might actually kill him next time he sees him."

"I am not so sure about that, Thomas has gotten rather strong…"

"So has Lucius."

"Of course…" Simon mumbled before getting to business with a clap of his hands. "Alright, so the incursions started about nineteen days ago. It was originally thought to have only been a little over a week ago, but we found a small, solo cabin with signs of attack dated about nineteen days ago or so."

"How could you tell?"

"A rough guess based on the decomposition of the bodies. Zira is good at that sort of thing."

"Right…"

Simon nodded solemnly. Rena could guess that it was not a positive experience. "Since then, we have either lost contact with or abandoned at lest four additional camps. We made an attempt to fight back, since we assumed they were just goblins, but there are quite the number of them and they appear to be led by some mutant variants of their ilk."

"Do we know what kind of variants?" Jen asked.

"We have confirmed reports of Shamans, Witch Doctors, and even a few hobgoblins." Simon answered. With each addition of the variants he pointed to the different dots where those variants had last been sighted.

The variants appeared to be concentrated around the captured camps as though they were claiming bases among the forests.

"Any idea on numbers?" Rena asked, closely examining the map. She focused a lot of her education on learning Magic and strategy, so she felt it was time to put her knowledge to work.

The two cousins plus Jen stood around the table and discussed all the necessary details. Simon informed them that they had only seen one Shaman, but there were at least three Witch Doctors and nearly five or six hobgoblins. The number of standard goblins were estimated to be between fifty and seventy-five.

The reason for the wide range in count was due to the constant influx and loss of their soldiers as they also contended with the other local monsters.

Goblins bred extremely fast to compensate that they were barely considered F-Rank monsters and known to be exceptionally weak. Their numbers often did more than enough to compensate for their individual lack of power.

Variants, however, threw a wrench into the plan. Shamans were leader-type monsters and possessed great intelligence compared to other goblins. They also possessed the ability to use magic and could think and strategize. Witch Doctors specialized in poisons and curses and then Hobgoblins were physically ten times stronger or more than a standard goblin.

"I can see why you asked for help. With these numbers it would be hard for a single party to really do much. Unless they had a Master Rank fighter among them. I take it you don't?" Jen pointed out.

Simon smiled and shook his head. "Afraid not. Our strongest is an Advance Rank, and that is myself. The other three, including Zira, are all Intermediates."

Rena barely listened to their conversation as she analyzed the information and the positions of the enemy on the map. It was going to be a tricky fight. Witch Doctors and Hobgoblins could vary in strength between E and D-Rank, while the Shaman was guaranteed to be a D-Rank monster.

"How long has it been since the last camp was taken?" Rena asked, interrupting the conversation Simon and Jen had going.

"The last camp was taken by the goblins about five days ago. The one before that was about eleven or twelve days ago."

"Any signs of scouts?"

"Yea, there were a few sightings over here and here just yesterday. Zira took some of them out, but the others fled." Simon answered while pointing at a few of the circles to indicate which camps were being scouted.

Rena took that information into account and collected a little more history regarding the rate of capture, force strength, movement patterns. Using a charcoal stick she roughly sketched out a timeline of the events on the map.

After several minutes of marking the map up and eyeing it from a few different angles, she came to a determination and pointed at one of the camps on the map.

"This one will be the next target. Currently, the shaman is capturing one camp at a time, however, I believe that after they take the next camp, they will make a larger push for multiple.

They seem to be escalating and given what I have read regarding goblin incursions in the past, I believe this will be the most likely outcome." Rena provided her reasoning and work on the map to the two party leaders.

Jen was rather impressed having not really given Rena a chance to show her excellent strategic mind. Simon simply gave a knowing smile because everyone in the family knew how clever of a girl she was.

Together, the three of them came up with a plan to ambush the next wave of attackers. They would likely be able to take out a few hobgoblins and a number of low-level goblins. If they were lucky one of the Witch Doctors would show up and they could take them out as well. The only thing they don't want is the Goblin Shaman. If he did show, they would have to take out what they can and then retreat.

Killing the Shaman would make the other goblins disperse since only the Shaman was capable of leading.

If they truly wanted to complete the quest to satisfaction, they would need to eliminate the entire force, which would mean taking the Shaman out as one of the last enemies they kill.

Once Lucius and Zira returned from their scouting mission, they would add the information they provided with what they have and ensure that their data is correct. Once that was done, they would move out and begin setting up the first trap.

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