Echoes of Invasion: Family Matters | Scene 10

Tric does get in some more quality time with Terwaen before the business of war begins. He shows her some of his favorite fishing spots, but the place that most catches her interest is the obstacle course that the scouts practice on. Tric gives her a few pointers and sets her on the average course since she is not experienced in forest navigation. Even without bearing the weight of her armor for the activity, Terwaen is exhausted by the time she finishes—and covered in mud. Forests with thick undergrowth are a novel environment for her. In the plains, there are places with trees, but the stands are far thinner and she is usually ahorse. Battles she has fought on foot have mainly been in open fields. Sure, sometimes the grass is stomped down and muddy following a rain, but here there are vines and tendrils and thorns.

Terwaen is worn out from the exercise but still wears her characteristic smile. The experience has given her new appreciation for the skill of elves to move so swiftly through all this. As they return to one of those fishing holes to relax, Tric asks Terwaen what surprised her most about the forest during her visit, and she responds by first discussing the dense undergrowth. When she and Tric first met, she was quite cocky about Gloam and her being able to keep up with elvish scouts. But now she sees how much more there is to a forest than just trees. “I have great respect for your ponies,” she tells Tric. “They would not be able to carry someone in plate, but they are so agile and so surefooted.” She even admits that they are faster than the horses assigned to lancers, though she wonders whether any elvish ponies were bred into those lines.

Terwaen is too practical and task-oriented to derive the same enjoyment from fishing that Tric does. She is disappointed to not catch any fish using the technique he demonstrates. He then explains to her the subtle difference between fishing and catching fish. Once she understands fishing as more a meditative practice than a form of hunting, she is able to recalibrate and perform it with proper expectations. Telling fishing tales—describing the great fish that supposedly got away—is yet another practice Tric introduces her to. Understandably, though, fibbing is not one of her core competencies, and she does not readily take to that practice.

Eventually, though, the relaxing days of early spring come to a close. The horns of war sound, and the council assembles. Terwaen shares with the elvish leadership the latest dispatches from the militia equipped by Dame Merriver. There have been some more scuffles with orcs, though not as many as in the autumn due to the cold winter weather. The militia has also reported sighting undead, corroborating Tric’s information on the undead at large, which is several months old at this point. The militia has only made note of walking corpses and skeletons, but Tric shares details on some of the more horrendous creatures that Kachen witnessed.

When all the maps from all the different sources are combined, Tric realizes that the goblins held Kachen in one of Mal-Ravanal’s old prison encampments. Those are the same cages in which Sir Marthynec and Sir Inyc languished thirty years ago. It makes sense that the remains of Mal-Ravanal’s army were lying under the swampy waters there, the rearguard that he had left behind in defense of his fortress. Terwaen shares that Sir Inyc is one of the paladins mustering for the upcoming battle, so he will be a good resource to inform the rest of the human troops on what to expect from these more serious forms of undead. The undead component of the enemy forces is far more significant than the Horse Clans were aware of when they set out, so it is indeed welcome news to Terwaen that the South Tower forces Mhaev is bringing will have white mages, too.