The Dungeon Inn - English

B01C31 - Search

Sven stood guard with Karl at the entrance the entire time, until the adventurers arrived. Fortunately, we always had our supplies well stocked, so it wasn't critical for us not to go out for a longer period of time. Since we didn't know, where the giant came from, Sven didn't dare to go out. We had also lost two important fighters and were dependent on the adventurers.

I stopped by Bruno regularly. One day when Hilda left me alone with him, because she had to take care of something, he grabbed my arm.

"Master, you have to get me out of here."

"What do you mean, Bruno?"

"Hilda won't give me anything to eat, until I've eaten a frog's leg."

"They're not that bad."

"Say that, if you have to eat them with every meal and in between meals. I can't see them anymore!"

"I'll talk to Hilda about it, but you have to hold on a little longer. I don't want to risk your condition getting worse, just because we get you upstairs too early."

When I asked Hilda about it later, she just said that it was an essential part of the therapy. She couldn't be convinced otherwise. I let it go, when Karl came to pick me up, apparently the adventurers had come. As I left Hilda's home, Bruno looked at me pleadingly. I'm sorry, just hold on.

"Ah, Marco, there you are. Sven has already told us everything. There's a lot going on with you at the moment."

Aron and the other adventurers greeted me. They came again with three groups.

"I wish it were different, we could use some rest."

"I believe you. We couldn't see any further danger outside, so we're sending two groups here to see, where he came from. I'll leave you a group in case, something happens while we're away."

With that, Aron set off again with one of the groups. The other took up a position at the entrance and Sven went downstairs to sleep. He said he hadn't slept for longer time in a while and it was overdue.

The group wasn't very talkative, so I waited patiently for Aron to return. It took quite a while before he came again. His face had a grim expression.

"Bad news?"

"Hmm, not sure. We have found nothing. It's been too long since it happened, so all we can say is that he came out of the forest. I just didn't want to leave you alone for too long. I think we'd better use the rest of the day to prepare for the next attack, should it come."

I prepared food for everyone and after that the three squads started repairing the door. It was pretty much destroyed and we didn't have Bruno's strength, so it took them all day to repair it. The next day they continued the search from the previous day, again leaving a squad to stand guard. They only returned home in the evening.

"It's cursed. We just can't find it."

"What exactly are you looking for?"

"A goblin that big should have some kind of cave or, if he was traveling, at least a temporary shelter. But we can't find any traces. Goblins just aren't so careful that they'll cover their tracks. The forest is too big and too much time has already passed. I think we should call for backup."

"Even more?"

"Yes, we are still assuming it was a lone wolf, as no further attack has taken place. But if that's not the case, we shouldn't let too much time pass. But the forest is too big. In the end we were lucky, that we found the goblin cave quite quickly. So if we want to explore everything quickly, we need more men."

"What if he came from the depths of the forest?"

"Even then, because there are not enough of us with two groups to search there. We cannot withdraw the third group from here. Not only to protect you, but so that we have a safe place to return to."

Aron consulted with the others for a while and they then sent a message to the guild. Until the guild arrived, they repeated the search every day, but they also ran errands, so that our supplies wouldn't run out too much.

At some point, Bruno was finally released from his observation. He was visibly happy about it. However, he seemed to have brought a little trauma with him, at least he didn't want to eat meat for the first few days. Aron took advantage of the circumstance and had Sven and Bruno guard the cave for a short time so that the third group could at least briefly examine the edge of the forest. Unfortunately, no new leads emerged until reinforcements arrived.

"Tss just two more groups. The guild doesn't seem to be taking the situation seriously."

"You haven't found any evidence, that anything is wrong. So why cause a big riot. We're not keen on searching the forest with you for any green men either."

"If you had seen the body, you would know it wasn't your safe little goblin. If it's from a nest, we have a real problem."

"You just got rid of one nest, or were you too soft and let a few escape?"

"What do you think? Even if they do, no goblin grows that fast."

"Let's hope we can quickly find the storage location and pursue more lucrative orders."

"You may not get much for it, but if we don't do it, you'll soon have no one left to give you lucrative contracts."

"Hah, goblins aren't that dangerous after all."

"You shouldn't underestimate them. If you leave them alone for too long, they can very well overrun a city."

The guest cave was only big enough for four squads, so the fifth group ended up back in the main hall. However, consumption also became a problem, so their search power could not be increased too much. Three were always looking. One squad stayed behind for safety or only left the cave for a short time and the last squad focused on supplies while trying to keep their eyes open.

Then one day the usual rhythm was interrupted.