Shawn couldn't find any good hiding places that could conceal two people. He looked around, frustrated at his lack of options until he thought back to the rescue the previous night. He started scanning the rock walls around them. Thirty feet back from the ridge there was a small plateau that could fit the two of them as long as they got cozy, but it was out of sight from the trail beneath.
Their plan was simple, once the sun began to set Denza would begin her scouting. The mouse couldn't climb down from the plateau, so Shawn carried it down to the ground once Denza had connected herself to and assumed manual control of the construct. Once the mouse was in the clear, it scampered away and out of sight. Shawn climbed back up and settled himself in to wait. Denza had warned him that once her mind was in the mouse, she wouldn't be able to see, hear, or feel anything from her body.
He estimated that it would take Denza the better part of an hour to guide her mouse unseen into the compound, so he tried to find ways to occupy himself while he waited. Shawn closed his eyes and brought the menu to the forefront of his mind. He checked on the map section and found it had kept detailed records of his explored surroundings. He felt like he didn't actually need to use the chalk to navigate his way back to their camp, but having to stop every so often to close his eyes and consult his map would looked strange...unless...
Keeping his mind on the menu, he slowly opened his eyes. It took a moment to adjust, but he could see Denza resting against the rocks, the trail below him, and the purple twinkling sky above him. While his eyes were open the menu seemed project out in front of him like a hologram. Since he was currently in the map menu, he was looking at a normal map sized projection hovering in the air in front of him.
Shawn grinned, backed out of the map tab and back into the main menu. The hologram map disappeared and was replaced by a small one foot replica of himself, the information tables usually on the sides were now stacked upon one another in a cascade. The window on the very top displayed his personal affiliations, his only current status was his bond with Denza. When his mind brushed over the words as an afterthought, a new status menu appeared. Inside the box was a detailed diagram on Denza's emotional status represented by a different colored waves that read like an EEG readout.
There was a second tab inside the window that was simply labeled, "link". He selected the menu and immediately felt a draw from his energy reserves. The screen enlarged to two foot rectangle and he saw images slowly fade onto the screen until he was looking at world from a perspective very low to the ground. He quickly came to the conclusion he was seeing what Denza saw.
Shawn smiled to himself. The bond seemed to have more uses than just emotional manipulation and control. He wondered if it was common for powerful Elf males to bond with multiple females. He filed that thought away to investigate later as it might shed light on the secrecy surrounding the bond and how screwed up Elf society actually was.
It took time for Shawn to get used to the perspective change as everything looked differently when viewed from only a few inches off the ground. Denza had managed to guide the mouse through the outer defences of the compound. She had to take shelter in a patch of tall dry grass when a curious hyena started sniffing around a little too close comfort.
Once the patrol has passed, Denza stuck to the wall and scampered around to the far side of the valley, stopping every twenty or thirty feet to clamber onto a pole or cart for a vantage point to take in her surroundings. At the far side of the valley the ground sloped gently down until it dropped off sharply, Denza had the mouse peek its head over the ledge and Shawn got an dizzying sight of the raging river and jagged rocks far below.
The mouse scrambled back up the slope and headed back onto her route. Hidden behind the hobbled mass of buildings was a large flat area that looked to be a training ground much like the one they had seen in the cavern. kobolds were filling out of barracks and congregated in small groups. Denza found a hiding place amongst piles of scraps outside of a shack to watch the training.
A large gnoll, a raider, loped onto the field and began barking at the kobolds in its weird language. The smaller lizard creatures broke into sparring matches while the gnoll looked on. Once the sparing matches finished they moved into formations, and even went as far as to bring smaller gnolls onto the field to test each group. Shawn found himself drawn in by their struggle, as each gnoll was easily twice the size of any one kobold. Each formation had to work together to defend against the much larger threat.
A ragtag group of kobolds engaged in combat with a particularly large gnoll, only slightly smaller than the raider in charge, and the group was soundly crushed. All action on the field came to an abrupt halt as the raider stomped over to the defeated cluster of lizards. There seemed to be an exchange between the squad leader and the raider before a small blue kobold was pushed out of the group. The gnoll they had been fighting cackled evilly and snatched up the small creature in its clawed hands and sank its jaws into the tiny lizard's body.
Shawn flinched at the high pitched squeal emanating from the dying creature, and he felt a surge of pity for it. The small lizard disappeared into the gullet of the beastman. It made no move to wipe the gore from its furred muzzle or off its broad chest. Nessa had said they were brutal savages, and they made good on their reputation. Having seen enough of the training ground, Denza guided her mouse into the shanty town.
Darting from building to building, Denza checked each house she stopped by and found the occupants were mainly gnoll females that were tending to their offspring. Some gnolls kept kobolds as servants that went about their masters bidding. In the twilight hours the streets and alleys were packed with kobolds of every color and pattern, their gnoll overseers were posted at intersections to watch the tide of kobolds and other gnolls.
A detail Shawn picked up on was that the kobolds vastly outnumbered the gnolls, at least from what he could make out. There seemed to be twenty kobolds per gnoll, which made Shawn wonder why such a large population of kobolds would be subservient to the gnolls, especially when they were being trained to fight as organized units.
The answer to his question soon presented itself as the mouse's vision shook violently. Shawn's felt a surge of panic from Denza, but then realized that the mouse hadn't been discovered. Loud lumbering footsteps made the ground shake as something extremely large walked nearby. Denza steered her construct onto a pile of scrap wood, then shimmied through a rudimentary drain pipe onto the roof of a rotting and moldy hut.
Two streets over Shawn could see the top of a large head poking over the top of the dwellings. He didn't have a solid reference point, but he worked out that the head belonged to a creature easily twice as large as a gnoll. Denza crept closer and was able to catch a glimpse of it before it disappeared around a corner heading deeper into the town.
From what he saw, the mystery creature was a massive humanoid figure that moved slowly as to not crush the small lizards underneath its feets. It's skin was scarred and ashen where it wasn't covered in armored plates held together by full lengths of chain. Shawn let out a low whistle when he realized it was some kind of giant.
Denza pressed on in earnest and followed the lumbering creature towards the center of town where a colossal circus tent like structure was erected. From the ridge, the tent had looked like gold and red tower of some kind, which stood out amongst the dilapidated town around it. To avoid the crowd Denza was forced to jump her mouse from rooftop to rooftop, and she arrived in time to see the armored giant stop and have an exchange with two slightly smaller, less armored versions of itself guarding the entrance to the tent tower.
After a a few moments of conversation, one of the giant guards pulled back the flap to let its larger counterpart through. In the brief moment the flap was opened, what Shawn saw made his jaw drop. Down the bond he felt Denza's dread, and he know they both saw the same thing. The guards at the front of tent were not giants. Inside the tent was a throne made of bones that made the large armored creature look like a child. Sitting on the throne, one colossal leg draped over the arm, was an actual giant.
Shawn sat in silence while Denza hurriedly retreated from the stronghold. He waited for an hour while Denza extriciated herself as safely as possible before severing her connection with the mechanical mouse and Shawn climbed down to retrieve it. Denza clambered down after him and expediently led him back through the maze of passages to where Cassidy and Nessa were waiting for them.
The pair didn't speak the entire way journey back and when they walked into camp, Nessa immediately went wide eyed when she read Denza's expression. Cassidy quickly stood and guided Denza to sit down by the fire.
"What happened? I didn't think you would be gone for so long! I was worried," Nessa fretted.
"Well, there is bad news and even worse news," Shawn sat down next to Denza and pulled the shell shocked elf into his side.
"Just hit me with it," Cassidy said, sitting opposite them with a serious expression. "What are we dealing with?"
