Sitting cross-legged on the floor and reading by the warm light of the lit fireplace and several oil-lamps, the four adventures spend several more hours eating snacks prepared by
Rifkin and studying the murdered
Three-Quarterling's notes and journals.
These notes reveal several answers to some previously confusing issues...
The first being; why was the hidden garden so poorly defended? The
Howl seemed frightening but only survived
Arowe's initial onslaught due to magical bolstering and fell soon after anyway. The tiny
Scorcion seemed more like a squeaky, mentally challenged cheerleader and the
Three-Quartering himself, despite his defiance, hardly put up a fight at all!
The answer was luck. Pure dumb luck!
A plan of the hidden garden, shows all the rooms (including secret room) of the underground but cosy cavern complex, the layout of the garden and magical pool, the long winding mountain path entrance and the denuded woodland area immediately surrounding them.
There are several colour shaded in areas, each expanding outward in rough circles, covering larger and larger territories. They are all labelled 'War zones' but with the dates advancing along with the zones increasing size.
These zones appear to be the ever expanding, ranging territory of the '
War'. A hybrid Wolf/Boar. A voracious, omnivorous, apex predator.
Due to it's large physical size and even larger appetite, it has driven off all the natural animals and consumed the majority of edible vegetation.
Liga Bur had noticed some of the damage on the way in but dismissed it as probably the work of a regular passel of wild boars. The Halfling shakes his dreadlocks. He'll make sure to pay much closer attention next time.
This discovery solved two of the
Three-Quarterling's problems; The
War naturally deters nearby animals from wandering within the magical pools calling sphere of influence and, as hybrid animals are averse to attacking other hybrid animals, this gives any new-born hybids a greater chance of early survival.
The Party must have fortunately missed the
War's irregular patrol.
Some connected notes also explain why the
Three-Quarterling was keeping the terrifying
Beer in the cells. It was a standby replacement just in case the
War was killed.
The zone has become quite large over time and there is no avoiding travelling through it, regardless of whichever way you decide to head.
Fortu and
Arowe look to
Liga Bur... Will they be so lucky again?
