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Princess Lysanna Calderon managed to muster about a hundred men for the retaking of the lakeside village. Sir Darius of the Round came in the last second to help lead much to the princess' relief who was still quite uneasy with her first assignment commanding so much men. A fourth of this gathering were composed of volunteers like one by the name of Kaladin Aren who was one of the few who signed without accepting the bounty reward. The men stormed the city midday divided into two groups. The larger one was led by Sir Darius and performed a sweep directly through the main street while the princess would surround the area to effectively seal in the enemy and cover any fleeing survivors. A hundred men expected to come face to face with savages and goblin slaves...

...the thirty or so survivors after realized they found something else entirely.

They first found out the villagers' purpose. Instead of hostages, Sir Darius and Kaladin came upon piles of human flesh stripped of bones by goblin slaves in the first house. The slaves were quickly dispatched and strangely enough, they found many of the Hounds just lying dead on the streets. More of the goblin slaves were chased down as they took their chances to flee the village but were cut down. In the ensuing confusion, more Hounds, soon both living and dead ones, engaged the Camelites.

The bandits were dead in a sense that a plant-like organism had taken over their bodies and fed on anima. Losses mounted despite discovery of the plants' weakness to fire. In the town hall, Kaladin witnessed the growing of such plants by means of corpses of villagers, scouts and even elven rangers. He then proceeded to burn it down only to be engaged by a brute which was under the unknown perpetrator's direct control. He and Darius managed to prevail in the end while also discovering links between these plants and the elves of Baxtorian.

Upon receiving news of the terrible incident, Countess Telemmaitë ordered all her miners out of the elven county and to return to their homes. All mining operations were suspended for the meantime but much promise and even greater news was given to the miners' families as they return home to various holdings all across Camelot. For their contributions, the miners will be returning home laden with a good month's pay, quite a lot compared to an average salary, and other big surprises.