Chapter 13: Scouting among Ruins.

Diacrao, Aitana, and Chiasoka were seated inside a room, the roofing was ripped apart, supposed a reminder of the conflict that had taken place here. Kadungon stood guard at the door, keeping his eyes peeled for any potential interlopers that might cross through their paths. Zemfina and Conrad have left to scout around the perimeter and return with any information that they were able to salvage.

Zemfina spent her share of her coin to improve her trekking and scouting abilities, learning how old footsteps could be and which directions enemies could have headed into, while also assuming the supposed number of enemies based on the footsteps she inspected, although, she admitted that its rather inaccurate estimates. 

Conrad on the other hand spent his money to train his stealth improvement and backstabbing enemies with a quick blow by aiming on vital positions on the enemies' backs. To his surprise and convenience, he was taught that gnoll's have much more vital spots compared to humans on their backside, which makes it convenient for rogues such as Conrad to land a killing blow much quicker. He was excited to put this skill to the test should he encounter the next unlucky gnoll. 

And as promised, he also spent a little more coin on how to dismantle traps more effectively, just in case they were to encounter any traps along the way.

The huntress was able to uncover dense footprints, but they seemed to have been a mix of wild animals and gnoll footprints that had been stepped on each other and pointed towards many directions, making it hard to pin exactly where they had gone, nor was it gonna be easy to accurately determine how long these footprints have been there. Nonetheless, she tried inspecting the footprints. She kneeled down to the footprints to get a better inspection of it. It took a while for her to examine it.

"Hm. I suppose it was a day or two old, and it seemed like the gnolls might have come in a warband, and headed north from here. But this is just a rough estimate, at best." She concluded her examination that yielded rather little results.

"Alright then let's head north and find those bastards."

"Unless you have a death wish, no, let's maintain subtlety and try not bumping with a warband."

"Geez you are no fun, fine."

Zemfina and Conrad retreated back to the ruins and tried to scout around through the said ruins to get a view of their enemies or potential enemies they could hunt. Treading through the ruins was no safe task either, but given their slender and light build, they were able to slip into thick chokepoints with much ease, easily walk through without any noise, and luckily for them, they had not encountered any traps and gnolls at the moment. 

It took some time, but they were able to find a breakthrough. Within the ruined building they were inside, they spotted footsteps of gnolls, it seemed fresh and wet, as evident from the sodden, wooden flooring stained by their footsteps. It was a eureka, and so they followed the footsteps which led them into the room that had no door. As Conrad made it inside, he stumbled on a seated gnoll and almost bumped into the beast. This caused him to flinch and audibly gasp, fumbling in his posture, but Zemfina was quick to cusp her hands around his mouth and supported him, ensuring he landed his feet carefully, and quietly.

Luckily for them, the gnoll was asleep. No, it wasn't just the gnoll, but three other gnoll's who were deep in their slumber, unbothered by any minuscule sounds that could have awakened them. They slept in different places in the room, but the room was small and was opened, so stealth attacks may wake the others up. Looks like they have to call back the party for help, cause this looks like a job for 6, and not 2.

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"Hey...Kadu, did the old man told you more about its history?" Chiasoka asked Kadungon who sat idle by the opened windowsill. She was visibly bored and wanted to lighten up the mood. Kadungon nodded and gave a hearty smile to the mage as he got up to get close to her and the rest of the members.

"Of course!" He replied. "He told me more about the history of his people, the Zanziyin's, which is pretty rich and diverse in history, and his migration over here." 

"Oooooo, history time! come on, tell us more about his saga!" Chiasoka leaned in with great excitement, eager to listen to his tale, while Aitana, and Diacroa also got closer to hear his tale, but the swordsman also kept a posterior of vigilance just in case trouble brews.

"Well, how do I start this? It's a lot to unpack here so bear with me."

"The history of the Zanziyin people's are diverse and certainly can't be classified into a singular group or peoples. The term was used to denoted the people's who inhabit the Zanziyin coasts which stretches with great length. However, the people of the interior's also fall into this classification as well. The term was used to denote the geography of the eastern coasts, but it soon became used to denote people's from the coast and the interior, so they are very much a diverse group of people.

The old man came from the Southern Coasts, but he is a man from the Interior, hailing from MweneZambirwe, or the Kingdom of Zambirwe in the Zhonar tongue, Zhonar being his people who rule over the land. He migrated in his youth through the ports controlled by the Sanehali people's who dominated the Southern Coast and made his way into the Kharash Empire about 60 years ago.

The Sanehali's, alongside the Oponiyans of the northern coasts as he state, were expert seafearers who had a long and rich maritime history since the old periods, and they had been responsible for colonizing distant lands, forming thalassocracies and bringing distant goods from faraway lands, which also led to the attraction of foreign merchants to come to the Zanziyin shores. The Zhonar kingdoms have traded with the Sanehali's in the Southern port city of Zafola.

He was an avid stonemason, and alongside 200 of his kin, they have migrated into the Kharash Empire as masons tasked with constructing hill forts in their architectural style. Their group was not the first, nor the last, as the migrations had occured for decades.

You see, he told me that the Zhonar's heralded the ability to build grand stone walls and structures, without any need of mortar or any connecting them. The Kharash emperor, Avaxaar, fell in love with their architecture when he ventured into the Zambirwean interior, and hired their masons for military fortifications. Ever since then, subsequent Kharash rulers have continuted importing small amounts of Zhonar masons for military constructions.

He personally helped in building forts along the hillsides, and-"

"WE HIT A JACKPOTTTTT!!" Someone yelled as they barged in the room suddenly, disrupting Kadungon's narration and startling the rest of the party. Aitana screamed as she fell from her seat, Diacrao drew his sword, and Chiasoka jumped and hugged Kadungon, the latter who hugged her as well. 

It turned out, it was none other then Conrad, who was almost about to get slashed by Diacrao. Seeing it was just the rogue, followed by the huntress, who awkwardly walked into the room as she witnessed the unorganized scene, everyone returned back to calm, but there was a visible annoyance from Aitana, who grumbled as she woke up to regain her composure.

Chia and Kadu let themselves go, much to their embarrassment as their cheeks flushed in red.

"S-sorry! i didn't mean to..." 

"It's alright Chia, we were scared." Kadungon assured her that it was alright.

"Dude, you should've came in quietly and not make a ruckus, we could've alerted some gnoll's." Diacrao voiced out his complaint as he kept his sword inside of his scrabbard, looking back on Aitana to see if she's alright, and she was alright, recovering her composure as she collected her staff at hand.

"Okay fine, I won't barge in like a kid anymore." Conrad replied. "But I bring news, we got ourselves 3 sleepers in a ruined house, they seem to be comfy in a room, its small, but we can easily cut them, and they're not far away. If we get there in time we might be able to land three quick blows on those gnoll's! and leave before evening!" Conrad reported information from his recon mission to the party.

"Alright, how dangerous is the path? would we be facing any difficulties or are there any traps in sight" Aitana questioned the path towards the gnoll's, just to know the visibility of the path to ensure they don't have any surprises along the way.

"Conrad has cleared some traps, and so far, there are two paths, through the ruins, or the streets. The ruins can be rather narrow, and the streets seem rather safe, for now. Best to get moving before any patrols appear." Zemfina reported.

The team leader nodded, and signaled everyone to get ready. Conrad and Zemfina nodded, and went on to the entrance to scout ahead for enemies, while the rest of the parties packed up their stuffs and left their post. Once they were done, they rallied up, and made their way to the designated area of their hunt.