Peek: What a Bear Does in the Woods (Patreon)

To be honest, he'd rather be fishing. Unfortunately for the Southwoods' newest scion, he has an important job to do. On the other hand, it's a job that still gives him more free time than he had feared. At least he's not the Stag. The Voice hasn't actually been home for all of the Bear's existence, yet he can still feel how busy he is.

Lord Southwood has given the Bear a simple command: mind the expeditions. He's been given time to get his feet underneath him first, but he can feel his lord's anticipation growing. He's got the basics by now, so he's confident he can't make too much of a mess of it.

If he does, he'll just ask the allied scions for help. Sure, the wolf and bee are off with the Voice right now, but they'll be coming back through here before long, and he can ask them for help then, if he needs it. For now, he organizes the expeditions as well as he can.

If he was just on his own, he'd probably just send them out in whatever direction strikes his fancy, but the other bears and especially the foxes insist there's a more organized method the Warden and Librarian would use. Having a war room would make it simpler to keep a good map, but having a few foxes keep it accurate will have to do for now.

The grid feels a bit restrictive to him, but it does make it a lot easier to keep track of where to send expeditions. He still sends the scouts out mostly randomly, though there are two significant exceptions. The first is to the southeast, where the orcs should be coming from any day now. Lord Southwood relies heavily on the spring uptick in mana from their delving, so it's simple to guess it'd be a good idea to make sure that route is going to be safe and clear. If his lord decides to get a bird spawner, they could make it easy to watch the very southern edge of the woodland and spot any delving groups.

He might need to organize some of the outposts the ally Thedeim has been using, thanks to how far away the northen edge of the wanderlands are. Still, the information might be worth it. He'll let the Stag know, once he's back.

The other major direction to investigate is to the north. There were a lot of weird invaders from that direction for a while, not just the least from that hostile dungeon. They ceased appearing shortly before the least attacked, so perhaps they were driven ahead of them, like wildlife fleeing a forest fire? Lord Southwood wants a more definitive answer, and despite how much the Bear would like to relax, he finds it difficult to do so with a mystery like that around. At worst, he expects to find a stagnation point out in the taiga to the north.

He most expects to find nothing of real interest. From what he understands, the subterranean dungeon had done something to resonate with the stagnant mana. He thinks the least were triggering... well, 'ripples' is probably not the right word, but triggering whatever it is that makes invaders spawn, and drawing them to lord Southwood. He imagines it like throwing a rock into a pond: its arrival makes a splash, but once it's there, the excitement dies down.

He's no expert on invaders, though, so he'll keep sending expeditions to try to figure out what exactly caused the varied invaders, or at least get information to give to someone who might know. He can't help but lick his lips as he imagines giving the information to the Librarian when she passes through.

Maybe the only thing better than fish is honey, and if she likes the information, she might give him some! Maybe he can convince the Stag to ask about a bee spawner, too. The Librarian's are supposed to be very good at writing and organizing. And they'll make honey. It's a win/win!

He smiles to himself as he leaves the cave he's been using to keep the map, hoping lord Southwood will make it a real war room soon. All this thought of honey has him hungry. Barracudas are not his favorite of fish, but they're still fish and invaders to boot! He should be able to have some fun fishing and swimming before the first wave of scouts return. It will be boring and more than a bit tedious, but that will be a problem for then.

Right now, it's time for some fun.