As the next day dawned, they saw smoke in the distance as from many campfires, just over the horizon. Spread out in battle-formation, they began to move cautiously, moving between the hills rather than over them. As they drew near, however, they could see that the smokes were not from campfires, and the encamped enemy, but rather from pyres, and broken carts. Some structures appeared to be still on fire. By degrees, Niles realised that there had recently been a battle here.
They began to find the corpses of gnomes and goblins, shot with black arrows. One of Niles' men brought him a breastplate from one of the bodies.
"What do you make of this?" he asked, passing it to Paris, who frowned as he fingered the insignia on the center of the chest.
"I've never seen its like," Paris replied.
"Nor have I," said Niles. "These are not from Morlock's armies."
There were the remains of thousands of dead scattered about. Most of the dead had been piled in pyres, apparently until the wood had run out. It appeared that entire great stands of copsewood had been razed to the ground for their wood. And by degrees they realised that this was no mere skirmish. They were witness to the aftermath of a battle, the scope of which was becoming unimaginable!