The night before dawn was always the hardest to endure.
That was true both for the humans still standing watch and for the "Construct Guardians" helping Avalon Church members hunt down the gnoll marauders in the Filthy Swamp.
Nourished by war, this swamp had become one of the most dangerous regions on the continent. But for the gnolls of the Bloodclaw Clan, things were actually not too bad. Some of their hunters had offered their faith to the God of Creation in exchange for a faint blessing, at Chief Nash's order. And the Bloodclaw Clan had always been active in the swamp, so its members had adapted to these intense changes.
The native gnolls of Transia were physically far weaker than their distant kin in the Dark Mountains. But that decline in strength had brought an increase in intelligence. It was more like an adaptation to their environment, since being good at fighting alone wouldn't solve all their problems when they had to make a living on the vast lands at the continent's center, along the fringes of human society.
This was especially true for small gnolls like Hogg. To survive among their kind, they had to find their own "niche."
Of course, clever gnolls like Hogg were few and far between. Fortunately, Chief Nash was one of those "smart ones," too.
Ever since the Filthy Swamp had changed, Nash had been learning from the Avalon Church about the swamp's new creatures, studying and exploring them. It had simplified that knowledge and passed on the essentials to its people, teaching them to move through the swamp more cautiously.
At the very least, they needed to know what not to touch, where not to go, and how to react in unusual situations.
This large-scale teaching had proved highly effective. The harsh