The Mountain People's main settlement lay deep in the Blackwind Mountains, in a vast valley called Giant Rock's Grip.
Its treacherous terrain made it easy to defend and difficult to assault. It was the heartland where the tribe had lived for generations.
Giant Rock's Grip was a majestic valley that looked as though it had been cleaved open by a giant axe.
The valley entrance was extremely narrow, allowing only four or five people to walk abreast. On either side rose nearly vertical black cliffs hundreds of meters high, so smooth that even apes would struggle to climb them.
A towering barricade of enormous rocks and thick hardwood logs stood at the entrance. Warriors of the Mountain People crowded its top, wearing monster hides and holding weapons, their wary, hostile eyes fixed on the well-equipped invaders outside the valley.
Above the barricade flew a crude banner bearing a mountain and crossed arms-the totem of the Mountain People.
A heavy, oppressive presence spread from within the valley, as though countless years of steadfast resistance and rejection of outsiders had crystallized into it.
Only strong young men remained in Giant Rock's Grip. The women and children had long since fled.
The destruction of the surrounding outposts and sentry stations over this period had naturally made the Mountain People realize how grave the situation was.
They knew they faced immensely powerful wizards and had almost no chance of winning.
But they would not abandon the land where they had lived for generations. After sending away the tribe's elderly, weak, sick, and disabled, along with some of its able-bodied young people,
those who remained were Mountain People prepared to die, sworn to defend this land.
The Seventh Squadron arrived at the entrance to Giant Rock's Grip. Seven Level 2 slave creatures of differing forms