"Yep, we have undead! And paladins! I forgot about that question. Paladins fight undead! Energy is like, umm...lightning? It goes bzzzap!" 

"Cool! We've got lightning too, both when it rains and as part of wizard spells."

This is lots of fun!

"Are Light and Darkness special or are they just lights and shadows?"

"I think Darkness might be like what you called, ummm, negative energy? It's the thing that powers undead, and Light hurts them. Light doesn't heal people, though, Health is its own kind of energy. Moglins like me are really really good at healing magic!" 

"Huh, neat… I wonder why that is. The Darkness/Light thing, I mean. Also why you're good at healing magic! Oh, were the first moglins from a healing plane? And if Water is the opposite of Energy can you use it to make antimagic fields?"

"Twillies doesn't know where the first moglins came from! We's been around for hundreds and thousands of years, just like humans. I's not sure about any of the rest of that stuff, either...you should ask Lady Celestia! Or Warlic!" 

"Warlic's one of the magic people, right? Yeah, asking someone smart sounds like a good idea."

They round a corner, and Oaklore Keep comes into view up ahead. 

Wow, the walk back hardly felt like any time at all!

"Yay, we're here! Okay, we've got those weapons that probably Captain Rolith will know more about, and we wanna ask Sir Valance our sneevil questions, and we should probably find someone to look at the ring and see what kind of magic it is. What should we do first?"

The guard at the gate lets them through without a challenge, clearly recognising them from earlier. 

When they get into the main courtyard, however, Rolith doesn't actually seem to be around. Sir Valance is, though.

"Elan! How did you get on with the sneevils? Tricky little rascals, aren't they!" 

Elan waves at Valance.

"Hi! It went kinda good and kinda bad. We weren't able to find the box but we're pretty sure it's either at a regular fort or the sneenja dojo. But on the good side we were able to look at two forts without anyone getting hurt! We had to lie to them and pretend to be box inspectors, though. Twilly thought that coming back and asking for more help would be a good idea, since he says you're, like, the biggest sneevil expert. And I had some general questions about them, too…"

"Box inspectors, hmm? Nice cover story, I'll have to remember that one. What did you need my help with?" 

"We mostly wanted to see what you thought would be better to try the normal fort first, since we know where it is, or the dojo, since it's more mysterious and they might take the important things there. Also…"

Elan takes a second to put the words together.

"It seemed weird and kinda sad to me, that they don't seem to make anything for themselves and have to use stuff that they stole and that was made for bigger people. But when I asked one of their boxlords if we should bring anything to the fort in exchange for their help, he said no and that he didn't need any stupid supplies! So maybe they wanna live like that, but… I dunno, I still want to help them somehow. But not in a way that makes things worse."

"For people who don't need supplies, they're certainly fond of stealing ours! They're almost like children, really—if they want something, they just take it, with no thought to the consequences and certainly no understanding of the cost. To be honest, I doubt they'd have the patience to learn how to forge their own tools or make their own clothes, and I can't think of any job I'd hire them for if they wanted anything to do with money."

A clanking shrug. "They seem happy enough as they are, though." 

Elan nods.

"I… guess it's good for them if they're happy like that. But it sucks that for the sneevils to be happy they have to steal everyone else's stuff!"

There's something else bugging him, he thinks, but he can't put it into words and doesn't want to turn this into an argument. He should think about it later, though, and maybe bring it up when everything has calmed down.

"How do you track down where their forts are?"

"We run regular patrols throughout Oaklore Forest, which stumble across some of them. The rest I track down by following sneevils after a raid." 

(So, in other words, surveillance.) 

"That makes sense! Do you have a special sneevil-tracking technique? Oh, and do you think the dojo or the regular fort would be smarter to try?"

"Patience and vigilance, my friend, patience and vigilance!" 

Sir Valance adopts a thoughtful pose, and asks Elan to show him which locations on the map he's already tried. 

"As you may have noticed from this map, I haven't yet pinned down the precise location of the sneenja dojo. You might have better luck than I, and obviously I'd be indebted to you for finding it. As for the other, I wouldn't call the Boxopolis a regular fort, exactly. It's much larger, and its ruler styles himself a King rather than a mere Lord. You may find it a tougher nut to crack than the smaller forts you've already visited—I'm not sure your 'box inspector' gambit would meet with success there. I can't say for certain which one is likelier to have the box you're after, but if I were forced to take a gamble, I'd bet on the Boxopolis simply because a greater number of boxes wind up there or pass through there." 

Oh, that changes everything!

"Yeah, I think you're right. Thanks for telling me about that, Sir Valance!"

He bounces a little.

"Okay, we have a couple things to do before we head out again… do you know if Captain Rolith is around? Or someone who takes care of mail and packages? While we were at the Tree Fort, we found a box full of swords that Twilly thinks might belong to the keep. Oh, and we also found a ring we think is magic but don't know what it does."

Elan tugs illustratively on his impromptu necklace.

"You can take the swords to the armory, over there." He points to a door just across the courtyard that has a helpful sign above it with a picture of a sword. 

"Sir Pluss and Sir Lee can have a look at what you've picked up and see if it matches one of the missing shipments we were expecting. They might be able to figure out your ring, too, but if they can't, try asking Maya—she's our very own Loremaster! She's usually in the library, but if not, ask around and someone will know." He points at the book sign above the door next to him. 

Elan nods.

"Thanks for all your help!"

He decides to go to the library first, since it's right here.

The library is a single small room, with bookshelves on two walls. A young woman wearing glasses is sat writing at the large desk in the centre of the room; she looks up when Elan comes in. 

"Hello!" 

"Hi! Are you Maya the loremaster?"

"That's me! How can I help you?" 

"Hi Maya, I'm Elan! Twilly and I were investigating some things in a sneevil fort and we found this ring in a box."

He pulls it over his head and holds it out.

"Sir Valance said you'd probably be able to tell what it does."

"Ooo, let me have a look!" 

Maya takes the ring from Elan and holds it up to the light for a moment, then pulls off one of her white gloves and puts it on her bare palm to stare at it. 

"As I expected, it's a basic protection ring. Rings like this are fairly common and easy to make, but precisely because the magic is so weak and generic, they can be difficult for laypeople to identify," she explains. "If you wear it, it'll boost your physical and magical defences a little, making you slightly harder to hit with melee weapons or spells. It won't do anything about arrows, though!"