"I'm an illusionist, anything can be a tool, but anything that will hurt the thing and can be made—more—would be good."

"It's a goblin. Advanced technology, worked metal, anything refined. I'll be shooting, but it can almost definitely take that."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Last time I took on a goblin I used a Swiss Army Knife—and, er, a Charybdis—but there are better options."

"Pocket knife is good, but not going to be enough. You know how to use a gun?"

"I do not know anything about it beyond aim and pull the trigger and also there's recoil."

"Not a gun, then.

Besides, we should try to be refined about this and you want it alive anyway. Trapping it in a cage would be ideal, but probably nothing we can fit in my car would hold it."

"How big is it exactly?"

"I've never seen it myself. Wolf-sized, maybe. But goblins of any size tend to be stronger than they should be, so I'm speculating."

"I heard it was bigger than that—and wouldn't it grow, with time and enough victims?"

"It can grow, but it's old. Would have hit diminishing returns long before coming here. Where'd you hear about the size?"

"...I'm kinda seeing Diana—the Astrologer. We nerd about all sorts of things."

"Huh. Did she mention where she heard it from?"

"I didn't ask and she never mentioned. She's also not super happy about me doing all of this."

"Understandably. No matter how good you are something's going to get you eventually."

He grimaces. "I might just cut it out while I'm ahead. In the future."

He shrugs. "Up to you. You don't have to, if you're ridiculously self-sacrificing, but I'd recommend it. For today, I was thinking leashes and snares out of steel cable..."

And they can hash out a plan while the Shepherd stands by looking inexplicably not bored.

Sadde finds this fun and fascinating despite himself.

He might also notice that Matthew refers to the Hyena as a mid-tier goblin instead of the "extremely powerful goblin" story he got from the cabal. Either he just has a different frame of reference for the most powerful goblins, or he just bought in to Conquest's line that the Hyena wasn't worth the trouble to deal with. But asking might spark more questions about where the conflicting version came from.

Eventually they'll have a fully functional plan. Not safe, but probably not ineffective.

Oh good! So how will this plan fail?

They can't really account for any of the other Others in the forest? There are enough ambient ghosts to overwhelm the Shepherd? The Hyena gets the drop on them?

And how do they patch those problems?

The Others probably aren't much of a threat. You don't last very long alive and free if you aren't strong or clever, but that's not in effect when practitioners have been avoiding your location for centuries. Matthew can go in prepared for the widest variety of low-level threats; this kind of thing used to be his day job. Not a whole lot to do about ghosts. Keeping everyone well supplied with salt can buy the Shepherd time. For the Hyena...they can have at least one person keeping a lookout with the Sight at all times. Pretty much everything is going to be linked to that.

And how does that fail?

In ways they can plan for.

Eventually they have a strategy, and disperse to collect their gear. ("Disperse" mostly means the Shepherd goes his own way for a bit; the other two are mostly picking up mundane hardware.) Once equipped, they can head to the Hyena's territory. If Sadde takes his glasses off, he'll notice the signs of earlier illusionists or enchanters subtly influencing passersby on the otherwise normal highway to keep going, drive past, nothing to see here. Matthew pulls over.

And they start unloading their gear.