Quinta is unfazed by the goblin's song.  In fact she tries a verse  of her own when he finishes.<br/><br/><div align="center"><em>Pike-blocks clash whole ranks go down,<br/>swordsmen slash on lumpy ground,<br/>swordsmen plunge into pike ranks<br/>pikemen cut down like helpless planks.</em></div><br/>"Spur of the moment, best I could do."  She looks a little embarrassed.  Not near as good as yours."<br/><br/>She looks at Tak thoughtfully.  She is imagining what a swarm of lethal little buggers like the goblin could do to a pike formation.  Wonders how she and her fellow sword and buckler men would defend a pike hedge against such an attack.  She decides quickly that she would very much rather not find out.  If Tak is open to the idea, they spend a little time talking shop.  She doesn't bother with big picture stuff, she figures the Goblin will be uninterested in logistical and adminstrative details.<br/><br/>Instead, She speaks of the rock-paper-scissors interplay of cavalry, crossbowmen and infantry.  Of the ungodly cacophany of screaming men and clashing steel when 12 rank deep pike blocks smash into each other.  Then she talks of the desperate fight between swordsmen in the narrow space between formations pinned apart by the length of their long weapons, of the slaughter that ensues one one sword-unit breaks and the victors pursue them into enemy ranks stabbing at unarmored, shieldless pikemen locked in place by their own formation.  The look in her eyes, Tak has seen it before in the eyes of his clan-siblings whooping as they butcher the foe.  She listens attentively to whatever Tak has to say about his kinds more irregular style of warfare as well.  It is the most pleasant our of conversation she has had in a long while.<br/><br/>They might never be true friends, but they understand each other perfectly.<br/><br/>But like Tak, her mood changes when they arrive at the farm.  She goes silent, intent on her study of the massacre  Not knowing the ground or the wildlife that supposedly carried out the slaughter she sticks closes to the goblin while keeping  her mouth shut and her eyes open.  But she is looking for something specific as well.  IF somebody was present to direct the assault on the farmstead, where would they have stood?  And what might they have left behind?<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">Following Tak's lead for the most part,  tale 20 for Perception modified to 25.  And for Prof: Soldier to find where the leader might have been:  Mod to 25.  If the critters were magically controlled from a distance, she would find nothing of course.<br/><br/> </div></div><br/><br/><br/>