Samara and Vostiun race on and find themselves amidst a collection of vines, bramble and ruins laid out before them. The ground cover is so dense and flimsy that the only way to continue is to either walk along disturbingly thin branches and vines or leap from one suspicious clump of vine covered trunks to another. Saidou and Elde Kon and in discussions about how to proceed as swashbuckler and sorcerer arrive.

A bit later Haznut trundles into the group, muttering angrily under his breath.

Now that you have given up on the immediate chase, you're about an hour or so away from your camp. What's the plan?

Looking around at her bloody, muddy, exhausted companions, Samara growls, "Well this is some bullshit.
Their gods must be protecting them to make the way easy for them and impossible for us.
I feel like our only hope is to remain undetected by them, but being as they found us at such a distance from their camp, that might not be possible.
Of course, it's also possible this monster led us in a winding route, perhaps past and then away from his camp.
It knows it was being pursued, so stealth is no longer an option.
I feel like all we can do is try to take them by surprise when they come for us, but I don't know how we do that when their gods have us under observation and are bending nature to their advantage.
Does anyone have any ideas?"

“They don’t need the gods’ help. It’s their territory at night. I only have enough energy in me for one spell left,” Vostiun pants.

“We don’t know how many there are, we don’t know exactly where they are, and we don’t know if they actually have any boggard allies nearby. So, do we attack them in their territory, try to hide in their territory until morning, or try to run from their territory at night?”

Kon crosses his arms in thought, "Packing up would take too long, leaving all our supplies would be a death sentence meaning we would have to take back our stuff from the goblins anyway, and wandering their territory in the dark is sure to make us easy pickings.  It would seem that a confrontation is inevitable, unless that goblin bastard returned to warn his friends that we're too strong."  Lost in thought, he sighs and rocks back and forth on his padded feet, mumbling to himself.

After a short pause, he presents options to the others:

"Our options as I see it are:

• Convincing them to leave us alone one way or another...  (Diplomacy "You see, we're just passing through.  You ambushed us even.  We just want to rest and move on." or Intimidation "Haah?!?  You ambushed us in the middle of the night!  Take some responsibility!")
• Setting up an ambush back at our camp, but we'll be exhausted being up all night if they don't show up...
• Continuing on and attempting to just wipe them out, hoping there aren't much more than that booger and his chief...
• Abandoning our camp and supplies and hiding the rest of the night and hoping we don't get spotted, but this is their territory...
• Packing up and moving on to find another camp site while hoping the goblins don't mess with us...

I for one don't think staying up all night is a great idea.  I've had my fill of sleepless nights crossing the Crown in frozen carriages."

Saidou seems restless and frustrated, continuing to glance back in the direction their assailant had vanished into the evening brush. "We are, unfortunately, within the patrol area of a foe far more confident in their supremacy, than we are. Considering them as anything but experts in their land would be foolish. But trying to push on in the darkness is as bad of an option... we have defended ourselves for now. I think we may have to use the camp to settle ourselves down for a few hours, and move on once rested."

Vostiun checks on the wounded familiar inside his jacket.

“Then let’s get back there quickly and all together.”

Kon sighs, "So we're going with the sixth option:  Go back and hope they learned their lesson."  He turns and begins walking back to camp with the others, "Just so you know, I'm not in favour of this."  Mumbling ensues as the procession forms, "Getting them to leave us alone was the smarter option.  I don't see how we..."

Everyone agrees that discretion is the better part of valor and they set out to backtrack to the camp. With less of an urgency, the trail and accompanying obstacles are much easier to circumvent and though it takes longer, the trail is significantly safer. The party arrives back at the camp to a grumpy ferret who has made a nest out of the papers that were recovered from the deceased university professors camp.

“Who has first watch?” Vostiun asks as he settles down near his bedroll.

“I’ll do it.”

Haznut starts a circuit around the camp to find any of the bodies left by the goblins and move them away from the sleeping area. He takes the time to examine their gear while he does so.

With a fatigued sigh and a stretch, Kon flops down on his rear and leans against the inside of the ruin walls.

"I saw some more ruins o-", his maw cracks wide as only a canid's can, "Ugh, ruins on the way back.  We passed through and by a few.  Maybe...  In the mornin......"  Drifting off as exhaustion takes hold, Kon slumps to the side and nestles roughly into a corner, face pressed against cold, damp stone, soon to be as much asleep as the surrounding structure.

Saidou would spend a bit of time- Probably no more than an hour- checking over the fallen and moving their bodies out of the way with Haznut. He notes their number, equipment, and how each met their end, jotting notes.

Samara will help Haznot stay awake for a while by playing Roshambo.
Her elder siblings taught her to be unforgiving with the forehead thumps, which helps in staying awake, for sure.