The first info we gathered was about the expected numbers of enemy demons. We had initially gotten reports that perhaps up to 200 were here, but the number, at least as far as we can estimate, is probably closer to 50. I doubt that many died in the nitroglycerin plant, but it's possible some died there. Why exactly there seem to be so few is unknown currently, but based on watching through a telescope at a distance for three days, that's about the number we expect to be occupying the fort. We've spotted a few carrying crates from their ships back to the fort as well, meaning if we play our cards right, we can split their forces and make the fight easier on ourselves.

  If we do manage to capture any, Zaka has already said he wants no part in them integrating into our society. I was surprised by that, but considering their immediate actions upon landing, I understand. Thankfully, the entrance to the prison where we've been keeping the failed summoning experiment goblins wasn't covered by any storm damage, so we do actually have a place where we could potentially imprison a few dozen of them.

  One problem with that idea, however, is that we're actually not very familiar with them. Specifically, most of these demons are in unfamiliar forms. I had thought we had sort of sorted out what forms demons could take, but it appears I was wrong. There are a few demons that take the form of what I refer to as a 'gorilla demon' about, but some of the demons have an almost bark-like exterior while others still have a slender gecko-like appearance. The gorilla demons, from experience, are quite physically powerful, but the others are a mystery to me, and also to Zaka. Elora and the dwarves are in the city, so we have no way of knowing how rare these types all appearing together are. Perhaps there is some kind of parallel line that imps can turn into, or maybe it's unrelated to imps. I have no clue.

  What I do know is that we need to reclaim our island. In all likelihood, we'll also need to re-stake our claim on the other islands as well. If a few boats crashed here, there is a good chance the storm crashed boats on the other islands too. If they're only staked out in the fort here, we can easily capture them and starve them out. Even if they're physically stronger than us, I'm confident that with our numbers, and access to five tons of dynamite, we can make it work. The one thing we apparently don't have are either of the naval guns flanking the bay. Well, one of the guns is still there, though the post is empty. The other outpost is completely gone, with the cliff beneath it having crumbled during the storm.

  So, our current plan is to maneuver to capture the demons attempting to recover supplies from their crashed ship, if we can capture more than a few of them in that process, we'll split the army and take them back to the prison, then try to open the tunnel between the halves of the island up. The remaining part of the army will attempt to stage an ambush if any small groups go out to look for the missing individuals. If the path is able to be opened up quickly, then it should be easy for us to mobilize a larger force and demand their surrender. If they don't surrender, then we'll just starve them out.

  We managed to catch 11 of them off guard while they were attempting to gather supplies from their crashed ships two days after having settled on attempting to do so. We told them to surrender, and they, in turn, told us to surrender, which caused some confusion. They claimed that we were 'Trespassing on the new territory of the Demon Lord Malagord.' and that 'If we surrender, we'll be given easy and swift deaths.' Which, needless to say resulted in a fight breaking out. In total they were comprised of 3 of the gorilla-demons, 5 barky-demons, and 3 gecko-demons.

  The fight ended swiftly, with us capturing 2 barky-demons and a gecko-demon alive. The fight gave me a pretty good idea of the power level of the different demon types. The gecko-demons are very fast, but quite frail, and I'd say they're something like the equivalent of a goblin in power level. The barky-demons, by comparison are much slower and tougher, but are probably on par with hobgoblins. The gorilla-demons are ones we're familiar with, but their power is somewhere above hobgoblins but below ogres.

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  Trying to take live captives was actually more of a struggle than I thought, as they're almost suicidal in their determination to fight. I shouldn't be surprised, we had demons willingly sacrificing themselves during our fight with the human invaders from Rathland. There is some amount of collectivism and self-sacrifice ingrained in demons which is part of why they're such a dangerous threat. We had to fully restrain the captives to keep them from constantly trying to fight us.

  Since we were able to capture a few of them, we figured it'd be worth it to look through their supplies that they were recovering from their ships. Most of the crates were completely empty, even to the degree of being seemingly cleaned with seawater. Most of what was left were either metal tools, weapons, or ammo. All of them were somewhat primitive in design and, by my estimation, from roughly the early medieval period in quality.

  We haven't spotted any other demon types in the fort thus far, so even with the fort itself to help protect them, I doubt we'll have much issue with retaking things, though the campaign to do so might end up taking a few weeks before we starve them out.

  While 30 demons went back the long way with the prisoners, we set up to siege the demons in the fort over the course of four days. We offered them surrender, to which again, they told us to surrender instead. It was actually very frustrating, because they refused to communicate further after we declined. Instead, they'd simply ignore further requests, and for the first few days, would throw spears at us with meteor shot if we showed ourselves.

  With the fort at a standstill, I took a few of our soldiers, and we began trying to open up the tunnel through the mountain. Despite the change in the landscape of the area, I was able to get a good feel for where the entrance should have been. The issue really came down to the fact that most of the area was now loose rubble, and clearing some of it would cause it to partially collapse again. The only real saving grace was that I was able to break large chunks of rock down into manageable sizes with stoneshaping. I tried using pulverize once, but the fine sand was just worse to deal with than rocks

  We started to get nervous after 25 days passed without any updates from our army. We actually had a run in with a set of 5 demons who seemed to be a scouting party from the enemy that had left before we'd started our siege. They caught us off guard, and managed to kill 8 of our own before being brought down.

  Our concerns were alleviated when 60 soldiers turned up. After getting the prisoners locked away, the army in the city regrouped and started clearing their end of the tunnel alongside civilians. Their thought process was that the tunnel was much faster to go through, and we'd said that if it can be cleared, that is the route to take. After a few days, they managed to open the far side of the tunnel, but after travelling through the mountain and attempting to clear this side from the inside, it became clear that it'd take quite some time. The problem was that only so many people can work from the inside of the tunnel at a time. So, they took another day to regroup before making their way around the outside again.

  We've slowly been noticing fewer of the weaker demons on the walls, and after discussing with Zaka, we believe that they're probably practicing cannibalism to sustain themselves. In all likelihood, we're just going to have to wait them out until they die or they decide to come out and fight us.

  With the extra soldiers, we should be prepared for a situation where they charge us. It's actually kind of insane how militaristic they are. I had thought that Rathland was bad to deal with, but comparatively, they were quite diplomatic. I can see how, despite demon invasions happening for such a long period of time, there hasn't been peace before. It's really like peace isn't an option. The only reason we seem to be different is that Zaka was quite young when he left the demon continent, and even then, we had our share of internal strife. The only real reason that we're still different is that those of us in power are enforcing a different lifestyle. If we had lost the civil war way back when, if demons still lived here, I'm sure they'd be just as aggressive.