Something useful for defeating them. Instead of merely driving them off as he had been doing.
At first I fooled about with his going to the library, because he knows they have been fought before.
When that didn't pan out I fooled about with his going, with his companions, to research them by the simple if not easy expedient of tracking them down, my old trick of flipping what happens next and seeing if that works. You know, that's not panning out either. . . .
Any of the things, the plot or the monsters or the knowledge of how to fight them would move the outline merrily along, but I don't have any of them.
Perhaps I need to go build the monster's weaknesses up, and where in the world they could be dealt with.
hmmm. . . or perhaps he really did defeat the monsters up front and could just deal with the fall-out. . . except that raises the question of why they attacked just then.
Huh. Maybe I ought to chase that question. The story will all turn on it in the end -- as it turns on so many other things.