We'll get the bathtard nektht time." Olyenna says quietly to Serena as she helps her gather the gear and sort it.
Oleg watches the distribution of the loot with a careful eye and doesn't quibble with the goods he is offered. He disappears inside with them and returns with a hefty bag of gold. "Svetlana and I are mighty grateful for what you've done." He looks down, almost embarrassed. "You all have a place here as long as you want, meals, beds, stabling. It's the least we can do for you."
The bandit, menawhile, cowers before Evelynda and starts talking. From the babble of words you can deduce that the bandits came from a larger camp away to the south-west and that it'd take a couple of days to get there - maybe less if you pushed hard. Having spilled everything the bandit begs for his life and promises to head north away from the Stolen Lands and never return.
At dinner that night, which is a celebratory affair with Svetlana digging deep into her stores to provide food worthy of 'our rescuers', Oleg uncorks a bottle of good Restov Brandy and passes it around. As it circles and the brandy level gets lower and lower he looks up and asks "So, what are you planning to do next? If you're interested some of the trappers leave jobs on the gatepost here - might be a good way of earnin' a bit a coin and good will if you want it."
"Enough babbling, knave. For your crimes, you are sentenced to hang by the neck until you are dead, and may the gods have mercy on your soul. Do you have any last words?" She drags him to the wall of the trading post and secures a noose around his neck, then pulls him up into the air and impassively watches his final struggle.
Quietly to the others in her coven, she asks, "What should we do with the bodies? Do we want to use them as a lesson to other bandits in the area and put them up on display for all to see? Or perhaps we should burn them? My instinct is to hang them on the walls for a few days, but as you have wisely said before, vindictive actions can make us look like monsters in the eyes of our new neighbors."
To Oleg, she says "That is very kind of you, good hosts, and we will be very glad to avail ourselves of your hospitality. I suspect we will also soon give your trading business much custom, and so all of us will profit. We will take a look at these jobs-- perhaps there are things we can do for the trappers while we are looking for the rest of these bandits."
After dinner, Evelynda will discuss specific equipment that the party would like to purchase from Oleg if he can locate it, aware that it might take a little while to arrive and cost a bit more to compensate him for his trouble.
She nods to Olyenna. "I know we will," she says. She agrees for the most part with things that Evelynda says, nodding along. "I think we should go to kill the rest of these bandits as fast as we can," she says. "One got away. That means they know we're here, which makes them an active threat. Our capacity as errand-completers and cartographers is moot as long as they live."
Evelynda laughs wholeheartedly at Serena's joke, then nods grimly. "I imagine they know quite a lot about us, based on what they saw. More than we know about them, alas."
When Evelynda laughs, Serena blinks for a moment. The woman had a sense of humor very different from Serena's, sure. Had she made a joke? Serene didn't suppose so.
Olyenna nods. "Hanging thith one for his crimeth I agree with. Though if we make too garish a parade of the other bodies, there will be no chance of thurrender." she conjectures.
Looking between her sisters she nods, "Either we go after him or we accept that at thome point, they'll come for uth.....with everyone they have."
As she speaks she picks up the longbow, testing the draw on it.
With minimal ceremony the four of you find a rope and hang the bandit from a convenient stanchion off one of the corner towers. With the drop his neck breaks immediately, rendering his death far more merciful than he probably deserved.
(Evelynda laughed at Serena characterizing us as errand-runners and cartographers, which seemed absurdly funny to her.)
"Seems like we just need to track where they went. We go as far as we can follow tracks and if we lose the trail we make our best guess from there," she says.
Evelynda nods to Serena. "An excellent plan, sister. We will soon discover where they are hiding, I am sure."
"Tho are we ready to head out?" Olyenna asks.
Serena nods curtly.
Evelynda smiles her creepy, happy smile. "Indeed," she says. "Let's go get those bandits!"
The next morning the four of you set off bright and early, heading south west as the sky dawns over your left shoulders. Evelyn is quiet and withdrawn, she confides that she feels rather ill, and spends the rest of the day quietly.
After retrieving him from his cold-water bath where he sleeps, Evelynda puts her crab familiar Siggurd in his special satchel where he can see out as they travel. She ties her ancestral scarf on her head to give her some small protection from the sun, but after an hour her supernatural malady begins to visibly affect her all the same, sapping her strength. "I have prepared a magical remedy for when we reach the bandits," she whispers to her sisters, "but I am afraid I will be something of a burden until then."
ETA:
Serena places a hand on Evelynda's shoulder wordlessly. Evelynda doesn't have to worry about feeling like a burden.
"See any tracks, Eliza?" she asks their resident wilderness survivalist.
Despite her illness Eliza leads the coven surely, she and Jannah seemingly picking up on the smallest signs to indicate where the rider has been - even over long periods of no clues at all, neither seems perturbed.
It is late in the day and dusk is falling as you all see the first clue, a column of smoke rising into the distance a mile or so ahead. Eliza turns to the rest of you and speaks in a whisper. "That should be them - shall we go in tonight or hide and wait for morning?"
Concern clearly etched on her face, Olyenna considers things as they ride. Not only was Evelynda suffering from the usual effect of bright sunlight on her body, but Eliza was under the weather as well. Her worry is partially ameliorated when Eliza manages to track the bandit of sometimes near impossible clues.
Breathing a sigh of relief as the sun begins to set, she studies the smoke. "Oddth are motht, if not all of them are human, giving uth an advantage in the dark. I thay we wait until after thundown."
Evelynda agrees in a wan voice. "An excellent idea," she murmurs. "Both Eliza and I could use a short rest, I think."
Serena nods. "Yes, we can go in under cover of darkness. Maybe we can put out the fires and torches that the humans have. If we do that, they might as well be helpless."
Evelynda quietly asks Eliza, "Do you have the power to create water, making it rain as we attack?"
Evie shakes her head. "That spells requires a vessel - I can't just make it rain... attacking under the cover of dark makes sense though."
As you close on the bandit camp night falls and by the time you get there it is almost fully dark. A couple of small flames mark sentries and a larger glow from behind the trees suggests a fire.
Taking up her new longbow Olyenna target's the sentry across the river from the encampment. "I'll try to drop him before he can sound an alarm."
While they are still out of earshot, Evelynda organizes the coven and casts mage armor (targeting herself, 2 hour duration), message (targeting Olyenna and Serena, 20 minute duration), and remove sickness (targeting herself, 20 minute duration). Reinvigorated, she looks grimly at the camp and prepares herself for battle, a crafty smile playing on her lips.
"An excellent idea, Olyenna." she says. "If they do sound a warning, I can make the sound of wild animals to help throw them off. A hungry wolf growl, maybe? Eliza, that could scare Jarrah, if so could you calm him and apologize for me?"
When they move up, she will relay Olyenna's and Serena's words through her nearly undetectable magical whispers.
Serena shakes her head, pushing Olyenna's arm down. "You'd have to be lucky enough to kill him in one shot," she says. She squints forward. "How many sentries are there? If there are multiple, I think we should maybe try to take them out at once."
"I can wait at a distance and try to sucker-punch one?" she suggests.
"Moving in close enough for a physical assault gives up much of ther advantage of our night vision." Olyenna comments as she looks to see how many sentries are at the post she targeted.
"There's only one at this sentry point. You should be able to get close enough to rush him without moving into the light." Olyenna whispers to Serena. "I'll wait until you're close enough to rush in before I take the shot.....though I don't plan on missing"
Waiting until Serena moves close enough to charge the sentry, Olyenna calms her breathing, peering through the darkness and she looses the arrow in between breaths.
Evelynda positions herself in the darkness near Serena in case they need backup. Nice shot, she magically whispers.
Hearing Olyenna's bowstring-twang, Serena charges in against the sentry, hoping to sucker-punch him into unconsciousness on her first pass.
Olyenna puts her arrow through the bandit's throat and he collapses with barely a sound. Serena, quick off the mark, arrives just in time to snatch up the torch and make it appear that the guard simply bent down for a moment. No calls or exclamations break the spell of the darkness.
Smiling to herself at the success of her shot, Olyenna moves to the river bank. Waiting for her sisters to cross and for Serena and Evelynda to wait just outside of the firelight, she fires again, placing the arrow with expert precision.
Evelynda stands poised and ready in the darkness, her headscarf held in both hands like a garrote, and she magically murmurs with pride when Olyenna once again makes the shot.
Once again the coven dispatches the sentry with precision, Olyenna's deadly arrow felling the sentry even as Serena replaces him with the torch. Again the operation is so smooth and silent that it seems to attract no attention at all.
Serena creeps closer, squinting at the fire to see how many bandits there are. She also keeps a lookout for tents and the possibility of sleeping bandits.
Evelynda holds her breath in the darkness as Serena proceeds, ready to charge in to assist her if things should go badly.
Keeping her bow drawn, Olyenna covers Serena's approach, ready to fire on anyone that approached her.
As Serena approaches she can make out a number, perhaps four or five, of figures rolled in blankets near the fire. The only person up seems to be throwing axes into a nearby log - the thrower is remarkably good, the axes thunking into almost the same spot every time.
As Serena creeps nearer the thrower seems to hear something and turns, staring in her direction. However the indifferent light appears to hide the changeling well and the thrower eventually shrugs and strides over to the log to retrieve the axes, before returning to their mark and preparing to throw again.
Linking herself up with Olyenna via their coven bond, Serena whispers towards the older changeling - "Wait for me to charge. Then you and Evelynda take out the sleeping ones. I'll keep the awake one busy."
Then she focuses, readying herself for combat. She waits for the axe-thrower to throw away all of her axes. Then, as she starts to amble over to retrieve them, Serena charges the woman, going low and sweeping out her legs in a gambit to unend her.
Evelynda whispers, I think your target might be their leader-- Oleg said she was a nasty-looking woman. If we all focus on her, we might be able to take her down before she can call for help.
When Serena charges, Evelynda follows behind her, quickly moving to flank their mark.
Moving quickly and trying to be quiet, Olyenna moves up to the fire while drawing a torch. Putting it to the flame to the first of the bundled up sleepers.
Eliza remains crouched at the edge of the firelight, a spell on her lips as Jarrah charges in from the north to gore at the woman Serana has engaged.
None of the sleeping bandits stir as the coven moves on their position.
Serana, Evelynda and Jarrah all converge on the leader who is upended by Serana's deft manouvre and then trampled by Jarrah for good measure. She lets out a yell of pain, which is echoed a moment later as Olyenna lights one of the bandits on fire and he awakes, screaming.
Eliza stays concealed, waiting to support her sisters as they need.
Jarrah tramples on the bandit again.
The bandit Olyenna set on fire rolls frantically on the ground in an attempt to put out the flames and smothers them.
The other three bandits squirm their way out of their bedrolls and grab an assortment of weapons, which they kept near at hand.
From the ground the bandit leader pulls a dagger and lashes out at Jannah, cutting deep into the mooses leg.
Party up (initiative will now alternate you/them/you/them)