Dendarial agrees to scout ahead and promises to send Acio back if there he is in trouble.
He first searches the trail head for recent tracks. He then sends the bird above to scout and he creeps into the woods off the trail and parallels it for a while.
Hadin stretches and breathes the fresh outside air.
Just in case we find the bandits camp-or they find us-what do you think would be the best strategy: trying to get their boss down as soon as possible, or getting throught the lesser ranks first and keep Kressle for last?
I am thinking that we drop one at a time as fast as possible
Dendarial creeps his way on a parallel course to the trail while Acio soars high above. He follows it nearly eighty feet away from the riverbank, where he spots the warm and dancing glow of a fire. Voices, quiet but audible, drift from that direction. He edges a little closer, trying to make out the words, but a movement in the boughs of a nearby tree across the path catch his attention.
Immediately he spots it - a raised deer stand in the tree, a single man perched on it and nearly entirely surrounded by dense foliage. If he hadn't moved, Dendarial'd never have noticed the bandit.
Unfortunately, he also appears to be holding a bow and peering right at Dendarial. Slowly his eyes stop squinting at you and he seems to relax a little, lowering his bow. In a cautious voice he calls out.
"Oi, Saerin? Yer late! And why are ya lurking in the bushes, mate?"
The sounds of movement follows from the campsite just east of the platform. At least one of the voices sounds like a rather angry woman.
Den quickly commands Acio to fly to the others. He is unsure if he has the skills to bluff his way past this man, and with the camp alerted he chooses to fall back into the foliage.
Dendarial calls out a quick greeting in elven, trying to sound like the elf they think he is, before backing more fully into the woods.
The watchman scratches his head. "Ya know none of us speak your damned language! Stop muckin' about, Kressle's pissed."
The woman's voice rings out from over near the campsite. "You're damn right I am! Get your ass over here with my goods! And get that idiot Runt on dinner duty. We're hungry!"
After a moment, Dendarial disappears back into the brush he came from. Again the watchman calls out, though this time his voice is far more cautious. Worried, almost. "Aw, hell. He disappeared. Maybe that wasn't Saerin... Someone get a torch, we might have an intruder! Or it might be Happs!"
An expletive returns to him from the campsite. The sound of motion picks ups again, and Dendarial can hear several blades being drawn. The woman - Kressle, probably - sounded rather unhappy about the turn of event. "If you've let some bastard sneak up us again... Forget Runt cooking dinner, you'll be dinner."
The woman, armed with an axe the size of her arm, stalked out of the campsite followed by three others each brandishing weapons of their own. They turned their eyes onto the woods, waiting for someone or something to emerge.
Karina dismounts from the horse she'd ridden, one taken from the bandits, and ties it and her mule off to a nearby tree. She then cocks and loads the crossbow Thomas repaired for her and hides behind a tree, waiting for one of the others to take the lead, unsure of herself in combat situations.
Hadin follows Karina's example, and ties his horse to a tree, patting it awkwardly before going.
He lets out a big sighs, and readies himself for combat, praying to Erastil for success, his flail in hand.
Seeing Acio flying back to us.
I see we have a problem
Thomas ties Sae (Horse) off to a tree, grabs his borrowed bow and arrows.
and then moves a little behind and to the (non river) side of Hadin.
Then keeps a look out for people coming.
Iomedae keep us safe
Tyanos dismounts and loads his crossbow.
"If the woodsman got caught then I suspect we will have a lot of trouble. Let's not keep him waiting."
If it was the bandits then any plan was out the window, if it was some sort of creature they still had options. Rations was a small price to pay to keep from being something's dinner in his experience.
Grabbing his bow and readying himself for possible attackers, the only person that Thomas sees emerge from the brush is Dendarial. The owl swoops down, apparently contented that the elf returned, and perches on a nearby branch.
Dendaril picks a rough thorn from his leathers, approaching the others with a quick glance over his shoulder. Without any further explanation, he jumps straight into the middle of a thought. "As anticipated, there are a number of them on guard. This may be the right place, but they saw me coming. By poking about we have only alerted them to our presence. Now they will come at ourselves and Oleg with their full force; assuming, of course, they do not kill us here and now. I do recall saying this was a bad idea."
He takes a position alongside Thomas, looking back towards the woods for any signs of movement, arrows at the ready.
With the elven blood in their veins, Thomas and Dendarial keep their eyes pinned to the slowly darkening forest. To their relief, nothing emerges to kill you all.
While Thomas hears little more than the sounds of the forest, Dendarial can still hear the faint voices and activity of the bandits within. They don't sound as though they are following, but they are most certainly up and about.
A moment later, a great and thunderous call rings out through the trees. The deep pitched roar of a signal horn. Birds in the branches take wing, the forest retreating from the cacophony of man.
With a whisper, I think they are coming.
"I think you're right," Karina replies, hoping her drab brown cloth and leather help her to get the drop on any bandits coming forth, ready to shoot at the first one she sees.
Tyanos expression shifts from concern to annoyance at the elf's words.
"I recall you saying you were a huntsman, can't sneak up on a camp."
The horn sounds before he can say more, he prepares his crossbow for any enemy that may show up.
"That was probably a signal for reinforcements or those out in the woods to return. Waiting is only going to make things worst, we should just see what we're dealing with. If it's a handful then hit them, if it's too much we should head back to the post and wait for the impending attack."
Several tense minutes pass, and while the sounds of the bandits somewhere beyond remain present, no one emerges in your direction. It doesn't seem like they're in any particular rush to chase after Dendarial.
Whispering We should wait a few more minutes, and see if anything comes.
Thomas keeps an eye out for incoming people.
"Yes. If we head out now, they will expect us."
"In this matter, you lead and I'll follow" Karina says to no one in particular.
"When we are ready, I will lead us forward. My scales will keep me safer from their arrows."
Tyanos hated waiting, he could just imagine them being slowly surrounded.
"Well do hurry, after all if they do manage to pin our location down we will be in trouble."
Hadin readies himself for fight
I'll go with you, Wetscales. We'll fight side by side. Is everyone ready?
I am, but we travel careful.
Another half dozen minutes pass as the party prepares themselves to advance. The sun is definitely setting now, the light filtering through the trees steadily declining as the shadows grow longer and more pronounced.
Just as they are about to give the all clear and start moving down the trail to the campsite themselves, Tyanos motions for them to stop. He catches a whiff of them before he actually hears them - and after pointing it out, you all hear it. A pair of voices approaching.
"There ain't nothing out here, man."
"I'm telling you, I saw something! Someone was lurking around in the bushes!"
"What you saws was a wild dog, prolly. You just drank too much ale, I think."
"That's crap! I only had two cups of the stuff!"
"Lightweight."
"Yeah, well, if I'm to bet, I bet it's that Happs. Or them blue folks. I think- wait, look!"
He stops, about forty feet down the trail and just within sight of the adventurers from around a bend in the forest trail. He has his hand raised up, pointed in your direction. It's impossible to tell which one of you he saw - or how many - but he definitely saw something. The bandit fumbles to raise his bow; the other brandishes his sword.
"Told you! Uh- stand and deliver! Give us yer s&%* and we'll let ya go!"
Tyanos expression shifts from concern to annoyance at the elf's words.
"I recall you saying you were a huntsman, can't sneak up on a camp."
Thomas with a hiss of surprise, and reaction, attempts to shoot the one raising a bow.
only to have the bow get tangled in the branches causing the arrow to go wide.
Tyanos reloads and takes aim again, firing.
The bandit with the bow - the same one that was up in the tree stand, Dendarial notes - looks to his companion. "Run and get Kressle and the others! We're under attack!" The swordsman nods, then turns and runs.
The bowman nocks an arrow and fires at the first target to shoot back at them - Tyanos. As though guided by the hand of fate, the arrow punches through Tyanos' chest with ease, leave the man sputtering blood. With a gleam of victory in his eyes, he turns and jogs off towards the bandits' camp.
When she spots the bandits, Karina lets loose a bolt, and without even waiting to see if the first hits, loads another and fires again, missing horribly both times.
Dendarial attacks the man with the bow, moving first as needed to either close to where he can see him and to within 30' if possible.
Den also sends Acio up into the air telling it to Hunt. This round it simply climbs into the air and surveys the battlefield.
Sure enough, it was arrows they used against them.
We can't let them get back to their camp!
Wetscale dashed after their assailants, pouncing on one if he could catch him.
Watchman Bandit -5/9 bleeding :(
Swordsman Bandit -3/9 bleeding :(
Camp Bandit 1 9/9
Camp Bandit 2 9/9
Camp Bandit 3 9/9
Kressle 17/17
Round 1 Wrap-Up
As soon as the bandits turn the corner and spot the group, Tyanos, Karina, and Dendarial let loose. While Karina's bolt hits a wayward tree branch and is knocked away, Tyanos hits his mark - the bowman - with precise accuracy. Dendarial's arrow strikes the swordsman in the middle of his chest, the man immediately clutching at his dire wound. The cleric amongst your number calls upon divine aid, gracing everyone with the blessing of Iomedae.
Karina hastily reloads her crossbow, but in her haste the bolt misses its target once more. Perhaps the crossbow was still malfunctioning?
The bandits waste no time in acting, returning fire while they hobbled back in the direction of their camp.
Immediately, the heroes chase after the bandits,Wetscale leading the way. Wetscale's claws tread over the ground as quickly as he can make them move, but can't quite catch up enough to drag his enemies to the ground.
Dendarial, however, has little trouble nocking an arrow and bringing the man to the ground for him. An arrow sticks in the back of the retreating bowman, and he falls to the ground, bloodied.
Tyanos, carefully reloading his bow, tries to take aim but loses sight of the bandits through the thick trees and brush! He takes a deep breath and fires blindly through the trees...
... and manages to hit the retreating swordsman. The man slumps forward, faceplanting into the dirt of the trail.
Thomas moves up to the head of the trail, ready to fire on the enemy - but finds they have already fallen.
Further down the trail, you hear sounds of alarmed voices. One in particular rings out above all of them - a very, very angry sounding woman. "By the gods, Happs! If that's you screwing us over again, I'm going to chop you up and feed you to the dogs!"
Round 2 Begins
"I am quite possibly the worst shot in the history of mankind," Karina thinks, blushing in embarrassment. She reloads the crossbow again, then moves just far enough to see around to where the two bandits now lie in the dirt, once again using a tree for cover.
Iomedae, give me strength. Thomas moves up and lays a hand on Tyanos we may have differences, but I will do my best not to let you die.
With no more bandits in sight Dendarial moves at half speed and take cover in the foliage off the trail and readies an action to shoot a bandit if he should spot one.
Their environment definitely had worked against them until this point. Missed arrows, getting ambushed in the first place ... their foes knew the ground better than they did. Yet if there was one thing Wetscale had learned in his time about the riverlands, it was what was beneath and above the surface was left unnoticed to many.
Though his height afforded him poor cover at eye level, it was uncommon for people to look down or up. Hearing the voices, Wetscale chose the latter and scaled the nearest girthy tree, then was still.
Hadin was starting to run after the bandits before they got back to their camp, but as friends and foes trade arrows and bolts, the young man was feeling useless.
The two bandits down, maybe it was time for a more cautious approach.
Dendarial smiled at Hadin poor attempt at discretion, even if he was doing his best. Maybe-probably!- the holy warrior of Erastil would be the only one the bandits will see...
Tyanos' face was one of anger, that was it. He thanks Thomas and keeps a few bodies between him and the bend. Waiting for his chance.
Moments later, the bandits stalked forward out of their camp. A single bandit led the way with a torch quite obviously hastily lit from a campfire while a sword dangled from his side. A pair of bowmen followed behind him, their eyes carefully scanning the surrounding forest.
And, of course, at the tail end of them all was a rather large, muscular woman. She carried at least three axes of varying sizes on her hip, tossing a fourth into the air and catching it with remarkable speed and agility. Her eyes settled on the two bandits left bleeding on the trail. "Pah. Two dead men. Guess we know what happened to that worthless prick-ear Saerin."She sneered at nothing in particular, spitting her words.
No sooner had she said anything than the leftmost bowman raised an arm and pointed out the area in the treeline where Hadin and Thomas were. "There- and there!" He shifted his arm, gesturing to Tyanos and then Karina. He fumbled at his quiver for an arrow as Kressle stalked forward, her blades gleaming.
Kressle moves to the treeline, unhooking one of the smaller-looking axes from her belt as she moved. She leaped over a small bush and pressed her back against a tree for cover, peering only just barely around the sides of it at the intruders. She notices the nearest of them - Hadin - and offers the man a wink.
"I'll do y'all a solid - drop your belongings where you stand, and I'll let you keep your clothes. Maybe I'll let you keep all your limbs, too!"
Karina takes aim at one of the bow wielding bandits and fires.
Tyanos cast his spell to catch the most bandits and with their leader up front that made things all the better. He then took cover as to not present a target, no doubt regardless if they figured out he was a spellcaster or not he was loath to be targeted again.
As expected, it was Wetscale's unorthodox height above that seemed to save him from detection. Knowing he should put it to good use, he waited until one of the bandits walked past him before dropping onto the next one.
Thomas steps up behind Hadin.
By the inheritor, give him the strength.
Faced with a sudden explosion of color and dust from Tyanos, two of the bandits - the torch-wielding one and one of the bowman - begin to clutch at their eyes frantically. Kressle, however, looks wholly unaffected. The one with the torch even manages to drop it as he stumbles in the general direction of the treeline. He pushes off into the bushes, panicked. The bowman manages to wipe away most of the glittery substance in his eyes, though he's unable to do much more.
The bowman who managed to hold onto his eyesight throughout the ordeal set an arrow to his bow and took aim at the mage who had incapacitated his friends. The arrow comes close to Tyanos, but sticks firmly into the tree trunk he was hiding behind.