Asha waits for the others to get where they are going, intent on keeping a watch for any threats with her bow at the ready.
Despite Gavriil's stumbles, the darkness and distance from the guard help maintain his cover.
After looking for a little longer, Asha picks out thee bandit by the gate.
Keiji finds that the door is unlocked.
Seeing everyone sneaking toward the ladder, Maeve decides to fly up to get a better tactical advantage on the bandit.
Keiji lurks by the door, waiting for Gavriil or Kestern to join him on the ground, figuring the archers can remain up high. It's only a matter of time before we're noticed... but we're inside the fort now. The hardest part is past us.
Kesten decides to head in the other direction to either block off or force out the bandit should he take notice of them. The bandit remains oblivious.
Maeve continues flying upward.
Gavriil silently swore to himself as the planks on the palisades creaked with seemingly every step he took. Luckily, the bandit seemed oblivious to his blunders. Keep this up and the entire Stolen lands will be awake, idiot, he thought to himself as he kept moving after Keiji.
Kesten slowly steps another 10 feet forward unnoticed.
Gavriil gritted his teeth and continued on. This was quickly turning into the most adrenaline filled day he'd ever had. First he confronted a group of bandits with a group of strangers, only to watch everyone else fall to them. Then he joined another group and decided to go back after the bandits again. This hero thing was going to get him killed.
Finally, he reached where Keiji was standing next to the door of the Leveton's house. Gavriil slowly reached up to tap him on the shoulder to let him know that the swashbuckler was there and he should continue.
Talia rolls onto her wounded side and wakes suddenly with a sharp gasp of pain, but before her exhausted mind can come to its senses she's shifted back to her good side and is breathing fitfully, but asleep again none-the-less.
As Gavril moves further away and Maeve heads back to the skies Asha feels conflicted, especially seeing the other bandits near the gate. I'll have a better shot from here but if any are injured it will be more difficult to get to them she thinks to herself.
She nods to herself as she decides to at least move around toward the ladder and to have a sight line on the front of the house the others are assaulting.
Kesten ventures forth further toward the bandit after seeing the others hurry toward the ladder.
The bandit remains oblivious.
Keiji continues to wait, planning to open the door once one of the others makes it to his location.
Keiji stealthily swings the door open. Unfortunately, the hinges let out a noticeable screech as he does. Knowing he might have been noticed, Keiji prepares to rush inside.
Despite fumbling the door, Keiji manages to slip it open undetected. Moonlight spills into the hallway, revealing a sleeping bandit slumped over on the far left door. He is peacefully snoozing away.
Keiji creeps forward, entering the building, leaving the door open behind him for Gavriil. We're in luck... he's asleep! He frowns, gripping the hilt of his sword tightly. They deserve death for their crimes... but slaying a sleeping foe has no honor. Standing over the bandit's body, he levels his sword and slams the hilt of the blade into the sleeping bandit's skull. Arcane power sparks along the blade, enhancing his accuracy.
Gavriil slips inside behind Keiji, bring his sword to the ready as he does. He slips up to the opposite side of the bandit, ready to strike the man. He hesitated as Keiji struck him, not sure if he was ready to take a man's life, even if the man would have done the same to him. As Keiji's pommel crashes into the back of the man's head, Gavriil decides the bandit shouldn't get off that easily and punches forward with his own pommel.
Seeing the two advance into the building Asha gets an arrow ready to nock and keeps an eye out for any threats that might disturb their work.
Dotting to read it...
Keiji and Gavriil slam the bandit square in the noggin, knocking him unconscious. No sooner does his body hit the floor then the door behing him opens, and another bandit steps out.
"Er! You! What are you doin' here!" He shouts. Before Keiji can react, the bandit runs him through. With a gurgle, the magus slips to the floor, dead.
Outside, the shout can be clearly heard. Asha can see from her vantage point the bandit and their leader look over at the building where Gav and Keiji went in. The leader gives a quick nod to his man, and they train their bows on the door.
But something isn't right...
A shout of warning, barely heard, rings out from the post. As you approach, you can see the gate opening is crudely blocked, and a lone man stands on the battlement. Oddly, his bow seems to be aimed at something inside the little fort.
Magna turns towards Dregan...
"Do we stealth in, or do we make some noise?"
A fierce smile shows in her face.
Talia sits upright, heart pounding, as she hears what can only be a body hit the ground. Unable to see due to the bandana over her face, the noblewoman rolls onto her stomach and begins shaking her head furiously, pushing her face into the mattress, fruitlessly trying to dislodge the bandana over her eyes, pleading and praying to no one in particular the whole time. Hells and damnation and complications! Let me live to see Haps hung from the Trading Post's walls!
Gavriil stumbled as his pommel struck the bandit in the side of the head, so he did not see the bandit come out of the room behind him until the swine had run through the magus he had been with. He turned to the sound of Keiji hit the floor and the bandit shouting.
No, no, no! Not again! he thought as he slipped up next to the bandit and stabbed at the man, aiming for his heart...
"Make as much noise as you can" says then raising his voice to a yell as he urges his horse Bargriv foward
Magna screams as hard as she is able:
"In the name of the Swordlords of Restov, surrender!"
Asha takes careful aim at the bandit on the rampart. Her bow twangs, and an arrow suddenly sprouts from the man's chest. He looks around surprised, then falls off of the walkway to the ground, dead.
Gavriil misses, and the bandit grins with missing teeth. "Yer next, little man." He stabs with his shortsword, but it goes wide of the mark.
Talia can only listen as the battle rages in earnest...
The bandit leader moves to line up a shot at the cleric. "Here's one from ol' Happs!" He cries, and shoots. The arrow strikes Ahsa in the hip. Another bandit appears from behind the stable, dragging a woman's body with him, he drops her on the ground and yells. "Haps! There's more a-comin'!"
Dregan pushes the horse on saying "You'll be fine Bargriv"
If he succeeds on make it in he'll glance around for the bandits drawing his bow and notching an arrow. "This is your last chance to surrender."
Magna tries a fast dismount...
She is unable to, but in her standard action draws her Greataxe and moves into the fort.
With her face down into the mattress, Talia continues trying to shift the blindfold off of her eyes, hoping she can catch enough of a break to get a glimpse of what is happening nearby.
Gavriil swore as his blade pierced nothing but air. Come on! Just like class, only this time for real, he thought as he narrowly dodged the bandit's blade that went wide in a wild swipe. Seeing the opening, Gavriil lunged to attack again.
Asha stumbles backwards, falling to her knees with her wounds.
Magna and Dregan force their way past the crude barrier and into the trading post.
Talia manages to remove her blindfold, and finds for some reason, Haps left the door slightly ajar. Probably under the assumption that the noble-born lady wasn't much of a threat...
The bandit grins as he stabs again with his sword, but he doesn't get any better results, foiled by the swashbuckler's agile movements.
Outside, the bandit's only response to Dregan is to fight! "At 'em, Braga!" Haps yells, as he changes his aim to the newcomers. The shot is of the mark, however, hitting the wagon nearby with a 'chunk'. His companion rushes at Magna, a quick leap onto the wagon gives him the height advantage!
Bargriv starts to get skittish with the battle coming closer so Dregan dismounts.
With his feet now on the solid ground Dregan lines up a shot at the nearest bandit and fires.
point blank
point blank
point blank
point blank
"The next one will be through your eye, surrender already." he says, rather than saying it with conviction he sound almost desperate for him to surrender.
Seeing the man get the upper position, Magna tries to cut the feet off her attacker with a mighty swing of her Greataxe.
"By the will of Torag, you will know the price of crime!"
Finally, something going my way! Talia rolls off the bed onto her feet, and then creeps towards the door. Stubbing her toe on the bedframe's stout oak post, Talia curses, loud and quick, and then reaches the door, where she peers out the space between the door and the door's frame, hoping to catch a glimpse of what is going on in the hall...
Dregan's arrow pierces the bandit leader, but he doesn't flinch as takes careful aim on the ranger. Magna's sword hacks the bandit in two, both halves tumbling in a spray of blood off of separate sides of the wagon.
Talia can now see Gav's life or death struggle with the bandit in the hall.
Asha scrambles down the ladder to hide behind the building and get out of Hap's deadly line of sight. The unconscious body dropped by the bandit appears to be Maeve.
She screams at the bandit leader.
"Surrender or by Torag we will kill you!"
Gavriil smirked at the bandit as the bandit's sword went wide again. Maybe I can dance this fool to death, he thought and lunged forward again.
The bandit laughs. "Well ain't this a joke!" He swings high at Gav, hoping to catch him unawares, but does not connect. "I gots more in here!" He yells out.
Haps pauses for a second, the tip of his arrow drooping as if he may lay down his bow. Then a yell rings out from inside the main house. The bow snaps up, and he fires. The shot narrowly misses Dregan, passing just under his left shoulder. Haps mutters a curse, then goes over the wall, trying to flee!
There's a crunch, then a scream of pain, then silence.
Magma runs out of the fort after the bandit
Talia gasps at the sight of Gavriil fighting the bandit. Gavriil, you came back, you kind-hearted fool! I had everything under control - hopefully Haps and the rest don't burst through that door before we can flee!
While her mind is running, almost subconsciously the noblewoman starts talking down to the bandit. "It is often the lot of life of the common criminal to die alone and forgotten, the discarded pawn of smarter, and better men..."
Gavriil shifted his weight onto his back foot, giving him just enough space to clear the bandit's blade as it arced just under his chin. He heard Talia belittle the man from the crack in the door and smiled. He didn't know that she was weaving magic into each of her biting words. How could he? The spell wasn't effecting him and he never truly understood the finer points of magic. Instead, he decided to join in (albeit with less finesse of the common tongue) as he lunged forward with another attack, "Yeah! And yer ma was seen selling herself down by the Sellen for a measly copper coin!"
Dregan looks in disbelief at the two halves of the bandit that Magna had slaughtered. He'd killed and seen killed countless rabbits and other game but this was so very different. With the realization that this is the business he was now in, he bent double his breakfast came rushing out. Lucky too because just as he bent to throw up an arrow went through the space just a moment before contained his neck.
Feeling a little better watches Magna go after the bandit with a broken leg "Be careful, he might try to trick you." Dregan heads towards the main building and the fighting within. "Surrender, your companions are dead and I have no will to see more die today."
The bandit takes a quick look at his predicament...Talia with her scathing wit, Dregan at the door, and Gavriil dodging his every blow. He pauses for a moment, then steps back quickly and throws down his shortsword.
"Mercy!" he cries.
Magna rounds the corner of the wooden wall and finds Haps. His right foot is twisted around, facing backwards. Teeth clenched in pain, he is crawling away from where he fell. He turns at the sound of the dwarf's footsteps, trying unsuccessfully to bring his longbow to bear. Seeing the futility, he throws it down, and calls for clemency.
"You got me, dwarf. I ain't got no way to run, and I seen what you did to Nassir. I won't fight you."