Sulan rushes forward with his axe held high.
"By the Sun's Fire!"
The red bandit staggers backward.
Khazima and then Ael are up.
Ruffled and bothered, the eagle continues attacking the bandit, most of its flurry missing, but one talon opening a deep cut across his face.
Khazima, meanwhile, sees a bandit approaching and nervously draws and loads a crossbow.
The talon does not, in fact, crit, however it does deal a substantial 3 damage.
Ael is up.
Ael steps slightly to his side, takes his time to measure the bandit next to his halfling ally... And strikes his target.
The bandit drops.
Orange bandit thrusts his rapier at Anton Vale, misses. Naerah is up.
Ael I prefer not to show my rolls, and instead just describe the outcome. I do the rolls, if that's what you want to know.
Nearah laughs as it is clear that her foes are breaking before her. She steps forward and continues her flaming assault.
The red bandit is scared at this point, and thrusts his rapier at Sulan in a last attempt to hit anything, but the swing goes wild.
Anton, Sulan, Khazima, and then Ael are up.
Sulan swings his axe again, but fails to connect. His axe bites nothing but the sandy ground.
"Stand still you little runt!"
Anton sidles around Orange so that he has a clean angle and a distraction to stab at the bandit.
10
Flanking with an eagle. Sadly, it is not enough, and the bandit dodges the blade. Sulan also misses. Khazima and then Ael are up.
As the eagle continues to peck and scratch at the bandit's eyes, Khazima takes a cautious crossbow shot past Ael, at the bandit he's attacking.
Ael moves forward and strikes.
The bandit drops unconscious at the bite.
The shot barely misses.
Ael swings and also barely misses.
Orange bandit is unconscious, so Naerah is up.
Naerah presses the attack seeing only one bandit standing.
"Blast and burn" Nearah curses as she twists her wrist trying to avoid hitting Ael and scorches the sand rather than her target.
The red bandit glances at his dead comrades, and goes total defence. AC is now 21.
Now we cycle back through.
"Fighting to the last, eh? I can respect that!" Sulan swings again, and this time also snaps at the bandit with his tusks!
Anton moves into a flanking position to attempt to finish off the enemy.
Khazima, Ael, and then Naerah are up.
Sure, the bandit is nearly dead anyway. In the future, know that I have no problems with you posting early - but you may have to retarget.
Seeing her enemy nearly defeated Naerah rushes in to claim the final blow.
"Come on, fight you weakling!" Sulan roars as he continues to battle the last bandit.
As its quarry drops, the eagle swiftly turns its attention to the next bandit, swooping in and snapping viciously at its ear. As it does so, Khazima reloads her crossbow and takes another hesitant shot.
The eagle drops the bandit. That's 800 xp total, 160 each.
"Hah! That took longer than it ought to have."
Sulan begins rifling through the belongings of the downed bandit.
"Let's see if they have anything useful. Then, we can close that bloody gate! Who would leave an open gate unguarded, anyway? Or an unguarded gate open?"
Each one is wearing studded leather and carries a rapier. They each have a small gold pouch deep within their habiliments, totaling 33gp. Most of it comes from the red bandit, who also has a rolled up piece of paper. Should you unroll it, you will find a map of the surrounding area with strange markings.
Sulan unrolls the scroll, and tries to decipher the map.
"Hey, guys, look at this! Anyone know what these symbols mean?"
Sulan tries to correlate some of the symbols to things he knows about the area.
"I don't know the city well enough to say with certainty... But the markings must be places in which the bandits were interested. Maybe it can give us a clue of what they were planning."
Naerah laughs as the last of her foes falls. She smiles, the sun glinting brightly off of her white teeth. Once it is clear that no more foes are going to arrive she drops to her knees, facing toward the sun, brow pressed to the hot sand. She speaks softly, as if in prayer.
"Thank you sun for your fire, and thank you Nethys for mine." She completes this short ritual and stands back up. "I would say that the open gate served it's purpose wonderfully. She says to Sulan "without it these lowlifes likely wouldn't have mustered up the courage to throw themselves into our waiting defence.
She walks over rolling her shoulders in their sockets and looks at the map.
"I know little of maps and markers, but perhaps you are right Ael." She looks out over the sand. "There will be more of these people out there. If we can figure out their goals they will be all the easier to cleanse"
The map is dominated by the town of Desertsands. Just outside of the North Gate is a circle with 4 red dots inside. There are 4 dots outside of the east gate. There are 4 circles, each with 8 dots in them, just outside the Sandfort.
"Well, we're here at the north gate, and there were dots here. There are also dots by the east gate. Maybe that means there will be an attack there too."
"Let's get this gate closed and then head there."
Sulan makes sure to strip the bodies of whatever is valuable and then heads to the east gate.
Ael checks to see if any of the bandits is still alive, being careful to use his fauchard to push away any weapon they are holding before approaching them...
The men are very much dead. The bandits each have a coinpouch. The total spoils amount to 136 gp. One of the men is carrying a masterwork rapier.
After you close the gates, what would you like to do?
Anton watches the work done and helps where he can, taking care to get his cut of the loot.
He'll look at the map and try to puzzle through it, but doesn't really get anything. "Most I can tell is that these are points of interest to the bandits. Gotta go take a look to find out what they are exactly though."
"Such a waste... They could have surrendered and redeemed themselves, eventually free to lead long, productive lives... Now they are reduced to food for carrion-eaters and spoils to their slayers." says Ael.
Somewhat disappointed, but not distracted from his mission, he adds: "Well... They are Pharasma's business now. My duty is to the living."
Ael makes a quick prayer to Sarenrae after searching the bandits, then splits the coins evenly among his allies and himself. He gives the rapier to whoever asks for it... If no one cares, he hangs it at his belt to sell later.
All that done, he accompanies Sulan to the east gate.
"Everyone is food for buzzards in the end. The sand covers all, and nothing remains of the weak or the mighty. But at least they died on their feet."
He heads off towards the east gate.
"Let's see what these other marks are."
When you get to the gate, you find 4 guards locked in a melee with some bandits. The 6 rapier-wielding bandits have the guards flanked, while two orcs are relaxing in the shade of a sand-dune, lazily fingering their clubs.
The gate is open and the guards are just past it. I will get a battle map up tonight or on Monday morning.
"Looks like the dots on the map are battle positions," Sulan remarks.
He hefts his axe again, and looks at the others. He grins.
"Shall we?" he says. Then he turns and runs towards the battle.
"Oh... There's more..." says Ael, rolling his eyes. "How fun..."
Naerah bellows a challenge at the newcomers. Welcoming the chance to continue battle, a grin on her dark lips.
"For Desertsands and the Sun!"
She yells as she runs into the fray brandishing her scimitar.
The map is done, it just won't let me share at the moment. Can people start rolling initiative while we wait?
The map is up!