Kong turns to his raven. "Do you think you could steal something from one of these groups. Even some trash that they dropped would be all we needed."
"Caaawwww"
Kong thinks that was a yes...
"Edgar, would you please go get something so Lina can track them. Something from the group next to them would be good too. And don't get caught!"
As the bird flys off, "When he comes back why don't we try to slip between the groups and head to the village. If we have to we will fight and come back here. Does that sound like a plan?"
"I'd hardly call the raccoon a familiar, I doubt he'd listen to me even If I knew where he was. Kong's crow is more likely to get what we need."
"Hmh. But I think asking it to steal *would* be something it would indeed listen to..." Liisa shrugs. The relation between her and the racoon wasn't super, so she didn't really think she would be any help on the diplomatic front!
Edgar returns 20 minutes later with a cracked beak that's bleeding, and several blood scrapes on his chest. "CAAAWWWWWWWWWW"
"Alright," Lina ponders, "What are we doing for Plan B?"
Kong gasps as he sees Edgar return. "What happened?" He walks over to Edgar picks him up and uses his healing powers on him. He then gives him a few berries. "Ok, so either Luna sneaks out of here or we go out and beat that group of guards."
Johnny winces in sympathy for the poor bird. "Or, we could head back tot he compounds and just head towards the place from the wall."
"As long as we're here, I'd like to ambush another group of hunters," Lina replies. "We need gems first and foremost, remember? I just don't want to be caught by surprise this time."
"No, we need to not die first and foremost, remember? We also don't even know yet if they have a gem. And if they do, I think an avatar PLUS 11 other soldiers all of whom are specifically looking for us is a bit more than we can handle."
"It ultimately depends. The numbers they have are overkill. But the numbers we can take out? Not so much. It's more about how we want to take them out than anything. Or, at least, we have to work off of the idea that it isn't impossible. If it were, we're stuck inside of a wall unless we go through the caves again. I still say Luna should scout, and I can stay nearby. I'm not as stealthy, but I'm faster than most things. If we wait for tomorrow, I can prepare a better assortment of spells for 'get away now'.
"I'm as stealthy as you are, Neri, though I don't have the spells. When I can track their locations, we can plan an ambush, with the casters behind us."
"But Johnny—if it's soldiers like before, I could hold off half a dozen with one hand. I've been training. Info is our next play, and catching the groups far apart from each other will make a huge difference."
"And if we fight anywhere near the forest itself, I can hold off the rest with but a word. In fact, if you want to deal with any avatar I could probably keep most of the regular soldiers tied down and busy!" Liisa adds while trying to sneak in and help Edgar. "Easiest if I could get the opportunity to cast before they see us, so just give me a head's up and I'll come over Invisible"
Tired of the arguing Luna decides to take it into her own hands and scout alone like she originally offered, she takes a moment to hide herself magically before heading off. Whether she got caught or not at least it would stop the bickering
If she was able to find any of the guards in a small enough number she felt she could safely snatch something from one of them she would try.
Luna has to conserve her castings, as they only last 5 minutes each, and it takes a good 10 minutes to get to where the guards are through the forest.
Luna finds a group finally that's clomping along, there are a dozen men and women, scattered in a ragged line. All are wearing studded leather armor and carrying bows or cross-bows, as well as various weapons, mostly axes.
Luna manages to get up and steal a small dagger from one of them without getting caught. None stands out from the others.
Once she manages to grab something from the guards she would head back to the group to share what she'd found.
"Here can you track this? There was about twelve of them with standard armor and a lot of weapons but nothing really special that stood out, none of them seemed like an avatar but I can't be sure."
Lina establishes a bond. "Okay. I can track these soldiers—should I make sure we steer clear of them and look for another group?"
Johnny wasn't quite sure if his companion's confidence made him feel more comfortable or simply concerned that they were being overly confident. Either way, he resigned himself to the fact that they seemed pretty bent on a fight. Perhaps they responded to the month of relative inactivity differently than he had. Truth be told, fighting had never been his strong point.
"Do we think any of the other groups will appear less prepared for us? I would have thought that baring individual skill levels, they would be more or less the same. Although I suppose if they have limited resources for they could have spread them out evenly and we just happened to find one that was either better or worse prepared than its neighbor."
"There's also 'how' we take them down. Killing them is... not ideal. They have families almost assuredly." Neri says, leaning against a tree, arms crossed. "We may have to go back through the tree to talk to our people... but I'd like to know what the Holy Knight thinks about how to deal with our enemies' soldiers."
"It is the way of nature, the predator can't feel pity for the prey!" Liisa sermons but her expression quickly shifts as if she bitten into a lemon. "But no, killing them doesn't feel that right. But if we are looking to rescue any number of people from that village we have to. We can get the drop on them now. If we are going to bringing along oppressed villagers I hardly think we got a shot at sneaking up on them. And didn't you say the church thugs attacked the civilians last time you tried to rescue them?"
Liisa takes a deep breath and sighed. This is the *best* way I can see. Not a good one. "I cast my vote that we take the soldiers down. As many patrols on this side as we can. We can capture them if it is easy, but otherwise ... The lives of those whom haven't chosen to take up arms against us seems more valuable!"
"No, worse. Turned them into thralls or something, then when we dropped their priest, they all fell into a sort of coma with lots of fever. But you make a good point, either way. We could sneak past, but then we'd have to bring them all back past these people. Unless we're certain the villagers can fight, and will fight, we'll need to make sure the way is safer, sooner or later.
"Before we attack this group do we want to be able to track the groups from either side of them so we know how far away reinforcements are?"
"Kong has a good point about scouting the distances between patrols.. and while not killing would be preferable to the alternative, it might not be possible to avoid it. We don't really have the resources to take a lot of prisoners or house them adequately, and leaving members of these patrols alive to warn others doesn't sound wise."
As the group is discussing this, there's a noise in the bushes, and a large fat raccoon is there, playing with a dozen different things, picking them up, sniffing them, then tossing them in the air and catching them, before picking up a different item.
In the pile are...
A) A gold ring
B) A silver ring
C) A silver amulet with a pretty green stone in it
D) An ornate dagger with silver filigree on the handle
Kong laughs as the racoon plays with his spoils. "It look like we know who the real thief in the group is now. I wonder if this is something from the rest of the groups out there."
"Oh, good. At least *one* of us has some tactical acumen, though he's apparently a thieving varmint." If the racoon lets her, Lina will spend one MP for each item to establish a link, attempting to track the location of each item's owner (plus the fifth item that Luna stole).
The raccoon hisses at Lina when she approaches, crouching over it's prizes.
"I get the feeling that if those are 'his' now, he -really- doesn't want you to do your thing with them." Neri responds. "Speaking of... I guess this means 'finders keepers' isn't a thing, if you can sense those soldiers with the stolen things."
"Can I touch them?" Lina asks, sticking out a pointer finger.
"I don't really see an alternative to killing them, if we sneak past we can't get others back, if we knock them out they'll just report back, and if we capture them they still lose their family. In the short term we could take care of some and I could try to infiltrate the others."
The Raccoon snaps at Lina's finger, showing some rather large white teeth.
"Well, you're useless," she mutters at the raccoon. And, to Luna, "Can you ask him to let me touch those things?"
"Again he really doesn't listen to me but sure, Can we have those?" She asks the creature not really expecting obedience.
The raccoon makes a noise that sounds suspiciously like a raspberry, but get's up and waddles off into the underbrush, it's coat going green and brown as it steps into the trees before it vanishes from sight.
The pretty things are left on the ground, twinkling in the sun.
Kong watches the racoon leave and gasps, "These creatures certainly have their own hidden talents. It's part chameleon as well. Those should give us a good idea of the patrols though."
"Huh, that worked surprisingly well. And here I thought we were going to need Liisa's animal skills. Or possibly bribes. Or mage hand."
Johnny's about to go pick up the baubles to pass them to Lina when he thinks better of it. It was quite possible the raccoon was waiting to bite the hand of whomever came close. It wasn't like he'd be able to see the creature or anything. Instead he mage hands them over. It even doubles as a poor man's Detect Magic. Just in case something is cursed and it somehow didn't affect Mr(s?) Raccoon. Although I tend to think the creature is too smart to fall for that and not quite that full of malicious intent towards us.
"Guess the guy's okay with Luna's commands, as long as they involve stealing things for stealing's sake. Huh." And Lina attempts to set up bonds to each item, determining rough direction and distance.
Lina is unable to determine direction and distance.
Lina has the strong feeling that the current 'owner' of the 'baubles' is invisible and glaring at her from the underbrush. Luna stole the item but considered it stealing. Apparently the raccoon considered the items his, and just retrieved them from the person currently holding them.
"Hmm... I'm tracking the racoon. Oh well."
"Any thoughts for doing this the old fashioned way? Ambush the patrol Luna found, take them out alive—I've got a *lot* of twine—and interrogate the survivors right next to the barrier, see who can convert, and bring them in?"
"Converting those who do not fight to the death sounds preferable to me than wanton killing... They do sound though from what you said like they are almost mindlessly devoted to their cause. How do you propose converting them?"
"Well she did say she had a *lot* of twine. I bet we can do something fun with that?" Liisa chuckles a bit. Although I imagine it was more for tying up purposes and not conversion... But who knows maybe we just need to give them a large ball of twine and they'll be perfectly happy?
"Twelve prisoners sound like a lot to handle. We'll need enough rope to be able to tie them all up. But I think you're being far too optimistic if you actually think we could convert any of them. I mean, these aren't the disillusioned peasantry or prisoners of some apostate camp. These are guards who probably specifically work for the church. I'm sure they wouldn't have been given this duty if the church didn't think their loyalty and faith were absolute. While we probably could brainwash them with enough time and magic, that hardly seems any better than the gods they already serve. And would we ever truly trust that they wouldn't just cause havoc once inside our compounds?"
"It's a rope of infinite twine," Lina replies. "And hmm, I'm not a fan of killing enemies we don't have to. But they are enemy combatants, and I don't think the gems envisioned a prison system."
"No matter what we need them out of the way, so for now capturing works and we can worry about what to do with them later"
"Okay. This could get bad. Is everyone okay with the ''sneak up and punch' plan? Luna, Neri and I can all scout a bit ahead, but it'll be another all-out brawl."
"Like I said. I'll be better prepared if we wait til tomorrow, but I'm fine with that. They might also be better prepared by tomorrow." he responds, looking to Edgar, then in the direction the raccoon disappeared.