All three men jump up in alarm as Sia rounds the tree, the one beside her, Kernan, drawing his sword and pointing it at her. "Hold it right there, Lady." While both Firgus and Gareck draw their bows and turn to look at their surroundings for others or an ambush.
"There's no need to point that at me, I am just looking to get warm." She tightens her grip on her spear, but still attempts to not look threatening.
Though Gareck just nods along with her words, Kernan and Firgus look at her through the eyes of scrutiny. Firgus speaks up, "I don't think so, lady. I don't know why you're following us, but you won't catch us with our pants down. Who else is here with you? Why are you out here looking for us?"
Confident that there's no one else out there, they all turn their attention, and their weapons back to Sia. Kernan demands "You have three seconds to drop your weapon and get down on your knees."
"Yeah, you do what you're told, or we will make it real rough on you." Gareck adds, a twisted smile showing that he kind of wants her to push her luck.
Sia knows her allies should be arriving soon, so she tries to push her luck a little bit to buy some time. She speaks as she drops her spear and drops to a kneel with her hands up. "Okay, you got me, I have been following you. I'm here with a large militia up from Zimar, investigating the missing Lady. You boys pissed off someone important it seems. I came to see if I can talk you into surrender. If I don't return within the next hour, the rest of the posse will know you refused." The nuggets of truth in her lie help make her story more convincing.
The three men start to look around to one another, much more worried than before. Gareck groans, frustration in his features "A militia? Rohkar said no one would come for her."
"We don't even need her. He said the others said to keep her." Kernan complains.
"What do we do, do we tell him someone's coming?" Firgus asks, uncertain of what their next course of action should be.
Kernan decides, matter-of-factly, "Yeah, but we got to get rid of this one first. If they're coming for us, no sense in wasting time with her."
At this last statement, Gareck looks disappointed that he won't have more time with Sia.
Kernan draws back with his short sword, ready to stab it into Sia, as the other two pull their bows to cover her from doing anything sudden. You all see that you need to act now if you want to try and intercede on Sia's behalf.
Now that the bandits have turned openly hostile, Braham sees no reason anymore to keep hidden and tries to make his way to them as quickly as possible.
Aavelixia can't fire her bow from her current positions so she moves closer towards the group of men.
Much like Aavelixia who made up the other claw of the group's ingenious pincer maneuver, Sturla moved closer to the bandits in the hope of getting a better shot at them with his sling.
Not ready to get the jump on the men just yet, Aavelixia, Suzy, and Sturla each just get to a better position to fight.
Thanion, seeing that the only way he can get there in time to help is via his bow, moves over toward the upper side of the embankment to get a clearer shot.
Drogan moves through the trees to the north, getting as close as he can so he can help defend Sia. Noting the threatening posture on the bandits, he looses his great axe, grasping it in a ready grip to strike as soon as he is able.
Just like the others, Drogan too foregoes his attempts to sneak, and moves with purpose to aid Sia. His axe gets pulled free as he moves through the snow-draped pines.
Aavelixia notices that Sia's body language suggest she might be in trouble. As Sia kneels down and drops her weapon, Aavelixia's hand grips the bow and fires a shot.
Suzy moves behind the next tree
Peering through the heavy falling snow, Aavelixia pulls against the new bow she picked up from the fallen Old Man Dansby. Firing past the poor vision she hits the closest one, Gereck, solidly in the chest and dropping him hard to the ground.
Braham tries to make it to the thugs as quickly as possible, his heavy legs pumping like great pistons through the snow.
Sturla sprang up from the snow like a breaching whale, sending particles flying about and swinging his sling wildly. He looked to be enjoying himself.
"Oi!" he yelled at the nearest bandit.
"Got a riddle for ya. What's got three balls and is hurting real bad?"
With this query delivered, Sturla set about delivering something else: namely his sling bullet. The stone flew from the bard's sling with great force, heading directly towards... well, the bandit's own stones.
"You! Ha ha ha ha hah!"
Firgus stares dumbfounded as Gareck drops to the ground with a single arrow in his chest. Then whips around as Sturla calls out his riddle. It was the punchline that really struck the man, literally, as the sling stone careens into his upper right thigh, dangerously close to his tenders.
Firgus groans with the pain of the strike, and can think of nothing more than returning fire on the man. He draws his bow and fires down from his perch atop the small cliff edge. The anger of getting nearly racked in the nuts compounds with a solid hit into Sturla's right pectoral. It could have been a life-ending shot, but luck was on Sturla's side. All the same, the arrow drops the brash man into the heavy snow with a resounding 'whump'. With the damage done, he makes his move to get away from all the others now approaching.
Sturla glanced down at the arrow sticking out of his chest.
"Heh..." he coughed, a light fleck of blood escaping his mouth. "Touche."
The snow welcomed the bard as his unconscious body sank down into it.
Thanion draws back his bow and lets loose his arrow hoping to protect Sia. He then moves closer to the enemies as quickly as he can.
Sia takes advantage of the distraction caused by the others stepping in, but doesn't dare risk reaching for her spear. Deftly pulling a dagger from her belt, she flips it to stab upward into the belly of Kernan standing before her. His face goes wide as she splits his gut, he holds it briefly, before crumpling into the newly-stained snow.
Thanion fires a difficult shot across the distance, to sadly miss the one remaining man. He steps down along the ridge ledge, looking for the gap in the trees to find a better shot. Braham, meanwhile, can only do his best to trudge through the deep snow along the path. The two downed men bleed into the snow, as a slight steam rises up from the red snow around their bodies.
Seeing his friend Sturla go down, Drogan lets out a deep rumbling roar. Charging forward, his gaze is focused on the bandit that made the shot.
Drogan closes what distance there is left between him and the enemy, raising his axe up high, he brings it down hard and fast into the last man. His blade manages to slice past the man's thick padded armor, and bury itself deep into his chest. Firgus crumples to the ground, a large bloody gash across his torso.
Taking a deep breath to calm down from his rage, Drogan rushes back over to where Sturla fell, just barely managing to get his axe back in its loop on the way.
He reaches for the arrow, then pulls his hand back. "Sturla's hit bad! I need some healing down here!" His deep voice bellows as he scans quickly for any other obvious wounds.
Aavelixia moves as fast as she can to reach Sturla. Someone search those guys for anything we can use, keep your eyes open for any potions.
While some of the group members search bodies Aavelixia attends to Sturlas wounds. She tries to badge his wounds as fast as she can. Hopefully it is enough to help stop the bleeding.
"We need to find a place to hold for the night. Sturla is going to need plenty of rest tonight.
Suzy had been trying to move as quietly as she could. Then everybody started to move quickly. A bit confused on what to do next, Suzy decides to follow Aavelixia.
Braham trudges as fast as he can through the snow to his fallen comrade, and sees if there's anything he can do with his limited skills.
As he lay there in the snow, face down and unconscious, Sturla was not a pretty sight when the others gathered around him. But the vibrant red patch coloring the pure white underneath him was not nearly as bad as could be expected, and the group quickly saw that the bard was still breathing and that his pulse, although weak, was stable.
As everyone rushed around Sturla, Thanion made his way over to the bodies of the three men and began to search for anything that might be of assistance
Seeing Sturla being tended to, Drogan gets up slowly, heading over to help Thanion with his search of the bandits. Every few moments, he glances back, assuring himself that his long-time travelling companion is ok.
The group easily figures out that the loud-mouthed northerner will make it, but not without some serious down time, and wound tending. The dead men have a few things on them, but potions is not among that. They each have a short sword and bow. A quiver of arrows, blood-soaked padded armor, a buckler, and some coin.
Noting the small collection of items, and grumbling at a lack of potions, Drogan turns his attention to the campfire, poking at it with one of the looted short swords to bring it back to life. Satisfied, he heads back down to assist in moving Sturla up near the fire to help him recover a bit quicker.
Aavelixia looks at Sturla, then remembers she still has good-berries. She takes one of the berries out and looks at Sturla. She looks back at the berry and ponders how to feed it to him.
"I could squish it with my fingers and drop it in his mouth, and hope he doesn't choke on it, or I could just chew it and spit it into his mouth"
In thinking about the two different ways she could administer the good-berry, she decides to just squish it and drop the berry into Sturla's mouth.
It didn't take too much manual labor to cajole the bard's unconscious body into reflexively swallowing the enchanted berry, and a tense moment passed as the morsel worked its magic.
Then Sturla wrenched himself up to sitting position.
"*COUGH COUGH COUGH! Harrumph! Hurk! Ptui!*" came an impressive range of guttural noises somewhere from the back of his throat, climaxing in a wad of red being spat into the snow. It was difficult to say whether it was blood or berry juice.
"Áh helviti... Oh, that was AWFUL! What did you just feed me?! Come on now, guys, that's hardly nice. I mean, I'm the first one to start stacking chairs on whoever passes out first drinking, but I nearly died there. Oh gods, I can still taste it... Tastes like the inside of a yak's jockstrap! Blech!"
Sturla attempted to stand, but the resulting heavy vertigo and the pain from his chest wound managed to convince him that he wasn't at all well.
"Ooh... On second thought, can I have another one of those?"
"I gave you a goodberry, I have a few more. they will help you feel a little better"
Once Sturla takes 2 more berries, he should be able to stand up and walk. " We should find a good area to camp or take shelter for the night." As she speak she point to the camp fire and the surrounding area and says "This camp fire is too open and easily seen from far away."
"Yes, looking for a better place to camp is a good idea!".
Braham glances worriedly in the direction of Sturla and inwardly curses himself for having been so slow to run through the snow.
Drogan, seeing that Aavelixia and Braham are already on the search for a suitable camp site, makes a quick look at Sturla to see how he is holding up. After a few moments, he drops his pack beside Sturla and trudges around, searching for dry wood to build up a campfire as soon as a location has been chosen.
With Avaelixia and Braham searching for a place to rest and seeing Drogan head off to look for fire wood, Thanion looks beteween Drogan and Sturla before heading off with Sturla. When he catches up to the dwarf he states matter of factly, "None of us should be going off by our selves right now. Who knows who or what is still out here."
Drogan glances back at Thanion, grunting softly. "I did nae plan to venture out of sight of the group. We do need shelter and warmth before we try to push out again, though, or none of us will be of any good to your Lady."
After a few moments, he sighs softly. "Perhaps some company would be helpful. Two can find suitable wood much faster than one, and we can keep track of each other and Sturla while Aavelixia and Braham find somewhere to shelter for the evening."
The area you are in makes good spots a little hard to find, but Aavelixia deduces that with a little effort, one could be made. With the snow drifts piled up against the curve of the cliff side, she decides digging out the middle and using the misplaced snow to double the height of the surrounding snow could make for a decent shelter. In addition, the nearby pines boughs could be layered to make a conical top that would still allow campfire smoke to escape while keeping the space too warm for the falling snow to stick.
Drogan and Thanion are lucky that the men they just fought had already had a campfire going. Transferring the smoldering logs as well as the ones they already set aside to dry nearby gives the group a little extra wood to try and keep them through the night. Using the same plan they had the night before, except filling in the gaps of their previous companions with Sturla and Drogon, watch is set and the group tries to make for a good night's sleep.
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The night goes uneventfully, lucky for each of them, but that hasn't changed the state of the odd weather. The snow still just as persistent, means the group needs to dig out the opening of their snow hut in order to exit the makeshift structure, but at least they feel a little more rested.
As the group settled in for the night, Aavelixia handed out what was left of the goodberries, probably to Sturla. He seemed to be the one that needed it the most.
After a night's rest, Braham emerges from the hut and breathes in deeply.
"Ah, cold air always helps to wake me up! Today is the day we will rescue the lady, I can feel it in my bones!
How are you feeling Sturla? Ready to do some more brave things?"