Nathadriel continues tending the wounds of the other unconscious bandits, also ensuring to confiscate any weapons, obviously carried or otherwise. In response to the bandit's unhelpful reply, he looks across to where Layali is interrogating him.
"When a herd of deer comes face to face with a bear, there are two responses. Many will flee in terror, but some will lie down and just accept their fate. The ones who run may well be caught anyway. But only the ones who give up are definitely eaten."
Leifa will ask one of the guards if they've seen a library recently, pointing out his foot prints.
The bandit doesn't say anything, but seems to be trying to avoid eye contact with the one who mentioned the librarian...
Layali starts to get angry, "Listen up, you wretched thug!" Layali conjures another acid slash and hurls it into a nearby tree. "First I am going to burn your foot into a stump. Then I am going to burn your hands into stumps. Then I am going to burn half your face off." Layali is getting quite worked up and gesticulating wildly, pointing at the locations on the bandit for effect. "Then I am going to drag you back to town by whatever hair you've got left and leave you for the guards to deal with. Or, you can tell us something about the librarian, you little bandit camp and who's in charge of it."
Clearly shaken, the bandit breaks: "Okay! Okay! We have a hideout south of here, in a cave. The librarian's there too, unharmed. Just, please, don't tell anyone I told you!"
"How many more?"
"We just left one behind to keep the librarian from trying to escape."
"Every bandit over one I find in that cave, I am going to burn off a finger." Layali snarls. Turning back to her companions, "Let's tie this lot up to a tree or something and we can bring them back to town with us once we've got the librarian."
"If that one is any like these four, we shouldn't have much of a problem."
After tying the bandits to a tree, you set of in the southerly direction indicated, following the tracks as you go. After about an hour, as you begin to enter the beginnings of the craggy foothills at the base of the Kordes mountains, you see that the tracks do indeed lead to a small opening in a rocky bluff.
From about 50 feet away, you can hear voices, though you can't tell what they're saying from here.
"Leifa, can you get closer and figure out who's talking, and about what?"
Layali readies her crossbow, but waits patiently to see what Leifa can find out.
Leifa will sneak as close as she can to listen while staying concealed.
Quiet as a gentle breeze, Leifa creeps up to the opening of the cave, listening to the voices and even sneaking a peek inside, before silently returning to the group and relating what she found:
The cave was well-lit, contained at least a table and some supplies, but not everything was visisble from Leifa's hidden vantage point.
Three people were in the cave. One was dressed like the bandits you fought earlier, wearing plain clothes and a dagger on his belt. Another was wearing scholar's robes and sitting against a wall, hands and feet tied, with a bag over his head and rags tied to where his ears are, presumably to keep him from hearing anything. Finally, the third was wearing leather armor, had a sword and shield (both put away), and was wearing a red cape bearing an emblem of a blue shield with the letters "ISC" on it.
The bandit and the ISC guard were discussing what the most lucrative thing to do with the librarian would be. Seems like a brainstorming session between the two.
Layali shakes her head in disgust at Leifa's report. "It would seem that the ISC is employing some rather underhanded methods to ensure they dominate the market for their services in Korkas. Bad apple, or spoiled bunch? That is a mystery that we would do well to understand. I am certain if we capture the ISC guard his superiors would deny any knowledge or involvement."
"We should try to take them alive. I bet the city guard could get them to turn on each other, not to mention the testimony of the librarian and ourselves."
"So attack? Should we draw them out of the cave, so where not all trying to get through the entrance at once?"
"Agreed. I could make the earth tremble, perhaps they will flee the cave fearing collapse."
"I can't see many other options - I certainly won't be able to sneak up without them hearing me. We'd best be prepared to flee though, if there's too many of them. Who knows how far back the cave runs?"
"I like your idea Layali."
Layali moves forward completely oblivious to the fact that she is stepping on twigs and leaves, muttering to herself about getting her clothes snagged on thorns and worse. Feeling that she is finally in the right position, she casts her thurmatgy spell causing the earth to shake just inside the cave entrance.
Gordon sighs, draws his bow, and gets ready to cover Layali.
Layali steps forward to begin her plan, but she's barely gotten ten feet before the bandit appears in the cave entrance, saying, "Are you guys back alr—"
He stops mid-sentence, eyes wide, as he sees you all! "We've got trouble!" he shouts back over his shoulder.
Gordon and Leifa are the first to react!
Gordon takes a shot at the bandit with his bow.
The bandit staggers as the arrow slams into his gut, but he remains on his feet!
Leifa will move 35 ft ahead, so she is in front of Layali and throw a dart at the bandit.
,
Leifa's dart strikes the bandit, finishing him off!
The ISC guard rushes out in alarm, and readies his sword and shield as he steps forward to engage Leifa (the only one in reach).
,
Leifa easily evades the attack!
Nathadriel also closes the gap, drawing his sword as he joins Leifa in fighting the guard.
,
Nathadriel strikes, but the guard bats the blade aside with his shield!
Layali watches the ICS guard as he engages the elves. Reaching her hand up to the sky, she chants her arcane words creating a conduit between the clouds above the the guard. A bolt of electricity rains down from the sky!
If you die within the next minute, you immediately
come back to life as if by the reincarnate spell.
The guard flinches from the shock, but he's far from finished!
...Gordon says as he drops him with his arrow.
"Oh... these ISC guys aren't near as tough as they liked to claim. Can the elf please stabilize him?"
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Layali drops the lightening arc connecting her and the ISC guard.
In the meantime, Leifa will go into the cave and check on the librarian.
First making sure no one else is in the cave within sight, she will head straight for the librarian, unstuff his ears, and tell him 'we have come to rescue you.'
Nathadriel casts spare the dying on the fallen guard before following Leifa up to the cave entrance.
You take the bag off of the captive elf's head and remove the ropes tying his hands and feet.
"Thank you!" he says. "But... who are you? You don't look like members of the town guard. What brings you out here into bandit territory?"
----------------------
Meanwhile, outside, Gordon binds and wakes the ISC guard. As he comes to, he begins swearing loudly at his predicament.
"If you agree to testify and tell us what you know about what is going on, we'll make a deal with the magistrate." Layali says, with her finger crosses behind her back.
"Not to mention, we have five bandits who will be chomping at the bit to testify against you to lighten their own punishments. You better squeal even louder."
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The captured guard takes on a rather resigned look and says, "I guess that's probably my best option now. Yeah, we had a deal with this group of bandits: they stay away from anyone we're guarding, and we get to charge high rates and give them a cut. Easy money."
"Why kidnap a bookish elf? Surely he can't be worth much in the way of ransom?"
To the librarian: "We are a group of travelers who came to Korkas to research an old culture at the library. When we arrived, we found you missing, and a nice lady named Isabelle asked us if we would go look for you. We agreed."
The guard replies, "Yeah, the bandits aren't too bright. They grabbed him the other day, and they seemed to think he was more important than he is. We told them he's just the librarian, so we've been trying to figure out what to do with him. My best idea so far was to use his absence as a way to drum up business and raise prices; sort of a 'don't let this happen to YOU' kind of thing."
"I'm glad to hear Isabelle is alright," replies the librarian. "Thank you for coming to find me. What about the other bandits, and the ISC guard? Have you dealt with them all? Or do we need to hurry and leave while we can?"
"We encountered four of them on the road besides the one here with you. Is that all of them?"
"So this kind of behavior is systemic to the Iron Shields as a whole?"
"Will other members of the ISC guard show up here?"
The librarian nods at Nathadriel. "Five total sounds about right, I think." Taking a moment to survey the cavern, he adds, "Looks like there are only five sleeping mats and not much room for more people, so I think that's all of them."
He then turns to Leifa and says, "I'm afraid I don't know for sure about the Iron Shield Company, but usually there was just one man each morning, to drop off payment and discuss what to do with me."
"Yeah, we're all in on it," says the guard. He then hastily adds, "But whenever we encountered some other random threat, we really did protect our charges! Dirtcrawlers, wild beasts, whatever; we really are an otherwise legitimate bodyguard organization, I swear!" he pleads.
"Well Lets head outside and join our other companions. Then head back to the city."
"You really do provide protective services, after you artificially drive up prices and business. Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting." Layali chasticizes the captured man. Turning to Gordon, "We should get the elves, the rest of our captives and return to Korkas for our frosty welcome. The sooner we attend to our business the better."
Something occurs to Layali, and she takes out the drawing of the dead man and shows it to the ISC captive. "You haven't seen this man before have you?"