"I'll ask Svetlana to take care of it tonight," Oleg tells Sia before giving everyone a nod in parting and heading into the house, presumably to bed.
"I'm fine wit' bein' up on yon wall in th' mornin'. Better angle o' fire, an' less chance o' me hittin' someone I ain't aimin' t' hit. An' keeps th' bastards from gettin' in m' face, too. I like th' way ya think, Gorax." Cal salutes Gorax with a mug of water, then downs it and stands up. "I think I'll be off t' bed, then. Need t' catch a good night's sleep; It'll be a red mornin', tha's fer sure."
He bows to the ladies present, then slips off into the guest cabin.
"Thank you, Oleg," Sia takes a very long stretch and starts unstrapping her vest. "Well, I'm going to turn in as well. Good night, everybody." And with that, she heads into the guest house and claims a room for herself, setting up a lantern so she'll be able to study her spells in the dark.
The night passes uneventfully and all to soon it is morning, nearing sunrise. Svetlana and Oleg are up early, the former making breakfast, while the latter goes around to knock on the door of the guest house, making sure everyone is awake before heading off to accomplish his morning chores. It isn't long before the smell of a hearty breakfast is yet another lure for anyone still thinking of sleeping in.
The sun has yet to rise when Svetlana sets out the meal, but the lightening sky shows that it isn't far off. And with it, the bandits.
Gorax, wakes is a start as there is a knock on the door. In the darkness he looks around, getting his bearings after a sound sleep. "What the .... ". Slowly his mind clears and he remembers where he is and what the day will entail. He slips out of his bed, bending down stiffly to feel for his armor and sword, which he left in reach under the bed. As his hand passes over his possessions, he let's out a relived "umph".
He kneels down, hands clasped in prayer, and quietly mutters "Oh great Iomadae today we do your bidding, look down favorably on us as we protect the lives of Oleg and Swetlana. May the goodness of your will gives us strength and courage in the battles ahead....." He continues in prayer for some minutes before rising.
The smell of breakfast greets his nostrils and reminds him of the strength that will come from eating this good food. He dresses quickly, washing is not high on his priorities, before starting to make his way towards breakfast.
Because of her early turn-in time, Sia is up a bit before breakfast is ready. Quietly, she lights and unhoods her lantern and flips open her spellbook. Before long, strange, eldritch muttering can be heard coming from within her quarters as arcane energy builds around her, eventually centering near her amulet.
Once that first of her daily tasks is complete, she sets herself to the next. Eyeing the outfit set out, she quickly looks it over to see if anything can be done to improve the impression she intends to give. She ties a cord at her waist to tighten it a little, and tries to make sure it seats right so as not to leave her looking like she's in totally ill-fitting clothes, but there's not a great deal to be done about it. Finally, she takes a few minutes to loosen and untie her hair, leaving it to flow freely. She is also very careful to make sure her amulet is concealed beneath the simple garment, as that would be a bit of a giveaway.
When she walks out of her room, while still obviously the same person, she looks quite different from the obvious-adventuress look she had been affecting before. Instead, she could be working in any of hundreds of taverns across the Inner Sea region during the night, or possibly tilling the fields. "So, what do you think?" Without waiting for an answer, she moves to eat her breakfast as quickly as possible - an art mastered by anyone who wanders the halls of arcane learning at nearly any college, since classes leave little enough time for it. Once she's done, she looks to Svetlana. "Where are the furs? If I'm supposed to be helping to get them out, I'd better get to it."
Calath starts awake at the first sign of movement from the others, an instinct born of long years spent alone in the wilderness. Seeing that the sky is just starting to lighten in the pre-dawn hours, he quietly rolls out of bed and dons his gear, then finds a quiet corner of the fortress to briefly meditate and commune with his deity. After perhaps fifteen minutes, he walks up to the tables and settles himself in for breakfast.
"Y' don' look like Sia, tha's fer sure. Should fool a bandit fer long 'nough, I'd think."
Once breakfast is eaten, quickly and efficiently and with no further table talk from Cal, he makes his way up to the southwest tower and strings his bow, then crouches down against the battlement, letting only his bare head peek up between two of the sharpened log ends as he prepares to keep lookout.
Looking up from her breakfast, Estruven compliments Sia "Aw, you do look beautiful. That should definitely do the trick."
After breakfast, Estruven gets her mount ready for the morning visit.
Yossian breakfasts in silence, obviously still nervous about the day's course of actions. Afterwards, he checks the gate: one wing closed, with the other half open - wide enough to admit visitors, but still able to be closed quickly, and the bar dropped, trapping those inside.
Preparations complete, he stations himself behind the half-closed gate, invisible to anyone coming through until they are well into the courtyard.
Breakfast is a pretty quite affair. No one really seems to be in much of a mood for talking. Svetlana still gives smiles all around and soft 'Good morning's' but it is obvious that she seems worried about the coming fight. Oleg is grim and determined as he directs Sia in helping him start to get the trade items out of the shed and onto the table.
As the hour draws near, a bit of tension falls over the fort as everyone strains to hear the approach of hooves on grass.
Cal is, of course, the first to spot them. Four men on horseback leading two more horses, presumably to carry the goods away on. They seem in no hurry, allowing the fort defenders plenty of time to adjust and ready themselves.
Cal signals down to the others as soon as he spots the bandits, indicating that there are four of them, then crouches down behind the battlements so that he cannot be seen at all from outside the fort.
Sia gets into character even before the bandits have been spotted coming ever closer, helping lift the furs as best she can. She's a lot less efficient than Oleg about it, but she's certainly more pleasant to watch at it, with a gentle sway to the hips that isn't quite present normally. With a bit of work, the job is completely finished by the time the bandits arrive. She smiles, affecting a lack of awareness that belies the butterflies in her stomach. If this doesn't work, she's in a lot of trouble after all.
Once the bandits come in through the partially open door, she looks at Oleg. "Oh, are these the merchants on the northern route father mentioned?" she asks.
Yossian responds to the signal by propping his sword up by the wall where he can reach it easily. He presses back against the wall, attempting to avoid being seen until the bandits have entered the compound, ready to close and bar the gate behind them.
The four bandits make their slow way up to the gate, pushing through and heading into the central yard with a chorus of hoots, hollers, threats of violence against Oleg and worse towards Svetlana (who is hiding in the house). They are led by a particularly crude and foul-mouthed man with who holds a strung bow in one hand as he begins to direct the men to start loading up the horses with the goods laid out on the table.
The leader all but ignores Oleg, but he immediately focuses on Sia, raising an eyebrow and walking up uncomfortably close to her (which would be any distance close enough to smell him). ”What have we here?” he asks, flashing a wicked smile.
Sia wrinkles her nose slightly, but tries to be polite and unaware of the situation. "Ah, my name's Donnica, just coming up the northern trade route with my father. We stayed here the night, and I was just helping Oleg here with your furs, is all." She frowns a bit. "Actually said he was going to lay in a surprise around now. I wonder what it could be..." With that, she starts sashaying towards the wall, and presumably around a corner, looking over her shoulder out of the corner of her eye to see if any of the men are following.
Yossian crouches, waiting for the bandits to dismount and move away from their horses before springing the trap.
The lead bandits gives the others a glare that tells them to keep working, and stalks off after Sia with only one very obvious thing on his mind. "I'm gonna go show that young lady some hospitality," he growls at Oleg, "You better not get any ideas while I'm gone. We can still burn this whole place to the ground. If you're lucky I'll just take the girl and not your little wife."
The three bandits start to dismount and start to load up the pack horses, looking after Sia as they do and grinning like idiots. Each of them look to be armed with longbows and shortswords but none of them are on the lookout for resistance.
Yossian heaves with his back, slamming the gate shut and dropping the heavy bar across it. He then grabs his bow, nocks an arrow and levels it at the group loading the horses.
"You'll be unbuckling yer swords and dropping your bows, my friends, and you'll be doing it slowly, or I'll be giving the word to the archers in the towers to drop you where you stand."
Keeping the bow trained, he begins to sidestep closer to where he left his sword leaning against the wall.
Calath stands up from his crouching position on the tower, bow drawn and aimed at the most threatening looking bandit, a prayer on his lips. "Ye'll be standin' righ' where y' are an' not touchin' any weapons but t' put 'em down, iff'n y' know what's good fer ya."
Estruven places her sword and near the head of the bandit "I recommend that you drop your weapon."
Intimidate:
Upon seeing people stepping out from where she didn't expect them, Sia turns about and instantly takes in the situation. Seeing Gorax trying to stamepede the horses over her she panics, immediately trying to charm the leader.
Fast Dismount: