Danet looks scornfully at Arakan. "I've lived here all my life, and I've hunted these lands almost as long. Not everyone has roved as far as I have, but I know where most things are around here. I knew where the raiders camp from before they camped there. I can find it, no problem.
"But I see where you are coming from. Listen, once the raiders find out their men were killed in the village, they will want revenge. It's how they work. If I got to them first, maybe I could have talked them round. But I can't stop you now, so that wont work, and so I have to go along with you. Either way, I'm getting Marla out of there. Even if you all get killed, if me and Marla get away we can find somewhere where the raiders can't find us."
Arakan shrugs, accepting the man's answer, "Okay, find someone to ride with. When our plan goes off the way it's supposed to, they won't even know their men were killed until we are upon them. All you were going to do was give them information they didn't have, and hope they took mercy on YOU for it. They can't just let it slide, they would have to punish someone to maintain dominance, and it wouldn't get anyone else's family back, or stop them from raiding your camp. So your 'intentions' helped no one but yourself. If you do nothing else, but keep your mouth shut, and release the prisoners, then it keeps you out of the way of those doing the hard work." Done with the conversation, regardless if anyone else is, Arakan turns his kank back toward the edge of the hills as he had mentioned.
Jaryx offers the villager his seat and climbs down. "Danet not need to walk now. Jaryx let you ride with Grea."
"The betrayer does not earn my trust because he got caught and feels bad about it. If we must take him, can we gag him at least?"
"Don't talk to me about betrayal, dwarf. You walk in and think you can solve everything with a weapon? Only because you've screwed things up so badly, we have no choice now but to see if it works. You don't want me talk about that, gag away. But maybe you can shut up too, given you've got no one you love at that camp."
"You're like a child, flailing around an uncaring world that you don't even understand. Your own ignorance will be the doom of you and those you pretend to care for." Morthak shakes his head in disappointment. He replies to Danet with uncomfortably intensity. "No, my loved ones are long since dead, and I will see their murders avenged, whatever it takes. I care not if your wife or friends should meet the same fate, so consider it a kindness that we try to protect their lives at all."
Danet glares hard at Morthak, but doesn't say anything more. The kanks wheel about and return to the rocky hills above the dunes.
The group find an old rock shelter and hide out for the day.
"I agree, please make some sort of watch rota while I sleep. I promise, my help when I awake will be worth it."
Morthak will take a watch, if required, then rest to recover his psionic power.
Arakan starts the final leg of their trip, after the rest they just got, by preparing his disguise first. It wouldn't help to run across the bandits before they were ready. As he does so, he offers to help anyone else with their disguises as well. He'll help whoever needs it, especially considering the better their disguise, the better chance of his plan working.
Unsatisfied with the effect of the armor on her comfort and mobility, Grea fiddles with it. She saws at some straps with her stone knife, trying to weaken them.
Toward the end of the rest period she spends some time contemplating the future and the upcoming fight.
Cahel follows the instruction of Jareen and Arakan explicitly regarding his place in this plan.
"Jaryx be prisoner. How does Jaryx know to stop being prisoner? Will Grea tell Jaryx?"
Sometime during the preparation, Grea approaches Arakan. "I can only hold my disguise a short time. Remember that and do not drone on."
She also approaches the dwarf, "Early in the fight I may still look like one of the bandits. Mark me well lest you slay an ally."
Jaryx nods happily, satisfied that he knows his role.
Jareen's prep isn't too complex, the spells need to be cast much closer than we are.
The stars are still shining in a black sky when the group rouse themselves. The bandit whines, "How am I supposed to guide you in the dark? I can't even see my hand in front of my face!"
Arakan turns to the man, asking rhetorically "So, you're saying that you no longer are of any use in guiding us to the camp? Will we just have to rely on Danet's ability to get us there?" The threat apparent in the question, "Or is there some purpose you can still serve us?"
"Oh just kill him now, I'm sick of this whining."
The bandit seems oddly comforted by Jareen's words, as if he thinks the old man is joking. He looks like he is about to say something. But instead he begins gurgling and blood froths at his lips before he collapses to the ground.
Danet places his boot on the deceased bandit's back and yanks his out spear. "Done," he says to Jareen. "Anyway," he continues, "I can get you to this camp blindfolded. We don't need that scum." He spits on the corpse.
"Let's go," says Danet. "If we're doing it, let's do it. I'll take this one's kank," he says as he strips the dead raider's gear. He swings up on to the back of the kank. "This way."
"Good, lead on."
Despite ridding themselves of the raider being his plan all along, Arakan greatly disapproves of Danet taking that decision upon himself. The two men were to be leverage against one another. He speaks to the man through gritted teeth. "You do not get to make that choice for us. Despite your sureness, if you lead us astray in reaching the camp, you will follow that man in becoming a bloody stain on this black sand. Mark my words, if you do anything to sabotage our success, you will be removed."
Grea rocks back and forth, humming slightly. The bandit likely wasn't going to see another dawn anyway.
"What is Danet thinking? Is he currying favor with the dwarf? Joining us whole heartedly? Playing us in the hopes of making a late break to warn the bandits?
Jaryx looks at Danet, then at Grea, trying to figure out what he should do.
"Does Jaryx prisoner ride kank, too? Or does Jaryx walk to bandit camp?"
"You ride until we get close. Then you walk."
Morthak frowns at the villager's "enthusiasm", but cannot feel any remorse for the dead raider. With a grunt, he moves off with the others, always careful to keep Danet in sight.
The adventurers saddle up and ride out. One moons is low to the horizon, the other invisible, and the stars mass overhead in the clear sky. The air is cold and breath fogs. The kanks skitter over the black dunes, grunting quietly.
"So," says Danet to pass the time, "Why are you doing this anyway? I don't suppose you have any real interest in freeing the village. So what do you get out of this?"
"Shut up. Your inane banter will only draw predators."
"Listen, freak, I'm leading you into a den of vicious bandits. You are endangering everything I hold dear. So I f*cking want to know why."
"I don't care what you want. Shut up, or I will shut you up..."
Should have gagged him from the start.
"And then how will you find the camp? It's not like it's a difficult question."
Morthak smiles, but there is no humor in it. "When the raiders go to raze your village in a couple days because their people haven't come back, we will follow them."
"We don't need you. You need us to keep your loved ones alive. Think on that while you lead us... silently."
Jareen smiles in the darkness at the exchange. But doesn't interfere.
Cahel remains silent; whether his mind is on the current exchange, the village in the distance, or somewhere else entirely is unclear.