Dart's starknife drops the sentry without a sound and you quickly drag him out of sight. It's only a few seconds before the other sentry notices he is not at him post and comes over to investigate.
This time Erianna follows right behind Dart's thrown starknife, to hit the brigand with the flat of her scimitar.
Erianna surprises the second sentry and with a brutal knock to the head he is unconscious. No one seems to have been disturbed from their sleep so far.
Erianna drags the unconscious guard out of sight, and crouches down waiting for Dart.
As you approach the tent you hear some stirring inside and sleepy murmurs. "If Ingarre doesn't keep it down out there and do his job I'll flay him alive..." It seems the noise you made was taken to be the sentry's fault. If you enter the tent now you are sure to have the upper hand on the occupants though it is highly likely the rest of camp will awaken too. If you wait they soon are silent again and asleep. Sneeking into the tent shows them asleep. 2 men sleep in their own blankets on the left side of the tent with a living/eating area designated in the center. A man and a woman share a blanket on the right side of the tent. Whichever of them is the most important you have no idea.
Ryoken waits for the man to settle back down before trying to move inside the tent. He also lets Dart and Erianna move in first before trying to quietly enter himself. Once inside, he attempts to block the doorway, prepared to prevent any from leaving. He uses his positioning to also keep an eye on the other tents. That way he could hiss a warning to his companions if another bandit headed their way.
Mwenye likewise lets the stealthiest members of the party go first before following, staying with Ryoken.
Erianna points at herself then toward one of the two sleeping men on the side, then points to Dart, and to the other sleeping man, then points outside to her companions and to the couple.
She then waits for Dart to nod his agreement.
Dart gives a nod and will coordinate with Erianna, knocking out his target just as she knocks hers out.
Mwenye softly padded over near the other bandits, but did not strike. He didn't trust his ability to strike quietly, but wanted to be in position should Dart and Erianna's attacks cause these other bandits to awaken.
, 50 Non-lethal, 3 lethal damage.
Once in position, Mwenye strikes a pressure point on his target, aiming to knock him out cold swiftly.
Ryoken slowly moves next to the one remaining unclaimed sleeper. He then slowly raises his blade before quickly dropping it in sync with his companions.
Deadly: When you use this weapon to deliver a coup de grace, it gains a +4 bonus to damage when calculating the DC of the Fortitude saving throw to see whether the target of the coup de grace dies from the attack. The bonus is not added to the actual damage of the coup de grace attack.
All four are knocked unconscious, not to awaken for at least an hour. You pause to see if there seems to be any stirring in the camp but all is quiet still. Near each of the four in this tent is a trunk and a rack holding their weapons and armour.
On the racks there are 3 sets of masterwork studded leather armour, 3 bucklers, 3 rapiers, 4 daggers, 3 shortbows and 3 quivers(50 arrows each), 1 masterwork light crossbow and quiver(20 bolts). In the trunks there are their clothes(robes in the woman's case), a number of potions(5 all up), 1 scroll and wand(in the woman's trunk) and a coin purse each(all up 31 pp, 38 gp, 20 sp, 40 cp).
"Let's tie them up and gag them" - Erianna whispers to the others.
If and when that is complete, she turns her attention to the trunks, weaponry, and other possessions their captives may have on themselves, looking for magical auras.
"What next boys?" - she whispers again - [b]"We scurry them out of here, or parade them before their lackeys, to make them lay down their weapons and depart?"/B] - continuing to examine the items, and passing the magical ones to Mwenye and Ryoken for identification.
The wand, scroll, 5 potions, 10 arrows in each of the quivers and 5 of the crossbow bolts all have magical auras. A separate spellcraft check is necessary for each one.
A wand of Cure Light Wounds(CL 1) with 25 charges left
A scroll of Resist Energy(CL 9)
3 potions of Cure Moderate Wounds(CL 3)
A potion of Cure Serious Wounds(CL 5)
A potion of Eagle's Splendor(CL 3)
30 +1 Arrows and 5 +1 Bolts
"That depends on how many more we can take quietly," Mwenye whispers. "If the risk of the sentries is too great to try for more, it would be best to begin sowing chaos immediately. Without leadership, their resistance will be unorganized. We must use this to our benefit. If we have a way of making it seem there are attacks from multiple directions..."
Ryoken unfurls the scroll and glances it before softly declaring. "Resist energy," and looking around to see who wanted to hold it. The other gear he unceremoniously dumps into his backpack. "Later," he explains. He also pulls out some rope to tie up the prisoners, handing it to Mwenye to do the honors.
Once that's done. "With the guards unconscious, how about we try to knock more of their group unconscious to be prisoners? Or at least try to take weapons and armor from them?"
Mwenye carefully tied up the unconscious bandits, remembering the knots his tribe would use for hanging food above the jungle floor.
Want to try and get them to surreneder? Or try and take them out 2 at a time? He whispers to Erianna
"Well, surely we are in no position to simply capture all of the bandits in a one fell swoop - the bare logistics of it would never work" - Erianna whispers to the others.
"My suggestion would be to take their leaders to the authorities - meaning smuggling them out of here without much noise, hopefully" - she begins, raising a slender finger - "Second, we take one of the captured sentries also" - second finger - "when we have put safe distance between us and the camp, we release the sentry with the message that their leaders are gone, captured and arrested without a single chance" - third finger - "And we head back to town" - fourth and final finger.
"If we are detected, and a fight ensues so be it, but I would try to do it more covertly for now" - the woman adds - "Once we are out of the camp, with a secured sentry, Dart can try to double back and sabotage and steal weapons or supplies, if we are able to inflict such damage on them. Agreed?"
Mwenye frowns. "I little like leaving dangerous bandits free... but perhaps it is best to be safe. However, I am not certain how we can carry six unconscious men between the four of us. I think it better if Dart does what he can to disarm them, then we awaken them with the knowledge that their leaders are already defeated, and they soon will be too if they do not surrender."
I still think a show of strength at this point would get them to cave, or at least scatter. Better for them to scatter than remain together after we leave. Here, Mwenye, tie them up well, I'll check after you. Want me to try and take out the last sentry?
"I do not think we should give up the surprise element so easily. Why not bind as many as we can and if we are discovered, then declare their leaders and perhaps many of their number already defeated as an even stronger show of force? Though I still think too many prisoners makes our job overly difficult and would be fine leaving with just who we believe the leaders to be. As for sentries, I believe you already took out the two, did you not?"
After much debate, Erianna believes the time for words has finished, and sets herself to the proposed task - she glides over to the far side of the camp, and begins her methodical spiral approach from the outside, retrieving as many weapons as she can, as silently as she can, then moving outside the camp about 20-30 yards to dump them, and returning for more.
Every two or three trips, the woman changes the place where she deposits the weapons.
Mwenye waits at the entrance of the large tent, watching and waiting for the time cease being silent.
Dart will follow Erianna
As Dart heads out, Ryoken calls to him, "What do you think she's doing? Will she need this?" He holds up is bag.
He then stands with Mwenye at the entrance of the large tent. After a brief pause, he decides to let the nekojin keep look out -- If they are like their little cousins, they should have good eyes, yes? -- as he watches the bound and disarmed prisoners. The men he was not so concerned with, but he was not yet fully aware of how the magical arts worked. As such, he focused mostly on the woman, who they suspected to be a caster, less she find a way to magic her way free.
Erianna and Dart successfully remove the weapons from 3 of the tents, some having 1 man in them and some having 2. As they are retrieving weapons from a fourth tent one of the men stirs under his blanket and opens his eyes looking at Erianna, "Who are you?" A moment later he rubs his eyes and snaps out of his drowse and shouts, "Intruders!"
Mwenye, hearing the shout, lifts one of the unconscious men and shouts, "Yes, intruders--ones who have already defeated your strongest, and shall slay you if you resist! Surrender to us or be slain!"
Ryoken twirls one sword skillfully as he moves to join Mwenye, muscles tensed as he prepares to dash towards the first bandit who shows resistance and put him down.
Erianna and Dart retreat back to the main tent as around them shouts of intruder go out. Several get out of their tents with weapons in hand but no armour and see Mwenye holding their man. "They got the general! They got them all! And Lady Theresa!"
One of the men from the tents already confiscated of weapons runs into the trees when he hears Mwenye and sees his leaders defeated. Soon the rest of the men wake and get out of their tents. One brave man speaks up, "There's plenty more of us than there are of you! I suggest you leave everything behind before we have you surrounded." He motions with his hands to give directions to some of the men as they start slowly moving to cut off your retreat.