Radomir grins with grim satisfaction as the bandits circle him. That's right, focus on me. I am the greater threat. He readies himself for their attack, prepared to suffer their blows which will cut the weakness from his body. The attacks do not come. The outlaws fall to the ground in bewitched slumber from Eduard's spell, and Radomir smirks again before striking out at the bandit he just struck.
Seeing that the others have handily dispatched the bandits, Andrea stays ready to fire on anyone coming out of the tent if they come out swinging
Thaliar follows Andrea's example and stands ready to turn whoever is in the tent into a pincushion. Unless they surrender of course.
Soren stays knelt by the tree, using it for cover. He takes a brief moment to study the bandit that Radomir isn't currently swinging at, taking not of the man's posture and movements. Then, he looses an arrow.
Thaliar and Andrea ready actions.
Soren misses his shot.
Radomir easily dispatches the lone standing bandit facing him.
Both Andrea and Thaliar's readied actions go off as Kressle exits her tent and both strike their target.
Also as she steps out of her tent, she slips into the Grease.
And falls on her ass.
"What in the seven hells is going on out here?! Someone track down those archers and kill them! Why has no one killed that idiot out there in the armor yet? You're supposed to be a lot of fierce bandits, not little sissy babies!"
And the next bandit that follow her out of her tent,
and manages to keep his feet as he slowly tries to step out of the greased area.
The remaining bandits in the camp split up as they pick targets to attack.
Four of the bandits pull out their bows and stand with their backs to their tents as they try to return fire upon the archers in the woods and the talking man.
Another two move up towards Alexander and stop within 15 feet of him.
Andrea casts FEAR on the leader, negating the leader can harm morale in the lesser bandits
Alexander laughs as the two men approach. Well, that's more like it! He slides out his spear and steps into a throw at one of the bandits approaching.
I'm not going to tell you how to do your jobs, boys, but I'd listen to the woman. You're fierce bandits! And you... he says, as he points to the man he's just struck with a spear, clean yourself up. You're a mess.
Radomir will march to within one of the bandits advancing on Alexander. He moves like a stalking wolf. He knows he makes the greatest target. That is the point. He can take the shots so no one else does. He may die, but a tool does not fear being broken.
He swings at the bandit, using the weapon's reach to carry his momentum to the outlaw.
Soren targets the bandit that hit Radomir.
Take out the most skilled ones. Keeps our men alive...
Eduard will pull out his crossbow and fire and the most injured bandit that is standing upright.
Initiative List
Radomir - 23
Thaliar - 22+
Andrea - 22+
Kessel - 22
Bandits - 21
Eduard - 19
Alexander - 18
Soren - 13
Not seeing any injured to finish off, Eduard takes fire at one of the archers and scores a hit.
Alexander also scores a hit as he throws his shortspear into one of the bandits advancing upon him.
Soren turns his trained eye onto one of the archers as well and puts an arrow right through one of their not so trained eyes.
Radomir advances upon one of the bandits advancing upon Alexander and nearly decapitates it with his blow.
Thaliar takes a shot at one of the archers with his bow.
And leaves his target staggered from the amount of damage the arrow does.
Andrea casts fear upon the bandit's leader.
The bandit leader now seems rather panicked and tries even harder to get up and out of the grease.
She manages to stand up and then tries to flee as fast as she can, which isn't really too fast yet since she has to get out of the grease.
Bandits attack:
Alexander's remaining bandit foe swings his short sword at the man.
Obviously his injuries are hindering his swings because he misses.
The archers fire upon those who just fired upon them.
And all seem to miss their marks.
The bandit that managed to escape the grease earlier, now rushes Radomir with his sword drawn.
The wounded bandit archer falls back into his tent.
Alexander laughs at the bandit before him and smashes his gauntlet into the man's face.
You should have surrendered. He says, as he steps over the man's body and draws his sword.
Soren smiles grimly, and takes aim at the fleeing leader, while whispering to himself.
Alexander said not to worry about taking you alive...
He studies her for a moment, then he looses an arrow at her.
RD 3 Init 22
Andrea loads a crossbow bolt and shoots at one of the injured archers
With his previous target hiding inside a tent Thaliar now turns towards their fleeing leader. None of these bandits should be allowed to flee and warn their leader and she least of all.
He nocks another arrow and then shoots it after the bandit leader.
Eduard will reload his crossbow and fire again at the most wounded bandit that is not in melee.
Eduard's shot goes wild and misses the wounded archer.
Alexander puts down his remaining opponent.
Soren's arrow makes an end of the bandits leader.
Radomir grimly walks forward, bardiche held at the ready. Like unstoppable death, he pursues the closest of the archers, and swing.
If anyone still standing can hear, best throw down your weapons.
Somehow, Radomir manages to miss his target, likely due to the lads trembling in fear at the sight of him.
Thaliar staggers an archer and Andrea calls out for surrender.
The two standing archers both drop their bows and go to their knees.
"Please, we surrender!"
Alexander strides forward. His hand waves slightly, dismissively, as the Grease in front of the main tent dissipates.
Disappointing. I was hoping you'd all put up more of a fight.
He approachs the unmoving body of the bandit leader and uses his toe to kick her over on to her back. Pathetic. Alexander looks down in thought for a moment, then looks up and around the clearing. Soren, Thaliar, the three lookouts will be returning shortly. The rest of us should clear out these bodies and tie up those others as quickly as possible. You, addressing the surrendering bandits, clean up your friend, he says, indicating the staggered man, and stay out of the way. Feel free to try to run, we haven't had enough target practice today. He pauses, Eduard...how's that wound? Serious?
Alexander turns to the tent the archer fell into, If you come out of the tent, you may yet live. If we have to come in to get you, I assure you that you will die.
Soren comes out of the edge of darkness and into the camp light.
Aye. Should we take them alive or fire upon them unseen?
He releases the tension in his bow and places the loaded arrow into his quiver. His gaze over the surrendered bandits is grim, and stoic.
Andrea checks the leader to make sure she is either dead or dying. If she is just dying, Andrea stablizes. Didn't Happ say the leader here knows more about who is in charge of the bandits? We should keep her around to make sure if that is the case.
The badly wounded bandit crawls back out of the tent he had fallen into, hands empty of any weapon.
Stepping away from the bandit leader to let Andrea to the body he nods. It doesn't look good, but you are, of course, welcome to do what you can.
Alexander frowns, nodding to Soren, Kill them as they come. We don't have time to be capturing one while another sees us and attempts to flee. We still have three returning and three in the woods. And we don't have the resources to handle half a dozen more captives.
He waves his sword indicating the wounded bandit crawling from the tent, then directs it towards the other two, Join your friends.
After speaking, he sheathes his sword and quickly retrieves his spear and bow. Radomir, let's move these two sleeping fools over with their fellows. And get the rest of these bodies out of sight. You're best suited to guarding these prisoners while we lie in wait for the lookouts to return. He pauses and looks around, Perhaps in the large tent? Andrea or Eduard could join you. I doubt they'll have the courage to attack you, but they also don't strike me as particularly intelligent.
Soren nods.
As you wish.
He heads back into the darkness, motioning for Thaliar to take up a position on the other side of the camp. There, Soren waits, an arrow nocked and ready to find a target.
Andrea will help pullt he bodies into the sent and secure any captives. Shush, and you might get out of this alive with a life of hard labor.
As the captured bandits are herded into the big tent and Soren takes up his position, the first of the returning scouts arrives.
Coming in from the opposite side of the river that your group entered from, he pauses right outside of the camp area and looks about the area.
Soren takes a moment to study the man before launching his shot.
Thaliar just nods as he moves to take up a position in the direction a lookout should be coming from. He hated following orders but these orders made sense and he would have probably done the same on his own anyway.
Thaliar hides at the edge of the woods, waiting for the man to pass him by. He wasn't as skilled as Soren with a bow and he knew he might need two shot to bring the bandit down.
Sorrin barely misses the fellow, but Thaliar lands a solid shot the the bandit's side.
He raises his own bow as he tries to look at those who fired upon him, seeing no one familiar in his camp, he chooses to turn around and attempt to flee.
Soren concentrates harder, and launches his second shot.
Soren makes up for his earlier miss by falling the fleeing bandit.
Alexander looks up and quickly readies his bow, too late to take a shot. He sighs with relief as the man falls, Good shooting. The other two will be back soon. Radomir, watch the prisoners.
He moves off to find a place to hide and wait.
Andrea keeps her knife at the ready.
Radomir will stand guard over the captured bandits
Just as it starts to get full dark, Thaliar's elven sight catches another scout making his way in from the west of the river side of the camp. Between his and Soren's bows, that scout falls just like the first. You never see a scout from the east side of the river come back to camp. Not during the night and not during the morning when your group manages to fell the other two bandit scouts. Once again, no scout from east of the river makes it back it.
I believe that this gang is finished, even if we possibly missed a scout or two. Andrea looks at the captives. While we could take them all back to Oleg's, There would be no way to keep all of them. Even with our former member's presence there, there is no proper prison for them.
Andrea will help looking about for equipment and valuables.
it would be wisest to simply kill them and leave them to rot.
Alexander smiles looking about the camp, It appears that two escaped. He pauses a moment, Good. That should start our reputation here in these lands. Now...for the rest.
The tall man turns to the captives, his look grim, his tone final, You are all guilty of banditry. The punishment for which is death...by hanging. He looks at each man as he says this, seeing if they'll meet his gaze, and noting any that do, But we need information, and I have use for one of you...
He walks back over to the leader's corpse and nudges it again with his foot, I assume this pathetic creature was your leader. We need to know about more bandits, where they are, and what sort of operations you have going in these lands. Beside Oleg's post, who do you prey on?
While the questioning goes on, Eduard steps to the side to study from his spellbook, returning with a gruff but contented look.
Seeing their leader dead near them and wanting to do anything they can to preserve their own lives, the bandits fall over each other in their attempts to blurt out their "useful" information first. Each one tries to do better than the one before him with the quality of his information:
"Yeah, her name was Kressle and she was a favorite of the Stag Lord. As for who we preyed on, well that was anyone and everyone that entered our area. Any homesteaders, traders, travelers, wanderers, pilgrims, hermits, anything. You name it, we tried to rob it. Not picky at all you know."
"Kressle wasn't our real boss though, just a lieutenant. Our real boss is a monster of a man. Calls himself the Stag Lord. He’s a deadeye with the bow, and I saw him crush a prisoner’s hand to mush in one fist. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen him without his creepy stag helmet on— some of my friends think he ain’t got no face under it, but not me—I think that creepy helm is his face!”
“It’s hard keeping track of who’s working for the boss, so we use a master phrase as a sort of password to get in to the fort on the northeast shore of the Tuskwater. Unless it’s been changed recently, the current phrase is, ‘By the Bloody Bones of St. Gilmorg, who wants to know?’ And no, I have no idea who ‘St. Gilmorg’ is.”
“The Stag Lord is a bloody drunk. All that booze under the platform’s for him. He's half of what he used to be, and ain’t never been right in the head. A few weeks ago he punched my horse for spittin' in the yard. Personally, I wouldn't care if he dropped dead tomorrow, but even drunk out of his mind he's still got a fair amount of fight to him.”
“The Stag Lord keeps a strange old man locked up in the basement. I suspect the old guy might actually be running the show, using the Stag Lord as a puppet, you know. I got a look into the old guy’s eyes once, and it terrified me. He ain't someone I'd want to cross.”
Alexander frowns and waves his hand dismissively at the men. Yes, yes, you're all very helpful. You..., he points to the man that mentioned a password, tell us about this fort.