The horse chosen by Freya snorts and shakes his head, not falling asleep to her hex.
Isabel's chosen victim blinks in confusion as her spell settles into his mind.
Jory's target resists the spell and draws his bow with a yell. "Ambush!"
The leader glares around him in anger and fear, despite Darian's words shaking him he calls out. "Get them boys!"
Trying to dismount quickly on the ride he fumbles badly and falls to the ground. Red is prone. His horse is disturbed and moves away from him.
Light blue & Violet dismount quickly.
Green panics his horse and is struggling to not be bucked off. Yellow falls off and is also prone.
Purple is fumbling to dismount and is half off his horse.
Orange is looking around unsure as he doesn't want to attack his new friend?
Round one:
The party can now act.
Darian raises his sword in a military salute, and everyone of his allies weapons begin flowing white. "Take them down, everyone!"
__________
Freya mutters a few words as a ball of ice appears in her hand. She then proceeds to hurl the ball at the bandit clad in light blue.
(inspire courage) vs. touch AC
(inspire)
Jory raises his crossbow and aims at the competent-looking bandit threatening Darian, quickly loosing a bolt.
_____________
(+inspire courage)
(+inspire courage)
Lisl holds aloft her silver holy symbol and says sternly, "Rule of law shall triumph over criminals!"
Roksana laughs as she dismounts from Kasper easily and takes up position behind the bandit leader.
"If you took better care of your mounts they might be more loyal!" She snarls as she swings her hammer down against the leader, while directing Kasper to do the same.
She knows dismounting is a risky move, but she needs Kasper to act as another body until her companions can move closer.
Haps Brydon erstwhile leader of the Collection crew is still stunned and trying to regain his bearings when Rok gives him some good advice, and ends his life with one smooth blow.
Freya's Snowball just misses the very surprised Bandit she aimed at.
Violet gaps in pain as Jory's bolt hits him solidly.
Lisl Blesses you all.
Orange nods agreeably to Isabel's request and promptly swings his shortsword at Light blue who is dismounted beside him.
Missing, and making him even more surprised.
He follows this up my falling off his horse with a yelp. Ending up prone in front of Lisl
Round One - Hostile actions:
Purple finishes dismounting and moves to attack Rok
Doing as well in combat as he does in riding.
Light blue decides he never really liked Orange anyway, and stabs him as he lays on the ground.
Orange Scrambles to his feet looking angry at Light blue, drawing an AOO
Violet turns to see who shot him, eyes going wide as he sees Darian almost on him.
His hasty blow coming no where near him.
Green manages to dismount but can't have any other actions this round.
Yellow scrambles to his feet and looks around in fright before setting off for the main building.
The party can now act.
Smoothly slipping another bolt in place, Jory leans over the ledge and fires at the closest bandit.
_________
(+Inspire courage / bless)
(+Inspire courage)
Freya continues to target the various bandits from atop the wall, this time focusing her ire and gaze upon the violet clad bandit in front of Darian.
Darian is dismayed as the leader falls, but doesn't slow him from pressing the attack. He swings his now glowing blade at the nearest bandit in a swift arc towards his throat.
Seeing one run off for the main building, Darian becomes concerned for Svetlana and yells out, "Rok! The runner!"
__________
Violet barely has to to blink before Darian cuts him elegantly into pieces.
Green groans in pain as Jory nearly ends him with another accurate bolt.
Her target gone, Freya switches to another, dropping him in slumber with ease this time.
Roksana sees the runner but has a bandit right in front of her that could stab her in the back if she pursues.
"A little help here Kasper?" She shouts as she points to the bandit in purple and directs the horse to attack.
Catching up with the bandit who ran, Rok growls low in her throat and swings her hammer at his head.
Kaspar smashes Purple the ground and tramples him to bloody pulp.
Rok hustles over to Yellow and spins him around with a crushing blow.
The horse, being wiser than their riders all move away from the fight.
Lisl says to the remaining active bandit, "It may be wise to lay down your arms and sue for clemency."
Orange scrambles to his feet, Light blue wakes up and rises.
Orange happily stabs Light blue, woundly him badly.
Green stares ahead blankly.
Yellow steps back and runs for the ladder that will get him onto the wall.
The Party can now act again.
Lisl says to Roks, "Kindly mete out justice."
"I don't know about kindly Lisl, but I'll mete! Kasper, stay!" Rok shouts as she runs from the horses sight and after the bandit trying to get to the wall. She swings her hammer at his back hoping to knock him down for good.
Yellow crumples to the ground in a disturbingly boneless fashion.
Which leaves Green who is Dazed.
Light blue who is wounded.
Orange is still Charmed by Isabel.
Seeing that the skirmish is essentially at an end, Frey retrieves her crossbow and loads it, waiting to see if the remaining brigands are foolish enough to continue to resist.
Jory looks down the length of his crossbow meaningfully at the remaining capable bandit ().
He calls out: "I suggest you listen to the lady. This ends one of two ways for you now. And I don't want to use up the rest of the daylight burying you!"
___________
Darian steps towards the man nearest him and swings the flat of his blade at the man's head like a sap.
__________
Green slumps to the ground unconscious from Darian's precise blow.
Light blue looks around desperately and drops his weapon with a defeated grunt.
Orange looks very pleased with himself and stands ready to defend his new friends.
The sounds of battle fade and you all look around, their horses whicker nervously from the edges of the courtyard.
You have two prisoners and a spell bound follower who will soon be very unhappy. What are you doing?
Darian looks around, quickly scanning his companions to see if they are alright. Pleased with what he sees, he turns his attentions to the bandits. "Alright, lets get this lot tied up and check he fallen. Particularly their leader. Oleg, Svetlana, are you two alright?" he calls out.
He goes fallen bandit to fallen bandit, starting with the leader, to see if they are still breathing. If so, he will point them out and attend to them as quickly as possible, making sure they are restrained with the others as well.
Roksana picks up one of the composite longbows and looks it over.
"This is well made." She frowns. "A bit pricey for your regular bandit, I think. " She holds on to the weapon for now.
While they wait for Oleg and Svetlana to report in, she looks at the amulet and tries to remember if she's seen it's like before but only draws a blank.
"I wonder if Ivar knows anything?" She mutters to herself.
Jory assists in secured the captured bandits. As his compatriots attend to checking the downed thugs and gathering equipment, he begins to question their captives.
"Been putting your thumb on poor Oleg here for long, boys? That's one sad, sad state of affairs." He shakes is head. "Now, what's your game here? Trade goods? Not coin? And led by a women, I hear it told. No matter. It's the noose for you, sure as the sunrise tomorrow. Our charter don't allow no choice in the matter, see..."
He pauses to let that sink in a bit.
"Ah, well...there is that one line in the writ. Something about 'allowances for the provision of knowledge and information about the local situation,' if I recall. Death sentence commuted, maybe even 'released on their own recognizance'. That's a big word for, you get to go free...Now, have anything to tell us that might fit the bill? Why are you harassing Oleg? Who do you work for?"
_________
Oleg comes down from the roof with a much happier air to him, Svetlana peers around the now opened door and looks very happy as well.
While Oleg isn't pleased with the idea that the survivors won't be hanged, the number of dead appeases his desire for vengeance. Especially the body of the man who led the bandits, now trampled into bloody ruin by Kaspar.
"Haps Brydon." He says in grim satisfaction, spitting on the corpse. Looking around he nods. "Looks like you're due a reward, with the bandits you killed getting here, and now these on top."
He points you to a list of notices pinned to a message board by the main house.
The survivors are of course happy to tell you anything that could spare their lives. They work for, and greatly fear a woman named Kressle, Haps Brydon was her second in command. Kressle serves the Stag lord, though none of them have ever seen him. Kressle would take a journey south when they had gathered enough loot. Especially alcohol, which was always kept for the Stag lord.
As to why they keep visiting Oleg? He's the only source of goods and pelts in the region, aside from trying to track down and extort from the local trappers, who are trained at hiding in the woods and nearly impossible to find. Far better to let Oleg gather the pelts and take them from him.
Settling In at Oleg’s
Things change since you have defeated this group bandits. While Oleg worries that the remaining bandits might eventually come for revenge,
he also suspects that they’re cowards at heart and won’t
try anything against the trading post for some time— hopefully before then, the promised guards sent from Restov will have arrived to bolster the post’s defenses.
Oleg happily lets you take any bits of gear they want from
the bandits—anything left over he’ll claim as new stock.
If you claim the gear and then propose selling it to Oleg, he’ll gladly purchase the gear from them at full price.
In any event, since you have protected the trading post, Oleg offers the group a reward consisting of 50 gp and all three potions* in his stockroom. Further, he tells the PCs that they’re welcome to stay free of charge in his guest house as long as they want. He and his wife will even
provide meals for them for free.
*Potion of Cure light wounds 2, Potion of Shield of faith + 2.
You now have a base, and time to consider your next actions. What are you going to do now?
Lisl graciously says to Oleg, "Your hospitality is greatly welcome, goodman Oleg."
The day after the altercation, she applies once again the touch of truthtelling but seems unhappy with the results. In private confidence she tells the group, "As much as it distresses me to say so, I fear that sparing these bandits will only come to a bad end. They seem unrepentant and still inclined not to change their criminal ways, only to say whatever will save their necks."
As to the next steps, Lisl says, "We must hunt down this Kressle and end her. If the bandits meant to carry all of Oleg's goods away, they could not have camped too far away. Perhaps a tracker could follow their horse-tracks back."
Jory listens intently as the bandits tell their tale. Guided by Lisl's magic, they face another dilemma with the captives.
Jory seeks further information from Oleg the next day. "This bandit leader...this Stag Lord. What do you know of him? Anyone but the bandits ever speak of him?"
|
Isabel makes use of the remaining time on her spell to extract as much information as she can before the enchantment fades.
After Lisl's interrogation Isabel looks downright upset, although she doesn't contest the cleric's judgement. "Then they have to face justice in the North. We do not have men or resources to guard them if they do not wish to change for the better."
After long study of the maps Oleg has for the local area and the notices Isabel suggests a plan of action. "I propose we ride eastwards, do what we can to map the area down towards the stream that seems to be marked here. If we do it in a loop of some sort we could probably do it in a week or so?"
Darian shakes his head, "First we need to eliminate the threat of this woman leader. It will make our explorations safer, as well as help to protect Oleg and Svetlana."
He turns to one of the bandits, "So where is she? And is she this Stag Lord, or one of his lieutenants?"
Freya nods in agreement with the assessment of what to do with the remaining bandits while speaking with the others.
"Death it is then." Thinking a moment she says, "Are there any accomplished trackers among us? If not we could exchange leniency for directions to this Kressle woman. When he inevitably tries to betray us, we can kill him then."
Having agreed to Lisl's terms earlier about how to handle future bandits, Roksana has fewer qualms this time about carrying out the bandits sentence if asked but still seems uncomfortable with the idea of executing unarmed bandits.
"When we get more guards here, maybe we can see about putting captured bandits to work instead. Give them the chance to be honest men they never got elsewhere." She says with some thought.
She spends some time pouring over the map with Isabel and agrees with her course of action.
Morning dawns quietly this far from any form of civilization, you get up and perform your morning rituals. Enjoying another hearty meal prepared by Svetlana, who seems to be even more cheerful this morning.
She's even prepared a midday meal for each of you, a thick slabs of bread wrapped around smoked meat and cheese, with her own homemade relish for some extra flavor. It comes with several pots of strong tea, sealed with wax and just as good when cold in her opinion.
As Rok saddles up and awaits the less practiced riders to join her, she can easily make out the trail of the six horsemen who arrived from the south yesterday, almost pointing you to the bandit camp like an arrow.
Nodding toward Rok, Freya says, "This is the right decision. If those that we dealt with yesterday do not report in, others will come and in greater numbers."
Regarding capturing and rehabilitating bandits she says, "There is a part of me that hopes you are right, but I have doubts about any that only claim to want a different way when the only alternative is a trip to see the Lady of Graves."
"I don't like the idea of running straight into a bandit camp. They're surely fortified in there, we got the jump on this lot, but setting an ambush in their camp will not be as easy." Rok says with a frown.
"But I understand the need to clear them out before they cause more harm. Let's at least scout their base and see what we can figure out. If we think we're up for the rout, you can count on me and Kasper."
Jory clambers aboard his new stead with extreme caution. He looks vaguely nauseated just sitting in the yard.
"Rok, promise me you'll bury me if this beast kicks me off and breaks my neck."
He looks down and pats his horse on the head with no evident enthusiasm. "And that he'll be your next meal..."
The ride is oddly peaceful, at least compared to the last few days you've experienced that is. It's late afternoon, you've skirted the edges of the forest as you've rode south on the trail of the bandits.
Rok brings Kasper to a halt, you've come to the Thorn river and the tracks are now obvious to all of you on the soft soil of the river bank. The camp must be very close now.
What are you doing?
Darian seems apprehensive, "They likely know who is in their particular band. That would be too risky. Sending a scout ahead would get us information, but at great risk to the scout..."
Jory, having done his level best to just to keep his seat on the ride, looks relieved at the prospect of dismounting, despite the risk.
"Getting the jump on someone only works if you know what you're jumping into. I volunteer to scout ahead. Let's do this right and give these thugs what they deserve."
As Jory is ready to scout ahead, Freya brushes him on the shoulder, providing him a bit of intuition. [b]"Good luck."[/b[]
"Am I supposed to eat the bandits if they kill you too?" Roksana says with a grin as Jory offers to scout ahead.
She leans forward on Kasper and keeps her eyes and ears open for any oncoming traffic that might ruin their ambush plans while they wait for the halfling.