Blue groans as Elena's arrow just manages to slip through the trees and hit him.
Mykhael slams his spear deep into Yellow, she gaps and bloods runs down her chin as she dies.
Niadroub slams his mace in Teals now misshapen head again.
Green squeaks in shock as Richard slashes her, then Colwyn moves in behind her and just misses. "I give!" She yelps, dropping her weapons and raising her hands quickly.
Xantria continues cutting Orange apart with another graceful slice.
Orange blinks as his vision clears. "I have you now whore!" He swears in fury.
Wounding Xantria.
Teal slashes blindly as Niadroub steps away from him.
Blue struggles free of the binding undergrowth and scrambles up beside Teal.
The party may now act.
Having dispatched his opponent Mykhael braced his legs and quickly swung his spear back toward the bandit battling with Xantria.
The cry Xan gave as the bandit's blade finally found its mark seemed to be more of anger than pain. "Whore? Really? Must not be much upstairs if you're falling back on something that unimaginative."
As far as Xan was concerned; if you were going to insult someone, at least be creative with it.
Niadroub Kliip is keenly aware that he is out of his more useful spells as he sees the new bandit tear through the entangle spell area towards him. He turns and high-tails it back to the others, turning around at the end of his movement to send an acid splash at the bandit he injured earlier.
Richard calls out in a commanding tone to the woman "On the ground, hands behind your head." He moves up to attack the one Niadroub had hit with his mace.
Colwyn fishes the silken rope from his pack and begins to tie up the surrendering woman.
"Not gonna have you runnin' off when my back's turned," he sneers. "We're gonna have some questions for you."
Teal is still howling from the caustic gift Niadroub left him with when Richard hustles over and puts him out of his misery.
Colwyn binds Green, who glares at him suspiciously as he does so.
Xantria ends Orange with a graceful strike.
Elena steps forward and takes a shot at the bandit facing Richard.
Blue grunts in pain as another arrow form Elena thuds into him. Looking around at the battle field he decides that not being here is the wise move.
Breaking out of the edge of the entangling plants and running away.
What is the party doing now?
"Take him alive," Mykhael yelled as he stepped up and swung the haft of the spear at the bandit.
Elena looses one more shot at the fleeing bandit.
Richard circles around to cut off the bandit's exit and tries to hit him with the flat of his blade. "If you know what's good for you you'll surrender."
Niadroub Kliip sends off another acid splash at the fleeing bandit.
Colwyn wraps the loose end of the rope around his forearm and keeps a tight grip on the slack as he steps away to retrieve his dropped bow.
"Glare all you want, but this is the rare instance where I do not deserve such a low reputation," he says to Green.
"When I was a lad, I watched my Da' make an example of one of his men who ravished a local woman. He stood him up before the soldiers and castrated the sorry sot with a hatchet, then declared that he would not abide such behavior from anyone under his command. That was a lesson, make no mistake."
With her opponent dealt with, and seeing the last one trying to run, Xan ran after him to help Richard keep him from escaping.
Looking around, now badly wounded and staggering from Richards clout to his head Blue slowly drops his weapon and reluctantly surrenders.
There is a meaty stew bubbling over the fire, camping gear and rations about the clearing, and a small, iron bound strong box, which is locked.
Two prisoners taken and a camp wiped out. What are you doing now?
"Make sure he doesn't get creative." Richard nods to Xantria while he takes out some rope and ties the man up. Once the man is secured he goes over to the lockbox taking out his tools.
As he works on the lock he asks the prisoners over his shoulder. "I'm confident about what you were doing here but I'd appreciate it if you were honest. Lying isn't going to go well for you now. What were you up to here?"
Mykhael had few questions of his own, "It tis in your best interest to be truthful lad. Tell us about this Stag Lord?
Richard pops the lock easily, hurriedly removing his finger from the spot where a poisoned needle flicks out as the strongbox opens..
Within the strongbox you find bags filled with gold coin. 2000gp, and a collection of messages stored in an elegant ladies jewelry box. 200gp. Clearly something looted in the past?
The messages are frustratingly vague. Orange it seems was the paymaster for this group, and even he knew little about his employers.
He was to move through the river kingdoms, collecting those who were happy to perform various acts for coin. Once he had enough scum under his command he was to join with two other groups and move on to the Stolen lands.
Once in the Stolen lands they were to remain in reserve, one group was sent to both map the area, and remove any parties sent from Restov. The other was to make contact with the Stag lord, use him as long as he was useful, then dispose of him.
The only hint you can find as to who is behind this underhanded venture is the instruction to send a message to a certain Ambrose Wint, at the Silken strands tavern in Gralton if he needed more coin, or instructions.
What are you doing now?
Colwyn silently laughs to himself as Richard narrowly avoids the trapped box's sting.
"Next time, he best leave such matters to the experts," he thinks to himself.
Upon seeing the riches inside, however, Colwyn's laughter dies and his eyes widen.
"I don't know about the lot of you, but that's the most money I've ever seen in one place. I'm not happy to learn we've got such shadowy folks with designs on us, but at least they make it worth our while."
Colwyn struts over to Green and stands over her imperiously.
"Howsabout it, lass? The boys there asked a question. Care to add anything worth sparing your life?"
Still guarding the one she'd help Richard capture (though no longer needing her sword ready thanks to him being tied up), she turned to the prisoner after seeing Colwyn's reaction to the chest. "Do I even want to know how much is in there?"
...and a collection of messages stored in an elegant ladies jewelry box. 200gp.
With a smarmy smile, Colwyn turns to Xantria.
"Rest assured, Miss Xan, if there's a price on your pretty head, you can at least take comfort knowing it's a sizable one."
"So where is Gralton, exactly? And who is this 'Ambrose Wint'?"
While the group interrogates the men, Elena takes the wounded party members to one side and utters a prayer to Erastil.
Mykhael gives the prisoners words some thought, "Gralton, isn't that in Andor?"
With a smarmy smile, Colwyn turns to Xantria.
"Rest assured, Miss Xan, if there's a price on your pretty head, you can at least take comfort knowing it's a sizable one."
"Deed he just say your head ees too big?" Niadroub Kliip curiously asks Xantria after Colwyn moves off to talk to the secured bandit.
He doesn't have anything to add to the interrogation, but when Elena gathers them together for healing, he mentions that it would be nice if we had a secure base of operations to store things like treasure boxes full of coins.
"Mebbe we can bury eet somewhere oonitl we need it?"
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"No, you lame fool. Gralton is a wretched little city in the heart of the River Kingdoms. It's mostly made of Galt's old castoffs. When me Da' and I were fleeing the damn trolls, he steered us well clear of Gralton."
A new idea brings a predatory glint to Colwyn's eyes.
"Didn't that map indicate a second camp of these headhunters? D'you suppose that band is as well-funded as this one?"
Mykhael nodded his head at the idea planted by Colwyn "I believe they would. Might be worth investigating."
Neither of your captives can tell you much. They were hirelings. Green worked with Red & Yellow as scouts. Teal & Violet were mainly used as Hunters, keeping the camp fed. Blue was employed because he can cook.
There were several others, used as messengers, one to the camp by the Stag lord, the other to keep in touch with the mapping party. Though he's been overdue for several days now after his last mission took him to the North east?
Richard & Colwyn both know that Gralton is a small river kingdom founded by the nobility that fled the revolution in Galt. Most of their time is spent in futile plotting for a triumphant return to liberate their homeland. Why they would be sending mercenaries to the Stolen lands is unknown?
As they still hold to the trappings of nobility and honor it would be beneath them to deal with thugs and mercenaries, so Ambrose Wint is most likely a middle-man or fixer of some sort.
What are you doing now?
Richard will see if any of these people seem to be redeemable, they don't seem too bad but will have to put some time in and convince us that they are genuine in not wanting to engage in this kind of activity again. Richard will push to explore the rest of the area and then escort them to the Thorn River camp to meet our growing collection of other former bandits.
"Once we have them introduced and checked in on how things are going we can decide whether to head back up to Olegs as we previously discussed or do something else."
"We should teell the Brevoy guards at Oleeg's about Galt bendits."
"True enough Niadroub, I think out interference has clipped the wings of the current crop but after a while a few more minions might be sent by this middleman in Galton, perhaps with a different approach. There would be a middleman regardless of who is paying the middleman. The nobles of Galton, well lets just say they're an odd and imperious sort, I find them hard to imagine engaging with mercenaries... speaking as a nobleman myself I can say they're an odd bunch."
"Telling the guards means we might be able to finagle more bounties for putting down these sorry sots. Then again, I can't imagine what would happen when word of Gralton involvement reaches the Brevic nobles, with their twisted schemes and double dealings. Hells, they might decide to up and revoke our charter."
Colwyn pauses a moment to wonder when he started thinking of it as "our" charter.
"Ours is not the only expedition out here; we know that others are also exploring the Stolen Lands on behalf of the Swordlords. They may be in danger too, and we need to warn them."
"I don't know anything about Gralton, or why they would want to interfere with Brevoy. But what matters is that they are doing it, not why. We should go back to Oleg's and tell the guards."
Your prisoners. Blue is getting older, and now days hires on as a cook rather than as muscle. He's perfectly fine with being taken on somewhere in the Stolen lands as such. You get the impression he's been wanting to settle down for a while now, but has too many old crimes and enemies hanging over his head back in the river kingdoms.
Tasting the stew he had going over the fire tells you that he is a pretty good cook, for campfire stew it's very tasty.
Green is equally pragmatic about her state, sometimes jobs go bad and you end up in midden. If you want to hire her she can work as a scout, or a guard. If not she'll head back to the River kingdoms, avoiding Gralton for a time. Some employers take failure personally after all.
They both warn you that the other camp has the most fighters, and even a magic user. It is the one that needs to wipe out the Stag lord and his men when the time comes.
Both would rather not be executed. :)
So Heading back to Oleg's, or on to the other camp?
"Well, now that we have both meat to smoke and bandits to reform, let's start on the trail back to the trading post. Not to mention I'm keen on seeing how Miss Switch is doing."
Arriving at the camp you're greeted by Serafina, who looks tired, but also seems to be happy. The weeks since you last visited have seen a lot of change in the camp. There is now a rough palisade surrounding the camp, and the start of what looks like a bunkhouse is going up.
"So far so good." Serafina reports. I won't deny it was very edgy the first few days, but since we've started building a solid base the boys have become more involved. Between hunting for the pot and keeping the nastier animals away we built up a nice stock of furs and pelts. So I sent to to Oleg's in trade for more tools and supplies. We even had a keg of some decent booze come back as well. Makes a change from the shine they were living on."
You've arrived at your so far unnamed camp. Serafina is happy to take your prisoners off your hands if you wish? Especially Old Blue, a cook would be very welcome!
What are you doing now?
"Oye," Mykhael happily greeted Serafina. He goes on to explain that they will be leaving these two prisoners with her camp, "Tis one answers to the name Blue and is a fair hand at cooking." With a broad smile he asks, "M'Lady we are off to the trading post would you like us to order anything for you."
He will also make his way around camp and try to get a feel on how the reformed bandits are doing.
"Just dropping some wayward mercenaries here. They're lined up for a shorter stay while we deal with the Stag Lord and the last of their associates. We're going to have Svetlana make some sausages out of this boar. Given everything's going so well here I'll see that some of them make their way with the next delivery here." Richard will make his goodbyes afterwards as the group heads to Olegs.
Once they have left the camp behind Richard will ask the others "We have acquired a bit of coin, perhaps given some of the last bandit camps we have to put out it might be a good idea for us to ask Boken to make a few potions for us."
Colwyn inspects the men and quietly, yet sternly, reminds them to behave themselves and to obey Switch.
He also passes along a few silver to ensure their continued loyalty.
Arriving back at Oleg's you once again notice how much more lively it is becoming. You even see a tent set up outside the post with a man using oxen to plow a field for planting?
Kesten greets you at the gates and asks after your travels, wanting to know if there are any problems the guards should be alert for?
He nods at the man plowing. "Getting more of these coming in. Now you've made the area safer, and the post has guards people think it's safe enough to chance settling here. Even got a couple talking about building a proper inn."
You're back safe and sound, what are you doing now?
Kesten greets you at the gates and asks after your travels, wanting to know if there are any problems the guards should be alert for?
"Good to see you again, Kesten."
"There is news... we encountered a group of bounty hunters of some kind. They were looking for us, and the bounty was issued by someone in Gralton."
"They were looking for agents of Restov, and I understand ours is not the only expedition out here. We need to send word to the other groups to beware. If someone didn't want us exploring around here, they won't want those others doing the same."
"Word should be sent on to Restov too. Perhaps they have their own spies that can tell them more, and give us instructions or information."
Kesten looks oddly pleased by your information, he notes your surprised look. "Sorry, that's not good news, but it's useful. There is always someone from those jumped up kingdoms sniffing around the Stolen lands. Easy to see why really. So much unclaimed land to be snatched up if you can."
He shrugs. "The reason I'm pleased is I might be able to swing a few more guards for the trading post if I send word back to Restov of other lands snooping around here. It's valuable information whatever the response. My thanks Milady. I'll make sure word is sent, Restov will inform the other parties to keep an eye out as well. We'll see if it's just this area, or something bigger?"