"Tell us everything you know about the Stag Lord, and we may let you live."
Pretty gives a sharp look to Idris, shaking her head sideways when the captive is not looking, clearly against the idea Idris proposes.
"Where's his camp?"
___________________
Idris whispers to Pretty.
Kivan helps load up the horses as best he can. After he is done he walks over to the bandit leader and tries to be nice.
"Do you have any other horses? I find it hard to believe that the leader of this camp wouldn't have her own mount. That reminds me what exactly is your name?"
The woman says I can tell you where the Stag lives, but I swear, you don't want to go there yet. I know you beat us bad, but he's way tougher than I am, and I'm almost certain that you can't handle it right now. Maybe with a bit more experience under your belts...anyway, my name is Kressle. We have horses, but they're tied up down the road a ways. Actually, the two that ran off probably cut them loose.
You find that, indeed, there are several ropes that have been quickly cut tied to a horse post.
"I think we should tie the living up, and discuss our next moves," Idris suggests.
"Are there any other groups that follow the Stag Lord orders? Where?"
When they are away from the prisoners Pretty speaks. "They are all bandits that were ok with robbing others. I think they should be executed."
Seraphina moves close to the bound woman, with a look of sorrow on her face. "We have already heard some of what the Stag Lord does to bring people into his service. I do not doubt that you have suffered too. The Stag Lord is a plague upon these lands. He is a vicious tyrant of the worst sort and must be stopped. You know I speak the truth. Please, tell what you can to help us end his reign."
Out of ear shot from the prisoners
I agree Pretty, once we get what we need from these bandits, we execute them. It may not be a bad idea to set up camp in the tower for the night either.
"I won't insist on doing all of them this time. I will do my share, however," says Idris with a slight shudder. "We might need to leave one alive to guide us where we would need to go, or to provide on going information, such as Bill is doing."
Kivan makes sure that the group is firmly out of hearing range before speaking quickly and quietly.
"Look, why do we have to be so bloodthirsty? I want only one person dead, but he wronged me. Some of these people are just like Bill. They just went with the flow. Maybe we could try and turn them around. I'm getting a bit tired of executing everybody who opposes us. If we keep doing that then we will have become as bad as this 'Stag Lord'. I know some of them are bad, but find out who the bad ones are is part of our duty to our country."
The execution partially decided, Pretty turns into the next steps subject:
"Why don't we take Kressle's advise, take a quick look around and return to explore the areas surrounding the Trading post? Maybe we are indeed unprepared for this Stag Lord, and he doesn't know anything about us. The only thing he knows is that some people raided his camp, but the Watchpost is about dozens of miles from here..."
Kressle rolls her eyes at Seraphina. Please. You kill him, obviously. I'm not saying you shouldn't do that I'm just saying he'll pick his teeth with your bones if you try it in the condition you're in now. I know you're going to execute us, so I have nothing to gain or lose by chit-chatting with you. Can you just put me away?
Kressle is also wearing a silver amulet like Happs'.
Seraphina moves away from the foul smelling woman with an irritated look on her face. "Splendid. I could put you away myself, but it would be neither quick, nor painless."
Joining the others, she says "I don't like the idea of executing people right and left, either. But I worry that if we release known criminals, they may prey on the people again. Maybe once word spreads of what we are doing, we could post notices that state we will spare those who lay down arms or turn them against their criminal masters."
"Can we at least try to find out which ones Bill thought were like himself? I don't want to kill those guys."
I also don't want to carry back all of the loot just on horses.
Kivan accepts any more desires to kill them with a shrug, and waits for them to be done. Afterwards he asks about the kobolds they met before.
"Random thought, but what if we went back to Oleg's, waited for the night, and then tried to find that kobold village? It might be the perfect place to get some more experience before facing off against a bandit leader."
We don't have the time to judge these people and hold trial, especially when we don't know whats true and wants false. They can easily lie to us. If you want to ask Bill his opinion fine, but Kressle's life is forfeit. Now if we're done here, ill just shoot an arrow through her eye socket
"The Kobold tribe looks like a nice next step Kivan."
"Kivan, I prefer to kill a person in battle than execution, if he has to die, but this is what we signed up for. Sometimes, civilizing a land means we have to get our hands dirty, I guess. I agree about asking Bill -- I mean Litfin -- about the other captives, but Kessel's life is forfeit. We seem to be setting a precedent here -- the leaders get put to the sword, but the rank and file can redeem themselves?"
"Cassius, our charter specifies the rope or the sword. It has to be one or the other. However, I can't figure out why if she assumes she's going to die anyway, why she doesn't just go down fighting? Maybe she's just that fatalistic?"
"I would be in favor of going after those kobolds first, as well. The Stag Lord can wait a bit, especially if we try some misdirection. Can anyone think of a way to make this appear to be the work of a rival Bandit group?"
If we really followed the charter then we would be executing all the bandits. The form of execution doesn't matter anymore.
When Litfin arrives back at the campsite, he informs you that none of these bandits are worth much, in his eyes. Kressle had a bad habit or surrounding herself with cretins who kill for sport, since that's essentially what she is.
Good enough for me
He aims his arrow point blank to the Kressle and releases.
Clean death? These are rapists and murderers. This one isn't deserving
"We cannot have this argument every time we need to execute someone for banditry. We need to make a final, binding decision on what we will do going forward -- but we don't have to make it at this exact moment. We can discuss it later, put it to a vote or something."
Litfin seems surprised at Cassius' decisive execution, but offers no comment.
Idris turns to the remaining bandits and says, "I'll give you a few more moments to make peace with whatever being you might worship." She sharpens her swordblade with her whetstone, and then beheads each of the two criminals.
This is becoming easier -- and that worries me.
"Litfin, do you know if there are any rival bandit tribes in these regions?"
I think our priority should be to set up camp for the night. We can use the watch tower as a place to rest
Pretty puts a comforting hand on Idris' shoulder after the executions.
She speaks to everyone:
I see no reason for us to stay here. The towers grant no protection at night, as the dead know all to well. I suggest we keep the fireplace burning strong, take our horses northwest through the river shallow, to avoid being tracked. We find a place to rest in the woods, set up a watch and keep looking at this camp. Maybe someone will come at night to check what's going on, and so long as we're hidden we will have the advantage to make further progress.
At dawn we go after the kobold's tribe.
Litfin says Well, this is pretty much the Stag Lord's territory. Anyone else you find in the area would be on their own, and probably only a few men, since more than that would attract attention. I don't know of this "Zen" person, so it's likely that he operates out of another area.
Litfin explains If you follow the Thorn River, you'll run right into the Stag Lord's fort. It's at the edge of a lake called Tuskwater. But Kressle's right. He's too powerful, and has too many men for you to handle right now. This is a strange and dangerous land. Go out and explore some. You never know what you might find.
So, now that we're on the subject, you might throw us a bone and explain who is that Xen you speak about?
Kivan looks a bit ashamed as he explains.
"Well Xen happens to be someone who tricked me. I happened to be traveling along when I heard a cry for help. Seeing one half-orc facing four humans I thought he was an innocent. I helped him fight off the other bandits before he attacked me. Apparently he had been their leader and they didn't like how he was operating. He then took my book and left. Found that he had destoryed it, and that is why I will hunt him down and make him pay."
Kivan begins to think on how to make it look like Xen was there.
"Well this might be a bit brutal, but he was forced out of his group for trying to burn down a farm. He also burned my book. It seems like he enjoys burning things, so if we make it look like they were all burned to death then that would look like Xen's work."
"Oh thank you. Is he famous around the region? Cause in the stolen lands we're a bit far off the map, so he must be famous for the Stag Lord to have heard of him...
Anyway, are we moving to the woods to keep watch or not?"
"Here's an idea. Let's pile the bodies together and see if we can get them to burn, that sounds right for this Xen fellow, and it's a fitting way of disposing of these criminals. Then we'll make up a fake symbol, the kind of thing an aspiring bandit lord that had read too many copper-dreadful books might think up to mark his raids. I like the idea of disguising our hoofprints, but let's ride off in the opposite direction before we get into the stream -- unless you think you can reliably hide our trail, Cassius?"
If you all head to where you want to camp, and set up camp, ill stay behind for sometime and cover our trail
"I'll help you, Maja. Let's be done soon and move on from this place."
Idris will try to help too. Unfortunately she knows nothing about starting a fire and is politely asked to sit down before she hurts herself.
Setting up a fire is pretty straightforward work, but covering your tracks is a different story.
After finding a suitable place to camp, you settle in for the night. Cassius catches up shortly thereafter.
So, let's sleep while keeping a look for trouble. In the morning we finish exploring the camp surroundings to see if we find anything interesting, shall we?