Once it sounds like the bandits are all past the gate, Sonia leaps into action and pushes the cart into place!
The cart creaks into place in front of the gate, blocking the exit. The bandits react quickly to the sudden commotion and leap into action. "A trap? So those sniveling traders found someone to stand up for'em. Make them regret it!" the center bandit wielding a bow shouts. His Poochyena growls aggressively at Sonia.
Ser Drilbur:
Middle Bandit:
Ser Drilbur:
Middle Bandit:
Sonia:
Left Bandit:
Left Zigzagoon:
Right Bandit:
Right Zigzagoon:
Poochyena:
Yarek:
Right Bandit:
Yarek:
Right Bandit:
Middle Bandit @ 10++
Ser Drilbur @ 10+
Dr. Agathis @ 10
Tesla @ 9
Faraday @ 6
Right Zigzagoon @ 5++++++
Left Zigzagoon @ 5+++++
Sonia @ 5++++
Poochyena @ 5+++
Right Bandit @ 5++
Yarek @ 5+
Left Bandit @ 5
Ohmvi @ 4
Before anyone else has time to react, Odo leaps from the roof. "Yannnnnnnnnnn!" his wings buzz, whipping up a shrieking wind that shoots forward, as Dr Agathis tries to signal which of the enemies to attack.
The sharp wind blasts into the Zigzagoon on the left, pummeling it harshly. It remains standing, but appears to be heavily injured from the attack.
Reacting quickly, the bandit in the middle retaliates by drawing his bow back and taking steady aim at Odo.
The arrow flies true, piercing right through Odo and causing the dragonfly to fall to the ground.
Ser Drilbur rushes into the fray and unleashes the fury of his claws on the first enemy Pokemon he finds!
Ser Drilbur's claws dig into the injured Zigzagoon, knocking it out from the combined attacks.
Agathis doesn't have much to do on his turn, but he steps out of the barn, and either yells at Odo to find a new target or pulls him back into his protective apricorn (depending on consciousness).
Tesla falters slightly seeing then devastating hit the Yanma took. It clings tightly to Faraday's robes as the man gleefully moves himself into position in front of the group of bandits. He brings his guitar to bear, but instead of the harsh screech of dangerous electricity, the crackling 'strings' of lightning produce a gentle reverberating melody. The music seems to cause two effects, the first causing the bandits and their pokemon to fall asleep on their feet, and the second creating visible, violent sound waves to surround himself and Tesla.
Emboldened by his trainer's bravado (and the fact the dangerous men were now dozing off) Tesla hops off Faraday's shoulders and targets the poochyena with an arching blast of electricity. The dark puppy would be violently woken up as the thunder hits, followed shortly by the harsh waves of distorted music, and be left paralyzed with aftershocks.
"Ohmvi! Tackle the closest pokemon of those men battling our new friends!"
Yarek moves over towards the stable doors and blocks the entrance to deny any other people access to attack Dr Agathis.
The bandits and their remaining Pokemon drift off to a gentle slumber upon hearing Faraday's soft melody.
Enemy Zigzagoon is fast asleep.
The Poochyena quickly awakens with a startled yelp as Tesla shocks him quite soundly, but is immediately rendered unconscious by the clever assault.
"What? Sleeping? Oh no, you're not getting away that easily!"
Sonia charges ahead and slashes twice with her sword, aiming for the nearest bandit!
Enemy bandit is fast asleep.
The left bandit rouses from his rest with agonizing shouts of pain as Sonia slices into him. Despite her hearty blows, however, he appears to be rather resilient. Quickly taking in his surroundings, the bandit kicks the one with the bow next to him back awake, shouting "C'mon Happs, we can still take'em! Wake up!"
Happs slowly opens his eyes with a groggy stare that becomes suddenly alert as he remembers what is going on.
Ohmvi attempts to follow Yarek's orders, but isn't close enough to another Pokemon to carry out a tackle. He moves closer to the Zigzagoon on the right.
Happs moves away deftly, avoiding any potential attacks as he flees, then takes aim with his bow again, this time targeting Faraday.
Ser Drilbur closes the gap and unleashes his claws on the bandit!
Agathis, enraged, runs up and kicks the bandit with the bow as hard as he can in the crotch. "A**hole!" he shouts.
Tesla watches in horror as Faraday takes an arrow (graze) to the side before angrily charging at the bowman with a vengeful, "CHUUUUUU!" And let loose another powerful shock of thunder and thrashing sound waves at the fleeing man.
Faraday grimaces in pain before giving a determined grin and thrashing on his guitar, creating another wave of sonic magic empowering his surrounding allies in the violent resonance, along with a second, dampening pulse.
The left bandit braces himself against Ser Drilbur's scratch. Then, seeing the Pichu charging for Happs, he swipes at it and rushes to intercept.
As he attempts to leave, however, he takes several hits.
The bandit falls to the reactive blows, unable to intercept Tesla.
Unimpeded aside from a slight swipe from the bandit, Tesla's electric fury fires again at full might, this time taking Happs down a notch.
The Zigzagoon wakes up!
Sonia steps in and swings wide to hit the bandit and his Zigzagoon!
Yarek moves behind Ohmvi and sees the bandits alseep on the ground.
"Well done Faraday. That made things a lot easier."
Yarek looks to his trusty Mareep and nods.
"Seems this is not the practice I anticipated but you can practice your tackle on that middle guy over there."
"Maa-Maa! Maa---Reep!"
Ohmvi charges and uses a tackle on Happs, the apparent leader of this bunch.
Sonia slices into the duo, giving the right bandit a rude awakening. He reacts by striking back at her with a piercing blow with surprising ferocity.
He then steps away from her towards Happs.
Happs dodges away just in time to avoid Ohmvi's valiant charge.
Sonia grits her teeth in shock at the ferocity of the hit, but stands firm and bears it. She turns to Ser Drilbur and gives him a nod, as if to let him know she's alright.
In response, Ser Drilbur rushes ahead and shoves his way through the enemy Zigzagoon, hitting it with his claws as he goes by.
The Zigzagoon falls unconscious with a squealy yelp as Ser Drilbur digs his claws into it.
Agathis walks over to the unconscious bandit, and picks up their weapon for himself.
Tesla spots the Bandit closing in and carefully hops onto the bench beside the table before continuing his thunderous vengeance on the paralyzed bowman.
"Leave some for me, Bruv!" Faraday shouts in a crazed rush, recklessly charging around the bandit to bring his electrically charged and audibly enhanced guitar down with an overhand chop onto the hapless Happs as well.
"Whoa!" Agathis calls out, realizing how much violence he and the others have just inflicted on a few crippled foes. "Hey, um, bad guys—if you can still hear us—now would be a good time to throw down your weapons and surrender."
Dr. Agathis surprisingly finds no weapon on the bandit, who had been fighting unarmed.
The bandit's opportunistic punch lands squarely in the back of Faraday's shoulder as he rushes past, resulting in a backfire of electric discharge leaving the bandit paralyzed.
The helpless Happs cannot act in time to save himself from Faraday and Tesla's assault. He drops to the ground, unconscious but still twitching with electricity from the combined electrical attacks.
The remaining bandit, seeing his leader and party fallen, drops to his knees and surrenders with his arms up, begging to be spared.
Faraday watches Happs collapse and turns to watch the last bandit surrender. He gives a large grin and hefts his guitar to rest on his shoulder only to seethe in pain as it clunks against the bruise starting to form from the last punch. He decides to simply carry it in his right hand as he offer his left to Tesla, allowing his partner to climb up to his other shoulder. "Oleg! Svetlana! We did it! Bring some rope!"
The Levetons, who had been watching the battle with fear and awe from the safety of the storehouse, quickly bring out some rope at Faraday's request. Oleg shakes his head in amazement at your accomplishment, while Svetlana holds back tears of joy.
Yarek takes over the rope from Oleg and begins tying up one of the bandits.
"Too bad this is only one small victory. We might get one more when another group investigates about this group, though not more than that. We'll need to keep our element of surprise going right?"
"Well... we can take their stuff?" suggests Agathis. "Can we just make them swear an oath to leave the Greenbelt and never return, or do we need to wait for the next trade wagon to arrive and load them on it as royal prisoners bound for the capital?"
"You think we can trust the word of a bandit? I say we get what information we can out of them, and ship them off whichever way the next caravan goes. They'll make it to a prison either way."
"Well. Dibs on the bow, either way."
"Can you even use a bow?"
"What's to know? Knock an arrow, aim an' pull, aye?" Faraday says with a grin, taking a seat on the benches and examining the laceration in his side and the bruise forming on his shoulder. He gives Tesla a gentle head rub and locates a bump. "Svetlana, I think Odo and we are gonna need some of that healing touch you mentioned yesterday..."
Agathis shrugs. "Well, you've got a sword and Faraday has a lute. I guess Yarek can have it, if he wants; my monster nets would probably work against the next group of bandits."
"It's a guitar, actually, and a magical focus," Faraday chimes in, looking his instrument over curiously and gives a satisfied nod when he finds it in perfect condition.
"I've only used a bow when I was a lad and that was a makeshift one at that. I can always give it a try, beats being late to the party when you guys are having all the fun."
Yarek smiles a faint smile and then pets Ohmvi.
"Well we both missed out huh? At least you did your best pal."
In addition to Happs' bow, you find he is wearing a silver amulet shaped like the head of a glaring Stantler. All three bandits have p1200 each on them.
Svetlana gets right away to mixing up some medicinal bandages from her stock. (You and your Pokemon will heal 3 injuties and be restored to full health).
As you are deliberating on what to do with the bandits, there is a sudden creak from the gate entrance as the cart is shoved out of the way. More bandits alteady? No. Five men and women dressed in the guard's regalia of Restov, one man of whom is clearly the leading superior, march into the grounds of the trading post.
The stocky commanding officer shouts, "I am Kesten Garess, hired by Restov and charged with guarding this post. If you mean these good traders harm, then I will have to cut you down." There is a kind of tired annoyance to his threat, but he shows to make good on it by drawing his sword.
"Easy there sir Garess, we're not the ones robbing Oleg and Svetlana. These guys were."
And Yarek points over to the now bound and perhaps gagged group of three men.
"We caught these three by surprise but there appears to be a larger group still about."
The instant she hears the name Garess, Sonia stands at attention. "Sir! My name is Sonia Steinhardt, and I am currently serving as a chartered agent of Restov as part of an outstanding campaign to civilize the southern regions." It's plainly obvious that she's eager to impress him.
"Right. Yep. Also hired by Restov here. Special agents, et cetera."
Upon hearing your response, Kesten drops the bold act and seems relieved. "Lose the "sir", just call me Kesten. Looks like you made it here before us; we were told there was an exploration party being sent out."
Eyeing the bandits, he gives an impressed nod to you. "Seems you handled yourselves well against these ruffians. I will send two of my guards back to Restov with them." Without a moment's hesitation, two of the guards step forward and retrieve the three bandits, returning their fainted Pokemon to their Pokeballs.
"The rest of us will remain here to protect this establishment as we have been ordered. As I understand it, your duties involve exploration. Please do not worry about this post on your travels, it is now under my protection. I have faith that you will bring back any further bandits you encounter, so that they may meet proper justice back in Restov.
"Thank you, Kesten. Between us, I imagine we'll have these lands cleaned up in no time." Says Sonia, right back to her usual braggart self. She takes another look at the pile of loot taken from Happs and his friends, then continues. "You wouldn't happen to know if that necklace has any significance, would you? I've never seen that Pokemon used in heraldry before."
"Yep. Though we'll need an actual direction to start exploring in. Don't suppose you can make any of the bandits talk?"
"Which pokemon was it?" Faraday asks curiously, standing up to join the others in speaking with the guard captain. He catches a quick look at the necklace, "That's an angry looking Stantler. If it was supposed to look tough, you'd think it'd look like something scarier like a Houndoom or something."
Kesten squints at Sonia, reassessing her as he comes to a realization. "Hmm... Steinhardt, was it? Aye, I trust our kinship ought to drive us forward through these lands, estranged though it may be.
He looks at the amulet with curiosity, but doesn't have an answer for what it could be. "Maybe our bandit 'friend' here has an answer for us. What say you, villainous scum?" He grabs the one conscious and bound bandit by the collar and pulls him face-to-face.
"Th-the Stag Lord, it's his symbol," the bandit stammers. "I can tell you more, please just spare me," he begs.
Kesten nods, "I will vouch your compliance for your trial, should your information be useful. Go on."
The bandit continues on to explain that the Stag Lord is a terrifying and powerful man, uniting the rabble and the outcasts of the Greenbelt to rule the Stolen Lands for himself. The party that has been raiding Oleg's is from an outpost camp located two days' travel South of Oleg's along the Thorn River. Further south, where the river's mouth meets the Tuskwater, is the Stag Lord's fort.
"Are there any more camps, or just the one?"
"Hmm. Uniting rabble... under the banner of a Stantler. Maybe it works in the middle of nowhere." Agathis shrugs. "Should we scout the river, head straight to the outpost, or map the local woods first while we wait for more bandits to come to us?"
"Aye. Indeed you'd expect something more ferocious than a Stantler, still the man might be more trouble than we'd expect and it certainly fits with the name of the Stag Lord."
Yarek mulls over Agathis's words about exploration and mapping.
"Well certainly taking out their camp would give us more freedom to move around and safety to do so. Though I wouldn't want to hurry into a fight unprepared. Perhaps travelling towards that outpost first, mapping the area along the way, training and catching new pokémon might be the way to go. That way, we'll be stronger for the fights to come."
"Kesten? Can you convince that man to tell us the approximate number of men at the outpost and the fort?"