Gavinia sighs at the men's attitude.
"Yes, the woods are full of trouble. Although, we are tracking down a missing noble woman and seeing if we can find a cause of this weather. What brings you here?"
At Steinolf's words, she does the same, preparing to sheathe her weapon fully once their bows are down.
Morde moves closer to the men, with his axe slung over his shoulder ready to come out in a instant. Listening to the others talk, Mordred is content to let the others take the lead. there is no reason they would be out here in this weather without a good reason. he is however, on the lookout for any hostile actions, and trying to get a sense why they are there looking for any Obvious marks (like wanted men brands), they look like hunters with traps, warroirs, etc.....
Garrasay moves forward cautiously. This time he does not attempt to smile since it tends to put people on edge. Under normal circumstances he tries since without practice he will never get better, but the stakes this time are more than just a peasant being scared.
Petal has no more berries and he suspects that these men would not appreciate being offered a nice flower. Both options that he has found works very well under other circumstances.
So, he crouches down beside Gavinia, adoption a position that both makes him appear smaller and implies subservience to her. Perhaps if they think he is merely a bodyguard or servant he will appear less threatening.
One of the men lets go of his arrow at Gavinia after she asks questions FF AC 19
20/x3
Miss
Steinolf Stone
Garrasay
Gavinia Hornsten
Yukiharu
Mordred
Raider (blue)
Raider (green)
Raider (orange)
Combat Tracker
Round 1
═══════════════
20.04 - Steinolf
═══════════════
19.01 - Raider (blue)
15.01 - Mordred
12.01 - Raider (green)
09.02 - Gavinia
07.03 - Yukiharu
06.00 - Garrasay
04.01 - Raider (orange)
-------- Round End --------
Up first, Steinolf!
Steinolf closes the gap on these guys to catch them flat footed, while doing so Steinolf pulls out his longsword and attacks.
Steinolf hits and does damage. The man is now disabled.
Raider (blue) will delay his turn.
Combat Tracker
Round 1
═══════════════
20.04 - Steinolf
15.01 - Mordred
12.01 - Raider (green)
19.01 - Raider (blue)
09.02 - Gavinia
07.03 - Yukiharu
06.00 - Garrasay
04.01 - Raider (orange)
-------- Round End --------
Up next, Mordred!
Morde ducks quickly when he sees the arrow come flying by, moving forward Morde takes out a throwing axe while moving and flings it at the nearest person, unfortunately running through the snow caused Morde to stumble when he threw and throwing off his aim.
Mordred misses.
Raider (green) will fire his arrow at Steinolf AC 17
20/x3
Miss
He drops his shortbow and withdraws a shortsword.
Raider (blue) seems to be waiting as he is clearly in danger of losing a lot of blood.
Up next, Gavinia, Yukiharu & Garrasay!
Combat Tracker
Round 1
═══════════════
20.04 - Steinolf
15.01 - Mordred
12.01 - Raider (green)
19.01 - Raider (blue)
09.02 - Gavinia
07.03 - Yukiharu
06.00 - Garrasay
04.01 - Raider (orange)
-------- Round End --------
Gavinia ploughs forward through the snow, up to the nearest attacker.
"I suppose meeting someone nice was too much to hope for."
@secret -
Yukiharu will use a slumber hex on Raider (orange) DC 14
Saves
Garrasay growls as he pushes through the snow in an attempt to move forward and get a clear shot, but after moving a bit he realizes that they are still out of range of his spell, so he uses his momentum to continue forward, closing the distance.
"Arrrrrouu! Blast this snow! Arrgrrrr"
Gainia double moves.
Yukiharu fails to slumber hex the man.
Garrasay double moves.
Raider (orange) will fire his shortbow at Steinolf AC 17
20/x3
Miss
Up next, Steinolf & Mordred!
Combat Tracker
Round 2
═══════════════
20.04 - Steinolf
15.01 - Mordred
12.01 - Raider (green)
19.01 - Raider (blue)
[b]09.02 - Gavinia
07.03 - Yukiharu
06.00 - Garrasay
04.01 - Raider (orange)
-------- Round End --------
Sword and shield ready, Steinolf takes a full attack on the blue guy.
Mordred runs as fast as he can across the snow, kicking up flurries.
Steinolf full rounds and hits with a critical strike and a follow up on the shield. The man falls to the ground.
Mordred double moves.
Raider (green) will move and withdraw his shield then attack Steinolf AC 17
19-20/x2
piercing damage
Raider (blue) is unconscious.
Yukiharu will try to slumber hex raider (green) DC 14
Fails; the man falls asleep.
═══════════════
Up next, Gavinia & Garrasay
Combat Tracker
Round 2
═══════════════
20.04 - Steinolf
15.01 - Mordred
12.01 - Raider (green)
19.01 - Raider (blue)
09.02 - Gavinia
07.03 - Yukiharu
06.00 - Garrasay
04.01 - Raider (orange)
-------- Round End --------
Gavinia stomps forward past the fallen bandit up to the remaining one.
"Well, big man, you have no friends now, and seem to be no trouble at all."
Garrasay continues to power his way through the snow, taking up position to surround the enemy.
Unfortunately he did not have time to actually pull out his weapon while doing so. Instead he snarled and snapped at the man hoping that he would simply surrender after seeing that he was surrounded.
Raider (orange) drops his weapon and throws his hands up in the air, "Man, why did you kill Joe." He looks sad then says, "I surrender."
Out of Combat!
Steinolf drops his shield and moves forward sword still in hand. “Why did we kill Joe? The real question is why did you and your friends attack a group of people who clearly was coming up peacefully?” Steinolf grabs him by the collar and kicks the back of his leg forcing him to his knees. “I am going to manacle you so you don’t try any funny business.... we are going to ask you a few questions, and then we will go from there. We clear?” Steinolf pulls out his set of manacles and cuffs his hands behind his back.
“You brought this on yourself. Behave and things will be a lot smoother for you.”
Steinolf also checks his pockets and belt for anything that could be used to hurt us, himself, or help him flee.
"Be sure to secure that one before he wakes." Once the bandit is manacled, Gavinia indicates the slumbered man before turning to Joe. She looks him over and staunches the worst wounds, before dragging him over to the bandits' campfire.
"Joe is lucky and still alive." Once he's positioned, she searches him, then looks through any other bags and packs by the fire.
Gavinia knows that Joe is very much dead.
Gavinia looks quickly at the fallen man, then turns her attention to the other.
"Do you have any more manacles?" she asks Steinolf. "Or someone pass me some rope."
As the rope is retrieved, she keeps her dagger at the ready and throws the fallen man's weapons out of reach.
Once he is secure, she will search him and the dead man, then look through their campsite.
"Lets just strip them down in this weather and let them run away. Leave it to the gods to do the justice." Morde watches toward the Lodge to see if any others were alerted to the presence of the group. Unfortunately the snow is very difficult to see through.
You guys tie up the men to ask questions. The men don’t struggle against you. One of them says ”We were just following the bosses orders. We weren’t going to ‘kill’ you.” He kinda sobs a little looking at the dead man.
"You should have said that instead of shooting at us with arrows. Who is your boss and what were their orders?"
Morde also looks at their faces trying to get some kind of read on them, while Gavania talks to them. his green eyes appear to bore into their soul.
Garrasay looks over the men. "Ggggrrrrwl. Look, we are just looking for a noblewoman that we suspect was abducted by your band of men. We have been attacked and harassed by denizens of these woods since we started and our patience is wearing thin trying to politely ask for help only to be assaulted.
Tell us what we want to know, and we can march you out of here and turn you over to the authorities. Make this difficult and Mordred's suggestion will start seeming much more appealing. Rrrrrrrrr"
The man looks intimidated and says, "Rohkar is our boss. He's been helping some stupid blue creatures. All the men fear them. We tried to talk him out of this agreement but he said we would end up rich. We just happened to find a noble lady during one of our invasions forward to make sure the trail is clear. At first we didn't know what to do with her, but Joe came up with the idea to turn her in for ransom."
"We don't have time to hold them, he told us what we wanted to know. If he leaves with his friend unarmed I'm ok to let them live, but if they come back we will kill them."
Morde looks at the others then starts heading towards the door of the lodge.
"Come on, its too Damn cold out here."
"I have some more questions for them."
"Why were you clearing the trail? Are you from here? Or did you come with the snow?"
"Tell us about these blue creatures? Were the small like so - " Gavinia indicates the size of the little fairies that the group had fought previously - " Or are they of our size? Was one of them called Fawfein?"
"Where are Rohkar, the blue creatures and the noblewoman now?"
"We were told we are making sure no threats are in the area. Something about a ritual must not be interrupted. I'm from around here, as most of us are. Rohkar rallied us together several days back and said we had a job and we were gonna take over the Lodge. I've always wanted to live in that nice lodge."
"Yeah, some of them were really small. But one was a bit bigger. It doesn't wear clothes but it wears a hat. Uh can't say I caught any names, he just kept saying we were gonna be rich after this and to trust the creatures. He did catch one of those really small ones. He put it in a cage upstairs in the lodge."
"The lady is in the cellar. I'm sorry, I was recently recruited and I didn't know all this was going to happen. Once you're in you're in. Rohkar is probably upstairs warm and well fed having a dandy time." He grumbles at that.
The other man says, Damn it Sam, can you hold no secrets?
They begin arguing about the bad decision of getting involved in all this winter and how they aren't even properly dressed and how Rohkar gets to strut around in a nice cloak.
Listening to the man speak Steinolf chimes in when he brings up the lady. “They have the lady in the cellar?” looking to his party; “Atleast she survived her travels through this wild land.Tell us a bit more about what is going on at the lodge. How many men are there and is there an outside enterence to this cellar? Also, what did you mean by some were really small, and a bit bigger one?”
"Holding secrets will serve you no good. We still need to decide what to do with you, and we don't have the time to take you back to the authorities, especially if there's now a ritual we need to investigate."
"How far is the lodge from here? What happened to the rangers who were there?"
"You said it was Joe's idea to ransom the lady. Who froze the guard, and whose idea was it to raise the handmaids as zombies? "
"Yeah she was a noisy one so he said to put her down there. Penny has been taking care of her mostly. I would say there is about a dozen of us. Don't kill them though. Some of these men are good men, just on the wrong path you know what I mean? The only way through the cellar is by the trap door in the trophy room. Well the bigger one, I don't think it's fey at all. It's blue and had bat like wings. Rohkar doesn't let us talk or be near it."
"The lodge is just a half hour walk through the snow."
"Yeah Joe said he heard that you can get nobles to pay for nobles and that perhaps we should spare her life and try to get the money. The fey weren't interested but Rohkar liked the idea. He likes money. I am not sure who froze the guard, it happened all so fast."
"The guys were talking the other night and they all think Rohkar is some sort of necromancer because he did it. He raised zombies."
Morde comes back from where he was heading.
"Are their any more zombies at the lodge? anyone who questioned his authority or whatnot. I personally don't like the idea of trying to determine who is good or not; its not my problem. I don't think we should execute everyone out of hand, but because we are sorely outnumbered I don't wish to get rid of our surprise to try to have a talk."
"No zombies at the lodge, that would just be creepy."
Steinolf wants to take in what he is saying and how truthful it is. Mainly about the number of men and that they “are good men, just on the wrong path.”
" Who is Penny? "
" If we are attacked, then we will defend ourselves. Kidnapping and ransoming is a crime after all. If you have any suggestions on how we can persuade your companions to surrender instead, we could try that."
---
" What do you think we should do with them? The ritual they mentioned could be serious, so we have no time to escort them back. The death of their friend does seem to have shaken them - but is that enough to make them change their ways?"
"Penny is some half-orc Rohkar picked up recently. He makes her cook."
Each man has on him, padded armor, buckler, short sword, shortbow with 20 arrows, 8 gp, 5 sp
"Hrrrrgg. If the camp is just a half hour away, we can just leave this lot tied here and collect them on our way back once we have liberated the lady. If we don't make it" he shrugs "nature takes its course.
As for the folk at the lodge, they made their choice. I might be inclined to give them a break if they surrender, but I'm not about to risk my life, and the life of the lady trying to figure out who is just misguided while they are trying to kill us. grrrrrrr"
"Yes, we should give the ones at the lodge the chance to flee or surrender. If they have been led into this, they may well take the opportunity to go - that will let us focus our efforts on the leaders at least.
"I don't know about leaving them helpless here - the fire will go out eventually and they will no doubt freeze before we return. And if they get free, I imagine they'd be feeling considerably less friendly towards us and may try to warn or help their friends.
At the moment, I feel that they won't come back if we free them and tell them to leave the forest. I fear they may return to banditry, but that is the lesser of the two evils we are facing. They do seem quite shaken by Joe's death.
We could also bring them with us - they can help us to find the lodge, and may help to persuade the others. It will make traveling more difficult though, especially if we have to keep them tied up."
"Fine take them with us unarmed. I don't agree with it but you never know. Let me try something, gag one of them on the trip."
After one is gagged,
" look into my eyes, you will help us try to talk your friends out of harming us and run away, because any who stay will be killed, you don't want that right?"
will save- DC 14
He intentionally fails as you seem to have his full respect. "No sir, they won't listen to me. Having me go up there will only equal perhaps my own death. Will you just let us go free? We can find better lives and mourn Joe's death." It appears your effect is negated as he realized that will put him in danger.