Samant closes again with the bandit.
There might be more than just those 2... I will go after Samanth to make sure that he will not be alone and moves after him
Masao moves forward with Samant as well...keeping pace with the enlarged fighter.
Realising he is being left alone, Hob runs directly towards Samant - the easiest one to see as the giant man crashes through the trees.
The bandit continues to run from the party, but Samant's newfound reach is enough to accost him, at least briefly.
Samant roars and swings
The bandit barely slips past the strike of Samant's now enormous club. He swings around a tree sticking out from the treeline and into the woods, where you can hear a horse sounding very excited.
Samant moves around the tree 30' and takes one last swing into the woods.
Masao moves forward another 30' and sends another frost bolt at the fleeing bandit.
Kin, crows over his victory
"Stay Down!"
Seeing the bandit escaping Arwen moves closer to reach the range for the spell I will try to stop him! Little bit shock therapy for this situation
Masao and Arwen both strike true on the escaping bandit, bathing him in ice and electricity, but not bringing him down yet.
Kin continues pecking at the first bandit who collapses to the ground.
Hob runs round the tree, looking for the Bandit.
He raises the wand and releases another eldritch missile.
Just as the bandit steps into the stirrup, Hob's missile strikes him square in the back and send him crashing to the ground. The horse, startled by the burst, begins to stomp and snort heavily.
Masao stops rushing forward, hoping not to startle the horse any further. He tries to approach slowly, with the intent of perhaps mounting the beast.
Takes a deep breath and starts trying to sooth the horse.
Calms down farther and tries again
Seeing Samant approach the horse with some skill, having lodged in the stable in town for a while, he at least recognizes the skill he lacks, Masao backs off and leaves the horse for Samant to collect. He instead checks the body of the bandit who fell here near the horse, looking for valuables but also for anything else of interest, including possibly tattoos indicating whether or not they are in league with the slavers.
Hob holsters the wand, draws his crossbow and starts loading it, looking at the horse
"Fresh meat tonight!"
"Hey - Masao" warbles Kin sweetly "Can you give me a hand to search this guy I took down?"
Masao looks over at Kin, always a little surprised to hear the small bird talk to him in common. He nods once and answers, "In just a moment, I'm checking out this one first. I don't think either of them is going anywhere, so we've got time. Hob, wanna give me a hand searching these bodies and let Samant deal with the horse?"
Once, he's done searching the body over by the horse, he walks over to Kin and searches the other corpse with the same diligence, looking not only for valuables/salable items, but also for tattoos or clues of any kind as to who these men were and possibly who they were working for, if anyone.
Hob reluctantly puts down the crossbow and comes over to assist Masao.
After a final vicious peck, Kin flutters over to assist Masao with his as well.
When Samant first approaches the brown horse, it backs away and throws its head, but when he calms himself and approaches again, the horse is much more placid. Upon closer inspection, he notices that the horse has been ridden hard recently, and not properly groomed. Clearly, this horse was disposable to its rider. As Samant is inspecting the horse, a second grey horse come out of the woods quite calmly.
Masao fishes up 2 shortbows, 2 sets of padded armor, 2 light maces, 2 daggers, 25gp, and some various bits of incidental gear. He also notes that both men have the telltale tattoos of slavers on their arms, underneath their sleeves.
No Hob not dinner, mobility Samant begins to rub the horses with some grass and checking for saddlebags.
"Bah... these were in league with the slavers. They bear the same tattoos. Were there just the two of them, or did some get away?" He carries the gear and dumps it all in a pile near the horses, but not close enough to startle them.
Masao picks up a bow and a quiver of arrows . "Some gear here if anyone wants any of it. We can sell the rest when we get to town. Some cash here too, so we can arrange some lodgings and not have to worry about food either."
"Do you think the baron sent these to prevent us from reaching him? He knows we're likely to be coming since the message got through. It's possible this ambush wasn't random banditry."
The chance of that is slim, the message would just have been recieved and the distance for this kind of ambush takes some preperation. I think is an ambush spot to press more into service... that or the first group set this up to notify of our approach. If you'd like once I'm done here I can try and track them back to where they came from, they could have a camp nearby with more supplies laid in
"Tracking them back to their camp might be a good thing. If we don't, and there turn out to be others, they might end up following us and hunting us instead of the other way around. I'd rather be hunter than prey. And as you say, they may have more supplies laid in, and more horses as well. We could use a couple more mounts."
Agreed
Samant silently thanks Brother Dumpling for his guidance in self sufficiency.
Samant follows the slaver's tracks back along the road a ways, but doesn't find any signs of a camp of additional men.
I agree. If you may, I could use some of the arrows and bow. Not really all that... flashing my abilities and it feels a bit wrong Arwin worries Kind of unfair against them plus it is easier to heal physical wounds than someone who has been charred to death
Masao hands the second bow to Arwen and a quiver of 10 of the arrows. "If you're like me, you have limits on your abilities each day as well, so best if you do have a backup weapon."
Disappointed that Samant found no camp, he's also concerned. "What were they doing out here that they had no camp to return to? Makes no sense. Well, let's move on I guess, get our bearings back and parallel the road again."
No camp indicates that this may have been a delaying mission from the initial caravan we encountered. With the way this horse has been run the were here in a hurry. Just be wary my friends, now who here is skilled at riding?
"Huh? Oh, I wouldn't call me skilled. I can stay on a horse but not fight from horseback. You won't get Hob on a horse I fear." He gives Hob a little conspiratorial smile, then turns back to Samant. "But since we don't have enough horses to go around, I'm also willing to walk. Perhaps since you are skilled with animals, and Arwen might find riding easier than walking, the two of you should be the ones to ride for now. Or if the horses are too tired, perhaps we should just walk them unridden for a while."
Looking at the horses and slowly tampering them and patting their heads These horses has suffered a lot... I will rather let them rest and take with us. They would make great package carriers and that would not but so much stress on them
Hopefully you are not feeling betrayed Hob. Just for the sake of convenience to ease our trip. We can keep these animals further away from you?
Hob grumpily does what people ask of him
"If they're slavers' horses they'll be recognised" he points out. "No-one recognises lunch."
After regrouping from the ambush, the party continues on south with their two new horses.
Kin returns at dusk on the 4th day. He brings little to report, other than the fact that there is a festival going on in Alvis right now to celebrate the beginning of harvest season. The streets are busy in the evening when everyone is back from their day's work. Lord Cedric has made an appearance both days Kin watched, but his son, William, doesn't appear to be there.