Holding his weapon, Ulmarr followed Izússavar to the clearing.
Artemis followed a respected distant. Though she knelt next to her allies and whispered "What do you think it is?"
Ulmarr shrugged, "Might be its the survivors of the attack," he whispered back, "Might be its the Elves that attacked them. Might be its both. It's strange, though... I can't say I've heard of Elf attacks being common. Only one way to find out for certain, though," he quietly added, as he continued forward.
As you approach the clearing you can see that there are 4 bandits, wearing black cloaks. The 2 humans you are looking for both appear wounded and secured. Just before the bandits notice you, you hear 2 of them talking in an elven dialect.
The bandits detect you when you are about 40ft from the edge of the clearing. The bandits are about 20ft into the clearing.
Initiative
bandit leader
bandits
Ulmarr
Artemis
Izussavar
Order
all bandits
team
The 3 bandits other than the leader each move forward 30ft and unload their hand crossbows at you. Each targets 1 of you.
At Ulmarr
Artemis
Izussavar
Ulmarr takes damage and needs to make a DC13 fort save.
The leader takes a shot with his shortbow at Aremis
Fort:
Wincing a little, Ulmarr moved forward towards the bandits who had moved up, growing larger as he went, and attacking the one who had shot him with his quarterstaff.
Attack:
Damage:
"So these are velves? Somehow I expected more," Izússavar chuckles.
"All right then! Have at them!"
Izússavar charges the nearest "velf."
Artemis too the chance to charge at their leader, as he had shot at her.
The first "Velf" collapses as Ulmarr's blow breaks their neck, strangely the body and equipment has disappeared before it hits the ground.
The second "Velf" falls to a slash from Izússavar's savage weapon. He is alive but clearly out of the fight.
The surviving bandit advances to flank Artemis with the leader.
Bandit damage
After the bandit attacks, the leader steps back dropping his bow and drawing a short sword. He is clearly ready to slash the first one to close with him.
Seeing Artemis get flanked, Ulmarr charges the Bandit leader.
Attack:
Damage:
Artemis gave a grunt of pain from the slash upon her flesh. She got a small look of worry till she noticed Ulmarr joining her combat. With a small grin she stepped out of the flanked position so that she flanked with the now large Ulmarr.
"Coming to my rescue Ulmarr?" Artemis asked jokingly.
"These velves don't seem so strong," says Izússavar.
He moves to the other side of Artemis.
Ulmarr's strike drops another of the bandits.
and Izussavar hurts the leader, who then reaches for a pendant with his free hand and as he crushes it disappears.
"Well, I wouldn't be a very good host if I let you get poked full of holes while up north, would I?" Ulmarr said cheerily, as the bandit leader vanished.
Seeing that there were no remaining threads, Ulmarr asked the two prisoners, "You folks alright?" as he checked to see whether any of the fallen bandits were still alive.
Artemis gave Ulmarr a side grin before looking annoyed as the leader vanish. "H-How did..." She muttered before she joined Ulmarr and the prisoners. "How are they Ulmarr? Can we get them back to the group?"
"Wait! He could be still here, but invisible! Watch the snow for fresh tracks!"
Izússavar looks around the clearing intently.
Both visible bandits, who upon your closer examination are both female, are alive but require urgent medical attention. Both will die without it.
There is no sign of the other bandit or leader.
"Thank the gods, I don't know who you are or how you found us but our situation seemed hopeless."
"These two are still alive, Ulmarr gestured down to the fallen bandits, before casting Stabilize on each of them. He cast Detect Magic and proceeded to search the two unconscious elves for anything that might give some hint of who they were and what they wanted.
"I expect we'll want to lug them back and ask them some questions," Ulmarr stated, before securing the bandits with a rope and moving to release the two human prisoners.
"Ulrik and Varin, I presume? Whatever happened here?" Ulmarr asked.
"I agree." Artemis said with a nod. "We'll take the back to question them. Izússavar, bound them please and get them ready for the walk back to the group." She requested as she pointed him to the bandits Ulmarr stabilized.
Izússavar takes his rope and ties up the two velves.
"They're still out. We could probably cut a few saplings to make a sort of sled we could drag them on."
Both the surviving bandits have an amulet that gives off a faint conjuration aura. Otherwise their gear is very new and uniform for bandits, they each had a rapier, 2 daggers, another 14 bolts for their hand crossbows and a waterskin.
"These bandits attacked us from the treeline, we fled when it was clear they were going to win the fight. They chased us and I guess decided to take us alive for some reason. Presumably they were going to take us to a camp or hideout nearby."
"I see," Ulmarr said somewhat distractedly. He looked at the amulets, frowning a little, "Looks like they've got some magic on them," he said, as he focused in on them with the Detect Magic spell to try and identify their properties.
Spellcraft:
"Really? Let me see."
Izússavar examines the amulets.
"No, I don't recognize them."
He turns back to the survivors. "Any idea where this camp was they were going to take you?"
He looks at Artemis and Ulmarr. "The question now is: do we want to go after this camp? Or steer clear of it? Those Velves could come after us if we don't take them out, but they might think our group is too large to attack."
"If we had more men behind us I'd say we give it a look at least. But this group isn't built for this." Artemis pointed out. "We're here to scout a select area and that is all the manpower we've been given."
"Agreed. We don't have the ability to fight a war against every bandit group we come across," Ulmarr stated, "We should interrogate the prisoners, and continue on our way."
Your further investigation of the amulets reveals little, they use some kind of teleportation magic but that is all you can discern.
"There are old caves in the hills to the west, I would start there."
By the time you get back to the wagon and the rest of your party the two wounded bandits are stirring.
Ulmarr attempts to carefully remove the amulets as the bandits awake, in order to prevent them from simply teleporting out.
Artemis walked over to the group and looked to their group while Ulmarr was dealing with the bandits. "Did anything happen while we where gone?" She asked.
"Cave, eh? Hmmm... do velves usually live in caves?"
Izússavar shakes his head.
"I'm not sure we can afford to ignore enemies like that. If they use these amulets to disappear at will, there's nothing stopping them from raiding our column all the way to the ruins."
"If we go after them, they can still teleport away, and then proceed with raiding our column anyways," Ulmarr noted, "I doubt that attempting to pursue such a mobile force will really change the situation for us here. The best we can do is proceed with our mission."
"If the amulets are consumed upon use, then getting them to use them up now could make it harder for them to hit us later. Besides, we managed to take down two of these velves before they could use them. That luck may continue."
Artemis walked over to the group and looked to their group while Ulmarr was dealing with the bandits. "Did anything happen while we where gone?" She asked.
"Nothing of note."
"If the amulets are consumed upon use, then getting them to use them up now could make it harder for them to hit us later. Besides, we managed to take down two of these velves before they could use them. That luck may continue."
"Are they consumed upon use though? Well, let's find out, shall, we? Ulmarr said, before turning to one of the prisoners, who was presumably lying on the ground.
Pressing down gently on the Elf's neck with his boot, he gestured to the amulets and asked, "Who are you gits, and the hell are these?"
Satisfied that the group was safe and those they had rescued where now under watchful care, Artemis stepped to Ulmarr's side. "I greatly suggest answering him." She warned them as she crossed her arms.
The bandit looks at you uncomprehendingly.
"Oi, I asked you a question," Ulmarr snapped, starting to press down on the Elf's neck.
"Ulmarr, they might not be able to understand us. Maybe try elven?" Artemis asked with a shrug.
Ulmarr sighed, "Does anyone here speak Elven?" he asked of the others in the group, having never been able to master the language himself.
the cartographer speaks Elven and tries conversing with the bandits.
"Sir I can barely understand them, I think they speak an obscure dialect of Elven. They didn't seem to want to cooperate, they called me a filthy openworlder and said that "the enlightenment" was coming for us all. I feel like I am missing the nuance to much of what they are trying to say."
"So enlightenment is a bad thing, is it?" Izússavar chuckles. "That's a new one."
Izússavar scratches his scales for a moment.
"If he called us 'openworlders,' though, that probably means his race lives underground. Which would explain the pale complexion."
"Tell him, that his little group's already killed a man, and if he doesn't have anything useful to say, his continued well-being won't be worth s*@@ to me," Ulmarr said to the translator, his tone turning colder than an Arician winter.
The cartographer talks to the bandits again at one point one of the bandits spits on the ground.
"Sir, they say that all were aware of the risks and that soon all openworlders will kneel before the Matriarchs and accept enlightenment. They also made some disparaging comments about your ancestry which I feel no need to directly translate."
"Right, lovely." Artemis sighed as she rubbed her forehead for a moment. "Thank you, one last thing, can you try to get them to explain what this... "enlightenment" is?" She asked.
"Your question seemed to confuse them, ma'am. Once they recovered their shock they explained that enlightenment will be achieved when all have received the benevolent rule and wisdom of the Matriarchs."
"Matriarchs, eh? Well, do we want to spend time using some less pleasant methods of making them talk, or shall we deliver justice here and be on our way?" Ulmarr inquired, fast losing his patience with the bandits.
"Ask them if they came from the cave the others mentioned?"
"They say the old blood should know that their kind are far to noble to live in caves. They do provide useful bases to operate from."
"Well, ask them about their numbers?" Ulmarr said.
"I'm starting to doubt we'll get anything from them." Artemis said with a small sigh. "Not without more extreme measures that I don't wish to take."
"They won't answer any questions about how many others there are, all they say is more than enough to enlighten us all. I agree with Artemis I doubt that we will get anything more useful, and their dialect of elven makes it hard to get specifics."
"Then I suggest we render judgment no?" Artemis asked as she looked to those who hadn't spoken yet.