Ferric delivers a nasty kick to the leader before jumping back to allow his master to strike with her lance. Unfortunately the leader side steps the strike. Meanwhile the pale mage takes aim at the bandit in the tree stand and lands a shot solidly in his gut causing him to cough up a gush of blood, but he still just barely clings to life.
Round 5
- Bandit 1 Dead
- Emerald
- Ludivine 10/11 HP
- Actaeon
- Bandit 3 Dead
- Sirinus
- Bandit 2 AC 13 HP 1/9 (in eastern tree stand)
- Kressle AC 15 HP 8/17
- Hadin 7/12 HP
Ludi and Actaeon still up.
Actaeon attempts to refocus by watching the bandit's movement, but he is still distracted with Ludivine moving out of his line of sight.
Ludivine almost squeals in shock. She'd only been trying to get her spear back after stabbing the man, and then when she shifted it he more or less just ran into it.
There's no time to think about it though. She's sure the bandit leader must be quite dangerous. Ludivine hurries onward to help Emerald, again going for a stab in the back while she has the chance.
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The bandit in the tree stand clearly sees he has met his match and wimpers while both dropping his bow and dropping to lay prone on the tree stand so he can no longer be seen from the ground.
The leader wounded and surrounded and nearly alone runs toward the end of the clearing.
Full round action withdrawl first square being a NE move which should avoid AoO by both Ludi and Emerald. I think I counted 12 squares of movment right.
Round 5
Hadin 7/12
Round 6
- Emerald
- Ludivine 10/11 HP
- Actaeon
- Sirinus
- Bandit 2 AC 13 HP 1/9 (in eastern tree stand)(Prone with total cover)
- Kressle AC 15 HP 1/17
- Hadin 7/12 HP
Actaeon lowers his bow when the bandit drops out of sight. ”Can’t stay up there forever,” he states. ”Those wounds look pretty nasty. You’ll bleed out soon enough. Drop your weapons to the ground and make your way down here, or I’ll set that stand on fire and you can jump.”
Ludivine jabs again at the bandit leader as she starts to run.
The man in the tree groans in response to Actaeon. Fine. This is followed by shuffling noises.
Still need an action from Hadin for last round.
"She's getting away, Hadin! Take the shot!"
I don't like the idea of her getting away to inform others...
The pale mage quickly reloads his crossbow and fires after the leader.
Hadin nods, and shoots at the fleeing bandit, but the arrow falls short
Emerald directs her horse to move up to the fleeing bandit leader.
She readies to strike with her lance if the bandit moves into any of the lance's threatened squares. Then, she will also get an AOO if the bandit leaves such a threatened square. Withdraw only keeps you safe from leaving the first threatened square (which is the one the bandit leader is in now, threatened by the warhorse).
Whiff...
Whiff again... for crying out loud... but we have Hero Points!
The groaning bandit in the tree stand tosses his weapons over the edge. A longbow and a longsword tumble to the round loudly.
Cornered and near death the leader decides better to try to go down fighting than with a weapon in her back.
Edit:I don't know why the rolls are showing like 1d1d20 but they are in fact right as I typed them in the dice command as 1d20+5 so the results are accurate. Just a weird display glitch on Paizos end I guess.
Emerald's horse takes a hit from the bandit leader.
When she sees the bandit leader stop running to stand and fight, Ludivine begins running after her and Emerald.
Ferric will retaliate against the bandit leader.
I am not sure if I should assume that Ferric stops attacking an opponent who is downed or not... she did hit him pretty hard. Him stomping on her after she goes down is not out of the question.
I will let the GM decide.
After taking a nasty axe blow to the flank, Ferric snaps back with a bite to the arm of the leader with a sound of snapping bone. The bleeding from such would probably be enough to kill her, but Ferric raises up to deliver two swift kicks in the chest. The first sends the woman to the ground and the second crushes her, as she lets out a final grunt of agony before death.
After a moment the last bandit in the tree stand uses all his energy to come down the ladder before falling down and leaning up against the base of the tree. "Mercy, mercy please! I will do whatever you want or tell you anything you want to know just don't kill me!"
Ludivine slows down to finish the rest of the distance at a trot. She looks down at the mess and promises Emerald "I will never make your horse angry."
Emerald will heal her horse's wounds.
She pats Ferric
"Yeah. He did better than I did, that's for sure."
"Anyone hurt?"
Ludivine displays her arm but shrugs.
"Scratch"
After a moment the last bandit in the tree stand uses all his energy to come down the ladder before falling down and leaning up against the base of the tree.
Who has rope to tie this one up? he calls out to the group.
Actaeon keeps his bow ready as the bandit lowers himself from the tree. Once the bandit reaches the ground, Actaeon orders, ”Face the tree, hands behind your back, and get on your knees.”
Keeping an eye on the bandit to see if he complies, Actaeon walks over to the discarded bow and unstrings it. He looks over at Sirinus and holds up the bow string. ”I think this will work. Watch him while I bind his hands.”
Actaeon moves closer to the bandit, ”Make any moves, and I’ll slit your throat. Got it?”
While binding the bandit, Actaeon turns his head to peer through the forest, ”Ludi, Emerald, you both OK?”
Once the bandit is secure, Acteon will look over the bandits, the camp, and the cart.
"If it's all the same to you I will stay on me ass, I can barely breathe as it is. I ain't goin' anywhere in a hurry best I could do is try an crawl away and that will just get yer arrow in my back. No thanks, I'll stay put I am at your mercy. I don't know who you are but you did quite the f%!*in' job on Kressle and all the guys I have met are scared o' her. The first guy that tried ti mess with her got his hands chopped off." The bandit says all this between some bloody coughs and pauses to catch his breath.
The bandit catches Actaeon looking at the cart. "Don't bother, its just bait there is a bear trap hidden under the tarp to hurt anyone trying to steal from us. All the loot is hidden under our food and supplies under the west platform. See, I am helping no need to be pushy with me." The man says with a half-hearted smile between a few more coughs.
Ludivine strolls back toward the scene of the fight. When she hears Actaeon's call, she raises her arm high in a wave.
Good. You're in a talking mood. Who else will we find in your encampment? What is the local leadership like?
Emerald's thoughts from before on bandita:
"Unrepentant banditry. Hmmph. How many chances to repent are we to give them?"
Emerald looks over the charter and clasps her holy symbol. "Torag does not command that every foe must be spared. They knew what they were doing when they took on that life.
But... it would be a waste of resources to kill those who are genuinely repentant and who could be loyal subjects once Brevoyan control is firmly established. I suppose we will see what happens."
Emerald looks on as Sirinus proposes tying up the bandit and Actaeon executes the plan.
He's so thoroughly beaten and outclassed. Are they scared of him? Or is this just their standard procedure?
"I'm fine, Actaeon."
She thinks for a moment.
"We are to strive against banditry. How do we interpret this? Is this man to be given a chance to show his merit, or executed? What are obligations to him as our prisoner?"
And who does Kressle answer to? Who did she feared, among your bandits? Who gave her orders?
"As long as you keep her and that monster away," The man says while gesturing toward Emerald and Ferric. "I will stay in a talking mood. But, if you are gonna start discussing my execution what do I gain from telling you anything? I might as well finish myself off then huh!?"
So repent, show remorse for your deeds, and cooperate. Tell us all you can about your band of thieves, so you can't go back. Give us reason to believe there might still be hope for you to turn your life around. Yes, we killed the other bandits. But we didn't succumb to bloodlust. We can show mercy, if we feel it is deserved. Do a favor to yourself. Don't you want to live? Yes it might be a little more harder to live an honest, hard working live than to be a bandit simply using force to get what he needs, and enjoy his ill-gotten goods while other have to work day in, day out. But considering the other option is a unnamed grave in the wilderness...
Actaeon gives a sigh of relief when he sees Ludi wave at him through the forest. Still holding the loose bowstring and eyeing the bandit leaning against the tree, Actaeon considers the condition that the bandit is in and the information he is providing.
At odds on what to do next, he listens intently to Emerald’s argument. Six months ago, he would have just killed this bandit for his life choices. ’Can this bandit repent? Is it not too late for him to become a contributor to his community?’
”Before we decide his fate, let’s see if he’s being truthful to us.”
Acteon considers what the bandit said about the cart and the west platform, ’Is he telling the truth, or is the platform trapped instead?’
Ludivine decides to go with Actaeon to look around the camp.
"Do you think they will kill him?"
"As long as you keep her and that monster away," The man says while gesturing toward Emerald and Ferric. "I will stay in a talking mood. But, if you are gonna start discussing my execution what do I gain from telling you anything? I might as well finish myself off then huh!?"
"Maybe you should. You might be too stupid to be a useful member of society if you can't grasp the situation.
You know that the penalty for unrepentant banditry is death. That's nothing new. So it is our responsibility to determine if you are repentant or not. Don't take it personally.If you cared to notice, I asked what our obligations to you as our prisoner. Do we have to feed you three meals a day? Keep you safe from predators and vermin? Change your socks if they get wet? How long would you remain bound? I ask this of my comrades because I am not used to taking prisoners. So count yourself lucky.
The best thing you can do, as Hadin says, is to convince us you are repentant and will turn away from that life."
Emerald is saying this partly for the benefit of her new allies.
After we... let him convince us of his repentance and what-not, we could tie him up and place him on the platform above again for "safe keeping" while we infiltrate further into the camp. Dragging him around doesn't sound beneficial to any of us for the time being.
Sirinus offers.
"Do you think they will kill him?"
Actaeon looks at his sister and shrugs. Speaking softly, ”This man chose banditry over community. He deserves to die for that alone. Whether he has committed atrocities already, his character tells me that he will do what is easy and what serves his own purpose at any given time. Can we let a man like that walk free? He can breathe for now though. He might have information that we need.” Actaeon presses his lips together, making the right side of his mouth scrunch upward in consternation before he continues. ”While I believe this man deserves to die, I find myself asking if I can be the executioner. Combat is one thing, but this man is now basically helpless. Can he repent? Does he have the qualities of a man deep inside that can still benefit community?” He looks over at his sister and shrugs again. ”Let’s first see if he is being truthful. If he is lying, the man will die soon.” Acteon turns to the business at hand and searches the camp, guided by what the captured bandit has told him.
"Yes. Let us see if he is being truthful."
The Bandit first retorts to Emerald. "Who's penalty!? This is the river kingdoms, "Courts are for Kings", "You have what you hold". I don't like him but the Stag Lord is King here, until you or someone else replace him there is no law against banditry. Now I am done talking to nobles with no lived experience. I had to escape slavery just to scrape by here in the wilderness, I won't be lectured by someone in shiny armors with a sigil" The man turns to speak to Hadin and calms his voice. "Kressle, answered to the Stag Lord, she didn't fear no one. Anyone short of the Stag Lord who challenged her ended up missing parts. This is the whole encampment, I am guessing you are why the boys sent to Oleg's aren't back yet. That means there are only 4 left out hunting. If they come back and don't see anyone they will head back to the Stag Lords fort. You seem strong but I doubt you could take the fort without a lot of help or one hell of a plan. There are at least a score of boys there not to mention the Stag Lord. He is a mean drunk never seen him sober and he can still hit a bullseye at 30 yards. In fact there is a shipment of wine there for him along with the ither goods under the tarp there. What else you wanna know?"
The loot under the western stand are as such.
321 sp, 90 gp, a pair of silver earrings worth 150 gp, a wooden music box worth 90 gp, three crates of furs and hides worth 50 gp per crate, and a polished wooden case of potent greenish herbal liquor. There are still eight bottles with liquor left in them, each worth 20 gp. As well as basic foodstuffs for the camp.
There is nothing on the cart except the trap the bandit told you about.
The two dead bandits (and the living one) each have a longbow, longsword, a quiver of arrows leather armor and 10gp.
Kressle the leader has studded leather, two masterwork hand axes, 4 daggers, a potion of cure light and 85 gp.
Hearing the captured bandit, Ludevine returns to answer him. Her voice is calm and slow and dreamy.
"'You have what you hold...' We hold you and so we have you. You like that notion better than judgement by court? Should we just kill you outright here on the spot since you are ours? If you can't be tried for banditry, we can't be tried for murder."
Ludevine looks in the direction of the man's former leader and points.
"Kressle is it? Kressle feared no one and died running away from someone. You talk in circles and the result is foolishness."
Ludevine looks up, at the trees all around them in every direction.
"These forests, this wilderness, has its own laws you know. Ones not made by the likes of us. I know something of them from the whispers. One law is the clever survive while the foolish perish. I sentence you to death as a fool."
Hearing the captured bandit, Ludevine returns to answer him. Her voice is calm and slow and dreamy.
"'You have what you hold...' We hold you and so we have you. You like that notion better than judgement by court? Should we just kill you outright here on the spot since you are ours? If you can't be tried for banditry, we can't be tried for murder."
"People aren't property, "Slavery is an Abomination". You can think what you want. As you say, there are cleverer things out here than you, I or the Stag Lord. You will get to test how clever you are. My cleverness got me out of slavery and at least gave me a home. You assaulted my home not the other way around."
Emerald turns to the others. "I hear no remorse. Just continued defiance. So I say we execute him on the spot for unrepentant banditry. He has confessed his guilt."
Sirinus sighs. He certainly isn't going to help us further. I suspect he's said about all that he's going to.
He nods specifically to Emerald.
Do as you will but make it quick.
Do you want a few minutes to pray, before we proceed? Any last request about your burial?
"What else you wanna know?"
Although you guys seem set.
Bargaining and excuses. No repentance.
If the bandit has no last words, and no response to Hadin's questions, then Emerald will execute him swiftly and mercifully.
Said said what she came over to say, Ludivine seems to lose interest and wanders back over to look around the camp with Actaeon some more.
Actaeon feels some remorse, knowing that the bandit must die. ’Why do I feel this way? I have had no trouble slaughtering the other bandits that were raiding my home. They deserved it. Is this one any different? He hurt those kind folks at the outpost.’
He tries to distance himself and focus on the camp, but he cannot help but listen to Ludevine when she speaks to the bandit. ’How does Ludi know this forest? What is she talking about with these whispers? She has never been here before. Maybe we should have just stayed on the farm. Where I can protect her. This place is much bigger than her or I.’
He is brought out of his thoughts as Ludi approaches, ”Ludi, you doing alright? I miss home.”
After his conversation with Ludi and Emerald executes the last bandit, Actaeon approaches the group, ”He,” nudging a chin towards the executed bandit, "mentioned that four more are still out there hunting. They could return at any moment. We should prepare to ambush them or prepare to follow them. Ambushing them and taking them out makes the most sense to me to dwindle their numbers. We should be able to track their movements enough back to this Stag Lord and his fort. Should we gather our horses and come up with a plan?”