Sakyura is frustrated she can't figure out a way to get to the other side. That vanishes as she lifts off the ground. She turns to King with a grin before zipping off over the water to the other side before landing before the archers.
Kamo stabs Lo Kuon twice and Pagma blasts him with bombs. He groans as he goes limp on the ground. Jing-De grants Sakura the power of flight, and she uses it to cross the gorge and get to within a few feet of the archers.
The axe-wielding bandits attack Kamo again, one circling to flank the investigator. He manages to duck and dodge, avoiding all of their attacks!
The archers shift their aim to Sakura, firing more explosive arrows at her. One misses, but the others find their mark, one even landing a critical hit. The three that hit Sakura detonate in explosive bursts!
Kamo focuses on taking out the axemen, confident that Sakura and Pagma will deal with the archers. He tries to put one on the ground, buying time for Jing-De's spellcasting.
With Lo Kuon down, Jing directs his attention to the two axe-wielding maniacs attacking Kamo. He shoots one a piercing glare as magic begins to whirl around him. Intricate hand gestures force the energies to coalesce into a spell of command.
Pagma hurries across the gorge and tosses a bomb at the one Sakura is about to cut open.
Sakura does her best to dodge the explosions, but her main goal is closing the distance to the archers. She swings twice, the first off balance as she tries to get the hang of attacking while flying while the second takes full advantage of it and she aims perfectly. Afterwards, she raises her katana defensively, ready to parry.
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◈Dueling Parry: +2 circumstance bonus to AC until the start of your next turn
Jing-De's intimidation falls flat, and the bandit resists his command. But Kamo is able to knock him down onto his back, hard! Meanwhile, Sakura slashes the nearest archer twice, leaving him badly wounded. Pagma manages to splash him with a bomb.
The prone bandit gets back on his feet as both he and his companion attack Kamo again. Across the gorge, the archers drop their bows and draw axes, suddenly charging up to Sakura to attack!
Sakura focuses on downing the injured enemy, attacking twice before ready to parry again.
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◈Dueling Parry: +2 circumstance bonus to AC until the start of your next turn
Kamo keeps attacking the more-injured bandit.
He hits with a powerful slash, and follows up with another attack.
for plus
for
Pagma unloads a flurry of bombs on the ax wielders!
Seeing Sakura badly wounded, Jing-De uses metamagic to extend the reach of his healing spell and cure her injuries. Sakura dispatches the wounded bandit with a critical slice, but misses with her follow-up. Pagma only barely splashes the other bandits with her first bomb. Kamo scores a critical hit with his blade but it's not enough to slow down his opponent.
The bandits attack. Both Sakura and Kamo do an admirable job at defending themselves, but one hit each slips past their defenses.
"Ugh! How are you still alive!?" Kamo looks for an opening again.
He attacks twice.
for and
for
Sakura's wounds heal as warmth spreads through her body. She hadn't ever considered the fact that her allies wouldn't take care of her and just continued fighting. She makes a note to thank them later while she presses the attack beforing readying to parry.
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◈Dueling Parry: +2 circumstance bonus to AC until the start of your next turn
Pagma unloads vial after vial at the enemy Sakura is fighting, hoping to end this as quickly as possible so she can mourn her wonderful bridge.
Jing-De blasts the foes fighting Sakura with divine power. Pagma hurls three bombs at the most wounded foe, then Sakura manages to take him down with a critical hit. She's only facing two enemies now, while Kamo squares off against two of them as well. Kamo lands a hit against his opponent, but the tough warrior is still standing strong.
One of Kamo's opponents gets a critical hit against him, while Sakura's foes score two hits.
Kamo looks at the tough warrior and aims for the gap in his armor.
for and
Sakura has no time to be concerned with Kamo as she still has two enemies of her own to handle. Thankful for her ranged support assistance, she contineus to dance and spin with her blade, landing two decent strikes before raising her blade defensively.
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◈Dueling Parry: +2 circumstance bonus to AC until the start of your next turn
Pagma's bag is getting next to empty, which distresses the sprite as she sticks her head into it quickly then back up at the enemies Sakura have not put down yet!!!
Sakura and Pagma take down another of the foes fighting the warrior, while Kamo dispatches his opponent with a critical strike before taking a moment to heal himself. Jing-De uses a calming spell to placate the last foe facing Kamo. That just leaves one foe to fight Sakura. He swings his axe, but Sakura parries!
Sakura's methods have never failed her and so she sticks to her usual routine. She delivers two more quick strikes before readying to parry once more.
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Sakura cuts down the final bandit! The calmed offers no resistance as you disarm him and bind his hands.
The bloodstained kerchiefs the Silkwasp Bandits wear around their necks hide a seeping, partially scabbed-over wound on their throats in the shape of a tangled knot of roots, the symbol of Kugaptee. The captured bandit refuses to speak.
"More trouble from this fiend!" Kamo exclaims, exasperated. "He won't stop us, and we'll banish him for good."
He looks across the ravine to Sakura and Pagma. "But now, we have so much repair work to do."
Pagma mourns the bridge like a lost child. "Could we track them back to their base? So they do not do this again?"
"You're right, Pagma," Kamo agrees. "There's no sense in rebuilding the bridge if they are going to blow it up again. Let's look for some tracks."
Kamo is quickly able to pick up the bandits' trail. He leads you along the path, an overgrown trail leading northeast from Willowshore. Eventually, the trail leads to a tall bluff overlooking the Sea of Ghosts a few hours north of Karahai, about a day's ride on horseback from Willowshore.
A humble farmstead sits on the bluff, its western half nestled within rings of overgrown, ramshackle fences. Reeds surround a large fishpond at the western end, near the gates that lead up through the outermost fence. The farmhouse appears to be in dire repair, and the barn is in even worse shape with a partially collapsed roof.
"Either a cleverly hidden base or a hideout of desperate rogues," Kamo says. "Should we circle around and check the barn?"
"We could burn it down around them?" Pagma the semi reformed arcanist suggests.
With flight spells and the cliff as cover, you stealthily approach the crumbling farmhouse. You reach the building undetected and slip in through a side door, finding yourself inside a pantry. There is nobody in this room, but you can hear a few voices speaking in low tones on the other side of the door leading further into the building.
"I'll open the door, you lead the way, Sakura," Kamo whispers, his weapon at the ready. He sidles up next to the door and throws it open with a look to his sister.
You move through the kitchen and into a living and dining room area. It seems to have been converted into barracks, and three bandits are here, wary and nervous. Their eyes widen when they see you, and they shout and reach for their weapons!
Kamo takes the measure of one of the bandits.
He rushes to one side, allowing for some blasting room, and takes a swipe at him.
for and
Pagma tosses two quick bombs out of her dwindling supply and then pulls her tiny dagger to do bad things with.
Accustomed to starting the battle before the enemies can react, Sakura blasts ahead into the room and tries to get opposite of her brother, attacking his target as well.
"You will face me!" she says to him, trying to get the attention of Kamo.
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Jing-De critically hits the first bandit with a ray of frost. Kamo moves in and stabs the man, then Sakura cuts him down with two swift slices of her katana! Pagma hurls her bombs, burning the other two bandits.
They cry out in alarm and draw their greataxes as they attack Sakura.
"None of that!" Kamo circles behind one of the attackers and stabs him right in the back!
for and
The little sprite is down to her knife, and a tiny little knife at that, so she zips around to the back of the one Sakura is attempting to put down and stabs away.
Satisfied that she got what she wanted, she ignores the pains from her wounds and attacks the target her brother flanks with.
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◈Dueling Parry: +2 circumstance bonus to AC until the start of your next turn
Jing-De's next ray goes wide. Kamo scores a critical hit, and Pagma flies in and pokes the wounded bandit twice, doing enough damage despite her tiny size to take him down. Sakura's blade flashes as she scores two hits on the final foe, one a critical strike.
Grimacing, the last bandit attacks Sakura again, but this time she parries his blows.
From down the hall, another figure emerges. A gaunt woman with withered skin hops stiffly towards you, her arms outstretched before her, her eyes white and milky. She's a vampire--a jiang shi! "I am Hong Meigui, servant of the great Kugaptee!" the vampire calls out as she uncoils an urumi, its flexible blades crackling with fire and electricity. "In the name of my great master, I will destroy you!"
She hops up to Sakura and lashes out, but the warrior parries her urumi's blades!
"Lots of people have tried!" Kamo counters. He slips around behind the new foe and tries to stab her immediately.
for and +
Sakura rolls her eyes as the newcomer approaches. "Oh, get in line!"
After parrying the whip-like blades, she pivots and spins to deliver a strike before pivoting to strike in the other direction. After both spinning attacks, she takes a step back to raise her katana defensively again.
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◈Dueling Parry: +2 circumstance bonus to AC until the start of your next turn
"Yea!" the pixie didn't add much intimidation to banter, but does fly to a better position to help somewhat with her dagger.
Jing-De has been saving some of his most powerful magic for a foe such as this. He unleashes a powerful beam of holy light, the blazing energy burning a hole in the hopping vampire's chest! Pagma fails to land a good hit, but Kamo slices the jiang-shi and Sakura slashes her twice. The vampire is resistant to the physical damage, and the wounds start to quickly heal.
Both foes attack Sakura. She takes a normal hit from the thug's greataxe and a critical hit from the crackling urumi!
"Wait, I do have something!" Pagma shouts with her usual excitement. Reaching in her satchel she grabs two more bombs. Ones that are no good against normal people, but Vampires! She flies back a few feet then throws.
"Oh oh, Sakura!"
Kamo quickly looks for one more opening on the enemy, then strides to his sister's side to patch up some of the damage.
for and +
Jing lifts his staff and uses it as a beacon for his innate powers. Motes of magic swirl around the staff and then coalesce into a healing mist that wraps itself around Sakura.
Sakura doesn't hear her brother because those two hits cause her to grunt in pain. But like clockwork, Jing-De is there to make it all go away!
With a sly smile, she continues attacking twice more before parrying again.
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◈Dueling Parry: +2 circumstance bonus to AC until the start of your next turn
Pagma's sunlight bombs prove quite effective, the bottled sunshine scouring away the vampire's impure flesh. Kamo strikes Hong Meigui from behind, then Sakura slashes her twice, and with a strangled cry, the jiang-shi falls!
With the vampire's defeat, her control on the remaining bandit breaks. He blinks, eyes widening in horror before he turns to flee!
Hong Meigui had a +2 striking flaming shock urumi, as well as a key to a large chest at the food of the bed in a nearby chamber. Inside the chest are dozens of silk pouches containing a total of 3,500 sp and 220 gp. There is also a false bottom. Wrapped tightly in a sheet of fine spidersilk (worth 60 gp), you discover a jiang-shi bell.
With the Silkwasp Bandits dispersed, the bridge project is able to resume. This time, there are no interruptions, and soon enough, the vital passage between Willowshore and Karahai is open once again!
Kamo hangs the bell from his belt. "Maybe know we can rebuild our bridge in peace," he says sadly. "It was a good bridge, wasn't it Pagma?"
"It was" Pagma says with remorse, but then pulls herself together "We shall make this one even better though.... and post guards"