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"I don't think an angry bear would improve the situation for anyone," Ulmarr said, making a mental note to try and revive the poor creature once they had dealt with the immediate threat. And so, he cast entangle, and the plants around the bandits came to life.
Casting Shillelagh and holding his quarterstaff at the ready, Ulmarr moved closer to the fight.
"Bears are big bastards, I'd rather not fight one unless I have to," Ulmarr said, "Then again, I do wonder what's got it sounding so agitated... Doubt it's just us, else we'd already be getting chewed on."
Survival:
"Well, then, lets be off," Ulmarr said, going to inform the rest of their group of the plan, before beginning to head towards the hill.
Ulmarr looked back at Artemis blankly for a moment, before realizing his mistake, ”Oh... sorry,” he said awkwardly, briefly reddening with embarrassment , ”Uh, anyways, the three of us are likely the best equipped to deal with trouble, we can move ahead of the main group and investigate whatever this is.”
Ulmarr gave Artemis a nudge, and tilted his head towards the hill, "Looks like someone's been watching us," he muttered, "Shall we go pay them a visit?
"Well, looks like they're headed North, just like us," Ulmarr said, getting ready to proceed again, "Might be we'll meet them on the way. We'd best be prepared."
”Could be,” Ulmarr agreed, ”This far north, who knows?”
”Too clean to be orcs... more of those elves perhaps?” Ulmarr mused. He cast detect magic and searched the area. Perception:
"Yes, let's," Ulmarr said, helping to load up as well as he got ready to move out.
Ulmarr shrugged, he supposed it made sense that there would be bandits further north, where the reach of civilization grew even weaker. "Well, we should probably try and get some rest soon. Got plenty of travelling to do tomorrow," he said.
"Indeed," Ulmarr said, taking a seat as well, "Have there been any other unusual going ons in the area of late?" he asked curiously.
Ulmarr put down some coins for room and supper, "That normal around here? Elf bandits, I mean," he asked the innkeeper.
"Well then, to the inn?" Ulmarr said, as he headed for the inn.
"We're probably still a few days out," Ulmarr stated, "But yes, this seems like a good place to stop. At least, they don't seem to be a fan of orcs..." Sense Motive on merchant, just in case:
Ulmarr shrugged, "As you wish," he said, signaling to the others in their group to start getting a fire ready, as he too began getting some wood together.
"Well, I doubt we've got the time to give them a proper burial, don't want to hang around here too long, might run into more of this lot," Ulmarr said, taking the amulets, perhaps they could be better identified by others later, "I say we press on to the ruins."
Assuming there were no objections, Ulmarr would draw his dagger and quickly proceed to do the deed. Once it was done, he finished wiping the blood off his blade before sheathing it again, "Right then, shall we be on our way?"
"Well, no sense in keeping this lot alive, I say," Ulmarr said.
"Well, ask them about their numbers?" Ulmarr said.
"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.
"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.
Ulmarr sighed, "Does anyone here speak Elven?" he asked of the others in the group, having never been able to master the language himself.
"Oi, I asked you a question," Ulmarr snapped, starting to press down on the Elf's neck.
"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?"
"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."
Ulmarr attempts to carefully remove the amulets as the bandits awake, in order to prevent them from simply teleporting out.
"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."
"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:
"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.
"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.
Seeing Artemis get flanked, Ulmarr charges the Bandit leader. Attack:
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:
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.
Holding his weapon, Ulmarr followed Izússavar to the clearing.
Ulmarr looked back to the tracks, and nodded, "Best be ready for trouble," he said.
Ulmarr looked off in the direction of the tracks before looking back at the man and finally speaking up, "So, these bandits, what were they like? Were they human? How many of them were there?" he asked.
As the healing took affect, Ulmarr stepped back from the wounded man, giving him some room and leaving the talking to Artemis for now, as she was likely better at that sort of thing than he was.
"Well, let's find out," Ulmarr said, taking out a wand of Cure Light Wounds, approaching the man, and attempting to heal him.
"Well, you've met with a terrible fate, haven't you," Ulmarr muttered, as he scanned the area with Detect Magic, before approaching to further examine the corpses.
"Agreed," Ulmarr said, though rather reluctantly, "It would be risky and time consuming to try and pursue the orcs on their own territory, especially when there could easily be far more enemies out there in addition to the ones that left these tracks. I'd rather not deplete our strength on such side ventures unless it is actually necessary."
"Indeed," Ulmarr agreed. Not that he'd mind too much if they ran into some orcs, after all, the creatures were such terrible pests, getting rid of them would likely make life easier for plenty of Aricians. But, it would hardly do to come off as bloodthirsty here either. And so, he quickly moved to pack his things and to get ready to move out once more.
"Well, at least they did not disturb our sleep," Ulmarr commented, after he finished preparing his spells as he did every morning, "Sounds like they weren't too far from us, but, with luck, we hopefully shan't run into them on the trail." After all, the north was a big, empty place, and the orcs seemed to be headed west, while they were going north.
"Indeed," Ulmarr agreed, before looking up from the meat and to Izússavar, "It's just boar meat, he stated.
"There's always some low level raiding along the border from orcs and the like," Ulmarr said, "Considering the supplies, I'd say that this is one of their bases, yes."
Ulmarr examines the meat to determine what sort it was.
"Sounds like there's a fair few of them, then," Ulmarr mused, "Well, if there are orcs wandering about, here's as good a place to meet them as any. And, if they do not show themselves tonight, we can at least deprive them of their supplies while bolstering our own for the journey ahead," Ulmarr stated.
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