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If Jaskar can see what is happening, he will fire arrows at the man with the sash.

Hamiya will attack with her spear

Willow casts Summon Beserkers. These seem like baddies!

Round 1

The man in the robes begins to cast a spell, but from his perch atop the rock, Jaskar downs him with an arrow (7 damage!). Jaskar takes a quick second shot at one of the bandits, killing him as well! (2 damage) Aghilas moves forward ahead of the group to shield them from a charge, and is met by one of the bandits. The two begin to test each other's defenses. A second bandit quickly reinforces the first, and Hazrahi steps up beside Aghilas, forming the beginning of a wall against the bandits. So far, everyone is attacking cautiously, getting each other's mettle.

A big cluster of fighters begins to form up. Two more bandits come forward to menace Hazrahi and Aghilas. They jeer at them, waving short swords. A determined Khawaji joins the line, and Hamiya gets into position behind her friends, to attack over their shoulders.

Then with a swirling flash of green runes, Willow's berserkers appear, and things get a little more intense! The remaining 3 bandits attack the berserkers. One of the berserkers, who is still orienting himself, gets knocked backwards by his opponent, and blood is drawn (3 damage).

Solomon's spell is finally ready, but it is difficult to find a good target in the midst of the melee. He blasts his fire at the bandits who attacked the berserkers. One of the bandits goes down, while two others are singed(2 damage, each). The berserkers are also caught in the blast, mostly on the edge of the massive cone of fire (1 damage for 3, 3 damage for 1).

You all prepare to fight the remaining 6 bandits.

This round had a lot of misses... Solomon, burning hands produces a pretty big cone of fire, and with you acting last, I tried to thread the needle between getting some bandits and not hitting any of "us"... the berserkers are, you know, sort of unreal.

For those of you who are worrying about it, I changed the initiative system so a move and attack takes the lower of the two initiatives, rather than the sum. This makes initiative act more like it usually does (your move/attack happens, along with cleaves, etc) and makes it much less of a pain to figure out what to do with +1 to initiative powers (just give the bonus to all of the init rolls)

Technical details (rolls, etc)

Jaskar attacks any targets available - he cannot attack into melee.

Hamiya attacks any bandits in range, prefering to stay in the second rank of possible.

Solomon will remain behind everyone else and monitor what is happening.

Khawaji will engage one of the bandits well still holding the line with the others.

Aghilas enters a lesser berserkergang and attacks the bandit in front of him.

Willow will throw a dart at a bandit. She will also try to maintain as much distance as possible between herself and the enemy.

Round 2

The mages and Jaskar look for ways to contribute, but the melee is too scrambled for them to be able to safely shoot into the fight.

One of the bandits fighting the berserkers quickly cuts down two of them before they even get an attack (2 damage, then 5 damage). The remaining berserkers quickly kill the two they are facing with a series of quick stabs with their spears (5 damage/kill, then 3 damage, 6 damage/kill, miss 2nd cleave).

On the PC side of the melee, Aghilas enters his little berserkergang, but he misses as he rushes forward with his spear. Aghilas' opponent shoves him back among his friends, but he is not seriously hurt (3 damage to Aghilas). Hamiya and Hazrahi Jaskar attack as well, keeping their opponents at bay.

Though the fight on the PC side remains a stalemate, the berserkers begin to move around to help fight the remaining 4 bandits.

Actions?

Technical Details

Desert take you, serpent! That won’t happen again.

Aghilas lets his momentum carry him right into the next bandit, aiming to skewer him.

Aghilas would like to “cut” himself free of the circle of bandits, even if he ends up with the bandits between him and the others.

Jaskar continues to look for a target for his bow.

Hamiya let's out a screech as she presses her attack, which is a signal for Kareek to dive bomb attack her target from the back.

Round 3

Hamiya signals Kareek to attack. Kareek dives down from the sky onto one of the bandits. Kareek lands well on the bandits face, and immediately goes for the eyes, bringing down the bandit.

Aghilas, still raging, rushes forward, slamming one of the bandits with a mighty blow that sends the bandit's limp body flying back 10 feet. Aghilas follows, through the gap the attack created, then spins around and stabs another bandit in the back with his spear.

One of the berserkers, perhaps inspired by Aghilas' performance, knocks the sword out of the last bandit's hand, and stabs him in the gut, killing him.

The bandits are all dead. What would you like to do, now?

Hamiya searches the bandits, paying special attention to the man with the sash.

Jaskar rejoins the group and looks for tracks. Trying to determine if these men coming from or going to the temple.

"Check if the man with the sash has a book." Willow is keeping her eye on the temple door "I wonder if we could baricade them in? The bandits? Or we could see if the lord here would give us some oil? Pour it into the temple and set it on fire? Hope it all burns? Check for valuables afterwards?"

Searching the bodies reveals relatively little. Each has a few silver pieces. Altogether, you find that there are 65 silver pieces among the various bandits. Looking over their stuff, you find some food, some bed rolls, and various personal items. You do find a thin spell book in the mage's belongings. On the cover, in Kuntani, it says "Property of Zurwin. Private and Confidential!"

Looking around the area, it's hard to see specifically where the bandits came from. There's a lot of disturbed ground around the combat, and it's clear they did some foraging around the area here, but there's no clear sign of where they came from, or in fact, any very obvious trail continuing on from here.

The area north of the rock, where they were camping is hedged around by trees on three sides. The trees continue around the east side of the rock.
South of the rock, there's a fairly steep descent from this mountainous plateau. West of the rock, there's the bridge you came over, and the deep crevasse. At the bottom of that, there's a stream heading down and to the south.

Jaskar jogs up to the group and claps Willow in the back Well done! Those beserkers you summon have been incredible.

Hamiya rolls the nearest bandit corpse over on its back with her spear. The spirit of the Vulture asks that carrion be left face up, so the soft meat on the face and belly is presented for scavengers. Raaawk!

According to our information, which way is the bandit encampment? Through the trees?