Smoking Out The Bandits

[Quonundrum]

Meinhardt


"Absolutely," he answers the paladin and accepts the lantern and the oil, pouring the latter into the lantern's oil reservoir. Upon lighting the lantern with his tinder box, he holds it aloft with the narrow beam of light illuminating the interior passage. Nodding to confirm he is ready, he allows Crobeus to lead the way.

[hedgeknight]

Dredd

Ignoring Renna, having not forgotten the mess she got them into with the skeletons, Dredd follows Magdal and Stobart toward the cave, giving one last look to make sure the troll isn't following them.

[GreyWolfVT]

Pimlan shakes his head and sighs "I guess we came here for one thing and are going to do something worse." the halfling goes to wherever the fools are that are going into the cave and will follow if a majority of the group goes in despite his not wanting to.

[gurusql]

Renna

Renna will stay with the group.

[OGRE MAGE]

More Rush In
The Caves Of Chaos
Late Morning, Mostly Clear

Crobeus and Meinhardt strike spark to lantern and rush inside the cave to investigate the noise they heard.

Inside they find a roughly 20'x20' room scattered with the remnants of what looks like a brutal battle. A wooden table and chairs have been smashed throughout the place, lit by a single toppled candle laying amongst several paper playing cards that are now strewn about the floor. Crabgrass stands over a gagged man tied to a toppled chair, his weak calls for help muffled by the dirty rag stuffed into his mouth.

A woman in leather armor lays dead in one corner where a black tarp hangs over the outside wall, her throat clearly slashed horribly. Dubricus, his hands, robes and face splattered with fresh blood, huddles over a second dead body lying in the center of the room. This man also appears to have been executed in a grisly fashion, with a terrible dagger wound still bleeding from his neck. The mage looks up at the new arrivals with a crazed look in his eyes, almost as if he were enjoying the carnage they created. Crabgrass sees the brighter light arriving in time to turn around and silence any sudden noise or shouts.

Eventually, the others from the group below climb the ravine wall to join those already inside the cave. Though there is no light or noise other than what they see on the right side of the opening, the cave complex clearly stems off in a few other directions besides this first guard room area. (7)

Actions?

caves_of_chaos_large - Copy.jpg (23.67 KiB) Viewed 132 times

Magdal (R1) AC:7 12/16
Crobeus (P1) AC:3 8/10
Pimlan (F1/T1) H-L AC:6 4/9
Dubricus (M1) AC:8 5/5 Sleep
Crabgrass (MU1/C1) H-E AC:7 7/7 SG / Sanct
Meinhardt (MU1) AC:10 5/5 MM/MM
Renna (MU1/C1) Elf AC:4 9/9
Skratch (T1) H-O AC:6 8/8
Stobart (C1) AC:5 10/10
Dredd (F1) H-O AC:3 13/16

[Stirling]

Crabgrass

"We took this one captive. I promised him a fair trial at the Keep. The two others ambushed us in the dark. Dubricus excelled to take them out."

He will raise the man up to a sitting position, still tied to the chair.

"Perhaps Dredd or Croebus can check the knots I tied him with. My dextrous ability to rope cords is not so nimble and I would hate him to escape." He thinks ahead of any escape plans, best to keep him gagged too and thus he can only nod his head or shake it to answer any "yes or no" questions. I will place a toppled chair opposite him, inviting anyone to sit and question the guy, Meinhardt?.

[Quonundrum]

Meinhardt


Meinhardt is careful to avoid illuminating the western passage with the lantern as he surveys the chaotic aftermath. He also peers warily at the blood stained Dubricus, as he begins to seriously question the man's suitability for an adventuring life. In a low, hushed voice, he responds to Crabgrass. "I don't think we have time for questioning, at the moment. If those two ambushed you, there may be another alerting the rest."

[Scott308]

Crobeus - Human Paladin

Crobeus is...well, he's honestly stunned by what he sees. "Good work, you two!" he quietly tells Crabgrass and Dubricus. "Meinhardt is correct, however- the time for questioning will be later. If we remove the gag, he'll just scream to warn his companions. He probably won't give us any useful information, anyway. We'll take him back to the keep as you said, but we'll let him take a nap first." The paladin strikes the prisoner on the head with the pommel of his sword to knock him out. "It looks like we may have stumbled across the bandit lair after all, so we need to be careful. They know we're here at this point."

[shaidar]

Stobart

The cleric is shocked by what he sees, particularly when it comes to Dubricus, but does his best to hide it.

Does Stobart recognise any of the bandits?

[OGRE MAGE]

Though they are similarly attired, Stobart doesn't specifically recognize any of these people.

[Darithe]

Magdal

Magdal is stunned for a moment by what she sees, wondering how these two survived the bandits attack. She takes up a defensive stance should more suddenly show up.

[shaidar]

Stobart

"I don't recognise any of these, so they are at least three more out there somewhere."

[hedgeknight]

Dredd

Bringing up the rear guard, the Half-Orc finally gets a look at the carnage inside the room. He grunts and mutters, "Kord's guts! I hate I missed out on all the fun." He give Dubricus a nod and then turns to watch the corridor behind them.

[shaidar]

Stobart

"We're here now, we should investigate further. They might know we are here now, but there is still some surprise. If we leave now and return they will have even more time to prepare."

[OGRE MAGE]

Inside Cave B
The Caves Of Chaos
Late Morning, Mostly Clear

The blood soaked Dubricus stands up tall after all the recognition. "Yes! That's right! They AMBUSHED us! So I killed them while they slept! It is amazingly easy to kill a person when they can't fight you back!" The mage manically moves his bloodied dagger towards the throat of the third bandit, who is still mumbling and jostling loudly while tied to the chair.

Crobus abruptly puts an end to the bound mans struggling by coshing his lights out with the pommel of his sword. Dubricus looks to the Paladin for guidance, checking if he wants him to murder this unconscious fellow as well.

Looking over the trio of bandits, the woman near the wall has her face covered in makeup that makes her look even more dead. When the black flap is moved away from the wall, a narrow alcove is found that leads to the empty niche in the outside wall. It can be assumed that this was the head that initially disappeared from the niche, causing all the carnage in the first place.

Other than the scattered box, candle, and paper playing cards strewn about the floor in here, there is not much else to find, as the decor is otherwise limited to rough rock walls.

Those in the group who are standing out in the main hallway looking for oncoming danger can see nothing but darkness straight ahead. However, to their left, the twinkle of torchlight coming from deeper in this cave complex is noticed. Straining to hear in that direction, the soft but distinct sounds of normal conversations can barely be heard.

Actions?

caves_of_chaos_large - Copy.jpg (24.11 KiB) Viewed 77 times

Magdal (R1) AC:7 12/16
Crobeus (P1) AC:3 8/10
Pimlan (F1/T1) H-L AC:6 4/9
Dubricus (M1) AC:8 5/5 Sleep
Crabgrass (MU1/C1) H-E AC:7 7/7 SG / Sanct
Meinhardt (MU1) AC:10 5/5 MM/MM
Renna (MU1/C1) Elf AC:4 9/9
Skratch (T1) H-O AC:6 8/8
Stobart (C1) AC:5 10/10
Dredd (F1) H-O AC:3 13/16

[Stirling]

Crabgrass

We should collect the swords and daggers of the three bandits, just so the coshed one doesn't cut himself free.

"Put the dagger away. Enough death dealt by the cards of fate in this cave." he says, checking the cards in case one actually was bidding on a 'Deadman's hand' suit.

If the woman still has disguise makeup, that might be a useful tool at some point, especially if someone needs to play dead. Rot scented foundation and grey-skin colouring, bloodied contact lens, teeth stainer? Whatever can be cobbled, sure a rogue might have some interest in its use.

[gurusql]

Renna

With the fresh wound of complaining about her leadership, she will wait someone else to have plan while watching the only open corridor and ready to follow the fighters deeper into the cave.

[Quonundrum]

Meinhardt


Meinhardt quickly moves to intervene and places a hand on Dubricus's arm, gently applying pressure, "Please listen to Crabgrass. We must focus on the rest of these bandits."

He the joins the others and peers down the dark passage towards the flickering torchlight. "It would seem they are not alerted. We could try the same strategy. Sneak within range of a Sleep spell as a preempt to an ambush? I am not especially dextrous and sneaky, though."

Would need to get within 40' to target a 30' diameter circle area of effect.

[Darithe]

Magdal

Torchlight in the distance and voices she thinks, "Yes, we do need to know how many there are. We know there are at least two and they likely were at least in charge of these three. A pity we couldn't get more information out of the third. Should several of us sneak ahead or just one?" She decidedly looks at Renna for her opinion.

[GreyWolfVT]

Pimlan remains silent and slowly walks in the direction of the light to get a better sight as to what secrets the room might hold and what the light source might be.