The Bandit Woods
Dramatis Personae:
KlikKlick BoomBoom, the
TickTick, KlikKlik's Giant Bat animal companion
Taryn Al'Maera, the Drow Assassin and future Ralliakkan
Niss'RizDax Kenarn, the Drow Sword Dancer Priestess of Eilistraee, "the Moonlit Dancer"
Xara, the Dorc Circus Eldritch Knight
Comrades we have lost:
Sonitri, the Samsaran Arcane Prodigy Sorcerer- went home
Nyneve, the Water Genasi Druid of the Fountain- eaten by zombies
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Dax's perspective, anything in italics is from a third party view, since the priestess can't be everywhere at once.
***** Astron 26, 480, Crossroads
In preparation for their stupid circus, the others ordered a bunch more wagons and tents for our employees. It would take a couple of weeks, I really hoped we wouldn't just be bumming around Crossroads, there's so much more we could be doing.
***** Astron 27, Crossroads
Today Klik decided we should give Stormageddon Mach II to Kelani for battle training, and we left Athas to learn from her. She said it would take about a month, but she could at the very least get the training going before we left with the circus.
***** Astron 28, Crossroads
I was so fucking bored by this point I was about to join the military just to give myself something to do. Well, maybe not that bored, but I was seriously getting antsy. Finally, the others decided that we could go do something while waiting for their crap for the circus to be done.
We decided to clear out the Bandit Woods, which had begun to fill with bandits again recently; apparently the stories had become myth, not warning. We knew there were three camps in the woods, so we were going to have Klik fly into each camp, offer them mercy if they surrendered, and slaughter them if they refused. Xara was still sleeping when we were ready, so we left her a note and headed out.
When we arrived at the first camp, Klik flew in, per our plan, and told them to surrender in the name of Apsu and they'd be granted mercy. One of them said that they should just shoot her instead- big mistake. Taryn shot that guy with Bad News, one of her guns, and his head literally exploded. It was kind of awesome... though I shouldn't find amusement in this kind of thing anymore. Instead of the intimidation tactic that I think Taryn was going for, a couple more of the bandits turned and shot at her.
I saw another one drop to Taryn's gun, and Klik used her scatter gun to kill another eight of them. I followed up with a fireball on the cluster, killing all but one of the bandits in that group. In the corner of my eye, I saw Taryn fall from the shots they'd fired at her; Klik hurried to her side though. I had sunk kind of low to the ground after my fireball, in hopes it would keep them from shooting me. Technically it worked, but some of them came at me. I summoned my Spirit Guardians, killing the bulk of them. On the other side of the tent I'd hidden behind, I heard the boom of Taryn and KlikKlik's guns, it sounded like they were doing okay. A couple of the guys on me managed to land hits on me, and I responded by killing one of them. Klik and Taryn took out the last of the bandits.
As we were cleaning up, Xara finally joined us. Once we'd finished getting things sorted out we headed toward the next camp. We weren't too far out when we saw a small ambush party coming toward the camp we'd just slaughtered. Klik offered them mercy, as per usual, and of course the idiots didn't listen. We killed them all with ease, and decided to return to the first camp to store what we'd gotten off these bodies, and to take a quick rest.
We found another ambush group heading toward the second camp, so we decided to wait until they got back before we ambushed them; we didn't want reinforcements to pop in mid battle. KlikKlik demanded surrender again, and the man who seemed to be the leader responded by leveling his crossbow at her. Klik dropped bombs on them while Taryn shot the lead- a bunch of them died from that. I dropped a fireball on them, killing another six and catching some tents on fire. Because of my fireball, the bandits thought I was a mage and they all targeted me. Great.
Taryn flew in and shot the leader right in the head, which exploded. It was kind of comical hearing that deafening "boom" and seeing the head splort like a melon dropped off a balcony. Klik used her scatter gun and dropped a bunch more of them. Xara and I stayed at range, slinging spells for a few moments, before she decided that this was boring, and flew in to fight them in melee. She swooped down, jumped off her broom right on top of a guy, and somehow managed to smush him to death. There were only a couple left at this point, and when they realized they were doomed, they turned and started to run... they didn't get very far before we dropped them though.
There was only a single camp left at this point, and it was even smaller than the other two. Taryn scouted it and saw signs of children- little wooden play swords, and things like that. Our tactic wouldn't work in this case, we couldn't risk killing the children. We quickly made a new plan, Klik would demand that the leader surrender, in hopes that we could prevent slaughtering him in front of his kid.
The leader asked Klik why he should go with her, since she seemed to be alone, and she explained that she was very much not alone, prompting Taryn to shoot the ground near his feet- without hitting any of them. KlikKlik told him that if he came peacefully, his family could get shelter and assistance from the Church of Apsu... I was a little surprised when he gave in. We helped them pack everything up and headed back to the smaller camp we'd just cleared for the night.
That night, about three hours into the rest, a growl came from the prisoner's dog. A small pack of wolves was going for the bodies of the bandits. KlikKlik got them to back off, but allowed the wolves to take a single body with them.
***** Astron 29, Bandit Woods
We spent a good portion of the morning packing up what we wanted from the small warehouse the bandits had at this camp. Once we'd taken what we wanted, we headed to the large camp to do the same thing. It took so long to sort the larger camp that we decided to sleep there for the night. Wolves showed up again in the night, wanting to eat the bodies, but Klik scared them off again.
***** Astron 30, Crossroads
When we got back to Crossroads we took the prisoner straight to the Temple of Apsu. Kibbik found him guilty, he repented his sins, and said he would devote his life to the service of Apsu so long as his family was provided for. Kibbik took the first two knuckles of his ring finger, and the trial was over.
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