Two horsemen ride up to a tavern...

Kaed leans back his head, roaring with laughter "The fates call us Tbrandimir, do you hear them? Let us ride, there is noble work to be done, let us make haste!" Bringing his now excited horse around in a circle he continues " Before we save your wares and we begin the process of deciding a fitting reward for our band of heroes, is there anything they now possess and could use against us that are particularly of note?"

"I can answer that very specifically!" Fliek says, turning to the empty wagon. Her shoulders slump as she sees it again. "...if they hadn't taken our ledger as well." She turns back, her face contorted in a mask of disappointment and disgust. 

Katrin nods sympathetically. She'd only been robbed once, and the culprit hadn't lived to see the next morning. "I suppose if you don't mind sitting in the cart with....." she looks at the pile of weapons and other loot in the back "...all of that stuff, then I don't see why not. They're your goods after all." She looks around at her companions, suddenly acutely aware that she was the only woman among them. Not that she'd much cared for those distinctions. But her obvious figure and physique had come back to bite her on occasion.  

Flimm asks, "Where would you be heading after dealing with this?" He looks at the broken cart axle. "I don't suppose the answer would be The Crossroads, would it?"

"Maybe. Eventually," Thrandimir replies noncommitally. "We have some business to take care of first, but depending on how things pan out we might be available to provide an escort."

"Let's focus on getting your wares back where they belong and ending another bandit menace first." Kaed adds, " Then we will see where the road takes us, let's go my friends, the gap is only widening."

Echoing their thanks again, Fliek and Flimm jump on the back of the cart and ride silently as the group sets off. With Callahan following the cart tracks, they make good time, moving off the road and across the hills into a wooded area. Just as the sun passes behind the hills to the west, Callahan spies the flicker of firelight through the trees ahead, and voices can be heard filtering through the forest.

Thrandimir sends his owl to scout the camp. Tasagrad sees a semicircular ridge arcing around the north and west side of a clearing. The ridge is about 10 feet high. 7 men mill about a campfire in the centerish of the clearing, and 3 more sit around a campfire atop the ridge. There is a horse tied to a tree grazing nearby, as well as a cart. There also appears to be a cave entrance along the north side of the clearing.

The party dismounts, leaving Fliek and Flimm behind with the horses, pony, and cart. Sneaking closer to the edge of the firelight, the party sees that the group of men around the fires seem to be playing with some of the tabaxis' stock. One human is looking around keenly with a set of glowing green eye-pieces, and shouting in common about how bright the forest looks -- despite not seeing the approaching party.  Another two are miming drinking from potion bottles and then stamping their feet and throwing mocking fists at one another. They laugh with raucous abandon at their good fortune.  The party members arrive at their chosen positions and prepare to ambush the idle bandits. 

Once it becomes clear that they are nearing the bandits' campsite, Thrandimir props himself up against a large stone and settles down crosslegged on the grass to see the the world through Tasagrad's eyes. The little owl glides silently towards the clearing and the wizard's eyes mist over white as his familiar's senses become his own. Once the owl's findings have been relayed to their companions, Thrandimir waits until Callahan has worked his incantation, before cautiously advancing to the rock face near the camp. He readies himself to cast an illusion across the entrance to the cave, giving the impression that it is no longer traversable.

Katrin sneaks up to the edge of the firelight, peering through some bushes at the gathered bandits. She steps out, walking calmly towards the bandits around the fire. Raising her shield arm, she traces a sigil of weakness in the air, and calls out, "Fluch."  Her amulet glows and the light of glowing coals travels down her arm, and three beams of fiery light shoot out to three of the bandits, absorbing into their bodies. Their eyes hold a soft glow as the spell takes hold.  

From his position behind the cart, close to the illusion across the cave's entrance, Thrandimir thrusts his staff forth, sending three pale blue streaks of light hurtling towards the man wearing the enchanted eye-pieces. They slam into the man in quick succession, seriously injuring him.

Ascian stills in the darkness, his bow long-drawn and an arrow readied as he watches the three bandits gathered around fire at the top. Beneath him, out of the corner of his eye he sees light start to flicker to life as Katrin and Thrandimir surge into motion and takes his cue to release the arrow pulled back to his ear. The fletching soars through the darkness, and milliseconds later when the first archer ultimately falls to his knees, white feathers protruding from his throat, there's almost –  almost –  a quirk of lips curving Ascian's features. For all his turmoil, for all his uncertainty, at least this, here, he knows he can do.

The others behind to move, stealth and guile at play. Not for Kaed, he feels the rage like ice in his veins, the horse under him senses the moment as well and moves with ease through the edge of the tree line and out into the firelight.  Kaed locks eyes with the bandit who seems to have some sort of enchanted set of eyeglasses, they will not save him from what Kaed offers, death on the end of a blade. " Glory to the brave!" He slams into the bandit his sabre crunching home with the added weight of the charge, but although the man takes a step back and grimaces somehow the attack seems to have done nothing more to the foe. Kaed sees the light fail a little around him as the rage sets in, the firelight dimming around him, the transition feels more natural now, a small part of his mind thinks " careful, you do not know where this will take you" but the recklessness of youth pushes the thought away before it has a chance to take hold.

Rushing from the tree line Kou leaps forward, unleashing a bolt of lightning as he moves. The bolt illuminates the area but the man is able to dodge just before it lands. Dashing between the archer and his companions he sinks into a low fighting stance.

Katrin draws her sword, the fire in the eyes of the bandits fueling the fire inside of her. She lets out a cry as Kaed and his horse charge up, running for the nearest bandit, who had, until a moment ago, been sitting blissfully unaware at an evening campfire. She draws her sword, the dull glow of the enchanted blade humming softly in her grasp.  As she raises the sword, she splays the fingers of her shield hand flat on her chest, the amulet under her palm. A giant flaming hammer appears behind the bandit. It comes crashing down on the bandit in unison with her sword, and there's a deep clang, like a hammer on an anvil as the spiritual weapon strikes armor. 

Cal approaches the bandits' camp careful to keep himself shrouded in dark as he finishes leading the group into the area. Almost instantly the party gets to work, with Thrand and Katrin jumping to action. From his vantage point in the far back, Cal takes an immediate keen eye to the huddled group of archers a ways out in the treeline. They've all just begun turning towards the erupting commotion. Glancing upwards, the faint glimmer of the evening moon catches Cal's eye for a moment.  Pulling the small orb from his cloak and holding it up towards the large ball in the sky, he focuses inwards, his mind intent on the trio in the distance. Slowly, a glowing pillar of light begins to shine down on the group, ensconcing them in a twinkling ray of radiance that envelopes their very beings. None would have ever been the wiser of what was happening until the searing pain would have started up.

Thrandimir whispers words of elemental power and the thug's mace grows icy cold in his hands, frost running along his fingers and up his arms.

The archer that survived the sneak attack leaps clear of Kou and the moonbeam and runs carefully along the edge of the ledge, patting out small holy fires on his clothing.

As the archers scatter under the pillar of twilight, Cal reaches out a hand and pulls it back, causing the moonlight to track with his movements along the ground towards the apparent Captain of the bandits, until it ends its movement directly over the mans head. 

The victim of Kaed's attack quaffs a potion and runs along the bottom of the ledge. The one that Katrin is attacking smiles at her. "You sure you know what you're getting into?" he asks, and drinks a wispy, transparent potion with what looks to Katrin to be a sliver of a massive toenail. The man coughs, and before Katrin's eyes, his muscles begin to swell. What was once lean and wiry now more closely resembles large, knotted sailing ropes. He laughs and brings the mace smashing down on the dwarf's shield once...then once more. Katrin takes 11 and 13 points of bludgeoning damage to vigor, reduced to 6 and 8 by DR, reduced to 4 and 8 by parry. The rest of the bandits around the campfire swarm Kaed, slashing at him atop his horse. Only two of the blows connect, and just barely at that. Kaed takes 5 and 5 points of slashing damage to vigor, reduced to 2 and 2 by DR, resisted to 1 and 1 by barbarian rage. The one bandit atop the hill charges Ascian and pulls up short, aiming and firing his crossbow perhaps a bit too quickly. The bolt goes just wide of the pale man's shoulder. Ascian's action.

The bolt whizzes past Ascian into the darkness and he takes one look at the thug advancing towards him before he starts sprinting. Bushes and brambles whip by as he slips through them, singularly minded to try and lose the bandit's attention in the darkness he charges through, or at the very least get closer to Kou. Distantly, it occurs to him his heart ought to be pounding wildly, and somehow the absence of it seems twice as loud. Boots still charging through the underbrush, he risks a glance back - and sees again those fragile wisps of smoke twisting in his wake towards the bandit. For a moment he pauses, of half a mind to try and call them back, but the hesitation lasts too long – they blitz through the trees after the man who had shot at him, twisting and snaking toward his ears. Ash hears the effect more than he sees it. Continuing to run, he finally skids to a stop towards trees further back, lifting his bow to try and cover Kaed as he glances at Kou in the hopes the monk can finish what Ascian started.

The press of attackers has Kaed on the back foot for a moment but seeing one of the enemy looks like he has already been hurt he decides to even the numbers, slashing out across and down ending the man with a single blow. Roaring as the adrenalin courses through him he swings his shield at the next man, even as the first slumps to the floor with a spurt of blood from his ruined throat, but only succeeds in lightly bumping him.

The bandit captain too, drinks a potion. His form begins to swell and he grows to the size of an ogre! He cackles with glee as he stomps over to Kaed, swinging with his enlarged cutlass and dagger. Kaed conjures a shadowy shield to block the attacks, but the massive dagger draws a line of blood across his face, neck, and shoulder, which begins to weep red tears. Kaed takes 18 points of slashing damage to vigor and 2 points of slashing damage to wounds, reduced to 15 by DR, resisted to 7 by barbarian rage. Kou's action.

Seeing his friends struggling below, Kou is conflicted on his next step. He couldn't risk, allowing the bandits next to him the opportunity to flee or worst down their own magic potion. But seeing Kaed and Katrin alone on the battlefield sends him into action.  Moving first to the bandit that is fleeing he bolts out and summersaults into a rising uppercut, his clawed hand piercing through the mans armor and plunging into his chest. Seeing the light in the man's eyes go out he quickly retracts his arm from the mans chest, and races to the cliff diving off once he reaches the edge. As he falls he slashes with his claws catching the man in the face and completely severing one of his eyes. After he hits the ground Kou rolls into a fighting stance and taps into his spiritual energy, using it as fuel to move faster than his bodies natural limits. Lashing out once again he rakes his claws upwards across  the bandit's body, deeply cutting into the man and opening his chest to the elements.  Unfortunately the effort slows him down enough that he isn't able to get close enough to help his friends. Yelling to Kaed and Katrin "We've got this, just hold on a bit longer."

Katrin groans, her shield arm burning like fire after the impacts from the bandit's weapon. Sweat drips down her face as she rallies back for another attack, acutely aware of her ever-weakening state as the fight goes on. Whispering a short prayer, she lashes out with her sword and the Hammer of Tempus slams into the man's head with another deep clang. Her sword scrapes flesh as the bandit's smile widens.  "Do you?" She smiles right back at him, a little exhausted, but the fire of the fight still very much dancing in her coal-grey eyes. 

Thrandimir continues his elemental chant, focusing on the thug fighting Katrin, but to no effect. The archer fires two arrows at Callahan in retribution for the radiant fires still smoldering on his armor and skin. The first grazes the firbolg, the second goes wide.

The arrows come right through his own moonlight at him, and Cal instinctively ducks out of the way, his eyes widening in momentary fear. He doesn't let it phase him, however. Just moments earlier he'd watched as one of the bandits started clobbering Katrin, practically bludgeoning her shield in on her as another - the Captain - downed a potion and suddenly swelled in size until he stood even higher than Cal.  "Stand strong Lady Katrin," he shouts out, weaving his fingers through the wisps of twilight on the air,  "if we believe we will triumph then I know the stars will align for us this night!" The glowing beam of light advances once more at his puppeteering, phasing over the enlarged form of the bandit captain and his men as they battered Kaed's hardy form. "The heavens do not take kindly to liars, Mister! So, uh, return to your true form, please!" Almost instantly, the searing light envelopes the man's hulked out body, alighting it in a radiant glow that threatens to blind those closest for a moment before it dims once more, revealing the man - again sized to that of but a man - the transformation forcibly revoked.

The thug bashes Katrin twice with his mace, still laughing with a mean gleam in his dark eyes. Katrin takes 7 and 13 points of bludgeoning damage to vigor, reduced to 2 and 8 by DR. The two bandits near Kaed feel the heat of the moonbeam. Fear in their eyes, they disengage and run. Ascian seizes the opportunity and puts an arrow deep in the man's torso, right beneath his left shoulder blade. He cries out in pain, but still manages to get a few feet away from Kaed. Ascian's action.

Ascian watches his arrow strike true and immediately draws another, stringing it in one fluid motion and veering his shot left. He barely waits to see it catch the bandit embroiled in battle with Katrin hard in the shoulder before he starts moving again, slinking into the shadows beneath the nearest tree with eyes only for his fellow archer further down the ridge.

For Kaed there is almost too much happening at once in front of him, Callahan's wondrous spell causing the man who had swelled up to giant proportions to shrink back again, to Kaed's relief. The change slightly unbalances the tribesman though, and his strike which might have proven fatal to this chief of the bandits is tempered somewhat as he is forced to readjust, robbing the blow of much of its power  a crack down from his shield seem to do little more to stop his foe so Kaed braces himself for the inevitable response.

Seeing two of the murderers attempting to escape, Kou gathers his energy and bolts after them. Leaping through the air he tackles the one in front, wrapping him up with his left arm and jabs his clawed hand next to the mans throat. 

Gleeful cackles replaced by an angry yell, the captain is a whirlwind of blows as he swings up at Kaed. A whirlwhind of  light  blows, as it were, as the tribesman comes out of the attacks essentially unharmed. Kaed takes 8, 8, and 6 points of slashing damage to vigor, reduced to 4, 8, and 6 by parry, reduced to 1, 5, and 3 by DR, resisted to 1, 2, and 0 by barbarian rage. Kou's action.

Katrin can feel strength returning to her as Cal's voice filters through the haze of her adrenaline-boosted bloodlust.  "I think you've overestimated your abilities."  She grins back at the bandit as the Hammer of Tempus rises ominously above the bandit's head, it's flames burning bright, mirroring her own surge of adrenaline.  "Sweet dreams, sunshine."  With her whole body, she stamps her foot forcefully on the ground, and the hammer falls, the deep clang reverberating off the walls of the cliff surrounding the camp, ringing in the ears of all present. He drops to the ground, almost in slow motion, as his eyes cross, flutter, then close. He hits the ground with an unceremonious thud.  She stands over the man, now looking rather pathetic as he lies motionless on the ground. With her shield arm, she pulls her light hammer out of her belt by it's head, throwing it up in the air and catching it deftly in her hand.  "And now I think it's time to put the hammer down. Don't you?"   There's a sickening  thwack  as the hammer strikes his exposed shoulder, shattering the joint and several ribs. 

Thrandimir again tries his frost spell, this time on the archer that seems to now be targeting Kaed. Once again, the target shakes off the effect. A flicker of frustration crosses the wizard's face. The archer fires two arrows at Kaed, one of which flies wide of the target. The other actually seems to bounce off the barbarian's steel-muscled shoulder, much to the archer's surprise. Callahan's action.

With a flurry of hand movements the light continues after the once-tall-now-small bandit, searing deeper into him as the moon itself seems to open above above him.

The bandit that Kou tackled gives a feeble attempt to escape, but gets nowhere. The other one continues running. A few paces in, he stops and clutches his heart, then crumples to the ground. Ascian's action.

Ascian creeps through the shadows of the trees, silently stowing his bow across his back in favor of the wound wire that hangs at his hip. It is not perhaps the most humane weapon, but it is nothing if not effective, and of the two he finds it's the latter he's more interested in as he lunges out of the dark to wrap it tightly around the archer's neck. Forcing the weight of the half-elf's body back against his own with practiced expertise, pale fingers pull the wire tighter as he quietly listens to the scout's sputtering and feels familiar warm liquid begin to leak from the archer's throat across his hands.

It was the turning point, there was always one, when many of the foes had fallen and his allies looked set to take the field, but this time Kaed held a tiny bit of apprehension, there should have been other bandits here, where were they? As he moves he feels something wash over him, a strange otherworldly feeling and the pain from the wound the dagger inflicted lessens, the warmth spreading across him and he feels the skin tighten a little as it knits back together, " that's going to leave a scar" he thinks to himself. These thoughts occupied him as he jockeyed for position, adjusting slightly, trading feints with his adversary, he felt the power churning within, but it had an edge to it this time, something new. As he watched the blade of his sabre started to become coated with frost, the cold energy flowing from him into the blade rather than the other way around. He was the ice. He struck, the blade, aimed perfectly slides between two of the studded leather panels sinking deep into the chief. " That will end you, do you have it in you to fight back, or will you just lay down and die?"

The chief takes a few steps back, coughing up red blood mixed with snot and bile. He throws his weapons down and drinks a potion. The wound in his shoulder begins to knit together, the bleeding magically staunched for now. "This is done," he says, rubbing one of his half-elven ears. "I know when to quit."

Seeing the captain surrender Kou moves his grip and put's the man he tackled into a submission hold. Using his weight to pin the man to the ground, with his left arm wrapped around the man's throat. HIs technique was a bit sloppy but fortunately the man isn't fighting back. Quietly he says  "Your stuck here for now, if your friends surrender. Then we will figure out what to do with you."

Katrin drops the hammer back into it's loop on her belt, and moves around the dying man towards the cave. Almost as an afterthought, she stamps her left foot into the ground. The Hammer of Tempus comes crashing down on the man's head, caving in his skull and shattering the jaw and neck. She moves slowly and deliberately towards the illusory boulder blocking the entrance to the cave. If there were more hiding inside, she's determined to end them. 

Seeing that his friends now have the bandits under control, Thrandimir sidles forwards out of the darkness. Slipping up around the back of the cart, the wizard pokes his head through the illusion of fallen rocks and into the entrance of the tunnel. The passage extends far out of sight, but he can see two men with torches approaching the surface. Both are clad in leather, one wielding a mace and the other a scimitar. Acting on instinct, Thrandimir thrusts his staff forth, calling upon the magic imbued within. A harmless burst of multicoloured light erupts above the two men, accompanied by a crackling noise that echoes about the tunnel and can be clearly heard all across the campsite above. The light is brilliantly bright, but lasts only a second. "YOU SHALL NOT PASS," the wizard's booming voice proclaims as he allows the illusion blocking the tunnel's entrance to fall.

The archer in Ascian's grasp struggles for a moment and then goes limp.

Seeing the battle die down, Cal rushed over to Kou to help restrain the bandit in his grip, pulling a bit of rope from his bag as he sets to work tying the man up.

He doesn't quite know how long he stands there, blinking across the battlefield as the archer's struggle weakens against him; only that it almost takes him by surprise when it finally gives out. Ascian looks at the scout in his hold, fingers loosening around the wire wrapped around the half-elf's throat; they're slick and red when he ultimately retracts them, letting the weight of the body carry itself over the ledge he's perched on. It falls with a heavy message at the mouth of the cave still reverberating with Thrandimir's call and he follows silently, flipping over the edge to land lightly and silently at the wizard's side. Ascian gives Thrandimir one look and, not sensing that the man had immediately moved toward aggression, follows suit. Crouching low and creeping into the cave mouth, he blends back into the darkness and steadies his bow at the men he sees ahead of him, an arrow readied should they choose to try to run.

"You know when to quit? That is good, everyone should know when enough is enough. I mean, why fight pointlessly?" Kaed moves his horse a little further away from the wounded captain, who looks at him, a little perplexed.  Kaed looks at the blade in his hand, the blood mingling with the ice and flicks it away with a quick motion. " Tell me, did the man guarding the cart full of magical trinkets you stole not have the same sense as you, or maybe he did and you murdered him anyway? I cannot say, but your death will at least grant him a measure of peace in the afterlife, I hope."  The horse surges forward, Kaed arms outstretched, high in the saddle. The sabre dips for a second as his knees steer the horse to the side of the terrorstricken half elf, a single strike aimed well and the bandit slides to his knees, a spray of blood spurting from a long cut across his throat, which is frozen from where the blade sliced him. Eyes rapidly losing their light look up in confusion at the tribesman,who stares back the darkness flaring around him, like a storm raging. Kaed knows he must look like a god of death an the idea brings images long held at bay rushing to the surface, memories of a time he had put away, never to think of again. But a small voice whispered to him as he saw the fear in a dead man's face below him on the ground , "The sins of our fathers ." It fled like a spirit a moment later leaving Kaed frozen on his horse blood slowly dripping from the point of his sabre onto the grass below.

Springing to his feet as Cal restrains the man. Kou peers into the tunnel, and sees the two men clutching their torches with panic in their eyes. His eyes quickly dart between the two men, looking to anticipate their next move. Their faces nearly screamed their terror, their stance indicated that they were preparing to run, and a backwards glance from one of the men confirms they are going to run deeper into the tunnel. Gathering his spiritual energy once more Kou takes off like a bolt of lightning chasing after the men. With magic items involved  and one of the bandits still unaccounted for, he couldn't risk these men escaping.