A New Beginning (thetwo)

[NorthernCross]

Re: A New Beginning (thetwo)

Spoiler

Alright, understood.

“It's no problem, just be careful out there... the bandits stalking our roads may start getting even greedier soon.” The guard stated, using a key hung around his neck to remove the peace bond from her sword. As she left through the gates, she could feel the suspicious eyes of the soldiers on her back but nothing seemed to come of it.

As Amy approached the largest tree visible, she spotted the young adventurer sitting beneath it examining a map with another person. The second man was a little older than his companion and seemed like a hunter or woodsman of some sort and they were conversing about something noted on the map. The young adventurer look up from his discussion and waved her over towards them. The older man took a glance at her but didn't seem too surprised by her appearance.

"I'm glad that you couldn't make it!" The younger man greeted cheekily as the elder only gave a low greeting to her before returning to the map.

 

[thetwo]

Re: A New Beginning (thetwo)

The soldiers didn't like her leaving. Well, that was hardly a surprised. They hadn't like her coming either, and in fact the only thing they seemed to like was when she had undone her belt to remove her sheathe. But since she wasn't trying to earn favor with them, she decided to wait to put her sword back in its proper place until she was out of sight.

Finally, sword at her hip, she arrived at the tree and saw her intended companion talking amiably with another man until he noticed her and offered a greeting. "What? Oh, blast my forgetfulness. I was supposed to avoid the big tree at noon." Amy sighed theatrically, looked around, and shrugged. "But I suppose since I'm here anyway... what's the plan? And who is your talkative friend here?"

 

[NorthernCross]

Re: A New Beginning (thetwo)

“This is Sam... he's going to our guide when we go off the path and into the wilderness.” Jack introduced the older man to them. “He knows these woods like the back of his hand.”

“That's it, though.” The coarse man interjected. “I still consider this a terrible plan... I'll help you track them back to their camp, but that's it.”

“Yes, yes we're young fools looking to get ourselves killed sticking our noses into other people's business. I've heard this before.” Jack waved off Sam's concerns. “Speaking of the plan, I'll give you a run down. Just in case you didn't know, no one has really been able to pin down the location of this 'bandit' camp... mainly because so few people go actively looking for it.”

Jack laid down the map so Amy could see. The map was covered with mark indicating potential spots that could host a group of bandits, but a distressingly small number of them had been crossed out. Jack pointed out a path leading into town from the north. “We have good information that a merchant caravan from the old country is going to try to make it's way into Newhaven. Prime target for our 'bandit's... we're going to stake out a good vantage point overlooking the path and when they attack we're going to follow them back home.”

 

[thetwo]

Re: A New Beginning (thetwo)

Amy considered for a moment, then nodded. "A reasonable plan. Fighting them before we know their capabilities would be unwise. Sam helps us find a place where we can observe the ambush without either party stumbling across us, and leads us back to their camp. Then we set up a trap of our own?"

She looked slightly more concerned. Enough bandits to regularly take out merchant carvans wouldn't be easy for two adventurers to take out. Perhaps if they often had to 'replace' losses, or if they relied on surprise tactics... "And then once we know where the 'bandits', how many we face and how they're armed... then we come up with the real plan?"

It didn't matter as far as her going along with it mattered, but she preferred to give victory a fighting chance if she could. And for that matter, how could they come up with a real plan before knowing exactly what they faced? "Well, lets get started then. Oh and I'm Amy, in case Mr. Manners didn't say."

 

[NorthernCross]

Re: A New Beginning (thetwo)

“Hello, Amy. I suspect that trying to talk you out of this isn't going to work either...” Sam gruffly replied.

“Yes, yes... she's here, isn't she? Anyway, with the numbers we suspect that they have a frontal attack is out of the question.” Jack nodded, more to himself than anything else. “I have a loose plan for when we find their camp, but it'll likely change depending on what we find out.”

Jack pulled out a sketch of a strange emblem perched upon a flag pole. “This is our first prize. All unit's in the Yukto Army have an Owl emblem for the unit banner. The bandit used to be a fairly unimportant unit, so they likely have a bronze Owl and even after their 'desertion' they wouldn't let it out of their sight due to the sheer dishonor involved if they lost it. If we took it and marched it back into town, they'd have no choice but to believe we'd found the bandit camp and be forced to investigate lest they admit that they weren't really 'bandits' at all.”

Jack paused to tuck the sketch away before continuing. “Several people in the town are uncertain about the bandits and are starting to believe the official line about them deserting. Most won't commit to helping a liberation force against the soldiers that are supposedly 'protecting' them until we can prove that the bandits are acting on official orders. So we'll see if we can't find a set of orders in the camp to that effect.”

"And finally, we need to find their supply dump. A group as large as we suspect that they are will likely need a considerable one to support themselves. If we set fire to it, we can probably provoke them into doing something stupid... be it attack someone they shouldn't or try to get supplies from their superiors which will cause all sorts of other problems.”

 

[thetwo]

Re: A New Beginning (thetwo)

"Ah, good. If all you had was 'and then we attack', I might have listened to Sam." She gave the tracker a wry smile "Sorry."

Burning the supplies sounded the best, the other two rather relying on happening across particular items. Certainly good to pick them up, but not something she would plan an assault around. But since there was a solid "burn things" plan sitting there as backup... She turned back to her fellow adventurer. "Anyway, it sounds good to me. Shall we begin?"

 

[NorthernCross]

Re: A New Beginning (thetwo)

“If you must.” Sam resignedly stated. With a hand signal, he lead them off into the woods. If she wasn't careful, she wouldn't be able to trace her steps back herself as they were lead through the deepest part of the brush. Soon they found themselves atop a small cliff overlooking a road that wound it's way through the forest. The road looked like it wasn't maintained in a while and there were tall grasses surrounded it closely on both sides. If she paid close attention, she would notice the grass shifting slightly and she could barely make out figures lying in wait.

“Alright, the caravan should be arriving soon.” Jack whispered to his companions, gesturing to stay down. “This isn't exactly the point of no return but it will probably help you decide, in or out. We can only watch and hopefully this is the last time this will be allowed to happen.”

After an hour passed, they could see a small merchant caravan slowly makes it way down the road. It was only four wagons strong with eight visible guards walking abreast two to a wagon. The wagons were covered but visibly loaded with goods intended for Newhaven but the sudden stillness of the grasses signaled that nothing of the sort was going to be occurring.

The first guard went down without even getting a chance to draw his sword due to an bolt piercing his neck. As the alarm went up, the bandits revealed themselves to outnumber the guards by one and a half times. Only four approached the caravan's guards directly while another four circled around the front of the wagon train to prevent them from easily rushing forward. The remainder held back armed with crossbows and were already picking their targets. From the driver's position and inside the wagons the fearful faces of the merchants were visible.

One of the guards was clad in heavy looking armor and met one of the bolder bandits with confidence. This confidence was shattered when the bandit visibly picked him up and threw him to the ground. A kick to the guards side visibly dented the plate armor and caused him to spew blood from his mouth before he stopped moving. The remaining guards looked terrified at this monstrosity and one took flight before anyone could stop him.

Two of the remaining guards charged the bandits at the front of the convoy in an attempt to clear the way to move forward enough to allow the wagon train to escaped. They were met with swords and bludgeons but it seemed as though they lacked the monstrous strength of their counterparts. One of the guards was downed by a crossbow bolt to the back before he even met his foe and his companion was swiftly cut down by his opponents superior numbers.

The remaining four guards had their numbers reduced once again as the least agile of their numbers was caught by the bestial men and nearly torn apart. The driver of the head wagon panicked and urged his horses forward where they barreled over the bandits trying to block his path. His escape was short lived as the bandits had tied a chain across the road up ahead and his beasts heedlessly barreled into them. The entire wagon came to a crashing halt of death and destruction that blocked the path forward.

A number of the remaining merchants fled on foot after a volley of bolts pierced wood and flesh. Two more of the guards fell dead or dying as the bandits moved in to secure their prizes. The remaining guard, a woman, was captured by her attackers and they began binding as many of the merchants as they could.

The bandits briefly sorted through the crashed wagon for the most valuable of the goods as well as the bodies of both merchant and guard. Anyone not quite dead yet was swiftly dispatched before they could recover enough to be a threat. They took the remaining wagons and led them off on a barely visible path deeper into the woods.

“...so they do have combat potions. Not enough to enhance the entire raiding party but more then enough for their purposes.” Jack stated before turning to Amy. “Are you still in?”

 

[thetwo]

Re: A New Beginning (thetwo)

The scene below had been incredible carnage. As far as Amy had seen, the bandits hadn't taken a single casualty. Even with a numerical advantage and alchemy on their side, that was impressive. She tried to compose her thoughts. There are at least a dozen, and they work together well. Trying to take them with just the two of us would be futile. And they're well armed, both with a variety of traditional weapons and with alchemy. Trying to take them 1 on 1 might be just as bad, in a fair fight.

Still, they had taken the woman prisoner instead of killing her. From her point of view that might actually be considered bad, but while Amy had no intention of walking up and volunteering for the same treatment, it was certainly something she was willing to risk or she wouldn't have been in this world in the first place. "We don't plan on fighting them directly in any case. This just proves that they have to be stopped."