Raid on the Bandit Fort

(Game Date: 17/6/10)

Nytsdain, Thaumont 12 (Three-Quarter Moon Waxing)

When the group rises the following morning they discover there’s been heavy snowfall overnight. This sets off Shadarael’s concerns about travelling without adequate preparation, so the decision is made to find a guide who knows the mountains. Cobb isn’t comfortable with that area of town, but recommends the group enlist the aid of the local Druid, Pim.

Pim’s grove is only an hours travel north of the keep, and he agrees to guide and assist the group in exchange for an equal share of treasure. He proves his worth immediately by noting there’s a blizzard coming in from the north-east that’ll hit overnight. He’s fairly certain he can find paths that’ll protect the party from the worst of the weather’s effects, but additional precautions are taken in the form of cold weather gear purchased from the Keep’s supply store.

With Pim on-board the party heads out, making good time until they reach the foothills leading into the mountains.

Loshdain, Thaumon 13

The blizzard rolls in as expected, but Pim proves to be an adept at finding safe paths through the peaks. Shadarael picks up a cold despite his precautions and Pim’s honed survival instincts, although it merely manifests as a persistent sniffle.

Soladain, Thaumont 14

The Bandit Hideout is found in the early hours of the morning, with the group following a path along the narrow cliffs towards the rift housing the ancient dwarf fort. Jess is sent to scout and reports that all is quiet – the snowfall and wind providing good cover as she sneaks up to the ruined gate tower to get a lay of the land.

It’s when the entire group makes their cautious approach that disaster strikes – Pim notices a pair of cunningly concealed arrow slits built into a rocky overhang and hastily casts an obscuring mist before the bandits on the other side can ambush the group with crossbows. No-one can see more than five feet in front of them while the mist is in place, resulting in some very inaccurate attacks from the bandits, but it also forces the groups hand – they hustle forward before the alarm can be raised, intending to take down any forces hiding within the ruined keep in a lightening strike that moves through a hole in the wall.

Shadarael makes the wall first and uses his cloak to try and draw fire, but it appears that Pim’s mist has slowed the bandit’s attempts to raise the alarm. Pim spots a bear trap concealed beneath the snow a few moments before Varis steps on it, then leads the charge into the ruins.

The fight comes in waves – first a crossbow wielding bandit who calls for help, then a pair of acrobatic hobbits whose attack is thwarted by Shadarael’s magic missile and Varis’ glaive, then the masked Cat-Bird and the rest of the bandit forces. The masked man is a vocal opponent, taunting and demanding the group’s surrender, but ultimately it’s he who calls for the laying down of arms when it becomes apparent that the bandits are outclassed.

The Cat-Bird is questioned and reveals the location of the “secret bandit lair” is a cave complex in the forests North East of the keep that can be found by following the Goblinwater Stream to its source. He warns the group that there are several caves in the same narrow gulch the secret lair is – the party wants the first cave on the right as they enter the gulch, and he notes that it would be some way up the slope. He expects there to be about twenty men in the lair at present – Orm’s group, Thesselweight’s company of halflings, and the female bandits who are led by a woman named Nore. He admits that he’s unsure who Nore may really be – three separate women in the band have claimed to be her – but does reveal that Nore is the most successful of the bands because she has a spy in the keep.

When specifically asked about the creatures the Bandit’s allied with, Cat-Bird professes a level of innocence. He knows Orm is involved, as was Gholdar, but never felt the need to investigate as long as the lair was safe. Occasionally he’d see someone emerge from one of the deeper caves to meet with Orm, but the creatures were always hidden by robes and cowls. Cat-bird also gives the group a key left behind by Orm – one that will open the bandit leader’s quarters among other things – but extracts a promise that the group won’t indiscriminately butcher the bandits when they assault the cave.

The group decides to wait out the rest of the blizzard in the ruined dwarf fort, securing the bandits as prisoners and recovering their treasure. Several of the Cat-Bird’s men agree to return to the keep and face justice, but two agree to accompany the Cat-Bird to the Black Eagle Barony after Varis suggests that his miserable homeland is the ideal place to start if one wants a career as a gentleman bandit hero.

Lunadain, Thaumont 15 (Full Moon)

Waiting out the Blizzard.

Gromdain, Thaumont 16

Waiting out the Blizzard.