Exploring the Greenbelt

[Aquateenflayer]

31st of Calistril
Hex 12
Clear Skies

After a chilly week of walking from the city of Restov you catch your first glimpse of your destination. It's the final day of a long and bitterly cold winter and your journey thus far has been peaceful if a little dull.
With the authority of the Dragonscale throne you have been charged with taming these wild lands and been given a charter (http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww256/aquateenflayer/Greenbelt_Charter_zps02a365a6.jpg) proclaiming as such to prove so to any who asks. Though yours was the least of experienced of the four groups who have been sent to the south, Lord Noleski Surtoba himself assured you all he has every confidence in your abilities.
The green line of trees that mark the border of the Narlmarches appears out of a light mist a few miles to your left. Though apparently peaceful you all know that one small mistake could mean your eternal rest underneath that ocean of green.
You are soon upon Oleg's Trading post, an old fort covered in a patchwork of recent repairs. Oleg’s trading post is surrounded by a wooden palisade that stands 10 feet high. At each corner of the palisade are 20 foot square watchtowers, each armed with a run-down catapult left over from the site’s original use as a border fort. These catapults are in no condition to be fired, and repairing them would no doubt take many weeks of work. There’s one entrance through the palisade is a 30-foot-wide wooden gate.
You notice an older man atop the roof of one of the buildings inside the fort He has a pale of tar and thick brush. He looks up for a moment, his hand dropping down to a crossbow hanging from his belt before relaxing and continuing his work. Am older energetic woman holding a checkered cloth around a fresh loaf of bread still steaming from the heat of the oven.
"You must be the adventurers we're expecting." She says smiling ear to ear. "I'm Svetlana (http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww256/aquateenflayer/svetlanna_zps4644d912.jpg) and up there," She points to the man on the roof. "Is my husband Oleg (http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww256/aquateenflayer/Oleg_zps0e49c453.jpg). Come on down deer and meet our guests!" She shouts up to him
"Unless they want to sleep in a room with a leaky roof I'll stay up here until I'm done." Oleg replies gruffly to his wife and mumbles something to himself under his breath.
"Oh I'm so sorry I keep talking before I even give you a chance shake the dirt from your boots. Come follow me." Svetlana leads you into the fort past the small building Oleg is perched on to a pair of long wooden tables flanking a large unlit fire pit. She puts the bread on table. "This should hold you off till diner yes? Right where were we oh yes introductions. Sorry we get so few visitors I get a bit flustered." She says reddening a bit.

[Smileybastard]

Nialis smiles at Svetlana as he puts his backpack down. "I am Nialis Thalos and these are my companions Agna, Vega and Tural," he says as he gestures towards his companions.

[Rendel Nep]

'ulllo. Heh. Sort o' reminds me o' home... well..w'out the catapults at least. Agna comments. Mmm, fresh bread would be lovely. she says, looks forward to something other than trail rations.

[DemonZoZo]

Hello, the repairs look well on their way. If you need any help just ask.

[JennTora]

"Thank you,"Vega says, taking a piece of the warm bread, "It's nice to eat something warm for a change."

[Aquateenflayer]

"I think it's very brave of you all, to take on all those bandits like you are doing. They've been causing no end of trouble since me and my husband moved here. You arrived just in time too. They'll be here tomorrow to collect their 'taxes' again. It's just been eating Oleg up inside not being able to stand up to them." Svetlana gives each of you a short hug before proclaiming, "I know I'll make a nice rabbit stew in your honor." And starts grabbing bundles of wood and putting them into the fire pit.
Oleg Lets out an "'ought to do er" before climbing down his ladder and starts scrubbing the tar off his hands over a large barrel of rainwater.

[DemonZoZo]

It would be our honor to have rabbit stew. I will take wood in for you Svetlana and where is a quite area near i can go after to practice after dinner. grabs the wood for her.

[Smileybastard]

"Thank you very much Svetlana."

Nialis furrowes his brow. "I didn't realize we would be dealing with the bandits so soon. When they come, how many generally come? Also do you have any idea how many there are in total?"

[Aquateenflayer]

"Thank you. It's always pretty quiet around here. Me and Oleg turn in prety early so you all should have free reign over the rest of the trading post after sundown. Just don't go into any rooms that are locked." Svetlana says to Tural as she continues the preparations for diner.
"Bandits have been showing up for a few months now." Oleg says as he takes a seat at the table. "Moved out here to get away from people trying to screw me over and now it's worse than ever." Oleg lets out a deep sigh. "They threatened to burn the entire fort down with us in it if we didn't let them in. Didn't have much of a choice. There were about a dozen of them too. Maybe more. There was a woman in charge. Had a nasty tongue on her. Threatened to do horrible things to my wife if we didn't cooperate." Oleg clenches his fists angerly. "Took her wedding ring right off her hand. They've come twice more since then. One of the other bandits was leading them. A smaller group of men too. The leader had a patched cloak and a longbow. Maybe four or five men. They always come on the first of the month about mid-day. " Oleg Eyes Nialis. "I think you and your friends can take on at least half a dozen. Should be good enough for now. As for how many there are in total. My guess is that they wouldn't send more than half their men to go raiding at a time, so at least 24 by my figuring. And if there's someone out there scarier than the woman with the axes I sure wouldn't like to meet him. You have any bright ideas on how to defend my home from tomorrows attack?"

[Smileybastard]

Nialis nods, listening and looking at the fortification. "I am sure we can deal with them, one way or the other. Hopefully they will see reason, but if not ..."

[DemonZoZo]

Start to talk to himself."What do you think ". His split personality "I don't trust her she hiding something, you should kill her and find out what behind the doors that are locked". Himself "Hmmmm... some of your ideas has saved me before, that never helped it almost got me killed". Split personality"It your choice if she hits you over the head or try to kill you maybe you will learn this time". Himself "That not gonna happen everything fine","Hey it my body too so i don't want to die,unless in battle that is worthy". Himself "I will take my dinner when it ready, I got someone to deal with Svetlana".

[Smileybastard]

Nialis's eyes shift to Tural, his hands sliding to his daggers.

[DemonZoZo]

Split Personality "oooh, he wants to kill you kill him now". Tural eyes Nialis's then says " I am born with a shadow that a split personality don't nag him on. Look at my shadow his wings prove they move on their own".

[JennTora]

Vega examines Tural's shadow as it shifts."Interesting. How does that happen exactly? You're not using any kind of spell."

[DemonZoZo]

looks at Vega and says "My family is from the angelic blood peri that has fallen from the heavens and now has children aasimar as grandpa lives forever then annoys us both. As the rest of the family has split personality shadows now."Split personality "Even those we've never meet accept for father".

[Rendel Nep]

Its not as annoyin' as bein' stuck as a wee one fer twenty years. Anyway, they 'ave a right ta their privacy so ya can't just assume they're gonna bash ya just cos they don't wan ya pokin' around their stuff. Agna dryly comments

So anyone be havin' a better plan than say stickin' a few bolts between their eyes from the cover o' the windows? She asks, hopeful that her's wasn't the only plan.

[DemonZoZo]

Eyes Agna and says"He has been in another world for far too long, now say sorry to Svetlana or I will never let you speak again". Looks at Svetlana"I am sorry about that im just a split personality that hates being taken hostage or kidnapped".

[JennTora]

Vega closes his eyes for a moment to think,"Yeah, let's think of a better plan than that, after all, if they get hit with arrows, bolts, or whatever, they may run away and come back with reinforcements. I'd rather fight fewer bandits at a time, myself. And is any one of us a good enough marksman to guarantee they can't run away? I think the four of us will need to confront them on the outside. If Tural or myself could hit them with a color spray spell when they're all together, then they may all fall unconscious. If so we tie them up or kill them. Though I'd think we should keep at least one alive to interrogate. Problem, color spray won't work if they're too strong willed... But most people aren't, so I'd think at least 1 goes down, if not more. If only one or two go down, then we'd have to kill the others." he pauses for a moment. "Alternatively, if anyone knows how, we could build a bandit trap on the path to the fort... well those are my initial thoughts, what have you all got?"

[Aquateenflayer]

The stew soon reaches completion and Svetlana ladles out a large bowl for each of her guests. She retreats to her room with her Husband to eat, leaving the rest of you to discuss your plans in private.

[DemonZoZo]

"We could use fire smoke to do it and colour spray is a good idea. I can drag some logs to the entrance then use smoke to blind archers while we use colour spray we just need a retreat points? "

[Smileybastard]

Nialis chews his food slowly. "I think we are going to need to make some plans, but also be ready to change them. If we want to kill them we need to trap them inside the walls first so they can't just run. Four against twelve is not going to be easy, but it can be done. We would need to focus on ranged attacks and being in cover. I few improvised traps would be nice, but we may not have the time.
"There is also the option of simply talking. I have worked with Bandits before and that might help.
"What skills do you have that might help?"

[DemonZoZo]

Split personality eats some then shallows to say It simple smoke out the front entrance then have a range person in the wagon blocking it or we could get more information from oleg and i do know how to help the trading post later on".

[Rendel Nep]

Anga Shakes her head replng dismissively.
Eh, i'm a dwarf. We dun curry as much with words as you humans. I might tell if they're lyin' but that pretty much it.

Now if were' talkin fightin' then I've a pow...spell that can leave someone flat on their butt fer a scant few seconds. It ain't spectacular but then if any o'you be wailin' on 'em then that'll grant ya the upper hand in a fight. Unless ya insist on fightin' "honorably".

[JennTora]

"I don't know. They may not be in the mood to talk, on the other hand if we can convince them to just leave the place alone, it would certainly be easier than having to fight them. And he said they usually came here in groups of four or five, only the first group was twelve men." Vega pauses to dunk part of his still partly eaten piece of bread in his stew and take a bite. So assuming we talk them out of it their leader may come later, unhappy with what they did. Unless we could get them to believe we were stronger. " Pauses again. "I've had... Past experiences with bandits as well so I can believe there are pluses to talking. If we're going to do that we should have someone ready to attack in case things turn sour." He raises an eyebrow at Agna. "A pow spell?"

[Smileybastard]

"Agreed they may not be in a mood to talk and there is always the risk they will return with more. In fact if we kill them all the risk is still there, but it merely gives them more potential people to return with."

"There is another option. We take the fight to them. We let them come tomorrow and take their tax and then we track them back to their camp and then we attack them there. We can have the element of surprise. We would need to intend to kill them all or at least their leadership."

[DemonZoZo]

"I agree with Nialis's that we do wait. I purpose a alternative we use colour spray and tie them up and to get the fort better defense after I could promote it and get more guards here if it possible. otherwise their is to much risk in following them."

[Smileybastard]

"Why do you wish to tie them up?"

[JennTora]

"I'm assuming it has to with the fact that it's easier to interrogate someone who can't move."

[DemonZoZo]

"Well I think it better to leave in the care of Oleg after where done threatening them to extents and maybe hanging one for any example."

[Smileybastard]

"Oh I agree about interrogation, but I felt there was more and it seems I was correct. The law is clear and we are not burdening Oleg with dealing with prisoners for an indefinite time. They need to die."

[JennTora]

"if we hang one as an example it may just end up provoking the others. I doubt they send their strongest just to collect protection money. It wouldn't make any sense to do so when they already think they have Oleg and Svetlana terrified of them. I agree about not keeping them as prisoners indefinitely, that would just be foolish, we interrogate them, but then kill them. Let's not hang them out front and give crazy Axe lady a reason to come in with the entire clan at once, however."

[Rendel Nep]

Yeah, yeah... pow spell is an accurate way to put it. I mean there's no other means of producing such effects... its not like I'm psychic...much. Agna quickly replies before moving her gave to the catapults.
If we could get one of the siege weapons operational we might completely avoid anything other than a brief confrontation. We have enough people to use one now. she supposes.
Does Anyone have a clue about to use one of them? she asks.

[Smileybastard]

"I don't know how to use one," Nialis says, "and I still think we need to draw them in first. Could be useful if they escape I suppose."

[DemonZoZo]

Tural says "It no use if we use the catapults better using surprise to our advantage then we go to the woods after."

[Smileybastard]

Nialis

"What do you mean go to the woods after?"

[DemonZoZo]

"That when the hunt beings and get a head start to surprise them in the forest what half-orc doesn't like a hunt to happen."

[JennTora]

"I don't know much about the catapults either, but I'm fairly sure we won't be able to fix one in a single night."

[Smileybastard]

Nialis

"We also need to figure out how we will deal with them in a fight. I am going to better in melee and I don't have a ranged weapon anyway. If we found a bow laying around I could use it pretty well."

[DemonZoZo]

You don`t need the bow and we have range attacker already. We just need on gang up on the boss and the rest will flee oe fight themselves.

[Smileybastard]

Nialis

"I like to be ready for all contingencies and I am not going to assume if we gang up on the leader the rest will flee. They might, they might not. Plus shooting into a melee is not so easy."

[Smileybastard]

Nialis

"Ok, here is my plan. Oleg will wait in front of the shed (A4) as the bandits enter through the main gate that we will leave "stuck" enough for one person to come in at a time. I will be hidden between the wagon and the stables (A3) in ambush. Tural will be hiding in the shed and Agna can be on a roof with her crossbow. Vega, you can be hiding where you think is best. As the bandits approach Oleg we will attack in surprise and Oleg will duck back into the shed."

[DemonZoZo]

Sounds good to me.

[Rendel Nep]

Well, If Oleg be goin' along with it I can't say no but we'd be puttin' him in mortal danger. I may be able ta catch him before he falls. Just hope they don't decide ta hold him hostage.

[Smileybastard]

Nialis

"Catch him? Before he falls?"

[Rendel Nep]

As in stopping him dyin' because our little surprise would make the bandits skittish and liable t' lash out. Agna answers testily.

[DemonZoZo]

Tural+ tural 2.0 Well as long as I use colour spray in time where good.