Adventures of the Dermin Adventurer Band: Chapter 9
Enjoy this piece. The story will be mostly influenced by an IRL D&D campaign from now on, so don't be surprised if some stuff starts to sound weird. Also, hired some more folks around rpgclassics, so don't wonder if you see a familiar name a bit mangled up into a new form.
Mabatsekker felt nervous. Gar had a crossbow bolt protuding from his left shoulder, yet he was still standing with no grit on his face. Zoliphian kept herself covered up near the wagon so Tiria was in no danger, and Kat was already there to aid Gar.
Brigands. After 4 days of peaceful ("and boring", thought Zol) travel, Tiria had sensed that something had been following them on the 5th day. Only a day's worth of travel to reach Kuntz, the nearest town. The brigands had been waiting for the group to shake their suspicion, but they finally attacked as Tiria had sensed their presence, keeping everyone sharp. Their demands had been "Hand over your ward, and she'll be OK. Your gold too if you prefer to keep your heads!", and Gar was the first to act by dropping the first bandit with a swift sword swipe, but was quickly punished by a crossbow bolt hail, getting wounded.
("This is going to be ugly.. gonna have to try to settle this with one shot.."), Maba thought as he started to chant a spell. One of the brigands noticed this and began to charge at him. Luckily, Kat was there to smash the unnamed attackers head in, as Maba finished his chating; His hand ejected a small gust of wind which then flew past the main group of bandits, causing two of them lean back and forth, dropping their weapons at last, until falling on the grond. Two yawned suddenly and then collapsed to the ground. The rest of the bandits, about half a dozen left, took a glance at their superior, who signaled them to retreat, but not before threatening to be back.
"You and what army," hissed Zoliphian at their fleeing opponents. She obviously wasn't happy about the fact that she didn't get to show her own spellflinging capabilities.. ("No matter.. soon enough,") she thought to herself, but then remembered: "GAR!", and rushed to his side. "It's nothing," the tall half-elf said with his usual -grave-serious tone as Zoliphian stared at his wound with concern. "C'mon, can't you hurry with the wound already?" Zoliphian urged. Kat was already rummaging the carriage for the healer's kit, and then proceeded flinging it out and open. "Okay, I need you to remove your armor so I can apply any heals.. we've got the time now that the bandits fled.. Maba?"
Maba was already tying the sleeping crooks up so they wouldn't cause any trouble as they woke up. "Why not just dispose of them, and make the civilized world a favour that way?", asked Zoliphian angrily. "Because the amount of money in a single bandit's money pouch was ridiculously high, Zoliphian. Just have a glance inside this," Maba said as he threw the belt-pouch he took from one the brigands belts while disarming them. Zoliphian caught the pouch and emptied the contents on her palm. Dozens of platinum pieces, several gold pieces and even a few small gems fell from the pouch. Zoliphian hadn't seen that much money in a single pouch, save the one time when their adventuring group shared the loot.. and the TOTAL amount was about the same as that bandit had with him. "Seeing how they carry so much wealth is beyond me, but I strongly believe that they were hired before-hand to dispose of us," Maba deduced.
"We should get these to court in Kuntz as soon as possible. I have a feeling these guys are wanted for a reason or another. One of these guys has been branded with an iron already.. and most likely, his friends will be too," he continued. His thoughts were interrupted as Gar yelped in pain as Kat was removing his shoulder plate where the bolt had pierced itself thru the armor. "Just a few inches from your throat.. be thankful.." The bolt protuding from Gar's muscled shoulder made Zoliphian feel sick. So much blood.. from such a simple attack? ("The bigger they are, they bleed"), she thought to herself as she toyed away with thoughts of torturing the captured bandits.. until Tiria asked what had happened. Since everyone knew that she was old enough to hear this and aware of possible dangers, they spared no detail telling what had happened. "Can Kattie patch Gar up?," the girl asked. "Of course!", Zoliphian replied in a way that would even try to spark up some cheer. Tiria shook her head slowly, and then proceeded to a quiet chant. Zoliphian guessed that she was measurimg the distance between the group and the town of Kuntz with a minor spell she had developed. With information about the intended location and some randomness provided by the winds of magic, she was then finished.
Zoliphian's guess was confirmed as Tiria relied the information: "Less than a day's travel. with luck, with should be there before the .. uhh.. completion of the circle.. err.. sundown! Yes!," she finished, with slight stuttering with the end of her sentence. Her knowledge of the time passing above the surface was still a bit limited; Being blind makes the illumination level pretty much useless, and the drow measure time by cycles in which a wizard casts a light spell that undergoes a certain cycle until dying away.. The sundown was, homever a blessing to her; It allowed her to took her blindfold away if the moon was clouded.. then again, only Zoliphian could see anything in the dark aside from Tiria. Conversing in the dark with her being able to see the others was kind of.. special, since they couldn't see her expressions, or 'her wonderfully glistening eyes', like Zoliphian had described them. Light from fire still hurt her eyes, and they didn't even want to gamble with a regular light spell.
Mabatsekker finished looting and tying the bandits up; The wealth they had in total was small ransom, over 500 gold pieces! Zoliphian told Mabatsekker the distance, and then both turned to Kat and Gar, who were almost done. The crossbow bolt was first removed, then the wound was cleaned up of impurities. Only after these she had cast a small healing spell upon the wound, causing scar tissue to form, and then she patched him up. Kat's magic wasn't anything major, as it often made her REALLY tired, and occasionally, heavy spellcasting gave her a major headache. "We're done here, you?", she asked as she finished up loading everything up into the healers kit. "All done. I just loaded the scumbags into the carriage, and tied them up into a nice bouquet. Once we get into Kuntz, they'll get their part of justice.." Maba explained. Kat smiled and nodded in understanding. Gar mumbled a small word of thanks and then, with clear voice, asked: "We go?"
The group then finished their trip to Kuntz in six hours, just as the sun was going down. a mid-sized commercial town just a few day's distance from NaltisThe gatekeeper was about to shift for the night watch, but the quick knocks on the door awoke him. He proceeded opening the gate for the travellers: "Welcome to the town of Kuntz, travellers. Please state the amount people and declarable goods, good sir!", the guard asked according to the book. Maba then smiled in a friendly manner: "I am Dermin Mabaderu, these are Kat-Chi, Gar and Zoliphian. In the carriage we have a small girl who we are to deliver to Naltis as soon as possible. Please read this before you let any harsh prejudices surface," Maba said as he handed a scroll printed just for a case like this. The guard then proceeded to read the scroll and blinked a few times: "A drow child, you say? 'Not to be harmed in any way or face the Naltis elder committee in court..' Ach, I see! I already apologize for this!" Tiria then peeks out of the carriage, and calls to him: "Hey Maba, tell mr. gatekeeper about the bad guys!"
"Bad guys..?" asks the gatekeeper, already in confusion about a drow (albeit still child, and half-drow) being within 25 feet from him. Maba then says, in a matter-of-fact tone: "Yes, on our way here, we were ambushed by brigands. my firned here, Gar got a slight wound but we managed to disable some of them before they escaped. In fact, we have four of them captured, and most likely, they are wanted as well!" Maba is catching his breath as the gatekeeper ges to check upon the captured bandits, who are STILL sleeping. "How..?" the gatekeeper asks as if he had seen a ghost. "Magic is a good ally whole travelling, I must say. Also, they had about 500 in platinum, gold and gems..", Maba went on.
The gatekeeper let the party into the town and then led them to the tavern, leaving Gar and the girls and asked Maba to come along with him to sign a few papers.. this wasn't exactly an everyday occurence for the gatekeeper to have several members of the Cor Yemilb bandits brought in for justice, sleeping like babies and on top of that, by a bunch of kids.. especially when his shift was about to end!