Vasara followed Clodia to the edge. She returned to the others. "The village is not abandoned. At least one person in the largest house with a fire in the fireplace. There are no other signs of life. Approaching the house in disguise could be risky if they are people in the other houses." She noticed JD was not there. "Where is the stranger?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:41, Sat 10 Apr 2021.

JD snuck in to the village. She examined the first house she came across it was a one room home and it was empty. With the homes arranged in a square she didn't have to search them all on the way to occupided one. Each one she did pass she investigated. Finally arriving at the one with the fire she snuck a peek. There were ten guys asleep. She considered lobbying a grenade but realized she didn't grab any before the attack. She examined the surroundings. The field center had lot of dead, dry vegetation one shot from her pistol with her Incendiary Ammo power would set it a blaze but that runs the risk of setting all the structures on fire. The likelihood she could kill all of them before one woke up was questionable at best, she estimated the floor was squeeky and that would wake them.

She snuck back to where Gisella was. She noticed Vasara looking around. "Ten guys in the hut with the fire. They are all asleep."

Arilora spoke. "I advise that we wake them up once we're standing over them," she said. "There's an off chance that they're not bandits." She looked at Coalson. "Can you handle a sword?"

Clodia was on her way back when she saw JD walk back. She had to resist the urge to rip her a new one. "JD if you are in a strange land it is a good idea to listen to those that live there. Arilora is right. They could be refugees or they are just people who were looking to rebuild this village to get away from a mayor they don't like."

"If they were here to make a go of this village they wouldn't all sleep in one house when there are five houses. That means they are all distrustful of each other or the leader doesn't trust any of them."

"I never used a sword. I prefer to use these." She pointed to her pistols on her hips and her submachine guns on her back. "If it comes to close-quarters combat, I use these." She popped out both of her Omni-blades.

Arilora looked at the strange-looking weapons and nodded. "Strange. But you know their use best." She'd ask more later, but right now, she was just going to accept the weirdness.

She looked at Vasara. "I agree, they probably aren't. But probably isn't a good reason to kill people." She visibly clamped her lips shut against saying anything more.

JD pulled a thermal clip from her bag. "My primary weapons are limited to however many of these I have and I can't get anymore now." She puts it away. "If my Omni-blades ever fritz out I will be without any weapons. So I will need to learn to use another weapon but that is for another time."

"Once we get back to Vigil's Keep you can train with any of our soldiers. There are some I would recommend avoiding until you get better. But right now rely on what you know and if they fail take cover. We'll protect you. Now let's get going before they wake up." Clodia started towards the village. Taking it slow so as not to accidentally wake them up. He entered the building with all of the maybe-bandits. He drew both of his swords, he pointed one of them at the largest of the sleeping people.

Vasara knew Clodia was referring to her when it came to training. She followed Clodia down. She entered the house. She looked at all of them. She whispered to Clodia. "I know this one. They are definitely bandits. He's wanted for copious murders, last I heard it was at least a dozen." She knelt beside the guy she recognized. She put her left hand on his mouth. She had the hilt of the deactivated Blade of Glyndark where he could easily see it if he woke up. He woke up he started to say something but before he could say anything beyond a syllable she waved the hilt. She leaned in close and whispered. "I told you I would get you one day. No victims to distract me with." She pressed the hilt to his face and activated the sword severing the top half of his face from the rest of the body. She felt very satisfied, she been hunting this bastard for over a year. She went over to another one. She pointed the Blade of Glyndark to this one's throat. She whispered. "Ready when you are."

Arilora smirked at Vasara. "Why waste words on the dead?" she murmured to her.

She turned to Clodia. "The rest? Capture or kill?" she asked in a harsh whisper.

She whispered. "How else are we supposed to taunt them?" She looked at Arilora like she was crazy. She looked around them. "None of them look like they are important enough to have a capture alive only order."

Clodia kicked the biggest one awake. The guy jumped up when he was kicked and before he knew it his throat was impaled on Clodia's sword. "Shit!" The others started to wake up.

JD was standing by a female. She didn't look like a bandit to JD but she could be wearing some kind of costume for her partner. Though given the current location she may have multiple partners at once. She then saw the guy accidentally stab himself in the neck with...she then realized she didn't know any of their names. From then on it was chaos. One of the guys to her right woke up and started going for a very large axe. She switched her N7 Artemis Omni-Tool to Omni-Bow mode and shot him in the head.

One of the bandits woke and started shooting fire from a staff. JD switched her HMOT Omni-tool to the Omni-Shield mode and blocked the fire. She couldn't see through the fire but she aimed in the general direction of the mage. She missed the mage and hit a lantern. It set the mage on fire.

Arilora smirked at Clodia and shook her head. She saw no reason to wake the sleepers when she killed them, so she let her mana flow into the earth instead as they began trying to rise to their feet. Roots and vines erupted from the floor to grab a few of the bandits near her, seizing them. One was merely immobilized, but the others' bodies were pierced by the suddenly-hardening roots, sharp spikes of wood slamming into their chests, draining their blood into the Earth.

"We're fighting too fair," complained Arilora playfully.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:44, Fri 16 Apr 2021.

Vasara cast Winter's Grasp putting out the fire. The mage died. She then flung lightning at another bandit electrocuting him.

One of the bandits tried getting out the window, Clodia noticed she shot him with her crossbow.

"Arilora if you kill someone in their sleep you are no better than the bandits you killed. The Inquisition will not tolerate bandits. I will not tolerate bandits."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:30, Fri 16 Apr 2021.

With all the male bandits dead. The female in the costume was cowering in the corner. JD took off her helmet. She shook out her hair. "Hello. We're here to help. My name is Joceline you can call me JD. Did they violate you?"

The woman tried to speak but the words were unintelligible. JD thought she noticed something was off. "Can you open your mouth?" JD opened her mouth wide. The woman did the same. JD was horrified she turned her head to the others. "They cut her tongue out." She got up. She went to bandit that was restrained, she punched him with all her might repeatedly until she shattered his jaw.

She went back to the woman. "They will never hurt you again."

"So...you kick them awake, and then kill them," said Arilora, putting her hand to her forehead...and then JD came over to attack her bandit. "Stop!" she ordered. "We need to question this asshole before we show him our tender mercies. Bandits tend to keep loot around somewhere."

Arilora shook her head again. "Whatever. I almost don't care anymore."

"If they are awake they have a chance, no one said it had to be a good chance." Clodia was going to send JD to get her comrade but she thought it would be better to get someone else to do it. "Vasara could you go get the patient?" Clodia went to examine the tied-up and beaten-up bandit. "Damn girl! You did a hell of a job on his jaw. Arilora if you want to ask him for the loot's location instead of the usual hunting for it you could use your magic to heal it. I doubt he'll give up the location. We can look for it tomorrow after we all get a good night's sleep. JD you can keep the first watch tonight. Wake me when you need sleep."

Arilora shook her head. "Did their victims have a chance?" she asked softly. Then she turned around to find a place to curl up for the night, bandit and warrior alike forgotten.

The night passed without incident. After Vasara brought Gisella back the group removed the bodies and took the loot off the corpses. They also found a key.

Clodia picked out the best sword made of red steel and gave it to JD. The rest of the weapons were put into a barrel for anyone to take if they wanted. The rest would be sold. Armor was piled into the cart and covered with a tarp.

Early in the morning, a hunting trap set by the bandits caught a deer.

JD went out to investigate the noise generated by the deer. She followed the sound of the deer in agony. When she found the deer she began to cry. She took pity on the deer and shot it with her pistol. She freed the mangled corpse from the trap. She started digging a hole.

Vasara woke up early like she has done since she was a child. She noticed JD was missing she went out to find her. She eventually found her by the mangled deer. "Good job catching breakfast." She grabbed the mangled deer corpse and dragged it back to the village. She set it up on a fire spit. Then threw a fireball to start the blaze.

Clodia was woken by the smell of cooking meat. She went outside to get some fresh air and to check on the meat. "Damn that dear is messed up. I hope it went quickly."