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Prologue 4: Bloodbath

Eighteen of them.

You have eighteen people to slay, when just one of them had proven competent enough to decimate you and the majority of your raiding party. Their numbers were tedious enough with the realization that they were trained combatants, but at least one of them was far beyond basic training, and though he made the mistake of leaving you to a slow death, he would not do so a second time if you were discovered. If you were to have vengeance, you would need a plan, and because the loyalty of your only two allies in this fight stood on shaky ground at best, it would have to be something spectacular.

While contemplating possibilities, you look over your equipment: the leather scraps covering your chest don't offer much protection, and the morningstar, while familiar enough in your grip, is worn enough that you know it could snap soon. In light of this troubling observation, you slide your supply pack off of your shoulders in search of anything that could be used as a spare weapon under emergency circumstances, and aside from the sprig of wildberries Taaru gave you, all you have are two torches.

You can work with that.

While thinking further on plans, you notice Taaru beginning to walk away, and immediately tug him back toward you, warning him against an early confrontation. As the two of you are greatly outnumbered, and your observations lead you to believe his skill in the fray is lacking, you tell him to keep his distance in unfavourable conditions. The lupin acknowledges your command with a grin, patting the pouch at his waist. His lack of movement suggests he understands you have more to say, and aren't simply planning to confront the smaller group and resort to the gnoll-preferred hit-and-run trickery.

"You are plotting something," Taaru observes.

"We'll meet the chanters last," you tell him, "I'm not taking any chances with them, and we don't want their friends at our backs. You can have words with them, but not now." The druid looks back in the cultists' direction, then back to you. While slightly annoyed with the delay, he appears agreeable enough.

"Reasonable," he responds while glancing toward the encampment, "but how are you planning to deal with them?"

Your grin almost coaxed one out of the wolf: "How nice of you to ask~"

~~~~~

The next several hours dragged on as the two of you explored the surrounding area in search of hazards, though you found nothing in particular that could be used to your advantage. In the end, you settled on a small clearing to be used as a defensive arena. It provided little cover, but you had plans for it. The rest of your time was spent spying on the night watch, studying their patrols. Due to the complacence of your target, their patterns were not only easy to learn, but obviously flawed. Three people were awake at any given time, and two of the three would often get caught up playing cards while the third took a patrol. When that finished, the patrolling guard would sit at the card table and one of the remaining players would leave the table.

Aramil was not among those awake, and you didn't see which tent he was given. You decide that he must have gone to bed early, since you found no trace of him in the woods, and adjust your strategy to reflect this new information. With one signal for your other accomplice to wait, you sneak past the patrolling soldier once he passes, and make way toward the supply tent. While the sight of (parts of) your spoils from the raid is comforting, you leave it for now, only taking enough time to fasten three clay jugs' worth of mead to your supply pack and folding a few lengths of canvas before sneaking off. While slightly more noisy with the canvas, you manage to avoid detection.

When you reach Taaru, he comments that a few people in the next tent over had awakened, but they didn't see you and thus went back to sleep. You take him back to the area you've designated as a defensive arena and escape route and begin digging in the ground, placing pieces of canvas in a wide semicircle before burying them. From there you pour mead onto the covered canvas, with Taaru helping once he realizes what you're up to.

Once finished, the wolf's hand wanders toward the farming sickle at his waist, but he ultimately settles on brandishing the spear at his back. Following suit, you lift up your spiked mace and return to the encampment you plan to ambush.

The lone guard never saw the two of you coming. Between braining him with your mace and Taaru skewering into his chest, he never had the chance to scream. With little effort, the two of you heft the fallen soldier's body up and carry him out of the encampment. After dumping his body behind some bushes, you ponder your next approach while helping yourself to his sword.

While technically both medium-sized creatures, gnolls and those of lupin descent share a more monstrous build, and cannot equip armour fitted for non-monstrous races. You can have a tailor re-fit gloves, boots, and basic clothing, and either a tanner or a smith can re-fit armour for you, but you will need materials for the job, as well as money. Retailoring is less expensive and time consuming than ordering customized equipment.

Properly armed, you return to a card game in progress. Or at least, you expected to: the twenty minutes you were away had aroused the two remaining guards' suspicion, though they had yet to start waking people up. They move together, checking around corners in as quiet a manner as they can manage while never letting the other out of their sight. With your new longsword in hand, you estimate that this is your best chance and begin your approach, only for Taaru to pull you back.

You would punch him for hindering you, but seeing his sling in hand gives you an idea of what he's up to. So you follow him on a path parallel to the patrol's, until he stops and launches a stone into the bushes ahead of the two guards. They hear it, but fail to see anything outside the light of their torches. As the pair investigates, your lupin companion pelts a tree branch just outside of their visual range, and the two guards stand further isolated from the encampment, perplexed for just long enough that you are able to charge in and stab one through the backside completely unaware. The second unwitting guard turns to face you, blade drawn, but before he can yell out a spherical stone cracks into the side of his skull, stunning him for just long enough that you have no trouble finishing him off with a throat-slice.

Two body deposits later, you find you have an extra sword and a shortbow lying around. Three down, nine left. With the easy part taken care of, you make your way back toward the tents, splitting up from Taaru so you can deal with their inhabitants after telling him to spare the elf if encountered. There are two people to a tent, and though you were fortunate enough to find your elf in the second tent you searched, the moment you kicked him awake a scream could be heard outside.

"Gnoooooooollll!!"

Alarmed, you leave the tent to see Taaru's spear lodged in someone's chest, the screams turning to pained cries while the remainder of the tents shuffled about from internal movement. You stare at Taaru, cursing under your breath while Aramil joins you, taking one final draft from his waterskin before tossing it aside and brandishing his own sword.

"Well, that's one way to make an entrance," the elf muses while looking between the two of you, whispering "How many have you taken?"

"The three keeping watch, two in one tent, and.." You answer, but trail off upon glancing toward Taaru.

"One in another tent, and this one," Taaru finishes.

"There were four keeping watch," Aramil grumbles. In moments, the remaining five sellswords have the three of you surrounded, with two warriors each on two separate paths away, while the remaining person carried a mace, and instead of armour he wore linen pants, a dark tunic, and spectacles.

Your gnoll instincts take over the moment you see them surrounding you, and after spurring your two accomplices to charge with you, the three of you crash into the unarmoured combatant with your weapons flying. You aim to overpower him with a single chop, but when the human raises his arm up against your sword something invisible knocks your swing aside. Taaru's spear is likewise turned, though he reaches the mage's chest with it. Only Aramil's blade penetrates the caster's defenses, and while he is staggered from the gash in his arm, said caster remains on his feet.

With four warriors closing the distance between you for a pincer attack, you duck around the mage, dodging a swing from his mace and cleaving through his invisible armour with a mighty swing. Aramil stays by your side when you turn to face the other four, though Taaru steps behind you when they draw closer.

With a cry of "Simon!" the first two clash blades with you, with a third cutting at you with a glaive from behind. You shrug it off with a growl, digging your toes into the ground while hammering away to get past their shields. When an axe bites into your shoulder, the first of the four falls, and you realize that your snarls aren't the only ones in the camp: Taaru had circled around toward the rear, and for some reason two actual wolves were with him, keeping the glaive-wielder busy.

The last ones screamed, and when the wolves vanished there was silence.

1) Do you eat a berry? If so, how many? (you have three)

The three of you were panting for the next several minutes, listening for other signs of life in the area. When nothing came, and no screams were heard, Taaru bandaged your ribs and shoulder up before you started searching bodies and gathering your loot in the centre of the encampment. Many weapons were strewn about in the resulting pile, as well as suits of scalemail and chainmail. The weapons consist of a few longswords and shortswords, one shortbow, one longbow, a glaive, a mace, a heavy flail, and a battleaxe. As before, your loot from the raid is here, as well as the mercenary group's food and mead supply.

2) What are you taking with you? Do you give Aramil anything? If so, what?

Aramil doesn't ask why you have a lupin with you, despite knowing the tension between your races and being able to identify the differences between the two species: you've long ago taught him the folly of making assumptions while trading stories at the old camp, and he knows you haven't known this creature for very long, or whether you intend to keep him around. That said, you give the brown-skinned elf a big grin and pet him on the head a few times for not causing trouble for you. His ears flick about at your touch, yet he remains indifferent about the gesture.

Once satisfied that the encampment had been emptied, you take your two accomplices with you to the cultist gathering to find them gone, when Taaru informs you that the Sandford Watchmen Council only conducts their meetings at night, and away from the village proper.

3) You have your raiding supplies back, and some of your raiding party has been avenged. You can't take it all with you, but you could call this a victory and be on your way, or you could hunt down the Watchmen Council tomorrow night. Or you could do something else entirely. What are your plans?

---

4) Regardless of whether you plan on destroying the council, the three of you need to rest. Where do you sleep? Is there anything you wish to do before the next nightfall?

Note: You can have a chat with your accomplices or other characters at any time, or examine things more closely. If the conversation isn't immediately relevant, it will most likely occur during your winding down time, or during exploration phases.