Bandits At 11 O'Clock

Winnacer and Xavier carefully put the cart back on its wheels, and Colin harnesses a fully refreshed Giselle to it. It is decided that Darius, Heimlin and Corrow will sit in the cart while the rest of the party walk s alongside.

Within a few minutes of leaving the dry farmhouse, all are soaking wet from the pounding rain.

For the first three hours the journey is uneventful, apart from more moaning and complaining from everyone, put into bad tempers by the atrocious weather.

At around 11.00 , they see a group ahead of them on the track - a little surprising considering the terrible weather. As they get a little closer, the party can see that it is five people on horseback.

'Orright, we all know the routine' says Heimlin 'Everyone put on the pilgrim act again.'

Everyone starts to dig out their holy symbols and gets ready to start chanting.

They get a little closer and the party can see that they are all human. They are all more than a little relieved when they see that the group is not Nyemetz.

That relief fades very rapidly, however, when the party sees the horsemen spur on their horses and start to move towards them at a fair speed.

As they get closer still, they can see that the horsemen are all dressed in chainmail.

At the same time that they see that the horsemen have kerchiefs hiding their faces, they draw broadswords and start to charge straight towards the party.

'BANDITS!' screams Heimlin as he sees the telltale signs. 'Prepare to defend yourselves!'

With that, he throws himself prone in the back of the cart.

The bandits are currently about fifty yards from the party and closing fast.

As the five masked riders charge towards the group, there is a flurry of activity.

The aged Corrow is the first to react to the oncoming threat. He lifts himself from the bed of the cart and starts to utter arcane incantations and moves his body in an odd way.

The party are all blinded for a split second, as incredibly bright colors shoot from Corrow's fingers, heading in the direction of the masked riders, but falling just a little short. The sight is a wonder to behold, a prism of all of the colors of the rainbow streaming in the direction of the cavalry, stopping just short of their position.

Corrow's fireworks display has an immediate effect upon them, as they rein their horses to an abrupt halt.

Yaz, following Corrow's lead, also starts to contort his body in a mystick way and begins to shout out words and phrases, the meaning of which the rest of them can only guess at. The mounted bandits decide as one that they would rather not stick around to see the result of Yaz's mystick actions, and quickly turn their horses around and set off at speed in the direction from whence they came.

While this has been going on, Darius' 'minders' took their attention off of him for a few seconds, in which time the plucky goblin hauled himself off the cart and started to run towards the bandits, ignoring the pain that he must be feeling.

'Four legged big dog men! Cowards be all you! Fight like men! Run not like stoats!' he screams, chasing after them all.

When the five bandits reach the edge of the party's vision, one of them stops for a brief instant. He looks at them all with a menacing stare. His face then breaks into an evil grin. He then spurs his horse on to join up with his companions.

All are relieved at having dealt with the bandit threat so easily.

All except Heimlin.

With a stern face, he speaks:

'It is good that the bandits fled without causin' injuries to any of us, but I fear that our actions could cause us greater troubles durin' the remainder of our journey. The bandits that prey upon the defenseless usually work with the consent of the Nyemetz, cuttin' them in on whatever they can steal from journeymen. Such a sum that could be gained from the assault upon a group of 'umble pilgrims would be nought compared to the bounty they would receive for bringin' witches to the attention of the Nyemetz. My fear is that they are now ridin' towards the nearest Nyemetz garrison in order to inform them that a party containin' witches is in the locale. It would be very easy for them to give a description of us to the Nyemetz, as they 'ad plenty of opportunity to see us.'

Colin runs up to Darius, who is not managing to follow the mounted bandits very fast because of his injuries. Colin catches him and starts to drag him back to the cart, despite Darius' violent objections.

There is a short discussion on the perils of magick use followed by another brief discussion as to what should be the best course of action. Everyone goes along with Yaz's suggestion of following the tracks of the mounted bandits in the hope of reaching them before they would have a chance of informing the Nyemetz.

It is very easy to follow the tracks of the bandits as the hooves of the horses form very clear signs in the soft mud caused by the heavy rainfall. At the fastest pace possible, all set off in the hope of getting to the bandits quickly.

The party continue following the tracks for four hours during which time Yaz has been following the trail in silence, but with a very unhappy look on his face. At this point Yaz stops and walks back to the rest of the group, giving the cart an almighty kick in order to try and relieve his frustration.

A stream of obscenities in a strange tongue are uttered and then Yaz says:

'This is a complete waste of time. There was never going to be any way of keeping up with riders when we are on foot. These tracks are two hours old already. There is simply no way that we are going to catch up with them.'

Heimlin speaks:

'By the direction that they're headin', I'll wager that they're makin' speed to Pardubitze. It's in the right direction an' it's a fair sized city that will 'ave a good sized Nyemetz garrison. From the rate they've been movin' they'll make Pardubitze before night fall, but we 'ave no chance of gettin' there for then.'

'We might just as well rest up for the night. I don't think that the Nyemetz garrison will be able to get to us before tomorrow, even if they mobilize their forces immediately, so I don't think we need to worry about bein' attacked in the night. Might as well get a good night's sleep in the dry an' worry about what tomorrow is goin' to bring then.'

All decide to seek a roof for the night. Coming to the brow of a small hill, Yaz is delighted to see a promontory of the Shumava forest ahead on the road, as opposed to the plains and low hills that the party has been traveling through ever since they left Mnyesto. However, the woody outcrop is still two or three hours travel from their present position. In addition to this, they also see a crumbling building just a little further down the road.

Approaching the building, they see that it is another ruined and deserted farm. At least it has a roof to protect them from the pouring rain. They move into the ruined farm, and set up a defensive barrier using the cart and wooden stakes in case this area too contains ravenous wolves. In case Heimlin's predictions about the timing of the Nyemetz is incorrect, they are all doubly careful when it comes to their watches for the night.

Just as it start to turn dark, the rain stops falling.

 

8 SEPTEMBER 3460

Their preparations were in vain, luckily, as there were no problems in the night, either with wolves or Nyemetz. As they are going through the early morning routines of the spell casters reading their books, Yaz wandering off into the trees and coming back with breakfast and the fighters seeing to their weapons, Heimlin speaks:

'Well, if we're goin' to run into the Nyemetz, then it's likely to be today. What preparations should we be makin' to try an' avoid them or to fight them?'

After a long time discussing possibilities, they all decide that they do not have time to carry on the conversation at the farm, as time is getting on. They carry on their conversation on the journey. As they carry on with their journey, they are very careful to keep their eyes open, scanning ahead for fear of running into a Nyemetz patrol.

For two hours, there are no signs of Nyemetz. At this time, the terrain changes from plains and low hills to the wooded area that marked the fringes of Shumava. The rough path that the party was following disappeared into the wooded area.

They carry on down the path and, after 20 minutes, find a small clearing that fits in with their plans. It is the perfect place for an ambush. Giselle and the cart are left in the center along with Darius, who has asked to be left in the center of the trouble.

The party then splits into groups surrounding the clearing:

Colin & Yaz take the 3 o'clock position

Winnacer, Heimlin and Maire' take the 6 o'clock position

Xavier and Corrow take the 9 o'clock position

Colin then starts to create an illusion of the rest of the party as if they are encamped. Darius, as usual is mumbling to himself constantly, which, for once, is useful, as it provides an audio element to the illusion.

As Corrow keeps the illusion going, he hopes that the Nyemetz turn up quickly, if they are coming at all, as concentrating for hours on end would be very draining for him.

His prayers are answered. After just 45 minutes, the Nyemetz arrive.