Pharast 22nd - The Sleeping Bounty

The group awake, feeling refreshed after an uneventful evening and after finishing off the remaining pork, the 6-strong team (Ranger, Rogue, Cleric, Sorcerer, Druid and Badger) decide to explore to the south east, a location that lies just west of the Sootscale Kobold's lair.

After a number of days travelling through thick woodland with scattered streams, occasional marsh patches and dense foliage, the group enjoy spending several hours on horseback, riding through plains and low hills.  In a weird way it was a nice change for the group to travel and explore a wide expanse unblighted by ruins and lacking hidden caches of treasure.  Beyond natural creatures, there is also very little in the way of threats both to them and the common traveller - however that peace soon threatens to end when from atop a hill Natalia spots three figures off in the distance, dressed in recognisable bandit gear (they all seem to have a certain look about them, regarding their apparel) and travelling on foot in a direction leading away from the group.

Otto rolls up his sleeves and shouts "watch this!" to the others; with a wave of his hands and a mutter of words his sleep spell hits all three of the figures and they fall to the ground asleep.

Miro draws his bow and aims at the sleeping figures with the intention of despatching them before they wake from Otto's spell (after all, the bandits could be faking it - over the course of the last week everything else seems to have been able to shrug of Otto's sleep spell).  Just as Miro lets an arrow fly,  Vaneer shout notices and shouts for him to hold fire, too late.

Arching high all eyes watch the arrow as it plummets towards the sleeping bodies, fortunately for the three prone men, the city-raised Miro hadn't calculated for the spring breeze and the arrow misses one of the men by half a foot.

Confused, the group look at Vaneer for an explanation and so the Cleric of Erastil reminds them that they had been asked to keep an eye out for a rogue mercenary named Falgrim Sneer, who was hiding in the greenbelt and that seeing that all the bandits in the area apart from those at the stag lord's keep had been dealt with, this left them with two possibilities....

1 - These bandits have travelled directly from the stag lord and could provide valuable information for the group.

2 - One of them could be the mercenary they need to bring in for justice.

A moment of silence sits over the group as they take in Vaneer's words and they quickly realise that they may have been a little hasty, so they agree to inspect the slumbering figures before deciding on their fates.

Everyone but Miro (who continues to harbour a desire to fire on the sleeping men) rides down the low hill towards the tangle of three men and on closer inspection find that one of the bandits does look like a wanted poster they had seen at Oleg's Trading Post; Falgrim Sneer, their quarry!  Kryander sets about tying Falgrim up, whilst the other two bandits are executed as per the group's remit.

Atop the hill Miro notices a glimmering light caused by the sun reflecting off something metallic, several miles to the south.  Once the group are finished with the task at hand and start to load up their prisoner and recover the bandit's ill-gotten goods, Miro descends (after determining that there was no immediate threat in the vicinity) and subtly conveys to the others that they are being watched from afar by someone with a telescope.

 

Trying to act "normally and unaware" whilst being watched, the party head west with Miro and Kyrander attempting to cover the group's tracks as they move.  After a little while Falgrim eventually wakes up and spends the next couple of hours trying to bargain with his captors for his freedom, but to no avail - his bounty is worth more than he could hope to offer them!  The party also question the bandit regarding his activities and locations in the Stolen lands, but Falgrim has little more to tell them than they already know.
 

Heading west, the party finally locate another bounty as they come across a large spread of bushes, full of plump pink berries, nestled in a small valley between two hills.  Natalia and Kyrander quickly confirm that these are indeed the fangberries that they had been asked to collect.  Otto, wondering why the berries were given such a ridiculous name, narrows avoids being prickled all over when going to pick a few of the berries; the bountiful fruit bushes sport many tiny sharp fang-like thorns all over the bush, which explains why the rare fruit hasn't been eaten by the local bandits and animals.

Sensibly, Vaneer suggests that the team begins setting up camp for the evening whilst he casts Barkskin on himself, granting the cleric a layer of protection which is enough to fend off damage from the tiny sharp bushes of terror which would have otherwise ripped into him.  Vaneer manages to harvest a good amount of berries for the potion-brewing hermit who had asked for these and also some for the group to enjoy after they finish off the night's rations.  Before the night's watch begins, Miro gags the pleading bandit, who hasn't ceased his bargaining for a good many hours, and threatens to throw him in to the fangberry bushes if Falgrim disturbs the halfling rogue's beauty sleep!


[In more peaceful lands and in less troubled times the actions of the party could be considered chaotic, going on evil.  However in lawless wilds with a remit that allows the group to explore and put bandits to the sword, their actions are justified as they try to bring peace and order to an uncivilised land.  Adventurers, cartographers, explorers, executioners and mercenaries - the group is a force to be reckoned with and can be called many things, but 'heroes' isn't such a word, yet...]