Sleeping beauties

With their Darkvision spell in full effect, Hawk and Avalon, on his dinosaur-mount, proceed towards the bandit camp. It takes them a couple of hours to cover the distance, but they eventually arrive, take up observation positions and wait.

Over a period of half an hour, they watch a number of men gathered around a campfire. Hawk spots what looks like a cave entrance behind the fire. Men occasionally come and go from the cave, but they seem to mainly spend their time sat around the fire looking bored and chatting.

They count up to seven men at a time around the fire, but with the coming and goings they are sure they see at least twelve individuals. All human except for one young half-orc.

As the Darkvision spell begins to fade, they do a quick circuit of the area around the bandits camp, and head back to report.

"So, what did you see?" asks Janin as they return. Hawk and Avalon relay to the others all that they have observed and various battle plans are discussed for a good hour or so.

"It's still relatively early, about midnight." Points out Dua, "If we can decide upon a plan quickly, we still have time to put it into action tonight." The suggestion is received well and sagely nods appear all round.

After a little more second-guessing, they eventually decide that they don't know enough to have one clear plan of attack, instead they will have to play some of it by ear, and change things as the situation demands. The basic plan though is to subdue and capture any bandit sentries or those sleeping outside the cave, then to possibly scout out the cave and maybe even capture more bandits if the opportunity arises.

So with a slow but steady pace, the group, under cover of darkness, bring their prison wagons to within a mile of the bandit camp. Another charge from the Darkvision wand is used on everyone except Dua, who can naturally see in the dark. They then close in on the bandit camp for the second time that night.

Janin decides to keep his distance from the camp seems as his metal armour is likely to give away his approach. He positions himself in a small copse of trees, a couple of hundred meters from the camp. From there he can act as emergency backup and also potentially spot problems that those approaching the camp might miss.

Dua uses his innate powers to put the two bandit sentries to sleep and then he approaches their cave and sneakily heads inside. Vaelas and Hawk approach the six bandits sleeping around the campfire, outside the cave. They give each one in turn a swift but solid blow to the head and tie them up.

Back inside the cave, Dua follows a short tunnel and emerges into a small cavern, lit by a single wall-torch. Eight men sleep on rags and furs, on the floor. Considering his options, Dua realises that there are two many weapons, and heavy ones at that, to make it worthwhile removing them. Instead he uses another innate power to produce a ray of cold, which extinguishes the torch. He then proceeds further down the tunnel.

Thirty yards later he emerges into a second small cavern. Six forms sleep here, the half-orc, a half-elf and four humans. The two humans at the very rear of the cave look to have slightly nicer belongings and weapons. Reasoning that they are likely to be the leaders, Dua approaches quietly and looks around.

He spots a strange symbol, possibly holy in nature, suspended on a chain above one of the men’s beds. With the symbol being out of his reach, Dua grabs the nearest thing he can find to reach it for him. That turns out to be a human leg bone. Suppressing a quick shudder, Dua unhooks the symbol and slowly retreats from the cave.

With the first half of their plan successfully completed, the group form a quick huddle to discuss what to do next.