Terrible as in not good, not as in fearsome in any way whatsoever.
When we left our adventurers, the captain of the guard in Kingsford had directed them to the site of the last bandit attack, a mere fifteen or so minutes away from the village. There were a couple of burned and broken wagons there, but not much else. Aeon determined quickly that the fire had been mundane in nature, and Aviar locate the tracks of four or five men, leading off to the west, keeping away from the village, but heading back towards the river.
Daylight was fading, so Roxy and Aviar went ahead as the rest of the group made camp. After a time the could see an old abandoned fortress on top of a hill in the distance. Surmising that this must be the bandit's hideout, Aviar used his survival skills to guide them towards the castle, using the natural cover of the hills, whilst Roxy used her stealth skills to ensure that they remained hidden when the path was in sight of the fortress.
Eventually they got close enough to examine the fortress in detail. There were guards in each of the towers, though they didn't seem too attentive, and there were lights of some kind or other in the keep behind the walls. They found a small break in the northwest wall, but decided to head back to camp and report on what they'd found.
After some deliberation, the group settled on a plan: they'd wait until dawn, and then Roxy would head towards the main gate of the castle, appearing to be burdened with sacks of treasure, which were actually just sacks of grass, and the rest of the party would hide in the tall grass that covers the hills and lie in wait for the inevitable party of bandits.
Roxy put on a convincing show and a group of bandits issued from the castle forthwith. She lured them even closer with the promise of more treasure, and then threw sand in the eyes of the two nearest her, blinding them, and proceeded to run one of them through with her rapier, killing him instantly.
Arjhan charged out and landed a solid hit on another of the bandits, but by now the bandits on the towers saw there was something wrong and took aim with their crossbows. They both missed, drawing attention to themselves, and Aeon used a baleful transposition on one of them in order to place Aviar in the tower in his place, bringing the bandit down to the ground where Aviar had been standing.
Aviar quickly took advantage of his elevated position, taking out the two guards on the gate, and those in the other three towers, as the rest of the party mopped up those left on the ground outside. The alarm had be rung, however, and the party could hear more bandits preparing to issue from the barracks just inside the gate. Arjhan smashed the makeshift gate in and the party entered the castle.
Roxy and Arjhan took up positions on either side of the door, while Aeon greased the ground in front of it. As the bandits burst out of the door, the first two were slain straight away as Arjhan and Roxy both made attacks of opportunity as they passed, the next pair slipped and fell due to the press of bodies behind them, and the train of bandits finally came to a halt. Those that remained were mopped up in short order, their superior numbers being neutralized by the bottleneck of the door.
Following that, the party moved onto the keep proper. They explored the entry hall, finding little of interest, and then moved onto the library, where they discovered a scroll and a wand of summon monster I. They then moved onto the great hall, which was occupied by six bandits. The battle was shortened considerably by Aeon's use of glitterdust, which blinded four of the bandits long enough for them to be dealt with with little consequence.
The group explored the rest of the first floor, discovering the majority of the bandit's loot in the trophy room, and finding two staircases leading up to the second floor and down to the basement, one behind the great hall, and one in the kitchen.
We wrapped up for the night with the party deciding that their next step would be to check out the basement, and see if the young paladin is being held in the dungeon.
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