On the Job

A group of adventurers were traversing the forest in search of a bandit hideout. It was a simple and common set up: a vanguard warrior, a healer priest and a spellcasting sorceress. These three had been adventurers for a whole year and had achieved some success thanks to their unity and their determination. However, they had fallen into a bit of a slump and were struggling to improve their standing in the Guild. They weren’t as successful anymore, they came back from requests a bit more banged up than usual and their growth had been stagnating for a while.

That had changed thanks to the help of their temporary fourth party member.

The sorceress had mentioned that there was this new highly experienced adventurer who arrived into town, gave sound advice, helped newbies get started on the right track and wasn’t intimidated by the veterans or bullies of the guild. The warrior and priest weren’t too convinced by the girl’s obvious “crush” for this adventurer. But when they saw the grizzled Bounty Hunter sharing funny stories about his previous jobs and giving hard lessons with wise advice, they realized it wasn’t just a girl’s crush. This guy was the real deal.

Then came the day that the Wolf stood up to the Black Talon goons and even shamed them in front of everyone. It was a beauty to behold. So the sorceress made a request to him on behalf of her companions, which the Wolf accepted in good nature and asked them to do things like they always did. He didn’t want to take charge or force things to go his way. He was just along for the ride.

So now the party were moving through the forest, tracking the whereabouts of some bandits. It seemed that a group of well organized bandits had set up their base of operations within this forest and were known for robbing merchant convoys and ransacking their goods. There was also talk that they dabbled in the slave market and were given a high bounty for their heads. Wolf had received a request in the same area as well, so he decided to help them out while he fulfilled his own request.

The bounty hunter was taking point while he followed the trail, the sorceress was following a few steps behind, the priest kept watch in the middle while the warrior acted as the rearguard. For the better part of the afternoon, all they did was tracking. It was exhausting for the sorceress and priest, so they had to camp out for a bit in order to rest.

“Gods above! I didn’t know tracking down bandits would be this tiresome!” The priest sat down heavily on the grass. He took off his chapeau and took a deep breath.

“This sort of request can be demanding, but if we complete it, we’ll be back on track and regain some confidence with the Guild. We should set up camp for the night.” The warrior was looking less tired than the other two, but still had clear signs of fatigue.

“I-I can’t… move… another… muscle… pheew!!!” The sorceress leaned against a tree and slid down to the ground completely exhausted. “Aren’t you… tired… Mr. Wolf?”

The bounty hunter lit one of his cigarettes, took a long drag from it then turned to look at the other three with a smirk.

“I could keep tracking them for days Missy, but that’s only ‘cause I’ve more experience.” He approached the group, reached into his satchel and pulled out three canteens, handing one to each of them. “Drink this stuff. It might be a bit on the sweeter side, but it’ll help you recover your stamina.”

Grateful for having a drink, the three adventurers took their respective canteen and took a sip from it. To their amazement, the liquid within was cool, had a bit of a fizzy taste to it and had a sweet orange flavor.

“Whoa! This is pretty damn good!” The warrior sat down while he took a few more sips from the canteen. After a few sighs of relief he couldn’t help but burp loudly. This made the others laugh softly.

“I say, Master Hunter, you have some unique items at your disposal. That you had this miraculous beverage in hand is nothing short of amazing.” The priest was careful not to drink too much, wanting to avoid a shameful act like burping.

“See? I told you Mr. Wolf was amazing! Not only is he funny, he’s also cool and full of nifty surprises.” The sorceress smiled childishly which made the others think of a kitten when she did that.

The bounty hunter, however, didn't seem to change his usual smirk and just continued to enjoy his smoking. His eyes were moving slowly through the forest as if he were looking for something… or someone.

“Alright, campers! Let’s set up camp like Tough Guy suggested, and rest for the night. We’ll pick this up in the morning. Alright?” Richard tapped his left ear two times, which made the other three look at each other then nodded.

Night fell in the forest, and the party had set up camp. Only the noises of the forest could be heard. The party was asleep while the campfire burned dimly. The warrior and his two companions were huddled together to protect themselves under a large quilt that covered them almost from head to toe, leaving only their headgear visible, while Wolf, who was supposed to be taking guard duty, but it appeared that he had fallen asleep on the watch covered by his duster coat.

From the shadows, a group of bandits were watching the party and grinning maliciously as they believed they had caught some easy prey. They knew there was a girl amongst them, so they would enjoy their time with her after they’d killed the other three men. Since there was a warrior among them, they’d have to make sure to kill that guy before they subdued the priest and the weird guy that accompanied them. Slowly, they snuck closer to the camp. When they felt they were close enough to the sleeping party, they pulled out their knives and with wild bloodthirsty shouts they drove their blades through the quilt to kill the warrior and priest.

To their surprise, there was no resistance from the blades going through the cloth and no blood was staining their weapons! When they pulled the quilt away, they realized that under the quilt were only stacks of grass and weeds to form the shapes of people. The party had left their headgear behind to fool them. When the bandits that attacked the quilt turned around to look at the man in the hat, they realized that he had come to life and had stabbed two of their cronies with a pair of large knives.

“You fellas are dumbasses, aren’t ya?” The arrogant grin on the bounty hunter’s face revealed that they had planned this from the beginning. From the top of the trees and the bushes, the warrior jumped down to attack the surprised bandits while the sorceress bound the movements of those that were trying to escape while the priest used a special defensive barrier to silence all noises from escaping its radius. It was a quick surprise attack and they succeeded in their plan…

Before the party had entered the forest, Wolf had taken them aside to talk to them away from prying eyes and sensitive ears.

“An ambush?” The warrior was puzzled by the suggestion made by the Bounty Hunter.

“Yeah. These bandits may not be too bright, but I’m sure they’ll be watching us the moment we come closer to their hideout. So, in order to stop them from catching us by surprise, we’ll create an ambush of our own.” He smirked then turned to look at the sorceress who suddenly got a bit flustered to get some attention. “You’ve heard me talking in the Guild. When’s the best time to strike a dangerous enemy?”

The girl realized what he was getting at and thought hard on the lessons she’d learned by listening to Wolf.

“When they’re drunk, when they’re overconfident or when they’re asleep.” Seeing Wolf nod and smile at her with approval made her blush and feel excited.

“That’s right, Missy. So we’re gonna take advantage of that situation to make it work for us. Preacher, are you alright doing some of this sneaky stuff? Are your gods not gonna frown at you?”

“No, Master Hunter. The gods I serve would only disapprove of such methods if they were being used against the innocent and just.” The priest nodded and held his hand over his holy symbol, but the hunter could tell he wasn’t too comfortable with the idea.

“Alright. Tough Guy, how many bandits do you think you’d be able to handle on your own in a fight?”

The warrior flexed his muscles and smiled with certain pride. “I could handle three at a time while they’re disoriented. As long as they don’t have a Bandit Boss, I could deal with that much.”

“Excellent. Missy, I’ve seen you using wind and ice magic before. They’re your specialties, right?” The girl nodded vigorously to show her confidence.

“You don’t want us to cause a major issue in the forest by using fire magic and by using my wind and ice magic you’re hoping to stop them from escaping us before questioning them.” The sorceress noticed that the Bounty Hunter was impressed by her thinking, which made her feel proud of herself.

“You got the looks AND the brains. That’s right, Missy. You need to save your magic till we spring the trap. And to do that, we need to make ‘em believe both you and the preacher are dead tired. There’s one more thing: if you hear me saying ‘Alright, campers!’ at any moment, it means the bandits are close and that we’re under watch by them. That’s when we’ll prepare our ambush. So be on your guard when that happens. Understood?” The trio got a serious look on their faces when Richard warned them of the secret code.

Soon after that, the bandits had been given a proper thrashing from the party, they could rest a moment and assess the situation. The warrior checked the bandits’ pockets for any kind of loot or information they could gather. Meanwhile, the sorceress took a breath while the priest gave the bandits their last rites as part of his clerical services. Wolf, in the meantime, took out one of his cigarettes and lit it. Taking a long pull from it and letting out the smoke in a slow sigh. One of them had been left alive, but he’d been knocked out in the fight, so questions would have to wait.

“You were right, Mr. Wolf. They were keeping tabs on us from the get go.” The girl stepped up to Wolf who nodded gravely. He was still taking all the information in and figuring out what they would do next.

“Yeah. They may not be as dangerous as some of the beasties in this forest, but they have cunning. I take it they’ve done this sort of thing before with some success.” The bounty hunter’s expression remained somber.

“Master Hunter, I think you better look at this…” The Priest was inspecting some items the Warrior had passed to him.

“What’d you find?” Wolf approached the two men with the girl following behind him.

“Something bad, Wolf…” The Warrior looked very worried with his discovery. He handed to the Bounty Hunter what looked like an unsealed letter. “Check the mark on the seal.”

Wolf checked the seal which the girl also looked at. The Sorceress’ eyes grew wide with surprise. But Wolf sighed heavily with exasperation.

It was the seal of the Black Talon group.

“Oh, shit…”