Assault On The Blacktooth Bandits

The party followed behind Moze, his codex in hand, and map function opened. It was a bit of a wonder to look at. The island they have been on this whole time appeared so miniscule on there, and despite that, they had barely even explored any of it. Ember could only wonder what was behind the fog that indicated unexplored or otherwise undiscovered areas. Even now, as they marked out another meager trail through the shrouded reaches of the map, they were not trudging along for the sake of exploration, but for the sole purpose of gathering gear for what was to come. For a brief moment, Ember began to feel a sense of wanderlust. He had been so hyper focused on this singular task that he never really stopped to consider anything else. Now looking at the map, he suddenly began to feel even smaller than he already was. Still, none of that mattered, he could explore this world once he broke free of it, if he even wanted to boot up the game again in the first place after this. For now, all that mattered was the goal.

As the party traveled, they found themselves mostly traipsing through deciduous forest, making some of them miss the wide open fields that surrounded Santa Rio. Fortunately, the map was able to display the roads as they approached them, the party sticking mostly to the beaten paths as they went. Meanwhile, it wasn’t terribly uncommon to find other players out and about. It was likely thanks to them that the party’s travels have been smooth sailing so far. A large portion of players were still stuck on this island after all, grinding for levels and gear so that they too may take on the main quest in their own game. Still, their path wasn’t completely free of mobs, but due to their numbers, the party handled them swiftly with just a handful of basic attacks. Maggie hardly even needed to lift a finger, and they gave Lian a good opportunity to get used to her unnatural knowledge of archery. Ember also considered this to be a good opportunity to check everyone’s levels. As it turned out, they were mostly level five, aside from Maggie who was level four and Moze who was level eight. Clearly the paladin had been a bit busy since Ember last saw him.

Eventually however, the environment of the lush forest began to change. Dense foliage was gradually giving way to smooth tree stumps felled by the use of tools. This place was nowhere near Santa Rio, and the road lacked any indications that they were entering any sort of civilized locale. Instead, the closest thing they were met with were black banners adorned with painted on white skulls and pickaxes behind them. Some of the teeth they bore matched the color of the banner. It didn’t exactly take a genius for the party to figure out where they now were, and the first signs of opposition soon arose in the form of a tall wooden watchtower in the distance. Seeing this, the party was quick into the shade behind some of the remaining birch trees.

“Well, looks like we found em’” Ember mentioned, gazing around the trees to the tower.

“Indeed it does. If you’ve got any more questions, now’s the time to ask them.” Moze warned.

“Yea, do we actually know what we’re gonna be up against?” Lian asked.

“Well, if we go off of meta logic, we’ll be dealing with some introductory level bandit encounters, meaning relatively weak humanoids with unimpressive weapons. I’d expect some trained animals as well. I’m predicting a weak encampment with enough guys to ensure all of us have something to fight. Given the amount of logging they’ve done, the thing’s probably got a wall around it. We’ll need to keep an eye out for other ways in should smashing through the front not be feasible.” Moze explained.

“Gotchya, gotcha. And what about the bandits themselves? Anything special about the Blacktooth ones?” Ember asked.

“Hmm… That I don’t know. I’m not familiar with their lore or anything, but I doubt they’d be particularly different from any other introductory bandits I’ve seen.” Moze surmised.

“Of all the times for Clarissa to be offline. I’m sure he’d be able to talk your ear off about em’” Thordon stated with a chuckle.

“Pff, don’t I know it. Alright, let’s go get em’ then!” Ember said eagerly.

Moze nodded in affirmation. “Alright, in that case, Lian, think you can take out the sentry on the tower? If they see us coming, they’ll probably alert the camp and we’ll have a bunch of trash mobs bogging us down.”

“Umm… y-yea, I think I might be able to manage it.” Lian said, hesitantly.

Crouching, she slowly slinked out from behind cover, taking position behind a relatively tall oak stump that was a bit closer to the tower as Koumei did the same right beside her. Though she had never done anything like this before, something about it just felt natural, like her muscles had been through this very same song and dance hundreds of times before. She peered up and over her cover, eyes locked to the top of the tower. The structure was crudely built out of logs and great lengths of rope, doubtlessly the result of the bandit’s reliance on what they had at hand as opposed to the regular shipments of high quality building materials that would regularly flood into a town like Santa Rio. The top of the tower was open to the sky, but Lian’s view was partially obstructed by the short walls that surrounded it. Despite that, she could see the heads of at least two individuals peering out from over the top. Seeing them, Lian readied her bow while the hackles on Koumei’s back rose, preparing for a fight.

With two sentries to take care of, Lian was going to need to pull this off perfectly. If either of them discover her, or realize they are under attack, no doubt they’d send out an alert to the others. Still, she could feel herself shaking. It was one thing firing a bow as a player, but there was so much more to it in real life. Still, she did take a few shots before they got here, and they hit dead on. Maybe there was indeed some merit to Moze’s words. Sure, she had never even held a bow in real life, but the character she made? She was supposed to be a great hunter, able to take on the largest foes and defend those around her. Even if she didn’t know how to use a bow, her body did. She just needed to have faith in that. Nocking the arrow, she drew back the string, getting a feel for just how much strength was actually required to pull it off. As she held it, she noticed her stamina slowly draining and could feel the same in her muscles. She wouldn’t be able to hold the shot forever, so she couldn’t hesitate. She set her sights on the one facing towards the right. Fortunately, their eyes were focused on the horizon and not each other. Two well placed shots could end this without trouble.

As she aimed at the head of the bandit, she could see the faintest red glow coming off of it, her Clean Kill ability at work telling her where the weak points were. For a humanoid, such places were obvious, yet it still didn’t change the fact that hitting them insured an even more lethal shot than it would be for anyone else. Having faith in her axolti body, she let go of the string, watching as the arrow whisked through the air and stuck the bandit in the head. It was a sneak attack with enhanced damage on a weak point ensuring that the bandit would not be getting up again. However, she would need to act fast. The sound of his buddy colliding with the wooden floor they stood upon quickly drawing his attention. Drawing her bow, Lian took aim and fired once more. In her haste however, her shot was off, sticking into the bandit’s shoulder, but the shimmer on her bow told her that it didn’t matter as her sneak attack just landed a critical hit regardless, dropping him down beside his buddy. It took Lian everything she had not to jump up and cheer with glee, but her wide smile told the others just how proud of herself she was.

“Damn, good shot Lian! Freak’n perfect!” Moze commented, Lian’s gills rising to their fullest with pride.

“Haha, I can’t believe it did it!” She replied, making her way back over to the group.

“See, told ya you had it in ya! I could tell you were doubting me.” Moze teased.

“I-I… well, yea. Still, I’ve never even held a bow before. Feels pretty wild to be able to just, do it, you know?” Lian asked.

“Yea, well, add that to the list of things to get used to here. Anyway, we shouldn’t run into another one of those, but let’s just be careful as we go, alright?” Moze suggested.

Once again, everyone followed along as Moze seemed to know what he was doing. He approached cautiously and motioned to the others when they should duck down. It wasn’t long before they reached the tower they had just cleared. Beside the tower was a long road that took a short dip before slowly creeping back upwards. At the pinnacle of its ascent was a large wall made of logs and rope, not terribly unlike the one that protected Santa Rio, but much more crude looking. Figures could be seen out in front of it, leaning back and keeping an eye on the gate while also staying comfortable.

“Alright Lian, one more time. If you could, would you mind climbing that tower and letting us know what you see?” Moze requested.

Lian nodded and carefully made her way up the stairs, staying low and in the shade to hopefully avoid notice. At the top, she found herself with a small crate of supplies and two dead bandits. She stared at them for a moment before she recalled that she could loot their bodies. Taking a moment for herself, she approached them and placed her hand against them. Moments later, she was met with an inventory grid similar to the one she would get when searching her bag. They had little of note on them however. A few gold pieces, some arrows, cheap armor, and some crude bows. She opted only to take the gold and the arrows before checking on the supply crate. Here she found yet more arrows, a couple of daggers, and some bread. She snagged the lot, even securing one of the daggers to her utility belt before finally doing what she had come up here to do.

Peering over the side, she managed to get a decent look at the camp up ahead. The camp lacked proper battlements, but a couple of towers flanked the gate, each one manned by a shoddily armored bandit. A raised cliff also sat at the camp to the left, the wall seemingly built directly against it. Atop it was also a shack, raised upon stilts as if to get a lookout over the area.. A handful of tents could also be seen along the edges, facing down into the camp below. A long wooden ramp also seemed to serve as the way down behind the walls from up there. As for the encampment itself, a single two story log structure sat towards the center back. A large empty fire pit sat in the middle of the encampment, and the rest of the structures were either totems of sorts or tents of varying sizes. The only other area of note was the area against the cliff, where it appeared as if the bandits had begun digging tunnels into the side of it. Back in the yard, numerous bandits could be seen gathered before the log house in the back, standing in a circle as something transpired in the center of it. It was difficult to see from here, but two individuals seemed to be sitting atop the tall porch of the main building, watching as two bandits went at each other with their bare fists. Figuring she had spotted enough, Lian made her way back down the tower and reported her findings.

“Hmm… So, either through the gate or over the cliff it sounds like. Feel free to say your preferences, but I’m thinking we take the cliff path. It’s a bit sneakier and there’s only five of us.” Moze suggested.

“Yea, maybe. You know, you kinda talked this place up so, I would’ve expected to see a bunch of other players here. What’s going on with that?” Ember asked.

“You’d think, but the thing about Pillage zones is they’re instanced to a limited number of players. Unless you’re in a party, there’s no guarantee that any two people will appear in the same pillage zone. I’m guessing we officially entered it when we walked past that first banner.” Moze explained.

“Wait, you’re only telling us this now!?” Ember complained.

“Yea, I didn’t think that mattered. What, were you wanting a larger group or something? Besides, you can find out all about this stuff in the codex. You should probably give it a read sometime.” Moze chided.

“W-well, I dunno, I just thought it’d be nice to have some backup if things got hairy.” Ember replied.

“Pff, like we need backup, we’ve got this! Now, which is it? Gate or cliff?” Moze asked.

The party pondered for only a few moments, but in the end, it seemed most preferred a more stealthy approach with Ember being the only one without a preference, just wanting to get to the smacking and ransacking. With their course decided, the party sank back into the woods. Unfortunately, the bandits had already gotten to much of the tree coverage in the area, clearing out a good portion of it for logs. Fortunately their efforts seemed to mostly focus on the opposite side of the road for their resource gathering, all the way to the point of them removing the stumps.

The terrain rose steadily as they pressed forward, rising higher and higher until they were roughly on level with the wall. Meanwhile, everyone had their weapons drawn and at the ready. Though this was the sneaky way in, there could be surprises waiting around any tree. They continued to slink forward until the raised shack was in sight beyond the tree line. Whatever was going on in the camp below seemed to be distracting most of the bandits as the cliff seemed almost entirely devoid of them. Still, a handful remained. Two stood upon the cliff looking down at the camp below, while the head of another could be seen through the window in the shack.

“Man, I don’t know about Lian, but thinking about it now, I don’t think any of us built for stealth.” Ember noted.

“Umm… I do have proficiency in stealth but umm… I haven’t taken any stealth perks either.” Lian admitted sheepishly.

“Well, it’s a good thing there aren’t many of them then. Maybe a focus on being more quick than quiet is in order. Any ideas team?” Moze asked.

“Hmm… Could I not just take out the one in the shack, then the two on the cliff?.” Lian asked

“Yea, I suppose you could if you’re confident you can make the shot. They’re quite a ways away though.” Moze noted

“Hmm, right, I don’t know if I wanna take that risk…” Lian pondered.

“Well, I have the charge ability, and I don’t exactly have a large profile either. Maybe I could run over there real quick, use the tents as cover, get into position, and if Lian botches the shot, I’ll finish em’ off.” Ember suggested.

“Umm, please don’t put it so harshly.” Lian said, blushing a bit self consciously.

“Sure, couldn’t hurt to have a backup plan. Me and Thordon meanwhile would probably be spotted a mile away, especially you big guy, and I’m not sure how good Maggie is in combat.” Moze pondered, tapping his chin as he looked over to the plush girl who met his gaze, but had no reply.

“Alright, sounds good! I’ll get out there and get ready to charge when the arrows start fly’n!” Ember assured.