The Stealthy Approach

Ember dashed around the numerous tree stumps, his short height easily allowing him to hide even as he ran. His maul meanwhile was no longer on his back, stowed away in his pack instead to avoid the jutting handle potentially giving away his position while behind cover. Lian meanwhile was making her way into the shack. The head she had spotted through the window had vanished, likely having moved as they were planning their attack.

Ember glanced back to the cabin just in case, but was fortunate to see only Lian slinking her way up the steps and onto the porch. With the coast clear for now and plenty of cover between himself and the bandits ahead, Ember found himself slowing down. His speed boost from Charge was only temporary after all, and he could feel it in his muscles as the ability gradually proceeded through its cooldown phase. Despite that though, he couldn't afford to stop moving as he hurried between bits of cover until finally finding himself behind one of the bandits. If he wanted to, a gap between the tents allowed him the perfect angle to charge from and potentially take the bandit by surprise. It took quite a bit for him to resist the temptation to do just that.

Meanwhile, Lian had made her way to the top of the steps and peeked into the doorway. The entire shack consisted of a single room with a table at one end, a bed at the other, and a small fire pit in the center where the smoke would rise up through the chimney just above it. The bandit lookout seemed to be rummaging around inside of a crate before they pulled out what appeared to be a cigar. Meanwhile, Lian had begun to draw back her bow, eager to get this guy out of the way and herself into some better cover before anyone saw her. However, as the bandit rose up from his kneeling position, he turned to his left just in time to see Lian pointing an arrow straight at his head. Startled, Lian twitched and loosed her arrow, sticking it into the bandit’s shoulder instead. This was it, she messed up far quicker than she thought she would. However, as the staggering bandit attempted to right himself, Koumei was already charging in for the kill. He pounced and latched onto the bandit, digging his claws in as he bit down on his neck. The bandit’s health meanwhile had naturally taken a hefty hit, not only from the arrow, but also from Koumei’s efforts to finish him off.

Despite the mishap, Lian was lucky as the bandit appeared to have been knocked into a stagger chain by both attacks, though it would only be a matter of time before he recovered enough to retaliate. Eager for a solution, Lian suddenly recalled the dagger she had put onto her belt a few minutes ago. Reaching down, she took hold of it and drew it. Though her muscles seemed to understand well what to do with a bow, she felt no more experienced wielding this dagger then she did a kitchen knife back home. Still, understanding the basic principles on how sharp objects cut things, Lian dashed inside and proceeded to stab the bandit several times, chipping away the remainder of his hit points before he collapsed.

With that, Koumei dropped off of the poor bandit as Lian caught her breath, her hands shaking. Sure, she knew it was a game, but thanks to actually being here, stabbing that guy felt all too real. Still, there was no time for her to settle down as her botched sneak attack caused enough of a commotion to draw the attention of the other bandits by the cliff. Ember struggled to hold his ground as they moved. The noises caught their attention, but they didn’t seem to know fully what was going on. As Lian tried telling herself that the person she stabbed wasn’t real, she felt a tug on her pant leg. Looking down, it was Koumei, a determined look on his face as he immediately backed away and turned his head towards the door, attempting to point with his snout. Catching on to this, Lian suddenly turned, returning her dagger to her hip and nocking another arrow. Peeking around the corner, Lian watched as the other two bandits began closing in on her position. With both of them facing her direction, there was no way the other wouldn’t immediately catch on to what was happening. They would see the arrow, then see her. After that, their attempted stealth approach would likely turn into an all out brawl if the survivor managed to alert the rest of the camp. Still, she needed to do something, she couldn’t just wait for them to reach her, and the others were too far back to make a last ditch charge to stop things from getting out of hand. With only one option, Lian drew back her bow, took aim at the red glowing bit on the head of the nearest bandit, and fired.

In an instant, the bandit had been struck and dropped to the ground, causing the one behind him to stumble back onto his rear out of sheer surprise. This was it, this guy was about to raise the alarm if someone didn’t do something. Lian attempted to prepare another arrow before he could get up, but her nerves were getting the better of her again. Ember meanwhile still remained where he had been before, peering through the gap between the tents at the disoriented bandit. This was it, it was his moment. If he activated charge, he could dash in there just in time and absolutely clobber this man. Reaching back to grab hold of his maul, Ember’s eyes suddenly went wide as he grabbed nothing but air. He had realized now, all too late that he had completely forgotten to reequip his maul. It was still stowed away in his backpack. Desperately, his mind scrambled as he refused to mess this up. He looked around the tents, noticing a stack of crates, about the size of himself right beside him. On impulse, he reached out and picked one up, immediately feeling a rush in his arms as he flung them forward and let loose the crate. The bandit staggered to his feet and stumbled away from an arrow that looked as if it was about to catch his leg. He then turned and raised his hands to shout. Were they too slow? Did they botch it? The three who remained in hiding prepared their weapons. It appeared that there was about to be a big fight on their hands after all.

Just as he was about to shout, however, a heavy wooden crate suddenly collided with the back of his head, causing him to fall face first onto the ground. Though his head was spinning and ears ringing, he slowly attempted to stagger back to his feet. However, just as he was about to rise up, he felt another hard impact from behind as a charging imp tackled him forward. Already off balance, the impact caused him to stumble before finally slipping off the side of the cliff and plummeting to the ground below. The imp meanwhile held on tight and reached up to cover the bandit’s mouth to silence his screams.

Lian watched in horror as Ember recklessly plummeted off of the cliff, clinging on to the bandit. She nearly shouted out his name before quickly covering her mouth with her hand. It wasn’t long before she heard shuffling footsteps approaching her cabin. Poking his fuzzy head out to see who it was, Koumei mewed in affirmation, as if to let Lian know that the source of the sounds were safe. Looking through the door, she saw as her friends ran past, Moze stopping to beckon for her to follow. Lian quickly obliged, standing up and hurrying after them.

The party swiftly moved to the rickety walkway that led down into the camp below. A sense of relief quickly washed over them as they noticed Ember rummaging through his pack before pulling out his maul and fastening it to his back. A quick glance of Lian’s codex told her that Ember had indeed taken some damage from the fall, as about a third of his hit points were now missing. Ember meanwhile rolled his shoulders and put his pack back on before turning to the rest of the party who were currently making their way down the ramp towards him. Ember turned and met them with a grin.

“Heh, got em’” He said proudly.

“Damn dude, that was stupid, but effective.” Moze said with a grin as he looked down at the deceased bandit.

“Yea, that about sums him up I’d say” Thordon joked.

“Oh c’mon, you know that was cool Thordon.” Ember replied.

Maggie meanwhile had approached and was looking him over. “You okay Mister Ember? You took some damage.”

“Well, been better. I hate that I can feel this crap, so much.” Ember complained.

Maggie simply held out her hand, focusing as she began to channel healing energy into Ember. As her hand lit up, Embers hit points quickly returned to their maximum value, and Ember all of a sudden didn’t feel like he had just fallen off of a cliff.

“There, all better?” Maggie asked.

“Oof, yea, I think so. Thanks a bunch kiddo!” Ember said gratefully as he rubbed her head.

She responded with a wide smile as the party looked out across the camp. From here, much of their presence was concealed by the tents, but from what they could see between them, the bandits were still none the wiser as to their presence.

“Well, we’re in now. Where do we go from here?” Ember asked, resting his hand with a thumb in his belt.

“Yea, that’s what I’m thinking about. My guess is the best loot is in the main building there, I guess it would be the chief’s house. If we wanted to settle for that, we could probably find a way to sneak in there. Thing is, there’s probably a lot more loot to find in the tents and stuff around here too, and considering none of us are particularly stealthy, I don’t see us getting everything here without finally breaking into a fight. Making things even harder is the fact that we need to try to get as many equipment upgrades as possible. Sure, there’s probably some really good stuff to find in the house, but most of us are still rock’n starter equipment.” Moze deliberated.