12 -Bandits(with a Sprite Detour)

"Know anything about bandits?"

"Hmmmm," Ryia hummed out as she thought, "Not really. There's a few places they could hold up. Usually camps, lodges, or the like."

"Explain." Zaya said reaching back and patting Ryia's hips with her hand.

"Mmm, well before Reevastward came to be how it is, there were a lot of smaller homesteads and hamlets, each one looking to strike it rich from what they could find in the ruins. Back then a few people fought each other and the creatures in the area but as people started to realize there's not much to be gained in the site, people started to leave. Those that wanted to stay partnered up, or moved to the village. Over time more and more people came into town but all those abandoned places still dot the woods and hills." Ryia explained.

"Ugh; so there's any number of holes they could be held up in." she grumbled..., before giving Ryia a look about her saying 'holes'.

"Sorry sorry...., any ideas?"

"...., I think I do. Just one question. You said something about drinks being extra. Do I get them for free now?"

Soon enough, Zaya was hiking out in the woods with a small keg attached to her back pack. It was worth maybe three or four mugs worth of beer but where she was going, that might be enough. She gave a wide berth to Krea's place, wanting another day or two to pass before checking on her. Instead, her goal was a different spot. Perhaps it was her new mind but she found it easy to remember where to go.

Finally reaching a small clearing with an old tree, she walked up to it and tapped it a few times with her knuckles before saying, 'buzz buzz'. A tiny snicker greeted her as something landed on her shoulder.

"I can't believe we got you to say that." a voice, light and high pitched floated into her ear like a song on the wind.

A small light green figure greeted her when she turned her head a bit. It reminded her of mint color when it came to ice cream, but the hair, a short messy pixie cut, had a darker green, like that of tree leaves or needles. Her eyes were a bright purple and she wore a pair of leaves that were woven into a strapless dress with a skirt cut out of the leaves. White garbs covered her arms and legs, from the elbow to the hand and from the knee to the foot; possibly silk or web harvested from some critters.

Her wings were a mix of purples and blacks, with two big white dots for the 'eyes'. Finally she had a set of short antenna that arced slightly forward with big round bits at the end. Zaya's mind flashed back to the toy alien head bands that had the same round orbs on them.

"Are you one to trick people into sounding like bugs..., Dalila was it?" Zaya said as she offered a hand.

"Personally I prefer to make them Moo but why would a cow be in the middle of a forest? That's just weird so most people don't fall for it. Say, how did you know my name?" the Sikis Sprite announced as she hopped onto the hand, "I didn't tell you last time did I?"

"No I found it out on my own. From someone you tend be an annoyance to."

"Hmmmm, Ah. Miss Stick!" Dalila said as she snapped her fingers.

"Miss Stick?" Zaya raised an eyebrow as the corners of her lips tilted upward, knowing where this went.

"That's what we call the Druid woman. Because she's such a stick in the mud... or has one up her ass." Dalila said as if it was fact.

She had to stop herself from laughing. Krea did seem that way but she didn't want to let the Sprite know she agreed with her.

"So you've met her..., and found we're more fun then right?" Dalila floated up into the air and hovered from side to side, "I can't blame you for wanting to hang out with us again."

"Well, hmm I do want to hang out with you guys but I need to help the village with..." Zaya started.

"BORING." Dalila folded her arms and puffed her cheeks, "Why come to us if you're helping those big dummies."

"Look I'm just trying to find some.... unfun humans. Do you kno..."

Zaya wasn't able to finish before Dalila and the few other sprites that had started to appear all pointed their fingers back the way she had came. From the village in the first place. Ah, she knew this was going to be rather hard to handle, or at least headache inducing. But that's why she had the trump card. She sat her pack down on the ground and got out the keg before speaking, raising her voice a bit.

"WELL GEE, I wish someone could help find some unfun humans, cause I was going to let them have a drink of this as a reward." she shrugged hard with her arms brought up to her sides, "OH WELL, I guess I should just leave."

"Drink?" "Drink?" "What sort of drink?" "Can we have some?" "Mine?"

Several more Sprites had started to gather, floating around her and the still closed keg as they tried to either get into it or at least get a whiff of what was inside it. Dalila had to shove her way to the forefront and spread her wings wide, blocking others off.

"HEY HEY, I'm the leader! I get to see what it is first!"

"But of course." Zaya bent over and popped the top off.

Dalila looked down and was greeted with an amber colored liquid that smelled inviting. She reached down and scooped up a bit with her hand and licked at it. Her eyes widened as a wide smile grew on her face.

"BEER!"

The flurry of activity was impressive given how small they were. Several small cups suddenly appeared in all the Sprites hands as they quickly got a drink for themselves. A few got out buckets in order to drag a larger supply off to the side, either for themselves or begrudgingly sharing it with others. Zaya watched them as the trope of Sprites started to break out into a tavern party in the middle of the forest; just on a much smaller scale and without fights or music.

And then she started to notice the blank outs.

Of course the beer had been spiked. But she made sure to put in what she thought would be the right amount. Proportional math wasn't something she was good at in any of her memories, but the machine side of her brain took over and came up with an accurate guess. Though maybe she didn't quite understand how the Sprite's bodies worked as it seemed to be... somehow more effective than intended and not as bad as she thought.

The numbers started to appear and Zaya saw that some of the Sprites were spiking up to 20% and started to pause, tumble, or blank out. Dalila herself, the center of the party had over 40% as she kept trying to hog most the drink. For as fast as their numbers spiked they also feel just as quick as she saw a few how had paused in drinking start crashing down to 10% or lower.

"They might not be resistant to toxins. Rather their bodies seem to detoxic at a rapid enough pace to over take most ****." she thought.

So you COULD poison or **** them; you just needed a large enough batch to feed to them without the Sprites getting suspicious. As it stood for her needs though, it would be a balance of getting them high on the stuff without completely pushing them over... and out pacing their own detoxing properties.

"Hey... Dalila..., hey!" she spoke up, carefully lifting up the Sprite in her hand, "You okay?"

"Ooooooooooh heeeeeeeeeeey lady!" the sprite said, slurring out her words. They might be resistant but whatever she had done to them seemed to be having an effect, "What does the pretty big lady want as payment for drink?"

"Depends? What would you want to give me?" Zaya coyly asked, "Would you give me a hand stand?"

She watched as the Sprite put her drink down and did a hand stand... well, head and hand stand, she didn't have the balance or strength so she used both hands and her head to balance herself. Zaya asked for a few other things, such as for her to dance or give her a kiss which she did. The higher the number, the more leverage she seemed to have on the person. That didn't explain everything about the numbers but it was helpful.

"So..., do you know where some unfun humans are? AND!" She started before Dalila started to raise up her arm, "I mean the mean ones; the ones that beat others up, the ones that take stuff from others, the ones that seem to play the really mean and horrible pranks on others."

The Sprite had a blank look on her face but Zaya could almost hear the gears turning in her head. Getting up from her seat in Zaya's hand, she weakly floated over to a few of her kin and talked with them in a different tongue, probably their own that sounded like branches swaying and bug sounds. Dalila lazily fluttered back to the provided hand and sat back down.

"Yeah... we know where the unfun ones are..., they give us beer to keep silent about them." the Sprite muttered out.

She went on, explaining that the unfun humans, who Zaya was hoping were the bandits, were located at a place beyond the Sprites. They handed over a flask of beer to the Sprites and went on their way, sometimes it would be other treats. All the Sprites had to do was not tell anyone about them, not bother them as they passed by, and annoy anyone that came looking for them. Actually that last part wasn't part of the agreement but they were going to do that anyway to most people that came by.

It was a pretty smart set up; the Sprites would prank and annoy anyone from trying to look around without killing them. Thus more attention wouldn't come their way short of 'please deal with these Sprites' and due to their weird immortality, simply killing them wouldn't remove them.

That's how she found herself in a tree, looking at a wooden cabin, small and square, standing in a clearing. The wooden walls had ivy growing over the sides and seemed to be in disrepair. Several trees had been cut down to make room; some years ago others far more recent. The small wooden wall made it clear where the new wood had gone. A jumble of poles near the cabin serves as a rack for drying animal hides or meat. Behind the house was a smaller building, probably storage or the like.

She counted about five targets, clad in a mix of different light armor and mixed arms. Three of them were armed with just oversized tools, looking like axes or hammers..., would 'maul' be the word? The fourth had a crossbow sitting over their knee and some bolts on their hip. All of them wore gambesons or surcoats; she wasn't sure but they looked like thick outer garments. The last man had sword on his waist and shield on his back, donned a suit of patched leather... studded leather? He was probably the boss given he was barking at the others about things from time to time.

"Did I do good?" Dalila asked as she kicked her legs while she sat on Zaya's shoulder.

"You did..., I just need to figure out how to deal with them."

"I.... won't help you kill..." Dalila muttered as she closed her eyes and seemed to focus, "We don't like killing, leads to bad things."

It probably had to do with that 'evil change' Ellyn had mentioned about them holding memories. Too much of outright **** or corruption could lead them from being whimsy pranksters to.... well memories of old child like monsters in movies came to her mind. Zaya wasn't willing to push Dalila THAT far just yet, more so when Dalila was coming down from the mind alternating drink.

Besides she had to get her own hands dirty at some point. She was going to have to fight humans at one point or another for well, any number of reasons.

It was just a matter of figuring out HOW to do this.

Encounter Table(d20)

• 1-4: Head On ****
• 5-8: Cunning Tactics
• 9-12: Stealth Take Down
• 13-16: Attempt Seduction?
• 17-20: Figure out something else