No better bait than Quest bait.

You've seen countless rebels slaughtered at this point, yourself included (shame you had to feel those, too). The 'Heroes' have usually been enthusiastic about the whole matter. However, unlike your comrades, they're usually smart enough to avoid the limited traps or ambushes your faction could provide. Just staying inside and yelling at them to come on in would encourage them to either wait you out, flush you out, or for them to come up with their own clever way to kill you from outside. Hell, they'd probably bring the building down too.

Screams of agony continue to echo from outside amid the sounds of low grade steel clashing. If things proceed according to your usual fate, you only have a minute or so left for the 2-3 remaining rebels of the original dozen to stall for your trauma-induced 'tactical retreat'.

And then you recall something you heard six deaths ago--or was it seven? An over-muscled freak of a man had been arguing with his companion...

"Why are we even wasting our time here? We've already cleared this dump. Twice."

"Come on, man, you heard what that merchant said, right? Do you not get this? We got a freakin' quest, one for below level 10. You should know how rare that is, and how much better quest XP is. If we just escort that prick to the closest city, we're gonna get enough XP and loot to skip two levels. Not to mention reputation and any follow up quests. We can't let this go to someone else."

"But what the hell does that have to do with this dump?"

"That guy had a gaurd or two of his own already. They're shit, but it still means we're going to be running into enough mobs to fight a party of four or more. If you're gonna tank that, you need a shield. The only thing we use, let alone afford, at our level needs one of the NPC wooden shields as a base ingredient. They spawn here, like, a fifth of the time. Not to mention this is the only spot we can clear between the two of us."

"What else does..."

Quests... well, the word makes sense, but it seems incredibly more mundane than it implies. Whatever it was, the two seemed to be drooling over it. And it seems that other non-Heroes are the ones who give them. Now that you think about it, maybe its only merchants, but you don't really have the time for an option B. Or the life experience. Fuck.

Okay, you're not a merchant. You're a rebel. What do rebels do? There's a larger rebellion, right? You know you have a 'faction', if the details are a bit fuzzy. You know there should be some lesser nobles who riled up the support of the commoners, yourself included, but you don't recall names, and certainly not meeting them. But you're sure Heroes would do just about anything for a chance to shove their blades into one. What would a noble supporting the rebellion care about? Maybe...

...

Outside.

The party of three dispatches another rebel, leaving one at full health and another with incapacitated arm. The adventurers had a few wounds, but nothing critical. No big deal--just another day clearing low-risk mobs.

But suddenly, a voice carries out from the old barn.

"Quick! Gather up the scrolls! The Lord needs this intelligence, and we can't afford to have it fall into the hands of enemies of the Rebellion!"

While the remaining rebels continued to fight as if nothing happened, the trio's pupils contracted.

"What!?"

"Do you know anything about this, Clearsong?"

"It couldn't be, right? A quest-hook in the beginner area?"

The female paladin quickly took the lead, regaining her senses and cutting down the lame-armed rebel. "Hurry up and help me finish off this mook, we can't let this chance go! We have to get our hands on whatever is in there before they get away!"