The village

You awaken to find that the girls had already risen. Karla was on her knees with her head cradled in her hands, Lauran was standing over her and Eleanor was rummaging through some piles of loot

“Well now lookie ‘ere, seems You’re finally up eh” Lauran said while Karla was in the background clutching her head

“Never . . . again, why must my head . . . oh god it hurts” With that Karla leaned over and cradled her head between her thighs in an attempt to shield it from the pain.

Eleanor finally stirred with all the noise and she slowly lifted her head from her pile of loot to give you a brief nod before turning back to whatever she was looking for.

“well we had best be recovering from last night then” she says as she gets out whatever she was after and heads over to Karla.

“Wha-. . . what’s this?” said Karla as Eleanor hands her a vial with a dark red liquid in it

“Oooh is that a shotgun cure?” Lauran gave the vial an apprising look but Karla took a swig of the potion and after a few seconds she stood up without even wincing

“Wow my headache . . . it’s gone! What is this?” Karla held the vial in her hand trying to divine its secrets with its appearance alone

“It is an elixir that removes the effects of a hangover . . . I make a fortune selling this to Heroes that like to party” says Eleanor as she offers one to Lauran who shook her head. “Well then, perhaps now is the best time to discuss the strategy of attack with this village . . . and what is to be done with it and its occupants after the battle” You were intending on taking as many alive as possible to enslave them and make them work for you since humans had been nothing but pests in your entire lifetime, you wanted to make them pay.

“I was intending on enslaving the ones we don’t kill and only killing the ones that resist . . . taking the village and making it into an outcast village where all who are outcast from their own may be welcome . . . I’m also going to be using it as a jumping point for raiding” you say as you watch Eleanor rummage sort out what it was she had found.

“Do we need to take slaves . . .” asks Karla, her naive self coming through yet again and Eleanor finally reveals the object she had found and pulls it out of a pile, scattering bottles around the site to reveal a leather vest with carved wooden plates on the chest and over the stomach

“Here, put this on, it’s better than nothing” she says to you as she hands the armour to you

Item acquired!

Wooden breastplate – A leather vest with wooden plates covering the most vital parts of the body, may turn aside a blade or stop an arrow from skewering the wearer but it’s main attribute is it’s weightlessness, this vest is barely heavier than a common tunic. Armour Rating 30

Well isn’t this the useful item you think to yourself as you see the armour rating as being better than your toughness now maybe I might be a match for a guard without Karla.

“Thank you Eleanor, this will prove most useful” you say as you equip the vest and you receive a smile from the elf who is happy to have pleased you, you wonder if her motives are more romantically driven but for now you turn your attention back to the matter at hand.

“Karla, that’s a village full of scoundrels that’d punish us just as quickly cause we were caught talkin’ to the outcasts . . . we are outlaws now, we best make use o’ that and them . . . they can be made to work the fields and provide food to all the hungry outcasts outside of their village” You again wonder at Lauran’s accent but it’s less important as the problem at hand

“I guess it’s okay with this village . . . right? I mean they were hunting people for fun . . . making them help those same people is justice right?” you could see Karla trying to justify the action herself which was a significant improvement on needing you on Lauran to do it for her.

“Yes, that is right Karla, it is justice for all of my brethren they have hurt” you say to Karla to finally push her over the edge into agreement of the plan.

It is high noon when you arrive at the outskirts of the village, only a few minutes’ walk away is the entrance to the village and it is blocked by guardsmen standing in double rows and ready for action. Along either side of the entrance is another row of six guardsmen, bringing the total guardsmen in front of you to twenty four, more than you were expecting but you still think you can do it if you play your cards right with everything you have learned from your various activities.

“Tha’s a bit more than I thought there’d be” says Lauran as she eyes up the troops “But nothin’ a ranger, some outcasts, a bard, mage and an outcast chief . . . or raider I believe ya title is at the moment, but same thing an’ all” You agree with her, it is the same as being chief, and also in the fact that you have tripled your military strength since you started yesterday, this small skirmish may be a huge leap forward for you but in the days and weeks to come, it will be a minor skirmish that you might have been able to handle alone. So now you must decide if you are going to hit them hard and frontal like you were planning last night, this is now rather risky with the number of guards before you but you might pull it off. Eleanor is not quite recognised as an outlaw yet, maybe you can get her in to do some sneaky damage before you attack? There may also be other plans to consider so perhaps you should just besiege the village while you plan the attack in detail? You need to decide now though, before one of your companions does anything.