The agents ambush Robin's carriage

The spymaster's plan was straightforward enough. His agents were equipped with blowpipes, their darts dipped in a powerful sleeping agent. They would simply stop the cart, disrupt the driver, then subdue their unwanted guest with the poison when she appeared from the cart. With her ****, it would be a simple task to bring her back to the manor. They had even brought a mage as back up, in case something went wrong.

So, as the carriage passed by, the agents dropped from the surrounding trees, aggressive movements and a small concussive blast from the mage terrifying the two horses and bringing them and the cart grinding to a halt. The startled driver had clearly not been expecting any attack, and dismounted running away terrified.

One of the agents hurried off after him so as to not leave any witnesses, but he was hardly a priority. He wouldn't make it far through the woods on foot anyways.

The rest of the agents focused on the much more important task at hand--taking down passenger. They waited, blowpipes at the ready. The moment Robin left the carriage to investigate the source of the disruption, they would fire! With luck, it would be over before it even began.

Robin, meanwhile was annoyed as she was torn out of her elaborate daydream about the fantastic adventures she would have under the guise of Lord Robert at the ball. The sudden jerking halt of the cart nearly threw her cap off her head, and the dismayed whinnying of the horses was quite distressing as well. It seemed her mission had already begun.

Robin had been ambushed at night time in a carriage on an open road, so naturally her imaginative brain assumed it must be bandits. It did make a certain degree of sense that bandits would choose to ambush her cart. She had hired one which she thought would look suitable as the transport for the dashing young lord she would be passing herself off as, and such a cart needed to be suitably gaudy. Unfortunately, the fancy cart and updated fancy wardrobe for the ball had cost nearly all of her money, and she had been left with nothing left over to hire guards. And of course bandits would attack the gaudy cart of a random passing Lord when it seemed unguarded-- it was textbook banditry!

Unfortunately for these petty villains, they had no idea who they were dealing with! Robin pulled her rapier from its carefully crafted concealed sheath beneath her suit, holding it at the ready as she exited the cart.

***

This chapter was co-authored by Mapron01(https://chyoa.com/user/Mapron01) through a roleplay! Please check him out!