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Sun 27th Jun 2021 08:19

Circling Caravans and Brazen Bandits

by Anduro Taeri

We continued to escort Eikellan Von Cuthbert ​along the main road back toward his home. We were suddenly jumped by a group of bandits camping near the road, and were quickly confronted by their bad intentions to make our misfortunate meeting their potential gain for coin. Also nearby was a prisoner outside the tent resembling more a frog than a man, yet bound and restrained like one all the same.
 
We dispatched the group and restrained their captain and rescued a young child girl we discovered in their tent named Guinevere. Unfortunately her parents were no longer of this mortal realm and I did my best to break the bad news to her in a way her young mind could easily grasp in the gentlest way.
 
The rest of the group interrogated the captain of the bandits while restraining him, only to find he and his group have been looting and pillaging the surrounding villagers and farms, and had planned to sell Guinevere to a nearby slave trade. After several questions we decided to remand custody of the camp and the captain to a frog-like creature, who took his fair share of belongings, and while polite to us, dragged the captain towards the campfire to further question him.
 
He unbound him, gave him a weapon, and challenged the captain to honorable combat before us. Weapons drawn from both, they stood silently yet confidently for a few moments staring across at one another, the fire flickering silently behind the captain. With a flick and sudden motion, the frog-like man moved with a blur and seemed to move through the bandit leader. Staggered and shocked, the captain had not even reacted although seemed sure of himself previously, and with a slight choke and gurgle, was disemboweled despite his own shock and hubris. Collapsing to a blurb and expelling his last breath, he expired from this existence to torment the territory no more, and his last expression conveyed a sense of relief from this antagonistic existence of stealing and struggle.
 
The frogkin straightened up from his crouch and extended sword from his deathblow and single stroke, procured a cloth to clean the blade, and expertly returned his blade to its sheath with an artisan motion, eyes never moving from his original stare after slicing through his opponent. The rest of the group then found various treasures and trinkets to stockpile our value for the next visit to town, and took a moment to collect our thoughts and composures.
 
The creature introduced himself as Jakuul, another amphibious anthropomorphous adventurer of peculiar descent. I immediately wondered if his fate had been of similar origin, and upon introducing myself he also noticed a similar disposition. While the urgency of healing and collecting ourselves superseded any immediate dissertations of introduction, it became apparent there would be a conversation over a campfire of these details soon in the future. He had already proven himself extremely adept with a blade, and on the moral opposite side of bandits and children slavery, so an ally was quickly identified and a friend surely planted over time.
 
With our bodies sore and a wild day, we headed back to town to find a tavern for a warm hearth and a cold ale or mead, whichever found us first. Tomorrow would be a new day.