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[Powder Miner]

Fiona nodded quietly and got on Allegro, looking back at Santoku.

[Blade Master Model 42]

Santoku mounted up behind Fiona. "After we get your friends, I want to go back for my coat. I only have the one."

[Powder Miner]

:"...if we can do it safely, I guess."
Fiona tugged lightly on Allegro's reigns, and the pegasus eagerly lifted off, darting through the air to scout.

[GiglameshDespair]

By the time you arrive at the battle site, the hill is abandoned; the only signs remaining are scorch marks, broken arrows, and some hastily dug graves. Of the raiders and your own friends, nothing remains.

Neither Santoku or Fiona are exactly skilled in tracking, but as far as you can tell the raiders took their captives south-east - into Kulandria itself, and headed towards the coast.

At least Santoku's coat is still lying, crumpled, where he'd chucked it.

You could head back to Larrensford and see if Yamira can offer you any assistance, or you could not waste any time and try to catch them on the way to their destination.

[Blade Master Model 42]

"Well, no time like the present. We should try and get to them before they see us."

[Powder Miner]

:"Y-yeah. Let's go."
Onwards, to follow the bandits!

[GiglameshDespair]

The pair take to the air again, but the bandits are good at covering their tracks. As you fly, you notice the military columns marching towards the border - and are forced to take evasive action when wyvern riders take flight to try to intercept you.


It takes longer to regain the trail - and by the time you locate the tracks and follow them again, it's dark. It's the next day before you find the camp they're taken to, but it seems well guarded - too well guarded, perhaps, for a assault by the pair of you. A position on top of a cliff allows you to look into the camp. Five ramshackle wooden huts adorn a grassy slope before a pair of entrances to a cave. It seems the captives are kept in the cave, but there's always guards outside both entrances. A light rain falls while you try to decide what to do. Perhaps a better chance will reveal itself?

---

For those taken captive, it had not been any more pleasant. You were given just enough aid to get you able to move before, with kicks and curses, you were forced to start a brutal pace. It feels like either forever, or a very short time, before the raiders seem to have sold you to a bunch of pirates. Unarmed, you're thrown into a damp, mud-floored cave. The pirates notice your injuries, and after a brief muttered conversation, one leaves to bring an old man in, holding a heal staff.

You aren't the first group of captives brought in - sitting against the wall, a young cavalier is about the only one that looks like they could be helpful in an escape attempt.

//Theo and Edmund Brauner are in!

[Blade Master Model 42]

Santoku sighed. Nothing was ever easy. "...The captives are all in the cave. Maybe we could set fire to their camp? Dunno how well it'd take with the rain, though."

[Sirus]

Jasmine waited the old man to leave before whispering to her companions.

: "Everyone still alive? Anyone see if Flygirl and that dancing prick made it out?"

[Xanmyral]

The merchant fumed.

It wasn't the murderous walk. It wasn't the painful wounds. It wasn't the scraps they were fed on the trail, just enough to walk but nothing more. It wasn't their allies abandoning them nor even their loss at the bandits had seemed to chip at the rogue's always cheerful-if-flat outlook.

No, it was when they took his backpack, emptied it out before him, and then tossed it out of reach. The way he constantly shifted, touched his shoulders, and the obvious expression of frustration and discomfort from his disconnection from one of the static attributes of the man. As if the backpack had been a dam, all of the negativity of the situation seemed to have hit him all at once.

And so the merchant fumed in silence, staring a hole into the dirt of the cave floor.

[Powder Miner]

:"How would we set them on fire anyway...? Humm... if we could find their stuff, I'm sure I could grab enough of it to toss inside the cave? Maybe... maybe one of us could be a distraction or something while the other goes in?

Also... what's with those armies?"

[Blade Master Model 42]

"Not a clue. But if they're guarded, just getting weapons into the cave won't be enough. We'll need to get them into their hands..." Santoku surveyed the camp, stroking his chin the way he'd seen an old man do all the time. "...Okay, what if you do a flyby of the camp, see if you can get a bunch of them to follow you? I sneak in, and try to get an idea of where they're keeping the gear... Nah, there's too much we don't know for that to work. I need to know where the gear is already, and be able to make a beeline for the cave once I've got the goods. Plus, I don't think I could carry everyone's weapons, so I'd have to prioritize... So which of your pals are the best fighters? That spitfire is definitely on my short list."

[Powder Miner]

:"How many do you think you could carry...? I could hand you one of Allegro's saddlebags if it would help."

[Blade Master Model 42]

"I suppose it depends on what I'm grabbing. I bet the book would fit... Not sure what the rest of your pals were carrying, honestly. We're going to need the horned chick's staff though." Santoku continued to ponder the scenario.

[Powder Miner]

:"Zahir's hatchet could probably fit too, and if you put it in right Laz's knife, and then you could just carry her staff?"