Chapter 34

A few days passed as we watched over the camp. There had been little movement and no one had left as of yet. They had just been fortifying their location and getting things set up for what looked to be a long stay. Hopefully we could put a stop to all of that. We had also figured out the guard schedule and the day to day operations of the camp. Eventually though they sent out a small group of men. Five men left the camp heading to the north. There was really only one thing to do. We had to follow them. This was the first chance we had of following a group and maybe even taking a few of the men hostage. So we had to follow them and see what they were up to and if we got the chance we would take them out. The best thing would be to capture one so that he could spill any information he had. So we tore down our camp quickly and set off in pursuit of the small group. We quickly had everything packed away and then we were off. We had to keep our distance since we didn’t want to be discovered. The men weren’t in any hurry and we were able to catch up rather quickly. Eventually the men stopped to rest and have something to eat. We took the opportunity to do the same thing. One of us watched while the others ate and the first one to finish eating switched places with the person on watch. After about a half hour the men were back on the move. Again we set off after them. They continued on their path towards the north. They walked until the night and set up a small camp for the night. We couldn’t set up a true camp because a fire would let them know our position so we had to settle for cold trail rations to sate our hunger. We had a small discussion about ambushing them at night but Devin wanted to wait to see what they were up to. We set up tents to sleep in and still had a couple of us stay up through the night just in case and they would also be in charge of watching the movements of the raiders.

The night passed without incident and everyone was ready to go by the time the raiders made their move to continue the journey. We were getting concerned with the direction they were headed. Karengorn wasn’t too far away in the north. We knew that was where these raiders came from or at least that was what was suspected. We had to be careful if we crossed into Karengorn. The adventurers guild had license to operate in any kingdom but if these men had connections to the kingdom of Karengorn directly it could cause quite the incident. So If it came down to it and we decided to kill them we needed to do it in the kingdom. We didn’t need the extra headache and it would be a bad look for the guild. We would need to get permission directly from Karengorn to kill these men if they were indeed connected. That was a problem for later on. If it came down to it we would let them go or kill them on our side of the border. We continued to follow them for the next couple of days. They didn’t change direction at all. They continued on straight north. We were getting very near the border to Karengorn. Then something odd happened. They didn’t stop at midday like normal. They kept walking. Then we finally saw why they had continued on without eating. They came upon a group of twenty raiders that had set up camp and seemed to be waiting for them to arrive. This was bad news. The numbers just kept piling up against us. The numbers against us were really getting out of hand. We couldn’t take on a group of one hundred and now it looked like they were adding twenty more to their ranks. There wasn’t really a question as to what we needed to do. We were going to have to set up and ambush and kill as many as possible. We could not allow this group to join the main party. We would try to keep a few alive for information but this group had to go. While the men greeted the twenty or so raiders we started back towards the other camp. We had a lot of work to do to set up a proper ambush for this group. They would probably take the same way back to the camp. There was one spot where the trees narrowed in around you and there were a lot of places to hide. We would use that spot as the place for our main attack.

We hurried back to that spot and got there just as the sun was setting. The men probably wouldn’t leave for the other camp until the morning so we had some time to make things happen. Charlotte was the best we had at making traps and with her guidance we started setting up pitfalls and trip wire connected to rope traps. This would give us our best shot. We would also wait for them to hit the traps and then unleash magic attacks as well as arrows into the group to try to lessen the numbers advantage. Everyone pitched in to try to get everything set up. By the time we were done the trail was a death trap. No group would be able to come through here without suffering major losses. We went deeper into the forest farther away from the roads and settled in for the night. We didn’t start a fire since we wanted to hide our location. We also didn’t waste time setting up the tents. We slept under the stars while taking turns standing watch. We got ready before the sun rose. We needed to be ready for when the men headed back this way. Within four hours of us getting up for the morning we heard the sound of a loud and large group of men heading our way. Within half an hour we could see them in the distance. It wouldn’t be long until we would be in the midst of battle. The men were talking and laughing together and paying no attention to what was around them. Their carelessness would be their downfall. The complete lack of alertness was surprising given the serious nature of these men. They were raiders that would kill indiscriminately and here they were laughing and seemingly having a good time. Though that wouldn’t last long.

Devin signaled everyone to get ready. The men were about to cross into the area that was covered in traps. They were set up so that they wouldn’t go off until many men had passed them so that they wouldn’t be able to escape. We had also stationed Morigan at that end to use her magical fire power to lock down the escape routes in that direction. As the first men passed by nothing happened. Then once all of the men were in the kill zone things changed. The hole of pits opened up and as the men started to run the legs traps set off. Then we realized our magic and arrows. Panic over took the group. They started running and even trampling one another to try and escape. That caused more men to fall into the death pits. Where we had set up wooden spikes to skewer anyone that fell in. The leg traps had men spinning through the air unable to get down. These would be the captives we would try to interrogate. We kept up the magical strikes until our mana began to fade . Then Devin, Adrian, Sora, and I all went into melee range. Charlotte kept sending in expertly placed arrows that would either wound or kill whoever she hit. Morigan had to charge up her magic but would soon begin casting again. She had a much larger mana pool than I did and had much more magic at her disposal. It turned into a massacre. The men didn’t stand a chance. We had caught them completely off guard. They had never expected a small group of adventurers to set up an ambush for them. We cut down the last few men left standing. We had managed to capture three men in our leg traps so hopefully we would be able to get some information from them. Everyone else had been killed. We let the men down but immediately went about tying them up and gagging them. We didn’t want them to try and escape. After our prisoners were secure we set about the task of cleaning up the battlefield. Some of the corpses were mangled from the damage caused by the traps. We piled the bodies up in the different pit holes. We searched the bodies for anything of value. Anything we found was just added to the group fund. It didn’t amount to much but adventuring wasn’t cheap and every little bit helped. After the bodies were taken care of we filled up the hole with dirt and then we made our way over to the prisoners. They were wiggling around trying to get away but their bounds kept them where they were. We lifted them up off of the ground and tied a rope to them so that we could lead them away. They didn’t want to cooperate but after some gentle persuasion from Adrian they were in a more compliant mood. We wanted to get a little distance away from the fight. We thought we had killed the whole group but there was always a chance that someone would come looking for the group when they didn’t show up.

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We walked for most of the rest of the day till we thought we were far enough away. We set the men down in the middle of our camp while we set everything up. Once everything was done we gathered around our prisoners. I had never been a part of any interrogations before nor had I ever taken any prisoners. This was a completely new experience for me. Sora and I stood a little away while the rest of the group took charge. Devin walked up to one of the men and spoke. “Alright. I’m not going to beat around the bush. I want information. Whichever one of you men gives me the information I’m after I’ll let you go. The other two won’t be so lucky. Now I’ll let you talk one at a time. The first one to give me the information I want lives.” He walked over to one of the men and loosened the gag. Profanity came spewing out of the man's mouth. He was telling us to do improbable things with our swords and after a few minutes of letting the man vent Devin cocked back his fist and punched the man right in the nose. The man started wailing but he wouldn’t get any sympathy from us. Once the man settled down Devin put the gag back in his mouth. Blood dribbled down the man's face. Devin said. “You will only get one more chance. The next time you try that will be the last time. Now onto the others.” He loosened the gag for the next man and he apparently hadn’t learned any lesson either. As he just did basically the same thing as the first man. Devin didn’t waste time punching the man or trying to question him. Devin's sword flicked out of its sheath and the man's head tumbled to the ground. “I won’t be putting up with any more of that.” He turned to the last man and said. “Now I hope you’ll be more inclined to talk to me. If you pull what they did you’ll end up the same way as him.” Just as with the other two men he loosened the man's gag. This time the man did not spew curses and threats but instead said. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know just don’t kill me.” Once he said that the other man started struggling to free himself and launched at the other man. “Now. Now. We don’t need any of that. Go ahead and tell us what you know. If we are satisfied with that we will let you go.” The man looked very frightened but he still spoke. “I’m just following orders. Someone high up in the Karengorn nobility has sent all of us here to cause trouble with the hopes of the Kingdom of Lucinia sending their armies here in hopes of lessening their presence elsewhere. The hope is that this would make it easier for us in Karengorn to attack the Kingdom of Lucinia directly while the army is being distracted with small skirmishes at the northern border. I have no idea what the purpose is other than they want an open war with the Kingdom of Lucinia. I swear that I don’t have any more information. Please, just let me go.” Devin turned and looked at the man and said “I wish I could.” With a flick of his wrist the man crumpled to the ground dead. He walked over to the last man and looked at him with disdain. He let the man speak again anyway. The man said. “ I can’t believe you killed him after he gave you all of the information he knew. He didn’t even try to lie and you still killed him.” Devin smiled at that “Well thanks for clearing that up. Now I know what he said was true.” With another slash the last man was dead at his feet. I looked on in shock. I too couldn’t believe we had just killed all of these men after telling them that at least one of them would be let go. I was no saint but I tried to keep my word whenever possible. Devin and the other seemed to notice the look on my face and with a sad smile he said to me. “I know this looks bad, but this is the way of things. We couldn’t allow any of these men to escape. They would run back to there leaders. We would lose any advantage we had built up by finding out this information. Also trust me when I say that they would have done the same to any of us if they and managed to take us alive. Though they would have been much harsher with us and lets not even speak of what they would have done to the women if they caught them. We need to get this information back to the mayor of the city so that he can send word to the Capital. After that we will see what we need to do. This has gone quite a bit over our heads. I can tell your not exactly satisfied with my answer but you’ll learn this is the way of things. For now let's head back. We need to get there quickly before the raiders find out their group of friends isn’t coming back. We headed off in the direction of the town. I really wasn’t satisfied with the answer but I had no argument against what he said. I was new to the world of an adventurer. From the way the rest of the group had reacted this was a pretty normal outcome to a situation like this. I would just have to learn from experience. For now I would follow along. There was obviously more to the adventuring thing than just killing monsters and I would have to learn to live with what we would do. Something was sure to come from this and even though I didn’t like the method I was excited as to what would come in the near future.