The dwarf was sleeping on her side with a large war hammer just off to her side within arms reach. Her snoring was loud enough that Arthur and Titia could whisper while in the dining area without waking her. “We found her, now what?” Titia looked to Arthur as she asked.
“I was thinking that one of us could use hydromancy to conjure water and fill her mouth while checking each of her teeth for any that come out.”
“And how would we stop her from moving? She isn’t just going to let one of us root around in there until we find the false tooth.”
“In that case the other would need to hold her down and keep her from moving too much.” A short silence filled the room as Titia gave Arthur a look of disbelief. “That is your plan. Don’t you have any potions that put the drinker to sleep or something? You said it yourself that you are an alchemist.”
“I do have a potion of drowsiness in my bag, but they just help people fall asleep. If you are being attacked or want to remain conscious it's not all that hard to resist the potions effects.”
Titia sighed. “So the only real plan we have is to basically try and pull a toy out of a dog's mouth that is very keen on keeping it.”
“I'm not exactly sure what a dog is, but yes that sounds just about right.”
With the course of action decided and Arthur volunteering to hold the dwarf still, the duo slowly sneaked into the bedroom of the bandit leader and readied themselves to remove the poisoned tooth.
Titia conjured a mouthful of water and upon confirming Arthur was ready counted down from three using her fingers. At reaching zero she filled the dwarfs mouth with the water waking her from her sleep with a gurgle. The dwarf began flailing around wildly as she couldn’t breathe through her mouth anymore.
Arthur knocked over her warhammer preventing her from reaching its handle and with geomancy and his hands tried to bound her arms and legs together. With the element of surprise Arthur was able to bound her legs together quickly and managed to focus on keeping her arms from moving with only a bit of success.
As it turned out the dwarven woman was actually quite strong and had lots of stamina since she kept struggling with Arthur for the entire time. After checking all sixteen bottom teeth and four top teeth Titia found the false tooth containing the poison. After extracting it and placing it in a small jar along with the poison she assisted Arthur in subduing the dwarf by giving her a punch in the face.
Arthur was able to quickly restrain the arms of the dwarf above her head and kept his concentration on them so she could not break them. “Well what do you know, it worked.” Arthur turned to face Titia with a smug look on his face. She simply gave him a glare and turned to face their captive.
“You bastards, my men will tear you apart when they get here!” The dwarf shouted at the human and elf who restrained her. ‘They are clearly both mages, the human one might have a sword but I'm betting that he isn’t all that skilled with it given his age and his magic skill.’
“I'm sorry to disappoint you… but your men don’t even know that we are here. Honestly you should have some actual patrols inside your walls, without them we had quite an easy time getting here. Not even a challenge really.”
“That doesn’t matter, I know why you are here and I ain't telling you anything.” The dwarf glared and continued struggling in her bonds like a worm in an attempt to get out.
In response Arthur just turned to Titia and smiled before he conjured a crude but effective mace from earth and walked towards the dwarf.
************
After twenty minutes of beating the dwarven bandit until she revealed all the information they wanted. While Arthur did this Titia elected to wait in the dining area and watch in case any of the bandits decided they needed to speak with their leader. It was a long watch as she could still hear Arthur hitting the woman every time he heard an answer he didn’t like which lasted for about fifteen minutes. She expected one of her men to arrive but between the mace colliding with her stomach knocking the wind out of her and causing her great pain she eventually gave in.
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“Please stop. I- I'll tell you everything, just stop hitting me.” The dwarf begged as tears streamed down her face. Arthur had been quite loud when he tortured her, clearly one of them did something to prevent any of her men outside from hearing what was happening. It also didn’t help that Arthur was telling her the time at five minute intervals.
“Finally, my arm was getting a bit tired. And to think I was going to just switch to my left hand.” Arthur chucked at his own joke, mocking the dwarf.
“The main camp is in an underground cave, it used to be a mine until it was abandoned 100 or so years ago. They only allow the highest ranking members there and a few that they trust, even I have only been there once.”
“And where is the cave in question?”
“I- I don’t know. I wasn’t paying all that much attention at the time.”
Arthur simply gave her an annoyed look before he flicked his wrist and pierced her eye and into her brain with an earth dart. “Is it over?” Titia asked Arthur as he exited the bedroom.
“She said that the main camp is in an underground cave that used to be a mine. The only problem was she did not know its actual location. So I just killed her.” Titia flinched at that statement.
“You killed her? The moment she told you, just like that?”
“I did. And I expect that she would have done the exact same if our situations were reversed.”
“But she was defenceless. We could have taken her back to Antium for proper questioning.”
“I wouldn’t dwell on the fact that she was defenceless, if she had gotten free she would have killed both of us or at least died trying, people like her are not worth getting upset over. They do nothing but take what is closest to you away and then beg or even demand that you show mercy. And besides you took part in the assault on the vampire cult, this isn't all that different.”
“It is very different. Vampires are horrible creatures of the darkness that were cursed by the very gods themselves for desecrating a shrine or temple. These people might have been normal once, they might have been regular people that are only doing this because they have no other way to provide for themselves.”
“You might be correct for the fodder down in the small two person tents, but that woman that we just captured and interrogated is not like that. She is living in luxury compared to what her subordinates are given. Did you see any tents larger than three meters wide? Because I didn’t. We won't kill them on our way out, but I will be giving Captain Tasius the go ahead to take out this bandit camp.”
*********
The trip back to Antium was long and quiet, leaving Titia plenty of time to think about what just happened. Upon leaving the tent Arthur took it upon himself to ignite a small part of the tent, specifically the bedsheets the dwarf was using. By the time Arthur and Titia were out of the simple entrance the flames were viable to the few bandits who were on watch. They immediately started shouting and attempted to put out the fire.
The duo did not stay long enough to see the outcome of the fire, but since the tent was quite isolated on the top of the hill it was very unlikely that any other tents got caught up in the fire.
‘Did we do the right thing? They're Not like vampires, they are just trying to get by like everyone else. I know they steal and kill but so do many other professions, members of the mercenaries guild do some of the same stuff.’ Titia second guessed the decision to kill the woman after she told them everything they knew. Maybe if she had been let go she would have left and gotten a legal profession.
Arthur on the other hand had no such thoughts, he did what anyone else would have in his situation. And most important of all he did not care for thieves and murderers. ‘People like her only bring pain and suffering to those they come across, just like Saturio Quintilius. He killed innocent people during the expedition and that dwarf undoubtedly killed many of those she robbed. I see very little difference between them.’ He might not have been friends with Hambel during their time in Dom Badaher, but had he survived that probably would have changed.
When they finally returned at almost midnight to Antium they entered via the southern gate, and since the guards on duty were ordered to allow them in without question by Captain Tasius the duo entered without any issue and went straight to the barracks to report their success.
“Welcome back, I assume you both have been successful in the task assigned to you both.” Captain Tasius smiled upon seeing the duo enter his office.
“We did take the bandit leader captive and interrogated her, but the information was quite vague.” Arthur took a seat in one of the chairs that had been placed next to the desk and was followed by Titia who seemed to be quite nervous.
“What exactly did you find out about the bandits' main camp?”
“First we learned why none of the lower ranking bandits knew anything about it, because only the highest ranking members were allowed to go there. The woman we interrogated only ever been there once and she did not know anything about the place other than the fact that the entrance is in a cave that once was a mine.” As Arthur spoke the captain was writing down all the relevant information on a piece of parchment with a quill and some ink.
“That is a little unfortunate but there can't be all that many caves in the Pelcester Forest or the surrounding region I am responsible for. This does narrow down the search quite considerably, I will of course still need to consult someone on all the mining operations within the area but this actually gives us something to work with.”