The bandit camp was located about halfway up a mountain that very few if any had ever climbed to the top of. The reason for this being that a sheer cliff rose up for about fifty meters not far past the point where the camp was to be found. Before the cliffs most of the mountain was covered in trees that blanket the area and for the most part, hid any sign of the camp itself and at first it wasn’t entirely clear how Thomas Brus had managed to discover it. Captain Walker managed to rather easily coax the story of how he found the camp from not all that reluctant Thomas Brus.
“Well, my family has been living and hunting in the area that is now lone shadow manor for a very long time, much longer than the Haute’s or even the Garner family who held the land before them. For some reason long lost to history no one has as far as I know ever really laid claim to this mountain and us locals like it that way. Now when we were younger my brother Shaun and I used to sneak out this way and explore. On one occasion we discovered the location the bandits are now using. On other occasions, like most locals of an adventurous spirit, we attempted without any success mind you to climb the cliffs. As we got older we stopped coming but then a couple of years ago some stranger passed through hereabouts and claimed to have climbed the mountain.
While he didn’t actually offer any proof or even give an explanation of how he did it, his claim inspired me to have another go at the mountain. As you can imagine nothing came of it but for a while every few months I tried again until I gave up last year. Now every few years hereabouts the ground shakes, sometimes hard enough to topple small buildings. My late Grandfather even once told me that when he was younger his own grandfather told him of a time when the Manor House partially collapsed after one of those shakes. After a particularly violent ground shake a few months back when a whole family died in a building Collapse I got to thinking what it might have done to the cliff and so I went to look.
It was still intact but on my way back I decided to revisit some of the places I saw in my youth which led me to discover the bandits and you know the rest.”
The Captain continued his semi-interrogation of Thomas to try and find out as much about the bandits as he could but unfortunately, he didn’t really know all that much. Even his estimation of their numbers was more of a guess based on what he remembered about the size of the area now encompassed by the bandit camp than anything else. He couldn’t really even be sure they actually were bandits not that it was likely they weren’t. After all what other reason could they have for hiding out in the mountains without making contact with the locals?
“Are you sure the bandits are still there?”
“Well to tell you the truth, I have no idea, his lordship didn’t dare keep a permanent watch on it. What he did instead was keep a watch as best he could on all the approaches to the mountain itself and none of those involved have reported seeing signs of a large party passing them by but some of them have as recently as this Wednesday reported a single individual or small groups of two or three coming and going at all hours.”
“Well, we’ll see soon enough I suppose, now about the actual location of the camp, what can you tell me about it?”
Well before the fall of the empire, this area used to be more prosperous than it is today. As well as the farming of crops that is undertaken today large herds of cattle and other animals were grazed hereabouts. Back then the mountain was known as Tanners Mountain as two or more tanneries were located in the shadow of the mountain. When the Empire fell this area was depopulated for generations. By the time people started to return the market for leathers hadn’t yet recovered to the levels from before. Since people were for some reason late to return here the markets had already found sources for their goods elsewhere. A fortified farmhouse was built on the ruins of one of the tanneries. About a century or so ago the family that owned the farmstead died out and it was abandoned to fall into ruin.
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As for what it looks like today, I can’t be that sure, it’s been twenty-odd years since I visited it last and its condition has I imagine deteriorated since then. But with input from my brother, I managed to help his lordship's scribe draw up a rough map of it from our recollections and an older map from his lordship's archive. The Bandits I suppose made some improvements to it just in case and perhaps even to pass the time. His son should have it I imagine, once you’ve had a look at it I can perhaps answer any questions you might have, though how accurate they might been, who can say.”
After acquiring the map from Walter Haute, Walker had a look at it before passing it on to me and my fellow lieutenants to see what we made of it. After a discussion with us and a question and answer session with at first just Thomas and later his brother as well plus input from Walter a consensus was reached as to what our next move should be.
Together with Thomas and some of the Guards with Walter, we would proceed to the foot of the mountain. While we tried as best we could to block any possible escape routes the bandits might use our scouts with the aid of Thomas would try their best to scout out the camp and if still needed determine the best way to assault it.
At the foot of the mountain, we met up with a representative of the local scouts who informed us that there hadn’t been any new sightings of the bandits since the last report they had sent to the manor. While the headquarters platoon stayed behind with the locals to build a temporary fortification that we could retreat to if necessary, first platoon circled the mountain to the west and third platoon to the east. Myself and the rest of second platoon accompanied by the scouts under Young headed up the mountain. When we were halfway to the location of the camp the Scouts went ahead to do their job.
We stayed behind to look for signs of a large group of people having passed by our location recently while trying our best to keep out of sight from anyone who might be watching from higher up the mountain. We didn’t find any signs of what we were looking for and it was several hours before the first of the scouts returned to report.
“We found the site of the bandit camp easily enough but at first we found it hard to get any clear sense that it was even inhabited. Eventually Young spotted the first sign of movement, probably a sentry but that was all we were able to spot. There just isn’t any spot with a good line of sight on it, at least none that wouldn’t either be too hard to reach or to risk whoever does so being in turn easily spotted by the enemy no matter how careless they might be. By the time he sent me down to report Young wasn’t ready to give up on finding one but things weren’t looking good.
It might be that we either have to assault it blind with them having every advantage of the higher ground or somehow make them come to us. The only other alternative is to somehow climb to a high enough spot on the cliff that you can look down on the camp from there. However, none of the scouts are capable enough or crazy enough to attempt such a climb and I don’t blame them. Perhaps someone else in the company might have the relevant skills to do so but I doubt it.”
It had been dark for an hour or more by the time Young and the other scouts had given up hope of finding any new information about the bandits and their camp and returned.
“I don’t know Niel other than that one lone sentry I just can’t find any sign of life up there, not without taking more of a risk than I am willing to. Even the one we did spot doesn’t move all that much which makes me question if it’s just a dummy. Half the time I was up there I was near convinced that the reason we couldn’t find anything else was because there wasn’t anything to find and the other half I was more than willing to try and climb that dam cliff to prove otherwise. I was hoping that when night fell the darkness would be broken by a light source of one kind or another but no such luck. They are either not risking it or there simply isn’t anyone to make any, it’s so frustrating.”
“Well it’s past time to report to the captain, by rights I should probably have done so even before your return. Perhaps he might have a better idea of how to proceed, I certainly don’t. While I was waiting for you I canvassed my men but I’m the only one with the climbing skill beyond basic and even then not by much. Perhaps someone in one of the other platoons has the skill at a higher level but that’s unlikely and even if they do that doesn’t mean they would have it at a high enough level to even chance it.”