There were nine of them in total, all riding horses though some of the horses in question didn’t seem to be in all that good of a condition. In fact, one of them seemed to be lame and not long for the world and several others at the very least near exhaustion.

As with the lone horseman earlier if this was just the advanced party then taking them out or trying to and failing could alert the rest of them to our presence. While at the same time not doing so could lead to them spotting us and them escaping to warn the others. The latest intelligence I had received from Captain Walker was that besides the nine we had spotted heading our way there were still another nineteen members of the distraction party lose. We had no idea whether they were hidden close by waiting for news from this lot or Telondian knows how far away. Anyway, while some of the nine might get away I didn’t really think it all that likely.

In the end, after thinking things through I decided to allow them to get as close to the camp as I dared before launching the attack. Once we had taken care of the nine if the others showed up then well I didn’t think there were enough of them to worry too much about. And if I was wrong about that then it really wouldn’t matter either way. It was also possible that the rest of them were close about, would remain hidden once they became aware of us and wouldn’t attack us immediately but rather surprise us either while we were busy slighting the camp or while we were making our way to Captain Walker. If that was the case then I felt all we had to do was remain vigilant and not let our guard down. Not that I felt this was likely, we were dealing with bandits after all and not other mercenaries.

While we were waiting to spring our trap I had the sentries remain vigilant, not just keeping a watch on our prey but also remaining alert to the possible presence of others in our vicinity.

Before long the nine bandits were within range of the first of my hidden men but I waited for a while longer even after they had come into range of all of them before I gave the order to attack. In the end, the nine bandits were easily taken care of, in fact with the element of surprise if I hadn’t ordered my men to try and take some of them alive for questioning then none of them would have survived even our first volley of arrows.

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You have helped Slay (Level 14 Bandit)

In the aftermath of the encounter once the two surviving enemies had been secured I had the men remain vigilant for possible enemy reinforcements but after half an hour without any sign of them I finally allowed them to relax. I of course had the sentries remain at their posts just in case though in the end nothing ever came of it.

I had the men enlarge one of the more out-of-the-way holes to bury the seven dead bandits in, while I interrogated the two survivors to try and find out where the rest of the bandit distraction force was to be found.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get all that much out of them, from what I could tell they either had no idea where they might be or if they did they just weren’t willing to tell me no matter how much pressure I applied.

Once the bandits were buried after they were searched of course and our two bandit prisoners were also searched and then secured I divided the resulting loot amongst the men and then ordered them to begin to slight the camp. We didn’t find all that much other than their weapons, not even a full gold's worth of coin.

Of their nine horses all but one of them survived though I had to have the lame one put down as it was too far gone. They weren’t by any stretch of the imagination all that good war horses and I doubt the company will have any use for them other than perhaps carrying messengers or having the men using them to learn how to ride. Those we had no use for would be sold and a share of the proceeds given to the men to add to the shabby amount taken from their former riders.

I had the men spend the next four hours slighting the camp, pulling down as much of its walls as possible in the time given, setting the few wood buildings on fire, doing their best to destroy the two already crumbling gatehouses and filling in the well as best they could.

Once that was taken care of, to our best ability, in the time allocated I allowed the men an hour of rest before we headed out to rejoin the rest of the company.