What we should have done after looting the bodies of the dead bandits was to immediately seek out their bandit camp that was no doubt situated nearby. No matter how big or small a group of bandits might be, how experienced they were or how successful they might be the first thing they did after arriving at a new stomping ground was to set up a bandit camp where they stayed between their attacks on innocent travellers or what have you and stored their ill-gotten gains before having their fences transform it into hard currency which they then often buried nearby. That is if they didn’t immediately spend it whoring, drinking and partaking in illicit substances.

Unfortunately, it was just then that winter truly reared its ugly as the first snow of the season started to fall. It wasn’t very heavy at first but that didn’t last. It snowed for a good two hours or more and then just as we thought it was over it started up again, much heavier this time though it only lasted half an hour

All we could do was huddle together in the wagons while making sure the fire we started in the middle of the three of them didn’t go out which meant having to rush to find firewood before the snowstorm truly hit.

I also had to make sure the horses were well looked after and saw to it that they were all blanketed. By this I mean covered them in horse blankets that like myself the merchant had made sure they had brought with them especially this close to winter.

Fortunately, it had been raining earlier in the day so the snow didn’t settle as much as it would have otherwise.

Still, we decided to wait until morning before even thinking of continuing on with our travels. With all that had happened, we forget to go looking for the bandit camp and if things had gone otherwise it would no doubt have been our undoing.

It was my turn to go hunting for our dinner and I didn’t have to go far from our camp before I spotted a rabbit burrow. I waited some distance away from the entrance I had spotted until first one then several of its residents decided to come outside for some reason or another. I managed to bag three of them before the others fled inside again.

You have Slain (Level 4 Rabbit)

You have Slain (Level 2 Rabbit)

You have Slain (Level 3 Rabbit)

Once I had skinned and butchered them I handed them over to one of the others for cooking. They made a nice stew with the addition of potatoes and other root vegetables and we all enjoyed it.

When it was time to call it a night after a pleasant evening of conversation and a bit of a sing-along I took the first watch. By the end of my watch when it was time to wake my replacement I hadn’t spotted anything that had troubled me or much else for that matter. Still, for some reason or other, I found it hard to go to sleep once I had been relieved and that probably saved my life and that of the others, well most of them anyway.

The bandits we had encountered earlier weren’t as we had thought the only members of their band, merely the most inexperienced ones. The other we encountered that night must have been away from their camp when the rest of them had spotted us approaching. Whether or not their leader had told them not to target anyone until he returned we will never know. Either way, they foolishly decided to do so and paid the price for their folly as some of us did for ours.

About an hour after I should have been asleep the remaining bandits who had almost certainly been watching us for some time decided the time was ripe for them to attack. My replacement Dean didn’t spot them until it was nearly too late but he was able to sound the alarm before he was taken down by an arrow from the only archer amongst the bandits.

If I had been asleep it would have been the end of me and the others besides but thankfully I was not. I quickly exited my tent, bow in hand and fired an arrow at the bandit closest to our camp. Before I could fire again their archer aimed at me and if I hadn’t ducked at the last second, well it would have been the end of me.

You have Slain (Level 11 Bandit)

Keeping as close to the ground as I could I tried my best to spot my counterpart but once I had spotted him I missed, mainly because one of the other bandits was nearly upon me by then. At this time none of the others had arisen from their slumber and I faced the enemy alone.

If there had been more bandits then by the time this changed I would have been dead or dying and perhaps them along with me. Thankfully it was not to be and the bandit that was about to attack me slipped and fell in the wet grass before he could reach me and land a killing blow. I was quick to seize on his misfortune and hit him while he was down to buy me some more time. In the ensuing fight he, not I perished though it was a closely fought contest as I too slipped on the wet grass though without falling to the ground.

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Thankfully before this occurred his fall enabled me to take another shot at the enemy archer who perhaps fearing he would hit his mate and not me hesitated when he should have fired at me before I could do the same to him.

You have Slain (Level 14 Archer)

We were both more cautious after I slipped and our swords clashed against each other for longer than they might have otherwise. In the end, I only managed to kill him because he made one more mistake than I had and it wasn’t just that he should have backed off somewhat and waited until one of his compatriots was in a position to lend a hand. He was I think worried that one of mine would have joined me before that came to pass.

You have Slain (Level 12 Bandit)

With him taken care of including an individual I assumed was the leader only three bandits were remaining and they were all charging at me. I was able to put pay to one of them before they could get into melee range of me.

You have Slain (Level 13 Bandit)

It was at that point that the first of my remaining companions entered the fray, throwing his axe at one of the bandits. Unfortunately from my point of view, he had targeted the wrong one, the bandit leader who was by far the more dangerous of the two was still in play and I wasn’t sure I could take him.

The ensuing fight between the two of us was by my measure the hardest fought one of my life, up to that point anyway. We went back and forth for far too long, me with my solid dependable looking sword and he with his that looked, I kid you not, as if it had seen better days, centuries ago. If mine wasn’t a whole lot sharper than his proved to me then I am sure he not I would have prevailed. Thankfully I was able to somehow hold out for long enough that even a blind man could see his greatest failing as a swordsman. His predictability or lack of rhythm while not perhaps as bad as some proved fatal to him.

You have Slain (Level 16 Bandit)

Your Level has increased to 16, One Free Stat Point and an extra Skill slot awarded

By the time our fight had ended and his life as well all my remaining companions were wide awake and had finished searching the bodies of the dead and placed the resulting loot in a pile next to the lifeless body of their fellow merchant Neal who had died so all the rest of us could live.

“Sorry Niel, I suppose we should have helped you deal with the last of the bandits but it seemed like a closely fought battle and we were all afraid that anything we might do would be more harmful than helpful.”

“That’s perfectly understandable, I’m sorry for your loss, I only knew him very briefly but he seemed like a good guy. He really saved our bacon you know. Without his warning well we certainly wouldn’t be alive to have this conversation now would we.”

“I hope you don’t mind about the loot but Dean had a family.”

“That’s fine, I’ll keep their leader's sword but you can have anything else you can find on his body as well. Now we really should have done it beforehand but the bandits must have had their own camp nearby and all the best of their stuff should be found there. If we had gone looking for it earlier well Dean might still be alive though then again perhaps not.”

While looking for the bandit camp I decided what to do about my level up and I used my free stat point to increase my Charisma as I felt it would perhaps help me be a better lieutenant if I was lucky enough to hold on to my position as such or whenever I next had the opportunity to become one if I didn’t. As for the skill slot I still had two of them banked

Skill: Find/Disarm Traps

What a lucky bastard most need to trigger a trap to gain this skill but you got lucky and yours was too old to still operate as designed

Skill: Detect Lies

You are now more readily able to detect when people are lying to you though there are other skills that can block this one or are there

I didn’t have to choose from one of the two but I decided to go with detect lies, another thing I thought might prove useful in my career.

It took us all over an hour to find their camp but after thoroughly searching it we discovered less than a hundred gold coins worth of goods and less than twenty actual pieces of gold coinage.

We could I suppose have slept in the following morning but we were afraid it might start snowing again so we only managed a few hours of sleep before heading out at which time we were all glad to see the back of the Forest of Matsurn.

I thought they would have buried Dean near where he died but we didn’t, instead, they preserved his body in a barrel of rum that was among the goods they were transporting in one of their wagons. It would be taken home to his family so they could bury him far from the place he had fallen.

The following day since they weren’t heading in the same direction as I was we parted company. I was sad to see them go, other than what had happened with the snow and the bandits I had enjoyed the short time we had spent together.

Four days later during which time thankfully it didn’t snow I arrived at Togla the town nearest the manor where my sister and her employer's family were currently staying. I was weary from my journey and felt I needed a day of rest before having to deal with my sister. I love her to bits but we don’t get to see each other all that often and when we do these days she has a tendency to try and pack as much into our time together as she can manage which can be a bit of a drag at times.