AN: The world of Exile/Avernum (in particular, the bandit fort and the bandits found there, Fort Duvno and the persons introduced in previous chapters set in that location) belongs to Jeff Vogel and Spiderweb Software. Persons and places belonging to the game will be put back unharmed when I'm done.
Leaving Fort Duvno, they made their way along the rather broken down trail, at last reaching the base of a large, craggy spire of rock, a well-traveled trail amongst the ruined cobblestones leading the way up the side. In the distance, at the top of the rise, the edge of a fortress could be seen, even from this distance, it appeared to be in ruins, though there was smoke from fires rising into the air.
"This looks like the place," said Ansel, and he started to lead the way up.
"Be careful," said Duncan, "they probably have traps to alert them."
"I'll keep an eye out," said Ansel.
Nevertheless, there were no traps that were obviously tripped, and they approached the abandoned fortress. It had been a small outpost, placed here to keep watch over the vast expanses of cavern to the west. It had fallen into ruin, for whatever reason, the people of Avernum had decided to abandon it. Looking around, though, it became quite clear that the fort was not truly abandoned, people were living here, though undoubtedly not the legitimate owners of the structure.
The buildings to the west had been roughly patched up, and loud, raucous singing could be heard from within those buildings. Whowever lived here was drunk and rowdy, and all the evidence pointed to this being the fortress where the bandits roaming this area hung out whenever they were taking a break from rape and robbery and other mayhem.
One of the portcullis entries remained closed, while the barred gate adjacent had rusted away, the bars visible on the fortress floor, and vast gaps appeared in the walls. Amongst the sounds of revelry, there were also sounds of rats chewing on things.
Slipping through an unpatched wall, they came face to face with one of the bandit residents, who had clearly just finished depositing some of the mushroom ale he had consumed on the cavern floor, still adjusting his trousers as Ansel drew his sword.
"Hey, what are you --" he started, "Intru ..."
Before he could finish calling an alarm, Ansel's sword sliced through him, and the bandit lay dead on the fortress floor.
"Watch your step," said Ansel. "Appears they piss anywhere."
"Thanks for the warning," said Jynx.
"Which way you want to go?" said Duncan.
"I dunno," said Ansel. "One way is probably as good as another. Let's go this way to start." With that, he led off to the left, making sure to avoid stepping on any wet spots on the fortress floor.
Moving down this way, they found themselves in a room where three skeletons had been standing against the wall, and the creatures advanced when the group entered the room. Within moments, the skeletons were no-longer-animate piles of bone and dust.
"That's really odd," said Ansel.
"They didn't move our way," said Brother Theo, "until we entered the room. Maybe the bandits here just stayed out of the way. They certainly haven't seemed willing to do too much when they're not sure of winning."
"I know," said Ansel. "Buncha cowards."
Continuing their explorations, they managed to pick off two more bandits who had been stationed about the fortress, and found a heavy door blocked by timbers and large piles of rubble, with clear signs that someone had been trying to dig their way through the mess, though they had not had any luck. Peering through the crack in between the door and the building, they saw a pile of garbage which looked like it might have a useful item within—no doubt the object that those attempting to dig into the room had been seeking.
Searching in another building, they found a hidden passage, and into the room that had been blocked by rubble. The pile of garbage that had looked interesting when peering through the door edge, however, turned out to be nothing more than a pile of garbage with nothing of value within. Deciding not to waste the time, they checked through the crates, finding a nice mace for Brother Theo, and a few trinkets.
"I will like this," said Brother Theo, giving the new mace a swing.
"Yeah, I can see that," said Ansel. "Well, if we're gonna be going around adventuring like that, I guess we better find a way to get decent weapons for everyone, huh?"
"It certainly will make it more likely that we'll prevail," said Rudel.
Continuing into the western buildings, they slew a few bandits who had been engaged in card games, and then ran into the mage that they had been told was the leader of the place. Despite taking a jet of flame to the face, Ansel dealt the death blow to the mage who had been helping these bandits.
"That should put a dent in their activity," huffed Ansel. "Gods, that hurts."
"Let me see what I can do," said Brother Theo, and he put his hands on Ansel's face and said a few prayers, and the burned flesh went from blistered to red to normal.
"Thanks," said Ansel. "Guess we better finish checking this place out."
They continued through the other rooms, killing a few more bandits, none of whom seemed to expect there to be a reason to surrender to the group, and at last, all was quiet within. Once quiet, they started exploring more thoroughly, examining crates and barrels, until they came to a locked door.
Brynja said, "Wonder what's there. Probably something valuable."
She picked the door open, and they found that what was there was actually quite dangerous--two spirits who immediately began to attack. Depleted from the earlier fights, it took all their effort to send these undead to their proper rest, but they did manage to succeed, and found more than a small amount of coin, as well as some alchemical ingredients in the chests within the room.
"That was a good day's work," said Ansel. "We'll rest up here with some watches, because I'm too beat to go back to Duvno today."
"Sounds like a good plan to me," said Rudel.
"I'll go set an alarm around the perimeter of the fort," said Jynx.
"OK," said Ansel. "We'll be setting up in the building here."
With that, Jynx left the others, and without bothering with her hair, stepped outside the fort and circled the three sides she could reach.
Looking over the edge at the sheer drop, she grinned, and said to herself, "If anyone gets up that, I guess they deserve to clobber us."
Perimeter alarm spell cast, she walked back into the fortress, and made her way to the western building.
"C'mon Jynx," called Ansel. "We just found the stores of food."
"Anything good?" said Jynx, sounding rather doubtful.
"Well, there's some lizard steaks that seem to be all right," said Ansel. "Brother Theo's found some fish."
"The fish will be very good," said Brother Theo. "Won't notice much difference from what there was up there. Fish is fish."
"Never did like fish," said Jynx.
"I like fish," said Ansel, and he grinned as he sat down to enjoy the mushroom-meal-battered fish.
"So, where we all going to bunk—going to stay awake through the night, or depend on Jynx's alarm waking us if need be?" said Brynja.
"I'm in favor of watches," said Ansel. "Not like there's any disadvantages to travel at one time or another, like there'd be at night up there. The bandits what weren't in the fort could come back just as easy now as a few hours from now."
"And I'm sure there are more of them out there," said Jynx, enjoying the lizard steak and the mushroom bread.
"All right, then," said Ansel. "I figure each of us runs a couple hours of watch, with the first and last taking a half watch alone."
"I don't think I understand," said Rudel.
"Military, never have one person on watch," said Ansel. "Too easy to overpower one person on watch. Have two, you got a better chance. But there's only the six of us, and taking a third of the night to watch is going to leave us so knackered we might as well just go back to Duvno now."
"So how's this going to work?" said Jynx.
"Draw lots," said Ansel, picking up a piece of parchment and writing the numbers one through six and then tearing it so each number was on a separate fragment.
Putting the fragments in a helm, he held it to Jynx, and said, "Pick one."
"One," said Jynx, looking at the parchment. "I suppose it could be worse."
"And I've got six," said Duncan.
"Three for me," said Rudel, making a face. "Is it ok if we switch?"
"You and Dunc?" said Ansel. "I don't care. Brynja?"
"Two," she said.
"And four for me," said Brother Theo.
"And that leaves," said Ansel, taking the last fragment, "five for me."
Jynx remained at the table as the others moved on to the beds in the next room, saying nothing as Duncan and Rudel took the room that had belonged to the apparent second-in-command, while Ansel had made his way into the quarters of the former mage leader.
"I'm just going to go get a little nap," said Brynja. "Wake me when you're ready for the company."
Jynx nodded, and set the hourglass that they had found in one of the chambers.
Perhaps it was the precautions, or perhaps just good fortune, but no bandits approached the fortress while the group rested from the rigors of removing the bandit infestation.
After packing up the remnants of the good food that the bandits had stored and eating a quick breakfast, they broke the camp they had made to begin the trek back to Fort Duvno.