Getting to sleep wasn't all that easy for me, that night. The previous couple of nights when I'd been here, I collapsed pretty much straight away, but the first night I'd been awake for quite a while, and disoriented to boot, and the second I'd been crashing after an adrenaline, panic, and pain fueled adventure, along with being pissed as fuck. None of those things were true for night three, and as a result my insommnia kicked back in, leaving me tossing and turning for a good chunk of the night, twitching slightly whenever I heard something outside the tent. The fact that the forest was potentially full of enourmous spiders is not really conductive to relaxing when you're in it, and given the small, but non-zero chance of being webbed up and dragged off in your sleep, every sound had me on edge, with me trying to convince my brain that the sound on the other side of the fabric was an insect, or small rodent, and not a huge arachnid.
My sleep was fitful as a result, and when I woke up, I spent a decent amount of time just lying in in my tent, working up the energy to actually move. It was only when I heard the sound of the others moving outside that I started actually doing something, and even then my first action consisted of cleaning off all the sweat I'd built up in the night using my ring. The act of casting the spell triggered a connection somewhere in my brain, causing me to remember that my other spell, my Beguiling Influence, had run out at some point last night, given I'd not cast it all of yesterday, so I quickly refreshed that as well, and the feeling of fire travelling down my throat, like necking a triple of vodka, helped dispel a lot of the grogginess.
Gently chucking my gambeson and chain out of the tent, I sat in the entrance and pulled my boots on, watching the others go about their business. The ground was damp with early morning moisture, and insects and other small wildlife teemed. Hung over nearby branches were the bedrolls, slowly drying out of the reach of most of the insects in the area.
Lacing up my boots, I spoke the command word to turn my tent back into a cloak. Thankfully, the fact that it was waterproof carried over, leaving it bone dry as I shrugged it on. Enjoying the instant temperature control it provided, I moved over to sit by the fire, where Sabrina was cooking a breakfast that looked remarkably similar to last night's dinner.
They may not be the most powerful items in the world, I thought, as I applied flavouring to the stew, once again eating out of Lidda's bowl (I quickly shut down where my mind went at that phrase), but the sheer amount of use and convenience that I got out of the two magic items I spent that starting money on made them well worth the cost. Being warm, dry, fed, and clean weren't the kind of things you really thing of as luxuries when you get used to them, but even spending brief periods of time covered in dirt and shite made it very clear to me that I was not a fan of being dirty.
Absent-mindedly cleaning up after all of us, which thanks to the range of the spell didn't actually involve me standing up or moving in any way so much as directing the cleaning to do 'that cube over there' and cleaning everything in it. The top layer of soil was also being slowly abraded by this, I noticed, but it went at such a slow speed that I didn't think it was really worth being concerned about. Instead, I focused my attention on where Julie and Zahri were helping each other get into armour. Some of that was out of genuine interest in the equipment, it might be a good idea to know how to put that on, or help someone put it on in the future, and it was well made. Admittedly, the other reason I was watching was because two athletic ladies were in close contact with each other, but I was also interested in the armour.
After tidying up, packing everything that had been used, burying waste, and a small amount of maintenance on the campsite (a quick question revealed it to be a social contract of sorts, doing your bit to keep good camping spots usable to increase the chance of you finding it easier to camp later) we reattached our bags, or in my case an uncomfortable bouncing sack, and headed out.
The journey started similar to the one on the previous day, with about ten minutes of silence, punctuated by me drinking sweet tea in the hopes that caffeine made me a vaguely functional person again, followed by Sabrina picking my mind over a specific of the Magic Missile spell she'd been contemplating last night. Parts of what she was saying still very much went over my head, as much as I was cheating knowledge out with skill points I wasn't actually a wizard, but I was still able to function as a useful sounding board.
Our journey continued through lunch, which consisted mainly a piece of what I would generously describe as bread. It was a lump of dark brown solid material the same texture and consistency of a stale ryvita biscuit (it wouldn't surprise me if rye was the main ingredient of it), if ryvita biscuits were four times as thick and liable to chip a tooth. The only reason I didn't think the damn thing had gone off was that I wasn't sure it was ever on in the first place. Still, the others were chewing away at their portion, so rather than complain I just dug in as well, thankful that my damage reduction as least meant that I wouldn't lose any teeth to it.
The conversation switched tracks a few times as we kept walking, spending the longest time on the best methods of balancing power, control, and efficiency when casting spells, incidentally letting me know that spells worked more like the 1st-3rd edition spells, where the more powerful the spellcaster, the more powerful the spell, instead of the 'spells are fixed, cast them at a higher level for more power' approach of 5th. Note to self, low level casters are (slightly) weaker, but high level casters are even more brutally OP, good to know.
Halfway through a sentence about the benefits of proper spell preparation (a topic somewhat about the upsides of Vancian magical systems, but mostly a rant about sorcerers, and how what they did was 'cheating'), we were interrupted by Zahri, who simply barked out the word "Stop."
Looking around at the bit of woodland where the cleric told us to stop, at first I couldn't make out anything apart from the fact that it was denser than most of the areas we'd walked through, with a considerable amount of undergrowth covering the sides of the road, hiding the deeper forest from view. A twitch of movement caught my attention a couple of seconds after we stopped walking, as one of the bushes rustled, before a woman stepped out into the middle of the road in front of us.
She was heavily armoured, worn and patched scalemail covered with scraps of furs and leather, with a skullcap perched on top of hair hacked short. A weapon was in each of her hands and resting on her shoulders, a warhammer on her right shoulder and an axe on her left. She bowed slightly as she looked at the group of us, a cocky grin on her face.
"It's nice to meet such a fine bunch of sods as yourselves." There was a very present mocking tone to her voice. "Now, I'm sorry to break it to you, but you've wandered right into the middle of my ambush, see?" The bushes to our sides, and lining the road in front of us, rustled obligingly at that as a number of figures armed with bows stood up. Zahri's warning had placed us firmly at the rear end of the group, so we weren't surrounded, but there were still a substantial number of bows pointed as us.
I glanced at the others to see what their reactions were. I wasn't particularly thrilled at the prospect of fighting right now, as we were outnumbered and I had no idea how strong or brave these (probably) bandits were. I was tough, but I wasn't 'surviving being turned into a pincushion' tough, and the rest of my party didn't have my damage reduction to help them survive. On the other hand, they also probably weren't video game suicidally confident bandits, and might just run away if they got in over their heads.
That line of thinking, of if it was worth capitulating or fighting, seemed to be what Julie and Zahri were mulling over. Sabrina had her empty hands in what I could only call a ready position, and Lidda was simply chanting 'I told you so' under her breath as she reached for her knives.
Unfortunately, the bandit took notice of my looking to the others, and focused on me. "Well now, what do we have here? Looks like we've got some noble boy and his bodyguards wandering the roads. Don't you know it's not safe around these parts, boy?" Wow, congratulations on finishing the 'Basic Bad Guy Cliche Lines' course, I see you got high marks. What's next, you're going to make me an offer I can't refuse?
"Thanks for the warning. I guess we should hurry off to town then. If you'd mind letting us past." The dry, mildly sarcastic words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. Sarcasm as a response to stress wasn't one of my prettiest traits, but given how sardonic I was normally it did make it somewhat difficult to actually tell when I was stressed, something that was kind of helping now.
All that that got me was a laugh. "Nice try, pretty boy. But I figure you owe us for giving you such good advice. I think all of the cash you've got on you, and maybe what you've got in those bags as well, for a start."
Part of me was aware that the sensible thing to do in this situation was give in. It wasn't like I desperately needed the money right now, and we could always make our way to the town and let the governing officials or the guards or whatever deal with this problem. It was the sensible, logical thing to do. But what was the point of all of this, if I was going to collapse at the first sign of trouble? If I just decided to accept the whims of those more powerful than me, just because it was easier, or less risky? I had real, tangible power at my fingertips (tooth-tips?) now, a very real ability to decide my own fate, was I just going to meekly cow to the first threat I ran into?
I stepped forwards. "And if I told you to go and fuck yourselves?" A shocked gasp came from Julie behind me, along with a startled laugh both from Lidda and the bandit.
"Well then boy, I figure we shoot your bodyguard friends, and then take all the stuff anyway, as well as you. I'm sure a pretty boy like you would be lots of fun around camp, once we'd broken you in, anyway."
I...wait, what? "Are you threatening to rape me?" I asked, mildly dumbfounded. I was starting to get the grasp of this whole matriarchal thing, along with me being attractive now, but this was so outside of my area of reference that I didn't really know how to respond to that. It wasn't anything I'd ever run into, and logically I knew I should be shocked and appalled, but it was just so weird and out of left field that I just ended up confused.
If anything, the bandit's grin got wider as she hefted the hammer. "Don't worry boy, you'll be begging for it by the end."
"Right, so you are threatening to rape me?" I clarified, as Julie let out an audible growl. I was ashamed to admit that a small (although admittedly, not as small as I'd like) part of my brain was tempted. She was an attractive (if she cleaned up a bit, although the ring could help with that) woman offering to have sex with me. If it wasn't for the whole 'bandit rape' thing, and the fact that there were so many red flags that she could wear them as a cape, I might have said yes, but as it was, I stomped the horny part of my brain back down.
"Aww, no one ever try to show you a good time before, boy? I'll take it gentle on you the first time, then."
The sound a sword makes as it leaves a scabbard is only that high pitches 'shing' noise when the metal of the sword scrapes against other metal. The noise Julie's blade made when it left her leather scabbard was more of a quiet 'shhh' sound, but the noise that was made as the sword swung through the air to her side was a lot louder. "You will not touch him!"
The bandit laughed again, a sound that was starting to grate on me. "Or what?" She mocked, leering at me. "You're outnumbered three to one, and my women can fill you full of arrows before you can do a damned thing. He can't be paying you that much, can he? Or is that not it," her mocking tone took on a faux-musing quality at that, "is it just that you've been pining to sleep with him instead? I tell you what, you join up with us, and I'll let you have my sloppy seconds, how about that?"
Fuck this bitch. I opened my mouth a little, and let fire roil in it. I wasn't quite sure how I was doing it, some kind of instinctual step just before breathing it out that I was able to hold it at, but I could feel the warmth, just shy of painful, and see the orange glow reflecting off of the bandit's armour. "Or instead, how about we see just how much you like being at the centre of a forest fire!" I snarled. I wasn't sure if it was the fire, or the benefit of my Beguiling Influence, but my snarl was deep and resonant, the bandit in front of me near-instinctively flinching away from the noise.
A pause of maybe ten seconds followed, and during it I saw some of the bow armed bandits back away slightly. The bandit in front of me visibly flicked her eyes between them, between all of us, and then back to me. Just as I was beginning to start to breathe out...
"Fine. It's not worth it, then. Off you go." She bitterly spat out.
I swallowed the fire before it escaped, and watched as she, and the rest of the bandits, quickly disappeared back into the undergrowth, vanishing from sight within moments. Risking a look at the rest of the party, they seemed willing to let the bandits walk off rather than stab them in the back, although Julie didn't look particularly happy about it.
"I don't like it, they left too easily." Julie kept her sword in her hand as she muttered, looking backwards and forwards between the bushes.
Lidda took the opportunity to quickly string her bow, a fluid and polished movement as she bent it around her legs, looped the string, stepped out of it, and knocked an arrow in under six seconds. "People don't become bandits because they want to risk their lives, they do it for easy cash and to feel powerful. The moment we made it clear that we weren't worth the risk, there was no point in them staying." Despite her words, she also continued to scan the forest around us.
On the other hand, Sabrina was pouting. "I wanted to try out Colour Spray."
"I've not seen someone quite so upset to not get into a fight for their life." I muttered to her. The noise had Julie swing around towards me.
"And you? What was that?" She accused.
I just shrugged in response. "You're going to have to be more specific. Also, we should probably get a move on, before they change their minds and come back."
Zahri nodded and started walking onwards, seemingly having been unperturbed by the whole thing, although I spotted her hand rhythmically clenching and unclenching around the hilt of her mace. As we followed, Julie kept talking.
"Well, there was the mouthing off to her, which made it more difficult to de-escalate," as I raised my eyebrows at that, she grimaced in response, "alright, unlikely, but it's still an important first step. Standard protocol when outnumbered that much is to comply when reasonably possible, and then seek backup, which is something we could have done fairly easily. We've had reports of these bandits all over the place, the guards have been looking for them for a while. Second of all, was drawing her attention to you really a good idea?"
I struggled, briefly, to find words not only for the sarcasm, but also for that weird sensation, not quite of pride, but of a refusal to bow to the demands of others, to declare myself to the world and move it, rather than let it move me, settling on a "I get mouthy when I'm stressed."
A sigh greeted me at that. "I suppose. I keep forgetting you don't have... sorry. But still. And the third thing, what if she'd called your bluff, at the end there?"
Confused, I tilted my head to the side. "What bluff?"
Her voice was hesitant as she responded. "The bluff to set her and the forest on fire?"
I grinned. "What bluff?" I repeated.
Our previously unhurried pace sped up somewhat as we moved onwards, the previously jovial chatter disappearing as we practically marched down the road. We continued past the time we'd stopped to camp the night before, and kept going until the sunlight disappeared from sight entirely. I was able to see where I was going easily enough, my darkvision cutting out colour and leaving the world monotone. I was expecting it to be greyscale, but for some reason it was shades of red, rather than black-and-white. A quick glance at my party members and their footprints revealed that it wasn't infravision, though, as residual heat wasn't glowing.
Zahri ended up calling for a stop, as she lead us into the bushes a small distance to another clearing that she'd noticed. This one was about the same size as the previous one, but lacked the signs of use that had been present, being filled with random sticks, rocks and other debris.
"Avoid a fire." Rather than chuck her equipment to the ground like she'd done last time, Zahri carefully placed it down as she talked. "Just in case."
"Why? I mean, the chances of us running into bandits are tiny, aren't they Julie?" Lidda's tone was light, but there was a slight edge to the words.
"Alright, fine, I was wrong, are you happy?" Julie snapped back.
Not really sure if I should get involved, I untied the bag of metal and placed it on the ground. Sabrina was digging around in her bag for food, avoiding the discussion, while Zahri watched carefully.
Lidda went to bark something out, but deflated just before she said anything. "No, it's fine, I'm sorry. I just, I don't like the fact that they got the drop on us. It put us in a shit situation, and we came not that far away from being filled with arrows, although it would have been worse if you hadn't noticed them, Zahri, so thank you for that." A nod was her response.
The dinner that was fished out for us, due to the lack of fire, consisted of more of that awful rye bread, along with strips of cold, dried vegetable. The magic of my ring couldn't do much to help deal with the terrible flavour, at best partly masking it, so I relied on the warm sweet tea from the flask to help wash it down. I ended up passing the flask around a little as well, just to help the others deal with the cold, something they were thankful for.
"This may have been the easiest and most comfortable journey I've been on, and that's pretty much all on you." Lidda told me, as we started setting up for the night, the heavily armoured ones taking off their steel but leaving the gambesons on underneath. "You're a useful man to have around, you know that?"
I kind of awkwardly half-shrugged. "It's not like I've really done a lot of work, though. I've just sat down while you've all done things and waved my hands at the end."
"And saved us a shitload of time in cleaning, and kept all of us clean and tidy while you did so." Was her rejoinder. "I'm not saying you were essential, but you've made it very comfortable."
Huh, I guess I feel slightly less bad now about freeloading along and not really doing a lot now. "It's not a problem, I'm happy to help."
"Keep saying things like that and you'll give a woman the wrong impression." She jokingly responded, winking at me. She then fell silent for a couple of seconds, clearly picking her words, before speaking up, more hesitant than before. "You know, what that woman said, we're not going to let that happen, right?" The others around the camp slowed their actions down, trying and failing to make it look like they weren't eavesdropping.
I gave her a puzzled look. "Well, yeah, we've still got all of the stuff."
"Not that! The, the threat she made towards you." Oh shite, yeah, the whole rape thing. I still wasn't really sure how to react to that, even after a few hours. I wasn't really on board with the whole thing, but if I was being honest with myself I could admit that it was more out of a desire to not lose control, and potentially get my head caved in by a crazy woman, than out of desire to not have sex with her. If she'd approached me at a bar (and my anxiety didn't convince me it was a trap or a set up and she was out to harvest my organs or whatever) I'd have probably gone along with it. As it was, the threat didn't really have much in the way of any impact. Still, that probably wasn't the response Lidda wanted to hear, and she was staring at me as I internally monologued, so I should probably say something.
"Thank you." There was a surprising amount of sincerity in my voice. It wasn't really about being protected from that particular threat, it was more the idea that these people I'd only met a few days ago were willing to put themselves on the line for me. It was humbling, in a way. "I appreciate it."
Nobody really stayed up, at that point, disappearing off into their bedrolls pretty quickly. I set my tent up and sloughed off my chainmail and gambeson, along with my shirt, because fuck it, why not be comfortable? I could always put it back on in my tent in the morning. Behind me, I heard Zahri bring up the idea of having someone on watch.
"We already don't have a fire. You're basically the only person who can see without one anyway." Lidda chipped in. "We're already a fair distance away from the bandits anyway, and we're close enough to the town that there isn't going to be anything else around. What are they going to do, follow us for hours, through the night, just to ambush us in the middle of the night, when there are easier targets around? We might as well all rest, wake up early, and then double time it to Turrford. It's probably safer than keeping watches in the dark, and that way we aren't all knackered tomorrow."
Nods of agreement were made, although I wasn't sure how much of what she'd said was logical and how much of it was just wanting to get to sleep. I was still shaking somewhat from the stress and adrenaline comedown, even hours later. I hadn't realised how much the imminent threat of a fight hyped you up and focused you, at the cost of making you feel like shite for hours afterwards.
As I woke up in the middle of the night, a knife to my neck, and a familiar face inches away from mine, I cursed past me for tempting fate. Goddamnit, didn't I notice what happened with Julie?
The bandit leader woman was practically laying on top of me, her body crammed into the one-man tent above mine. She'd eschewed the heavier scale for leather, which was probably the only reason she'd managed to fit in, and she smiled as she saw me wake up.
"Now, now, now, no need for you to scream." She whispered into my ear. "After all, let's not turn this rape into a murder."