Neeshka stops abruptly as the guard post comes into view. Tucked between two short hills on the side of the road, the camp is just out of shouting distance from Fort Locke and just out of sight from the road - until you're too close to get away.

She's just starting to backpedal when she realizes that - despite the brightness of the day and the lack of cover on the road - there's no challenge from the camp. The invisibility potion must be working! She'll kiss that merchant, next time she sees him.

Taking care not to give away her position by sound, Neeshka creeps by the camp, keeping an eye on its occupants. They seem to have quite a haul in there... Too much, really - more than they could possibly get from catching wayward bandits. They must be taking a cut from every passing traveller. Lucky for her they can't spot her. All she has to do is stroll by…

Her footsteps slow, and her eyes are drawn again to the goods waiting in the guarded camp. They wouldn't miss a few coins, surely. Her pockets are feeling far too light lately. The pay from that last job with Leldon should have lasted for a time, but somehow it's nearly all gone. But the mystery of the disappearing coins is a familiar and unsolved one - no matter how many times she checks her pockets for holes.

Her feet shuffle into the camp, and she ducks behind a crate of confiscated merchant goods to scrounge through a promising bag. Carefully, quietly, her dagger cuts the knotted cord, exposing the bag's contents. Hells... what is she supposed to do with spools of fine thread? Not worth the trouble of unloading it - not when there's gold and gems around for the taking. If she can just find them…

Despite the invisibility potion, she holds her breath as she creeps around the stack of crates, looking for smaller, sturdier containers. They have to keep the coin around here somewhere, and since she's already in here, she might as well look. It has to be somewhere. Unless, of course, they already divvied it up…

Now that she's up close, the soldier's do seem to be carrying unusually heavy coin purses, especially the one who looks to be in command. A full, enticing coin purse dangles from his belt, right there outside the armor.

Keeping the coin on his belt makes it a little more difficult for her, but it's not as if he'll see her coming. If he really didn't want want to lose it, he'd keep it under his clothing, not just hanging there like that. Neeshka edges closer, by habit waiting for a moment when the soldier's back is turned before reaching for the pouch.

"Hey, what's that there!"

Experience alone saves Neeshka from pulling on the man's belt as the voice calls out behind her. She twists in an incredibly awkward manner to avoid contact as the leader suddenly turns towards her. She knows she didn't make a sound and it's not as though they can see her. How could they, with this strange glimmering all around her. Oh, hells, the potion! She'll kill that merchant, next time she sees him!

"What's this?" asks the man she's pegged as the leader of this group. By the time she's fully visible again, the three other soldiers have her surrounded. One of them trains a crossbow on her while the other two pull swords and cut off her path to cover. The leader wields only a smug grin. "Usually we have to go out looking for the bandits. Nice of you to come to us for a change."

"Oh, give me a break," Neeshka's mouth runs off reflexively while she frantically takes stock of her predicament. "You're obviously set up to shake down travellers on the road. I'm just wondering how you're getting away with it. And I'm not a bandit."

"Some kind of demon, she is," one of the soldiers interjects, pointing with his weapon at her tail. "Wonder how much that will be worth."

The must not have noticed the horns yet, half hidden among her unruly curls. As their eyes travel to her tail, she gives it an extra twitch. The soldier behind her follows the movement with the sword, and Neeshka uses the opportunity to spring past him, trying to make it to the pile of crates and take cover from that crossbow.

The soldier with the crossbow is faster than she counted on. The bolt thunks into the crate just in front of her face, freezing her for a moment as she takes in the narrow miss. Don't stop, gotta move! She pushes herself back into motion, intending to be behind something before he can finish reloading, but suddenly the leader has a grip on her shoulder and a knife at her throat.

Neeshka's voice is faint and distorted as she struggles to speak without breath, without moving her throat that little bit towards the blade's edge. "Look, just let me go. I don't have any money. I haven't taken anything. I know how to keep my mouth shut."

"Just one problem." The knife doesn't waver as another soldier disarms her. "If I did that, how would we collect the bounties on you and your friends?" The knife swings away and he shoves her at a more alert looking swordsman.

"What?" Neeshka protests as she's pushed yet again. A sword point presses into her leather armor. "I'm not a bandit! Just let me go."

"Move her away from here," the leader gestures at their collected goods with his knife, then flips the weapon up in the air - like some kind of reckless entertainer - before resheathing it. "And find out where they're holed up at. Those bandits hit that group of refugees before they got to us; they can't be too far."

They coerce her over the smaller hill, leading away from Fort Locke. At the bottom, the ground is disturbed: trampled, perhaps even dug up. She tries to fake a stumble, to put some distance between herself and the swordsman at her back.

"Stop right there, bandit!" It's the man the with crossbow trained on her. "Or we'll skip the questioning and get right to the killing."

Like that's gonna make her cooperate. "I told you I'm not with those bandits. Or are you deaf as well as stupid?" There goes her mouth again. But then, it's not like things could get any worse. Neeshka dodges as the closest soldier drops his sword to make a grab for her. She narrowly avoids him, swinging around to put him between her and the crossbow. In doing so she dances too close to the third man, who brings her to a halt with a painfully tight grip on her tail. "Ow! Let go of me!"

It's the same man that noticed her tail in the first place. "I've heard demons bleed black. We could find out if that's true..."

Neeshka and the soldiers alike startle when a new voice booms out: "Hey! Who started the fight without me?"

The crossbowman lines his weapon up on the newcomers approaching from the road. "Looks like she's got friends."

This interruption takes the form of a dwarf, a small wolf and... oh hells, an aasimar? Apparently things could get worse. Goosebumps dapple her arms, but at least there's no accompanying itch; the only thing worse than an aasimar is an aasimar paladin.

The dwarf - source of the shout - already has a waraxe in hand, as if he's been lugging the thing about just waiting to run into a reason to use it. The aasimar woman's hands are empty but there's a sling, a sickle, and a coin purse attached to her belt. The latter is especially enticing, just hanging there waiting to be cut... But not now, Neeshka needs to focus on getting out of this.

The other swordsman picks his weapon back up and steps between the strange, new group and his prisoner. "This is no business of yours. We've got everything under control here, so you just move along."

The aasimar tilts her head in a way that would look more natural on the young wolf beside her. "It looked like you were attacking an unarmed woman."

The man holding Neeshka's tail gives it a yank that prevents her from leaning farther around the intervening soldier for a better view. "We're soldiers from Fort Locke, hunting some bandits that've been plaguing the area. We caught this demon trying to raid our camp, and we're about to convince her to tell us where her friends are."

"Your camp?" the strange woman asks. The crossbowman gestures over the hill towards where the camp lies, and the dwarf mutters something Neeshka doesn't catch. The woman looks at him thoughtfully before turning back to the soldiers. "What did she take?"

"Nothing yet." The man behind her tweaks her tail again unnecessarily. "But her crews been seen around here. Raiding merchants, caravans, packs of refugees... Probably did for the old commander as well."

Despite his grip on her tail, Neeshka leans forward again, determined to be seen as well as heard. "I'm not with those bandits! I was just passing through!"

"Passing right through the center of our camp, was it? Just tell us where your friends are hiding, demon, and we'll make it quick."

"But you can't just kill her." The strange woman may sound like an idiot, but at least she has her sling out and loaded now. She has no chance of swinging and releasing before the crossbowman pulls his trigger, but at least she's distracting him.

"Well, it looks like we have a problem here…" The soldier in front of Neeshka glances at the hill, as if expecting backup from the camp at any moment. Despite the pain from her tail, Neeshka smirks. He could be in for quite a wait; the leader of this little gang is probably heading in the opposite direction with all that he can carry. That's what she would do, anyway.

"Well, let's sort it out then!" the dwarf shouts. He approaches the front swordsman, picking up speed with some kind of typical dwarven warcry, but Neeshka has more important things on her mind. Like the man holding her tail, and the one holding the crossbow. The crossbowman wavers between the dwarf, the aasimar and the wolf, uncertain which threat to focus on. Just when he settles on the charging dwarf, something clunks into his helmet over the ear, apparently making quite an unpleasant noise on top of jolting him with the impact. But what matters is he drops his crossbow and Neeshka can focus on the man behind her.

The swordsman tightens his grip on her tail, probably to prevent her from spinning around. Neeshka steps backwards instead, crowding into him to get inside the arc of the swing he takes at her. With the added leeway, she ducks, grabs some of the loose, churned up dirt and flings it at his face. He lets go of her tail just in time for her to roll away from a blind sword swing. The soldier swings again to keep her at a distance while while he brushes dirt off his face. Then he takes a step towards the unarmed tiefling, just in time to get bowled over by another charge from the dwarf. While the aasimar woman hovers uncertainly nearby, Neeshka retrieves her dagger from the downed man and finishes him off.

"You didn't have to do that," the aasimar immediately protests.

Predictable. "He was trying to kill me," Neeshka explains impatiently while she inspects the dead soldier and covertly pockets his coin. The other two men are down as well, dead or unconscious. "His friends would've killed you, if they could have. They've robbed more travelers than the actual bandits have. And killed those they could get away with calling bandits. For the bounty money."

While the dwarf settles down to clean off his waraxe, the aasimar shakes her head vaguely, unloading her sling and hooking it back on her belt - right next to the coin purse, Neeshka can't help but notice. The young wolf returns to the strange woman's side. Not a paladin, but some kind of nature lover. Aasimar… No idea how they managed to stay alive, being that stupid. And that dwarf, out hunting for a fight... However, a group like that could probably get her past the outpost. The aasimar could stare them down with those creepy, golden eyes. Failing that, the dwarf and the wolf could intimidate them into letting her by. And afterwards, there would be that coin purse...

Neeshka puts on her brightest smile and aims it at the aasimar. "Say, are you going through Fort Locke?"