Session 26: The Bandits' Cave

The Adventurers convince one of the bandits to tell them where their cave is and then they make sure the bandits won't be ambushing any more parties on the Brushwood Trail.

Written by our scribe Carl with a few additions from myself. It is based on our Sunday, December 4, 2022 session. Jimmy took the screen shots on Roll20.

Continued from: Taking the Tegel Trail to Modron.

Location: On the Brushwood Trail, Halfway between Brushwood and Modron.

Just put down a set of bandits, the Dire Tiger's, who were overconfident, heard rumor of a cave they hang out in.

  List of stuff we recovered:
   14 cp, 10 ep, 17 gp, 28 sp, 1 pp, 4 x Leather armor,
    3 x Studded Leather, 3 Shields, Greataxe, 7 x Short Swords,
    7 x Short Bow, 83 arrows

Inquiring about their lair, one offered to tell us if we let him go. We made the offer to let him go after we capture the rest and their lair... he agreed, not getting a better deal, and pointed the way for us.



There was an escarpment to the east with several caves, about a mile off. He described that there were three entries, and that they usually used the center one. The one on the left was 30 feet up the wall and the used it for a look out and the one on the right was a crumbling sinkhole that was a pain to get into.

As we went through the trees, there was a swamp on our left, and the hairs on our necks bristled - some of us felt like we were being watched by something or someone. Coming out of the trees into an open area, we could see some caves, just as the prisoner had described.

We moved to the left to stay in the wooded area. We tied up the prisoners, leaving Benedar, Paraselene, and the horses to keep watch on things.

As Reebo stealthed his way forward to check things out, Shadow climbed a tree for a better look-see.

Moving into a cave area on the right, Reebo saw a light ahead and put his coin light source away just before several arrows came down really close to him.  He retreated and climbed back up to the ground level.

Beneddar cast a charm on our cooperative prisoner, and he gave us a better description of the cave system and the approaches, plus mention of a sorta back door that was barred when they found the caves and still is. The bandits figured it was barred for a good reason.

Shadow spotted a fighter creeping along the cliff, got our attention and pointed him out. It looked like he was headed toward the main cave entrance, a late returnee from our earlier battle.

Aefir yelled at him to surrender or die, and he chose to run toward the cave. Those who could fired at him. He was a long way away but took some damage and then some more. Enough to put him down on the ground, seemingly dead.

Aefir issued another surrender offer, but there was no reply.

We talked it over, discussing making fires at one or more openings but decided it was too much effort - those trees would take some time to cut up

Charging the cave did not sound so good either, crossing open land to get there.

Shadow came down from the tree and tried to draw some fire from the cave, but noone took a shot at him all his way to the front of the cave.  We kept in mind that our prisoner told us there was a back door too....  Shadow signaled us it was OK to come forward, at least for some of us.

Reebo went up with Shadow, but we made sure someone stayed back as a lookout. Moving in they saw no light and some stairs going up.  Reebo advanced and saw a trap - looked like something buried in the rocks that triggered a net.  Reebo used his mage hand to set it off, and moved up to get the rope. Reebo could see someone coming down to check the trap, and he fired. Shadow and Aefir could also see the bandit and they fired at him.

The bandit took some damage but retreated back up the stairs briefly...then he died and tumbled down.

Natalie moved up to the cave entry, to relay signals from inside to the party. The in-cave group went up the stairs carefully, keeping the light forward from him.  Aefir could see a couple of the bandits trying to flank the in-cave folks. Aefir got the drop on them and let the damage roll on.  One of the two got hurt real bad, the other was really surprised.

The second bandit tried to disengage and retreat, but Aefir pursued and the fight was over soon.

Beneddar, outside, moved to another cave entry to thwart any escape attempts. He came failed to see a bandit, who fired at him. They hit each other and the bandit retreated into the cave.

Beneddar yelled to everyone that there were two (at least) left in the cave system.

While the bandits were focused on Beneddar, Reebo and Shadow came up the stairs behind them. The bandits heard them come up and attacked Shadow. After a short battle Shadow and Reebo were still there and both bandits were dead.

Shadow bandaged his wounds while Reebo searched the bodies and nearby boxes. He found a nice bear skin in one of the boxes.

While this was going on, Aefir hid behind a nearby stalactite, with the idea of ambushing anyone who came up the stairs.  The plan paid off when one of the bandits silently moved up the stairs towards Reebo and Shadow.

After that Reebo and Shadow moved ahead down the other stairs to the north. Aefir moved down a little later, but had lost sight of them.

Outside the cave, Beneddar decided to climb down into the sinkhole, but slipped and tumbled down part way, hitting his head on a rock.  Reebo had made it look so easy, but Beneddar was not anywhere near as dexterous as the little hobbit. He decided it wasn't a good way to go, climbed back up and went back to the center entrance.

Arkhelm, who was becoming worried that everyone was scattered, caught up to Aefir and said, "We need to get back together, we are all over this cave."

Shadow came around a corner and found himself in a large cave, then someone unhooded a lantern and three bandits fired arrows at him.

On the upper level of the cave, a door opened and two shadowy figures came out. One cast firebolt at Aefir.

The others caught up to Shadow and soon dispatched the archers and heard feet running to the east, toward the sinkhole entrance.

Hearing battle sounds from near the front entrance Beneddar ran past the dead bodies and went up the stairs to the upper level of the cave.

Shadow and Aefir took down one of the figures, apparently a Sorceress. The other they recognized as Lesxipha, the half-elf druid/ranger, that was in charge of the initial ambush. She was with two more fighters and she told them, "Hold them off!"

They died trying, one falling to one of Beneddar's crossbow bolts to the head, shot from above.

Shadow and Aefir shot the panther, and then the half-elf when she changed back.

The cave was ours.

The room at the top of the cave had several chests full of their ill-gotten gains. There were some diamonds that Arkhelm could use as spell components, some healing potions that we gave to Beneddar, and a Bag of Holding, which Shadow could use. There was also a few more gems and miscellaneous equipment as well as several bags of coins that we could count once we got some rest, just about all of us were exhausted from our two battles this morning.


Continued in: Something Dark Awakens