The Great Crestmaster

Aldrich and company spent the entire day studying the trade route and preparing their strategy.

"I say we attack at noon when they're all in one place so that the others don't scatter around and escape." Helen said.

"Yeah, that sounds like the best plan. I mean the guild assistant helped get us this information, it is definitely the best move we can make."

Frank agreed with her but Aldrich remained silent to hear what the rest of the group thought.

"I don't know…" Emma said hesitantly, "I feel like maybe we should attack them when they're separated. That way we won't have to face all of them at once."

"What is they use the horns to surround us while we attempt that? It would be over for us if they did that." Cole countered.

"They wouldn't be able to call for help if we attack them like a storm, we would be done with them easily as small groups." Nathan said.

"Why do you think so?" Aldrich asked.

"Since they number no more than thirty and they have four barricades including their hideout. I will make a guess and say that the three outposts are each manned by six or less men."

"That's a valid point." Aldrich nodded.

"So, that is our plan?" Helen asked.

Aldrich chuckled, "no, Well kind of. But not exactly."

"So, what is it? You must have a plan right?" Frank asked.

"Does it have anything to do with the extra carriage we left behind at the Woodswalk inn?" Nathan asked.

"Yes, very much so." Aldrich then proceeded to explain the plan to them. While this wasn't definitely the most ideal plan, it was the most suitable to achieve the most out of this quest.

Aldrich had the luggage transferred from that carriage to the one they were all riding in originally some ways before they got too close to Lockwood village.

On the road there were several inns and taverns and Aldrich had the coachman sleep the night there. That carriage was going to be the main attraction in the plan tomorrow.

He had already informed the man of his role in this situation and paid his half the price, the other half was later, after he completed his part of the deal of course. Aldrich even paid for his stay in the inn, costing him a total of 17 copper coins.

This was almost a silver but Aldrich couldn't be stingy for the quest, moreover he was hoping to recoup his losses by taking the bandits loot for himself.

As for involving a civilian in the quest? Don't be silly, he just paid the man to drive in a certain direction for a certain amount of time independent of the quest.

That wouldn't be against the rules now would it?

****

The next day the party members sneaked past the bandits first barricade on foot, from this area that was outside the man-made trail and into the woods, this was the point where the bandits would have to attack the carriage.

Aldrich had instructed the coachman to do as the merchants did last time when they changed the route abruptly in an attempt to escape the bandits.

This was done with the intention to almost replicate that scenario. This way he wanted to see how exactly the bandits would respond, how did they quickly adjust their positions to the perfect place?

Was it a coincidence? He wanted to find out how they got their information.

However, this situation was not the same as the merchants, the merchants had many carriages in the caravan and they had fifteen hired guards to protect them.

Unlike this time where it was only one small carriage with no protection whatsoever ever. Aldrich was even afraid the bandits were going to abandon it altogether.

The reason why he went with this approach was so that even if the bandits somehow knew that the carriage changed course they wouldn't come at it with their full power since it was not worth it, it looked like a simple job.

Aldrich and the party were armed to the teeth and used green cloaks to camouflage themselves into the environment.

Suddenly they began to hear loud voices and grunts approaching hurriedly in their general direction.

In the very narrow clearing where anything with wheels at least had hope to pass, a group of rough-looking men descended from the woods wearing dirty clothes and wielding crude weapons.

They were all breathing roughly, clearly having made a quick run to get here this fast.

"Fucking hell! We….wheew… do we have to do this? This run is killing me!"

One of the fatter men cursed loudly and he was sweating bullets, his tongue was dangling outside like a thirsty dog.

"Yeah, are people going to just do this all the time now? Brother, are we even sure there's anybody coming through here?"

Another one asked a tough looking man in the center holding a machete, he was bald and had a red bandana around his head.

"You guys stop whining like little bitches ok? Big brother told me personally! Has big brother ever been wrong?!"

The bald man glared around and the others all shut up when his eyes fell on them.

"But.. we didn't even have time to bring something to block the road with…"

"We will block it ourselves it's just one carriage, god it's like this is your first time doing this!" The bald man yelled, "AND YOU I told you to stop drinking, you bitch!"

One of the bandits was apparently half drunk, no— by the look of it all of them were, but that one was dead drunk, judging by the way he was laughing out loud all on his own and ignoring the yelling.

But Aldrich was actually weirded out, how did they know that it was only one carriage? They couldn't have know unless they've seen it already.

How? How?

Aldrich looked around and noticed there in the direction where the bandits came from, on the ground there were long black feathers.

Wait, what?