[F01] Kicking Names

[Luke Pendragon 0]

Luke, on yet another quest, looked out over a hill into a bandit hideout that had, until recently, been cleverly hidden. Even getting to this vantage point had required a lot of time to cut through dangerous flora to allow troops to make their way through it. 

“So that’s how they’re getting in and out,” Luke said to himself, looking down at the base of the hill. It looked like earth had been dug through, creating a tunnel. Apparently the bandits had been here for quite some time and had a well established means of transport. It was quite unfortunate that this intelligence had fallen into player hands. 

What was so special about this place? Other than it being hard to get to, there were suspicions that there were valuable resources in the area. Exactly where was a mystery, but if Luke had to guess they were probably inside the tunnel or underground somewhere. He wouldn’t be surprised if there were a series of mines in the area.  

Luke turned around to look at the players that had come here with him. They all looked nervous – they were a small handful who knew they were going up against dozens upon dozens of bandits, if not more. Luke highly doubted that all the bandits were trained in combat. Surely a well established position such as this was full of other kinds of folk. People to do the hunting, the cooking, the cleaning, etc. 

“Listen,” he said, upon seeing their disheartened looks. “We aren’t here to fight them all. We’re mostly here to verify that this place does exist, and to figure out how they’re moving in and out. Your jobs are to secure the mode of transport. Yes, there will be fighting, and as usual we are putting our lives on the line… but we got this.” He gave them a confident nod, though he had doubts about some of them. He hadn’t exactly been entrusted with the best team and he hadn’t been in charge of them for very long. He knew their names and had a report of their abilities, but they hadn’t much combat experience together. 

“We don’t have long,” he continued, “before someone spots us. And when they do, it’s going to get rough. So let’s make it down to that tunnel and try to secure it.  

Thankfully the hill wasn’t hazardous to climb down on this side. It was mostly just grass and dirt with a few flower patches scattered about. Luke and the squad head down in a zig zag pattern towards the tunnel. About halfway down they were spotted – evidenced by the noise from down below and how a handful of bandits were grouping in and pointing at them. 

“Archers!” Luke shouted over his shoulder. The four archers in the group dropped to one knee and started drawing arrows and firing down at the bandits. They were too far away to land accurate shots, but flying arrows were always a good way to make people panic. There were pros and cons to this strategy. Luke was no tactical genius but it made sense in the moment. Make it harder for the bandits to form up and such. But once they actually did form up, Luke would be down four men until the archers were able to catch up. Or perhaps they would remain preoccupied battling it out with enemy archers. 

He was getting better at formulating plans and leading, but he was still a work in progress. At least people listened to his orders, which told him that he was either scary enough to not be messed with or his orders had started making sense. 

“Swordsman, ready for combat!” Luke shouted as they ran closer to the bandits who were amassing near the hideout entrance. They weren’t aware that the soldiers were actually interested in the tunnel, or at least they weren’t at first. When they finally realized what the soldier’s plan was, the bandits started running to the tunnel to intercept them. 

Both groups arrived at about the same time. Swordsmen clashed with each other, including Luke. Luke being the special case that he was, wasn’t as afraid as his men were. His sword was already drawn and his body was already pulsing with the power of the equipment he’d gotten from Wulfrin. He had intentionally remained slow to keep the group mostly together, but now that he was in the thick of battle, he could really let loose. 

Only a handful of the bandits were actually dressed for battle. The rest had thrown on whatever they could on short notice. There were more bandits coming, though they had five to ten minutes before they showed up – plenty of time to deal with this first wave. It was the second wave that would be truly dangerous, but there was no time to think about that. 

Luke moved like a blur, rocketing from one bandit to the next, slashing at flanks and other exposed areas. The sheer strength and speed at which he attacked was enough to overwhelm most weak NPCs, and if that weren’t enough his skill with a blade was more than enough to disarm the more competent of the bunch. He couldn’t be everywhere at once, however. He heard a scream of pain from a familiar voice. He glanced over to see one of his men fallen to one knee. 

“Shit,” he said, running over and cutting down one last bandit. 

“He got me in the side,” the soldier reported. 

“Medic!” Luke shouted. 

“Here!”  

“Take our wounded inside the cave. Nobody came out of there so I imagine it’s empty. Tend to him and keep him safe. 

The player nodded. That left two men by his side. He looked over to the archers. One of them was also nursing a wound, but at this distance he couldn’t tell how serious it was. Had a bandit really managed to land a shot so far away? The other archers kept firing, trading volleys with bandits that had much better cover down below. 

Luke looked back towards the hideout, expecting to see a fresh wave of bandits to fight, but he was surprised to see that they hadn’t come out. Perhaps they’d realized that coming out of the hideout to fight was a fool’s game, especially with a player of such power helming the assault. 

Luke’s every instinct was to barge into the hideout and kill everyone he could find… but he held himself back. They had secured the cave, and that had been the objective. 

“You two,” he said, turning to address those right next to him, “back up the medic and try to set up a position inside of the cave. I’ll make a bit of chaos so that the archers can make it down here.”  

Luke intended to follow through with his words. He ran at the bandit hideout, roaring as he did so. The archers couldn’t afford to keep firing afar and had to turn their attention to Luke. The bandits rightfully thought that shooting arrows at Luke would keep him away. It was difficult, however, to hit someone moving so quickly. Arrows glanced off of his armor and those that looked like they’d hit were deflected with a quick swipe of his sword. 

As he got closer, he thought he might actually go in there and make a mess, but he caught a glimpse of at least two dozen bandits forming up inside. It just wasn’t worth the risk, and he’d be damned if he got chewed out for not following orders. Thankfully, his distraction had been enough. His archers had managed to make it down to the cave and were now safely within its confines. 

Luke sprinted back the way he came to find the cave to be quite crudely made. There wasn’t really any space to do battle as it was just a simple tunnel that went through the hill and likely exited out of some kind of trap door. 

“How are the wounded?” he asked the medic.

“They’ll be fine, but I need medicine from back at camp for one of them.” 

“No worries, we should be out of here soon enough. I highly doubt they’ll try to rush us down in here, so we can follow the path. Trouble is, I don’t think this tunnel is going to be operational when we come back. I imagine they’ll block it off. But we’ve carried out our orders. We verified their hideout’s location and that they take underground paths to navigate. If we have some scouts stationed around the area, we’re sure to find bandits moving in and out of similar tunnels.” 

He could only guess, but this tunnel was not very large. It was hard to imagine large amounts of goods passing through, certainly not large enough to make an entire hideout. There had to be another way in. 

“There’s also one survivor,” a soldier reported, kicking a NPC bandit in the side. He’d been tied up and thrown to the side. 

“Excellent, I’m sure his information will be valuable,” Luke said with a smile. After that, he helped to carry the wounded through the tunnel which did pop out at the other side of the hill through a hidden door in the ceiling. 

Luke’s prediction came true. Over the next week, scouts kept an eye on the area and found two more entrances. Many more soldiers were sent in next time which allowed them to successfully capture the hideout. Clever bandits as they were, many of them had fled before the altercation.