Camilla watched the surviving bandits turn and flee into the woods as they realized that the party of men their captain had led to ambush the coach was already decimated. She lay a hand on Gunir's shoulder to prevent the dwarf from giving chase, not that she could have stopped him if he wanted to press the issue of course. The Dwarf was two thirds her height but easily thrice her weight in corded muscle.

"Let them go," she advised as they vanished into the trees, "whatever they find in the Drakwald in a night like this is more than punishment enough."

"You manlings are too soft hearted," Gunir grumbled, but he didn't make any attempt to press the point. Camilla blew out a breath, which steamed in the cold air and climbed the shallow rise to the depression beyond in which the bandit camp lay. The had reconnoitered the place the previous night after Brunhilde Von Dounkebruk had hired them to break the virtual siege the band had enforced on the isolated valley since the late summer. It was already a hungry winter in Dounkebruk because trade had been strangled. The timber and furs on which the town depended had not been able to reach market without being subject to pillage or extortionate taxes. With most of the garrison away to the north fighting the remnants of Archaeon's great invasion, the handful of city watch, mostly old men and boys, hadn't been willing or able to deal with a score or more of bandits. By chance Camilla and Cydric, as well as Gunir and his wounded kinsmen Thor Grunegonson had reached the valley through the treacherous forrest paths that ran into the eastern hills. Their quest for fabled Hoard of the Dragon Kamac had ended in disaster when orcs had ambushed the mixed dwarven human force in the high passes. The dwarves had opted to trigger a rockslide with their explosives, cutting off purist but the four of them had been caught on the wrong side with the wounded Thor. They had been fortunate to make it to Dounkebruk before their food ran out, fortunate but poor. Dealing with the bandits was the easiest way to feed themselves as well as secure passage west before the snows closed the roads entirely. Judging by increasing flurry of white flakes they might be pushing their luck on that point also.

The bandit camp was much as she had seen it the previous night, a half dozen rude structures and a handful of cook fires curling smoke into the air. Where the previous night it had been full of swaggering boasting bandits, it was now deserted save for the bodies of the slain. Camilla caught sight of Cydric and sighed with relief. Though she wasn't one to admit it she always worried about him when she wasn't their to watch his back. Using the coach as a diversion had been her idea and Cydric had agreed, having correctly predicted that the bandits would split their forces rather than sending everyone out to rob a single coach. If that had happened Cydric could have simply set the camp on fire and she and Gunir would have run into the woods, allowing the cold to drive the bandits off as effectively as steel would have done.

"I see you didn't leave any for us!" Gunir grumped, unslinging his coach gun and beginning to reload the big weapon for the next time he might need it. 

[@POOHEAD189]