Playing in the Sandbox

"Shame that, he was kinda handsome." Tethe pokes at the barbarian's corpse with her spear. "If only he'd had become a bartender instead of a thug, we'd have gotten along famously. Ah well." She laughed to herself a little and started back towards the wagons. She stumbled as there was a massive crash behind her, turning for a moment she noticed the golem had toppled over, the magic in its 'eye' gone and already it was sinking back into the sand.

"Yeah... I do know..." Cyrtanthus replied with a sigh while just laying on the ground...

Skaimos looked over at Cyrta, who seemed to have collapsed to the ground. Thag was standing nearby, looking rather bloodied himself. Skaimos decided to go back over to them.

"You took quite a few hits, didn't you?" he said. "Here, let me help." Skaimos then picked the pixie up and started to carry her in his arms. "Let's get back to the wagons," he said to Thag. "How was the fight on your end?"

"Also doing that little magic trick, really... Takes a lot out of me..." The Pixie adds. "But worth it for the power output..."

"Ho, lotssa fun!" Thag replies to Skaimos enthusiastically, "Little bandids yell, Thag yell, bandids rush in swingin', Thag not even need bother look where axes go, just flail arms like feel till only feel hittin' air!" On closer inspection, it's not Thag's own blood that he's is covered in.

As the adrenaline began to phase out of her system, Alma once again descends into a maelstrom of mixed emotions, and goes quiet. On the one hand, she felt much better than she had for the past two days, more energetic, excited. But on the other, she had still not fully recovered from one horrifying act, and had just now lived through a second. Trudging onward, she goes to the nearest wagon and sits, her body unable to come up with a more appropriate reaction. Skaimos' words register, at least, and she nods along, half-heartedly.

"I'm happy you had fun Thag..." Cyrtanthus comments while being carried by Skaimos.

Tordek heads back with his comrades to the wagon, pleased with himself for taking out at least three of the crossbowmen.

Tethe gives a big grin as she walks up beside one of the wagons. "Well! That was a fun way to start the day!" She looks inside the wagons. "Everyone alright in there?"

John and his men come out, John nodding in response to Tethe's question while the others go right into removing the bolts from the wagons and patching torn canvas and such. Mykaila also comes out and stares with an unreadable expression at all the corpses and blood.

"Do you have anything to treat wounds with?" Skaimos asked Smithe as he set Cyrta on one of the wagons. "Our little pixie here took quite a few shots and needs medical attention."

He tried remembering what he knew of first aid. "Cyrta-san, stay with me. I know it hurts, but do you think you can use your flame to cauterize the wounds? That might help stop the bleeding." He readied some gauze, remembered that he had to keep pressure on the bandages, and hoped that he could do more help than harm.

---

Rolling to assist Cyrta's Heal roll...16 (1d20) + 9 = 25.

John goes into one of the wagons for a few moments, comes back out, and hands Skaimos a basic first aid kit. "We also have some splints and a stretcher, if we need em."

The Pixie shurgs not sure why not to follow Skaimos suggestion and uses her magic to do what was suggested... Or at least try to heal herself that way.

heal check:

Cyrta realizes that instead of burning herself for no reason since she's not in mortal peril of bleeding out, she could just apply bandages and gauze instead and has Skaimos help wrap them gauze around the largest wound.

---

Cyrta heals 5 HP immediately and will heal back to full in 7 hours.

Tordek goes to fixing the wagons, his past career as a blacksmith helping... only slightly, since hammering metal things is a different matter than repairing torn fabric.

Skaimos was glad that Cyrta had figured out that cauterization wasn't necessary (and that her wounds weren't that severe). Doing a check of his own body, he found that he had been slightly grazed, but was otherwise fine. He wrapped some gauze around it anyway, then went over to Mykaila and sat down next to her. "Are you alright, Sonala-chan? I'm sorry you had to see all that."

---

Rolling to Heal self... 4 (1d20) + 9 = 13 (Should put me back to full health).

Mykaila nods and makes an "mnn" noise, as if absentmindedly.

Tethe looks at what few wounds she took during the fight and holds a hand over them, gathering up divine energy and trying to use it to mend her wounds. "So, most of them seemed pretty sloppy, but the mage and barbarian seemed well equipped though which leaves me with some doubts. Do you think we were just unlucky enough to wander into their trap or could someone have sent them for this caravan specifically? A rival merchant perhaps?"

((rolling to heal myself as well. 12+6=18.))

"I don't think we have enough evidence to suggest that a rival merchant is responsible. My personal theory is that this wasn't the first group of bandits that Sand Mage has led, and it won't be his last. He'd go into towns, find unemployed thugs (not too difficult given that there's no war for them to be occupied with), and set up a spot along a trade route like this. Warriors like the Dragonborn are probably more the exception rather than the rule, and the thugs' threat is more their quantity rather than quality. At best, the group is enough to overpower the caravan, and a reasonable profit can be had. At worst, the Mage disappears off into the desert and starts anew with another batch of thugs."

Skaimos paused for a moment. "The only other possibility in my mind would be that the Sand Mage is part of a larger bandit group, which now more accurately knows what would be required to take the caravan down. However, I'm not sure that such an organization would be sustainable, and this is mere speculation anyway."

"It's hard to say..." Alma, having calmed herself enough to contribute, rejoins the group. "I didn't recognize them as any particular group, or identify them as either marauders or mercenaries. Even their numbers and strategy was too ambiguous to say either way. Would you like some help with that?" She asks Tethe directly, but says it so that the offer extends to anyone who was still injured. She reaches out, a watery film covering her palm, and presses into Tethe's wounds, providing a cool, soothing sensation to dull the pain.

(Heal assist for her, since you already resolved Cyrta's. 7+9=16)

Uhiya comes back at this point and comments, "Oh, you let one of your mage's escape? Bandits are pretty common all over. Barbarians too. Sometimes it's a bit of trouble telling the difference unless you're paying attention to what they're wearing. Or... rather what they aren't."

"Well, I didn't notice anything really distinguishing about these bandits. The dragonborn barbarian wore surprisingly little, but that's about it. As for the mage, well, we almost had him but then he used a mini-sandstorm and vanished. Which might be a problem, considering that it was probably his illusions that allowed them to get so close to us in the first place." He glanced around at the party. Cyrta had taken the worst of it, but the rest of "his" crew had either taken minimal damage or were unharmed. He looked over at John. "Smithe-san, are your men alright? And given your experience, do you think we should be ready for another attack?"

"We're all allright. Thanks for asking. From this group? Probably not no. From another or something else out there. Almost certainly." John replies.

"Well," said Tordek. "They didn't seem to last too long, so forgive this bout of confidence, but I think we can handle almost anything else out here."

The Pixie mutters. "Personally hope we don't gotta fight again so soon... That.. Was a bit much for me... Not used to fighting a big group like that. I feel we only got lucky the enemy was weak enought to drop like flies..." Then she mused. "I wonder if that means anything..."