A Sobering Discovery

> Guys... I think we figured out what happened.
>
>

## Summary

Xaillen occasionally drifts off during his watch but near the end of his watch, he notices something that spooks the horses. He quickly wakes up Olwen Edgeworth who wakes up mentioning the Cheshire cat. Xaillen goes to bed while warning Olwen of the impending attack. Olwen slips while trying to climb but manages to get in the tree. She spot the creature in the southwest jumping from tree to tree while on the ground. She keeps an eye on it while the horses get more and more agitated. She goes out on a limb and asks if it knows Raquel. The creature is revealed to be a wolf and the horses go wild.

Everyone but Seven and Sybl hear the horses. The wolf silently motions to follow them. Adrian Tanlaial and Hoshimi wake up everyone including Viper Rhames and Pikria Thymos. Hoshimi summons dancing lights for Adrian, Seven, Xaillen, Viper and Flint. They follow the wolf into the forest with Olwen very far ahead so Hoshimi pulls her back. Adrian pulls out some mage armor as Xaillen recognizes the wolf as the one Raquel helped ten years ago. The wolf sniffs Xaillen's clothes and then Olwen and Hoshimi. It then trots off with Olwen and Xaillen not feeling right. They notice someone duck behind a tree ahead of them. Olwen climbs a tree nearby as Xaillen realizes that they are not alone. Before he can let Flint know, several people light up torches surrounding the party. They are outnumbered and surrounded. The better dressed bandit approaches them while wielding a shiny sword. It's clear that they are bandits with the leader using a mammaluk blade that was taken from the Urzaban military. He asks everyone to put down their weapons and leave but Xaillen makes a dumb remark saying that he's the bandit's father. He says that he isn't it literally but says that the bandit will be calling for daddy in a few moments. Flint throws a bomb and it does knick the bandit and he's terrified of it.

The bandits begin using their slings on the group. Seven enrages but nobody's intimidated. Sybl animates a dead skeleton while remarking that the bandits should rethink their lives. The skeleton's skull bursts into flames and fires an arrow from it's shortbow. It's clear that fire is their Achilles heel so Xaillen asks Flint to cloak his swords with fire. A bandit tries to run up to them but falls off the edge of the cliff and dies. More bandits try to attack but Flint is too short for them. Hoshimi lights Xaillen's swords on fire for him as Flint is shot with an arrow to the back. Viper misses his attack on the bandits as the rocks fly into Seven's black aura. Some bandits charge in as Olwen headshots a bandit making the bandit captain very upset. Xaillen runs up the cliff and puts the captain in a deadlock. Sadly the captain kicks the sword away as Viper gets hammered. Adrian's electricity arcs to light one of the bandit's bombs and electrocute the guy that hammered Rhames. Flint throws a smoke stick at the bandit leader as Pikria is shot at but fails with throwing the bombs. The bandit captain duels with Xaillen and gets burned by Xaillen's words as the wolf leaps one of the bandits. The bandit dodges but Pikria knocks him prone.

Hoshimi dodges the next attack with a graceful cartwheel as the bandit whiffs his shot. Adrian gets brushed on the shoulder with an arrow. Seven leaps over to the bandit leader and pins him down. Sybl's flaming skull bites one of the bandit's head clean off. Shadowy tendrils move to Flint and Olwen giving them power. The bandits begin running away as Hoshimi begins healing Flint. Viper pins down another bandit as several more begin fleeing. Olwen fires at the guy who's distracted by Hoshimi as Xaillen drop kicks the bandit leader and nails him. Xaillen asks the bandits to surrender and the ones that aren't pinned down flee. Xaillen asks for Flint to heal the bandit leader but the gnome kicks the cliff for failing in combat. Adrian restrains the conscious bandit as the wolf flees as well.

As the fires set from the battle begin to spread, Xaillen calls out for the fire to be put out. Adrian helps put out the fire and unfamiliar thoughts and feelings leap into his head. Adrian throws up and the thoughts leap into Xaillen. Xaillen quickly slaps himself and tells everyone to leave. The party nods with Olwen hearing screams of the bandits as they return to camp. Adrian collapses on the log as Xaillen keeps his distance until he can no longer hear voices in his head. Xaillen confirms that something in that clearing made Raquel do terrible things. Hoshimi adds that a forest fire was what caused the thoughts to occur and how the bandit leader didn't like using fire in the area. She takes a walk as Flint pouts about how poorly he did against the bandits.

Pikria asks Flint for help in getting samples of the flora when the smoke clears to prove what happened on the mountain. Xaillen says that it won't help because people need a scapegoat for the situation. Pikria is aware but needs to know the information for her sake. Flint and Seven talk about how everyone is gifted in many ways. Xaillen figures out that the situation was that it brought out what the subject wanted to ignore and brought it to the front. Flint realizes that it's an hallucinogen used in chemical compounds for hallucination gas or such. Xaillen and Flint both get an idea to weaponize and test it. While Adrian can't help, he knows someone who can. Xaillen pulls out one of his royal robes to use for face coverings. As they turn in for the night, the party hears storm clouds coming in.

## Notable events

* Joshscorcher uses global shared vision to let the others see what's happening
* The party finds a wolf and follows it to a clearing.
* The party fights a bunch of bandits
* Xaillen, Adrian and Hoshimi realize that causing a forest fire in one area causes bad thoughts to enter those who appear.