The battle with the bandits wasn’t a totally one-sided affair, while no one on our side died five individuals did receive minor wounds and another received a wound that though not life-threatening would incapacitate him for a while. While we were seeing too the wounded on both sides and the dead bandit’s bodies, I received a report from those who had been keeping an eye on the bandit camp while we dealt with the main bandit problem. They reported that as far as they were aware the camp remained unaware of what had happened and that further, they didn’t show any signs they were securing the camp further in the absence of their main force.
“Alright we have to assume our scouts are wrong and there is another way in or out of the camp, that being the case we’ll have to set up a perimeter around the camp, to be on the safe side it should be no less than two furlongs out from its location. Unfortunately, we don’t have nearly enough men to do it properly even if we could afford to pull them from their other duties. How many men will be required to round up the remaining bandits back in the camp do you think Erdal.”
“Well from what our scouts tell us less than a dozen remained behind and three of them are women, they’re in good health and have the freedom of the camp so they don’t seem to be being held against their will. I think they must be the women of the chief bandit and his top lieutenants, in my experience this sort of arrangement isn’t uncommon and by now I imagine they could be as vicious if not more so than any bandit so we shouldn’t treat them any differently than the rest.
Of the remain eight individuals two of them can’t be more than fifteen, one has an obvious limp, another has lost his right arm above the wrist, one must be at least sixty and the other three seem fit and healthy. Every one of them carries at least a small dagger but thankfully only one of them seems to carry a bow with them at all times not that the others couldn’t have access to one if they needed them. With all that taken into account plus the size of the camp, we’ll need to at least match their numbers but I’ll feel a lot safer with fifteen.”
“Alright, that would leave us with eleven for perimeter duty so if they are positioned along the circumference of a circle two-furlong out how far apart would they’d end up being placed do you think, Kerem your good with numbers, what’s the answer.”
“Give me a moment milord, I just need to grab a piece of paper and a pencil.”
“Alright while he figures that out and he will you know, he’d make a fine clerk if he could read and write his letters that is. I had someone try and teach him them once, bloody disaster but he did learn his numbers, so it wasn’t completely wasted. Getting back on topic, Erdal have someone question some of the less wounded bandits and see what information on the camp you can get out of them, don’t hold back they’ll be dead soon enough so best wring what use out of them we can beforehand.”
“I know just the man for that sire, they’ll talk soon enough, you can be sure of that.”
“Master I worked it out for you they’d be just over seven hundred and fifty feet apart.”
“That would be too far apart even in open ground, what about a furlong out?”
“That would be about three hundred and seventy-five feet.”
“Still too far apart, is there no way we can squeeze another few people for the job?”
“Well Furuk and Maafar aren’t too badly wounded so we could have them replace two of the men guarding the prisoners, and Perrin if you’re up to it we could use your help plus if we don’t bother with that fourth of the encirclement covering the border and let young Darrel and his lot deal with them if they head that way that would reduce the pressure.”
“I’m more than willing to lend a hand.”
“Good for you, Kerem what would that leave us with?”
“Two hundred and twenty-two feet.”
“Still too far but it’ll have to do I suppose, Erdal best to move as soon as possible so can you have everyone in position in half an hour?”
“Sooner if you want.”
“No half an hour is soon enough.”
Amondo met up with the rest of the party going into the bandit camp ten minutes later to go over the plan with them.
“All right everyone let’s go over the plan one last time, the tunnel up there is about eighty-foot long and seems to have been a natural one that was enlarged by human hands at some point in the past. However, it is still a tight fit in places so watch your heads and try not to make too much noise. The tunnel leads to a cavern whose roof has collapsed in on itself at some point gods knows how long ago. It’s large enough to just about fit two Membe markets in and as far as we know the tunnel is the only way in and out of it other than perhaps ropes from above. However just this morning one of our scouts managed to get up there and saw no signs of any rope. Theirs another tunnel at the far side of the sinkhole that’s completely natural but it’s caved in and shows no sign that anyone has even tried to remedy that.
The bandits have set up a large campaign ten in the middle of their camp and it’s the only area of it that our scouts haven’t managed to gain access to. It’s possible that theirs an escape route under it but we don’t think that’s the case. Surrounding the large tent are five four men and ten two men tents plus they’ve set up a cooking area to the left of the cavern and latrines set up as far away from it as possible.
They don’t seem to have bothered to secure the tunnel entrance so unless you make excessive levels of noise getting in surprise should be on our side and by that I mean Evarist your on rearguard so don’t fuck it up for the rest of us or I’ll make sure Maxlov makes your life a living hell, is that understood?”
“Yes, milord.”
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