Once again, the night was quiet, but not for long. The man who was burning could not be helped, but the Witch waved a hand and the fire was instantly snuffed out - it wouldn’t do them any favours to let a fire going right now. Mischief went to pick his eyes. Then, Kamille turned to Beist, who was holding the two surviving bandits. She was clearly holding back her rage, as her hands were balled into fists. For Beist, who have just met her and only briefly glimpsed into her soft side before she burst out in flames, she might have felt like an unhinged one. She should be careful as to what she let other see of her, so she tried to calm down.

After a deep breath, she turned to Beist with a soft, gentle voice.

"Can I call you Beist? I know we just met, and we just happened around these criminals, but I can see you are very strong, and perhaps I'll need a little help."

Or else she could simply prance around the field and burn everything to the ground to achieve her goals. Beist could certainly do that math. There wouldn’t be much left of the bandits if he wasn’t there - he could see as much in her eyes.

"They haven’t just mugged a few unsuspecting travelers and merchants. I was tasked to find Master Zaea and Master Marvin, two respected and renown druids of the Druid Enclave here at Moonglade that went missing in this field. They think they have been captured. Only the Gods know what they might be doing with them, probably forcing them to work for their goals. Do you think you could help me? I would be in your debt."

Just a moment ago, her eyes shone bright with anger and fire - and now they pleaded, with a stranger nonetheless! And it might as well be a good deal for Beist too: she was, after all, the Witch of Moonglade, known Master of the Earth Domain and Master Alchemist and herbalist, who probably knew those woods better than anyone.

If there was anyone that could help him in his quest, it was her.

Beist looked down as Kamille as she asked for his assistance in saving the kidnapped druids of Moonglade. He had just watched her kill one man without hesitation and she probably would have killed the other three just as easily. She was clearly a powerful person. She could probably handle such a task on her own, but that thought made him fear for the bandits. If he came along with her, maybe a few of the bandits would be spared like they had been this time. Though, he was still uncertain about the one he had hit with his walking stick.

"Ah, yes, of course. I would be happy to help you and the druids. However, I'm not sure how much you might be able to expect of me in a fight. I may be fairly strong, but I'm certainly not a fighter. I'll be relying on you should we end up fighting anyone." he said, a little embarrassed. He was indeed very strong, even for someone of his size. He looked strong, but was actually even stronger than he appeared. He possessed the great strength of a Werebear, but it was terribly embarrassing for him to admit it. He also didn't like to brag, especially about something that was only the result of a mistake.


"And it would be my pleasure for you to call me Beist. I do prefer for friends to use my nickname." he said with a smile, moving on from the subject of his strength and lack of fighting skill. "Though first, we should find out where those bandits may be holding those druids, yes?"

He hefted the two men in his arms upright to be facing Kamille. They looked at her with terror in their eyes. They were obviously much more afraid of her than of the giant beast holding them.

Kamille thought to herself this was a good alliance. The gentle, strong beast; and the delicate, powerful witch. They complimented each other, not only in terms of power, but in personality. She was often of the opinion that the goals justified the means, but could maybe, perhaps, on occasion get a little carried away. Beist would be able to contain her, if need be.

She offered him a gentle smile when he agreed to help her.

"Thank you, Beist. I very much appreciate it. The druids will be thankfull too."

Then, she turned to the bandits. She didn't have a cruel streak by any stretch of the imagination, but she was determined and would do anything in her power to achieve her goals. There would be no talk of her not meeting her ends on account of wanting to be merciful to a couple bandits.

These men didn't deserve her mercy.

The witch approached one of the men in Beist's effortless grip, standing eye to eye with him. Her voice was soft and gentle, and her expression was serious and grave.

"I would love to finish this quickly and without many casualties, but I am kind of in a hurry to find these druids. I know you must know where they are. I will ask you to think, really, really hard."

Her tone was very gentle all the way through, but her eyes were determined, with no hint of hesitation. The softness of her eyes was soon betrayed when she raised her hands and left them hovering close to the man's face. Heat and flames enveloped her hands, licking at her without causing any damage. The same couldn't be said of the man, should the flames lick at his skin. She turned to the other man Beist was carrying.

"You should pay attention to this. You're next."

The bandit in front of Kamille looked at the flames in her hand in terror and started struggling more to escape Beist's grip. Beist held the man tighter to keep him still, looking away from him. He didn't want to watch whatever Kamille was about to do to the bandit if he didn't start talking soon.

Before they could feel the flames scorch them, the bandit in Beist's other arm called out for Kamille to stop.

"Alright, we'll talk! I'll talk! Just don't hurt us. We were just following orders, we don't want any more trouble. Let us down and we'll guide you to the base. It'll be hard to give directions there. There's no path or anything, we just know where we're going, so you need us alive." the bandit said, looking toward Beist as he said to let them down before glaring at Kamille as he tried to persuade her of the value of their lives.

Beist wasn't entirely sure they were telling the truth. There had to be some way to convey the location without having to actually guide them there themselves, but he decided to keep quiet about it. He'd rather let the two live anyways. He wasn't sure if Kamille would believe the man's excuse either though.

Kamille stopped, the flames fading away.

"I will believe in you."

Regardless, she didn't trust them entirely. For a moment, she searched in her purse, and ended up approaching the first man with a small, dark vial. The claws etched to the end of her gloves pressed against the jaw of the man she approached first, forcing him to open his mouth and spilling the liquid down the man's throat. Despite him trying to spit it out, apparently he drank enough for it to kick in. The man went limp on Beist's arm - he could recognize a Sleep Potion there. So, she went to the other man.

"You will stay right where you are and lead us there. If you do not make a sound to reveal us, you can go to sleep peacefully like your friend, and wake up tomorrow feeling well rested and maybe with a slight headache, but only that. I really do hope you will not. Try. To. Trick. Us."

She put an emphasis in every word she spoke, and then looked over to the man that was burnt to a crisp just a few steps away, Mischief still trying to eat his eyes. Kamille took a few steps back, pulling her feathery cloak up.

"Lead the way. Silently."

The man gulped and gave a nod, fear evident from their facial expressions and the slight trembling that Beist could feel from him. Beist readjust his grip on the men, putting the now sleeping man over his shoulder. They wouldn't need him facing forward anymore and this position was easier to carry. He put their new guide down, but placed a large, clawed hand on the man's shoulder.

"I would really just do as she says and not try anything." he said and then leaned in close to whisper. "She's quite scary."

The group walked along, Beist's hand keeping a firm but gentle grip on their guide's shoulder. His walking stick was held by his tail that was wrapped around it. He was still not entirely used to having such a tail, but it did prove rather useful sometimes. At least it made for a convenient way to carry things on occasion even if it did constantly betray his emotions.

They walked through the giant mushrooms, the man pausing on occasion to look around and familiarize himself with the area before continuing on, their direction sometimes adjusted slightly. It seemed they were truly guiding them in the correct direction. Soon they could see past the mushrooms was a dug out cave in the side of a hill. Two more bandits stood guard on either side of the entrance, each holding a crossbow in their hands and keeping an eye on their surroundings.

As they stood there, their guide considered calling out to the bandits for help, but the claws on their shoulder and the thought of the gruesome death of their squad leader shut him up. He'd much rather go to sleep like his lightly snoring companion on the giant beast man's shoulder.

He turned and looked nervously back at his captors. "That's it. The druids are inside. Can I go now?" he asked, knowing exactly what the woman's answer was going to be as she was already pulling out another bottle of sleep potion.

Just as she promised, she offered the man the other flask of the Sleepp potion she had - and this one, knowing of the effects, drank it quietly and quickly. After the man went limp and simply flopped on the ground, she motioned for Beist to take a few steps back so they could discuss and plan without the risk of being discovered. She clearly didn't care for the fate of the two men they held in their power - she was already merciful enough to spare them a horrible death and gave them a peaceful, yet alchemical sleep instead.

"How about... I create a distraction... And  when I get them out of the cave, you run in there, find the druids and release them?"

If she was to create a distraction, surely it would be something... explosive.

"I will drop the distraction around there," she pointed to the left. She knew, more or less, where they were and knew they could follow her there and leave the entrance open to Beist. "When they leave the entrance, you can enter and release them. I'll come back to you once my distraction works out. You should be ready to knock out a couple bandits though, I'm sure they will leave one or two to look out."

Beist followed Kamille a little ways away from the cave and placed the two sleeping bandits on the ground. He leaned them against a couple of giant mushrooms, out of view of the cave so they wouldn't be spotted.

He listened to Kaille's plan and thought silently for a moment. It was probably their best course of action. She seemed like she could handle herself and they wanted the druids to be rescued safely. But, he was a little worried that he might be noticed as he was sneaking in. He wasn't very good at hiding his large frame and his footsteps were rather heavy. It might be better to have Kamille be the one sneaking in, but he couldn't possibly be the distraction. He didn't possess any of the destructive magic she had.

"Alright, I will sneak in, though I'm afraid I'm not exactly the stealthiest person." he said, motioning to himself and indicating his great size. "So please make your distraction very.... well, distracting." he gave a slight chuckle. "Before I go, take this just in case." he handed her a small bottle of red liquid. As an alchemist, she likely already knew what the minor health potion he handed her would do.

He started heading around toward the right through the giant mushrooms. He kept a distance from the cave to avoid being seen as he headed to a hiding spot to the side of the cave entrance. He should be able to sneak from here into the cave once the bandits were drawn away by whatever Kamille was about to do. He just hoped there wouldn't be too much damage to the environment. He still wanted to study the mushroom field a bit more once this ordeal was over.

As he waited, he pulled a tiny vial of dark purple liquid from a pouch and held it at the ready.

It was the best she could do with what they had at the moment. Beist wasn't the best at being stealthy, but Kamille surely thought she could handle herself against a few bandits. And she was quite flashy, if she needed to be. And, truth be told, she thought Beist was strong enough to handle himself just fine, despite him thinking otherwise.

She was surprised when Beist offered her a healing potion, and offered him a genuine smile to this stranger she just met and that had already offered to help her. Kamille was one of those people who smiled with her eyes, fully and truly.

"Thanks, Beist. I'll be okay. Please, be careful. Don't do anything crazy. Leave that up to me."

Once they parted ways, Kamille walked around the entrance and a few yards away. She calculated some rough triangulation, and walked to the side a bit more. The wind shifted and grew hotter. Even from the distance, Beist could feel the power of the spell being woven. Kamille released a simple firebolt at a nearby mushroom, that promptly exploded in a burst of flames and a wave of heat. Suddenly, the night was lit up. At least two bandits promptly ran to the scene to investigate, swords and bows in hand, ready to strike the attacker.

That was phase one of the distraction. Hiding behind another giant mushroom, Kamille took out two stone pieces of a chess set from her pockets. Two Rooks. She extended her hands, reading the inscription at the bottom of them. The inanimate pieces of chess in the shape of gargoyles stirred, as if awakening from a deep slumber. When she threw them to the sides, they grew larger and larger.

And larger.

They only stopped when they reached 6 feet tall - two identical stone gargoyles, with stone wings that were possibly useless, but very intimidating claws and fangs and overall size.

"At them!" Kamille directed them, at the bandits that came to investigate.

It was when the gargoyles charged forward, when the ground trembled, that the screams started. Out of the woods and of the fire, these two giant figures of stone suddenly charged forward with determination - and the bandits will to fight quickly faltered.

The two bandits facing the gargoyles quickly shouted for help toward the open mouth of the cave. Two more bandits came out, angry at the other two for disturbing them, but realized what was happening and ran forward to assist with the battle.

With four of the bandits thoroughly distracted, Beist felt a bit more confident. Still, he was cautious. He uncorked the vial in his hand and took a sip of the dark purple liquid. It didn't taste very good. In fact, it tasted awful, like he had just drank grapefruit juice. He wiped his mouth with a grimace on his face, but the potion went into effect quickly. He took a step out of his hiding spot, the grass under his feet making absolutely no noise. He was glad he had that potion. It would make it much easier for him to enter the cave unnoticed if he didn't have to worry about the sound of his heavy footsteps or the bushes he might brush against.

While one bandit was already knocked unconscious after being flung into a giant mushroom by one of the gargoyles, Beist entered the cave and peaked around a corner. The cave was fairly small for a bandit base. It was mostly just one long, wide hallway that served as the kitchen, dining area, and common room at the same time. At the far end of the cave, he saw two doors. One probably lead to the sleeping quarters. Perhaps the other was the room of whoever their leader was.

In one corner of the cave, he saw two bearded old men tied back to back with another bandit sitting on top of a crate next to them. He looked around some more to be safe, but it seemed these three were the only ones here. He stepped out and started approaching them, expecting the bandit to get up and run at him to attack. He was surprised when the bandit seemed to have no reaction at all. Was he asleep? How had he not been woken by all the commotion outside? He must be one hell of a deep sleeper. Beist thought to himself as he walked over to the two druids who looked up at him in surprise, his finger in front of his mouth to tell them to keep quiet.

He might have been a deep sleeper, but it was too much to expect he would never wake up. Outside, the ground shook, as the two gargoyles charged without much effective opposition, throwing a man over a giant mushroom like a ragdoll. Arrows flew wildly around the gargoyles, and the few that hit didn’t seem to do much damage. Three remaining bandits tried to create some sort of strategy to handle the giant, sentient stone guardians, but focusing so much on them proved to be a mistake too. When one of them was quick enough to avoid the gargoyle's charge, he was rewarded with a fireball in the chest, flying a few yards away. Another one escaped the gargoyle's grip, only to be hit by the other, instantly.

Then, a flash of light and a loud, thundering noise echoed, and one of the gargoyles cracked and shrinked back to the size of a chess piece. The remaining bandit was a mage, and Kamille promptly rushed out of her cover to face him, head on.

Most of the bandits had ran outside to handle the issue, but one among them wasn’t of the brave kind. Instead of joining the fight, as soon as it got ugly he started to run back inside, set on getting a few things of value before running away.

Much to his surprise, he came face to face with a giant, yet ominously silent, hulking creature that was Beist. The druids tried to warn Beist of the arrival of the man, but it happened too quickly. And with the thundering outside, the man "guarding" the druids finally woke up. He stood up, and even attempted run for Beist, but one of the druids extended his foot, and the guard promptly, painfully faceplanted in front of him.

Beist stepped toward the bandit that was now awake, but lying face down on the ground and tapped them on the back of the head with his walking stick. He held back his strength better this time, knocking the man out and leaving the back of their head with a burnt bald spot, but hopefully not killing him. He'd still have to check later.

With the bandit taken care of, he moved toward the druids to untie them, but they called "Behind you!" to him once he got closer. He turned around to see another bandit had come back into the cave from outside to escape the battle with the gargoyles and Kamille. The bandit readied their spear and began to run at him while calling out "Boss! We got problems!"

Beist moved to the side to avoid the spear, but it managed to catch him in the shoulder, leaving a gash. Beist flinched, but immediately stuck his tail out and tripped the spearman. They fell down on their face, just as the other had. Beist took the opportunity to knock them out as well, the smell of burnt hair now invading the room. He held a hand to his bleeding shoulder and started to pull out one of his health potions, but as he held it in his hand, the door at the back of the cave opened and a bandit much larger and brawnier than the rest emerged holding a large axe. This must be the boss.

"Oh dear..." Beist said with a sigh as the bandit boss looked directly at him angrily.

Kamille apparently found someone to battle her, with thunderous noises coming from outside. The ground shook, as the gargoyle tried to charge at the other mage - but that was a quick one, and so far he had been avoiding the gargoyle by circling some giant mushrooms large enough to stop the stone giant. Kamille was starting to get annoyed.

The bandit tried to hit her with a lightning spell, but she hid behind a mushroom. When she got out to try and hit him with a spell of her own, she was taken by a strong gust of sharp, cutting wind that made her fly backwards and hit another mushroom. While dazzed and confused, however, the bandit ended up leaving his guard down for her remaining gargoyle, who charged at him. With a single movement of his giant, stone hand, he sweeped the bandit over like it was a fly. When he hit the ground again, he wasn't moving.

Kamille needed a while to recover, feeling several small cuts around her face, and a few on her clothes, but nothing severe as far as she could notice. She stood up, still dizzy from the crash, and started heading to the cave entrance. Her gargoyle was still waiting on her. Kamille rushed, grabbing the chess piece on the groun of her former companion before rushing in to find Beist and the druids.

The gargoyle followed, charging, making the ground shake - but halfway through its charge, the magic from it faded, and it quickly devoluted into another chess piece.

For everyone inside the cave, the perspective was kinda singular: the ground shook with heavy footsteps, something enormoust must be approaching, but in the end... just Kamille showed up, looking terribly confused and looking around for a moment.

"YOU!", she shouted at the boss, trying to look as intimidating as Beist. "Surrender now!"

The bandit boss looked around, gaging the situation. Tow of their subordinates were on the ground, unconscious. The other three were missing, possibly outside and defeated from the sound of the woman rushing into the cave. There was some giant beast man standing near their captives. He seemed like more of a threat than the woman, but he knew there must be more to her than meets the eye if the other three bandits were defeated outside by her, including their wizard. This wasn't good.

Beist backed up toward the druids who were still tied up while the bandit boss took in their situation. He drank the potion he had taken out and the pain in his shoulder faded away as the wound closed up. He wanted to untie the druids, but he knew getting down to reach their ropes would leave him vulnerable if the man attacked him. He stood watching, waiting for the man to make a move.

The bandit boss finished deciding what to do. They stood no chance against someone that could take out all five of their subordinates. They dropped their axe on the ground and raised their hands up to surrender.

"I give. You already handled all my men. What chance do I have alone?" he declared, looking from Beist to Kamille.

Beist let out a small sigh of relief at the man's surrender and began untying the druids. As he was bent down and his back was turned, the man suddenly charged at him, pulling a short sword from his back and lifting it into the air to swing down at the beast man. Beist turned to see the man charging at him, panicking slightly and reacting by instinct. He swung a huge, hairy arm out at the man's stomach and launched him away with a short shout of surprise.

The bandit boss flew back, tumbling along the ground until they hit the wall. Once they came to a stop, they groaned and clutched their stomach in pain, some blood trickling from their mouth.

Kamille looked suspicious of the man's surrender, but still she held out hope it was all over. As she approached, the man tried to attack Beist and she even started to prepare a spell, but that wasn't necessary. Beist flung the man backwards with the wave of a hand, on account of his strength. Kamille was pleasantly surprised to see he could handle himself, and despite being hurt, quickly got to remedy that with a healing potion.

She ran to the dying man, pulling him by the front of his vest.

"Who is your leader? Where he is?"

When the man opened his mouth, only blood came out of it, and in a matter of a moment, he went limp. Whatever information he had, died with him. She went to check the rooms on the back of the cave, but found nothing of interest - nor any more threats. It looked like they handled the situation just fine.

When she went back to Beist and the druids, the druids were already free and thanking Beist profusely. They were a bit mistreated and beaten, but overall nothing serious, it would seem.

"Master Marvin, Master Zaea... We'll scort you back to town. If possible, I would like to hear your account of what transpired here while on captivity. I wish to know what these bandits are planning - they already went to my doorstep to try and bully me into submission, so I want to be prepared. Let's go. It's been a long night already..."

Then, she turned to Beist, offering a weary but gentle smile, while slightly bowing in a formal curtsy, like a lady of the Court.

"Beist... I greatly appreciate your help. I hope I can call you friend after this whole ordeal. Whatever you wish that is at my disposal, I'm in your debt. If you want a place to stay the night, free of charge, my house is always open for friends."

And with that, they all made their way back to town. Worn, beaten and tired - but safe, and together.