Our patrol was assigned to seek out another pathfinder, stationed a few miles from the tower, and receive further orders from him. The patrol was formed from the following: A pathfinder, a yellow wizard, a Seer, a Micheliner, a healer, and six warriors. We met the pathfinder, and he told us that there was a problem with a large group of bandits in the area that had been attacking FTP representatives. We should seek them out and “deter” them. So we set out on a sweep of the area they wee known to frequent.

We met a group of four bandits, including a mage, but they were quickly despatched. Clearly these were not the tough group we were looking for, so we moved on. We found a hidden path, and, suspecting it might lead to their camp, we followed it. It actually cut through some woods that would have otherwise taken a long time to circumvent. As such we guessed it was used by the bandits to move from their hunting grounds to their base area, which would normally have been considered too far away.

We met some bandit guards, who challenged and then attacked us. They proved quite tough and it was to be a hard fight before we emerged victorious. During the fight, our warrior line (including the Micheliner) stood firm, supported by the healer, and it looked like a long battle. The turning point came when their front line broke after a couple of well placed Terrors and Shocking Grasps, and the pathfinder managed to drop the opposing healer at the back of their group. The last guards were quickly hunted down.

One of the warriors needed elixiring, and the Micheliner needed to meditate. So we rested whilst the healer cast a Total Heal, and the meditate was performed. The rest of us discussed the mission. We decided that this was just a guard detail, and the main force, which was therefore presumably even tougher, was still to be found. We also decided it could not be far away, as the guards were stationed here. We agreed to press on after preparing. The seer invoked her Sphere and the wizard cast a Radial Static Field to protect us in case there was another mage with the main group, and we set off.

We caught the bandits, lounging about and apparently unprepared. Despite this they seemed remarkably able to defend themselves. Multiple vocal length high level spells and ritual invocations were targeted upon us, and without the Static Field and the fast actions of both the Healer in Powergifting and the Micheliner in removing the Mass Curse, there would have been a lot of deaths.

As it was we struggled through the fight, needing only a couple of elixirs at the end. Worse than this though, by far, was another cost: the Micheliner, who had been casting throughout the fight in an attempt to stem the torrent of evil invocations being hurled at us, had dramatically overspent his power. The Good Sphere had sustained him throughout the fight, but his Talisman, which had tried to cope with channelling the power being drawn directly from the Sphere, was shattered. I doubt our word will count for much, but if his superiors in the sect read this, we hold the actions of Zilvan in the highest regard and hope that you will consider supporting him in the replacement of his Talisman.

Having dealt with the bandits, we rested and prepared to return to the meeting. On our return we encountered a few of stragglers from the bandit group, but they soon ran when we killed one of their number. The return to the meeting after that proved uneventful.

Anon.