[Salone]

"I am sure, and I think I know hwhich one is supposed to go in to the other man."

Eduardo hefted the weapon with relative ease, trying out a few practice swipes that caused Dan to cringe out of sympathy trauma before he collected himself.

"I have giveth, and I will taketh away. No man swindles Eduardo Thicktree! Er, and gets ahway with it, that is. Let us go!"

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Well apparently this is settled.

"Let's go get the elementalist."

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Working off a tip from the chief engineer, they head to a small house near the reservoir that the bandits apparently use as their hideout. They arrive to find the door shut and no sign of activity on the outside.

"I think this is the place, Ed. You want to do the honors?"

[Salone]

Of course I do!

Reaching back, Eduardo balled his hand in to a fist. With speed, he lunged towards the door, before delivering a very light knock.

"Hello? Is any bandit home? I hwish to speak with you, if you are."

He looked around at the group, a hopeful smile spread across his face.

"I hope they're home. I hwill feel silly if they are out banditing.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

"Oh, Lys--" Tsaerri is cut off by the impact of her palm hitting her forehead. I really should have expected that...

Muffled voices are heard from the other side of the door.

"Well it ain't the Seraph, they don't knock!"

"So should we open? What if it's a trick?"

"There's a hundred of us down here! Unless they brought an army, we've got ourselves a mark coming right to our doorstep!"

"Okay, let me get my club, you invite him in. Won't know what hit him."

The door cautiously creaks open, a tired-looking man peering out.

"You lost, friend...?" His eyes widen as he glimpses the group.

[Salone]

Eduardo beamed at the man answering the door, pretending to be incredibly excited.

"Ah hah! The home of the highway philosophers! I said you might be out this hway! I hwish to barter in philosophy once again. I can pay."

Eduardo revealed one of his signature sacks of money, dangling it in front of the man and very subtly daring him to step towards him just a little closer.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

"I, uh..." The brigand glances back over his shoulder. "Since when do they volunteer to give us money? We got some kind of racket going I don't know about?!" He becomes visibly agitated at the thought and opens the door wider to confront Eduardo.

"All right, what's the big idea, you overgrown vegetable?!"

[Salone]

"Vegetable? If you're looking for vegetables, how about a squash?"

Eduardo brought the incredibly large and heavy sack of money down hard, hitting the bandit over the head with it. The weight of the sack knocked the bandit out cold, as well as tearing several ligaments in his neck and probably doing some other gross damage but this isn't Eschaton, so we're not going to stretch it out in to four paragraphs of gory detail.

He strolled through the doorway, stepping over the body as he met the gaze of the other bandit. He scanned the room calmly, letting his loaner sword and moneybag hang at his side as he spoke.

"Sir, your unwitting investor has come to collect!"

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Tsaerri actually lets the other bandit escape in the midst of her dumbfoundment. He actually... beat him to death... with a sack of money. Does that mean I can have my sword back?

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Syrgei sees easily over Tsaerri's shoulder to the downed bandit.

"Huh. He did it."

Syrgei takes note of the other bandit's escape around down a flight of stairs. "She'll bring reinforcements soon. Up for a chase?"

[Salone]

Eduardo swung his sack of coin casually, moving it back and forth as he looked around to the rest of the group.

"I say! This is quite exciting! I think I'm doing it! I have become a real live adventurer!"

He giggled with excitement, twirling his moneybag. As an afterthought, he awkwardly offered the sword back to Tsaerri, trying to hold it with the grip towards her.

"I er, don't think I hwill be needing this. I thank you for it though."

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Tsae dismisses the sword with a disinterested wave, pushing past Ed into the house. "We need to move fast if we're doing this. Syrgei, think you can scout ahead and get a figure on their numbers? That shouldn't involve breaking any laws, so you can handle it, right?" She glances around nervously, the gravity of the situation becoming apparent with each passing second that the bandits are no doubt mobilizing.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Not breaking any laws…right, because of course that’s the issue.

Not *quite* rolling his eyes, he pulls one dagger out of its sheath at his hip, gripping it tip downwards. I suppose it is actually considerate, in a way. Suddenly amused at the thought, he states a simple “yeah” before stepping over the bandit and disappearing just before fully rounding the corner, following the bandit’s path.

The house is plain, hardly lived in, and there is no one around. There isn’t much to see except for the large, gaping hole in the wall of the basement floor that, from the looks of it, leads into the underground and directly into the near-by mountain range. Not the most discreet. Moving with surprising ease for someone tall and dressed as he is, Syrgei takes as much advantage of his stealth as he can, slipping by two more bandit sentries in the reasonably narrow tunnels, turning back when he sees the tunnels go wide into a larger complex. There is movement, but it looks more like the bandits are digging in rather than coming for them.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

She's pacing now, circling the tiny foyer, scanning the windows for movement outside.

"He's been gone for over a minute. They probably caught him, idiot that he is. I knew I should have gone." She snaps for her pistol and again for her sword. "No point in waiting around, they know we're here. Let's move?"

[Quiet Man Cometh]

"Not very patient, are you?"

Syrgei appears from around the corner, wisps of black tendril dissipating off of him as he steps back into the room.

"Bigger than it looks down there. The basement tunnel goes right into the mountain. It's reasonably narrow so easy to bottle neck if they come in a group, and there are several groups. It looks like they are waiting for us to come to them."

[Suzerain of Sheol]

They hear more muffled voices from below then.

"You're the one who led them here, now go figure out how many we're dealing with! Useless git!"

"Oh, does it? Excuse me." Tsaerri slides past Syrgei and rounds the stair, gun leading, evidently startling the young woman creeping up.

"Wait! Please!"

"Yeah, no." She sends the girl tumbling down the stairs, violet smoke pouring from the back of her head.

"Let's do this."