Chapter 39

The adventurers woke early, their night of rest having thankfully passed without incident. Maybe it was the fact that they were ensconced on the edge of the friendly Red Bronson clan’s claimed grounds, or maybe it was that they had killed six men and women the day before - ambushed on the path, the deaths witnessed by a dozen more of the bandits.

Winning a fight against an enemy with double your number gives off something of the ‘don’t fuck with me’ vibe.

After a breakfast of cold squirrel and scavenged nuts and barries, found, caught and prepared by Fergus the day before, they sat around a low fire and reviewed what they knew briefly.

“The most important piece of information we don’t have is the why of it all,” Olivia grumbled. “Everything else is just ... fringe stuff.”

“Well, they’ve made it clear that Houndsfang is supposed to make his big announcement to the camp tomorrow,” Renee said. “So we’ll either need to wait until then, or find a way to get it out of someone.”

“Can’t you just use that Charm magic on him?” Jade asked. “Get him alone and charm it out of him.”

Renee winced. “The stronger the mind, the more stubborn, the harder it is for the magic to work. And he’d know I’d done it after.”

“Not if you kill him before it’s done,” Olivia said.

“He’d also know if it didn’t work at all,” Renee finished.

“Oh,” Olivia grunted.

“So it’s a risk. A big one,” Jade said, getting nods from the other two. “What else can we try to accomplish?”

“We want to figure out what he is,” Renee said.

“Good point. And we also probably want to make some more cracks in this ‘alliance’ they have going. They aren’t unified,” Olivia said. “If we can piss people off at each other, even if we don’t find out the plan ahead of time, they’ll be more reluctant to work together.”