Back at the village of Dunstrik...
Karumo lied at the feet of the terrified village lord. Karumo's torso anyways, his legs were at least a yard away. The entirety of the lord's hall was splattered with crimson blood and riddled with mauled corpses. Outside the entire village was set ablaze and rising high above those flames were many banners. A white background on top of which was a black dagger streaked through by a lightning bolt. They were the banners of the elite raiders of the Black Dagger Bandits, the Blitz Brigade.
Infront of the village lord stood their commander, the cruel Commander Yegar. He was a tall man in black armor with long blonde hair and crazed blood red eyes. In his right hand he held a blood-stained longsword and in his left hand a silver coin.
"Heads or tails," said Yegar with a sadistic grin revealing his wolf-like pointy teeth.
"What?"
Yegar's boot smashed into the village lords face crushing his nose and shattering his teeth. The village lord sprawled out on the ground and cried in anguish.
"I SAID HEADS OR TAILS BITCH!" shouted the commander, looking now at the lord with absolute distain.
"Tails," muttered the lord through his now bloodied and mangled lips.
The coin flipped through the air, refracting the light from the burning buildings around them. The coin landed on the commander's hand; it was heads.
"Looks like today's my lucky day my friend."
Yegar's crazed eyes flashed with bloodlust and a smile came across his face. In a blink of an eye and a flash of a sword the village lord was sliced clean in half before he could even react.
"KAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKA!" the burning building was filled by the commander's loud, raven-like laughter.
The commander stepped outside the building and watched the chaos around him with delight. Burning, looting, and killing happening all around him accompanied by a symphony of cries and screams.
"Your horse my commander," said a man mounted on a horse next to Yegar holding a black steed by the reigns. It was his vice-commander Fangrim.
"Thank you Fangrim," Yegar said as he mounted the black horse. The two rode out to the edge burning village where a small wooden shack and a fig tree were. Gathered there were Yegar's officers, all dressed in black armor and mounted on their horses. One of the officers approached Yegar while holding a blade to a man's throat.
"I have news Commander Yegar. Yesterday one of our scouting parties were wiped out near Stonenburg. Well, almost wiped out," The officer looked at the man he was holding the blade to, distain clear even behind his great helm. "Tell the commander what you saw!"
"The squad, it was wiped out by only three men. A blue robed mage, a large man in a black cloak, and a young man in a dark brown coat who wields a saber. They all got cut down or obliterated by terrible magic!"
"And tell the commander how you survived!"
By now the man was sobbing, "I hid in the bushes while they all died."
"I see," Commander Yegar grinned. "One of my scout squads wiped out by only three men," Yegar licked his lips, "I want them, they must be strong." Yegar looked over to one of his officers. "Kreiger, I want you to track down these men. Bring with you a strike team 25 good men. I want them alive," Yegar snickered deviously.
"Yes sir, I shall organize a strike team right away."
The officer saluted and rode off into the now smoldering remnants of Dunstrik to gather a strike team.
"Anyways, cowardice shall not be tolerated within the ranks of the Blitz Brigade. Execute this man."
The officer's blade quicky decapitated the man in a single swift swing. Two other dismounted bandits quickly grabbed the head and stuck it on the end of a spear, a quick practiced motion which they had done a thousand times. The two stuck the spear into the ground like a flag. The man's decapitated head still bore the face of despair he had just before his death
"Let that serve as a warning to all cowards within our elite ranks," said Yegar, looking at the bloody display.
"Commander, shall we set up camp here or will we continue raiding?" asked Fangrim.
"Well, if my scouts are correct there should be a group of military reinforcements on their way to the southern frontier. Stonenburg is too small to even bother with, while Fiferidge, even with its depleted garrison, would still be incredibly challenging to attack. We are raiders so we are not equipped to get possibly involved in a siege. Therefore, we should make camp here and attack the military collum approaching tomorrow. They should have large amount of money and supplies."
"Excellent judgement commander, I will send out orders to make camp at once."
Yegar looked down at the now destroyed village, Black Dagger Bandit banners flying amongst the rubble and the corpses. "Three men, three men against eight elite units and they won. I would like to see them, then beat them to a pulp, and slowly peel their skin off, and rip out their intestines. Oh, the things I will do."
Meanwhile with Rinero and the party...
The flat, grassy plains slowly transitioned into a rougher, rockier terrain. It had been a day since they left Stonenberg and not much had happened since then. The wagon followed a long rushing river which would lead them to Whitelake.
In the distance there were tall mountains from which sprouted tall spires and incredible fortifications. The mountains and rocky plains here were settled by dwarfs a long time ago. They were prosperous before the empire of Steelhawk invaded. Now the southern dwarfs are scattered but still mostly live in the mountains, just now under Steelhawk's control.
By now Rinero had mostly accepted that he will be killing people and has gotten over killing the bandit from two days ago.
"Hey, Zetarnu," said Rinero. "We have 4 people with us now right. How many people will we gather in our party before attacking Sharshang."
"A good amount of people would be seven or eight. I want enough to launch a decent attack but not too many so that we run out of supplies and are slowed down by extra people."
"And how will we get those people?"
"We either hire them or kidnap them."
"Sounds great."
Rinero took a swig out of a wine skin and looked at the now setting sun. Father Simon was sitting in silence and reading from the Holy Book of Terra. Zetarnu was looking at maps and papers and was surrounded by large books. Noname was driving the wagon and humming a tune to himself. It was all quite peaceful.
Simon looked up from his book and asked, "Zetarnu, the sun is setting. Should we make camp?"
"No, if my map is correct, we should be approaching another village. We will stay at the inn there."
Zearnu's map proved correct as they crossed through a small cluster of pine trees and encountered a large village.
"Here is the village of Pinerock, they have an excellent inn here and is a great place for travelers to rest."
Unlike Stonenburg this place was quite populated. There were plenty of stone buildings and even towers and wooden fortifications. There were many taverns, inns, and whorehouses along with an enormous market. Next to this area was a sprawling area of wooden houses.
"There is an imperial outpost here and this town is situated near a popular trade rout, so they make a fortune off merchants, mercenaries, soldiers, travelers. In a few years or so this village might develop into a small city."
The wagon was stopped by two guards in blue brigandines and steel helmets with spears. The wagon and horse were taken to the stables by the guards and the four men continued into the village. They made their way past shouting merchants and seductive prostitutes to an inn.
"Two rooms please," said Zetarnu to the innkeeper.
"Alright sir that will be eight gold coins."
Zetarnu handed over the coins and was handed two keys for their rooms. Zetarnu handed over one of the keys to Noname.
"Alright, you three sleep in that room, I sleep in my own room."
"What!" Rineo objected.
"I'm the leader here dam it and I'm not paying for four rooms!"
"Why do you get to sleep alone! Thats completely unfair."
"Do you want me to blow your fucking head off!" shouted Zetarnu pointing his staff at Rinero.
Rinero backed off and walked with Noname and Simon to their room. The room was small and had only one bed.
"How are we going to decide who gets the bed?" said Rinero.
"I suggest rock paper scissors; it would be the fairest method," suggested Father Simon.
Noname silently nodded in agreement.
"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!"
Two papers and one scissor. Noname gave a toothy grin.
"I'm an expert at rock paper scissors," he said with a smile.
And so, at the end of the day Noname slept in the bed while Rinero and Simon had to sleep on the hard wooden floor.