The Hunt for the Crimson Bandits

Military action

The party discusses plans of action during brunch at the Black Tide Inn.

This resolved to these options:

• Going to the Adventures Guild and/or Merchants Association to acquire information.
• Finding black smiths to acquire new/more weapons while they wait on their other weapons to be enchanted
• Heading out with a group to locate these bandits

While heading to the black smiths at The Iron Heights they notice they are being followed.

The person doing the following notices their suspicion and breaks off; Vin then follows her.

She approaches Torgil after lightly stabbing Vin for touching her.

She informs Torgil that she is with Morgan and inquires about their plans.

She reproaches the party for their lack of imagination before hinting that perhaps they should use their less orthodox channels for information and leaves after expressing her disappointment.

They finish their requests at the black smiths.

They get new weapons and apply silver coatings to them and their old weapons.

Tiamat traves to the Thieves' Guild and meets with James.

James, already aware of their activity, knows what the discussion is going to be about and expresses his concerns about the group they are hunting down.

The Crimson Bandits while not too dangerous in their own right are a subordinate group of The Crimson Collar Syndicate.

They are the real danger.

He informs him that The Crimson Bandits operate both on land and in sea with a team that mans their HQ, they cycle their groups and they are much larger than what would be expected in the orthodox channels.

It's risky and you most likely won't be the ones attacking them first.

However, since he understands that they are a stubborn group, he informs him that as long as they cover their tracks, paper trail, they shouldn't become a target of The Crimson Collar Syndicate.

He gives Tiamat two reference cards each tied to a merchant group, they are a direct hint on who is going to be attacked next.

"These bastards are causing trouble for the Thieves' Guild as well and we'd be happy to see them go..."

- James

He informs Tiamat that they may need to hire some expendables to increase their odds of survival, mercenaries, adventures, doesn't matter too much just get more people.

Tiamat taking Vins' advice pays James to spread some information that those two merchant groups that they could join have even more precious cargo to increase their odds of being attacked.

Vin heads to the adventurers' guild and puts out in a request for four silver-ranked adventurers to join them on an exclusive guarding mission.

This costs him four gold.

After discussing it with the team, they decide to join a merchant ship.

Tiamat meets with the captain to book them for the journey; and they are accepted after providing the reference card.

They are to join the ship just before the following afternoon.

Torgil meets with Morgan where they discuss this paper trail issue, and she is already taking care of that at the adventurers guild.

Vins' request is quickly accepted by four young adventurers looking to gain experience.

• A warrior Liam
• A rouge Elain
• A ranger Judith
• A wizard student of the Mechanis Magic Academy Tim

They set off the following morning, anxiously awaiting an attack...