Chapter 2: Willowdark, A Village Renewed

Rixon spends another five minutes on the chests, finally popping that last nasty lock. You swing the lid open and inside are all manner of folded lengths of supple leather, silken cloth in a rainbow of colors, spools of both silver and golden threads. There's a velvet bag with five large diamonds inside.

All told, you are about 2 hours away from the old man's garden. It's about 1030 or 1100 in the morning.

Xaar comes over, and with a little help from her friends, they manage to get the chests back in their holes and covered up, all in all a labor of about 20 minutes. You've spent a little over an hour here in the cave and as you look outside, you notice that the sun is high in the sky. There are a few rocks and outcroppings behind which you could hide in the clearing outside the cave mouth. As you had noticed, there isn't much in the way of hiding places inside the cave.

You all move to take your positions for the ambush and settle in, waiting for the bandits to arrive. Minutes tick by, slowly dragging out into an hour. Then 2. As the sun starts to fall behind the mountain line, casting the little clearing into shadow, you hear voices coming down the trail, not attempting stealth at all. You cannot make out what they are saying, however, those of you in the clearing do see four people in dark-ish clothing wandering in. The two in the back have what appears to be heavy burlap bags in their hands, about the size of a cantaloupe. The person in second position has a very large sack slung over his shoulder. The lead person is the only one that doesn't appear to be talking at all. They all look to have long curved blades at their hips.