The older man had hunted for a patch of ground on which to sleep, knowing he must sleep and yet dreading it as well. But sleep hadn't come yet, a blessing in some respects. When Gilbert found him he was sitting up, knees clenched to his chest muttering to himself.

"...tied to the Weave? But the core structure is divinely generated, allegedly, so, a Spellplague recurrence, or echo? No no no, you're going in circles..."

At this point Gilbert arrives and introduces himself.

"I, uh, my name is Harlan. Mostly. Harlan Mostly. Hailing from Iriaebor originally. And no, I have more questions than answers, it is most frustrating. Allegedly Grand Duke Ravengard was summoned here for negotiations by the High Overseer, who had since vanished. No one has seen the slightest hint of him. Currently I have two hypotheses - one, the High Overseer knew that the Champion would invert, and elected to escape without informing the rest of the populace; two, his disappearance is what has caused this catastrophe. The High Overseer and the Champion are so inextricably linked I cannot entertain any other explanation. Two disappearances, one of a man, one of a city. One has caused the other, though I suspect only the High Overseer may know which, wherever he is."

Quill found herself smiling. He'd dismounted. Apparently, there had been a good reason for him to do so? Though she was happy for a moment of levity in the insanity of the day, her expression eventually sobered. "I'm sorry you've had no success in your investigation. Perhaps we're asking the wrong people. Everyone here-- guardsman, townspeople and the like-- they seem to have been taken as much by surprise as we were." Quill sighed. "Has there been any word about the High Overseer? From what I understand, he's not yet been counted among the survivors. And has anyone else emerged to take on a leadership role? The Hellriders seem to be taking command, but what about the city's government? The nobility? Were they all killed when the Champion turned black?"

Quill stopped herself from ranting, hands tightening into fists at her side. Kelemvor, help us. She prayed slightly. Help me to accept what cannot be undone and to make better the lives of those that remain. When she'd managed to calm herself, she loosened her hands, letting them fall limply at her sides. "You're right that we should find a place to rest. I'll need to be near to the medical tent, but there should be space to lay out a bedroll and the fires there are constant because of the need for hot water." She shook out her skirts, pulling the damp fabric away from her legs and gave Damian a nod. "Shall we go see if we can find something to eat? I've heard they've been working to provide for the survivors. Perhaps we'll find a meal at one of the tents."

Once you all have eaten and finished sharing the information that you have gathered regarding the recent events of the disappearance of Elturel, you find a place to rest for the night. The guard reassure that they will be able to keep watch throughout the night, after all, what is one camp of a small number of people versus a great city. It takes some of you a little while to drift of to sleep, your minds racing with the devastation that you have all witnessed, and the questions that they have raised. However, with time, you do all fall into a deep slumber.

Then suddenly a blood-curdling scream pierces the night disturbing your sleep, but the scream is cut off short. This is quickly followed by the sound of shouting and hurried footsteps. This continues for a moment, before you hear the sound of metal striking against metal. Some of the sounds are nearby and other sounds are a little further away.

When you wake up, you find the guards fighting with bandits. However, the guards look to be having difficulty in defeating the group which is being lead by a more fearsome looking bandit leader.

(Roll for initiative.
Bandits: 5)

Gilbert Initiative: 11

As the darkness closed in on Harlan his mind fell into sleep, fitful as always. Dreams are the mind's attempts to understand and interpret its experience of the world, often in strange ways. But how is a mind to interpret that which has no interpretation? He was thrust again into a world of oxymorons - dark light, freezing heat, creatures of space but not of time, or vice versa, and even those images were poor reflections of the reality tucked away in Harlan's memories. And behind it all was the madness, and the terror, how could anything stay sane in that place that was outside of reality, and all the time the sspss spsss ssssppps of whispering in unknown languages without words.

Against the background of his dreams, the sounds of fighting were a welcome hint of something real, and Harlan took refuge in them for a while, tried to cling to the clash of metal and shouts of anger like they were driftwood in a storm, as the cold and the dark tried to pull him back under. Eventually, however, the noises grew above the whispering, and Harlan awoke with a start. A battle, mere yards away! The adrenaline still surging in him after his dreams, he prepares to defend himself. He has not gone through everything that he has just to be murdered by marauding bandits.

Initiative: 17

Damian had continued to stay by the tieflings side as they found something to to eat by one of the tents. The simple stew that someone had managed to cook up tasted surprisingly well he noted, or was it just his hunger speaking. He couldn't remember ever sharing a meal with such riff-raff, but he was on a mission now and it was an interesting challenge to him now to take on the role of the benevolent noble. After seeing that Quill found somewhere to rest he did too, sleeping close to his mare for warmth, exhaustion over the days events quickly taking him to sleep in spite of the circumstances, sleeping under the open sky with his blood red mantle as his only comfort, and somehow it didn't seem to bother him now, too much.

"What, bandits?" Damian scrambled to his feet as he woke up, Azrael assaulting his roused mind by telepathically reporting on the attack that had already commenced. Damian looked around in the darkness to quickly assess the situation, noting a large brute of a man leading the bandits attack. Take him out and the simpleminded bandits would surely flee for their lives.

Damian initiative: 8

Orith had been making some last minute preparations when the shouts had gone out and he heard the tell tale metal on metal of a fight in progress. Whipping around he saw multiple attackers lead by a larger man, obviously the leader. Reaching down, he takes his handaxes out and moves forward behind the men doing their jobs and taking the brunt of the attack. "WE ARE BESIEGED, TO ARMS!" 

Headed forward, he moves to back up his men and engage the leader, "BE GONE VULTURES, YOU'LL NOT HARRASS THOSE THAT HAVE ALREADY SUFFERED!"

Initiative: 11

Woad Init: 18

The scream was what woke her. That terrified cry, cut hideously short, rang in her head even as she jolted awake in her bedroll. Still groggy from sleep, she struggled out from under her blankets, pushing to her feet as bellows of alarm rose up around her. They were under attack. But, why? Who would be so cruel as to prey upon people who had just lost everything? Who were struggling simply to survive after a catastrophe unlike anything that had ever happened on the continent before? Quill made it to her feet, looking toward the sounds of the combat. 

Bandits. Heavily armed and vicious in their slaughter. They appeared to have taken the guards unawares and were rapidly overwhelming the limited resistance that had been summoned to face their onslaught. Quill swallowed hard. More death. More despair brought to these people who had already suffered so much. Reaching up to clasp her holy symbol, she forced herself into movement, at first a walk, then faster and faster until she was running in the direction of the fighting. No more people needed to die here. Not if she could help it.

Quill Initiative: 5

(Okay, so the order is Woad, Harlan, Orith, Damian, Quill and Bandits. However, don't wait to post as you all go before bandits.)

Woad wil go towards the bandits. When he can see them he will use his BA to do a Kensi shot adding 2

to hit 17

Damage 11

In the sudden panic of the situation, Harlan feels the whispers begin again, in that language which he feels like he must have understood but now cannot grasp, though they summon up feelings of great and terrible mystery. The whispers grow quickly in number, a swarm that threatens to over take him, but he finds he can redirect them, and sends them instead, somehow, to the nearest bandit.

He casts Dissonant Whispers at 2nd level. WIS saving throw, DC 12. Fail = 14 psychic dmg; Save = half that.

Orith charges forward into the midst of the guards fighting the bandits and attempts to confront the leader if possible. 

Main Attack: 12 Damage: 8

Bonus Attack: 15 Damage: 6

Gilbert seeing his fellow Hellriders in trouble yells encouragement to his men and immediately charges into the fray swinging his longsword I'm practiced strokes.

Attack: 20 Damage: 6

Damian closed in towards the fighting, seeing Gilbert and the dragonborn taking the bandits on in melee, supported by the archer Woad. He also noted the old man seemingly trying get a hold of himself, and Quill moving towards the fighting. Damian turned to face the fearsome bandit leader, swiftly cursing him and then unleashing a beam of hellish crackling red force towards him.

Movement: Move closer until 90´ from bandit leader.
Bonus action: Cast Hex on bandit leader (Dex)
Action: Attack Eldritch Blast: 18 Force: 9 Necrotic: 4

Quill ran toward the fighting, getting as close as she could to the action without engaging directly. With her hand wrapped tightly around her holy symbol, she focused on the bandit's leader and called on Kelemvor's power, feeling the dark energy suffice her. She flung the gathered energy at the man leading the attack on their camp, wrapping him in the curse like a shroud. "May your armor rust, your weapons fail, and blood pour from your wounds like water." She choked out, eyes flaring as the curse took effect. 

Channel Divinity: Path to the Grave - As an action, you choose one creature [the bandit leader] you can see within 30 feet of you, cursing it until the end of your next turn. The next time you or an ally of yours hits the cursed creature with an attack, the creature has vulnerability to all of that attack’s damage, and then the curse ends.

Woad, Harlan, Orith, Gilbert, Damian, Quill and Bandits

Woad approaches the nearest bandit, who is already occupied fighting one of the guards. This provides an opening for Woad to shoot the bandit. Woad is accurate with his aim, and manages to kill the bandit with his attack.

As Harlan casts Dissonant Whispers the bandit is distracted by the sounds that he hears.

(Wis save: 13)

His grasp his head in his arms as he feels the excruciating pain that the spell is causing him. However, the pain soon stops when the bandit falls over dead.

Meanwhile, Orith pushes past all of the others fighting heading straight for the leader of the bandits. However, this bandit is the leader for a reason. He dodges Orith's first attack and parries the second attack with his scimitar.

Gilbert is quick to join the fray and does manage to catch one of the bandits off guard. His attack is accurate, but the subsequent wound is not fatal.

Damian joins Orith in fighting the leader. He casts Hex on the leader cursing him. Before blasting him with an eldritch blast. The spell strikes the leader in the chest, but he survives the attack.

Quill then, similarly, places the bandit leader under another curse.

The leader is the first of the bandits to move. He returns blows his Orith. He swings his scimitar twice, before attacking with his dagger.

(Scimitar Attack 1: 21 Damage: 8 slashing damage.
Scimitar Attack 2: 7 Damage: 5 slashing damage.
Dagger Attack: 22 Damage: 5 piercing damage.

The other bandits realising that the newcomers to the battle are far more troubling for them, turn their attention away from the guards.

One bandit turns his attention to Woad, and fires a bolt from his crossbow.

(Attack: 15 Damage: 8 piercing damage)

Another turns his attention to Harlan and also fires a bolt from his crossbow.

(Attack: 4 Damage: 2 piercing damage)

However, the two remaining bandits quickly take out the city guard that they are fighting before readying themselves for the continued fight.

With the battle raging before him just outside the camp Damian shifted position, closing in on the battle, to get a clear shot at the fearsome bandit leader, using his hellish powers again.
"Flamma Inferni!" He called out in the night, and with a motion of his hand he hurled three rays of hellfire towards the bandit leader, streaking through the night with a fiery roar.

Action:
Scorching Ray: 21 Fire: 8 Necrotic: 2
Scorching Ray: 16 Fire: 9 Necrotic: 5
Scorching Ray: 22 Fire: 8 Necrotic: 5

He had killed. He had known that the change was dangerous to him, but he had never thought that it would make him this dangerous to others. Shifting the whispers from himself to the bandit had almost been an unconscious decision, an act of desperation, but... part of him recognised that he had known exactly what he was doing. This knowledge scared him. But the fight wasn't over. He felt the fwip of a crossbow bolt pass within inches of his ear, and he reacted, speaking a word towards the bandit now hurriedly reloading his crossbow. 

"ᠬᠠᠳᠬᠤ"

The word contained sounds which should have been impossible with a human mouth, but somehow Harlan knew that it meant 'Pierce'.

Mind Spike: 14 psychic dmg. WIS save 12 for half dmg.

(If he hears it, Woad would recognise that Harlan has spoken in Deep Speech. I'm intrigued as to how Woad knows it!)

Gilbert raises his left hand and yells out "Bless these fighters that protect those that need protection!"

He then changes the grip on his longsword to protect himself better against his foes. (+1AC)

Casts Bless on Orith, Woad, and himself. (Roll 1d4 and add the number rolled to all attack rolls or saving throws)