Thurston breaks into a run toward the nearest bandit and leaps at him with a hammer strike that tears an arm clean off! The bandit crumples to the ground.

Vark, Dorno...

Seeing that Val is taking care of the last of the bandits inside the camp, Vark decides to continue exploring. he rushes across to the opposite shed, going for the door handle. "Locked." he mutters to himself, before stepping back several feet. Wisps of light cloud swirl around his arm as he prepares to attempt to blast the door down with a burst of wind.

Cougar Dorno hears Brundir say "After 'Em" but his primal instincts need no extra motivation as he watches his prey flee.  The cat is upon the last bandit in a flash, taking him down with a leap and a claw across the face.  Dorno goes for the artery in the neck but the man succeeds in protecting his head area by crossing his arms in front of his neck and face.  Knowing exactly where to strike next, Dorno takes a large bite out of inside of the man's upper leg, severing his femoral artery.  Blood begins to spray like a hose as Dorno looks up at Thurston and Brundir, a large chunk of flesh and the spurting artery still in his mouth.  A few seconds later the blood flow subsides and the man passes from this world.  Dorno drops his mouthful and appears to be smiling at his companions from his bloodied feline form.

Bründir rushes toward the wall, firing a cursory shot at the remaining bandit on the wall. The shot was well-placed, but careless, and glances off the enemy's shoulder protection.

(2 Vigour dmg)

The bandit atop the tower drops his crossbow and stabs wildly at Valaith with a handaxe, but the blow is wide and falls far from her.

Meanwhille, the bandit Bründir shot at hops down from the palisade wall and dashes north.

Vark, Valaith, Thurston and Dorno

Valaith watches the handaxe slashing through the air towards her in an almost lazily fashion as she swings her hammer upward and bashes the weapon away, dislocating the bandit's shoulder in the process!

Dorno is pleased to show his kill to his friends but then hears commotion from inside the fort and remembers their mission and the other companions who must be inside by now.  He dashes for the gate in hopes of helping them.

The swirling clouds whip up for a second then release into a momentary gale. The concussive blast of wind slams into the locked door, knocking it off its hinges and sending it flying back into the room. Vark looks a little surprised at the strength of the blast before stepping inside to take a look.

It is dark inside the windowless, wooden shack and it takes Vark's eyes a moment to adjust to what he is looking at. The building is clearly used for storage and is piled high with crates and sacks, some of which are clearly loaded with coin.

Meanwhile, Bründir, Thurston and Dorno pursue the bandit running for the cliffs, sending him stumbling to dodge crossbow bolts as he goes. He dashes behind the shed, heading for the entrance in the cliffside.

Valaith's opponent atop the tower lunges at her again with his blade, this time scratching the big goliath.

Vark, Valaith, Thurston, Dorno, Bründir

Bründir nocks and draws another bolt, keeping his crossbow high in case of any more attackers, "Oi! Come outta there 'fore I come draggin' ye out by th'bolts I've stuck ye with already."

Valaith ignores the minor scratch from the axe head as the thin bead of blood seems to almost freeze in place once it touches her skin. She lifts the hammer high above her head, ignoring her defenses as she goes to a killing blow and slows the weapon down with as much fury as she can manage towards the bandit's head! At the last possible moment, but still too slowly, the bandit starts to dodge away from the hammer as the head slams into the dislocated shoulder with so much force that it pulverizes the shoulder joint and the arm is ripped free from the bandit's torso. With a awful shriek of pain and a spray of blood, the man falls unconscious from shock...

Vark looks around quickly, determining that the group should all probably do a thorough search here once their main goal was complete. For now he scoops a couple handfuls of coin into his bag, and goes to turn to see about opening the gate. But before he can depart, a small red gem catches his eye. There is a pause before he snatches up the trinket, then leaves to begin walking across the camp.

Dorno and Thurston chase after the fleeing bandit, the druid's cougar form rapidly overtaking him. He runs straight past the big cat, ignoring him entirely and Dorno catches the man in his jaws for a moment, but comes away with only torn clothing between his teeth. Bründir also shoots a crossbow bolt across the camp, but it scatters off of the cliff side and the bandit disappears down the dark tunnel.

Out of Initiative

"HA!" excalims Thurston " Thor be pleased!! That was a great fight! Let's rejoin our friends Dorno, let's make sure they are fine and let's see if we can save that elf wizard... I got a feeling that this isn't over yet... " 

Val kicks the body of the bandit from the top of the tower to the ground and quickly scans for any additional threats from the higher vantage point. She spots her comrades coming in the front gate and waves them in quickly. "I believe we now hold the camp! Quickly, secure the gates behind you!"

As the group begins to reform, Vark calls out to everyone, pointing to the two sheds behind him. "I uh... I checked those sheds. They kept loot in that one, and the other... was some kind of t-torture chamber."

Cougar Dorno circles the area a few times, sniffing at everything including the air and the ground.  He pays particular attention to the tunnel, sniffing at the air coming up from there.

At Thurston's words, cougar Dorno nods his head and begins to morph back into his humanoid form.  What is left standing and smiling at Thurston's comments words about a great fight is a firbolg with a thick ring of dark blood around his mouth, like a toddler that's been messily eating raspberry jam, or, of course, a beast that has been feasting on its prey.

"Little man is down there, I think.  I can smell him.  I hope he's not scared.  I'd be scared down there.  Why did he go without us?  Did he find the elf wizard man?"  He pauses for a moment.  "I'm tired.  Being a cougar makes me sleepy."   At that Dorno slowly reaches towards the ground and then plops his backside down with a thud.  He sits there cross legged looking around the camp.  He then seems to ponder something.  "Did I hurt the bad men real bad?  Sometimes I am more the beast than the Dorno, when I'm a beast, at least.  It's nature, I think.  They were bad, right?  They hurt our friends, like the elf?"

"They hurt friends and innocent people " assures Thurston to the firlborg " they were very very bad." 

He turns to Vark 

"We are coming.. " he says going to the torture chamber fearing what he will find. 

The shack on the eastern side of the compound, which Vark had described as a torture chamber, is a simple, ramshackle construction of many wooden planks nailed together into a kind of shed. Its walls have a slight tilt to them and the roof doesn't sit quite right atop it, giving the whole thing a dreary, dilapidated look. A stubby entrance-way protrudes from the front, with its own porched roof slanting off to the west above a door that is little more than a sheet over overlapping lengths of timber. It swings creakily on its hinges in the breeze that whistles through the compound.

Inside, it is dark, the only light falling through narrow, letterbox-like slots near the tops of the walls. A band of blackened cast-iron runs around interior of the walls at hip height, bolted securely through the wood and with thick rings set into it every five feet. Some of the these rings still have chains attached and the filthy, earthen floor beneath most of them is stained black, brown and, in an area that has clearly more recently seen use, the dark crimson of coagulated blood. A sordid, wooden bucket stands besides the iron ring and in the corner to the right of the entrance is a small, square table and a three legged stool. A number of twisted metal implements are arranged neatly on the table, as well as a dirty, blood-stained rag.

Bründir surveys the camp, picking through fallen bandits' belongings, and taking whatever crossbow bolts could be found.