Mother Rosa threw up her arms in a display of frustration. "Another delay!" she shrieked. "What am I paying you people for? Need I remind you how valuable our cargo is?" She flashed a smile to Thea, obviously proud of her protector's cunning.<br/><br/>Up ahead, the figure crouched behind the bushes responded to the commotion, and scurried away to the northeast. A few minutes passed, and then a new figure emerged from the scrub at the top of the cliffs, about a hundred feet from where the wagon had stopped. Unlike the scout Kye had seen, this new arrival was not dressed for concealment within the vegetation of the trail. In fact, she was wearing the most bizarre outfit any of the party had seen outside of a travelling carnival. Her tunic was charcoal grey, with an unsightly white stripe down the front and odd white designs along the sleeves. The tunic was fastened up to the middle of her chest, though not with any visible clasps, revealing a similar grey undershirt. Her breeches were the same colour, held up with a fat white string, again with bizarre designs down each leg. The oddest part of her attire, however, was her hat: tight to her head like a priest's skullcap, but with an absurd protuberance at the front like a duck's bill. The hat was brilliantly white, probably maintained by magic, and bore a colourful heraldic device at its front.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/7/7b/BanditLeader.JPG)<br/><br/>"Wagon trouble, eh, travelers?" she called down to the party, smirking. "Well, this is your lucky day! We're here to take your wagon off your hands, and any other valuables you might have on you. Think of how much easier your journey will be with your lighter load! What do you say, good folks?"<br/><br/>If nobody interrupted her speech with an attack, other bandits would file out around her, dressed like the first scout, with bows drawn. Some had dour glares for the party, while others snickered and looked at their leader with evil grins. Eight bandits in all lined the tops of the cliffs, four on each side of the road. Thanks to Kye's intelligence and Thea and Haysel's cunning plan, though, there was no cover for them here, and there were visible paths one could take to scale the cliffs even in the heat of battle.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">OOC</div><div class="spoiler_body">If combat starts here, I'll find a new map to represent the area where the party has chosen to fight, instead of the ambush site the bandits wanted. There isn't much cover for either side in this area.<br/></div></div>