<strong>"Adventurers, eh? I'm afraid we don't have anything left to offer you for a reward, the bandits already took it all, you see,"</strong>Oleg sounded less than impressed at Claudia's declaration. Out here practically next door to the wilds, it seemed that nobility counted for little.<br/><br/><strong>"Oleg Leveton! Don't be like that, dear, these people have offered to help,"</strong>Svetlana scolded him clucking her tongue.<br/><br/>Oleg allowed himself to be shooed away by his wife, though not without throwing his hands in the air and grumbling all the way.<strong>"I'll be up on the roof if you need me."</strong><br/><br/>Svetlana humbly addressed the group again.<strong>"Sorry about that. Please pay the old oaf no mind, he can be as stubborn as a mule. Now, where are my manners! You must be tired and hungry after your long journey. We have spare rooms for you to sleep in tonight and I'll get a stew going so we can talk in comfort. Only please stay and help deal with the bandits, they're due to arrive tomorrow and as you can see we're running out of things to pay them off..."</strong><br/><br/>Some time later, over a meal of hearty stew and freshly baked bread, with the aroma of venison and radish filling the interior of the trading post, the Levetons shared what they knew. Svetlana did most of the talking, with Oleg occasionally interjecting accompanied by an angry slam on the table.<strong>"The bandits fist showed up three months ago - we shut the gates, but they threatened to burn down the whole trading post-" "and kidnap my wife, the bastards!" "-if we didn't hand over all the furs and trade goods we had in stock. Since then, they returned on the first day of each month, always within an hour of sunrise. They always seemed impatient and eager to return to their camp, it sounded about a day's ride away from the way they talked about it."<br/><br/>The first time the bandits came, there were a dozen of them, led by a woman... </strong>Svetlana trailed off fearfully as she recalled the unpleasant memory, and Oleg took over for a short while.<strong>"The thugs were bastards, talking themselves up and making threats, but the woman was something else entirely. She jumped straight to threatening to... do unspeakable things to my wife if we didn't cooperate, and didn't look the least bit fazed even though she was a woman herself! The bitch took my wife's wedding ring too." "A-anyways, after that only six men came the second time, and the third time, four - their leader didn't show up again, thankfully, I think they're getting overconfident." "And why wouldn't they? It shames me to admit it, but the truth is that four bandits is four more than I can fight, and I'm too old for any sacrificial last stand nonsense."</strong><br/><br/><hr/><br/>With that, it was time to make any preparations for tomorrow morning's confrontation and then get a good night's rest<span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 6pt;">peko</span>...