The two boys immediately drop their weapons and put their hands in the air. Bow boy confirms that Carl’s farmstead is their hideout, and tells you that there was some kind of operation going on just a few hours before. Their ‘supervisor’ was grumbling about being stuck with them while the others were doing some actual banditry.
Dagger kid apologises profusely, telling you that they never wanted to become bandits. But they overheard their families, they heard what their fate would be if the bandits weren’t stopped. And they had no hope of defeating the bandits before you appeared.
They chose their new career of banditry before they’d be homeless and without possessions. They knew that they were wrong once they made the choice, though. but once they offered to join, the bandits wouldn’t let them leave. If they ran, their families would pay with their lives.
You nod and sheath your sword, and the boys run off to the village. Their weapons are left on the ground, along with the dead bandit.
Continuing to follow the dirt path west, you eventually pass the lightning-struck tree and take the smaller gravel path into the fields. Soon enough the farmstead appears on the horizon, the roof of the farm peeking out from the high, unkept grass.
Once you get near enough, you get a good view of the place and find out that it’s bigger than you expected. The farmstead actually has a little recreational area around it, as opposed to just being a building surrounded by crops. It’s just one floor, but it’s a tall building and seems spacious enough.
As you approach [from the path below in the picture], you see that there are also two other houses. They are almost like guardhouses, situated on the side of the road with a good view of anyone trying to reach Carl’s farmstead from this side.
One of them borders a fenced in grassland with three horses grazing, this wooden barn apparently repurposed as living quarters. On the other side there’s a small cottage, probably once the house of a farmhand or other helper of the farm.
In the distance you also see a grain silo, but you disregard the decrepid building which is clearly no longer in use. Not even by the bandits, you reckon, as the rotten wood wouldn’t even be able to support one person.
Unfortunately, the temperature and nice sunny weather hasn't chased many to seek shelter inside. The farmstead is crawling with people, most of which are bandits.
Someone is leaning against the cottage, standing in the shadow of the building. As the shadow is cast to the left, he facing away from you and isn’t watching the part of the road you’re on right now. Not that he seems to be paying much attention.
Two more are standing near the barn, occasionally glancing at the horses but otherwise talking loudly and without a care in the world. A fourth bandit is lying under a tree in the centre of the farmstead, sitting with his back against the trunk and his cap over his eyes. There’s no way to be sure, but he’s most likely asleep. Number five is standing near the shed of Carl’s farm, sitting on the cart without a horse with a straw of hay in his mouth and a whittling knife with some wood in his hand.
It’s the last few people outside that make your blood boil, though. In the cabbage patch between Carl’s farm and the barn are four people working the land, all covered in dirt and clearly here against their will. The last bandit you can see occasionally shouts something at them, you can’t overhear it but it’s probably something that a slave driver would shout while using their whip. Seems like the bandits are keeping prisoners for labour.
