@The Harbinger of Ferocity@Gordian Nought
There is a few of them, no more than four. All are humanoids, no kobolds in sight. They don't seem to be throwing out torches all that fast, perhaps preparing and throwing two or so every minute. The raven cannot tell more than this.

@Ryonara, @Norschtalen, @Gordian Nought, @Lucius Cypher, it sounds as though we should eliminate the people outside and explore the rest of the mill. Seemingly there's nothing else but them out here, so it is a start. It would work well with capturing one as we mentioned earlier, no less diffusing what seems to be some form of trap; my guess being there's more hiding somewhere nearby waiting for us to go inside and either corner us or trap us and set the building on fire.

Is there anyway to flank them that can be seen, @Hekazu? Mostly so even if they do flee, they have to go around us or turn and head the way we came?

Also, @Hekazu, it appears the stream feeds the mill in question, via its water wheel. Does this likely mean that its entrance is separated from us by a mote? Making it difficult to pick them off with arrows unless we commit to traversing to the other side?

I believe Parum is indeed correct; they are baiting us since the mill would have been one of the first structures to perish in the invasion.

OOC, I suggest we should kidnap a soldier and retreat. IC, Torus is willing to save the mill, if all believe it is in danger.

@Lucius Cypher, @Norschtalen, @Ryonara, @The Harbinger of Ferocity

@The Harbinger of Ferocity@Gordian Nought
The mill is visible on the lower left corner of the map and given @Norschtalen's description of the route, I do believe you are still on the opposite side, only being able to see the raiders thanks to the fact the raven is out there. So yes, arrows would not be a suitable weapon from your current position. As for the flanking thing, it would be difficult, very much so. The only way of doing that would be to sneak by them and since they are not exactly close to the mill except when tossing a torch, they might well spot you mid attempt.

If you are talking about the river dividing us, that actually is a pretty wonderful advantage assuming we are not outlined in it by the moonlight or having to maneuver through it in combat or with haste; after all, who attacks from water? Least likely route of approach and a false sense of security, because anyone who can maneuver through it can leverage it. From what it sounds like, with the amount of smoke present obscuring ambient star and moonlight, if we went further down west, off the map, crossed the river and came around in a hook and formed an "L", they would need to maneuver either down the road or across the water - the former I can only imagine they would favor.

In that case, the raven can also be our eyes from above to see if there's more marauding bands further down the road before we attempt to strike, that way if they do flee, we already know what the consequences are. If done correctly as a close ambush, with someone like Orchid on the furthest part of the "L" to the east, he should be able to mostly entrap them. However, reasonably, Brannor as a character could get as far as outflanking the enemy, maneuvering through the water out of sight and attacking them from the side and behind. Trying to use tactics beyond that are safely beyond his expertise, but between everyone present I think the notion of an ambush and checking to see what is further down the road is reasonable.

As for it being a trap? It is already clear our paladin is present simply because he would rather not see these people he's fought beside needlessly perish. To hell with the mill and "capturing" a person. Parum and Kyra are the only two convincing him it is of some importance.

Sorry for not posting in a while, I've been really under the weather.

@Norschtalen, I hope you feel better!

Well for planning Kyra will go for whatever. Right now she's more pissed at the bandits that she is about the mill (still angry though), do whatever lets us kill them quickly. They only need one to interrogate and hopefully they can do it quickly. After that they could head back to the keep and rest the rest of the day away.

So, is it decided then? And if so, what approach? We have been dawdling for too long on this without enough input.

Agreed. I believe since the consensus is to move forward. The only input lacking may be Parum's, but I feel we will know her opinion implicitly.

Allow us to heed Brannor's suggestions, @Hekazu, sensing that as a troupe we would approach from down the road as a hook. If we all rolled stealth and Initiative could you describe the encounter, @Hekazu?

If you all are willing to proceed with the plan provided by @The Harbinger of Ferocity, all I would need is Stealth rolls, your positions in the formation and Initiative to tell what will happen next.

So, unless there are any objections, plese provide these for me @Gordian Nought@The Harbinger of Ferocity@Norschtalen@Lucius Cypher@Ryonara

@Hekazu, since we are taking the least likely route, far outside their reasonable range and line of sight to hook in, are we gaining advantage on this check?

@The Harbinger of Ferocity
While your route would not be the first one many would think of, the village ends around there, turning back into plains. There is very little cover over there, other than the darkness, so I would say no.

Brannor rolls a 20 for his Stealth check and a 19 for his Initiative check so that he can close in on the bandits in accordance to the rough outline that we have conjured.

I'm in favor.

Torus rolls a 10 for Stealth and a 8 for Initiative. The raven rolls a 12 for its Initiative.

Orchid will follow the plan.

Stealth is an 18 and as is tradition, his iniative is a piddling 5.

@Ryonara@Norschtalen@Lucius Cypher@The Harbinger of Ferocity@Hekazu

What formation should we be in? Torus would prefer the middle.

@Gordian Nought
I do believe some sort of an L formation was discussed OOC, but I would not hold it against you to have this brief tactics meeting IC. We could use a few posts in that category and it would only make sense to discuss the more complicated tactics beforehand.

By the way @The Harbinger of Ferocity, you were wearing heavy armour, right? You would be at a disadvantage on Stealth rolls if it is the case.

I imagine Brannor and or Orchid leading, with Kyra, Parum and Torus making up the second rank, given all of them have ranged tendencies. I too imagine it as less a column and more a "line" so that the enemy has less options of where to move; either they flee, or they have to confront us.

@Hekazu, it is a 12 with disadvantage, though I am still at a loss how we're not at advantage from such an approach. Honestly, I wouldn't have even bothered with this plan, going all the way around, if we hadn't had it; we would have been better off just fighting down the middle.

As for more discussions, I think we've wasted too much time with that and too little input in reply as a whole. Either this will work or it will not.