Chapter 4.2: The Dim Journey to Orlane

Kazzak draws up the rope and the bucket attached to it. The water is clear and the sip is cool and sweet with no ill effects. This supports all the evidence they've observed already, that the bandits are squatting at the abandoned farm (and so they wouldn't poison their own water supply).
The path back to Cecily's Road is to the south. It opens up on a wide yard, perhaps 40 paces across. The house is on the east side of the yard, with the front door and windows facing west. The well is a few paces east behind the house, adjacent to the garden on the other side (further east). The house is about 25 paces from the barn, which is on the north side of the yard with its doors facing south and north. The midden is east of the barn and north of the garden. The fields spread to the east and to the north beyond the house and barn. All are enclosed by the thick trees of the Dim Forest.

The house has four windows on the ground floor: one on either side of the front door, letting light through the west wall into the main room. Another window is opposite, letting light in from the east to the left of the fireplace. The fourth window is in the southern wall, letting light into the ground-floor bedroom. The other exterior door is the back door, to the right of the fireplace and which leads out of the main room to the east. Stairs start just outside the bedroom door and lead to the second story landing. It's very dim at the top of the stairs because there are no windows, just three doors (one each in the north, east, and south walls). These doors lead to three very similar bedrooms. The one to the north has a window in the north wall (overlooking the barn) and another in the west wall (overlooking the yard). The south bedroom has two windows facing the woods to the south. The east bedroom has a window facing east (overlooking the fields) and another facing north (overlooking the garden and barn).
Dell opens the barn doors wide and finds a comfortable, concealed spot in the loft. While the bandits could return from any direction, all signs indicate that all recent traffic used the path (except for the people bringing back something bloody from the fields - Dell assumes this was the pig they caught and slaughtered), so he faces south.
Acting as lookout and ready to hurl more deadly fire from behind an illusion, Amnestria takes position in the west-facing window in the north bedroom on the second floor.
Without committing himself to any preparations for the ambush yet, the noble knight looks for signs that the bandits are returning...beyond the fact that they left some of their number here at the farm. He doesn't find any spare food, as the bandits slaughtered one of the Jarl family's livestock. It may be that they are planning to come back with food for the ones they left here. But hidden in a cupboard, Berthold does find a sack with a bunch of stuff in it: silver combs, rings, cameos, an oak cane, some lace veils, a small roll of velvet cloth, an embroidered surplice, and twelve pouches - the type a person might wear on their belt when traveling. Going through the pouches, Berthold finds they contain an assortment of coins. None of this tells him when the bandits are likely to return, only that they are certain to return sometime.

As he is weighing the pouches in his hand, Berthold hears the wagon arrive. He steps outside and helps Antonius lift unsteady Olyena down and help her into the house. Laying her down on the bed in the first-floor bedroom, Berthold pulls a blanket over her and encourages her to stay in bed for peaceful, recuperative rest. "Stay quiet, conserve your strength," Antonius directs her, before going out to the well to draw some water to give her in a cup that he finds in the kitchen.
After Antonius delivers the mug of water to Olyena's bedside, he leaves the knight alone with his servant and returns outside. As the death cleric directs and assists Reynald and Guilbert in the disposition of the dead bandits, Kazzak stations himself with loaded crossbow between the front door and a window.
After watching Antonius direct his servants in setting up the scene with all the precision of the more elaborate stage plays he's seen at the Dunsdale court, Berthold goes back to searching for further evidence of the bandits' activities. He finds no weapons other than the ones on the bandits the party killed, which are currently hidden in the wagon. He figures this means that the bandits are in the habit of carrying their fighting equipment - armor and weapons - on themselves, rather than leaving a store behind. But, as he observed earlier, at least some of their loot was left here with the three men and one woman (the four whom the party killed), so they are likely to return, and, if nothing out of the ordinary tips them off, they are likely to do it without suspecting anything has changed for the worse.

Antonius finishes directing the setting of his grisly tableau, then when he starts scattering coins, Sora emerges from the forest to see what in the world he's doing. As the death cleric explains his plan again, Berthold calls Reynald and Guilbert away to help secure Olyena's safety. Though she is comfortably resting in the ground-floor bedroom, Berthold doesn't want to worry about the safety of his retainers while he's fighting, if it comes to combat. So he has Guilbert gather up the body servant (an easy task, since she's as small as a toddler in his arms) and carry her upstairs. There, the knight charges them to be vigilant and to defend Olyena from anyone trying to gain entry to "her" bedroom (the south one). As Berthold entrusted his heavy crossbow to Reynald, Antonius finished setting the stage for his show and came inside the farmhouse. He closed the door behind him, nodded to Kazzak, and then went into the kitchen to light the fire, making it seem as if the bandits were still inside, cooking. Sitting at the dining table with a clear view of the door, Antonius assumed the proper prayer posture and began to commune with his Lady. Soon enough, Berthold clomped back down the stairs, dropped his helmet on the table and sat down opposite Antonius with a grim smile and a nod. Sora joined Dell in the barn, but instead of climbing up into the loft, she is waiting in the shadows just inside the barn doors on the ground floor below the rogue.

Hours pass. It is early afternoon when Sora and Dell hear the voices of people approaching up the forest path.

Dell is in the loft of the barn with the doors open; he has the least muffling of approaching sounds.