Princes of the Apocalypse: Day Five - Bandits!

The dwarf, the ranger, and the druid spend the night near the old abandoned rock quarry.  During the night, while the druid is keeping watch, strange sounds, low voices, and eyes low to the ground catch his attention.  The dwarf wakes up and, after hearing the druid's report, goes to investigate.  They are camped in a small copse of trees and bushes with  a large grassy hill and meadow nearby.  Kyle creeps into the bushes.  There is almost no moonlight, but his dark vision allows him to see something moving towards him low and fast.  Several small objects knock into him and he tumbles to the ground.  One presses right up against his terrified face and says, "Baaaa".  Lilly, the ranger, wakes up due to the noise.   She and Josh laugh at the dwarf repeatedly for the next hour, while the DM makes random sheep jokes.

In anger, the dwarf kills one of the sheep with his battle axe and cooks it over the fire.  Then the local halfling shephards arrive.  They are none to happy.  There is almost a fight while the dwarf refuses to apologize.  In the end, Lilly pays them 10 gold for the sheep and the druid promises they will leave at first light.

The next morning they return to town and discuss the stone cult with the town constable.  They want to find the priest, Larrakh, who convinced the town council to murder people in sacrifice.  The constable suggests they check out some of the hiding places south of town where several bandits may be hiding out.  (He may be suggesting this just to get rid of a local problem, though.)  The heroes locate the bandits, who are cooking around a camp fire and also have a captive bear in a cage with a makeshift lock.  A battle begins.  Lilly avoids it in order to try to tame the angry starving bear.  She shares her rations with it.  Meanwhile Josh, the druid, pauses the fight after killing half the bandits to try and get information out of them about the priest in exchange for their lives.  But then the dwarf and the druid disagree on whether they are going to steal the bandits' ill-gotten loot.  The dwarf uses a thunder attack that enrages the bear, which breaks free of its cage and chases after the bandits who had been mistreating it.  Kyle and Josh try to kill the bear.  Lilly breaks down crying because she had just succeeded in getting the bear to be friends with her.  The bear escapes and chases after the bandits who get away.  But then the bear comes back to snuggle his new favorite ranger.  The dwarf takes the bandits' loot, and the druid furiously leaves the table vowing to never play this stupid game again.  (Two days later... "Mom? Can we play D&D again tonight?")