Cath'rinne hears the bandits get away but rushes over to Bartomeus who calls for help. "I'm here." Says the vulture, landing nearby. "How bad is it? How can I help?"
"It's... bad. Arrow in ... my lower back," says Thom gritting his teeth.
Thom takes a moment to spontaneously cast a Perdo Vim spell to dispel the invisibility. He's just able to do it, despite the injury.
"You'll be fine, dear. Let my magic do its work, okay?" the vulture casts Bind Wound, D: Moon. With the fatigue penalty, this costs her 1 confidence (to get the roll from 17 to 20) + 1 fatigue for spontaneous casting + 1 light wound for the magnitude she is missing. The vulture falls unconscious in Thom's arms. He might notice (or not), some slight bleeding arround the nose. Perhaps it stained his clothes.
Thom does not do clothes in the field. Too much bother with shapechanging spells and whatnot. So the small amount of noseblood (do vultures have noses?) mixes with the much larger amount from Thom's wound.
The wound still aches, but it stops bleeding, and I assume Thom was instructed to pull the arrow out as Cath'rinne closed the wound. Now he is free to gather his thoughts with an big unconscious bird in his lap.
On the other side, of the path, Iago is alone with Sasso and Telsa. He saw the vulture land on the other side of the path, and now both the magi are out of sight.
Iago will gather the pack train, Sasso and Telsa and move them all to the location of the vulture.
Sasso and Telsa lope off in the direction they saw the vulture land, the first with an arrow nocked on his bow while his sister has her spear ready.
«Hey, what's going on,» shouts the donkey handler when you cross the path.
Who's the pack train? Donkeys or prisoners? Or both?
Gorm is there as well.
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True. Probably Gorm shouting, rather than the donkey handler.
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Thom cradles the vulture in his arms, the arrow at his feet.
"Can someone find our robes?" he asks feebly. "And pack that arrow away. It's a trophy now."
He doesn't move just yet, still holding the maga-vulture in his arms...
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It takes a while, but you manage to gather the party in an open area just past the narrow pass.
Sasso and Telsa spotted a lookout on the higher of the hills West of the pass. It could be the scout archer you first spotted, but she disappears Westbound.
Thom needs a hand to get there, and Cath'rinne needs a little time to recover, and by the time you are all fit for a war council, it is mid-afternoon. This is not a bad place to camp though. You could make more miles today, but you would not make it to St John.
Iago asks Thom what they should do with the prisoners and whether they should pursue the other hunters/brigands. He would not leave the party other than on the magi's instruction at this point.
Thom looks around the group as if searching for Master Janus or Thadeus or Betula… Until his eyes light on Cath’rinne.
“I would take them to the local lord if we can. We can’t be the only ones they’ve attacked. But if not that, execute them I’d say for their crimes.”
He winces.
“But let Lady Cath’rinne decide.”
Barring an area lore say 9+ with Scottish Lowlands, you do not know who the local lord is. You know there is a parish priest in St John, maybe half a day away, but a secular lord was not mentioned. Then there is lord Fergus, almost two days away, although you know that he claims lands beyond Wicker Hill which is about the same distance as St John. Six months ago he claimed direct control, with no vassal under him, which means no authority to speak to.
You may roll C&C or Common Law as well, but unless you are native or have a speciality relating to Scotland, the difficulty is 15+ or 12+ for a partial success.
Cath'rinne after having rested, seems more calm. She has a slight bruise in human form, but it is not too apparent wrapped under her clothes.
"Anything but that, Thom. They saw our magic, there's no need to turn them in to a mundane authority and open the door to witch hunters. No - let's question them. Then, we either take them in as indentured servants of some kind whom might better their state by serving well, or, as you say, we execute them..."
(About the two who fled, how much does Cath'rinne think they saw, given that she was flying above?)
"Oh, you're right. I didn't even think about the witch hunters," says Thom quietly. "Perhaps the Pomeranians could track them to their hideout and... handle it."
They saw their arrow hitting something which they could not see. I am not sure if Thom has the personality to keep quite, or if he made any characteristic sounds of injured human. What do you think @Bartomeus ?
[OOC: I'm sure Thom would have grunted from the impact, but from a bow shot distance, in the heat of the action that was happening, I'm not sure they would have known what was happening. They are brigands not highly trained combat operatives.]
Their being brigands is your interpretation, but running away, they certainly gave the impression of mundanes who could not grok the situation at all. It is quite possible that they could not distinguish between Thom's human groan, and the groans of invisible demons, angels, and faeries. Who knows, it could be their first encounter with invisible targets ...
[True enough. Thom certainly didn't yell out, "I'm shot!" or something like that. ]
"I'm not sure how much of a threat the two others are. They may have seen arrows hit an invisible men, but I doubt they could identify our group. Iago, I don't suppose you've had a chance to interrogate our prisoners while I slept?"