The trip took several hours but eventually they reached the fortress being used by the so called bandits. The moment the Monster Mash set eyes on it they all knew these weren't your ordinary bandits. The place was a massive fortified castle with walls around it that had artillery such as naval cannons and ballistas. The fortress was surrounded by a mote and had a drawbridge. From the moment in the water there was likely something living in it. Krys'tal spotted several well armed guards patrolling the walls and the outside both before and after the mote. “This place is more like an army fort than anything. Some of these guys even have muskets and flintlocks. Are you sure this isn't a military fort?”

  Racknar pointed to the banners. Dark green with the symbol of a broken shield and two broken weapons crossed over it, a spear and a sword. “That's a bandit banner, basically the anarchy symbol of this world. It's to let you know they are lawless and don't recognize any formal government or leadership. They'd rather die than be subject to the laws of the land.” Ariagoria looked over the fort. “We'd need an army to siege this place.” Racknar chuckled as he pulled out the Badge of Arachne. “Got that covered. I can easily summon a dozen adult black iron spiders with this. While they're dealing with the spiders we sneak in. We could also take a few days to build ballistas to mount on the spiders.”

  Marionette looked at Racknar. “You want to siege a fort with armed spiders?” Racknar shrugged. “I could get more spiders the long way if you don't think it'll be enough. Also I'm fairly sure Davy can cast a summoning spell.” Davy shook his head. “I could but all summons are concentration and the best I could do is four CR two monsters. So I could summon four dire wolves that'll last at most an hour.” Racknar hummed and put his hand on his chin. “The artifact isn't going anywhere so I say we gate to a city and get weapons made for our monster army. I'd invite goblins and kobolds from our home base but I don't feel right using them as cannon fodder.”

  Ariagoria lets out a loud sigh. “We aren't exactly flush on money right now. We spent most of it on buying that land. Considering we got ten square miles we actually got it a steal but we still ended up nearly broke.” Racknar nodded. “The dragon bone mace and armor you replaced can pay for some of it. I also have silk I can sell. We should be able to finance this but we'll be broke again after. Since this isn't a part of a guild quest the only money we'll make is from the loot.” Krys'tal lets out a humm. “You know, since we have the dimensional doorknob, we could even loot the artillery.” Everyone looked at them in shot with Racknar letting out a hearty laugh. “Now you're thinking like a Creature's and Catacombs player. Absolute loot goblin behavior. Let's get the prep work done.”

  With some haggling on both selling and buying the Monster Mash was able to get the equipment they wanted with some questions as to why they would want a smith to make claws made to fit a direwolf that went without real answer as they didn't question the payment. Money was money, who cares if the person spending it is a bit strange. After three days the party returned to the fort with everything they needed. Once the spiders and wolves were gathered they were equipped with weapons. In addition to the twelve spiders summoned by the badge Racknar gathered a dozen more the hard way. Though they didn't need much convincing since Racknar could speak to them and was effectively one of them.

  Once armed and armored the summons moved on the fortress, ballista bolts being fired from both ends as cannons fired from the first as well. The men on the ground and some on the fort shot arrows as four direwolves with armor and added claws ran in and mauled or bit bandits. As the chaos ensued the Monster Mash circled around the back and Racknar pulled a door out of his dimension door and placed it over the mote like a bridge. The party carefully crossed it with Racknar putting the door back. Davy whispered to Racknar. “Why do you have a random wooden door in your storage?” Racknar chuckled. “I saw it in an alleyway and figured I could use it as a bridge. I grabbed it as our stuff was being made.”

  Racknar and Ariagoria scaled the wall with ease before dropping ropes to help the others up. Once in the wall the group got to work on attacking what few guards on the wall weren't occupied by the attack. Racknar and Ariagoria took to the front line with Davy and Krys’tal supporting with ranged attacks from behind. Meanwhile Marionette teleports behind people engaged with Racknar and Ariagoria. One of them shouted out. “The monsters are just a distraction! This is an invasion! We've got adventurers!”

  Racknar grumbled to himself as ballista bolts hit the wall. “They still have to deal with a pincer attack. I think we've got this.” One of the bandits in leather robes lifted a bone staff with a deer skull at the top and a gem tied to the antlers. “Call lightning.” Racknar let out an “oh fuck” as a storm closed formed and lightning started striking the stronghold. Marionette and Krys'tal managed to avoid all damage. Ariagoria and Racknar hid under shields. Davy summoned a ward to block some of the damage. “They have a damn caster!”

  Racknar started sprinting at the caster taking a few hits from lightning. “It's a good thing I'm aiming to be a mage slayer.” He tossed his shelf at one caster when he spotted another and tossed his second shield at them before cutting down two more of the bandits. He then recalled his shields after moving to get them to cut through two more people on the way to him. “Come on Ariagoria, let that new mace swing.” Ariagoria nodded as she followed Racknar, blocking arrows with a shield then swinging at a warrior with her mace. “Divine Channeling!” The mace burst into infernal flames that turned white. As she swung the mace extended into an obsidian bladed whip of flames that wrapped around her opponent.

  She chuckled as she then flung the burning warrior off the wall. “Okay, this is badass. I could get used to it.” Davy started dual casting Magic Missile at bandits while Krys'tal fried arrows. When they loaded their first arrow the icy crystal of their bow turned purple as they fired a purple ice arrow that exploded on contact with the target hitting everyone around them with cold. The second two took normal colored ice arrows that didn't explode on contact. “Not exactly sure what that is, but I can combine it with the Ice Knife shot.” Racknar shouted back. “It's a class ability similar to the Divine Channeling. But instead of a D eight of radiant on melee it's a D eight of psionic on ranged. Normally you can't stack it on top of spells but I guess since it's an ability of the weapon, you can.”

  Krys'tal readies another arrow. “No idea what you're on about but more damage is always good.” Racknar nods “Right, focus on the task. I can nerd out about abilities later. Remember you have some spells as well. Fairy Fire is a solid support.” The bandits have to divide their efforts between the party and the monsters. The artillery and what's left of the ground forces focused on the monsters who were winning so far while the archers, warriors, and casters on the wall focused on the party. Racknar issuing orders to the rest of the Monster Mash. “Healers and casters first, the melee and archers can wait.”

  The bandits on the wall manage to hit one of the wolves with a cannon while another is struck by a ballista bolt. The forces on the ground outside the mote are whipped out and the spiders start making a bridge over the mote as the two remaining wolves simply leap over it. Meanwhile bandit archers and casters continued to fire different spells and arrows at the party. Bolts of lightning, fire, and ice flew at the party with Ariagoria and Racknar using their shields while Krys'tal and Marionette skillfully dodged. Davy continued to block with a ward but took a stray, nearly losing concentration on his summon spell but managing to hold on.

  The two remaining wolves started attacking people on the ground on the other side of the mote while the spiders worked their way across the mote themselves. Ballista bolts, arrows, and cannon fire started getting more accurate as three of the spiders were taken out before crossing the mote. The remaining ballista on the spiders were then emptied and discarded because there's no one to reload them. Once on the other side of the mote, the spiders started climbing the walls with stuff being dropped on them from above and the tide finally turning in the bandit's favor on that front.

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  As for the other front against the party, Racknar continued mowing through multiple bandits in quick succession. He drummed on his shield and blood red fire licked out from him touching his opponents causing them to focus on him. Ariagoria was also clearing through bandits left and right with her Infernal mace slash blade whip combo. Davy on the other hand wasn't doing much as he had to be careful not to break his concentration on the summoning spell. Krys'tal and Marionette went all out with Krys'tal taking out or at least slowing down several bandits with her ice arrows while Marionette teleported around the top of the fort throwing knives or stabbing people in the back.

  The bandits managed to kill the last two wolves, oddly enough freeing Davy up for using more spells without concern and the number of spiders was quickly dwindling to half before they started to reach the top and joined the party on the rooftop. By the time the party cleared out the outside of the fortress, only six spiders remained. Racknar sent them in first and the party waited outside till Racknar felt the last one die. Then the party went in after to start cleaning up the rest.

  The party found some difficulty being as effective in the tight hallways of inside the building as it got harder for Davy and Krys'tal to maneuver attacks around their allies. Racknar and Ariagoria started taking hits with Ariagoria healing them as they continued to the inner sanctum of the fortress. Even with higher level military trained bandits with casters and healers it seemed the party was just better equipped and coordinated. After all, the bandits didn't have any magic items or equipment so far.

  The best the bandits had were the occasional non-magical plus one masterwork weapons and armor, but compared to the multiple magic items and plus three masterwork items the party had, despite them being slightly under level, were making easy work of the bandits so far. Then they made it into what would have likely been a throne room for whatever noble once ran this fortress.

  The throne itself was dismantled, a large table with several seats had been placed on a now dilapidated carpet that led to where the destroyed throne was. Several bandits, all in better armor and gear than all the rest so far, all stood up and drew their weapons. Davy was immediately able to tell these guys were definitely built differently. “Everyone in this room has multiple magic items. Armor, weapons, and utility. Every archer has a high grade quiver of infinite arrows like Krys'tal. We're talking about multiple ultra rare quality items.”

  Racknar nodded as he eyed up the bandits. “So who here is the leader?” One spoke up saying. “We actually don't have a bandit chieftain like most groups, we're a council that runs things more democratically. But that's not exactly relevant considering you won't be alive much longer.” Ariagoria readied her mace and shield. “I’d laugh, but honestly the joke of bandits overestimating themselves or underestimating us got old a long time ago. Instead of issuing empty threats you should start praying to your God for forgiveness.” Davy eyeballed Ariagoria. “God damn, I thought the opening intimidation line was Racknar's thing.”

  Racknar shrugged as he readied his weapon and blood red flames licked across his body. “It was a solid opener, so I'm not mad about it.” The two groups went to meet each other in battle. Five adventurers versus twelve bandits. Outnumbered, but not necessarily outgunned. Marionette moved quickly, as soon as the battle started she teleported to the back line and sent the Swords of Arachne into the back of a caster. His robe glowed, slowing down but not stopping the attacks, making it take three whole swings before the mage went down.

  Two of the bandits must have also been either rouges or dexterity based martial artists because they seemed to move faster than the rest, getting around the two front liners and in close with Krys'tal and Davy. Krys'tal took a few glancing blows from a dagger while Davy dodged two attacks only to get stabbed by a third. Krys'tal hit their assailant with their bow before firing two shots point blank with the first detonating. Even though they also took some of the damage it was worth it to also hit the one attacking Davy while killing their attacker.

  Davy cast a spell causing a shadowy hand to press against his attackers chest resulting in the attackers skin rotting away a bit from necrosis. Davy followed that up by bashing the person's head in with his tentacle staff. Racknar engaged in combat with the bandit closest to him. Even with magic armor taking most of the attack, the bandit couldn't survive taking multiple hits from Racknar. Four attacks and a fully armored bandit was cut down with Racknar moving to the next and hitting him for three more, activating the ice gem for extra damage and knocking him out. “This may burn through my resources quickly, but man does it feel badass!”

  Ariagoria ignited her mace in white fire before slamming it down on the head of a heavily armored bandit, then hitting him two more times. The bandit hits the floor after, either dead or knocked out. Six of the twelve elite bandits were already dead before most of them could even get an attack in. One of the remaining bandits started running behind the destroyed throne while the remaining caster used Fireball to hit the whole party but left their allies unscathed. An archer fired arrows at Racknar that struck a shield. The three remaining fighters that didn't hide all charged at Racknar each attacking him twice. One of the attacks managed to get past the shield and cut Racknar somewhat deeply.

  Racknar yelped in pain while Marionette ran up to the last mage and cut him down with three attacks. Davy took out the archer with a dark purple burst of energy and Krys'tal took shots at each of the three warriors attacking Racknar with the first shot exploding in purple cold energy. Racknar gritted his mandibles as he took the damage from an allied attack that killed one of his attackers. Ariagoria came in with her obsidian flame mace and bashed in the head of the second warrior leaving the last one for Racknar to cut down.

  Once that was done the party made chase after the one that ran. They found him in a treasure room that had an entrance behind the throne pulling magical items out of a chest, including the Cloak of Spider-Kind. He quickly put on the cloak and a few other things before aiming a sword with lightning arcing off it at the party. “Get back, I so much as land a single blow on any of you and it's game over. Thanks to this mythical item the chances of you hitting me are slim to none even with enhanced and enchanted gear.”

  Racknar looked at the man's gear and did some math in his head, adding up the total armor value and evasion score the man would have. Comparing it to the bonuses of the items of his party. “(Full plate, eighteen plus three. Twenty one. The magic on the armor is likely a common barrier enchantment. Twenty four. The cloak increases dexterity and gives advantage on avoiding ranged attacks, increasing evasion abilities and likely his evasion score since that's seemingly a thing here. Plus three. Since that full plate is steel he likely loses his normal dexterity bonus for evasion. Ring of protection for plus one. Total defense, twenty eight.)”

  Racknar gripped his swords as he continued to run numbers in his head. “(I get five from strength mod, plus one from a magic item, plus three from proficiency, plus an additional five while raging, plus three from my weapon. Total, seventeen. For an average of twenty seven.)” Racknar's fangs curled into a wicked smile as he chittered with his mandibles. “The risk you took was calculated, but man are you bad at math.” Racknar chugged a potion and the bandit ran at him with his magic lighting sword.

  The bandit swung it shouting “Thundering Smite!” Revealing his character class to likely be a paladin. He struck the shield hitting Racknar with a heavy amount of lightning damage causing him to billow smoke. Then, as if by reflex, Racknar's upper right hand swung with his now blood red flaming chainsaw greatsword hitting his attacker hard. His attacker then struck two more normal lightning attacks against the shields doing minimal damage to the already heavily damaged Racknar.

  Ariagoria chose to use the most powerful healing magic she could on Racknar instead of attacking the bandit. Marionette tried to slice at the bandit's back to no effect as her weapons bounced off the magic around it. Krys'tal pointed at the bandit with their glowing hand causing different colored firefly-like lights to appear around him. Davy tried Magic Missile because it always hits only to find the magic on the armor was blocking it. Racknar let out a wicked sounding chuckle. “Kekeke, I'm a Berserker and take reduced damage while raging in addition to whatever reduction I get from armor. Now, it's my turn to hit you really hard.”

  Racknar lifted up his upper right hand as the red gem in the handle lit up causing the weapon to burn in a mix of blood red and normal fire. “Infernal Strike!” He then brought down his chainsaw greatsword with a heavy pillar of flames coming off the attack. He then followed that up by activating lightning on his second sword and attacking with it. That was quickly followed up by the two saw shields cutting into the bandit with cold and acid damage respectfully. Racknar then made three more attacks with the greatswords hitting the bandit with fire and lightning attacks.

  Every attack Racknar made hit and even with the magical damage reduction from the armor the elite bandit was turned into a pile of bloody mince-meat. Looking like an absolute mess after taking several elemental damage and rage boosted attacks from toothy saw blades weapons. With everyone dead Racknar grabbed the cloak and the party started taking any armor, weapons, and other things of value. Anything from rugs to banners. Ariagoria spots her old armor in the Dimension Door storage. “I thought you sold that.”

  Racknar looked at the armor. “I was going to, then I remembered Warlocks are proficient in light to medium armor and shields. I often think of Davy as a sorcerer and sometimes forget he's a Warlock despite him mostly using Warlock spells. So I can give him a higher defense so he's less smof a squishy mage. I'm going to modify it to fit him both in size and style.” The party took what was basically a full day looting the fortress before leaving and Krys'tal finally asked: “So who gets the cloak?”

  Racknar shrugged. “Both you and Marionette can equip it but that would mean replacing your cloak of protection. So instead of plus one armor it's plus two evasion, spider climb, and dark-vision.” Marionette nodded. “I've got the swords, she can have the cloak.” The matter was settled, meaning they could sell the magic item they weren't using anymore on top of the damaged armor, weapons, various siege devices, furniture, and decorations.