Looking over the mine entrance from the tree line Embrda could not help but wonder how deep it went.

While in town they tried to find the records of the shafts to have some idea of the inside but found that it had been mismanaged so badly that there was not one map but fifteen and none of them were complete. Maybe if you put all of them together you would have some idea as to the layout of the mine tunnels but even then there would be dozens of side tunnels unaccounted for.

Could there be other entrances and exits from the mine?

This was going to be a headache and even then he was probably going to need the help of Tess just to be sure that he did not miss anything. This was truly going to be an annoying place that would serve his uses much better then any mear bandits.

Thoughts of turning it into a dungeon for hiding his loot coming to his mind. Of making a grand Labyrinth that could swallow an endless number of fools that would come for what was hidden. The thought of a mountain fo gold hidden in the depths of his deep dungeon stroked the flames of the Dragonborn's soul, made his tendance to hoard all that he coveted flare up in his mind.

"...and that is what I saw. If we do not get this right it will be a shit show that is for sure." Embrda told the group after explaning everything that he had seen at the mine entrance.

Smithy scrunched up his eyebrows and asked "how do they know where to raid and who to rob? They always pick the highest value targets from the area and never leave survivors so how are they doing that?"

"They must have a source feeding them information about the caravans coming through the area and covering for them to keep them coming along the same roots instead of taking different paths." Drassisa told the little goblin. "It is something that me and my brother did often enough in the city to know how effective it can be in the short term."

"Doesn't last long though." Embrda told the group while putting poison on his daggers.

"I do not want them making a mess of the hydra hunt, they need to be wiped out and the sooner it gets done the better off we will all be." Sasha told the group while comparing the maps of the mine tunnels. "This is really annoying by the way, it is no wonder that they went out of business if they worked the ledgers like they made the maps."

"I am pretty sure that they just had a treasure hunter locate the valuble ore and mined in that direction." Tess told the group. "I will need to survay the entire area to be sure that there is no other way they can get out of the mine shafts."

"I say that we buy it after all is said and done." Teamasa stated. "It should be fairly cheap to buy sense no one wants it, it's a dead shaft, and bandits just made a mess of things. Should just be a problem that they are glad to get rid of."

"If we can connect it to this cave we would have a good fall back point and there is probably still some value in the ore that was to much trouble to get to." Sasha thought out loud while scratching her chin.

"The bandits probably have a wagon of some sort to haul their loot so we know that there is at least one other entrance big enough for a wagon to fit through." Smithy said while thinking about where the entrance could be.

"This is going to be such a pain in the ass." Tess said while playing with his pups.

That night after Embrda took Tess to see what he could do with the mine clusterfuck he sealed what he could with earth magic and plants. What exits he could not take care of were traped by the demented wizard and necromancer called very lovingly Teamasa.

She had placed traps there that would freeze everthing that came over them and could be activated remotly to cut off the paths. She had also placed Chain Lightning rune traps on the inside to stop anyone from trying to break the ice and escape.

While this was going on everone else was gathering fallen logs and other vegetation. All the poisonus plants that could be found in the forest were also gathered up for a little extra kick.

The plan was simple, instead of fighting there way through the mine they were going to seal the exits and hit the entire area with poison and smoke. They were going to use the naturally hot mine shafts to roast the bandits alive while they were helpless to fight back.

It was not a honerable plan, just an effective one for the job that needed doing. The smoke and heat would make the very air hostile to life while the poison would incapacitate anyone strong enough to fight it off and help to kill everyone else. They would even be adding their own custome poisons to the mix to make it more lethal.

Magic would make sure that the poison smoke would go through the entire mine and the spells already placed in the mine to stop bad air from killing the miners would aid them in the goal. Those spells were never designed for this sort of abuse so they had no failsafes for poison coming from the outside.

To stop the hydra from smelling the smoke and coming to investigate they would buid the fire right inside the cave mouth and use magic to channel everthing in farther then normal. The illusions placed on the outside of the entrance would make it nearly impossible to see the fire from the outside.

They added a little extra kick by makeing smaller bonfires in all the areas that they had sealed up or were going to seal with ice magic and cast delayed spells to start the fires when they were sealed shut. This was going to be a slaughter and everyone knew it.

"Dump that poison on the pyre and lets get this started." Smithy told Sasha while doing the very same to his own pyre.

Tea was finishing up the last touches on the spell that would blow the smoke farther into the main exit while sending some undead critters into the shafts to work as scouts.

They did not need to breath and had Sense Life perminantly cast on their eyes so the party would be able to tell when to stop and let the caverns air out before going into the shafts themselves for the bodies.

"I get the bandit bodies for the hydra extermination, I will need them for throwing potions onto the back of the hydra. A few to stand under it and stab the damn things underbelly with spears would not go amiss as well." Tea told the group planing on how she could maximize the damage delt to the regenerating monster.

She had her eyes on the real prize right up untill one of her scouts found the bandits loot chests.

"They have robbed far more merchants then we previously thought. Maybe even sold a lot of the goods themselves if I am not mistaken by the amount of gold that my mouse just found." Tea told the group with suddenly round eyes.

"How much is there to make your eyes go wide like that?" Tess asked the little necromantic wizard.

"In a single word? Enough!" Tea told him with a grin on her face.

"It's a good thing that smokey gold is worth just as much as anyother type of gold then is it not." Smithy said with a laugh in his voice.

"That it is, lets get the fires started and take them out. Their heads are probably worth a pretty large amount of gold themselves." Drassisa told the group as she took a torch to the first pyre and then the second.

Some of the bandits may have had a chance if the mine was not bilt to breath exceptionally well. The screw ups that make the layout at least had not held back on the air circulation. It did not really help the bandits with its intended purpose though it did aid the party in taking them all out of the picture.

In the end maybe hullicigenic plants and poisons to disorientate was a bit over kill.

Tea was a little shaken to see that everyone was to busy killing each other to even try and escape. They did not get around to even attempting it until the point that they were so far gone that time itself was fighting back at every single footstep.