Ben smashed his shield in the bandit's face and used his sword to skewer the man in the guts, he twisted and slashed at another bandit spraying blood all over the man that slid to a stop when faced with the gory display of violence, Emma was nearby, Ben could feel her soothing aura that she used to suppress victims before devouring them, a queen without a flock she was becoming more feral and violent every time Ben refused her seduction attempts and denied her freedom to kidnap mortals into the Hunting grounds pocket dimension, he knew he had to do something soon but he couldnt think what that might be, he wished Sara had stayed but their relationship was allways more of the convenient kind and the failure as she called it of the Misty Vale dive had brought their relationship to a new low.

When the last outlaw was brought down by a chop from Neba the centaur's axe Ben looked around at the carnage with satisfaction, it was the second group they took care of in so many weeks, making the roads and borderlands safer for law abiding folk of the kingdom, it was also a great way to release tensions that were building up since he felt betrayed and fooled by Trevain in the Misty Vale court. While cleaning his blade on one of the miscreants he heard the whimpers from underground, a quick search brought him to the hidden cache and in itnhe found several cages where the bandits were holding what seemed like the victims of their latest raids, he opened the cages and the women were suffocating him with hugs and thanks as they were getting out. A more thorough search discovered an even deeper hole where he could smell blood and human refuse, he went down to find more cages and what looked like a small office, he released the caged men and sent them outside while he looked over the ledgers.

It had taken him long hours of hard work to learn to read the common basic runescript adventurers learned so they could decipher basic quest instructions in the dungeons they explored and he had no comprehension of foreign texts at all, but he had a scholar friend to help with these problems, after sending Neba back to the Hunting Grounds he called Nat to help deciphering the scrawling letters and she soon found some interesting bits of information.