Bandits and Thieves

They tried the Mandate first. They knew a master expected gifts, and basket after basket of grain and cloth went out, but no one ever led them to a sect gate. In the end they cut down a few of the Mandate, fled into the mountains, and used the power of Transcension to live as they pleased.

The horse bandits, like their own chief, envied the Mandate disciples who patrolled the mountains mounted, sure that a saddle would raise their standing; so they robbed caravans and relay stations for the horses. The thieves tell a better story: they took Transcension to rob more rich houses and give to more poor ones, and the comical smiling masks serve both to hold Sha-Chi down and to look harmless.

• Bandit: A long-handled saber, crude armor, a thick mask to hold Sha-Chi down; his saberwork is worthless, but he will fling sand in your eyes and take his chance.
• Veteran Bandit: Saber, shield, and longbow, master of none and reckless enough to try all three; beating his shield with his blade is both a challenge and a call for the others to close in.
• Horse Bandit: Raids from the saddle, cutting down from above and loosing arrows at a gallop; even unhorsed he can still fend with what he carries.
• Flame-Crazed Bandit: Some skill in flame saberwork and a taste for flashy red; he keeps to the fires and lights his oil-soaked blade, then lashes out with steel wreathed in flame.
• Thief: Lean and light, he turns wall-scaling into ambush and concealment, and the knives honed for burglary now go for the throat while the smiling mask stains and blackens.
• Firethorn Thief: A bright smiling mask, reckless manners, an insolent beckoning taunt — then firethorns tossed one after another, bursting into a sea of flame a moment after they land.
• Drowned Thief: Poison mist clings to him and to his knives, and he hides in water to strike from cover; a fall into stagnant water years ago left him rotting and poisonous.

Their craft is all rough improvisation, each trick half-learned; what they have is variety. Sand in the eyes, a shield beaten to gather the others, a taunt behind a grinning mask — all of it is there to make you charge in. Do not take the bait: scatter the ones closing around you first, then finish them one by one.

Thieves are quick but cannot trade blows, and fire and poison are best answered with distance. Their ferocity leans on numbers; scattered, each is only a rough improviser.