The next morning after the failed Grimtotem ambush, the party readied themselves for the trials ahead.
They concluded that a good way to approach would be to weed out some more of the Grimtotem still. Perhaps they could lore some of them out into an ambush of their own, just to thin out how many of the bandits would be left at the hideout.
This plan became Zachariah Hallowhold using the disguises at his disposal to take on the appearance of a goblin merchant, stranded with his pack kodo, at a location Gan Jedi had managed to scout out as a good spot for an ambush. The rest of the party took for the hills and readied themselves to attack.
And soon enough, a small group of Grimtotem came across them. Lured right into the party's trap, the Grimtotem bandits did not stand a chance. They were quickly dispatched, though this time as well the party wound up with one of them still alive and soon as their captive. Perhaps they could convince him too, and learn some more of the hideout at the same time.
This tauren's name was Khenwal. He and Orida Darkcloud seemed to know each other well enough, and he was able to provide the party with quite a bit more detail concerning the camp -- and of the tribe chief who led them, a powerful druid named Chief Abequa.
The party decide that the best way to approach was if they waited until the evening. If they were lucky, they could use the settling darkness to their advantage. In the meantime, they pressed on further to convince Orida and Khenwal to break with the Grimtotem tribe's plans and instead join the party. It took some work, but it all paid off in the end; both of them seemed on board, and willing to try and convince some more of the camp's bandits to do the same.
So when they then later made their way to said camp, in the cover of a setting sun, Khenwal and Orida headed in first to speak to the acting guard. To the party's pleasant surprise, the plan seemed to work, as the party returned with a small group of bandits who all had decided to stay their blades.
As for the rest of the camp, however, there was no such luck. When the remainder learned what had happened, their blood was boiling -- though none more so than Chief Abequa. Though the party tried to speak to them as well, a fight soon broke out, one during which the druid chief called on eagles from afar to swoop down and aid them.
At the turning point, Khenwal and Orida joined into the fight as well, on the side of the party. Crossbows in hand, they fired piercing shots upon their comrades, and soon the battle was over. With Yuma Stonehoof's thunderous might and Jung-Won Oxhide's martial prowess, the bandits and their druid leader were defeated.
In the aftermath, they split themselves between burying the dead and searching around the hideout. It did not take them long to find the supplies that had been raided from caravans over the past weeks, and now with a chance to more closely examine they noticed that the bandits were wielding a great number of Alliance weapons.
And from what was written in a letter they found among Abequa's belongings, that was all according to plan. The letter was from Grundig Darkcloud, and in it he expressed his concerned over how the Grimtotem's enigmatic 'benefactors' were playing some daring moves by providing the tauren with Alliance weaponry to raid Horde caravans.
Also described in the letter were hopes that Abequa would soon get a chance to meet said benefactors, as well as one mysterious figure that sounded like it could well be Yuma's former chieftain; a wicked tauren who had turned to dark shamanism, seized elemental power by force, and was thus ostracized from his tribe.