Hilltop Ambush — Battlefield Spoils

The hillside still smells of smoke and blood. Tattered leather and broken arrows litter churned earth where the bandits made their last stand around the warlord's banner. A ruined owlbear lies half-hidden in a ditch; its pelt torn and soiled from the fighting. The druid fell clutching a carved staff and a satchel of dried herbs, while the wizard's effects — a singed spellbook and a dented component pouch — lie near a smashed glass vial. Scattered among the corpses are mundane rewards: coins, short blades, a battered helm and a faded map with the warlord's plans. Much of this is salvageable or sellable; some items (the banner, the map, the signet) are worth more to the right buyer than to a fence.