Like killing the original vampire...

[cptsavarus]

Haven't really paid much attention to the "clear out the bandits from x" quests in the past but in my current game I've started noticing a thing with them.

When I feel like I've cleared out a camp I like to do a broader sweep of the area to check for stragglers & runaways glitching into trees.
Nearly every time I do, I find dead bandits who I myself have not killed - usually in spots where no combat took place.

At the last camp I cleared out (the one near the Herbalist just north of the main Rattay / Neuhof road), I scouted 6 bandits. I opened on them with a single arrow to bait them, which drew 2 of them out (including the leader). They chased me up the road til I found a nice spot to kill them.

I then re-entered the camp & killed 1 more, only to find a fourth already lying dead. It's possible this one died from the arrow but the guy I shot at was wearing full armour & this guy was in his pyjamas & laid down like he'd been sleeping. Besides, my arrow missed by half a mile!

The last 2 were nowhere to be seen, so I circled around the camp & eventually found 1 more. Killed him & assumed the last guy had run off. Did a final sweep of the camp & was heading back up the road when I spotted the last guy... lying dead in the stream.

The guy in the pyjamas & the guy in the stream... I didn't kill them. They didn't even engage me. They were definitely alive when the skirmish started though. I counted 6 guys, all armoured up & all alive / moving.

So why are they dead? Did they die of fear? Is Henry really that terrifying? And why did one guy get undressed before he popped orf?!

I've noticed this same thing in all my games & nearly every bandit camp I've cleared but have only just clocked that there's a pattern to it.

Seems like when a bandit leader is killed, some of his men instantly drop dead - like killing the original vampire.

Can anyone confirm this?

[orangebonbon123]

Your hits can cause a bleeding on the enemy.

It's the same effect you can get when you get hit by an arrow or any other weapon.

The only difference is that Henry is able to patch up his wounds to stop the bleeding.
NPC's however are not able to heal their wounds and their health will slowly drain until they are dead if you caused a bleeding.

[cptsavarus]

I realise that bleeding to death is a thing & have seen that many times but the bandits I'm finding dead are ones that I haven't engaged... at all. They very literally die for no reason.

Zero percent possibility I'm killing them with arrows, since I only ever fight with a sword. I use 1 arrow *sometimes* if I want to draw a couple of bandits away from the others - but it's never a targetted shot & almost always misses by a long way.

Also zero percent possibility that they're dying of sword wounds, since I never hit them.

In my O/P example I could (at a stretch) be persuaded that maybe my arrow could've hit the one guy - but I'm confident it didn't... and that still doesn't explain what killed the other one.

If it was an isolated incident then sure, I'd just figure I was mistaken but this same thing happens with nearly every bandit camp quest - and sometimes for camps outside of quests.

[Bad Kitten]

Did your bandits run into anybody else?

Other NPCs will attack them if they are easy to kill. Seen it happen plenty of times.

[cptsavarus]

Not that I'm aware of. I've never noticed any other NPC's in the area when it happens. Have never heard any fighting or voices either - and no signs of a fight having taken place.
As I say, sometimes I'll find a bandit lying dead in his pyjamas on or near his bed like he'd been sleeping & someone used a console command to kill him in place. Of the dead ones I find still in their armour, most still have their weapon sheathed.

It's an interesting theory though & I'll certainly keep a closer eye out for other NPC's in the future now you've said that - but pretty sure it would've been too much of a red flag to ignore if I'd seen that happening.

One other thing I've noticed is that if the bandit leader dies before his men, the others become much stupider. You can walk right up to them & they don't even see you til you stick them - then most of them surrender straight away. It's like the game is encouraging you to ignore them once the leader is dead & the objective completed.

Going to try to test my "original vampire" theory in the next few quests by killing the bandit leader last. Tis a bit difficult to do, as they tend to be the first to rush out & engage you when you're spotted - but if my theory holds there'll be no unexplained dead.

[Roma_Viktor]

I got into a rough fight and had to run through the woods with bandits chasing me. They ran into wild animals and got killed.

[cptsavarus]

Never had that happen yet. I do love how enemies can keep up with you though - not like so many other games where you hit sprint & they eat your dust.
You run for a bit & think you've lost them, so you turn around to check & there's 3 of them right there in your face!

[FOXXOF]

You will sometimes find dead bandits or Cumins as they fight each other i was on my horse and came across two groups of about 4 each maybe one side had 5 and they were attacking each other some attacked me and killed my horse, the world lives things happen in it, weapons also cause bleeding effects, pretty much everything you can do to them they can do to you for the most part.

[cptsavarus]

I've seen the random spawns with groups of bandits / Cumans fighting one another. First time I saw it I couldn't tell who was who, so I dismounted & stopped to watch / loot the bodies when it was over. They then stopped fighting & all 8 of them set on me!
8 guys in full plate!
Wont be stopping for a group like that again!

What I'm describing isn't that though. I'm talking about the "Clear bandits from x location" quests for Captain Bernard.
Being quest objectives there's nothing randomised about them. You get x number of bandits and 1 bandit leader occupying a camp. They sleep in shifts, talk to one another & patrol around the camp but do nothing else. They don't fight one another.

This isn't a bleeding out thing either. It's something else.
I'll describe an example scenario again just to be clear...

I arrive at the designated camp & scout the area.
I'm alone with the bandits - there are no other NPC's nearby and no dangerous animals.
The bandits are not fighting one another.
I count 6 bandits, all alive, awake & decked in full armour.
I draw out one or two of them from the camp using 1 single arrow that doesn't hit any of them.
I kill the ones that follow me with my sword.
The bandit leader is one of them.
The "Quest complete" notification is displayed to confirm this.
I return to the camp to finish the job.
I kill 2 more bandits with my sword.
The remaining 2 bandits are missing.
I find them dead.
One is lying on his bed dressed in pyjamas as if he were sleeping - except he's dead.
Previously he was up & walking around in full armour.
I did not land a hit on either of these two.
There is nothing else around that could've attacked them.
There is no blood, nor wounds on either. No sign of any kind of fight.
The "sleeping" bandit does not even have his weapon equipped.
The other has his weapon equipped but it is still sheathed on his hip.
During the entire thing I loosed ONE arrow, which hit nothing - and I struck 4 NPC's with my sword, not 6.

This scenario has repeated itself for nearly every "Clear bandit camp" quest I've done over multiple different games.
Draw out & kill the bandit leader (he almost always comes out first), return to the camp, find 2 bandits dead of unknown causes.
Must've seen this exact same thing a dozen times now.

[FOXXOF]

Oh ok sorry yes i under stand yeah they are mssions will be pre made like but i do think they sometimes go on shifts walking around the area doing random stuff (not far away) i done one the last time i played the other day was at night 3 of them were around i killed them all looted the place and decided to sleep through the night i was woken up by another one but he ran off when he saw this dead buddies i tried to chase after him but i had alot of gear on me, you will also have this sort of stuff happen in the wild in camps as well as in missions (anyone you kill will respawn into the world after 3 or 4 in game days if i remember right)

[FOXXOF]

also the mission is get the trophy (proof of killing them but the leader only has this) if you kill him the and take his ear or bit of gear asked the mission ends even if others are alive so the other guys might stick around, move on or can be attacked or attack others (how they might of met there end) i like this tbh makes it feel a bit more real and lived in.

[cptsavarus]

That's ok - looking back on my O/P I perhaps didn't explain all that well.

Yes, they do wander around the camp a bit. They don't go far & usually just move from a seat somewhere to go lean on a tree or something. Sometimes they go for a p!ss or have something to eat, then at night one goes to bed & another wakes up & takes his place. In camps of 6, night shifts normally rotate in a 2/4 pattern, though in camps of 3 they may all sleep at the same time.

I've yet to get surprised by a returning patrol while sleeping in a camp I thought was clear. As you say though, one guy does occasionally wonder off & hide behind a tree or something, so it's easy to mis-count them.
That's why I like to spend a bit of time watching the camp before I start my attack. Helps to know the exact number & where everyone is.

Early game I'll go in quietly at night & knock them out one at a time, then go round again & kill them all.
Later on when Henry's a bit stronger I'll go in during the day, lure out one or two to split them up, kill the leader, then move fast on the others.

Like you say though, if you kill the leader & then return for the others, the quest is counted as over & any bandits still alive kind of get freed from their quest AI packages. Usually they don't leave the area but often you can walk right up to them & they wont bat an eyelid til you strike them - then they give up immediately or run away.

I guess it's possible that after their quest packages end, the 2 survivors might *sometimes* attack one another - but in the example of my O/P it doesn't seem very likely that they'd both die in the 10-15 seconds it took to run back down the hill to the camp. Also neither had a weapon drawn & no weapons dropped on the ground - and for the one who died sleeping - I'm pretty sure NPC's can't do stealth kills unless its directly scripted. Plus that still doesn't explain who killed the other guy.

My theory is that when the bandit leader dies & you collect his ear to complete the quest, a random % of any surviving bandits simply drops dead - as a kind of gift from the game for completing the quest, so you can get straight to the chest & claim your reward.
That or it's just a throwback of having quest-stage specifc AI packages. Could be if any quest-stage elements are left over at the end of the quest that the quest would bug out & not complete properly. 1 bandit who fled & hid behind a tree could block further quests from starting.