I had an adventure last night.
I've been dicking around the starting area, without joining a faction.
I decided to raid the bandit forts. Montcalm, the north one was easy enough. Bandit camp also, although I 100% ran away, from the thing in the cage inside... Need to go back and try it. I was not ready for the fight when it came out. And, now can't even be prepared, as it'll probably aggro on me as I enter..
But Vendeval fortress was shenangians.. I got cocky, and tried to fight a captain or something in plate armor, with a tower shield outside. zigged, when I should have zagged, and got taken down. enslaved. The mechanic for that is a bit silly,. Since you can just easily, chat with the guards, be let into the kitchen and hospice... and collect all your weapons and armor...
Can even just pay off, to get out for 30s.. but nah, I decided to fight my way out. Derped that badly, fighting 1v2, etc. took a couple tries. Then failed again, fighting the ninja up the stairs. again, a close fight, but got locked into a bad attack animation, and whiffed.
This time they threw me out the hole.
But there is a "bug"? your backpack doesn't spawn with you. At the time, I thought it was back inside. So I went back to town, grabbed my old backpack, geared back up, and set off to slaughter the fortress again.
This time, I tried another tactic. Traps. I had tested them vs the bandit camp, but only briefly, and more or less versus half dead, weak ass noobs.
this time it was first versus that dick outside that beat me. Then, as I raided the fortress, I dropped a bunch of traps as soon as I entered. and, started that 1v3.
Traps are massively OP. if you are not using them, start. tripwires+ironspikes. or even any spare weapon. the damage they do varies. like, slashing weapons, will deal low phys damage but also causing bleeding. piercing weapons will deal moderate phys direct damage.
Then, came the worry. the backpack was not inside. and since I put on a new backpack, its was no longer marked on the map.
After some google searching, with no clear answer, but did suggest it should be "outside the gate". I did end up finding it. it was down on the beach, by the large seashell.