Finding himself in the back of the pack, Fa'zakar double moves through the wheat to close in on the ogre with Sulan and Victor. Now if he can avoid the monster's swinging...
The martially-inclined members of the party rush forward towards the somewhat-doped and surprised ogres. Victor cuts a second rent down the front of the first ogre, amplifying the pain with psychic energy.
From the camp, you see most of the slaves being pushed into their various houses. While the dozen or so ogres over there are mostly busy on babysitting duty, that might not be true forever.
Arven draws his spear and rushes forwards to do battle, but isn't able to get all the way into battle. Gwen moves with him, moving up alongside Sulan.
The first ogre, clutching a club, flails wildly against Sulan.
Unfortunately for it, it misjudges his location in its blindness and it misses entirely. Growling with frustration, it wipes the glitter away from its eyes. Blinking, it can see again!
Jim draws his hunting bow and moves up alongside Ehiz. Squinting, he nocks an arrow and draws it, firing it at the ogre still not engaged by several allies.
His arrow strikes home, but it doesn't penetrate the creature's hide-armor clothing, and so does no harm to the ogre as it steps up, club in hand, to pummel Sulan.
It slams into his side, creaking bones and bruising skin.
The farmer-priest moves up to shed a light on the ongoing melee. Careful steps bring him closer to the carnage and, once in position, he deftly nocks an arrow.
Upon release, it sings a song of sorrow.
Concerned for the fate of the druid, Murob moves closer so that her healing supplies are at hand should the need arise. In the meanwhile, she wills good fortune on Gwen's next blow, willing her spear to find its target unerringly.
Fa'zakar moves to his left, getting into a flanking position with Sulan, then stabs at the ogre with both weapons!
Side-stepping to match Fa'zakar's flank attack, Victor focuses the heat of combat into his blade to restore it's edge as he brings his twin blades to bear against the oversized foe.
"Argh!" shouts Sulan. "You'll pay for that!"
Sulan swings his Axe and snaps at the ogre with his tusks.
Murob enhances Gwen's fortune with her magic, just as Victor and Fa'Zakar work together to take down the ogre that is menacing Sulan. With a stab of rapier and a slash of mind blade, the creature grumbles and falls to its knees, then to the ground.
Switching targets, Gwen and Ehiz lay into the second target. Trying to acrobatically approach, Gwen draws the attention of the second ogre when she approaches. Fortunately, she is able to dodge the brutish creature's club.
Gwen stabs into the ogre, which is followed up by Ehiz' arrow. Stepping up beside Gwen, Sulan smashes into the creature's chest with his axe. Gurgling, the creature falls and dies.
With the combat over so quickly, the group now has some breathing room to do something before reinforcements show up.
Sulan looks over his wounds, already forming and ugly bruise where the flesh was crushed. He rubs some hemlock on the wound and it begins to smoke, and a sizzling sound can be heard.
"Arrr..." he grunts through gritted teeth.
Sulan looks up from the wound, which now has a lattice of ugly scars. "So what's the plan now? They hit hard, but it looks like we can take them pretty easy in small numbers."
"We should move away from this spot before others come to see what happened. Let me do a quick search of the ogres first, though. Never know what you might find!" Fa'zakar says before quickly searching the bodies.
Ehiz scratches his temple and frowns. "Alright, so we move. Do we hit up where they house the slaves first? I know we had a plan, yet here we are."
The ogres each carry very little. They wear smelly Large-sized hide armor, carry Large-sized saps, wear filthy robes. They each have a tattoo in the shape of a star on their shoulders. One of them has pants with pockets, and in one pocket is a gnawed humanoid leg.
"Perhaps try to draw them out in small numbers then. If we move towards the slave housing, I can set a web trap between two buildings, maybe catch one of the ogres in it." suggests Murob as she peers towards the camp.
"We can try to set the slaves free - if they run it might give the guards something else to do besides gang up on us...IF they run." Fa'zakar replies as he searches the ogres. Grunting in disgust, he finishes and says to the group, "Nothing of value. Let's move."
"Move where?" asks Arven.
Ehiz nods at Murob, agreeing with the words she speaks. "Alright, let's move to the slave housing. After all, we are here to free them and if that requires us to overcome a couple of ogres, we will do just so. Let's not, however, use them as a sort of bait."
"The guards thought we were escaped slaves. That's good for us... they will likely underestimate us as long as they think that's true."
"Let's hurry. Who knows how fast the other ogres will respond."
With their course decided, the group decides to head further in, making a beeline to the left for the slave housing. By this point (about half a minute after the alarm has gone out) many of the slaves have been herded into the small stone cottages that they call home. They are being herded by a group of about a half-dozen ogres, who are carrying whips in addition to their saps.
Your group is about 60' away - on the edge of Sulan's darkvision. Dead ahead is the slave housing. To the left is more farmland (as it curves around the residential area). To the right is a road that leads further in to the rest of the city and plantation. Canine barking is getting louder, and as the source approaches closer, it becomes clear that whatever creature is making the noise is much larger and more fierce than a typical dog or wolf. How do you approach?
Murob points at the stone cottages. "I can weave a trap between those two closest ones, and we can try to draw a couple of them closer and take them down when they get entangled. Fighting them all at once would not be wise. What do you think?"
Ehiz clutches the glowing light stone in his hand so it doesn't give away their position. Carefully he listens to Murob and considers her words. "If all goes well with our magicks, we might be able to take out four or so of them before the fight really gets going. Ogres rely on brute strength so overwhelming them with such might cause them to break and route."
"I may be able to get one or two of them to drop for a little snooze, too. And then our steel will take care of any that are left. I'm in!" Fa'zakar will sheathe both of his weapons and get his shortbow out and ready...he will then grab a pinch of fine sand from a pouch and stand ready to cast his spell on any group of ogres.
"Whatever kind of animal that is, I might be able to paralyze it. But only one of them."
"My spell that grants me strength will end soon. Let's move quickly."
Gwen shakes her spear. "If they get past your spells, I'll stick them. But are we going to something besides fight? Like try to free some slaves?"
"Right - magic trap between the buildings, some other spells and bows to get any other ogres, and our swords for the rest. Free the slaves, escape back through the hole we cut in the fence, and crowd as many as we can on the ship. Let's get this done before the hunters find us!" Fa'zakar summarizes.
Nodding, Murob starts weaving her webbing spell between two buildings, setting the trap for the ogres.
Gwen shakes her spear. "If they get past your spells, I'll stick them. But are we going to something besides fight? Like try to free some slaves?"
"Once we get to the slaves we will need to hold the ogres back so the slaves can get away. We become the rearguard."
"But any opportunity to pick off an ogre or two now before we have the rest chasing us is something we should take."
Despite fears regarding forging deeper into unknown enemy territory, Jim and Arven follow along with the group as they circle around the slave farmhouses and set up their ambush. Jim nocks another arrow to his hunting bow and Arven hefts his spear, ready to stick some ogre that threatens his friends.
While the blinds on the small stone houses are drawn, anyone who looks at the nearest house can see a single small shadowed face poking up and staring at the group.
Waiting for the trolls to come, Murob weaves a web of magic and sticky silk in between two of the buildings, daring the ogres and their servants to become caught in the webbing.
Barking and howling, and the Giant shouts of ogres can still be heard. Most of the ogres seem to be preoccupied with herding the slaves, one of them emerges from the shadows. This one carries an ogre hook, wears lighter armor than the rest, and prods forward a trio of man-sized crocodile-adjacent monstrosities which let loose the canine barks.
Rushing mindlessly into the web, two of the crocodilian monstrosities are caught in Murob's trap, entangled by the webbing. The third manages to push through, but the sticky layering of webbing holds the creature back.
Scraghounds possess scent, low-light vision, darkvision, and their bite is often infected with virulent diseases due to the nature of their diets.
Initiatives
"What are those things?" Gwen notes that the far right hut now has its door webbed shut.
"Let's try to get the slaves out of this hut." She points with her spear to the closer hut on the right.
While Fa'zakar was ready for the ogres, he was caught a bit off-guard by the huge crocodile/reptilian beasts that came suddenly into, and almost through, the web trap. He raises his bow and draws back, aiming at the lead creature.
"Well, this ought to be interesting..." he says to no one in particular.
Taking the moment they had to refresh the charge on his blades, Victor then sees the hounds approaching
"Whatever they are, it's a problem" he replies to Gwen as he readies his weapons.
"Scraghounds!" hisses Murob for the benefit of the others. "They can see in the dark. Beware their bite!" She figures that the rest of the information is not very relevant at the moment, seeing as they were far from any water source that she could see.
"But kill the ogre! Maybe the hounds will run wild without him controlling them."
2. Arven
3. Murob <--- You are up!
4. Jim
5. Scraghound #2
6. Scraghound #3 (grappled)
7. Ogre Huntmaster
8. Scraghound #1 (grappled)
9. Ehiz
10. Fa'Zakar
11. Gwen
12. Sulan
Battle is joined!
She didn't want to let the scraghounds reach the group if it could be helped. Her trap had snagged two, but the third might be a problem. Pointing a hand at it, fingers contorting in an almost unnatural configuration, she hums under her breath, willing it to sleep.
"If those things go wild it could be even worse" Victor replies to Gwen as he steps forward and readies his blades, placing himself between the hounds and his allies as he adopts a defensive stance.
One of the crocodilian monsters falls asleep under Murob's magics, collapsing to the ground in a pathetic heap.
The two commoners that the group brought with jump into action, Jim nocking an arrow to his hunting bow. Unfortunately, there's nothing he can fire at - everything is to hidden from sight by the webs to fire at accurately.
Arven moves up to support Victor, his spear at the ready.
One of the scraghounds charges through the webbing, snapping at Victor when it gets close... the other scraghound snores.
The creature clamps its mouth around Victor's ankle, pulling him painfully to the ground.
The ogre master of the scraghounds begins to circle around the group's webbing while one of the stuck scraghounds tries to escape from the grip of Murob's spell. Fortunately, it only manages to bind itself ever deeper into the sticky webbing.
"That's no dog," Sulan says. He rushes forward with his axe and strikes at the creature, hoping that once wounded the creature will let go of Victor.
Erastil's light bobs about in this gruesome night as if it were storming. Ehiz, heaving his chest with effort, nocks an arrow and releases it. Before the beating of his heart manages to count to three, another arrow is nocked and subsequently released.
Yet, in this horrific vision of aquatic crocodile-dogs caught in magical webbing, Ehiz found his footing to be anything but steady.
Seeing the hounds largely neutralized, Gwen says, "The danger lies with the ogre."
Gwen dashes along the wall of the slave hut. Pulling up short at the corner, she peers with one eye around its edge. Then she takes a step back and readies her spear.
Seeing the croco-creatures being handled by his companions, Fa'zakar follows Gwen along the back of the building, his bow drawn and ready to release if the ogre comes around the corner...
"That's no dog," Sulan says. He steps forward and takes out a spear. He hurls it at the creature stuck in the web.
Ehiz and Sulan start their assault on the dogs - a thrown spear and a pair of fired arrow bolts go into the web, but the spear and one of the arrows get caught in the sticky threads. A grotesque yelp heralds the success of one of the arrows, though.
Fa'Zakar and Gwen head around one of the slave households to try and ambush the ogre. Unfortunately, they can only peer into darkness as the outline of a large creature ambles towards them in the vague shadows.
Murob hisses as a bolt hits the scraghound she had put to sleep. No sleep was so deep that it would not feel the bite of the bolt, so she trains her own crossbow on it and fires.
Seeing the beast stirring from it's cursed slumber but wary of the webbing, Victor growls with frustration before winding his arm back and throwing one of his blades with all his might at the beast, taking only moments to form a new one in it's stead.
Victor's hurled mind blade slices through the creature as it rises from sleep. It growls in pain and pushes forward against the webbings, as do the other dogs.
Another of the hounds manages to escape from the clinging webs while the other cannot. However, the sticky webbing holds it back far enough that it doesn't reach Sulan, Arven and Victor in front.
The front-most hound snaps at Victor. It cleaves into his leg and drags him to the ground painfully.
The ogre houndmaster bounds forward, unaware that Gwen is around the corner, giving her the opportunity to stab at it.