Jessamy drives her blades into the big ogre's side driving him to his knees where Pirknok removes his head with a series of brutal strikes.
Kaplan, Ventus, and Beaks make short work of the last ogre.
Jessamy looks around. "What not?" she asks, examining the scrape remaining from the fight with the two-headed giant.
Pirknok breathes heavily for a few more seconds as he glares down at the dead ogre, then takes a deep breath and looks around. "We shud make sher they didint do too much damage..." he suggests, pausing for another breather before beginning to examine the dam.
The dam looks to be in bad shape. The ogres have hacked out several large chunks on this side and it can be heard creaking against the weight of the water above. This ancient structure might be beyond saving.
"Can ya do anythin' with yer magic ta make it hold up longer?" asks Pirknok, turning to Kaplan with a worried expression. "I dun... don't know how long it'ull last, an' we gotta get thuh people uhway safe."
Krojun frowns as he ponders the structure. "The spirits here are unhappy but not beyond reach", the hulking Thunderspeaker explains. "They tell me that the dam is damaged but the waters can still be held back enough to save those in the basin below us. You must enter the dam and learn how to open the floodgates. Releasing some of the pressure will keep it from crumbling."
"Seems like that's our only option," Kaplan says, shaking his head at Pirknok. "I can't say I'm a practical druid."
"Well, then, let's do it. Do you think there are more ogres there? Can someone heal Pirknok? We should go quickly, before everything collapses. I mean, what happens if it collapses while we're all inside? Do you know, Krojun?"
Jessamy looks around for the opening, making sure it's safe.
Jess determines that the doors aren't trapped but they're definitely locked.
"We will either be crushed by the debris or drowned in the waters below", Krojun says grimly. "All the more reason for us to act swiftly."
Jessamy gulps nervously.
"Hold on, hold on..." she mutters as she pulls a satchel of wires and hooks out of a pouch. "I can unlock these."
Jessamy easily undoes the crude locks on the otherwise well-maintained doors. A eye-wateringly powerful stink hits the heroic rogue the moment she cracks open the door and it's pitch black inside.
"The ogres got the doors open!" a guttural voice cries out.
Kaplan lays his hands on Pirknok and heals his wounds somewhat.
"We're not ogres!" Kaplan calls out to the darkness.
There's a long moment of silence before the voice calls back.
"That's just what an ogre would say!"
"О, божи, що в світі ми знайшли?" Kaplan mutters in Dwarven. "How do we prove to you that we aren't ogres? We just want to open the floodgates so the dam doesn't burst."
There's another long pause. Suddenly a second guttural voice picks up and the two begin speaking.
Second Voice: "We got floodgates? What'r those?"
First Voice: "I dunno but it sounds like a dirty ogre trick."
Second Voice: "Ogres don't have tricks! They're dumber than we are."
First Voice: "Hrm. Good point. Mebbe one of us should go down and ask Grazuul. He knows stuff."
"Oi! Can you at least mutter in common? I get enough gibberish from my own friends." Ventus calls down the passage.
Pirknok's face momentarily falls when Kaplan speaks the tongue of dwarves, but he recovers and sets his face grimly. he thunders down the passageway, waiting for the gibberish to die down before continuing, "We ain't no ogers and if we wuz do ya think we'd be waitin' out here ta tell you so?! Havint you ever evin heard an oger?? We don't sound nuthin' like 'em! Who're you, ennyhow?"
The voices chat a bit longer and decide that the party indeed doesn't sound like ogres.
"We're the Skulltakers. This is our dam. Go away!"
"Thuh who? Thuh mayor didint menchun no 'Skulltakers'... whose skulls do ya take?"
Pirknok pauses for a moment, then continues, "Ar ya takin' care of thuh dam? 'cause there's bin sum ogers an' they damaged it real bad, an' we gotta let sum water out."
"That's the name our tribe!" the voice says proudly. "We take lotsa skulls. Mostly fishes though..."
"You should talk to Grazuul."
"Who's Grazuul?"
"He's the boss. He's real strong. And smart too!"
"Whar is he? An' who ar you, anyway? Ar ya takin' care uv thuh dam or not?"
"Grazuul's downstairs in his room. I'm Khaz. Taking care of the dam? The dam is our home."
"Well, if ya don't want it to fall down on top uv ya, you better hurry up an' let sum water out! Ah'm tellin' ya thuh ogers damaged it!"
"Let some water out?! We don't know how to do that!" Khaz says in rising fear.
"Come in! The stairs are right here. Grazuul's room is on the right."
A third and forth voice pick up in the darkness all sharing in the general panic.
Pirknok nods, glad to have finally gotten through to whatever dense creatures are living inside the dam. "Let's go," he comments grimly. An' hope we can figure out how to work it in time.
"I can't see anything!" Jessamy whispers in a whining voice. "Someone make some light!
"And does anyone recognize what language they were speaking before?"
The powerful stink is almost enough to knock people off their feet as the party moves inside. It's something between carrion and spoiled milk.
Pirknok knows that trolls are big and ugly.
Those fit what I remember of trolls...
The tattooed dwarf nods to himself and continues down the stairs, hoping their leader is, as promised, more intelligent than the rest of them.
Pirknok believes the trolls to be more confused and scared than aggressive. It seems unlikely that they'll attack without provocation or encouragement.
Descending the stairs, the party enters the heart of whatever mechanism controls the ancient dam. The entire structure shakes subtely under the immense pressure of the water above but the roar from the water rushing through the breach further east can barely be heard. The floor is slick with moisture that's seeped in through tiny cracks forming in the walls.
An immense troll lays at rest here, curled up on a pile of filthy furs. It's truly massive - a head taller than those seen upstairs and nearly twice as broad. Unlike the ones above, this one has visible gills along along its thick neck and slimy scales covering most of its skin.
Pirknok frowns slightly, then clears his throat softly. "*ahem* Uh... 'scuse me, ar you Grazuul?"
"Wha..." the monstrous figure rumbles as he wakes and climbs to his feet.
The fact that he doesn't hit his head gives the party a sense of the large scale the entire structure is built to.
"Who'r you? How'd you get down here? What happened to the rest of my tribe?!" he demands with rising anger.
"They're all upstairs... nuthin' happint to 'um. They sent us down here ta talk to ya, 'cause thuh dam got damaged by sum ogers an' we gotta let sum water out so thuh whole thing duzint collapse."