Ventus guides his mount into the fray swinging his sword and shield about viciously.
"Spellgorged zombies, not as durable as regular ones, but they may be loaded with magic. Be careful, normal zombie dangers probably apply"
Ensu draws his light crossbow and loads it, then moves forward behind the more martial combatants.
Revised Round 1
Jessamy, realizing the ogres are too far away, moves forward, ready to defend herself until they get within range.
Ventus and Beaks dart forward and lay into one of the ogres with Impaler splitting open its undead flesh.
The ogre Ventus is squared off opens its mouth. Instead of sound, a crushing force comes out that slams into the ranger. Ventus feels his bones splintering under the pressure.
The other zombie-ogre opens its mouth and emits a horrifying keening. The sound is painful and distracting.
"They're not fighting fair!" Jessamy whines, as the sound echoes through her head.
She moves forward again, ducking under the ogre's blade and slamming her new dagger into it's rotting thigh.
"Try screaming as loudly as you can if it throws you off! It'll help, I promise!" Siolad yells out over the ogre's screaming. Despite how awful it sounded--gods above, it reminds me of nails on a chalkboard magnified tenfold--he's able to keep his bearings.
Uttering an incantation, Siolad's skin grows a thick, rocky layer. He moves up behind Pirknok, readying another spell.
Ensu stops at the scream, shakes his head and then rubs his nose. He then lifts his crossbow and fires at the screaming ogre.
Jess easily tumbles past the ogre’s long limbs and drives her blade into its rotting, but still meaty, thigh.
Pirknok growls and brings his blade up, walking forward and trying to stay out of the way of the zombie's blade as he moves up and takes a swipe with his own.
Blood running from his nose, Ventus sags in his saddle for a moment before collecting himself and laying into the ogre again.
Type: The creature's type changes to undead. It retains any subtype except for alignment subtypes (such as good) and subtypes that indicate kind. It does not gain the augmented subtype. It uses all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Jess's new dagger glows with entropic energy as it's buried in the ogre's flesh.
Pirknok isn't quite as nimble as Jess and his opponent swats at him when he approaches.
The shoanti dwarf evades the blow and splits open the ogre's belly. Fortunately, for the undead, the wound is not fatal.
Ventus and Beaks lay into their opponent, shredding its dead flesh and spilling partially coagulated blood across the mountain bath.
With their magics expended, the undead mindlessly try to crush the intruders.
Pirknok dodges the clumsy attack with a grunt, and retaliates with two quick slices of his own dark blade.
In two swift strikes, Pirknok removes the zombie's leg and then its head.
Diving behind the other one, so it's caught between her and Beaks and Ventus, Jessamy slashes out again with the new dagger.
Ensu loads his crossbow again (from last round) and then fires it at the remaining ogre.
Jess drives her new dagger into the ogre's back and severs something vital. The zombie crumbles to the ground inert.
Ensu unloads his crossbow and stows it away. He pulls out a wand and looks over his companions.
"Okay who's hurt, line up for healing. No sense in entering the cave without being fully healthy."
Siolad shifts from foot to foot. "Well, that went better than I thought. They'll know we're coming now, I think."
He turns to the rest of the party, a spell to increase speed coming to mind. "Would anyone object to me giving us a speed boost to get through this?"
"I want to get through here as fast as we can, but I don't know if we need magic," Jessamy says. "Still, we won't get anywhere by standing here."
She takes a quick look through the undead ogres' gear and then inspects the entrance.
The slain ogres are wearing little and have even less of value.
Jess finds no signs of traps at the trance but she definitely catches the sounds of shouting from inside the caves and the movement of large bodies.
Just past the mouth of the cave, jagged spurs of bone protrude from the stone on either side of the cave entrance, each towering twenty feet in height - apparently the ribs of some monstrous behemoth. A familiar seven-pointed star is etched into the bones at several locations.
Moving further in, the hall narrows and then expands again on one side. An enormous statue stands here in frozen vigil a forty-foot-tall giant with black skin covered by fissures and cracks, like the bed of a dried river. He wears majestic armor, gilded and encrusted with gems, and grips a towering glaive in his armored fists. The giant’s face is hidden by a ferocious full helm forged into the sneering grimace of a fanged devil. Around the giant’s neck hangs a medallion, another seven-pointed star.
Siolad nervously clutches his staff. "Alright..." Noting the narrow entrance to the caves, he cringes. "Now I'm starting to wish I didn't prepare so many fireballs..."
The elf's eyes widen as he looks upon the bones at the cave entrance. "Good heavens... the ogres made their lair using a very old blue dragon skeleton?"
"Really?"
Jessamy frowns. "Didn't the witch say the giant was a necromancer? They can't make it come alive can they?"
"I'm not entirely sure, Jessamy..." Siolad shudders at the thought. "But I sincerely hope not."
"I think they know we're here," Jessamy says. "We could try to wait and maybe catch some of them in an ambush?"
"Sounds like a plan." Siolad nods. "Fireball or no Fireball?"
Ensu gapes at the blue dragon bones and then snaps his fingers and says an arcane command phrase.
A sweep with Ensu’s spell detects no magic on the dragon bones but he does detect magic coming from the statue – more specifically the medallion around its neck.
Ensu says, "Would one of you small giants give me a small lift so I might examine that medallion better?
Siolad arches an eyebrow and activates his own detect magic, taking a look at the medallion Ensu pointed out.
"Sumthin wrong?" asks Pirknok, narrowing his eyes at the giant statue.
Siolad and Ensu determine that, though the medallion is far too large to be worn around the neck, it’s just about the right size to be worn as a shield. It even has some hooks on the back to use as a grip.
Ensu looks over at Pirknok. He points at the medallion.
"That medallion is giving off a magic aura."