Eli fingers another extract in his bandolier as he looks around the room. "I've got a bad feeling about this..." he mutters.
" ... What kind of stu?" Jessamy asks nervously.
This is so weird. Maybe the cat and its master are the bad ones, though?
”Deer” the hulking ogre-blooded man guffaws. ”That’s a silly question.”
”Mammy’s deer stu is the best!”
Pirknok glances around at his companions. This is very strange...
"Ah like deer stu," he offers.
Kaplan attempts to soothe the cat.
The firepelt continues being upset.
Once the ogrekin leaves the room, Jessamy begins a quick investigation.
The dim-witted ogrekin departs down a short hall.
Using this time to poke around, Jessamy checks out more of the farmhouse. Beside the front room the rest of the party is waiting in, there looks to be three other areas.
To the north is a pantry/kitchen area with sturdy shelves lining the walls. A pile of bones and gore is heaped on a sturdy table at the room’s center and a huge blackened kettle hangs over a wood-fire in the kitchen’s corner. A tempting savory aroma fills the space.
To the northeast Jess finds a sort of indoors greenhouse. Large leafy plants grow out of clay pots in this room, some as tall as the room’s high ceiling. Wall-sized panes of clouded glass form two of this room’s walls allowing amply light into the room.
To the east is a dining area. A very heavy wooden table fills the space and tree stumps serve as chairs. Various stains on the walls and floor suggest that the ogrekin are messy eaters.
Down the hall the ogrekin exited, Jessamy finds a pair of stairs. One leads down to a cellar. The other heads upstairs where more movement can be heard.
Ventus looks to Kaplan, Pirknok, and Eli.
"We have to be ready for anything here," He says in a whisper to the others, "We know at least one of the rangers is here but for once talking might do us good."
Jessamy retreats back before her absence is noted, and quickly tells the others what she's seen.
" ... and I swear one of the plants was watching me!" she exclaims as she describes the greenhouse.
"Someone other than me ought to handle speaking with these 'folk'," Kaplan whispers. "I'm better communicator with animals."
"Ah kin talk to 'um," replies Pirknok with a nod at the older dwarf and a hint of his old accent coming out, "but ah need ta know wut we want ta do... ah mean... ah don't know wut these people ar up to, maybe they ar jus' bein' nice an' they saved thuh ranger frum sumthin' or uther..."
He shrugs, not sounding quite convinced. "But ah think we need ta be on our guard, an' have uh signul that any uv us kin use ta tell thuh rest that it's time."
"Is there maybe a dwarven word we could use? Or Shoanti? Or it might just be obvious. Maybe they can tell us what's happening to the rangers, though? Or anything else going on out here?"
"If this goes badly, don't be surprised if I turn Invisible." Eli says wryly. [b["A Plant, you say, Jessamy? Can you describe it?"[/b] he asks her.
"It was large. And kind of moved subtly; I barely noticed it. Green, maybe?"
"Aye, most plants are green, lass," Kaplan says with a chuckle.
"I guess. Trees are more brown, I'd say. And grass is sometimes yellow. But I'm no expert."
The plant Jess noticed was a large leafy bush. The bulk of it was tall enough to reach the ceiling and it had vines that creeped across the sunroom's walls.
A couple minutes later, the party's ogrekin host returns.
"Mammy says you can stay for suppa. She wants to meet you first. Follow me", he says with a gesture toward the direction he came from.
Jessamy looks at the others and shrugs.
"OK."
I hope we're not walking into the stu ... stew ... pot.
Pirknok nods and follows as well. I hope the one we found in the woods doesn't see us...
The brawny ogre leads the party down a short flight of stairs into the building's cellar. Here, the decor is starkly different. The over-sized gaudy furniture has vanishes and in its place are things strange and exotic. Shelves line the walls, lined with bizarre wicker fetishes and strings of dried (or drying) herbs hang from the ceiling. Smoke from a heady pungent incense fills the space giving the air a hazy quality.
An enormous full-blooded female ogre stands at the far end leaning over another sturdy wooden table. On it is a familiar ogrekin sporting assorted burn wounds. Across his injuries are strips of cloth, soaked in an unknown yellow liquid.
"Mammy. The visitors are here to meet you", the party's host says.
Jessamy gulps nervously as she sees the burned man, hands edging closer to her weapons ... just in case.
"She likely is a Witch. Beware her arcane powers." Eli whispers to the others as he recognizes the fetishes and other trappings.
The massive she-ogre turns to face the party. "And who are these visitors that my baby boy says wandered into our home?" she asks in a voice that is entirely too deep. "Mammy wasn't expecting more mouths to feed. Menfolk don't travel this part of the woods much these days."
Pirknok eyes the giant a bit suspiciously, sizing her up and watching her for any sudden movements. With a suppressed sigh, he motions at himself and his companions. "Ah'm Pirknok. We're lookin' fer sum rangers who went missin'."
Mammy looks down at the tattooed dwarf with a deadly cunning in her eyes that belies her hulking frame. "Rangers? Mammy and her boys are hosting some Black Arrows alright but they can't go nowhere."
"Why do you ask little Peaceborn?"
The dwarf raises an eyebrow. She names me Peaceborn... so she knows dwarves... she's smarter than she wants us to believe.
"People's wurried uhbout 'um. Why ya say they can't go nowhere? Ar they hurt? Kin we talk to them?"
Pirknok's voice is steady and he meets her gaze unwaveringly, but his hand inches toward his sword nonetheless.
Jessamy waits, poised on the balls of her feet, for the outcome of the dwarf and ogre's discussion.
Who'd have thought a dwarf would be such a good speaker? But that doesn't sound good...
”They’re a little bruised but nothing Mammy can’t fix. They gotta stay because that’s what the Kreegs want. Mammy’s gunna do what they say to keep my boys safe and sound.”
The monstrous matron gestures at a door. ”They is in there but don’t try nothing.”
"Who's Kreegs?" asks the dwarf curiously. Not many that can make ogres afraid...
"I'll take a look if you don't mind," Ventus said, relaxing some. Keeping an eye on the ogress, he approaches the door. If she does not object, he will haul it open.
Eli holds a bomb in his hand, and keeps his eyes on the Ogress.
”The Kreegs are the only other clan left round these parts”, Mammy answers. ”They’re big and very powerful.”
Opening the door, Ventus finds a small store room with shelves stuffed with furs and bunches of dried herbs. In the center of the room’s floor are three battered unconscious men. All are obviously warriors though one is significantly older than the other two. They are currently naked save for their smallclothes.
Pirknok frowns. "An' they told you ta keep thuh rangers here?"
”They have some kinda plans for ‘em.”
The dwarf growls and addresses the ranger. "Ventus, ar they okay?"
Turning back to the matron, he continues, "Sounds like we need ta talk to thuh Kreegs. You mean thuh rangers no harm?"
Mammy shakes her lumpy head. ”Mussin’ with menfolk is trouble. The Gruals learned that a long time ago. Mammy thought the Kreegs learned that too.”
”Mammy and her boys aren’t gunna hurt ‘em.”
Pirknok can’t make any sense out of the Mammy’s motives.
"What kind of clan?
"Oh, and if you want, maybe we could take them off your hands? Then you wouldn't have to worry about messing with them?"
”An ogre clan of course.”
Jessamy picks up that Mammy is nervous about her involvement in whatever the Kreeg’s are doing.
The she-ogre’s beady eyes grow wide at the suggestion. ”No no no, sweetie. That’s not a good idea. Jaagrath wouldn’t like that and he’d come punish Mammy’s boys. They’re good boys, they don’t deserve that.”
The younger dwarf frowns, his brows furrowing in serious thought. "Shak kamur vik... makin kav kuravam?"
"Jaagrath is one of the Kreegs?"
Mammy nods. ”The biggest and the strongest of ‘em now. His pappy had some sense but Jaagrath is just a troublemaker. He doesn’t remember what it was like before.”