"C'mon, you can do better than that," Ventus growled at the ogre.
Still looking for an opening, and not wanting to risk going into the now rock-strewn room, Jessamy tries again to get the ogres to give up.
"Ha! You're outnumbers and out-spelled! Give up now and you won't have to die painfully!"
Despite the ferocity of her threats, Jess doesn’t seem to be making an impression on the massive brutes. Pirknok fails to get his sword past the ogre’s crude armor and thick hide but Ventus does, scoring another blow with his sword and shield. Kaplan and Eli succeed in getting the attention of the ogress and she directs her magical fury at them via a volley of arcane missiles.
The lead ogre roars in defiance despite his many wounds and swings his massive hook at Pirknok and Ventus once again.
Jessamy hops back and forth as she looks for an opening.
"Can you push past him?" she calls, frustration in her voice.
Kaplan's eyes burn like coals as he directs his burning gaze to the ogre in front.
;
"He's too fat!" Ventus called back.
Pirknok roars and swings his own sword in vicious retaliation.
Jessamy will wait, looking for an opening.
Hurt by the missiles, Eli draws and downs an extract.
Ventus and the combined dwarven assault is enough to bring the ogre down with a crash. As soon as the front ogre falls, Jess springs past her companions and over his corpse towards the ogress. Her silvery blade opens a bloody wound on the she-ogre.
The ogress cries out and retreats a step. She chants a quick spell and fires a bolt of lightning down the hallway.
Pirknok charges forward once again, eyes rimmed with red.
Eli twists out of the way of the main blast of lightning, then moves forward, readying his Longspear as he goes.
Ventus hangs back, the hallway too narrow for him to advance past the others but more than happy to let the fresher Jess take point for a minute against a softer target.
Jessamy grits her teeth as she tries to duck under the bolt and feels it sizzle down the back of her spine, the taunt for the ogress dying on her lips.
She curses to herself as her muscles seize slightly with the shock, throwing off her aim.
Kaplan turns his gaze to the ogress.
;
The she-ogre doesn't even have time to meet Kaplan's smoldering gaze before she's swiftly cut down by Pirknok and Jess's flashing blades.
Suddenly the whole fort quakes as something large and heavy hits the ground nearby.
"What the heck was that?!" Jessamy hisses.
"Ah dunno, but we need ta find that leader ogre!"
"What now?" Eli mutters fearfully, fishing among his materials and extracts, mixing up something.
"Find a window," Ventus said with a shrug.
As the party looks for the nearest window, whatever's shaking the fort feels like it's getting closer.
The older dwarf lays his hands on Pirknok, pouring forth the remainder of his healing energy.
Krojun clears his throat and tightens his grip on his barbed whip. "Spirits protect us. Whatever's making that racket is big alright", the big shoanti says.
He chants a spell and tends to the party's wounds.
Eli mixes up another extract for himself.
"Ah, thanks, Krojun," Jessamy replies. "You're so quiet, sometimes it's like you're not here, but I don't know what we'd do without you!"
She picks up her daggers and, switching out her blades for her bow, resumes looking for a window to see what the noise is.
"C'mon, one of these rooms has to have an outside view," Ventus says opening the nearest door.
Kaplan follows the group, scimitar in hand.
The party checks the nearest doors looking for a room with a view only to be interrupted as the doors at the end of the hallway burst open, snapping one of the hinges in the process. Standing in the threshold is a massive ogre, a head taller and brawny in a way that dwarfs the ones the party encountered thus far. He's nearly naked save several furs that have been crudely stitched together to cover his hips. He glares at the party through bleary eyes before roaring in anger. "Who's makin' all the noise?!"
Pirknok grunts. "Ar you Jaagrath?" he asks, lifting his sword experimentally.
The giant ogre clenches his monstrous fists. "Ya! And I'm gunna pound you!"
The dwarf shakes his head resolutely. "No, you ain't. Yer gunna go cry on yer dead "mammy"'s shoul'er fer wut you have done."
"WAT! Don't you talk 'bout my Mammy!"
"Ah bet she wuz evin uglier than you, wuzint she?"
"I bet she had lots of piercings too!" Jessamy cries out, giggling at her quip as she unloads a pair of arrows toward the ogre.
She stops laughing as she realizes it's throwing off her aim.
Stupid joke!
Jess's poorly aimed arrows clatter off the ogre's thick hide as he charges forward. With a roar he slams a monstrous fist down on Ventus.
Ventus lets out a cry of surprise as the blow crushes him to a knee and drives the edge of his shield into his face.
"Stop makin' him angrier!" He shouts to Pirknok and Jessamy.
Pirknok steps forward with a calmness that belies his boiling rage. "Ah'll show him angry..." he mutters, swinging his sword.
Kaplan touches Eli with a guiding hand.
Jessamy grimaces for a second but then seems to come to a decision and -- dropping her bow -- dives into a crazy roll past Ventus, pulling and lashing out with her blade as she slides between the ogre's legs, popping back up to her feet on the far side of the brute.
She curses as she glances at her blade and still doesn't see any blood on it.
Eli groans and draws a bomb. "Watch out for the... why don't you..." he weakly offers advice, then shrugs, steps forward and tosses his vial.
Jaagrath coughs and sputters as Eli's bombs explodes against his torso and Jess, Ventus, and Pirknok all land mighty blows but against the wall of brawny ogre-flesh the wounds look almost insignificant.
Rearing back with those mammoth fists, the boss-ogre pounds on the little people surrounding him.