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"Does anyone mind?" Adolina asks, holding the potion bottle. She waits maybe two seconds before whipping the top off and swigging the entire thing down, letting out a groan as the deep gash in her chest seals itself up.
"So," she turns to Cadas and Marcellano, gesturing at the pile of loot they have all acquired. "What does this stuff do?" As the magicians set to their work Adolina stays quiet - almost literally fading into the background...
Save it lass. Put that potion in your pack. the cleric says. Let me administer to your wounds while I can. There may be a time when I am not around and you need it more.
Cadas will channel twice as more than Adeline is injured. If the prisoners are still wounded she would wait until everyone is together to do so.
"Well, I suppose we'd best head back to our Black Arrow friends, eh?" Marcellano says. "As for these..."
"This is an amulet of natural armor--quite literally, it will toughen your skin. Might help deflect some blows. This hide armor and the ogre hook have minor enchantments on them to promote defense and power, respectively, and this..." He carefully opens the wax-sealed tin with his knife, then recoils. "...is disgusting. Don't look. Nethys's withered hand, I hate these ogrekin."
Having distributed the gear from the various ogrekin, you all head back to the barn where Shalelu and the three Black Arrow men are waiting. You return the gear to the men, and they all willingly agree to help you clear out and retake Fort Rannick.
Atrius, tells you, "My friends, now that you have Shalelu and the Black Arrow rangers, I must take my leave of you. I will head back to town, then to the coast and report what has happened to far to the Lord Mayor. Good fortune to you all" and with that he takes off, heading back to the trail that leads back to the small town.
Shalelu tells you, "Jakardros is my step father. The two of us have come to terms with his actions after my mother died and I am glad that we met. Now let us move on to Fort Rannick."
Retaking the fort will be tricky and dangerous. We are lucky to have you men who know it well. Can you sketch it in some detain here in the dirt and describe pros and cons for different approaches. Please include your best guesses about numbers, locations and makeup of the enemy. It makes sense to me that we do as much recon as we can. Maybe from both the ground and air. We will need intel I think to pull this off.
"Travel safely, Atrius," Marcellano says seriously, waving farewell to the golden legionnaire as he heads back toward town. Then he turns back to the group.
"Cadas is right that we will need as much information as possible to be successful," he says to the Black Arrows. "A prepared mind is the only one that solves real problems. And as for ground and air," he adds to Cadas, "I have been researching a spell for unaided humanoid flight. So that should be within reach if we decide that we must go down that route. Alternatively, Narcizia is less obviously out of the ordinary."
Jakardros responds to the questions, "We need to go back to the path along the river, and Fort Rannick is about ten miles north, and about a half mile off the river."
"There are some secret tunnels behind the waterfall on the south side of the fort, that I am sure they have not found. It leads to the main fort level and also the underground. In the underground part there are some shocker lizards. We do not know how many of the ogres are in the fort, but am certain that there is a lot. The new barracks, near the south is a tinder box and a good fire would certainly kill some of the ogres that must be there."
He waits for other questions.
Shocker Lizards. I could provide a reasonable amount of electric energy resistance communally. If there are not too many we could use that way to get inside. And if we had to retreat then the lizards might cover our withdrawal. Let us go there and observe for fort first and make a plan. I suspect Ogres sell better than most of us at night so we might as well plan to hit them at first light in the morning, or the morning after, depending on what we find.
"I have a scroll that can protect me against the electrical energy, Cadas," Marcellano remarks. "That way you can save your god's blessings to be more evenly apportioned among the group. I agree that the hidden route seems to be the best way in, shocker lizards or no." He frowns, trying to recall all he can of the critters.
He adds, "It should be no trouble to ignite the barracks from a distance, particularly if we can camp somewhere for the night before attempting the fort. That way I can prepare some of my spells once more, and different ones to boot."
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"Based on what we've seen here I should be able to explore without much trouble." Adolina agrees. "Ogres aren't the most observant. If someone can give me a magical escape route just in case I should be able to set a fire without anyone noticing."
The discussion of Shocker Lizards puts a frown on Adolina's face though. "Do we have to go through them? That sounds both unstealthy and dangerous. Could we drive them away with something? A smell or some such? The same way that Vampires recoil from garlic?"
Jakardros replies, "the barracks are inside the main fort walls, and next to the mountain, where the fort is in an indentation."
"Hmmmmmmm." Marcellano frowns, thinking. "I have to admit that I've never heard of anything that drove away shocker lizards--and the little critters are pretty territorial once they've established a colony. I actually had a mentor once, a Cyphermage back in Riddleport, who was obsessed with them as a side project. He kept a couple in captivity--barely--trying to figure out how their electrical powers work. They grow more powerful in conjunction with each other, you see. He had a theory that they had special body parts sensitive to some sort of...energy field...that somehow used electricity. And he had some bizarre idea about it involving the mystical force that draws magnets together, too! That's right, he called it the 'magnetoelectric field...'"
Seeing the others looking at him, he holds his hands up. "Look, they're not my crackpot theories. Everyone knows that electricity is brought into our world through random portals with the Plane of Air, and thence travels the world at high speed seeking for a way to return. Something about the shocker lizards allows them to capture and store it. But the point is that if there are a lot of them, their electrical discharges will become extremely dangerous--more than even my spells or Cadas's blessings are likely to be able to handle. And since they're territorial and can sense electricity, they'll come running once one of them finds us and attempts to shock us.
"The only thing I can think of is that they are, of course, just animals--they're weak-willed and simple-minded. They can see in the dark, but perhaps we could disguise ourselves in some way, or charm our way through..."
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"Let's go and explore what we can at least. Then some of us can sneak in a do some better reconnaissance, setting fire to those barracks would probably be a good distraction and could let the rest of us approach as well. But we need to see what we're looking at."
Looking around she grimaces in distaste - "Is someone going to dispose of this place before we leave?"
Responding to Robin "there is the entrance at the southern waterfall to the secret caves that I am sure the ogres do not know about, but other than the gates, no other way, unless you fly or climb over the walls. There is not a particularly good place to climb."
Marcellano nods to Adolina. "I'll gladly see this so-called 'homestead' erased." Standing up, he cracks his knuckles and begins to chant. In a few moments, first one then two 8-foot long, coiling and hissing snakes composed entirely of flame appear. Marcellano points at the house and one snake rushes forward, roaring gleefully, to ignite it. The other is pointed to the barn.
Turning back to the others, the wizard smooths his hair and says, "I think it best that we rest for tonight, then plan our approach tomorrow morning. Perhaps if we can get through the secret cave quickly--without attracting too much attention--we'll be safe from the lizards."
If we could scout tonight, with no intent of engaging I would feel we had used our time more wisely. Cadas counters. We will stay well back from the walls but I would like to see what we face in order to make better plans.
Marcellano nods. "That makes sense. Shall we press on, then?"
Deciding to try and make the fort before nightfall, you hustle along the trail, with Adolina and Shalelu leading the way and Jakardros right behind them.
It is just getting to be dusk, when you Jakardros leads you off the trail into some woods and moves you quietly north along the edge of the woods, but out of site of the fort. Stopping about 200 yards south, he points out various buildings and information about the fort.
- East gate - A twenty-foot-tall gatehouse surrounds two battered double doors that look as if they’re barely hanging on their hinges.
- South gate - This twenty-foot-tall gatehouse is protected by an iron gate, and looks to be in good condition. There appears to be at least four ogres guarding it.
- Stable
- The old guard post
- Cook house
- Drainage ditch filed with sewage
- Pond, with a waterfall. Secret entrance to back caves.
- The new barracks
- The main entrance into the main buildings of the fort.
He also points out the two other secret doors from where the back caves come out.
It is now bordering on darkness.
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"I suggest that I go in tonight and fire the barracks - if I do it at night then there should be as many ogres as possible in there. Then we can retreat and leave them suffering a sleepless night waiting for an attack that never comes. We go in tomorrow, well rested and perhaps use the secret passages?" Adolina looks around the group after outlining her plan. "What do you think? I don't know that much about ogres beyond the basics."
I am no master tactician but I am against anyone going in alone, regardless of how skillful they are at stealth. Also it seems to me that we need to attack concurrent with the burning of the barracks. If we wait the enemy will be more on guard when we do go in.
Ogres see well in the dark and are not known to be early risers. I will not ready to support an assault, or a rescue until after I prepare spells in the morning. If we are to ignite the barracks at night it must not be this night. Tomorrow night would work but I warn you that ogres see better than most of us at night so I say a daylight assault is better. And I would not waste our best diversion. When we ignite the barracks we need to be ready to go in. Cadas seems adamant. [/b]
Marcellano trudges along with the others, his mind racing furiously as they march. When they make camp for the night and Adolina suggests going in by herself, he frowns. "I'm inclined to agree with Cadas. If you go in by yourself and you do get in trouble, we will have no way to extract you from a dangerous situation--not to mention know way of knowing what trouble you're in." He paces back and forth by the campfire, thinking furiously. "I'm afraid I'm not much of an evoker--I do not know any spells that could set the barracks on fire from this far away, which is what I would surely prefer. But we have another potential problem..."
He points. "Those walls look over the very pond that we had discussed sneaking in through. If the ogres mount any sort of patrol or guard, we'll be seen almost instantly. I have an idea. Why don't I send Narcizia to do a fly-over so that she can tell us where the ogres are right now?"
Marcellano turns and murmurs to Narcizia, before letting her loose. She claps into the air and is gone.
Marcellano sends Narcizia ahead to the fort, instructing the raven to keep high and out of sight by keeping near the mountain wall so the ogres don't see him, and report back on his findings.
He reports that there is only one ogre watching the north gate, but there is a large mound of dirt and rocks behind the gate that is barely on its hinges. There are at least four ogres in the southern gate and they seem to be very alert. There is usually an ogre or two wandering around inside the grounds, and they seem to be munching on what might be parts of a humanoid. He also reports it smells badly as you get close to the fort.
Adolina and Shalelu melt into the night, the two of elvish blood, with their vision and stealth skills move slowly along the woods edge till they come to the treeline and any further towards the fort would possibly expose them to the ogres. As they move to the woods edge, it smells horribly of dead flesh, and they see dozens of skulls and mangled corpses hang from trees near the fort, with gigantic rusty hooks spitting them like meat awaiting a butcher’s block. The stench of sweat, urine, blood, and ogre-musk befouls the air around the fort. The fort itself is made of stone, and while it looks climbable it would certainly be the hardest and most dangerous way in.
After taking this look around, they two scouts head back to thru the woods to where the rest of the group is located.
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"Why would you say that Robin?" Adolina asks with a grin, materialising out of the darkness behind him. "We just went on a nice star-lit stroll together."
"The place reeks - I think you could set an explosion off just from the fumes if you tried. We could climb the walls if we tried but there would be little in the way of cover. If we want a stealthy approach then it has to be the tunnel I think - there's no other good way in."
Glad you had fun.
My 40th will be this time next year.
"Both gates sound like they would be challenging, and the wall would be damn near impossible for all of us to attempt," Marcellano declares. "I think that we should try to make the journey in through the shocker lizard caves. That, at least, is an unknown threat--and one that won't warn the others to boot, so if things go poorly we can always retreat with the ogres none the wiser."
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"That should work really well Robin." Adolina grins at the bard. "Don't worry about getting me in if it gets too tight, I can go ahead or behind as needed. Shalelu, could you and the rangers create a distraction? A noisy arrow attack on the main gate or some such - make sure you retreat in plenty of time of course but anyone you can draw away helps us."
Marcellano smiles. "Well now, that sounds like it could indeed work! Let's try it."
Marcellano nods. "Makes sense to me," he says.