Auchs seems to fall in on himself as Abaos blithely tells the tale of Dovan's death. And then, his face contorting with rage, forgetting his club in his fury, and he lashes out at Abaos!
With a hand big enough to wrap around the luckbringer, Auchs punches Abaos's entire torso at once. The ifrit is briefly airborne, and then he hits the ground, tumbling head over heels until coming to a sudden and painful stop against a tree.
Trying hard to breathe, short shallow breaths, Abaos fights stabbing pain throughout his rib cage.
Shouting, spittle flying, Auchs screams at Abaos as he advances on the still-conscious luckbringer, swinging his club back and forth as he goes, digging furrows in the ground with it. "You're LYING! LIAR! Dovan's too smart to die! TOO SMART! He tricked you! He tricked you and you only THINK he's dead! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU."
Guthruc likes Auchs's club. It's bigger and clearly does more damage. Guthruc will take pleasure in prying it from his corpse
Guthruc takes a 5ft step to the space above Anura and swings.
Guthruc then further antagonizes Auchs:
"Ally right. Guthruc eat ogre friend."
Auchs seems to fall in on himself as Abaos blithely tells the tale of Dovan's death. And then, his face contorting with rage, forgetting his club in his fury, and he lashes out at Abaos!
...
Shouting, spittle flying, Auchs screams at Abaos as he advances on the still-conscious luckbringer, swinging his club back and forth as he goes, digging furrows in the ground with it. ...
Awn watches with interest as Abaos takes his turn at flying, with similar results to Iorskan. Seeing few other options, the woodborn slashes again at the crusty ogre...
Round 3
Standard Action Attack!
[+2 Str, + 1 BAB]
[+3 THF]
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Abaos flies through the air, and hits the ground, hard, and winces. That hurt, he thinks to himself, feeling the sharp pain in his ribs. Probably broke. Great.
His immediate problem, however, is the raging ogre that's barreling down on him, angry and spitting venom. He hurriedly stands up, and hurls a dagger, hoping to distract the creature from hitting him with a dagger to the eye.
Activating that when/if Auchs takes me below 0. Rolling now.
Norry and the wyvern take their actions. Norry makes it to the safety of Auchs's threatened range, the wyvern double moves closer to the action, but, due to pathing difficulties, it's 20 foot landspeed, and the difficult terrain, can't quite make it (if memory serves).
Norry fires an arrow at Mr. Blinky.
Rattled as Norry is, he can't get a good shot off.
Shouting, spittle flying, Auchs screams at Abaos as he advances on the still-conscious luckbringer, swinging his club back and forth as he goes, digging furrows in the ground with it. "You're LYING! LIAR! Dovan's too smart to die! TOO SMART! He tricked you! He tricked you and you only THINK he's dead! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU."
The party, working in tandem like the well-oiled engine of death they've proven themselves to be, rapidly comes to Abaos's defence, driving the ogre off.
Guthruc, surging forward, deals a crushing blow that knocks the giant back a pace. Bright Awn, dodging between the meters-tall giant's stumbling legs, draws blood.
Abaos throws his dagger, which while well aimed does not puncture the thick skin of Auchs's face near his eye. Ozara, playing at the edge of the giant's range, stabs with her spear.
Mr. Blinky rapidly closes the distance between himself and Auchs, and leaps through the air and the ogre's unhelmeted head - only to be swatted out of the sky by the remarkably adept and aware giantish fighter.
There's a low-pitched crunching noise as Auchs breaks Mr. Blinky. And then the shadowy protector melts away, banished back to the plane of shadow, leaving Auchs confused as to where he went.
Auchs has had enough.
His only friend in the entire world died, and these people keep stabbing him and whacking him, and while he wasn't paying attention all of the people who he was supposed to be keeping safe were eat-murdered, and these people are all very good and he's having a hard time breaking them even though breaking people is something that he's supposed to be good at, and there's the two legged wyvern that attacked his home earlier slithering out to eat him and it's getting closer and he wants to run before it gets there, and he's bleeding and his insides feel all funny and he thinks he was smushed by the green one who might be a human or maybe a very small ogre how's he supposed to know?
He doesn't even want to deal with this at the moment, he's had enough. His rage has played out and now he's just hurting. Thick tears running down his face, he says to Fat Norry, "I'm done looking for clues now. Let's go home."
And he takes the withdraw action away.
Ozzy screams as Mr. Blinky's body breaks, then fades to shadow, then to nothing. A tear falls from her eyes, which burn with rage as she watches the ogre recede into the forest.
As Auchs retreats, Mr. Winky will follow in the air at a safe distance, attempting to finish him off with Magic Missile before he gets out of range (Mr. Winky's fly speed is 30ft, and the spells range is 110ft, so however many of these he can get in before the ogre gets out of range...).
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Awn wipes a tired hand across a grim brow, and holds T'lass outstretched in the other - pointing at the obese archer. The feral rictus grin on the woodborn's face is frighteningly thin.
"Norry is it? A few of us may be somewhat banged up, but I'll tell you this for free. I'm not. And my friends still stand. Yours - [here indicates the retreating Auchs] well...some are dead on their backs and that large one flees. Now why don't you drop your weapon and surrender or the orc or dragon WILL EAT YOU. Alive."
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Seeing the ‘large one flee’ Iorskan turned to let out a roar. His frustration, anxiety, and pain, all swelled together. The heat within him that enchanted his claws built up...and up...and up...until he finally let out an ear-aching roar. Then, to even his surprise, a cone of fire shot out! It incinerated everything in front of him...within twenty feet.
He stared at the smouldering leaves in astonishment, with a small pound of smoke trailing from his mouth.
Guthruc limps over to a tree mumbling "Guthruc need sleep" sits down, exits rage, and falls unconscious at -3 hp.
Guthruc remains motionless, becoming to bleed out.
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Abaos falls to the ground, the ache from his probably broken ribs suffocating him. He slowly slumps to the ground, feeling sick, as several of his comrades also fall.
After a moment, to regain his breath, Abaos calls out "Let him go, Awn,". He waves his hand as he does so, a dismissive gesture. "Just let him go." He pauses a second. "I- I don't think we can handle another fight."
He points at Guthruc. "Besides, he might be more important."
He adds, to Fat Norry "Go on. We have no quarrel with you, today."
He walks over to Ozzy, and slowly puts an arm around her in a comforting gesture. "I am sorry for your loss, little one."
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Bubbling with happiness Iorskan ran over to Guthruc. ”Did you see it?! I breathed fire? Did you?!” He nudged the orc with his muzzle. ”Guthruc...?”
Guthruc fails to respond to the worried nudge of Iorskan. However, the bloodflow does seem to start to slow down.
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Seeing the blood flow suddenly slow, Iorskan stared in wonder. He had breathed fire, and now had saved his friend’s life! What else could he do? Could he fly?!
No. No he couldn’t. But he did get off the ground, briefly. And give Guthruc a cool breeze.
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Awn's smile falters, then disappears as the import of the ifrit's instructions descend on his smouldering anger. It burns brighter. Still watching Norry Awn replies.
"I. Have. A. Quarrel. With. Him. He and his nearly killed you. And Guthruc. And they dissipated Mr. Blinky."
Awn's stare would bore holes in Norry if eyes would bore holes like borers bore holes in wood.
"You. Go. Nowhere. Or I spit you where you stand."
Norry saw what you did to his company. Forsaking his pride (and mentally berating the ogre for abandoning him, he begs for his life. Slowly, making no sudden movements, he places his bow on the ground. "Please don't kill me," he pleads, "I was just doing as I was told."
Ozzy steps over to Guthruc without taking her eyes off of Norry. She stares, with hate in her eyes, her vision blurred by tears. She pulls out the wand, and strikes her compatriots just a little too hard as she revives and revivifies them each in turn. She then returns to Norry, holding her spear at his throat. Her anger is the only thing keeping her from collapsing into a fit of sobs.
As Guthruc regains consciousness, he thanks ozzy for the healing and starts to scan the battlefield of any part of Auchs that may have come off in the fight. Teeth, hair, skin, armor, blood, anything. He collects these "trophies" and uses an old piece of twine or grass to tie them into a creepy looking trophy fetish.
In response to the strange looks he ought to be getting at this point, he replies: "Ogre strong. Part ogre give Guthruc part strength ogre. Guthruc now more strong." he ties this new trophy fetish onto the "handle" of his greatclub. "Want ogre club"
His anger still afire, Awn nods to Ozzy. The woodborn kneels by a fallen archer and touches the man, drawing forth the man's dying breath. Vital power surges through Awn and his eyes brighten and enlarge. Muscles glistening as they enlarge, Awn advances on Norry.
"You are wise to admit defeat. Ozara here has lost a beloved friend, as I am sure you...haven't. Acquaintances perhaps? Strange bedfellows, friends of convenience. Well, they are dust now, and you will tell us everything we want to know. Who told you to ambush us?"
You draw forth the ebbing life force of a creature and use it to fuel your own power. Upon casting this spell, you touch a living creature that has -1 or fewer hit points. If the subject fails its saving throw, it dies, and you gain 1d8 temporary hit points and a +2 enhancement bonus to Strength. Additionally, your effective caster level goes up by +1, improving spell effects dependent on caster level. This increase in effective caster level does not grant you access to more spells.
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Abaos is unsurprised when Ozzara doesn't feel like talking, and instead hits him a little hard with the wand Ouch!, and then levels her spear at the man. So, he turns his attention elsewhere. Specifically, to the captured man and Awn.
Abaos watches in horror as his friend seems to suddenly reach down and draw breath from a dying man. Recovering from his momentary shock, he walks over and whispers to Awn.
"Um- we ambushed them, buddy. They likely came to see why they lost contact with Dovan, and find the camp. They found us instead- we just weren't the strong ones, this time." He pauses, chewing over those words for just a second. "Might be we're over our heads, here."
he turns back from his musings to the scene before him. "Ask him about the stag Lord's fortress."
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"The ogre was hiding, or attempting to. Ambusher, ambushee - it matters little now. Hostilities ensued, and we won. We. Stand. "
Awn points to the husk he drained.
"That, Abaos, is what victory feels like. Death. So if you want empire and conquest, come to terms with the cost."
The woodborn shakes, a visceral struggle to maintain his centre in the midst of pain and chaos that he is completely a party to.
Awn fixes Norry with a withering stare.
"I am tired Norry. Outline what you know of the fortress, the Stag Lord's force, materiel and the whereabouts of the other lieutenants."
I'm going to assume that everyone rolls sense motive against Norry, on account of his being an untrustworthy bandit.
Whenever Norry tries to lie, his shrinking and stammering give him away to both Awn (who can spot the slightest tell and read a face like it's a picture book) and Guthruc (who can smell the weakling human's fear; it smells sweet).
Bright Awn's and Guthruc's impatience (to put things likely) quickly convince him to tell the truth, whole, truth, and nothing but the truth, so help him Erastil.
Here's what you get out of Fat Norry:
The Fortress
The bulk of the Stag Lord's fortress was there when they found it; a stone monastery long abandoned, two stories above the ground and one beneath. The bandits themselves constructed the three watchtowers, the catwalks connecting them, and a wall around the whole compound, tall as Auchs and covered in sharpened stakes.
Tensions are high ever since the bandits of the forest stopped paying their tribute, the watch towers are manned day and night.
The Stag Lord's Force
The Stag Lord commands the loyalty of forty-odd men and women, desperate thieves and murderers with no where else to turn. Some of them were intimidated into joining, but most of those sorts have already deserted. The people who stuck around, for the most part, are genuine believers, they think that the Stag Lord can and will carve out his own kingdom and that his loyal followers will be rewarded.
Some of them are dangerously fanatical, and treat the Stag Lord like some sort of deity. Some of these people even sought the bandits out, and weren't locals or even criminals prior. Norry has no idea how they heard about him, and is equally confused by the Stag Lord's strange charisma - by Norry's judgement, the man is a mean drunk more than slightly removed from reality. But boy can he fight.
The Lieutenants
Norry knows little about Kressel Rutan, except that she and the Stag Lord know each other from someplace, while she's been raiding at the edges of the Greenbelt for a decade now, and he's a more recent arrival, she was quickly promoted to near the top of the hierarchy and put in charge of the local thieves, a large number of which she evidently already commanded.
She, with two loyalists, came to the fort (about two weeks ago now?) to report on the mass desertion of the local forces, who seem to be marching to the beat of the Swordlord's drums, perhaps in hope of clemancy. Norry's heard that they're led by a man named "Abose", and his mercenary companions. Who match your guyses descriptions, so they're probably you.
[ooc]Abaos did most of the talking then, so they think that he's your leader and spokesman.[/b]
In battle, she dual wields axes or uses a bow. She excels, however, in a team, giving advice and helping people realize their potential.
Dovan from Nisroch wouldn't be recognized by any of Abaos's followers, so he was sent by Akiros Ismort to infiltrate their group.
Akiros Ismort is just about the only one of the lieutenants who can be bothered with the logistics of running a fifty-folk war camp. The Stag Lord spends most of his time in a drunken stupor, or ranting and raving nonsense at the sky in the middle of a thunderstorm (admittedly, this isn't something that he spends most of his time doing, it just stuck in Norry's mind as a prime example of poor leadership). Akiros picked up the slack, assigning people to posts, making sure that food was planted and grown, breaking up arguments and fistfights and knifefights, killing the zombies when they crawl out of their graves and into the monastery, and just generally upkeeping the operation.
While his generally laid-back demeanor makes him popular with the men, sometimes the stress of being the only person who gives a damn gets to him. If you catch him at a bad time, he's liable to take it out on you with his fists.
In battle, he fights with a shield and a sword, and uses both as deadly weapons. Despite the piece of metal strapped to his arm, he fights with reckless abandon, a frenzy of violent motion that's always first to the fray and last to retreat.
Auchs, the giant that you encountered just now, was made a lieutenant so that Dovan had two votes whenever it came up. (Ostensibly, he was made a lieutenant because of how useful he was at killing things and moving heavy stuff around, but Fat Norry is quick to point out that he's be just as good at being strong without the title and amulet denoting office.)
Raltoukh, the manticore, is one of the aforementioned dangerous fanatics that believes in the Stag Lord's cause. Maybe. It's kind of hard to follow what the manticore says, though apparently he and the Stag Lord are united in their service of Narsa or something. Raltoukh just showed up one day, and has been flying reconnaissance and sleeping on the roof ever since.
Falgrim Sneeg, a wizard, lives on the subterranean floor of the fort. No one really knows what he does down there, and no one wants to find out. Once, when he was interrupted, he burned the intruder to death with acid.
People stay out of that area unless they're there for healing from the freaky old man locked in a cage (though most would rather let their injuries heal naturally and risk infection). The old man also brews potions for them, which are sometimes poisoned. When someone drinks a potion and gets sick from it or dies, the Stag Lord goes down there and knocks the old man around.
The cage is barred, but outside the bars are a fine mesh as a second line of defense, as the freak periodically tries to escape by turning into large or small animals.
If there's anything else Norry would know that you want to, ask!
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Abaos listens intently, enraptured by whatever the man says. He's thankful for Awn's wisdom and great skill in detecting lies; without him, Abaos is certain he would have been fooled by the man, so believable he was in everything he stated! Still, there are a few things he picks up on.
killing the zombies when they crawl out of their graves and into the monastery,
"Wait wait wait wait! Zombies? Coming up from the monastery? What type of place are they living in that breeds zombies continuously? And why are they still there? Any idea what's causing the zombies, Norry?
As he waits for a reply, Abaos thinks back to his conversation with Bokken about Nugrah, and wonders if that's the cause. He also wonders if this Falgrim Sneeg may be Nugrah, and poses the query to Fat Norry.
"Norry- would this Falgrim Sneeg happen to have a nickname? Nugrah? Does that sound familiar to you?"
He also wants to know more about this Akiros Ismort, and will question Fat Norry about him.
"What's his deal, Norry? If the Stag Lord is such a drunk, as you claim, and Akiros is so fed up with running the show- why is he still around? What's the relationship between the two, and how did it come to be? There's got to be a reason he's still around, and I'd like to know what it is."
Iorskan didn’t listen at all. He was too happy with his flames. When the man finally stopped talking, the little dragon walked over to Awn and whispered:
”...can I set him on fire?” He sounded *very* hopeful, even though he figured the answer was probably going to be no.
Listening to this important information from Fat Norry with rapt attention, Awn still manages to hear Iorskan's plea and whispers back:
"Possibly my little dragon, possibly..."
"Wait wait wait wait! Zombies? Coming up from the monastery? What type of place are they living in that breeds zombies continuously? And why are they still there? Any idea what's causing the zombies, Norry?
"Zombies've been here longer than we have, I think they had something to do with the monastery we expanded. Usually they stick in their graves, though, and even if they don't, as long as Auchs hadn't left the door open there's no way they can get through the wall. They're actually sort of useful; if anyone tries to surprise attack us through the graveyard the zombies come up after them."
"Eventually they get tired of wandering around and head back to their graves."
"Norry- would this Falgrim Sneeg happen to have a nickname? Nugrah? Does that sound familiar to you?"
Not as far as Norry knows.
He also wants to know more about this Akiros Ismort, and will question Fat Norry about him.
"What's his deal, Norry? If the Stag Lord is such a drunk, as you claim, and Akiros is so fed up with running the show- why is he still around? What's the relationship between the two, and how did it come to be? There's got to be a reason he's still around, and I'd like to know what it is."
"Well . . . if you'd been around the Stag Lord, yourself, you'd know. He doesn't like to be crossed, or annoyed, or inconvenienced. And the littlest thing sets him off - he once beat one of our horses to death because it wouldn't stop making noise. With his fists."
"He does things, things that shouldn't be possible, and he does them all the time. We've got an owlbear, named Beaky, living in a cage. Stag Lord found it wandering outside, thought it looked funny, so he went out and dragged it inside. Sometimes he tries to teach Beaky tricks . . . though most of the time, Beaky's just locked up in that cage, with hardly enough room to turn around. I'd feel sorry for it, but I'm pretty sure Beaky wants to eat me."
"He's . . . what's the term. He's larger than life! He's got a monster of a longbow, but the string kept breaking whenever he tried to draw it. So he ripped the chain out of Jesse's flail, and strung his bow with that. Hasn't given him any problems since. And yeah, he's a drunk, and none too nice when he's sober . . . but living near him, seeing him at his best and worst, you get this feeling. This feeling of inevitability, that this man can do anything and there's not a thing in the world can stop him."
"A lot of us . . . well, we just want to see where this goes."
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Abaos turns to the party. "Norry, give us a moment," he says causally to the bandit. As an afterthought, he icily adds "Don't go anywhere."
"Guys," he turns to them, "two things. First, we need to know more about this Akiros man. If he's the one running the day- to- day operations, then he's the one who's going to be organizing their defenses, the one really opposing us. We need to draw him out."
He pauses, before continuing "Secondly, if the remaining men of the Stag Lord just want someone larger than life, then we need to find a way to do that. We need to be that. If we can prove to them we really are starting something here, well, maybe they fold up without bloodshed."
"Any suggestions?"
Guthruc replies with a mix of excitement, vengeance, and bloodlust "Guthruc build army"