I will pull out one of my wands while inside the cave mouth and cast Entropic Shield on myself and then stealth from the cave to see what is going on and if I can assist in any way.
stealth
Round 3:
Action Tracker: Ogres / Vesta, Interlopers, Ignac, Daemon, Gabriel, Gathroc
The ogres are still confused as to what is happening and only hesitantly stride a little further from the cave mouth. The interlopers loose another volley of bolts, dropping the injured ogre, before switching to sword and shield.
Vest floats forward invisibly, ending up roughly directly above the cave mouth and able to survey the field.
Daemon girds his form with protective enchantments before moving forth. Ignac looses a blast of electricity at the foes he faces on the right flank, causing them to jerk uncontrollably for a few moments as they lose control of their muscles.
Vestaa attempts to touch the nearest enemy and posess him (assuming they're not constructs)
Touch attack DC 23 to resist.
Round 3:
Gabriel will continue to stealth forward, looking for a likely target...
EDIT:
Gabriel spring-attacks the closest human!
Gathroc will charge the nearest crossbowman, looking to cut him down.
Springing up from the ground, Gabriel's flying fist catches one of the crouching humans on the side of the head - sending him crumpled to the ground and motionless.
Gathroc similarly charges forward and scythes down one of the humans before him. Sword cutting a wicked groove down his front.
The ogres are looking about for orders? - unsure what they can achieve in the company of their more able and ready new overlords.
Round 4:
Action Tracker: Ogres / Vesta, Interlopers, Ignac, Daemon, Gabriel, Gathroc
Vesta charges the closest human and attempts to posses them
Touch attack DC 23 to resist.
Will:
Will: 1d20+4
If they're all taken i'll move to the closest human that's not being attacked by one of my companions at the moment.
I was meaning to imply that you could choose where on the semi-circle of engagement your possession was to take place, as they are all roughly the same distance from your start point.
Vesta's form merges with a young human near Ignac who is wielding a two handed sword. You get a brief feeling of terror subsiding as you slip into your new skin.
Gathroc yells "Smash the puny humans!! He then proceeds to turn his blade on the other human near him
Round 4:
Action Tracker: Ogres / Vesta, Interlopers, Ignac, Daemon, Gabriel, Gathroc
At Gathroc's words the remaining ogres bellow and charge haphazardly forward - bringing clubs to bear against the attacking humans. The interlopers respond in kind and based on the wounds caused in the first passage it would appear that the interlopers have the ascendance... that is if not for your presence.
Gathroc slays a second human, and Ignac moves to cut down another on his flank.
Remaining Foes: Left Flank: one next to Gabriel
Left Centre: three human engaged with two ogres
Centre: none alive, Gathroc and one ogre
Right Centre: three human engaged with one ogre
Right Flank: Vesta possessed human, Ignac and one more human
Round 4:
Gabriel obligingly spring-attacks the human closest to him...
Vesta seems to be enjoying her new flesh. She has the look of absolute almost sexual joy on her new face. She just moves and dances for the next round enjoying the sensations of her new nervous system. She knows that the battle is well in hand.
The continuing efforts of the party and the arrival of the ogre break the spirit of the remaining humans. Gabriel brains his remaining target, and Ignac cuts down the one next to him. Those faced with the ogre turn to run, but are chased down by the magically speedy ogres. The field is cleared quickly and the ogre patriarch is about to kill the last human still breathing.
The continuing efforts of the party and the arrival of the ogre break the spirit of the remaining humans. Gabriel brains his remaining target, and Ignac cuts down the one next to him. Those faced with the ogre turn to run, but are chased down by the magically speedy ogres. The field is cleared quickly and the ogre patriarch is about to kill the last human still breathing.
"STOP!" Vesta Yells Loudly as she telekinetically pulls the last non-posessed living human away from the Ogre and holds him in the air a few feet off the ground. Her hand is held out toward the prisoner as she walks to him.
Assuming the Ogre stops...
"Daemon, Do you have any questions for this one? It's better to have two prisoner for information than the one I have."
The ogre that was about to brain the human follows through, but strikes only the earth as the man is whisked away. Looking up he is confused to find another of the human's talking to him and giving orders. He looks to Gathroc for guidance...
Gathroc walks up to the floating human and stands more or less right in front of him "Who sent you here and for what purpose? Answer me truly or face unimagined suffering and pain"
The human stammers as he responds "Wh-wh-what are you? We came to k-k-kill the ogres, we did not know anything else was here."
Gabriel scuttles back to the rest of the group, followed by two corpses with caved-in skulls; but they are not zombies... Steadily and with a dogged purpose, the hands of the slain claw at the ground, dragging the dead weight of their bodies behind them...
...Suddenly realising that the eyes of the terrified human are drawn to the partially animate corpses, Gabriel sighs, wills his 'bag' to full size, and retrieves a wicked-looking dagger from it, which he uses to deftly sever the four writhing hands from their excess baggage!
Suddenly free, the hands quickly rush towards the surviving humans, before a mental command from Gabriel brings them to a halt.
Ask him what the Gnome had to do with their arrival; I sensed his presence briefly, just as they arrived...
I stop stealthing as the battle quickly ends, grumbling about wasting spells from my wands. "Gathroc and Gabriel seem to have this questioning in "hand" I say watching in interest as the new crawling claws are made. "Very interesting"
When Gathroc comes over The man falls to the ground, no longer held telekinetically by Vesta.
[B]"So your arrival here has nothing to do with a powerful gnome arcanist who is overly fond of constrcuts?"
"Gnome? Wh-what gnome? I don't kn-know any gnomes."
sense motive (auto succeed)
"I believe he is telling the truth, they are probably just men from the town the other direction retaliating from the earlier ogre attack against them." directed at the human now "Am I correct? What where the humans who were attacked by these ogres earlier doing, Transporting goods? Hunting?"
Slumping now fully resigned to whatever fate awaits "They were just hunters, we've known of these ogres for some time and the attack on our own was the last straw"
"Eh, I believe we have found out all we can from this creature, give him to the ogres to play with. We may as well see if they had anything useful on them before we press on to our next destination, and if anyone else can raise the dead lets leave some guards for our new ogre friends, we don't want them to have to worry about anymore attacks."
The ogres have shrugged off a momentary lament of their fallen kin before crowding around the two remaining live ones. The patriarch inquires "How come not dead yet?"
"It should be obvious what types of beings we are, yes mortal? Which also means you know some of the things we can do, along the lines of bringing you over to our side of life. But I am feeling, generous this day. If you provide us with all the information we need to sack your town, I will not only allow you to live, but I swear upon my unlife that I will see to it that any loved ones of yours live as well. Or you can choose to not help us, and all will perish and you and yours will rise from the dead as eternal slaves of our dark will"
Spirit broken the man agrees to tell you whatever you wish to know.
Gathroc begins by asking the basic questions, how many villagers, the size of the town, if there's many guards, etc. He'll also allow any of his allies a chance to ask their own questions.
Number of villagers: about 70, now that you've killed most of the guards.
Guards: not many. Most of the militia was in this attack
To her companions
"This town sounds paltry at best. Do we really need to sack it? What are we looking for, Supplies?" She says the last word with more than a little sarcasm.
Motioning to the corpses around us, "We've got a good number of supplies here, although we could always use more, I suppose."
I intend to use the town as a staging ground Vesta for our assault on the citadel. Remember, not all of us are going to infiltrate the city, so we might as well have some place for those who are not going to stay. Otherwise, what else will they do, wander? hang around just beyond the city walls?? Besides, perhaps the town has supplies for other purposes, such as weapons, or consumable magic items."
Before I turned undead, I'd seem numerous encounters similar to how this one is laid out. We'll need to have sentries, most likely the ogres and any undead we may create, out at the gates to stop any chance of escape. Then, we go in with the remaining force and wipe them out. That shouldn't be too much of a problem, will it?
Vesta is not the planner, but she will assist however she can. She'll discuss what powers she has available.
"This seems like a good idea, I could raise a small army of undead for our assault on the city, however I would need onyx gems worth at least 50gp to raise them. I don't know how or where we could come across those here. Perhaps after sacking the town we could make a trip to the city to find some. Then each person with a bag of holding could keep a few undead in their sack to throw out once we enter the city to attack the citadel and cause confusion."
"On second thought, we may have all the onyx we need for a while...
I will return to the throne and break off enough pieces to animate the town guards that we just had a visit from as well as the ex chieftess I will raise a third as Bloody skeletons, a third as fast zombies, and a third as plague zombies.
Edgar Lamoureux
Luke_Parry
