Maybe Harry is a bit better?
Stealth
Dice down, lets kill.
Harry may try a coup de grace, before the ogre is able to react to Karlan's noise.
Harry try's swinging the headsmans axe.
Damage
The ogre's song ends swiftly and brutally - the moment the brute turns around to look for the metallic clang that Karlan caused, his head is taken off...stupid surprise is the countenance that he will now wear forever in his face.
"A quick search, then lets move on, his dinner preparations will be missed"
KArlan says nothing and continues on making it fairly clear that whatever fate this ogre deserved this was the merciful option.
Ailetha watches as Harry finishes off the ogre.
Better them than us. Far superior that what he would have done to us.
As she says this, she glances at the other two ladies before nodding her head at the large pot the dead ogre was cooking with.
Marek kneels by the dead ogre, analyzing the cut at its neck.
That is a remarkably precise cut, Harry.
He picks the severed head by its filthy hair and casually dumps it into the stew.
"A gentleman takes pride in doing a job well"
The head swims on the surface of the grisly stew and whenever the face with the frozen surprise in it becomes visible it looks quite comical...
Two doors lead out of this underground kitchen, neither looks very inviting...
"First set of secret caves I have been in that came with a kitchen, suppose they knew all about the tunnel network after all, I'll keep an eye out for traps then shall I?"
Harry leads in the most likely direction that he figures would lead to the forts 'important' areas.
Checking the first door, Harry decides that it is safe and opens it...behind is a long row of cells (12). Bloody straw and filth in them but no prisoners.
Ailetha looks to Celestra:
The prisoners must be having lunch. . . . Or must have been lunch.
"... shall we check the cells individually?" Alana looks displeased by the notion, yet somehow still curious and willing.
"Cursory only, they've eaten anything in them that was interesting" Harry looks for the next exit and pushes ahead.
"Do not linger. We've more ogres to destroy."
"... shall we check the cells individually?" Alana looks displeased by the notion, yet somehow still curious and willing.
"I thought you had a good idea, Luv, but apparently the boys want to do it their way."
"Once we kill every f&*)er breating in this place search what you want"
Harry has his blood up.
Harry maintains the front position, gliding through the place like a vengeful ghost.
Stealth
Dismissing the cell row, Harry pushes the other door open and finds himself in front of a wide stairwell - this will surely lead into the fort proper.
Worn by the centuries, the stairs emit a feeling of a majestic past but are now littered with garbage.
Harry just keeps pressing on, Axe seeking blood now.
Alana nods to what the men have to say and casts Detect Magic as a way of giving it a cursory glance.
She smiles warmly at Celestra's encouragement.
KArlan quietly puts his glaive between HArry and the stairs. "Scout first."
Harry has no Huey Lewis, but yeah hes already rolled up his great stealth check, hoping that this is just wall to wall murderisation now - there are no conversations to be had, just a slasher flick unfolding.
One two Harrys coming for you
Three four better lock your doors...
:)
Reaching the top of the stairwell, you find yoursel in a wide corridor with doors to both sides.
The stench of decay and slaughter is nearly as strong in the kitchen here, but for now everything is quiet...which is even more unsettling than the chef's humming.
Clockwise from the top of the stairs, continuing to seek out enemy.
Harry opens the door and takes a step back: Obviopusly this chamber was once used to house the sick and wounded - now it is a blood-drenched nightmare. Hacked pieces of body litter the sick beds. The floor is slick with gore, strewn with mangled organs and heaps of entrails. A dead fat man sits at one of the operating tables, arranged as if he were merrily spooning chunks of his own disembodied organs out of a brown bowl. His guts spill out of a large gash in his belly. The man wears the remnants of the cleric vestments of a priest of Erastil.
Harry says nothing, just choking back the sick. He moves on...
"Oh dear Cayden!" Celestra averts her eyes once she sees the gruesome sight. "Harry, you can at least give us a warning when you lead us to such places. My poor eyes are not use to seeing such grimness! Oh my dear God, I think he was a priest. I forget how brutal these ogres can be."
These Ogres even home? Harry's just popping doors looking for victims, now they are ducking us.
Harry pushes open the next door: Crates, barrels, and a stack of firewood have been smashed apart and heaped in a tangled pile in the corner of the room. A flight of stairs leads up to the west.
"No one home."
Harry shuffles down to the next door along the hall.
"Harry, let's just take a moment and see if they've left us any clues."
Celestra takes a short moment to see if there is anything of value among the goods in this room.
"I wonder if ogres value aged dry wine? It looks like they've smashed everything in sight. Wouldn't it be a marvel is we found a stash of Cayden's finest?"
"Right then we keep going. They're probably all gathered outside." KArlan says as he pushes forward.
"You reckon the massacred priest and the trashed rooms aren't clues enough? Ogres aren't that deep or subtle that we need to search hard... when we see things that look civilised, THEN we might pause for thought" Harry is just pushing on, he's on a mission.
Celestra isn't given the time to check the room properly, Karlan and Harry are already opening the next door
A long table with benches to either side sits in this room opposite a bookshelf with with dozens of books, most of which have been torn from the shelves, mangled and then messily stuffed back in place. There's another door in the northeastern corner of the room.
Check the far door, then work each door along this side of the corridor...
Wonder where they are all hiding?
"Well, there goes the boys! Rush, rush, rush! I'm just not sure this is the wisest course of action. I know we need to get in there in a hurry, but a little caution would not go amiss! Come along, Alana, we certainly do not want to be left behind."
The door of the other side is locked, but you can hear wind and rain from beyond - most probably the door leads to the battlements or some kind of outside platform.
Harry starts mving down the hall opening all the doors along the east wall until he finds something to take his Orcish rage out on...
Marek gazes at the maze of corridors strangely ogre-free and wonders aloud.
Where ARE them? Mayhaps they are reunited somewhere, having a meal, a sexual practice, a religious ceremony or both?
"I don't know and I don't like this. They can't have suddenly abandoned the fort. They wuld have sought shelter from the rain at least. Let's get this door open adn keep your guard up. They're still here. Or at least coming back. They had dinner being made for them afterall..."
"Maybe we already killed them when they came charging out of the fort during our last encounter. How many ogres do you think live here?"
"Dozens. Not a chance that was all of them... we haven't even found the leader yet"
"So do you think the leader will be another matriarch? I'm not sure I've ever studied the ecology of a pack of ogres before."
Ailetha looks at Celestra:
A Lamia Matriarch most likely. Probably two of them.