Then I cast Fly instead. No. Then I cast Fly on Praxim instead.
Rhianni smiles through initial reaction to retch at courtyard. "Yes, get the snakewoman. Sever the head and the body will fall of its own accord." she says, restating her desire to get rid of the evil creature.
It is over in minutes. No more ogres escape the the pyre. Fitting perhaps, that the very building that housed the Black Arrows for decades was sacrificed to help restore the fort.
Vale sprints over from where he was hiding in ambush. "Shalelu says we're to stay out here and make sure no more get into the fort. There's patrols out, maybe a dozen or so ogres left in the woods. We'll hold 'em."
He starts to leave, then turns about quickly. "There's a leader in there somewhere. Big. Nasty. Never seen an ogre so big. And he has a another with him. Sorceress type. Finish them, this is over." He stares at Tomaru for a moment, eyes boring holes into the cleric. "Hard and scary enough for you priest?." As if to accentuate his words, the barracks collapses in a flaming heap, the fires roaring until they nearly reach the top of the wall. The Black Arrow's eyes glint red in the light of the flames, adding to the hellish scene. Without another word, Vale turns and runs back over to the wall, taking the stairs up to the battlements three at a time.
Tomaru bows respectfully to Vale. "Indeed it is. It warms me to see that the Black Arrows still live."
"'Never give up; never give in' my uncle used to say," Kellen says aloud as he watches the building collapse. "Let's make their efforts payoff and have these beasts pay for this carnage," he adds as he returns to the keep and starts looking for a way up further to pursue the leaders.
Now, after everything has calmed down somewhat, you recall seeing a stairway that leads upward. It was very near the end of the hallway where you emerged from the basement.
"'Never give up; never give in' my uncle used to say," Kellen says aloud as he watches the building collapse. "Let's make their efforts payoff and have these beasts pay for this carnage," he adds as he returns to the keep and starts looking for a way up further to pursue the leaders.
Thordak nods emphatically. "Now you're talkin', lad, now you're talkin'. Let's move."
The lathes, sawhorses, and other tools in this workroom lie in scattered, shattered ruin on the floor. The walls are smeared with gore, in some places forming messy graffiti.
The decapitated remains of a Black Arrow lie in the room, apparently the 'calligraphy brush' for the inane scribblings on the wall.
Each of the round rooms contains a ladder that can be used to reach a trap door in the ceiling above. Its obvious that the ogres are too ungainly to use these.
There are a series of guest rooms along each hallway. The contents of which are smashed to pieces.
A long table with benches to either side sits in this room opposite a bookshelf filled with dozens of books, most of which have been torn from the shelves, mangled, and then messily stuffed back in place.
Once used to house the wounded and sick, this chamber is now a slice of blood-drenched nightmare. Hacked pieces of bodies 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 slash in his belly.
This kitchen is in total shambles, as if a cyclone had moved through the room, smashed every bit of furniture, bent every bit of silverware, and partially collapsed the stone fireplace. All that remains in the attached pantry is a half-smashed crate and an untouched barrel. The barrel contains pickled fish - clearly ogres do not appreciate the smell of pickled fish - they didn't touch it.
After having seen everything there is to be seen, Lym readies the two scrolls she originally scribed for Rhianni. When she speaks, her voice is level -- but a terrible rage is clearly lurking under the surface.
"The ones who orchestrated this attack must die. NOW."
As the carnage brings back terrible memories, Thordak simply stares at the scene as if he's seeing another within another time. "You're not kiddin', lass. You're not kiddin'," he mutters solemnly, the grip on his longaxe tightening until the whites of his knuckles show. "Nothin' left here to see. Time to move upstairs," he simply says as he turns and leaves and heads toward the stairs, waiting for the others before preceding up.
Tomaru had no idea. Nothing in his life could prepare him for the scenes he is now made to witness. He recalls his harsh words to the Black Arrows and he is ashamed. "Desna, be with us." He wants to say more, but the words fail him.
"Save a prayer for the dark half of mad, mighty Nethys, good priest," Lym growls. "The half that destroys,"
Lym herself starts to mutter such angry prayers under her breath as the group moves along.
Kellen, for his part, takes the lead as they do their search and remains stone-faced at the sight of the horror and destruction he first encounters. But there is an angry glare in his eyes that all can see at what has been wrought.
He doesn't say much until they reach the stairs. He looks upward at the steps leading higher into the keep and says to no one in particular:"You drank of the blood; you slept in the blood; and you'll die in the blood. Time's acomin'." Without further acknowledgement, he then moves forward to take the point.
Praxim heads Kellen off as they climb the stairs, using his super natural senses to scan the area ahead for ambushes. Once they reach the top of the stairs, he allows the rogue to move ahead, assuming he hasn't sensed anything through the walls.
Praxim can detect no evil lurking at the top of the stairs. Clearly these steps were meant to be a point of defense, as the walls are over a foot-thick stone rising to the second floor. Streaks of dried blood and gore line the walls of the stairwell, as if something - or someone- were dragged screaming up the steps.
All is quiet as you ascend the heavy stone steps. For now, only the light clink of armor, the swish of a cloak, and sound of your footfalls against the worn stone can be heard.
Thordak follows just behind the elf and the rogue, keeping his own look out for the big uglies.
Praxis attempts to track the blood trail.
Lym stays at the back of the group, a scroll in each hand.
Tomaru keeps next to Thordak. He keeps his morningstar ready to get some payback for the damage and death the ogres caused.
Kellen proceeds to check the way ahead, sword at the ready. If nothing becomes apparent, then he will check the first set of doors on the right. Listening for movement, etc.
Gang, out for the holiday weekend here. Come next week, will get to settling Fort Rannick!
The blood smears aren't so much a 'trail' as they are the result of dragging many bleeding corpses up and down the stairs and through the halls.
Has it been less than 8 minutes since the fight with the grease spell, I mean, the ogres?
Praxim casts weapon of awe on his bow before they move in.
Leaning a little on the door to listen, Kellen signals stop at the others and points to the double doors on the right. He leans towards Praxim (who he assumes is close behind him) and whispers: Something big is moving around this room. Another ogre, maybe. Do we move on or investigate? What does your special sight tell you, eh?
Whatever is in there, it's evil.
"We take it," Praxim whispers.
Kellen nods at Praxim's response. He points to the other double doors (the ones at ST14) and mutters to Praxim: "Best have someone keep an eye on those doors - we don't want any surprises like downstairs."
He then checks the doors in front of him to open them as carefully as possible to see if they can surprise whatever is inside.
Are there any door handles on the double doors we could quickly tie together with rope?
Are there any door handles on the double doors we could quickly tie together with rope?
The walls within this enormous chamber are mounted with dozens of trophy antlers, some taken from stags that must have stood as tall as dire bears. Most of the antlers are draped with bits of rotten flesh, strips of skin, or coils of viscera. To the west, a marble altar has been heaped with the mangled remains of at least a half-dozen dead men and women. A crude image of what might be a three-eyed jackal has been painted in blood on the wall above the altar’s alcove.
This chapel, appears to have been once dedicated to Erastil, perhaps a place of worship for the Black Arrows. The antlers on the wall most likely trophies offered up to the god of the hunt. The shrine has been thoroughly defiled in every way by the ogres, and converted into a makeshift altar to Lamashtu.
A massive ogre quietly and calmly sits here, creating taxidermy terrors out of dead rangers, horses, bits of giant eagle, and the many antlers found here. His “masterpieces” hang about the room on bloody hooks—men with eagle heads sewn to their bodies, a horse with a woman’s face where its own face once drooped, dead men with huge sets of antlers jutting from their bodies, and men with stags’ heads and hooves.
Despite the commotion downstairs, and the ever-so-slight creak of the door. He does not see Kellen peeking in.
As Thordak waits anxiously, "Well? Do ya see anythin', lad?"
Kellen glances at Praxim's activities and then quietly says to the others: "One ogre - but he is massive; bigger than any we've seen so far. The rest is...grisly but no danger I can see. He hasn't heard us; but be cautious."
"If you want to do a frontal assault, give me a second to sneak in and hopefully strike him."
"Let his cry of pain be our signal to strike then."
Thordak nods, tightening his grip upon his axe. "Will be waitin'."
Assuming that everyone else is in agreement, Kellen loads his crossbow and does his best to sneak into the defiled chapel. Placing himself in one of the far corners of the room - hoping to put furniture between himself and the ogre. Assuming he can get behind the monster, he fires his crossbow.
The huge ogre doesn't notice Kellen slip in to the corner and level his crossbow. Taking careful aim, Kellen fires his shot...but whether it was the click of the trigger, or the whistle of the bolt, the ogre ducks with uncanny agility just as he is about to be hit!
"That isn't good," Lym says in a grim tone as she arrives at the doorway and sees the Ogre dodge Kellen's attack with such contemptuous ease. Taking up a position near Thordak, the Wizard intones a basic spell to test the waters: "Sagittae magicae, omne errore vacuae, e manu meu evolete!"
Four bolts of force unerringly fly into the room and at the hulking Ogre.
Tomaru casts Hold Person (dc 17) at the ogre.