Veter wanders back from his shopping trip ready to go. "So, is everyone ready for our little hike? I for one am thrilled." It takes no perception to sense the sarcasm dripping off of his words.
"I am, what are we waiting for?
A certain gorgeous bard, I guess. Belli's paused at the looks the others give her and shrugs. Well he is, you know, just... she stands on her tiptoes and holds her hand well over her head, as to indicate a great height, ...not my type! she adds with a smile.
Dimitrio clears his throat and bows graciously at the compliment received. he adds, "Well, young lady, you're in a for a treat once you see Dimitrio dance."
He saunters over and grabs Bellis' hand allowing her to twirl. He then backs off and with both hands to his heart and in a melodramatic voice says, "Please Desna, why do you torture me so? Where have you been hiding her? My next dancing partner!"
The bard winks at Bellis and 'non-threateningly' smiles, "So, why did you not say you were a performer like Dimitrio?"
Bellis smiled behind her hand. Sorry, but I can only make chemicals dance. Otherwise, I have one-and-a-half left feet! But we're burning time, let's move on to Ravenmoor!. As Belli's turns to the gate, she claps both hands on her cheeks to banish the blush creeping up her face for the second time that day. MEN!
Though the Lost Coast has a deserved reputation for incessant rain, Gozreh seems to be in a good mood. Aside from a few sprinkles, the past week has been unusually warm and sunny, making the prospect of a long journey on foot much more enjoyable.
Leaving from the north gates, you look back on the city you call home. The Avensoar gleams in the afternoon sun and Ulfen longships vie with Chelish galleons for berths. Truly, there is no place like it in the world. Magnimar
The next few days see you passing through scattered farms and the town of Sandpoint into the wild lands of the Varisian wilderness. The road hugs the coast until you approach Windsong Abbey. Here the road forks, one track leading to the village and temple, and other curving east into the moors towards the foothills of the Fogscar mountains and the lake town of Galduria beyond.
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Heading east, the weather starts to close in, returning to the more seasonal grey skies and constant drizzle. Naturally, this would happen while between settlements. You reach the Fogscar foothills as the wan light begins to fade to evening, probably. It could just be a thickening of clouds, but it certainly feels like you’ve walked for a day. Time passes oddly, as there is only grey twilight for day and wet, impenetrable, darkness for night. Wilderness at night
You hear… something. Through the muffling drizzle comes a scream, or a bellow, both? Whatever it was, it was there.
Veter has been marching along silently for sometime, not trying to hide the annoyed look on his face. Suddenly he stops and looks out into the distance. "Well, that didn't sounds pleasant. Tell me I'm not the only one that heard that?"
Which way? Bellis asked, drawing a vial from her bag.
You can't be certain what made all the sounds, but you are damned sure what you heard and where it came from. At least two different horses screaming and a wet, bellowing roar, like something a bear or a enraged drunk might make. There might have only been one of whatever those are, but your gut tells you wouldn't be so lucky.
The sounds come from further up the trail and a bit to the left, slightly off the trail towards the mountains. A gully with trees a few rises on seems the most likely origin for the sounds.
You're sure there was more than one animal making noises out there, a horse or something by the sound of it, but there is something else. Something that makes you want to sprint for the nearest badger den. Ogres. While not the most adventurous of gnomes, you remember the stories and techniques every gnome is taught from childhood, for there are few things a giant enjoys more than swallowing a live gnome whole.
Ogres:
Ogres are the worst of man and giant kind distilled through generations of incest into morally deficient sociopaths for whom torture is sport and the breaking of mind and body high comedy. Better to slit the throats of those you love, or even those you dislike, than allow ogres to have their way with them, for even the most heinous acts a mortal is capable of is nothing more than routine entertainment for these monsters.
Able to see in the dark and equipped with inhuman strength and surprising stealth, melee is generally a position of last resort for fighting an ogre. Best thing to do, run. Next best thing, fool it or trip, hopefully killing it, then run.
Belli's follows, pulling out a Shock Bomb as quietly as she can.
The bard looks up at the sky and wards himself from gathering spirits, "It will get nasty quickly. We need to find a place to ride out the storm."
After looking around for a few minutes, the bard gives up and turns to his companions, "Dimitrio can't find no place to stay, never had to, always a cozy inn to sleep in. Any of you skilled in finding or making a wilderness shelter?"
Dimitrio suddenly grows quiet and nods when the others acknowledge the scream. He whispers in hushed tones, "Aye, I heard it too. it sounds like we're not alone." Then the bard quietly unsheathes his rapier and follows along...
Veter slides both short swords out from under his cloak and attempts to melt into the shadows while keeping pace with the group.
Creeping through the deepening gloom, the sounds become easier to distinguish, bellowing laughter and an occasional scream. Peering over the final rise, you find a scene from a fire-side story, and not one of the nice ones.
The Varisian campsite has been torn apart, several headless corpses lie amid scattered family heirlooms. One brightly painted wagon rests sheltered beneath the gully's tree, but it is the second that commands your attention. Two ogres, their misshapen faces filled with cruel delight, stand at the back of the wagon, their attention wholly focused on their cruel game. One's head is tilted back and dangles a flailing infant over its cavernous maw. The second holds a young woman in a grotesquely intimate embrace. A weeping woman kneels in the wagon. The wagon itself has been pushed over the campfire, and flames are spreading along the bottom.
You can hear the giants mocking laughter, 'Aven't got all evenin'! Fire's gettin' warm! Ogre's meal, or ogre's wife? Maybe we do both if ya doesn't choose! With this, the one bites off one of the child's toes while other mashes his lips against the girl's.
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If I have time, Zeek casts Invisibility followed by Silent Image to conjure a fat, delicious-looking gnome and walks about 5 feet behind his image (i.e. he and his image are in a single file line with the image in front) toward the ogres and asks the ogres "Excuse m-me, but d-d-do you gentlemen know where I could get a bite to eat around here?" If no time for two spells, I will just hit the ogre who just ate the baby's toe with a Blindness spell.
Oh, you sons of b@!!&es! Bellis snarled to herself, reaching into her pack and pulling out an extract. Get those bastards away from them! she says before downing the extract and moving for the wagon as quietly as possible,
Veter attempts to take advantage of the blindness in the Ogre with the child and moves quietly towards him. With both of his short swords already drawn he swings each one in a flurry from right behind the beast.
Dimitrio gasps as he sees the brutes about to make a meal of the baby. Hoping his companions can act as well, the bard starts to utter arcane words as he gestures with his hands.
Seeing his magic work well, the bard is reluctant to work his spell on the ogre holding the baby but the other option is less desirable. He again casts the spell on the remaining ogre.
Surprise Round
Unwilling to stand by and let the terrible seen unfold, everyone springs into action. With a flourish and shout, Dimitrio gestures toward the ogre holding the girl. It slumps forward, banging its head against a wagon wheel before collapsing in a snoring heap on top of his victim.
Liana quietly lets fly an arrow at the other one. Alas the brute jerked at the last minute, leaving the arrow to pass harmlessly through it's filthy garments.
As Zeek gestures towards the ogre, it lowers the child and begins to turn towards you, shaking it's head as though trying to clear it.
Downing a extract, Bellis prepares herself to move as Veter leaps down the incline towards the remaining giant.
Round One
Hoping Lady Luck is with him again, Dimitrio gestures towards the second ogre. Shaking it's head more violently, it turns to face you bellowing, Get's out of 'e 'ea... before Liana puts an arrow neatly through it's tongue.
Shut up. Liana mutters as another arrow sinks into its barrel chest right below the neck.
Nervously watching the bloody enraged beast prepared to tear them all limb from limb, Zeek shoots a beam of sparkling light at its eyes. Alas it narrowly misses.
Sprinting forward on magically quickened limbs, Bellis slids to stop near the wagon.
Drawing both swords, Veter halts just out of the ogre's reach. Not a comfortable place to be.
Seeing the little man-thing standing so boldly before it, the ogre drops the child, raises its club with a deafening roar, and smashes the rogue aside. As the body tumbles limply to a stop some feet away, it is all but certain he is dead.
Crap! If there was one thing Bellis learned working in the Golemworks, it was the sound of someone getting hit really hard by something big. Turning around, she rushes over to the fallen Veter. Iomedae's iron girdle, don't get in front of the thing! she admonishes as she gently raises his head. Pulling out a curative, she pours it into his mouth, softly stroking his throat to get him to swallow it.
I apologize for holding things up, this game had been hidden somehow.
Liana lets loose two arrows in quick succession
Dimitrio involuntarily gasps as Veter goes under the large club. The bard keeps his distance and whips forth a dagger and throws at the large humanoid, hoping to skewer its throat.
Seeing such a tough man taken down so easily, Dimitrio's aim is a bit off, and the dagger flies off into darkness.
Liana's first arrow sinks deep into the ogre's torso, refocusing its attention. Arrow still pinning tongue to jaw, it charges up the short slope towards you, blood, spittle, and gods know what else spraying as it bellows. Just when it is almost within arm's reach, Zeek splays his hands wide, and a blast of light strikes the monster's face. With a confused moan, your foe tumbles back down the slope. Lying halfway between you and the wagon, it makes feeble swimming motions.
Belli's pulls out her kit and starts trying to patch Veter up. Zeek, Liana, get that lady out of the wagon or the wagon out of the fire. Demitri, go see to the other survivors, then help with Veter. Pulling out her last extract, she gives it to Veter as well.
The woman looks at Zeek with almost vacant eyes, No. Help my daughters, please. She makes no attempt to move.
Belli's gently lifts the crying infant and carefully patches her injured foot. It'll take a far better healer than I to restore your foot, little one. she muses sadly.
Liana runs to help get the people from the cart, almost as an after thought she stops and slams the tip of her great sword through the ogre's head.
Veter comes to with a start, swinging abruptly with what he assumes is a sword, but what ends up being nothing in his hand. He then falls back to the ground, clutching his head where there used to be hair. He pulls a good chunk of hair and skin back down and just frowns.
Looking around, he scowls at not one person in particular. "Fine spell casters we've got in this lot, eh? Can't back me up with some blindness or distraction?" Veter stands shakily, bending over with his hands on his knees while he gets his balance. He finally stands straight up and you can see the full extent of the damage. A wide gash goes along the left side of his head, taking all the hair with it. As he wipes some of the hair that he has stuck to his face you can see that it travels towards his eye but then takes a sharp downward angle, sparing his eye any real damage. Either way you can tell that he will bear this mark for the rest of his life.
Believing that people might be staring, whether or not they actually are, Veter speaks loudly, "Well, nothing to see here, go ahead and tend to those who really need it." Retrieving his short swords and straightening out his clothing, Veter wanders over to the mess that the ogres left behind.
Looking around, he scowls at not one person in particular. "Fine spell casters we've got in this lot, eh? Can't back me up with some blindness or distraction?"
Dimitrio stands trying to determine whether Veter's remark is made jokingly. Seeing no smile on the man's face, he retorts, "Hey, Mr. tough guy. Us spellcasters did pretty well by my count. One ogre went nappy time' and the other was overwhelmed by Mr. Zeek here. I think that's pretty good, eh?"
The bard then takes the baby in his arms, starts singing a soothing song while his fingers make lights appear. The infant, although still hurt, calms down a bit.
He then nears the two ogres and keeping the infant's eyes away from them nods approvingly at Zeek's work. "A bit of a grudge here, eh?"
The bard gets close to the ailing woman and reassures her that her baby will be OK, "Where are your daughters? How many are there? And where there any more ogres or other bandits?"
Madam, your daughters are as safe as we can get them. Bellis said as she cradled the child. They need their mother now. Come out before the wagon burns up!
The woman shakes her head and a bit of life returns to her eyes. You're right, and we must save what is left. Climbing out of the wagon, she helps the young woman struggle free from the ogre that had fallen over her. After a few moments searching, buckets are found and filled from the trickle running through the small gully. The fire is quickly extinguished.
Once that task is finished, she embraces Bellis, Liana, and Dimitrio, kissing you fondly on the cheek. Looking to her fellow Varisian, Welcome home cousin. I didn't think Lady Luck could see us on such a night, but her song surely led you here. I am Emyralda. This is my Stea. And you little one, to Bellis are holding Chavali. We are all that is left of caravan Dalca, and that we owe to you. What wind brought you here? The girl Stea quietly asks Bellis, looking toward Veter, Is your friend alright? I couldn't see what happened, but I heard the sound.
Veter & Zeek, looking over the wreckage of the camp, you only find headless corpses. A middle-aged man, two teenage boys, one on the cusp of manhood, and a young man, probably in his twenties. From the way the bodies lie, it looks like the ogres caught them completely by surprise. The only weapons nearby are simple knives and a ax for wood. The heads themselves lie in a pile next to two crude necklaces made from rope. Each already has three heads, some starting to rot, strung along its length.
There doesn't seem to be anything of particular value lying about. Most of what is lying on the ground are things for readying a campsite. A shovel here, a cast-iron oven filled with a meal to be put over the fire, etc. Anything of value is likely to be in the wagons.
As for the ogres themselves, they carry little, not even the crude hides most wear for armor. A club more branch than weapon, rags barely worthy of the name, and some crude bundles that look like they were made from someone's clothes. The bloodstains on said bundles argue that the owners didn't part with them willingly. Inside you some things of interest.
1x Scimitar
1x Composite Shortbow (+2str)
4x Daggers
1x Spell-component pouch
1x Pathfinder's kit
1x Journal/book
Fine gold bracelet, silver earrings with sapphire drops, a well cut tourmaline, rose quartz statuette of a dancing woman, a few uncut chunks of jasper and azurite, and a trio of irregular freshwater pearls.
Gazing on the severed heads reminds of a particularly gruesome tidbit you picked up from a book on the habits of giants. When an ogre comes of age, they are sent out into the world on the next full-moon to collect as many heads as they can. It is theorized that the number of heads an ogre collects determines it's status when it returns home. Though some things don't quite seem to fit as the full-moon was a week ago and it sounded as though the ogre went alone.
It could also simply be ogres being ogres. It is said they are particularly aggressive during the spring.
Once that task is finished, she embraces Bellis, Liana, and Dimitrio, kissing you fondly on the cheek. Looking to her fellow Varisian, Welcome home cousin. I didn't think Lady Luck could see us on such a night, but her song surely led you here. I am Emyralda. This is my Stea. And you little one, to Bellis are holding Chavali. We are all that is left of caravan Dalca, and that we owe to you. What wind brought you here? The girl Stea quietly asks Bellis, looking toward Veter, Is your friend alright? I couldn't see what happened, but I heard the sound.
Dimitrio smiles sadly at the woman's loss and her perseverance through hard times. "Glad to be home, Cousin Emyralda." He bows gallantly, "I am Dimitrio and these are my traveling companions."
The bard looks around and quickly assesses the situation, "It seems that we can share a campfire tonight. Where are you headed?"
Dimitrio takes a couple of earrings from the loot pile and asks for help in burying the dead.
Liana offer her assistance in the burial before quietly stalking a few yards away from the group and setting up camp.
Veter looks on but does not offer his assistance with the burial. He attempts to tend to his own wounds, trying to see if ha can cover it with other hair, but to no avail. He knows that the healing process on this gash is going to be a b#~$~.
As people make another fire and begin setting the camp up again, Emyralda explains the family's journey. We were heading for Galduria. The idea was to be ahead of the spring rush, try to get the first chance at whatever the towns and villages might have picked up over the winter. What about you cousin? How do five such companions come to ambush ogres a good way from anywhere?
Stea goes to check on the horses. Of the original four, one is dead, one is unharmed, though to skittish to approach safely at the moment, and the two others will probably be okay, though are unconscious at the moment. It seems the ogres decided to calm the animals by punching them until they stopped panicking.
With quiet thanks Emyralda joins in digging graves for the fallen. When the grim and muddy task is done, she offers a traditional prayer to Desna, that the departed souls will be guided to their place among the stars. Unless someone feels strongly otherwise, she ops for dragging the ogre's bodies a reasonable distance from the camp and leaving them to the crows.
Dinner is provided in the form of thick soup and some mulled wine afterwards.
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Zeek stays quiet, assisting with burying the dead and hiding the ogre's corpses as much as he can (thinking it's a shame he does not know how to animate corpses yet).
While setting up camp, he shares what he found in the ogre's bag and mentions his theory about the ogres (see Zeek's spoiler above). Once the fire is lit, he reads through the journal he found in there.
Veter is safe for now. Belli's tells the girl as she hands her baby sister over, He'll be back to top form once Medicine is done and Magic can take over. she finishes, giving Demitri a significant look.
The journal is mostly written in Kelish. The language of that great desert empire far to the east. You aren't able to decipher much, but you do get the something interesting from the third page, in large part thanks to your knowledge of Terran, the tongue of earth. Our unknown writer is talking about his, probably, older sister and her support of his quest. Apparently he is looking for something called 'blood of the earth', 'bleeding earth', or 'Earth's blood.' These names are in Terran. The last one Earth being the elemental plane of earth/stone rather than what you are sitting on now.
He learned about it from Shaitan, earth genie, legends it seems, and though you don't quite understand how it connects, this leads a Giant phrase, 'Mother's blood' and his quest here. It seems that something about his genie legends connects to something regarding giants here.