Ayla adds
"Well, I should correct myself, Former-pit fighter.
As I've become a Pathfinder, and work for them.
So I've experienced battle that was not in Serpent's Run."
Staying quiet for a bit while he stayed within deep thought of the weather, Zadderk huffed as his concentration was broke by the new arrivals of the people. "Well look'e 'ere! We got s'more blood! Hope ya'll can stay dedicated unlike tha' rest tha'wandered off earlier. 'pparently the gold weren't good enough. Shame that." he says as he walks up to the two of them and whistles for his eagle.
When the giant bird lands on his arm, he places his spectacles over his face. "Name's Zadderk. Zadderk Crowe. Ex-Black Arrah' and bane of giants. Pleasure ta' have ye'." he claims, and then raises dasher up. "An 'is's Dasher, me long-time friend. He don't bite. Much." he says with a grin.
"It's nice to meet you Mr Crowe,
And Dasher."
When introductions are over you head north towards the fort. Using the rain as cover you avoid conflict and head to the site of the damn. The rain makes it hard to see clearly but you managed to scout out the situation and remain unseen.
Ogres are split into groups of 3 chipping away with pickaxes you see 4 groups working at different areas of the damn. A pale white ogre that stands a few feet taller than the others and is covered in tattoos paces back and forth along the damn watching over the workers.
The damage they have done so far is minor far less than you expected. You can see holes in the damn were they are digging but at the current rate it will be weeks before they make a breach.
"Hmm. As far as I can see, we have a large window of opportunity. We can wipe out these ogres and tip off the reinforcements in Fort Rannick that we are here. Or we can sneak into Fort Rannick and wipe them out at their new base before coming here to pick off the stragglers. I'm by no means a battle strategist, but the latter choice seems wiser to me."
"If we go after the ones working on the dam, we should root them so they can't go back for to alert them and bring back re-enforcements.
If we go after the ones in the fort we should do it in a way as not to alert any other part of the fort.
We'd need to root and silence them for best odds in that case."
Delian observes the ogres, taking special note of the one that is different/appears to be in charge.
The tribal tattoos he has would suggest a shaman or sorts.
"If we are going to attack them, we should start with the tattooed one. He is probably a spellcaster of some sort, which would make him the most dangerous of the group. The workers will probably attack with their work implements, so you should prepare for that situation."
Pausing for a moment to reflect, he adds "If we choose to fight them, we should down them quickly, which means focusing on the same one and dropping him as soon as possible. The rain will give us some concealment, sound wise, but it will only go so far. If any of the spellcasters here could cast the silence spell, that would help a great deal."
"All of this is predicated on the idea that we wish to combat them. Should we wish to avoid them, We would need to make our way stealthily to the waterfall on the western side of the fort, which I believe contains a cave behind the waterfall that might lead us into the fort proper."
"Agreed, though if we do attack them we should know who can do what, so we can come up with a plan that maximizes each of our talents."
"Lord Zohan and Ms Teg, what spells do you know or have prepared at the moment.
Depending on what they are we could come up with a method of eliminating the Orges with out them going back and alerting the Fort."
"Unless I miss my mark, Lady Karla is a member of the priesthood of the lord of iron, given the holy symbol and greatsword; Lord Zohan is a wizard of some sort, given his accoutrements, and unless I am mistaken, Mr. Crowe is a wilderness ranger of some account, and probably has extensive knowledge of the fort. You, Lady Ayla, are clearly a unarmed combatant of skill, although the fact that you wear armor suggests that you are not a monk. Have I missed my mark? I rarely do."
"As for myself, I am skilled in.....well, everything. I'm not a hardened killer like some, but I can hold my own in a fight. My main skill, however, are my powers of observation."
"You've not missed your mark.
And your deductions are close to mine."
"I was trained in basic unarmed combat by my father, along with using simple armour. My real unarmed combat training came as a trial by fire in the Serpent's Run."
"I ask what spells You all know to see if there could be a synergetic combination with each other or someones other talents."
Ayla notices the lighting conditions and thinks
"Given the cloud cover my eyes won't be hurt if I take off the blindfold, but if any sunlight pierces that cloud cover and in my face, it'll be a problem."
"Given the current thick cloud cover, I don't need to worry about being blinded by the sun.
So I am going to take off my blindfold, which I use to lessen the sun's brightness on my eyes as I'm going to need to see as clear as possible."
You all can see she has beautiful silver eyes, and her ears hint at elven heritage.
"I do have the magics to enlarge one of you, and to grant those close together additional protection against ogres and other evil monsters", replies Lord Zohan from atop his mare. "I can also also boost us with a more speed and more attacks and, of course, I prepared to grant Zadderk's crossbow a temporary enchantme--" Lord Zohan's sentence trails off unfinished as he notices Alya's ears. "You trained in Magnimar, you say? Where do your people come from?" he asks with a slight edge that he isn't very adept at hiding.
Ayla replies to Zohan's Question
"My people, I have no idea, as I'm adopted. I know that I am a half-elf.
I just happen to look more human than most, and my eyes are more sensitive to light than most half-elves.
Though my light sensitivity might be a bad family trait I inherited from either one or both of my parents, as I never knew them."
"If we are agreed on attacking, Ladies, you mind leading off the assault? Start by putting Silence on Ayla then into the fray with you. Zohan, you mentioned casting the haste spell? please do so before Karla casts Silence. Then hang back with me and make spot attacks as needed. Mister Crowe, how much of a link do you have with Dasher? Can you see through his eyes yet? If so, could you do so and have him fly above to keep an eye on the status of the Fort? If not, do you mind sneaking up to take a look? We basically need some sort of advanced warning to know if the ogres in the fort are going to react to our presence. Keep yourself hidden, and let us know what's going on. Zohan, can you cast the message spell on all of us? that way, if we see anything weird, we can pass it along to you and you can let the rest of the group know."
"Okay, fair enough. I'll go and take a look at the fort proper then. given me to the count of [insert appropriate number of seconds equal to estimated time], then start off the assault."
"Though if we go for the attack it would be better to cut them off from getting help.
Though this could put us in a pinch is one gets buy.
If we sneak by them, then attack them coming from the fort, we denied them an easy run to alert the fort, and it could have a Mental effect of making some of them think we took down the fort."
"If I'm enlarged, and or enstrengthened, I could pin down an ogre with ease. So it can't run for help, and won't be in the fight with the others."
Lord Zohan feels his blood flowing more quickly at the prospect of an upcoming battle, lending some color to his otherwise somewhat ashen skin. He carefully dismounts. "Alright, gather around warriors. I'll need you close by for one of these." he says, fishing various material components out of the pouches of his bandolier.
"I'll start with Karla, as this enchantment will last the longest. My apologies for not mentioning that I had prepared it earlier. Would you like light to go with it?" He sprinkles powdered lime and burnt wood dust along the length of her enormous blade, while muttering and gesturing. The lime takes on an almost incandescent quality as it is absorbed into the metal. If Karla asks for light, he crushes a live firefly along the blade with his thumb and smears the entrails as well. "That will hold you seven hours, my dear."
"Next comes Alya." He sprinkles a thin circle of powdered silver around the pit fighter and withdraws a rod encrusted with slivers of gems. He continues muttering but this time his gestures are more grand and everyone nearby feels a moment of warmth emanating from her. "That will hold you for 140 minutes and any of you will enjoy the benefits as well, as long as you stay within the reach of two arms."
He then continues with Alya, asking her to stick out her tongue. He sprinkles a light coating of powdered iron on her tongue as he mutters and gestures without the rod. The casting takes longer than the others spells, and they look on as Alya gets bulkier and taller until he is finished. "There you are. These last two will last for less than a minute. Is it a good idea to cast them already?"
Zadderk nods his head back at the woman as he sees her take her blindfold off. "Right, well, if we 'is properly, we can down tha' shaman fer' 'e even gets a chance to conjure up anytin'. I can take'em down from quite a distance, aye? Have some faith." he says as he aims his crossbow towards the Ogre. "How far ye' think we can get before they'll notice us?" he asks with a grin.
Zadderk smiles again at the prospect of one of the Ogre's escaping. "Dasher'n I will play cleanup. Ye' can trust in tha' he says with a smile. "Should I shoot tha' shaman now, 'er later?" he asks.
Ayla replies to Karla
"Then let's show the world not to make of our strength."
Lord Zohan quizzes Jakardos and the other scouts. "How far away is the nearest group of ogres? How many groups of ogres stand between us and the shaman? Is there any difficult terrain in the way? How wide is the top of the dam? Can we all get onto it at once? Could we all use whatever route you took to scout for our own purposes of getting closer unseen? At least we'll have this rain to cover us. Should we find a place to tie up the horses and the ass down here? I'm going to cast a simple spell now that allows messages to pass over the distance to and from me in case we have to separate. When you want to send such a message, simply whisper it." Lord Zohan mumbles and gestures, taking out a piece of copper wire and pointing it at Withers, Zadderk, Alya, Karla, Delian, Jakardos, and DireMerc. (Just kidding, the last participant is one of the other Black Arrows.)
This is a map of the damn each red cricle is a band of ogres the shaman hangs out in the builing in the center but ocassioanly makes a round to check on the workers.
This is on a scale were each square is = 10 feet.
Your currently in the forest on the left side of the damn.
"Agreed"
"The issue I see is that the dam is too wide for us to effectively bottleneck. We should wait for the shaman to go into the building, and then wipe out the nearest two groups, then dump their bodies off the side of the dam. We can then take the shaman by himself and then move across and deal with the other two groups of ogres. We should also assume that there will be 6 ogres per fight. Same thinking still goes: We should focus on them one at a time. They will most likely just attack us with the equipment that they are using on the dam, and I believe that they should be among the weaker ones, as ogre culture physically oriented, which means that the stronger and tougher ones tend to lord over the weaker ones."
Zadderk snorts before lining up his crossbow scope on the dam's center from the forest, whilst laying down. "With all due respect new blood, ya' haven't seen me shoot'is yet, 'ave ye'?" he says with a bit of pride. "From what we've seen, we'll just wait till tha' shaman is in range'n then Zohan can give us the haste we need, aye?" he asks, looking back at the wizard. "If'n I can shoot the bugger 4 times, then the rest'll fall to chaos. Sides. Swingin'em picks all day'll tire anyone out." he says with a gruff, stifled laugh.
"Jus' be patient, yeah? Sides. If'n we get tha' drop on'em I can shoot the bastard even more times before 'e knows what's happenin." he points out assuredly.
Alright seems your set on waiting out the shaman and having Zadderk take a shot at him.
Roll some attacks I'll work out the rest.
When he sees the ogre leader exit the central edifice in their direction, Lord Zohan elbows the young dwarf, conjuring up a silent image of an engraved invitation.
"I presume this is what you're waiting for." he snarks.
Delian will let Zadderk fire first, then follow his own advice and focus on the shaman with a shot from his crossbow.
Unprepared for such long-range combat, Lord Zohan unceremoniously sucks a sliver of the roast chicken he enjoyed for lunch from between his teeth.
"If I can pin the Shaman or another ogre, can you all please focus on the rest of them, so I don't get beaten while holding one down."
Zadderk shoots and while the first is a bit off two bolts strike the shaman who stumbles back a bit from the impacts but quickly regains his balance and starts scanning the side of the damn for the source of the attack calling for the nearby workers to destroy the intruders. Delian follows up but his bolt misses the shaman. The ranger fire shots at the shaman also landing two more hits that hurt the shaman but seems more like an annoyance than a death blow. He is bleeding quite a bit tough.
Ogres go first.
The shaman casts a spell on himself. (spellcraft if you want to identify)
The closest band of ogre workers take out large hooks to use as weapons dropping their tools and charge the party.
Ouch, your go. assume you cast your buff spells prior to combat.
Lord Zohan watches closely to see what the shaman is casting before preparing his retort.
Hoping to split the ogre forces temporarily and prevent them all from attacking at once, Lord Zohan casts major image to "summon" a trio of dire bears close to the central building, and has them roar out challenges to the ogres beyond the shaman but otherwise keep their distance and try to draw the ogres to them.