Druamin grips his axe and scans around. "Well that was easy. Maybe too easy."
Round 1 (ongoing):
Initiative order
Erond-acted
Rangers-acted/delaying
Ogre-dead
Druamin-delaying
Ogre 2-acted
Skarn
Trox
Cordwin
The druid looks around, ready to attack anything that moves. Sure enough, something moves. The door to the cookhouse bursts open and another ogre emerges, blinking in the glare and shouting in Giant. His hands and feet seem too small for his corpulent frame (and his head and posterior seem too large), but that doesn't seem to slow him down any. He draws his ogre hook and starts to close.
Trox moves to position himself between the party and the ogre shouting back at it in a terrible parrot of its own yell.
Whether with biting remarks or hurtful words, you are adept at making
creatures angry with you.
Benefit
: You can make Diplomacy and Intimidate checks to make
creatures respond to you with hostility. No matter which skill you use,
antagonizing a creature takes a standard action that does not provoke
attacks of opportunity, and has a DC equal to 10 + the target's Hit Dice
+ the target's Wisdom modifier. You cannot make this check against a
creature that does not understand you or has an Intelligence score of 3
or lower. Before you make these checks, you may make a Sense
Motive check (DC 20) as a swift action to gain an insight bonus on
these Diplomacy or Intimitade checks equal to your Charisma bonus
until the end of your next turn. The benefits you gain for this check
depend on the skill you use. This is a mind-affecting effect.
Diplomacy
: You fluster your enemy. For the next minute, the target takes a -2 penalty on all attacks rolls made against creatures other than you and has a 10% spell failure chance on all spells that do not target you or that have you within their area of effect.
Intimidate
: The creature flies into a rage. On its next turn, the target must attempt to make a melee attack against you, make a ranged attack against you, target you with a spell, or include you in the area of a spell. The effect ends if the creature is prevented from attacking you or attempting to do so would harm it (for example, if you are on the other side of a chasm or a wall of fire). If it cannot attack you on its
turn, you may make the check again as an immediate action to extend
the effect for 1 round (but cannot extend it thereafter). The effect ends as soon as the creature attacks you. Once you have targeted a
creature with this ability, you cannot target it again for 1 day.
Skarn will double move to be next to Trox.
Cordwin will advance with the others, ready to heal if need be.
"Well there's my cue! Come on Kobu, we've got another ogre to knock down." Drumain moves in a line directly towards the ogre.
The party advances, in one case with a taunting shout--even though the words aren't terribly clear, the intent certainly is.
Round 2:
Initiative order
Erond-
Rangers-
Ogre 2-
Druamin-
Skarn
Trox
Cordwin
Cordwin will fire a bolt as the lead ogre.
Jakardros sends three arrows after Erond's. All strike home, and the ogre falls.
"Better dead then alive."
Trox moves to look around the corner just to be sure no one else is in the couryard.
Drumain skids to a halt halfway to the ogre and calls Kobu to stop. "Well that was nice and easy." He glances to the other builds to the left while Trox goes to the corner at the right.
The larger outbuilding next to the one that Trox knocked down is a stable, currently empty. The collapsed building contains the crushed bodies of two ogres plus the more impressive leader; the only treasure is the ogre leader's armor and ogre hook (both magical), plus the 22 rings on the necklace of hands around his neck (one of which is magical).
The cookhouse is all that Jakardros feared: nine human bodies, thankfully unrecognizable, have been threaded on skewers and left to cure over a slow fire. (The smell is disturbingly appetizing.) The entrails have been extracted from the corpses and put in a heap on the work surface, next to a large bowl holding bread dough.
A single set of double doors allows entrance to the central keep. The doors are made from iron-reinforced oak and have been brutally battered and savaged. Crude repairs have been effected, but the doors still hang somewhat out of true.
It takes Trox a moment to figure out what he is looking at. He looks back to the others fury etched on his face, speaking quietly though clenched teeth.
"That one must die."
"Lead on Trox, and we will follow."
Druamin avoids looking at the grisly scene and leaves the cook room as quickly as possible. "Let's exterminate these ogres."
Once the others are close Trox will advance quickly towards the cookhouse shield up. He refrains the primal scream that wants to escape his lips at the site in front of him and just closes quickly.
After a quick search, the party establishes that there's nothing else living in the cookhouse.
"I think the only other place to go is through those big doors."
"That lack of options makes it easy I guess. If were all ready.."
The door sticks, but Trox is eventually able to force it open. The entrance hall beyond it is a horror, with dried blood caked on the stone walls and splashed on the floor. Over the stains on the floor are bits and pieces of armor, weaponry, and flesh; and flies cloud the air. Tapestries that once bore the insignia of the Black Arrows have been torn from the walls and now lie scattered about the hall in shreds coated with filth.
Narrower corridors exit the hall to the east and west.
Skarn nods at Trox and gestures for him to lead on.
Jakradros murmurs, "That door down the righthand hall leads to a workroom, and the one one the other side is the armory."
Trox nods to Skarn. "Work room it is."
Once they are in position Trox will try the door, stepping though quickly.
Over the minute or so that the party has been inside the inner keep, it's become obvious that 1) there are ogres present, 2) they seem to fight with each other a lot, and 3) they're not quiet about it. The acoustics don't allow pinpointing the fight(s), though.
The party forms up by the indicated door, then Trox throws it open. A single ogre looks up, startled, and snarls something in Giant. It's holding a headless human body by the midsection. If the scribble-covered state of the walls is any indication, it's been using the body as a pen.
The lathes, sawhorses, and hand tools in the workroom lie in scattered, shattered ruin on the floor.
Round 1:
Initiative order
Druamin
Erond
Rangers
Skarn
Cordwin
Ogre
Trox
Round 1 (ongoing)
Initiative order
Druamin
Erond-acted
Rangers
Skarn
Cordwin
Ogre
Trox
Even in the close quarters, one of Erond's arrows misses the ogre completely, while the other two fail to penetrate its armor.
"Ok. Let me through." Druamin pushes past his allies and into the room. He immediately swings his axe at the ogre.
Round 1 (ongoing):
Jakardros manages to barely best Erond in accuracy, hitting the ogre with one of three arrows. He snaps an order and the other two Black Arrows rush into the room. First Vale advances next to Druamin, chopping at the ogre with his battleax and missing. Kaven hangs back for a split second before he, too, darts in and stabs at the ogre with his rapier before retreating. His strike fails to find a weak spot in the enemy's armor.
Cordwin will cast DAZE at the ogre standing in front of Druamin.
Skarn will charge the ogre...
x4, P
Seeing that these ogres seem tougher than typical ogres, Cordwin will shoot a bolt at the one in front of Druamin.
Round 1 (ongoing)
Initiative order
Druamin-acted
Erond-acted
Rangers-acted
Skarn-acted
Cordwin-acted
Ogre
Trox
Cordwin's bolt comes nowhere near the ogre, but Skarn's heavy pick does it some damage. The ogre winds up and swings at the closest ranger, then Skarn. Both attacks miss.
"To crowded. Finish this."
Trox whispers as he steps in thinking it would be best to simply try one big swing to see if he can make an ogre explode.
AC: 29/14/26
AC: 29/14/26
Round 2:
Druamin continues to swing at the ogre.
Round 2 (ongoing):
Initiative order
Druamin-acted
Erond
Rangers
Skarn
Cordwin
Ogre
Trox
Druamin hits the ogre once. It's not looking that good (of course, it started out kind of unpleasant-looking...).
Erond only hits the ogre effectively once, wounding it further and almost killing it. Then the bald ranger, Vale, unleashes a flurry of blows with battleax and handax; three miss, but the one that hits is enough to put the ogre over the edge. It falls with a wet thud.
There's nothing of interest here. It appears that the ogre had bitten the human's head off and used the body as a macabre sort of paintbrush, writing childish doggerel poetry (if it can be called that) in the Giant language. Jakardros and Kaven can both read it.
The sounds of battle draw some unwanted attention, though, and two other ogres who seem to have been trying on human-scale armor stumble out of the armory and attack the party.
No other ogres emerge to trouble you...for the moment.