Nigel moves slightly forward. with the intention of being within the effect area of the Inquisitor's spell. Then carefully aims Prudence at the Ogre he can see through the small passageway. Knowing the large creature would have a difficult time reaching him.
"Let's get on with this." Cole says quietly to his comrades as he pulls his pistol from his holster.
"Isavara ... go ahead with your plan."
Isavara quickly goes through a few incantations to enhance her speed and mobility. She then quietly moves over to position herself so she can charge into combat.
Open up on the souther ogre since Simo doesn't like prone targets.
deadly aim, bleeding wound
plus bleed
and I get my grit back
Cole uses the boosted speed from his magic boots to move out of the passage and up next to Isavara.
Nigel aims Prudence and fires at the Ogre he can see through the small passage, as soon as he hears nothing.
Isavara slams hard into first ogre, who falls flat on his face. The second ogre, however, is unmoved by the half-orc. He turns to face the woman and attempts to roar, but no sound comes forth. Instead, he is struck by Simo's bolt piercing one of his eye's. Blood pours profusely from the wound.
Hideously blisters on the ogre Isavara ran over burst, spraying a viscous fluid over her.
The third ogre takes a bullet from Prudence. A look of confusion covers his face as the slug strikes him in the arm.
Isavara and Cole see a gnome lying on the ground between the three ogres. He is beat and bloodied.
Tatsumi walks up to prone ogre and attempts to disembowel him.
Tatsumi's sword tears through the ogre, who opens it's mouth in agony, but his scream is silenced by magic.
The confused, grievously wounded ogre attempts to stand up.
The other two spin to face Isavara and Cole, both swinging their clubs wildly. Despite the flurry of attacks from the enraged ogres, only one manages to connect on Cole.
Isavara takes a chunk out of the ogre, spray more of the acid goo on her. He looks to be seriously wounded.
Cole swings with his sword as the ogre tries to stand. (AoO)
He spins to engage the ogre to the Southwest.
Tatsumi swings as the Ogre tries to stand
Simo will target one of the standing ogres. With improved precise shot, cover is moot.
deadly aim, rapid shot
Tatsumi finishes off the fallen ogre, but ends up with a spray of acid for his efforts.
Simo's bolts pepper the bleeding ogre, one tearing a large chunk of flesh from his throat and spraying blood everywhere. It falls to the ground, narrowly missing the bullied gnome on the ground.
The other ogre is struck twice from Cole's longsword, causing it to silently roar in pain. Acid sprays from the ugly welts on it's body in an arc toward the Holy Gun.
Cole tries to dodge out of the way of the worst of the spray!
and succeeds!
Isavara steps over and stands above the gnome on the floor, trying to defend him as best she can. She swings her sword out at the remaining ogre, more concerned with keeping it off balance.
Tatsumi, learning from the first time, dodges the acid puss and moves to the final ogre and tries to run him through.
Tatsumi's attack opens up yet another large gash on the ogre's legs, adding to the damage from Cole's assault.
Nigel looking down Prudence's sights draws a bead on the Ogre's legs and squeezes off a shot.
Isavara's blade sliced open a wide gash across the raging ogre's chest.
Isavara's slash opens up yet another wound on the seriously battered Ogre. It glares at her and roars silently while raising it's club high planning on crushing her skull, then it looks confused and coughs blood. It's eyes roll back and it falls to it's knees, revealing Nigel standing behind it, Prudence's barrel smoking.
As the last ogre fell, Isavara stabbed her greatsword into the mine floor and scooped up the battered gnome. She walked back past Nigel and nodded to the adjacent room that they previously came through. She enters the room, sets the injured gnome down, and waves her hands over his wounds while asking Gorum for aid. "Nigel, talk to him and see what you can find out. You got one minute."
Cole steps out of the silence radius and uses his Wand of Cure Light Wounds.
Nigel follows Isavara into the other cave. He gives Prudence a quick cleaning while the Inquisitor tends to the Gnome's injuries. As she gives her "orders" and leaves, Nigel shakes his head and mutters something about tall folks then kneels beside the battered Gnome and says.
"I say old chap why were those brutes giving you the once over? Not that Ogres ever need a reason to act that way. My name is Nigel what is yours? And don't worry about those beasts, they won't be bothering anyone ever again."
The strange gnome peers up at you from the ground. "Y-you're them! My dreams told me you would come! You're here to save the slaves! Oh, thank goodness!" He crawls over to a pair of battered crutches and gingerly props himself into a standing position. The gnome looks pretty beat up and is filthy from dust and blood, but there is something else odd about him that you can not quite put your finger on.
"Now just hold on my good man. Calm yourself, I think you had better explain a few things. First are you okay? Now what's all this about slaves and you say you had a dream, are you a seer? Are there more ogres? Have seen any or do you know about metal men.?"
Says Nigel while studying the other gnome.
"Yes, we're a bit short on what exactly is going on in here. "
Nigel can see that the gnome is not only wild-eyed and obviously crazy, but has a number of physical abnormalities. Everyone is able to tell that he has been affected by the strange mutations that sometimes alter residents of the Mana Wastes.
"I'm okay, more or less. The ogres weren't trying to kill me, I don't think...sometimes they go a little too far with us slaves. The ogres and that ettin raided our settlement some time ago. They brought us here to mine the green crystals. They stick them in the metal men. Well, the tiefling woman does at least. No, I'm not a seer, I just dreamt that you'd come."
"There are more slaves here? Where are they kept?"
Tatsumi searches the Ogres for any clues
"My friends, it seems that we have been granted an opportunity to right a greater wrong than what we originally came here for. We are truly blessed."
"We must defeat these villains and find and free these slaves."
"well I guess killing all the interlopers will free all the slaves, so that works. It is what I was hired for. "
"Slavery, well in many places it is..." Nigel pauses looks about at his companions then says. "Yes, yes must put a stop to it." Now lad back to my question, just how many ogres are there? And tell me more about this ettin and tiefling."
"There are a couple dozen of those ogres. Murg-Nurk is...well, he is pretty scary, to be honest. He gets real angry all the time. I don't know much about the tiefling, except that she has these weird shiny bodyguards and that even Murg-Nurk seems scared of her. My people are on the other side of the main cavern. There are other things too. I don't know what they are though."
Isavara places her hand on Nigel's shoulder. "It's time to go little one. We have slaves to save, a job to complete and ogres to slay." She heads back to meet up with the others. "Prepare to move out. Simo, take that southern passage and see what's around the corner if you will. Cole and Nigel, stay close to me. Tatsumi, bring up the rear and keep your eyes to the north. Make sure nothing creeps up behind us."
"Aye. " and he will head south.
Tatsumi quietly takes his position at the back of the pack, glancing over his shoulder every so often.
"You're right. There's work to be done." Cole is ready.
Tatsumi, while picking over the ogres, notices two things. The first is that they are even more ugly than your typical specimen of ogre. Calcified deposits beneath the skin give them a certain additional layer of armored protection, for instance. The mutations of the Mana Wastes affect everyone differently.
The other is that each is wearing an amulet covered in runes.
As Simo creeps around the corner he comes upon four pairs of wooden beams hold up the ceiling of this tunnel. A conveyor system between the beams runs the length of the tunnel, terminating at a cracked, mineral-studded cavern wall. There are a dozen slaves of various races chipping at the minerals, watched by group of four ogres and a creature that looks like a six-legged dragon with a leather hood over it's head.