Mandraiv casts Eldritch Blast at the ogre.
Mandraiv's spell inflicts a nasty, festering wound upon the ogre, while Artius slashes at him from the far room. Behind him, Artius hears the ogre argument ending and the approach of heavy footsteps from somewhere in the darkness.
Damage Taken:
Ogre: 52
Trapped behind the party with no means of attacking, Aredhel grips her greatsword and waits, prepared to leap forward at a moment's notice.
Sighting the glaive glimmering on the stone floor, Aredhel props her greatsword against the wall and snatches it up, angling for an attack over the barbarian's shoulder.
Now that Aredhel is healed, Imsh once again begins to call the holy fires of his god down on the ogre.
Damage:
Ogre needs a dex save against DC-13
Oso never really used the glaive, he kept his sword and gets ready for another attack routine. A high low attack with his neck on the line.
Aredhel is unused to the magical glaive, which feels strange after all her training with her mighty two-hander. He attack gets nowhere near the ogre.
"Back for another pounding, elf?" the ogre chuckles.
Imsh calls down holy fire, but the ogre seems almost ready for it, and dodges it as soon as he sees the first sparks appearing over his head.
Now confronted on two sides, the ogre calls out, "Maltok, Uggo, come help your father!"
As if summoned by his voice, two lumbering half-ogres (or are they called ogrekin?) stumble out of the darkness from the corridor Aredhel is blocking. Luckily, the corridor is only wide enough to allow one of them to attack at a time. Due to the shadowy lighting in the corridor, the first half-ogre is able to get through Artius' defenses.
Confident that Artius is now tied up, the ogre then swings at Oso, but seems to be in quite a bit of pain from his previous wounds, and good deal slower; the barbarian sidesteps the blow. ,
Damage Taken:
Ogre: 52
Mandraiv targets the ogre with another Eldritch Blast.
Mandraiv's bolt hits the ogre straight in the jaw. Its necrotic effects begin dissolving the lower half of the creature's head. Second later he drops lifeless to the ground.
Deflecting most of the force behind the ogrekin's attack, Artius nonetheless winces in pain as the battle axe deals him a glancing blow. Launching a quick flurry of attacks, he then darts back into the southwest corner of the room, hoping to lure the newcomers in.
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Oso moves forwards next to Artius (in the southeast corner) and taunts the ogrekin, one foot resting on the unmolten half of the ogre's head. "looks like you should run now your daddy is gone."
If they attack then Oso will slash one with his longsword , ,
Aredhel moves forward to attack with the glaive if possible.
Oso, Artius, and Aredhel bring down the half-ogres with several practiced and savage swings of their swords.
Quiet returns to the dungeons of the keep, with the heavy breathing of the combatants the only sound.
On closer inspection, the two half-ogre brothers seemed more like bulky, hyper-muscular humans with terrifying faces twisted by their ogre ancestry. You guess that they are the results of several generations of breeding. Their armor is quite basic, as are their weapons, in contrast to the weapon of the ogre, which seems quite new and well-made.
Imsh looks over his friends and tries to gauge their health and if anyone need intimidate healing, otherwise he will go among them with his healer's kit and patch up their lesser wounds.
Mandraiv says, "That was intense. Which way do you guys want to go next?"
"Let us find Bargle. His thugs are gone now. This is why we are here."
The garundi is trembling with exertion, sweaty and visibly staring out of his wide eyes. His fatigue is no longer so well hidden and the laughter is gone for a while.
Oso gulps down some air again.
"Wait Oso. We need to rest. Not all of us are as hearty as you, and a moment to catch our breath would do us a world of good.", the half-orc says as diplomatically as possible.
Mandraiv says, "I think Imsh has a good idea there."
"Rest? I is ready if you want to go on. Do not stop for Oso. He is all fight fit."
But the words sound a bit more like bravado.
Aredhel stands quietly at the back of the group, cleansing her blade and clearly willing to proceed or to rest as the group decides is best.
Mandraiv says, "Let's rest. See if we can get the door closed and we should only have to worry about the stairs. Unless you all want to return to the last place we rested."
The garundi starts to relax and then slowly collapses into the corner. His eyes close while he waits and then the native man relaxes his grip on sword and shield.
Mandraiv uses his thieves tools to Jimmy the door shut.
After several tries, Mandraiv thinks he is able to jam the door to the east shut; now the only choice is to smash it down.
Fatigued from their travails, the party settles down to rest and recuperate.
During their rest, the members on watch hear various sounds coming from other parts of the dungeon, both through the door and from the stairwell. They include the occasional bellow from a large, decidedly non-humanoid-sounding creature (distantly through the door) and the scratching of feet or paws from somewhere above. Neither sound seems close enough to elicit any immediate response from the watcher.
Approximately an hour into the rest, however, Artius (who is on watch) hears movement coming from the top of the stairs, and the whispering of muffled noises. He does not recognize the language.
Artius moves quietly amongst the group, silently drawing their attention to the noises coming from the stairwell as he rouses the party from its rest.
Mandraiv nods to Artius. Configuring his pact blade as a longsword Mandraiv goes up the stairs a short distance to see what he can see.
Oso rouses slowly at the touch of Artius and grins at the man. He picks himself up and readies for battle.
As Mandraiv sneaks quietly up the staircase, he begins to discern that the speech is Draconic, most likely kobolds.
Mandraiv backs up a bit and uses his ability to speak directly to Artius' mind saying, "Sounds like kobolds."
Imsh readies his flail and shield, standing to one side of the stairway.
Aredhel draws her blade, trying yo discern what the kobolds are saying.
Although Aredhel only hears a few snatches of speech, she guesses that they are arguing about who is going to talk to the party. Unless she is mis-hearing them drastically (which is always possible), they don't seem to be hostile.
A few seconds later, the elf hears the sound of a lone kobold descending the stairwell.
When Mandraiv sees the kobold he will use his ability to speak directly to its mind and say, "Come no further. Anything you wish to say you can say from there."
The kobold coming down the stairs shrieks as he hears the words spoken in his mind and throws himself prostrate before Mandraiv. "Mercy, great wizard-men! We come with an offer for peace! Don't kill your humble slaves!"
Aredhel straightens at this proclamation, but doesn't quite lower her guard. Instead, she arches one fine brow and glances at the others. She holds her tongue, however, and waits for Mandraiv's response.
Mandraiv replies, "If you truly wish to have peace that is easy enough to arrange. We have two basic demands. The first is that you leave us alone and stay out of our way. If you do not bother us, we will not kill you. The second demand is that you tell us how we may find Bargle."
The kobols continue grovelling in Common, "Yes, yes, whatever the masters say. If only the masters promise not to kill anymore kobolds and leave when they are finished with the Bargle."
The kobold then sits up, a curious expression on his face.
"The masters are after the Bargle? But he ran, didn't he?"
Mandraiv says, "This is news to me. We are here because we think Bargle is here. If he fled, where did he go? What chased him out of here?"
The kobold makes a gesture that Mandraiv interprets as a shrug.
"He fled through the deep tunnels to Her. The chief told him you were coming and he quickly packed his things and ran like a rat with its tail on fire."
Mandraiv asks, "Who is 'her'? Where can she be found?"
The kobold bows his head low and touches his forehead in a sign of respect. "She is the one who birthed us, she is the beginning and the end, she is the one whom we all praise."
"She is big fat kobold mama? like mum." calls up Oso as he listens from the bottom of the stairs.