== Moonday, Pharast 3, 4708; Within Fort Rannick; An hour after midnight ==

After healing and restoring those injured in the fight with Lucretia we searched her and her room. She carried several items that were useful, but the room itself only held the tantalizing ashen remains of some papers.

[270] wand of scorching ray {22 charges} (Trask)
[271] +1 keen edge rapier (Rigel)
[272] sihedron medallion: like the one from Thistlestop (Darrel)
[273] masterwork dagger (Takkad)

Having removed Lucretia of her belongings we then removed her of her head, and stashed her corpse in the secret tunnel. We kept her head, just in case.

We knew the door to the north led up to somewhere into the fort, and so we tried the door to the west and found a cell block with the gruesome remains of the handful of rangers that had survived the initial ogre invasion.

Even though it was late, we needed to know more about our position and that of the ogres before we could plan our next actions. Jakardros and Vale set out to scout our immediate vicinity. Perhaps half an hour later they returned with their report.

The stairway led up into the northeast corner of the fort’s inner keep. Thick walls set with three guard towers protected this inner structure from the rest of the fortress, and served as a defensible place in case the outer walls were breached.

From the top of the nearest tower they saw perhaps half a dozen ogres on patrol in a careless fashion atop the walls. They had heard sounds of ogres from within the keep, and assumed the bulk of the force was housed in the keep itself and in the courtyard’s out buildings.

We decided to explore the first level of the keep, hoping to catch as many ogres sleeping as possible, and to quickly kill them off one at a time.

With Jakardros’ help I sketched a map of the keep, and using this as a guide we crept out into the main hallway. Shalelu, Vale and Jakardros we sent up into each of the towers — the doors and narrow ladders were too small for ogres, and so these were safe places for the rangers to keep watch. I used a Status spell to monitor Vale and Jakardros, who manned the further towers.

L. A library, from which the first tower was accessed.

1. The infirmary held a few beds, a desk and a table, and sitting at the table was a fat human with a spoon in one hand. He had been slit open and posed to look like he was eating his own entrails. Gore was carefully placed for maximum effect, and the hideous tableau looked as if it had been meticulously arranged by some artist with blasphemous taste.

Snoring came a bed in the far corner.

Nolin, Derrel and Sabin entered the room closed the door. A few moments later and we were down one ogre.

1. The mess hall had been torn apart, with tables and chairs smashed into kindling.

2. The kitchen was adjacent to the mess hall, and had likewise been plundered. A large cooking spit was in the center, and an alcove carved into the rock served as pantry.

3. 1. 1. Empty bedrooms with furniture broken and linen shredded.

4. The barracks. We did not open the doors yet because Avia detected six evil beings, and we could hear the snores, burps and farting of sleeping ogres within.

5. A large bedroom, in which Avia detected a single strong presence of evil.

6. A large bedroom from which we heard the sound of gruff laughter and something big moving about. Sabin, who can speak ogre, listened at the door and said it sounded like there were two ogres inside engaged in personal and intimate activities. Eeww.

7. An empty storage closet.

8. 1. Empty bedrooms with furniture broken and linen shredded.

Between rooms 8 and 9 were the keep’s gates, but they had been ripped from their hinges and lay in fragments on either side of the hall. Thus ended our hope of cutting off any ogres coming in from the rest of the fort.

We returned to room 8 where Sabin peeped in and saw an ogre sleeping in a bed against the far wall. But as he slipped in to cut its throat he bumped against a chair and woke the beast within. Nolin charged in and we closed the doors after. The muffled sounds of combat echoed out and down the halls, and worried that it would raise an alarm, and so some of us crept over to room 9, where the two ogres were stirring. Had we realized how formidable the ogre-captain within this first room really was we would have sent in extra support.

Just as Derrel and Avia positioned themselves on either side of the door it burst open and an ogre stood gaping out from the room. He… she… it was dressed in nothing but a suite human armor, which was way too small and was tied on with leather thongs. It was an inadequate garment, failing to cover much of its bulging, stinking hairy body, and we were treated to views of far more ogre anatomy than is good for one’s sanity.

I used a Hold Person spell on it while Derrel snapped its neck.

Its, ah, mate (?!) barged into the hall shouting, “Little people! Food! Intruders!” (Sabin told us this later, but at the time we just heard the guttural grunts and cries of what sounded like a wounded bull lusting after a sow in heat.)

So much for the element of surprise.

I quickly ran to the east side of the barracks and using Stone Shape pulled up a sheet of stone from the floor, effectively barricading the double doors as we heard the sounds of ogres stirring within.

Avia, Derrel and Rigel were slashing away at the ogre who had sounded the alarm, and it quickly succumbed to their onslaught.

Meanwhile Trask had used the hat of disguise to appear as Lucretia, and stood before the doors at the west side of the barracks. As the first ogre burst through he found Lucretia there commanding him to “STOP!”

This attempt at subterfuge may have worked had Darrel not run over and started beating on the slightly confused ogre. With a gruff “get out of my way, Lady” Trask found himself shoved into the corner, protected from his friends by an ogre. Another Hold Person spell later and the Derrel had broken the neck of yet another ogre.

At about this time Nolin and Sabin had finished with the uber-ogre and were rushing over to join our battle with Kane providing support, when the four ogres still in the barracks broke through the south wall. But before they could attack they were engulfed in an exploding conflagration of burning love, hand delivered by Trask, who was still dressed as Lucretia.

Our warriors held the angry ogres at bay while Trask launched another fireball at them, charring them into grotesque morsels of crispy fried ogre.

And that was how we killed 10 ogres in under 10 minutes.

After a bout of healing we searched the bedroom of the elite ogre Nolin and Sabin had battled, finding quite a few useful items.

[274] potion of cure moderate wounds
[275] +1 hide shirt {huge}
[276] +1 ogre hook
[277] masterwork composite long-bow {huge}
[278] a quiver of 20 arrows {huge}

We gathered the rangers who identified the ogres as of the Kreeg clan. Thinking of a way to stir dissension among the ranks of the remaining ogre force I asked if there was another ogre family particularly hostile to the Kreegs. They said there was an opposing tribe that cut off the hands of their fallen foes. And so we cut off the ogre hands and pinned them to the walls.

Avia had been busy all this time gazing up intently at the ceiling. “There are two very strong sources of evil above,” she said, pointing to various points at the ceiling as she walked about, “and three others at about the same level as those we fought here.”

But it was already well past midnight, and those of us not physically tired were mentally fatigued and low on spells. We decided to retreat to the secret tunnel for the remainder of the night and resume our attack in the morning.

We made our way back down through Lucretia’s abode and into the tunnel, making sure we left no tracks, and that the door was still hidden. Fortunately with the rangers on hand we can post a double watch through the night and still be well rested at day break.

== Moonday, Pharast 3, 4708; Within Fort Rannick; Late Morning ==

The night passed uneventfully for us, but when we returned to the main level of the keep we heard the sound of ogres investigating the carnage of the night before.

“I smell man stink!”

Ogres must have a much better sense of smell than I reckoned, and my plan to throw them off by displaying the hands of their fallen comrades was for naught.

We thought there might be two ogres out there, and decided to lure them down the hall where we could swiftly take them out one by one, using Hold Person on the rear ogre to prevent escape and the warning of others.

As it turned out there were three ogres, but events still went according to plan, and we hid their corpses as Avia confirmed the same presence of evil above as before.

The upper part of the keep was a broad round tower cut into the rock wall, with a narrower, taller tower embedded in its northeast quadrant. The stairs took us up into a wide hallway with several sets of doors.

Quietly Avia pointed out the doors behind which she felt the most powerful of the evil presences. One was to the west of the hall, and the other south of where the hall turned to the west.

Our plan is to quickly confront the strong source of evil to the west, which is by itself, and then quickly move to encounter the second malignant source to the south.

We hope that a Silence spell will extend our element of surprise past the first fight, and we can focus our fury on one opponent at a time.

All is ready and we are about to launch our westward attack!

== Moonday, Pharast 3, 4708; Within Fort Rannick; Late Morning ==

Success! Now on through the southern door while Silence still prevails.

Moonday, Pharast 3

After some discussion, it was decided that we should hide Lucretia’s body in the apparently unused secret passages while we rested. It was tempting to move forward after this invigorating victory, but the truth was, many of our spells and weapons had been used up getting this far. Prudence suggested we rest and regain our spells, sharpen our weapons, and carefully plan our next move. While taking out Lucretia this early in the campaign was an unexpected bonus, we could still not afford to be careless.

From her lifeless (and, to be certain, headless) body we took

a wand of scorching ray (22 charges) [270]
a +1 keen rapier [271]
another sihedron medallion [272] that conveys upon its wearer:

+1 resistance to all saving throws
ability to invoke false life once per day, and
preserve body if placed on a dead person (per gentle repose)

masterwork dagger [273]

There was also (unfortunately) ashes of paper (maps? scrolls? thanks to the power of fireball, we’ll never know) and some corked wine.

Still being relatively rested, we were determined to find out how overrun the fort truly was. With Lucretia defeated, we “only” had to clear the fort of ogres to declare victory. Jakardos estimated a group our size might be able to handle as many as three ogres at one time, but much more than that would overwhelm us. We needed to choose our battles carefully.

The room immediately adjoining ours was determined to be cells. Judging from the fresh blood, recently used too. But given how well they knew the fort, Jakardos and Vale convinced us we could gain much more information about the state of the world if they were to go do reconnaisance for a half hour.

True to their word, thirty minutes later they returned to tell us there did not appear to be guards in the towers. No real surprise there, as we don’t think the ogres could fit in the stairwells leading to the sentry positions. In general, although yes, there were ogres (real ogres, not ogrekin) about the fort, they were not in a state of readiness, and Lucretia’s death (and the battle that caused it) had not yet been noted. About a half dozen ogres vaguely resembled a patrol outside, and Jakardos and Vale agreed that there were probably many more housed inside, in the barracks or mess hall.

While fighting in darkness offered us no particular advantage (indeed, at least one among us said the ogres could see better in the night than we) the ogres were still diurnal, and more of them would be resting now than in the morning. It was decided we would see if we could clear out a few ogres. Quietly. Sneakily. Methodically. Leave no ogres behind us, then retreat to our known safe area (Lucretia’s former room) without leaving a trail.

Jakardos, Vale, and Shelelu were going to secure the front gate (if it could still be secured) to prevent outside ogres from coming in. A quiet, ten minute inspection revealed it would not be secure again anytime soon. The battle for the fort had damaged it beyond use.

Shelelu manned the near tower, while Jakardos and Vale were to man the more distant towers. They could alert us if an alarm roused significant numbers of ogres out in the courtyard or beyond. And off we went, hunting big game.

We were not disappointed. Although the first room was an uninhabited library (although trashed), the next room seemed to be an infirmary. However, a corpse there had been posed in a manner that suggested it was eating its own entrails. From the corner came some snoring. Sabin tried to sneak up on it, but failing that, he instead engaged it in battle. It was quickly dispatched as Nolin and Darrell assisted.

The next room we checked seemed to have been the kitchen. Destroyed, like the other rooms thus far. It hadn’t really been used .. just trashed.

The next rooms we searched seemed to have been bedrooms but were also trashed, and empty.

Finally we reached a set of double doors. Avia informed us there was 5 to 6 sources of evil on the other side .. too many for us to safely handle at once. We would return to this door later.

Avia sensed one evil entity behind another door, and two behind yet another. Sabin again tried stealth. No go. Nolin joined him and the two of them shut the door (to keep the noise inside).

About this same time, I had a cool idea. I used the hat of disguise to appear as Lucretia (in her human form). Even though I could not speak Ogre, I expected that the ogres would recognize her figure and if she’d curried the reputation I expect she had, they would try very hard to please her even if she spoke common.

Meanwhile, Nolin and Sabin made sounds of battle in the room with the one ogre. The two of them were apparently having some difficulty dispatching him.

Darrell and Avia positioned themselves on either side of the door to the room with two ogres in it. Before they could move to enter, the door burst open, and an ogre wearing human armor (hint: it didn’t fit well) stumbled out. It looked surprised, but then it found itself unable to move as Tekkad’s hold spell took effect. That one was easily dispatched by Darrell (once the initial shock of it all dissipated), but the second ogre emerged in time to see its companion eviscerated. It yelled loudly, and the element of surprise was lost. There was some distant commotion in the room we believed to be the barracks, and it became critical to dispatch these ogres quickly. The one that Nolin and Sabin were fighting met its maker about then, and while the one before Avia and Darrell was not held or restricted in any way, it still faced a handicap in the form of an angry paladin. It too died obligingly.

Tekkad quickly ran over to the double doors we’d inspected before, and using another spell, pulled up some of the floor to act as a barrier, preventing the doors from opening. I, still disguised as Lucretia, positioned myself at the doors at the other end of the room. I was hoping to get the ogres inside to stay inside long enough to let a fireball be effective, and I thought the appearance of Lucretia might be enough. And it worked, sort of.

As the first ogre came out, I yelled, halt! My grand plan might have worked, but for the fact that Darrell came up and attacked the mildly confused ogre before I could launch my fireball. The ogre promptly pushed me behind him and started to fight this “new menace” while protecting me. Doing so made my shot into the barracks unavailable. Sigh. I backed into the closet so that I was disengaged from the ogre. Before he was killed, however, we heard a massive thundering of the south wall of the barracks. Apparently the other ogres inside were impatient, and beginning to break down the wall. Things were quickly getting out of hand.

However about this time my protector ogre fell … and that allowed me clear passage to shoot a fireball into the barracks. About the same time, the south wall gave way and three ogres confronted our fighters in the hallway, with more still within the room. However, a second fireball and a couple of solid hits by our fighters finished off all the ogres.

And as near as we can tell, it had all happened quietly enough, in ogre terms, that no reinforcements were coming. Avia could detect some strong sources of evil upstairs, but by this time we were low on spells, strength, and stamina. We tried leaving bloody ogre handprints on the wall, as Jakardos told us that was the calling sign of a rival band of ogres and we thought that might make sow dissension among the ogres.

Useful stuff we found:

potion of cure moderate wounds [274]
a +1 hide shirt [275]
a +1 ogre hook [276]
a composite long bow [277]; big, maybe masterwork. 24ST to use.
20 arrows [278]

We quietly made our way back to our safeplace, recalled our watchtower people, set some guards, and recovered.

When we awoke, it was mid morning and there’d been no incidents. However, there were roving ogre guards investigating the carnage we’d created the night before. Sabin said they were complaining about “man stink” which means our efforts to make it appear the work of a rival clan had gone for naught.

Our goal this morning would be to go after the sources of evil that Avia detected upstairs. Before we could make much progress on that goal, our scouts ran into one three ogre team that, fortunately, thought they had easy pickings on their mighty mitts and did not raise an alarm but instead pursued “the food” for themselves. The scouts led them right back to us where we dispatched them fairly quickly. Tekkad was becoming adept at casting hold on the creatures, which made several of the battles much simpler.

We hid the bodies, and quietly headed upstairs.

The first room we checked had an ogre quietly humming to himself .. most unbecoming of an ogre. He apparently was happily desecrating an altar. The walls in the chapel were covered by many many .. antlers I guess. Bits of flesh still hung from many of the antlers. Tekkad cast a silence spell, but I fear in hindsight it may only hinder ourselves. The ogre seemed unconcerned when we presented ourselves, and we soon found out why. He or one of his belongings seemed to confer upon him a berserker ability that made him quite dangerous.

Nevertheless we were able to overcome him. Jakardos took a significant wound in the fighting, but has been partially healed. We found

[279] hook
[280] 2 potions
[281] bracers
[282] belt

but will have to identify them later. We are preparing now to assault another room.