Toilday, Pharast 4

Jakardos and Vale have gone to check on the dam while we stay at the fort to begin repairs and purge the place of any signs of the ogres’ occupation.

We are all exhausted from the fighting of the past two days. Despite our superior numbers and considerable talents, our foes were very nearly a match for us even when divided into small groups. Without the care, caution, and deception that we used to infiltrate the fort, we would have quickly found ourselves overwhelmed and forced to retreat, if not killed out right. Fortunately, our planning was sound and we were able to prevent the ogres from alerting one another so that we could dispatch them two or three at a time. How the rangers were ever able to keep these creatures in check was something of a mystery to me at first until it became clear that they never had to contend with more than a couple at a time. The ogres have never had this level of organization before. Individually they were tough but easily dispatched; organized under the guidance and influence of Lucretia, they were significantly more deadly.

The biggest coup was, of course, finding and destroying Lucretia on our very first night. I took a great deal of satisfaction in delivering the killing blow. For you, Olithar.

The plan to use her image to lure others in was crucial to our strategy of divide and conquer, and it worked so well on these simple creatures that we could probably had kept it up indefinitely (in the end, the opportunity to fireball the mess wagon was too good to pass up). Oh, how they were terrified of her. It never occurred to them that she might be destroyed, or that anyone would even dare to impersonate her.

Of course, this also served as a reminder that there are other sisters, and that Xanesha got away from us in Magnimar.

 

Fireday, Pharast 7

We are leaving now. As Tekkad had feared the dam has been breached. The river is rising quickly. Turtleback Ferry is in danger.

== Moonday, Pharast 3, 4708; Fort Rennick; Mid day ==

With the ogre butcher from the fort’s chapel slain, we quickly made our way to the southern room of the keep’s main tower. It was from here, beyond the sturdy wood door, where Avia had detected another strong source of evil.

In a well orchestrated move Kane rushed towards the door, opening it and stepping aside just as Avia rushed in, closely followed by Sabin, Derrel and the rest of the party. The room had obviously been the bedroom of the fort’s commander, Captain Bedan, but now it was occupied by a female ogre (or so we assumed from her dress) and her two minions, who were large and menacing even for ogres.

We were expected, and the two guards were standing alert facing the door with weapons ready, while the female ogre stood near the back of the room, her shape shimmering and shifting in an unnatural way that tricked the eye, making it difficult to focus on her.

An ogre mage! While the fighters took on the guards, I quickly cast Dispel Magic on the ogress, and she snapped into focus. She lifted her meaty hand and a bolt of electricity arced from her finger to Sabin, who crackled and smoked from the attack.

From the grunts and pig like squeals of our opponents Sabin learned that the ogress’ name was Dorella, and obviously in charge here, but in order to get to her we needed to first hack through her guards.

Avia, Sabin and Derrel were arranged about the first guard, while Nolin held the second at bay on his own. Trask and Rigel provided ranges attacks, and Kane hung out in the hallway by the door, on the lookout for unwelcome arrivals. I was positioned between Nolin and Avia, ready to offer whatever support I could where it was needed.

And support from we healers was definitely needed. The first guard sliced into Avia with a brutal slash from its ogre hook, and she staggered with the impact. Kane and I immediately assisted with healing as Trask, Sabin and Rigel counter attacked. Nolin was hacking away at his ogre and being repaid in kind.

These ogres were proving far more difficult than the louts we had encountered below. When Sabin replied, “I don’t know,” to Rigel’s question about the guards’ names, Avia shouted out in exasperation, “It doesn’t matter that it doesn’t have a name, it still hurts!”

Slowly we were wearing the guards down, but Trask hastened the process with a carefully placed fireball. Soon the first ogre dropped, which allowed us to focus on the second, which Trask finished off with a Burning Hands spell.

That left Dorella, against whom Nolin was already pressing a powerful attack, while Sabin tried the more subtle approach of casting Touch of Idiocy. Dorella appeared to have the same thought and cast the same spell upon Sabin. But Dorella was hopelessly out classed and Nolin swiftly hacked her to bits.

We then searched this room and the chapel and gathered together the items we had found.

From the ogre in the chapel:

[279] +1 ogre hook of Human Bane [+1D6]
[280] 2 potions of Cure Serious Wounds (Avia and Sabin)
[281] +2 bracers (Derrel)
[282] +4 belt of giant strength (Derrel)

From the ogre guards:

[283] masterwork long-bow [STR +7]
[284] +1 ogre hook
[285] +1 ogre hook
[286] potion of Cure Moderate Wounds (Darrel)
[287] potion of Cure Moderate Wounds (Trask)
[288] +1 hide shirt (large)
[289] +1 hide shirt (large)

From Dorella:

[290] wand of acid arrow [43 charges] (Trask)
[291] +2 amulet of natural armor (Kane)
[292] +2 cloak of charisma (Trask)

While the rest of us were checking the bodies of our fallen foes, Avia scanned the walls to the north and announced that there were two additional evil beings beyond.

I cast prayer as we did the obvious and opened the double doors to what once were the the fort’s tribunal chamber. From the rafters above hung two humans, who had been carefully cut open with a knife so that their blood drained into a pair of buckets on the floor. A pair of burly ogres stood beneath the humans, admiring their handiwork.

Avia charged in and attacked the nearest ogre, who skillfully counter attacked, grievous injuring her. Nolin, Derrel and Sabin rushed in and engaged the two ogres, who seemed quite adapt at martial arts and inflicted a great deal of damage to our front line fighters.

Avia, who had not been fully healed after her encounter with Dorella’s entourage, was the focus for both ogres aggression, and she fell to the floor, her sword clattering loudly beside her. Kane and I quickly rushed to her aid, healing her wounds and helping pull her back from the main action.

Trask sent a flaming sphere in to distract one ogre while Nolin and Sabin hacked frantically at it. Derrel used his fists to deadly affect, slaying the oaf, as Avia stood and finished off the other.

We spent a moment or two catching our breaths and healing everybody fully, and Avia scanned the area and pronounced there were no more evil presences on the keep.

Rigel searched the room and found a secret door to the south, beyond which was a map room. Many of the maps had been taken out and ripped to shreds, but many more remained in the shelves.

Sabin and I were quite interested in what we found here, and when the others lost interest and returned to Dorella’s room to search for hidden loot, we continued to scan through the maps.

Two in particular grabbed our attention, and we decided to keep them for later study.

[293] Map of Viperwall — lower tunnels charted with notes (Takkad) Viperwall is a famous ruin of a fortress where poisonous gases seep from the mouths of its many fanged statues. The map was beautifully drawn and skillfully embossed.
[294] Map Lurkwood, including paths (Takkad)

Our companions found several additional items hidden away in Dorella’s room — items that probably belonged to the now deceased Captain Bedan.

[295] Flat wooden coffer with dozens of sheets of parchment, and poetry written on each to “Miriana”. (Returned to rangers)
[296] A tiny jewelry box (Returned to rangers)
[297] A locket on a silver chain with a lock of hair — golden andiridescent and definitely not human — “For my Lamatar” engraved on the back (Returned to rangers)
[298] Pair of soft green leather swamp boots (Rigel)

The wearer of the boots has the ability to walk on water in
a swamp (no more than 5′ deep). The wearer will leave no tacks,
and is protected against rain and fog, plus they receive a +2
on fortitude saves against poison and disease.

We called our ranger friends down from their watch on the towers and let them know we had cleared the keep itself, and also shared with them what was found in Dorella’s room.

Jakardros was amazed by the poetry and locket, and said the captain must have had a relationship with a water nymph. He thought it fitting that we keep the boots because we were driving out the intruders from Bedan’s last post.

We pressed on, completing our exploration of the keep by climbing up the highest tower. At the top was a massive wooden frame supported a cracked bell, where the clapper had been replaced with a dead ranger wearing a metal helm.

From the top we could see that thus far the remaining ogres in the fort were unaware of our activities in the keep, and so we improvised a very loose plan.

The rangers and those of us who worked best with ranged attacks (Rigel and Trask) would man the lower towers of the keep and support our attacks as they could. Trask, who has proven himself both handy and skilled with the Fireball spell, was told to use his own judgement and take advantage of ogres massing together to inflict as much damage as possible on as many foes as he could at one time.

Meanwhile the rest of us hid ourselves about the broken keep gates while Sabin, using the hat of disguise, posed as Lucretia and commanded three ogres to accompany him… ah, her back into the keep. There we all jumped out and killed the lot of them.

As luck would have it, the day had waxed to the lunch hour, and ogres began to gather outside by an open air kitchen. Perhaps seventeen ogres in all were milling about in one small area.

Trask set off a fireball in the middle of them.

The result was wonderful chaos: ogres attacked one another or stood still in shock, while a few (very few) jumped into the nearby pool of water or ran towards the nearby barracks. Another fireball and all of the ogres remaining by the kitchen were dead, while those that had ran off howled in rage and confusion, or just in general (it seems to be something ogres do a lot).

Then Trask did something brilliant: he created the image of a red dragon landing in the fort’s courtyard.

This was too much for the half a dozen surviving, but seriously burned, ogres who rushed to the gate, threw it open and raced off into the woods.

We quickly ran out and closed the gate behind them, while our new pet dragon glared menacingly out from the the walls of Fort Rennick.

We searched the remaining out-buildings for other ogres or surviving rangers, but found nothing. There was a tunnel that led up to the top of the cliff overlooking the fort and there, according to Jakardros, lived a family of great eagles who helped guard the fort. But they eagles were gone, having been killed or driven off in the initial ogre attack.

So victory was ours, and we had but to wait for the reinforcements from Magnimar and collect our reward, or so it seemed.

But I was uneasy. The rain, which was heavy when we first arrived at Rennick, had intensified since then, and seemed almost unnatural. And where were the giants that Kaven the traitor had mentioned as being part of the attack?

And what about the dam? My original concern over the fall of Fort Rennick had been that it protected the dam that held back the waters of the Storval Deep. Surely with all of the recent rains the Deep must be practically overflowing.

I wanted the rangers to guard the fort while the rest of us checked on the state of the dam, but the rangers seemed unsure that they could hold out against an attack. And so we sent the rangers off to scout out the dam while the rest of us remained behind.

I have a bad feeling about this.

== Toilday, Pharast 4, 4708; Fort Rennick; Evening ==

The rangers left early this morning for their trek to the dam. They estimated the trip will take them two to three days, slogging through the thick mud.

Meanwhile we have begun to clean up the aftermath of the ogre invasion. The slain rangers have been interred in their crypt, which occupied much of my time. The others cleaned up the debris and repaired what they could to make the fort as defensible and livable as possible.

== Wealday, Pharast 5, 4708; Fort Rennick; Evening ==

We spent most of the day making repairs via Make Whole spells or the old fashioned way with muscle and grit. While some of the damage is beyond our ability to mend, we have at least removed the grisly remains and blood from all areas of the fort, and made a great pile of what furniture we could not fix (it shall make excellent kindling).

We removed the markings of Lamashtu in the chapel and rededicated it to Desna (or Kane did, to be precise).

I spent much of my time placing glyphs of warding about the gates and the secret passageways into the fort. Nothing evil shall pass this way without feeling displeasure from Pharasma.

It still rains as if all the worlds waters were being funneled from the sky down upon us.

== Oathday, Pharast 6, 4708; Fort Rennick; Evening ==

And still the rains continue.

We worked more on the fort’s defenses today, and I set down more glyphs of warding.

Although we keep a constant watch on the walls, we have restored the interior of the keep to much of its previous level of comfort, and rest while we can in the library before a brightly blazing fire.

We are on the look out for the rangers and anxious for their return. If they are not back by mid day tomorrow I will insist that we set out for the dam ourselves, the fort be damned.

== Fireday, Pharast 7, 4708; Fort Rennick; Early morning ==

The rangers have returned, and it is worse than I feared. The dam is under the assault of both giants and ogres. On their way back the rangers heard a terrible noise and the sound of rushing water.

My first inclination was to return to the damn in force, drive off the opposing force and repair the dam as best we can.

But then came the messenger from Turtleback Ferry on horseback. The waters began rising in the pre-dawn hours and the town is flooding. Some have fled, but many can not, or know not where to go.

And so our decision has been made for us: we must return and lend our aid at once. The towns folk can come here, to Fort Rennick, which by our efforts is now a place where ordinary people can safely live for a time.

Kane and I are to take the man’s horse back to town now, while the others follow as swiftly as they may on foot.

The rangers must now remain at the fort and keep it safe for the town’s people we will send this way.

And even now, as we prepare to depart, my mind turns to the mundane: how shall we feed an entire town, when the area around the fort has been plundered by the ogres?

== Fireday, Pharast 7, 4708; Turtleback Ferry; Morning ==

We splashed into Turtleback Ferry scarcely and hour ago, and the scene was as desperate as described to us.

A mother and her children were in a small boat, which had drifted against the walls of the merchant, when a huge python swam over to attack. Kane and I drew the creature towards us and battled it the best we could. Neither of us are fighters, but we managed to drive it away.

We then pushed the boat to the town cathedral, which is where many of the refugees had gathered. And yet this stone building would only offer temporary sanctuary. Already the surging waters were scouring away the earth beneath the massive stone walls.

We are calling out to everyone we can see, telling them to gather here at the cathedral. From here we will set out towards Fort Rennick, although many of those here are too small or weak to struggle against the flood’s current. We must gather more boats or build rafts — already I find myself gazing up at the mighty timbers of the cathedral’s roof.

We pause now only for a moment as the survivors gather about us, and now we must organize those who are able to help the others.

Moonday, Pharast 3

After dispatching the ogre in the altar room, we turned our attention south. Our favorite evil radar, Avia, had located the strongest evil on this floor and we set ourselves up to go after it. In a coordinated move, Kane threw open the door as our strongest fighters strode in, prepared to dismember whatever they ran into.

It should be no surprise that we were expected. Despite the area of silence we’d been operating in, I’d be surprised if after all we’d done in the fort we were able to surprise any experienced foe. And sure enough, the three ogres we found here seemed prepared. Two brandished swords, while the third appeared to be a magic user of some sort (and female).

A brief glance around the room revealed a well-appointed room with longswords on the wall. I hung back by the door. I’ve been finding of late that my hand-to-hand combat seems far less effective than my range attacks. For some odd reason, fireball and magic missile seems to be far more successful for me these days than beating them with a stick. Sorry, quarterstick. I think the biggest obstacle I’ve found is that the closer I get to these opponents, the easier it is for them to kill me. When I see Father again, I’ll have to ask him to show me ALL the skills he has acquired. I wonder if I’m already more skilled than he was. Isn’t it every boy’s dream, to do better than his father?

Anyway, the battle was lengthy. 7 on 3 is an uneven battle, but against these foes, it wasn’t all THAT uneven. With all the friendly people in the room, it was difficult to choose a place for my fireball that wouldn’t also scorch the friendlies. I think Tekkad may have cast dispel magic on the apparent mage, which seemed to startle her (and make her appear less fuzzy.) I shot off some magic missiles until the right moment, when a carefully placed fireball seared two of the ogres. When one of them closed on me, fireball was still not an option, but burning hands managed to nudge them into the world of the dead on the first try.

The fireballs are effective, but I must keep in mind two things. First, they do not avoid my friends. I must avoid my friends. And second is that it’s easy to forget I have a limited number of them. We’ve been encountering so many enemies that it would be easy to run out of them if I don’t keep my wits about me as I fight.

We quickly searched the bodies with a detect magic and found the most interesting stuff on the mage (of course). An amulet, a cloak, and a wand all appeared to be magical and were hastily snatched up so that they could be identified later. On to the next room.

Avia confirmed there was still evil there. We positioned ourselves and again stormed the room. The two ogres here were admiring their gruesome handiwork, which involved releasing the blood of two of the rangers that was hung grotesquely from the ceiling. These two again seemed to be fairly tough, taking a lot of hits (and burns) before succumbing to our persuasive gestures and falling dead to the floor. In fact, in the intial flurry, Avia was grievously injured and fell, but quick action by our healers and a flurry of blows from our other fighters allowed her to regain her feet and rejoin the battle.

The rangers, almost thankfully, were dead but we released their desecrated bodies. We now had time to fully identify the things we’d found.

[279] +1 ogre hook, humanbane
[280] potion, cure serious wounds
[281] bracers of armor, +2
[282] belt of giant ST, +4
[283] masterwork longbow
[284] +1 ogre hook
[285] +1 ogre hook
[286] potion, cure moderate wounds
[287] potion, cure moderate wounds (which I took custody of)
[288] +1 hide shirt
[289] +1 hide shirt
[290] wand of acid arrow [43] (which I took custody of)
[291] amulet of natural armor +2 (which Kane took)
[292] cloak of charisma, +2 (which I took custody of)

Rigel found a secret passage to a map room, and Sabin and Tekkad found themselves fascinated by the scribblings. Turning her talents to another room, she found a few items in a secret drawer in the well-appointed room:

[295] Poetry written to “Miriana”
[296] small jewelry box
[297] locket with a lock of hair “for my Lamatar”
[298] soft green leather boots

We determined that the lock of hair was not human — probably nymph — and that the leather boots were enchanted: they give the wearer the ability to walk on water in a swamp (water no more than 5′ deep). The wearer is protected against rain and has a +2 save vs poison and disease. Rigel took these.

We discussed what to do next. We believed the inner fortress to now be clear of ogres, but that would change once they discovered what we’d done. We didn’t know if the ogres had reinforcements at their disposal, but we’d rather not find out.

It was decided that there was two strategies that might work. One would be to lure them in one or two at a time and kill them — we knew we could do that with our group. The other would be if we could find a way to put them in the same area, a fireball or two might save us a lot of work.

Rigel and I positioned ourselves in the central tower where we could see out into the courtyard. Sabin borrowed the hat of disguise to appear as Lucretia again and lure 3 ogres inside. We did successfully lure them inside, and we did successfully dispatch them without too much damage, when Rigel and I noticed something very very interesting. There appeared to be a bunch of ogres congregating around the ogre equivalent of a lunch wagon. A “cook” seemed to be working over a fire and others were milling around nearby.

Knowing I might be out of communcation range, I’d been given the latitude to throw a fireball if it seemed prudent. It now seemed prudent.

I aimed it so it almost looked like it might have been an accident. The fireball exploded near the grill, so some ogres blamed the cook and started beating on him. Some ran into a disgusting puddle of water nearby. Still others started beating on the companion next to him, thinking, I guess, that it was some sort of careless ogre fart too close to flame.

Well that made the second fireball all the more effective. After two fireballs in a row, nearly fifteen ogres lay dead, several others were severely burned, and confusion reigned among the remaining five or six. But not for long. Their resolve was united when, after two mysterious fire attacks, I caused the image of a smallish red dragon to fly down and land in the courtyard. Given my family lineage, I was more than familiar with the form one would take, and I silently thanked the party for giving me all the wands .. one of which was a wand of silent image.

Seeing this, the remaining ogres were uniform in their desire to vacate the fort. Posthaste. I don’t know if any of them had ever actually seen a red dragon, but my guess was that they’d all at least heard stories of them. I’d not heard ogres scream before, but I think that was the sound they were making. They left in a great hurry, tripping over each other in their haste to save their blistering skins. And perhaps a new legend started that day, to be passed down from papa ogre to grotesque little ogrekin, of the human fortress which is guarded by a vengeful red dragon. If it makes them all the more reluctant to attack the fort in the future, I’m all for it.

The fort was deserted. We’d won. But it didn’t feel like it.

So much destruction. So much carnage. So much death. A few scant weeks ago, this was a bustling place of safety and protection. Now …

We discussed things with the rangers and realized that the only way to hold the fort was to wait for the reinforcements from Magnimar. Too many defenses were destroyed, and too many ogres remained alive, somewhere, for only the three rangers to be able to hold the fort.

And Tekkad still expressed concern about the dam. The rain was relentless, and the reservoir might be near full. It it were to give way (or be destroyed) now, it would cause significant damage downstream. We decided to rest overnight, and then send Jakardos and Vale, who knew the area best, out to scout it out.

Toilday, Pharast 4

Jakardos and Vale left, and we set about repairing the fort. Tekkad in particular is putting glyphs of warding about with, I trust, suitable restrictions about their going off around us! Bodies are being laid to rest; there is much to do.

Wealday, Pharast 5

Waiting for word, and continuing repairs. And wards.

Oathday, Pharast 6

I know they are rangers, and used to scouting, but, um, if they get caught how will we know?

Sigh. More wards. More repairs. Boring.

Fireday, Pharast 7

At last! They return! Maybe now we can leave.

Hmm. Well as luck would have it, we MUST leave. Yes, the dam was under attack by both giants and ogres and as they left, they’d opened a breach. It will only get bigger, and it will affect the towns downstream quickly.

In fact, it was about this time that a messenger from Turtleback arrived and announced just that: “The water is rising! We’ll be underwater by morning!”

Go to town and help? or go to dam and fix? Are we up to defeating giants? Seems we keep upping the ante; first ogrekin, then ogres. Now giants?

The group decided to go help the town (wisely, I think.) Tekkad will go on horseback and Kane will go along (due to his size it won’t really affect the horse). The rest of us will proceed at best speed, but perhaps the healer will be needed before the rest of us. I hope that their getting there sooner doesn’t simply mean they drown sooner.

Living near the sea, I’d learned some rudimentary strokes. Perhaps my swimming skill will be tested soon.