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.