A death in the familiy
Morning comes, and Benat heads back to the temple to see if the primarch has found anything. She learns that the primarch is not there, he left in the middle of the night to see the elder. Benat asks the bishop if he thinks the primarch is acting in a strange manner, or anyone else in the temple. He tells her no, and Benat leaves to head to the Elder's. Once there she hears a shouting match between the elder and the primarch. The guards greet Benat who asks to see the elder, they stick their head in and advise the elder that the elf with the letter has returned. The primarch leaves in a huff as Benat is led into the elder's chamber.
"What was that all about?" Benat asks
"Nothing to concern yourself with maiden." The elder replies
"Have you any need of our services in protecting the village or killing the ambushers?" Benat asks
"I sent twelve of my finest to scout out the site and take out anyone they could. Through sendings we were kept updated. Turns out they were ready for us, ten of our elven brothers have begun their final journey. The enemy had two treants, the ogre shaman, and a lot of spell power that we simply could not overcome. The last two elves are currently leading their pursuers away form the village, while we prepare for the ogre's next move." The elder explains
"Sounds like something a dirty human would do, turn nature onto it's very protectors." Benat spits
"There was no confirmation on any of the other races." The elder replies
"Would you like us to retrieve our fallen brothers, or hunt down and kill the ambushers who are harassing the two brave elves still fighting?" Benat asks with hatred in her voice
"I believe we have a good plan for dealing with things on that end. I do however have something you could do for us." The elder states
"Anything, anything to end their foul existence!" Benat shakes
"This part in the letter about the old fort. We believe we know where that is, if you would like to take your team there and see what is going on, we would be grateful." The elder tells Benat
"Done. We'll leave within the hour." Benat replies, bows, and exits the elder's chamber.
Benat races back to the party and breathlessly tells then all that the elder said. Paquito gets a knot in his gut, he realizes that he may have to face down the first minotaur he's seen in ten years.
"Hey, Paquito. Snap out of it. Are you coming or not?" Benat demands
"Paquito will most assuredly assist you in finding more children and elderly that you can skewer. No?" Paquito replies
"If the death of the weak is going to bother you so much, maybe you should become a priest?" Benat snaps back
"Who says I am not already a priest? I have much knowledge on the anatomy of various races, do you think one could acquire such a vast catalog of information simply by listening to you? I think not. No?" Paquito retorts
"Korg head hurt from all the talking, Korg say elfy leads us to thingys Korg can smite!" Korg roars
"Smite?" Nameroc says
"Korg learn new word today, Korg smite words. Then Korg smite praying." Korg replies
The party heads out and after 8 hours over rough terrain, they reach the edge of the tree line facing a large hilly area. The trees have been cut down in a 500' radius around the central hill, on top of which rests the crumbling remains of a stone structure.
"Found the fort." Benat points out to the giants
"Missed the griffon." Maermon points out to Benat, as the large creature takes to fight from a neighboring hill, closing to within 100' feet within seconds.
"Wolf riders!" Nameroc points out as the kobold cavalry crests the central hill and begins to descend it, while blowing horns as an alert to whomever was hiding in the fort.
Paquito calls forth his familiar, and gives it instructions to find out what lies within the fort. The small elemental leaps from Paquito's hands and melts into the ground, speeding along as fast as it can towards the central hill.
"Wow, Pokey is priest. Pokey priest of Umtala?" Korg says with a huge smile "Pokey show Korg how to do that with rocks." The hill giant finishes by digging out a couple of rocks from his belt pouch.
"Perhaps if you pray harder like the great vizier Paquito, you too can accomplish great feats of geology. No?" Paquito responds.
Benat fires an arrow into the griffon, while Gronar throws a rock into it almost knocking it from the sky. Nameroc steps up and casts entangle on the wolf riders, stopping them in their tracks. The griffon circles behind the group, just above the tree tops. Benat and Gronar both hit with their missile fire, and Maermon moves out and begins to pepper the kobold cavalry with missile fire. Paquito draws forth the power to cast a new spell he has learned, and sends a ray of enfeeblement into the griffon. The beast dips a bit in the sky, but manages to save itself from crashing into the trees.
Two bugbears appear on top of a partially collapsed outer wall of the fort and stare down the party with their clubs raised high. A human female appears on a hill in front of, and to the left of the fort's hill. Dressed in a flowing lavender robe, she takes something from a pouch around her waist.
"Spellcaster!" Benat points out
"OK Korg, time to do new trick." Gronar says
"Korg smite trick!" Korg replies
Korg moves up and mouths the words to a spell, then touches the back of Gronar and instantly the giant doubles in size, his weapon lengthens.
"Charge!" Gronar runs headlong towards the human, pulling up just to the left of the hill but easily within his new reach.
The human, unfazed by Gronar's charge, throws what she got from her pouch into the air. A handful of ashes and cinder coalesce in front of the human, and a rolling ball of flame erupts into existence and speeds towards the rest of the party, crashing into the tree line and enveloping all but Nameroc in it's flames. Paquito, Benat, and Nameroc's wolf are blasted to the ground and badly burned. Maermon is singed but is still on his feet. Korg shakes off the blast and quickly assess the situation, determining that Paquito's labored breathing will spell death extremely soon.
The human stands laughing at the heroes she's downed, then laughs at the huge form of Gronar as she readies a new spell.
"Human not think Gronar funny after Gronar chews off her head!" The giant's voice reverberates off the surrounding trees and hills.
Gronar tightens his grip on his greatsword, and slams the blade through the human, half of her is sprayed over the hill she stands on, the other half is driven ten feet into the hill as Gronar cleaves through the top layer of the mound of earth.
Korg saves Paquito's life, and Nameroc moves up to save Benat's with a healing check. Korg then casts cure wounds over Benat and Paquito, and leaves Nameroc to tend to his own wolf. Gronar charges the bugbear's location but swings wildly and misses, although the sight of the huge hill giant causes the bugbear to lose control of it's bodily functions.
Korg races up to where the human was splattered, and casts detect magic on her. She lights up like a Christmas tree, but Korg has trouble keeping track of all the auras, and asks for some assistance.
"I shall assist you in the collection of booty. No?" Paquito says and takes off running.
"No! Dammit, Nameroc hurry up with the healing! I don't want the thief getting anymore of our spoils." Benat yells at Nameroc
Gronar swings again but misses again as the bugbears retreat down a open staircase near the back of the fort. Paquito makes it to Korg.
"How can I be of assistance my large friend? You need the great and awe inspiring Paquito to carry your treasure? No?" Paquito asks
"No, you count thingys Korg pulls from gooey mess of puny human." Korg says as he hands Paquito a blood dripping set of boots, along with a ring with the finger still in it.
Gronar and Maermon then pummel the kobold cavalry with their respective ranged weapons.
"Korg hurry up! We go after ugly hairy guys." Gronar yells, referring to the bugbears, " and turn Gronar back to regular size, so Gronar can fit in hole."
Gronar waits for the rest of the party except for Paquito who remains on the split hill.
"Pokey! You coming?" Gronar yells
"Who cares. You got all the magic off her right?" Benat asks Korg, who nods in agreement. "Well then, down we go."
Paquito stands above the body not of a human but of a minotrice, or female minotaur. After Gronar shattered her body, it made it difficult to tell exactly what had been standing there, but after watching the remaining skin and bones revert to their unaltered state; Paquito knew exactly what he was looking at. Paquito ran his hands through the blood matted hair of the minotrice, his senses recalled a happier time with his mother. A tears well up in his eyes, a decade of isolation from his own race has brought him to a place where his allies will wipe out the whole clan. Paquito knew Benat would not stop until the entire tribe was wiped out, Paquito wondered just how much participation the elf was going to want out of him. He sat down next to where Korg had discarded the females legs, and concentrated on seeing through his familiar's eyes.
Paquito watched as the party went down 50' of steps and came to a "T" they took the left passage and it worked it's way around in a snaking pattern. As the party turned a corner, Benat announced that she had detected a secret door, searching the floor she indicated that the bugbears had continued on past the secret door. Gronar motioned for the party to clear back, and he pushed in the wall. The form of a large Minotaur emerged from the other side of the wall, and lashed out at Gronar. It swung a huge greataxe that cut deep into Gronar's chest, sending the hill giant down to one knee. Paquito had seen enough, and returned his sight to his own body, and raced towards the stairs.
Maermon watched as Gronar fell to one knee, not waiting to see how bad the giant was hurt, the elf leapt over the hunched giant, and forced his blade deep into the minotaur's chest. The minotaur bellowed in pain, and struck back at Maermon, slicing with it's greataxe, the minotaur nearly decapitated the elf. As Maermon's body spun around from the blow, the minotaur sliced again, this time severing the spine of the elf and lifting the elf into the air. Then to add further insult, the minotaur lowered it's head and gored the rest of Maermon's life from him.
Benat and Korg helped Gronar to his feet and both sent healing spells into his wracked body, Gronar moved to the side of the secret door which opened Korg up to a charge from the minotaur. The beast sent both of it's horns deep into Korg's gut, blood gushed from the fist sized holes in Korg's belly. The minotaur dislodged himself and gasped in pain as Gronar's blade sunk deep into it's back. Korg fought off the urge to collapse, reached out with his left hand, and grabbed the minotaur by the throat.
"If Korg die today, You coming with." And Korg plunges his greatsword into the abdomen of the minotaur.
Paquito rounds the corner and watches as the minotaur slides off of Korg's blade and sinks to the floor lifeless.
"Korg smite big Pokey!" Korg shouts at the returning Paquito
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
