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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 9838046" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 40This time there was no hesitation, no poking about for clues. Leana led them directly to one of the caves situated high along the rim of the ravine, one that they’d bypassed earlier. From a distance it didn’t look like much, certainly nothing that screamed, “secret hold of an infernal cult,” but as they approached each of them could feel something, an inherent confidence that their long and difficult journey was coming to an end.As they entered, those sentiments were only augmented. A waft of something foul issued from inside the cave, and the décor was equally grim, with red strata and bulging black veins running through the hewn rock. From deeper within the cave came a sinister red glow.“Ugh, what a stench,” Ravani said.“I expect that would be Oggdug’s brother,” Folgar observed.“There’s something… wrong about this place,” Greghan said.“I feel it too,” Leana said. “Be strong… this place will test us.”They advanced into the cave. Past the entrance the interior was spacious, with a long hall fully twenty feet wide and twenty feet high extending ahead of them. To the right was a small alcove with a door, but their attention was drawn forward, where a huge looming shape awaited them, silhouetted by the glow of several red-flamed sconces affixed to the wall behind it. Even a casual look was enough to confirm that the ogre was dead; flies buzzed about its body, and its jaw hung slack over gray, unseeing eyes.“That is… big,” Folgar said.Ravani drew back his bow and launched an arrow, which pierced one of those eyes, the sharp steel head vanishing deep into its skull. The ogre zombie wavered, and for a moment the companions tensed, hoping against hope that the missile might have somehow penetrated its brain and put an end to it. But none of them were particularly surprised when the thing took a step forward toward them. It carried no weapons; it needed none, not with its size and bulk.Ravani quickly fell back. “Kick its ass,” he said to Greghan, as he reached for another arrow.Greghan had already drawn his sword, but he had learned Leana’s lessons well, and instead of charging to meet it he let it come to them. But it surprised him with its reach, and after just two halting steps it leaned forward and smashed one massive fist down into him.The blow hit him like an avalanche, or what being hit by a battering ram might have felt like. He was spun fully around, and dropped to one knee. There was a pain crushing against one side of his head, and with an effort he managed to yank his helmet off. He could see that one entire side of it bore a massive dent. Better it than his skull, he thought, though as he tried to push himself back up his head swam and he nearly went down to the floor.“Be strong, brave warrior,” came a familiar voice, followed by a touch on his cheek. Greghan braced himself for the expected magical healing, but what he felt was like a torrent almost as intense as the ogre’s strike. Except that this sensation washed through his body like a warm flood, driving out the pain and the disorientation and even the fear that had crept into him since he’d entered this place. The whole experience couldn’t have lasted more than a few seconds, but when it was over he found himself once again whole.Greghan looked over at Leana, and said, “What the… wow.”The cleric smiled back at him. “The Lightbringer has seen fit to enhance my capabilities,” she said. “Now, let’s finish this unholy abomination, eh?”Greghan nodded and rose to his feet. The zombie made no move to evade as he slashed his sword across his belly, opening a gash that streamed several feet of rotting entrails. A moment later Folgar blasted the same spot with his ray of frost, flash-freezing those wiry strings. The wounds would have given a living ogre pause, but against this undying foe they were barely inconveniences.The ogre’s heavy, bare foot pounded down onto the floor as it pivoted slowly into another attack. Ravani shot it again, the arrow burrowing into its shoulder joint. Greghan could hear its bones grinding against the metal tip as it swung again at him, but this time he saw it coming and dodged back in time to avoid being struck.The four adventurers kept blasting it with everything they had, sword and arrows and spells ripping into the dead flesh, slowly wearing down the thing’s unnatural stamina and tearing its body apart. The zombie made no moves to protect itself, its sole focus getting to Greghan, the only foe within reach. It clipped him again, its elbow thudding into the warrior’s chest hard enough to knock him back a few steps. Leana started to go to him, but Greghan raised a hand and said, “I’m all right!” Leana hadn’t been able to land a spell attack thus far, so she hefted her mace and rushed in. She smashed the new magical weapon against its knee, shivering the bones and half-crushing the joint. The zombie tottered but remained upright. Greghan rushed forward to get its attention again before it could stomp the cleric. His sword cut into it again, but even though long strips of flesh hung from its limbs and torso, slashing it seemed to do little. Rather than bleed, thick trails of coagulated blood and rotting viscera dangled from its wounds, adding to the almost overpowering stink that filled the hall.Finally, Ravani managed another precise shot that drove into its other eye. The body of the dead ogre was almost falling apart, but somehow it refused to go down. “Why isn’t it dying?” the elf asked. The zombie looked like it might collapse with every step, but it still managed to pound Greghan hard on the shoulder, drawing a fresh grunt of pain from the warrior.“The body is just a shell!” Leana said. “We need to destroy the force that animates it!”“And just how do we do that?” Greghan asked.Leana responded by holding up her sigil, conjuring a bright radiance that started to congeal around the zombie’s head. But the thing ducked forward before the sacred flame could take hold, and it bent low as it started to reach for her. The cleric refused to retreat, grimacing with effort as she held her sigil aloft.Greghan didn’t wait to see whether whatever she was trying to do would work; despite his multiple fresh wounds he rushed forward, bringing his sword up over his head. The zombie didn’t even glance over at him, entirely focused on Leana, so it had no chance of evading the powerful downward stroke that caught it solidly at the base of the skull. With a heavy crunch its spine parted, and the ogre’s head plopped heavily onto the ground. Greghan staggered forward, sweeping up Leana with one arm as he dove clear moments before the zombie’s body toppled over and landed with a ground-shaking thud.The four companions stared at the fallen corpse—now so for good—of the ogre. Ravani let out a low whistle.“That also works,” Leana said from Greghan’s grasp.Game Notes:The party’s luck took a decisive turn for the worse here, starting with the ogre zombie’s crit on Greghan and continuing into the upcoming battle. The warrior took a total of 42 points of damage in this fight. Leana’s second level cure wounds healed 21, which made the difference. The ogre, with a -2 Dex save, made two saves against her sacred flame during the fight.</blockquote>

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