ADVENTURE 7: OH, GREAT - BANDITS!
PC Roster:
Game Session Date: 10 August 2022
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"You're welcome t' take th' wagon an' mules t' town," offered Father Barbados over breakfast. The heroes took him up on his offer, for they had the armor and weapons taken from the men they'd fought the night before in the new stone keep of the Cuthbertian clerics and a wagon would make it much easier to lug all that back to Ghourmand Vale, two hours away. Breakfast consisted of a thick beer with a rather nasty taste, or so thought Alistair until a prestidigitation spell cast upon the liquid nourishment made it taste more like the halfling honey-sweetened tea he'd been served by the Aldershoots and to which he had taken quite a liking. At Chaevaris's request, the sorcerer cast a second prestidigitation spell upon the elf's stein of breakfast beer to likewise alter the taste.
"I been thinkin' further on th' Blood Mirror," Father Barbados continued. "We'll be wantin' more info on it, an' t' that effort I want ye all t' head on up t' Mitrek t' fetch summa th' Cuthbertians there an' bring 'em back here."
"Mitrek?" asked Harlan. "Where is that, and how far is it from here?"
Ageratum was well acquainted with the area. "It's the capital city of Veluna," she explained. "Probably about a week's journey, north of here."
"Aye," agreed Barbados. "But we'll be wantin' some fightin' folks capable o' guardin' this new temple here, an' I know a folk or two up there what can prolly fill us in on summa th' gaps o' knowledge we got about th' gem." He looked over at Harlan. "D'ye still have it wit' ye, lad?" he asked.
"I have it right here," the half-elf replied, pulling the Blood Mirror from a pouch at his belt.
"Good: ye keep it wit' ye, then. I'll write down a list o' names an' a letter of recommendation fer th' Mitrek temple clerics while ye're down in th' Vale, an' when ye return th' wagon an' mules it'll be ready for ye."
The trip to Ghourmand Vale was uneventful, and once they got to the boomtown proper it was easy enough to find buyers for the excess armor and weapons the group had for sale. While they were at it, they stopped off at a moneychanger and had much of their accumulated coinage converted to easier-to-carry gemstones for the trip north, each of the heroes leaving themselves plenty of loose change for minor purchases along the way. But they deemed it best not to burden their horses with any excess weight if they could help it. They returned back to the stone keep, fetched Barbados's papers, and set off north towards Veluna.
They hadn't gotten more than an hour or two down the road when the ambush occurred.
Chaevaris, as always, had been riding lead upon Talkacha, followed in a single line by Harlan upon Law, Ageratum upon her pony Munson, and Alistair upon Zephyr. Ambrose had been flying ahead, checking out the road, then alighting and waiting for the others to catch up before taking off ahead again. The grackle was currently off in a field to the right side of the narrow road, scratching among the grass blades to unearth a quick insect treat. Directly ahead of Chaevaris, the road veered right around a steep, terraced hill covered in trees, and the bottom of which was an overturned wagon partially covered in branches and boughs; if that was supposed to have been an example of deliberate camouflage, it was a particularly poor job. But if nothing else it attracted the attention of those riding down the road for a second or two, and that's when the unknown ambusher from the top of the hill threw down a javelin at the elven archer.
It wasn't a particularly good throw, for the javelin struck the bottom of the overturned wagon and stuck in place, doing nothing further than alerting Chaevaris the group was under attack. It was a rather large javelin, though, causing the archer to wonder if their assailant might perhaps be somewhat bigger than a human or an elf. But now alert for danger, Ageratum pulled her short sword from its scabbard at her hip and looked about for trouble.
Chaevaris leaped down from Talkacha, who hurried off to the side of the road, encouraged by a slap on his hindquarters from his master, who'd taken cover behind the overturned wagon. "Ambrose?" Alistair called, and his grackle familiar took wing and flew to where he could see the attackers up at the top of the hill. Alistair got the sense of a big man and a big dog and reported that back to the others; it confirmed what Chaevaris had already suspected: someone larger than a man, possibly an ogre or a hill giant.
"Ogilvy, if you please!" commanded Alistair and his unseen servant spell took effect at once. The nobleman sorcerer passed his full waterskin to his servant with orders to go to the top of the hill and squirt the skin's contents into the face of the big man throwing javelins down upon them. Wordlessly, Ogilvy complied to his latest set of orders, the waterskin seeming to glide above the ground in a straight line for the hill, after which it started rising in elevation as the unseen servant began his ascent.
Harlan dismounted from Law and sent the pure, white horse over to follow Talkacha, as the paladin stepped up to the wagon and then, instead of using it as cover as Chaevaris was doing (the archer was sighting down an arrow raised to aim at the top of the hill, concentrating on finding the optimal moment to release it), the paladin stepped upon it and stood, arms held out to his sides in a "Well? Take your best shot!" gesture.
Ageratum decided to remain mounted and pushed Munson ahead down the road, following the curve around the hill and looking out for other ambushers. After all, her thieves guild training taught her one of the best ways to focus a target's attention away from the true threat was to give him a false threat to worry about. But try as she might, she saw no other combatants in the area. However, the ogre at the top of the hill saw her advance and chose her as his next target, but his second throw was no better than his first, and it lodged into a tree she had passed seconds earlier. With a growl of disgust, the ogre started climbing down the staggered slope of the side of the hill, deciding he'd do better in hand-to-hand combat with these travelers, as that played to his strengths. Behind him, his loyal dire wolf did the same, but rather than follow his master he went to the far back end of the hill, where the slope was much less steep - an important consideration for a four-legged beast who climbed down hills head-first. But Ambrose saw the lupine's movements and warned his master; Alistair in turn warned the others.
Then the ogre came into full view, crashing through saplings growing from the side of the steep ledge as he finally reached ground level over on the right side of the hill, facing Ageratum. Alistair sent Zephyr off the road by the other two (currently riderless) horses so he could get a better view of the approaching ogre, then fired off a magic missile spell that sent two bolts of energy flying across the distance to hit the ogre in his broad chest.
Harlan leaped down from the wagon and charged the ogre, his flaming burst longsword out and ready to deal damage, for the paladin had read the ogre's aura correctly and determined he was irredeemably evil. Unfortunately, the ogre's longer reach allowed his greatclub to come smashing down upon the charging paladin before Harlan could bring his blade to bear, and the ogre had much more muscle behind his swing than the half-elf could ever hope to muster. He almost crumpled under the attack but managed to not only stay on his feet but bring his flaming blade in on a side-swing that cut deep into the ogre's side - and channeled a blast of holy smiting energy through it for good measure. And then the paladin felt a strange, mental sensation he'd never felt before: the absolute certainty he'd be able to channel a second such smiting attack if needed, something he'd not yet trained on, for smiting evil foes was a tiring task that took much out of the paladin and normally required many weeks of practice before a holy warrior could perform the maneuver more than once per day. Still, Harlan didn't need to reflect too much on the reason for this sudden assurance; he decided it was most likely a direct result of having the Blood Mirror on his person.
Ageratum rode Munson past the ogre and slipped from the saddle, stepping up behind the brute who, naturally, had his full attention focused on Harlan. The halfling gave the ogre a quick lesson on underestimating a person's capabilities based upon their size by stabbing her blade up into the back of a meaty thigh, causing the ogre to bellow out in rage. At the same time, Chaevaris - who had been sighting down the arrow looking for the best opportunity to let it fly - found the moment and released the bowstring, causing the ogre to suddenly sprout an arrow in its left bicep, nearly causing him to release his grip upon the massive greatclub he preferred wielding in battle.
Without understanding how this turn of events had come about so quickly, the ogre saw black dots flickering around the edges of his vision as, staggered, he swung his club down at Harlan again. But this swing didn't have nearly as much power behind it and the paladin easily dodged it, only to have the ogre fall, unconscious and face-down, at his feet.
However, the dire wolf had made it down the hill by this time and was rounding the back of the hill to come aid his master. Chaevaris released an arrow in his direction but missed, and the lupine clamped his jaws down upon Ageratum's shoulder - fortunately, protected somewhat by the leather armor she wore. But she couldn't prevent the much stronger creature from pulling her backwards onto the ground and looming above her. The halfling feared in the next moment he would bend over her and rip out her throat.
Alistair also shared the halfling's fear and kicked Zephyr into a forward charge, casting a magic missile spell at the dire wolf to redirect his attention away from Ageratum. Harlan sensed no evil in the beast but charged at him anyway, anxious to rescue his halfling friend. His flaming blade cut deep into the dire wolf's shoulder. For her part, Ageratum stabbed up at the wolf with her blade but couldn't get much power behind the blow from her angle. Chaevaris moved out from behind the cover of the overturned wagon, hand effortlessly reaching back to fetch an arrow from the quiver, place it to the bow, pull back, and release, all in one smooth, practiced action. The shaft buried itself beside the wolf's neck.
Confused by all the pain it was experiencing all at once, the wolf recalled it had grabbed a morsel and snapped down at Ageratum, but the halfling wriggled enough to the side the lupine's muzzle snapped shut on empty air. Alistair fired another magic missile spell at it as he dismounted from his horse and bent to try to drag Ageratum away from the wolf. It pushed a paw down protectively upon her chest and snarled at Alistair, as if making a claim about whose food this was. Harlan stepped to the side and brought his flaming blade in for another strike, singeing the beast's fur as he cut into his flesh. It yowled in pain and turned to face the paladin, allowing Ageratum an excellent opportunity at his exposed throat, which the halfling refused to allow to go to waste. Stabbing up with her short sword, she pierced the dire wolf's neck and it died instantly, crumpling in a heap atop her. Alistair had to pull her out from beneath the beast; it was too heavy for her to lift by herself.
Harlan walked back over to the ogre to deliver a killing blow, when he made an interesting discovery: the ogre's wounds were starting to scab over. It wasn't a full-fledged regeneration, or if it was it was an awfully slow one, but it seemed as if the creature's body was being stabilized enough that he wouldn't automatically die of blood loss. He frowned, trying to decide if that was something the Blood Mirror might be doing, as kind of an inverse of causing dead bodies to animate as zombies; perhaps the gem sent out a field of positive energy that prevented those who might be slowly dying from being allowed to do so? It made a sort of sense. Alistair cast a detect magic spell on the ogre and verified he wasn't wearing any magic items that might have been the cause of the scabbing-over effect. "Try this on for size," suggested the paladin, as he stabbed his blade into the ogre's head, piercing through the skull and stabbing into his brains. Whatever slow healing the Blood Mirror might have been doing, it stopped any further progress on the ogre's body now that it was a full-fledged corpse. Just to be sure, Harlan applied the same sort of "just-in-case" methodology to the slain dire wolf, making sure it wouldn't be healed and revived back into a hungry carnivore looking for food.
Ambrose flew back down by his master and the feeling of safety Alistair sensed from his familiar told him the bird had spotted no further enemies. However, the grackle had found something of interest and pointed it out to the others by simple fact of flying away and landing at the back of the hill, where the dire wolf had climbed down. There were drag marks in the grass from the back of the hill, heading over to the west, where another, even steeper hill made a sort of cliff face. The drag marks went directly to the side of the cliff, where, hidden among the shadows, stood the opening of a cave.
"I say!" declared Alistair upon following his familiar. "We should check it out!"
"Let me heal myself first," replied Harlan, applying his own healing touch to the worst of the wounds he'd received from the ogre's greatclub. He wasn't the least bit surprised to feel as if he'd managed to channel a lot more positive energy through his hand than he'd been accustomed to being able to handle; apparently there were still unknown aspects to the Blood Mirror yet to be discovered! However, seeing even this additional amount of healing still had the half-elf paladin looking much the worse for wear, Alistair unstoppered a potion of cure light wounds and passed it over to Harlan. The paladin tried declining out of politeness, but Alistair was having none of it. "You, sir, are our only source of healing through spells," he insisted. "It is in our own best interests to keep you hale and healthy, that you may attend to our own healing needs as required." Accepting the logic, Harlan drank down the potion and felt much better. Ageratum drank down her own potion of cure moderate wounds, feeling the pierced skin of her shoulder heal up. Later, she'd have to see what she could to about the puncture marks in her leather armor, where the dire wolf's teeth had ripped through.
Chaevaris led the group to the cave entrance, bow ready to fire off an arrow if needed. By this time, Ogilvy had returned from his pointless trek up the side of the hill and returned the waterskin to Alistair, who then swapped it out with Chaevaris's lit bullseye lantern and sent the unseen servant forward into the dark cave. The stench was quite horrific, and the reason soon determined when they found human remains among the soiled blankets and such being used for bedding. None of the bones were connected, merely an arm here and half a leg there, most of them with rotting meat still attached. But other than a small hole in the back of the cave, from which protruded the top of a wooden ladder, the rest of the cave was empty.
There was a different smell coming from the hole in the back of the cave floor, evidenced by the clumps of dung adhered to the sides of the wooden ladder. "Ugh!" complained Chaevaris, nose held firmly between fingers and thumb in an effort to avoid the stench. "The ogre's been using this hole as a latrine!" It only made sense, for the hole was much too narrow for the ogre to have been able to squeeze through, and even if the dire wolf had been able to wriggle into the hole, it was unlikely he'd have been able to traverse the ladder. But with Ogilvy shining the light down into the hole, Ageratum announced she could see a row of chests lined up against the back wall. "Probably where the bandits - I assume that's what they were, who made this cave their hideout until the ogre and the wolf got to them - stored their treasure."
"Do you wish to go down there and check it out?" asked Harlan, looking dubiously at the ladder.
"Not until Alistair does his thing," the halfling replied, and the sorcerer just looked at her with a blank expression on his face. "I'm sorry...my thing?"
"Prestidigitation spell to clean the dung off the ladder," she explained.
"Ah, yes, quite." Alistair performed the necessary gestures and had the wooden ladder stain-free in a jiffy. Only then did Ageratum agree to climb down into the foul-smelling pit, and only then with Alistair's handkerchief tied around her lower face to help keep out the stench.
"There are three chests and two barrels," Ageratum called back up to the guys. "The barrels are...ugh! Rotting meal. Never mind. Let me see about those chests...can you send Ogilvy down with the lantern?" Ogilvy, at the sorcerer's direction, climbed down the ladder and pointed the light as Ageratum indicated, the better for her to see if there were any traps on the first of the chests. As it turned out there was, but she missed it and she stuck her thumb on a poisoned needle upon picking the lock and opening the lid. But she pulled back her thumb, sucked out the poison, and spat it back out onto the pit's floor, declaring there to be no further traps on the chest. Inside were ten small pouches, each - after suitable investigation - containing a number of small diamonds. "Nice!" she enthused before moving on to the next chest.
After directing Ogilvy's lantern placement for optimal effect, Ageratum found the poison needle on the second chest and successfully avoided it while picking the lock. This was a larger container, more the size of a trunk, and it contained a ceremonial suit of armor with Pelor's blazing sun symbol on its chest. The halfling could tell this wasn't something one would want to wear into battle, but it probably looked mighty fine there in the temple, performing whatever ceremony Pelorian clerics got up to.
The third chest - this one the smallest of the three - wasn't even trapped, and it contained a series of glass potion vials. Four of them were labeled in cramped handwriting, identifying them as potions of neutralize poison. The others, judging from the looks of it, weren't even fully-formed potions at all, each containing reagents or chemicals or in some cases ground-up powders. Ageratum guessed these were useful in the crafting of potions, with only the four completed thus far. There were 30 of the unlabeled vials, with two empty spaces in the chest to hold another pair of potions, making a full 36 when fully loaded. Still, Ageratum was sure she could find a buyer in Veluna.
Harlan and Alistair climbed down the ladder and hauled the two chests and the trunk up to Chaevaris, Alistair fussing the whole time over whether his boots were getting filth on them. He rigorously applied another prestidigitation spell upon his outfit open returning back up to the cave. They decided to have Harlan try on the ceremonial armor just to see what it might do (for Alistair had confirmed it was in fact magical), and the paladin said it seemed to grant the wearer the effects of an eagle's splendor spell while donned. But he judged it too flimsy for combat and quickly removed it to put back on his normal armor; they packed it back into the trunk for transport to Veluna.
"How are we planning on bringing all of this with us?" Harlan asked. "Balancing it behind the saddle?"
"I have had some thoughts on that matter," replied Alistair, heading back to the overturned wagon. The others helped him remove the half-hearted camouflage attempt and flip it back onto its wheels, where Alistair - having spent the whole duration of the initial caravan to Ghourmand Vale as a "wagon lackey" - deemed it fit for use. Of course, they were missing the tack and harness that would normally be used to allow one or more beasts of burden to pull the wagon behind them, but Alistair was certain he could cobble something together using the assembled group's own lengths of rope. He offered up Zephyr for his experiments and soon had the horse pulling the wagon behind him, Alistair sitting in the driver's seat and steering the animal while the wagon held the treasures they'd taken from the cave. "We'll be traveling a bit slower than normal, at least until we hit a town and can purchase some normal gear, but I don't think we'll add more than a day to our travels," Alistair guessed.
And he was right: five days later (instead of the anticipated four), they first arrived in the kingdom of Veluna, where they purchased normal wagon tack and harness for Zephyr. It was still three days to the capital city of Mitrek, but they'd make it there just fine. Harlan picked up a wand of cure light wounds from the temple of Pelor in the town, and felt better about his ability to see to the group's healing needs beyond his own laying on of hands. Ageratum and Alistair made a few purchases as well, each buying a ring of protection from a magic vendor and Alistair adding a pair of bracers said to protect the wearer in combat, a goal of which the sorcerer heartily approved. Harlan had his masterwork half-plate armor given a layer of magical protection and Chaevaris did likewise with the masterwork elven chain armor given as a gift from the grateful elven couple whose daughter the archer had helped rescue. Chaevaris also dropped off the masterwork composite longbow purchased earlier for a magical upgrade, this time adding an enchantment said to help focus the archer's targeting and increase its damage potential. And with that, they pressed on with their journey, eager to see what Mitrek would bring.
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And that's as far as we got last Wednesday. Furthermore, that's as far as this campaign will be going until at least the middle of October, as one of our number will be undergoing surgery that will require about six weeks of bedrest afterwards.
And despite the name as listed at the top of this post, while phonetically correct as written, a more exacting spelling would be "Ogre Ate Bandits" - as that's exactly what happened some weeks before before our PCs stumbled upon the area. Dan apparently enjoys the occasional pun-based adventure title, just as Logan and I do in our own respective campaigns.
PC Roster:
Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 3
Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 3
Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 3
Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 3
Game Session Date: 10 August 2022
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"You're welcome t' take th' wagon an' mules t' town," offered Father Barbados over breakfast. The heroes took him up on his offer, for they had the armor and weapons taken from the men they'd fought the night before in the new stone keep of the Cuthbertian clerics and a wagon would make it much easier to lug all that back to Ghourmand Vale, two hours away. Breakfast consisted of a thick beer with a rather nasty taste, or so thought Alistair until a prestidigitation spell cast upon the liquid nourishment made it taste more like the halfling honey-sweetened tea he'd been served by the Aldershoots and to which he had taken quite a liking. At Chaevaris's request, the sorcerer cast a second prestidigitation spell upon the elf's stein of breakfast beer to likewise alter the taste.
"I been thinkin' further on th' Blood Mirror," Father Barbados continued. "We'll be wantin' more info on it, an' t' that effort I want ye all t' head on up t' Mitrek t' fetch summa th' Cuthbertians there an' bring 'em back here."
"Mitrek?" asked Harlan. "Where is that, and how far is it from here?"
Ageratum was well acquainted with the area. "It's the capital city of Veluna," she explained. "Probably about a week's journey, north of here."
"Aye," agreed Barbados. "But we'll be wantin' some fightin' folks capable o' guardin' this new temple here, an' I know a folk or two up there what can prolly fill us in on summa th' gaps o' knowledge we got about th' gem." He looked over at Harlan. "D'ye still have it wit' ye, lad?" he asked.
"I have it right here," the half-elf replied, pulling the Blood Mirror from a pouch at his belt.
"Good: ye keep it wit' ye, then. I'll write down a list o' names an' a letter of recommendation fer th' Mitrek temple clerics while ye're down in th' Vale, an' when ye return th' wagon an' mules it'll be ready for ye."
The trip to Ghourmand Vale was uneventful, and once they got to the boomtown proper it was easy enough to find buyers for the excess armor and weapons the group had for sale. While they were at it, they stopped off at a moneychanger and had much of their accumulated coinage converted to easier-to-carry gemstones for the trip north, each of the heroes leaving themselves plenty of loose change for minor purchases along the way. But they deemed it best not to burden their horses with any excess weight if they could help it. They returned back to the stone keep, fetched Barbados's papers, and set off north towards Veluna.
They hadn't gotten more than an hour or two down the road when the ambush occurred.
Chaevaris, as always, had been riding lead upon Talkacha, followed in a single line by Harlan upon Law, Ageratum upon her pony Munson, and Alistair upon Zephyr. Ambrose had been flying ahead, checking out the road, then alighting and waiting for the others to catch up before taking off ahead again. The grackle was currently off in a field to the right side of the narrow road, scratching among the grass blades to unearth a quick insect treat. Directly ahead of Chaevaris, the road veered right around a steep, terraced hill covered in trees, and the bottom of which was an overturned wagon partially covered in branches and boughs; if that was supposed to have been an example of deliberate camouflage, it was a particularly poor job. But if nothing else it attracted the attention of those riding down the road for a second or two, and that's when the unknown ambusher from the top of the hill threw down a javelin at the elven archer.
It wasn't a particularly good throw, for the javelin struck the bottom of the overturned wagon and stuck in place, doing nothing further than alerting Chaevaris the group was under attack. It was a rather large javelin, though, causing the archer to wonder if their assailant might perhaps be somewhat bigger than a human or an elf. But now alert for danger, Ageratum pulled her short sword from its scabbard at her hip and looked about for trouble.
Chaevaris leaped down from Talkacha, who hurried off to the side of the road, encouraged by a slap on his hindquarters from his master, who'd taken cover behind the overturned wagon. "Ambrose?" Alistair called, and his grackle familiar took wing and flew to where he could see the attackers up at the top of the hill. Alistair got the sense of a big man and a big dog and reported that back to the others; it confirmed what Chaevaris had already suspected: someone larger than a man, possibly an ogre or a hill giant.
"Ogilvy, if you please!" commanded Alistair and his unseen servant spell took effect at once. The nobleman sorcerer passed his full waterskin to his servant with orders to go to the top of the hill and squirt the skin's contents into the face of the big man throwing javelins down upon them. Wordlessly, Ogilvy complied to his latest set of orders, the waterskin seeming to glide above the ground in a straight line for the hill, after which it started rising in elevation as the unseen servant began his ascent.
Harlan dismounted from Law and sent the pure, white horse over to follow Talkacha, as the paladin stepped up to the wagon and then, instead of using it as cover as Chaevaris was doing (the archer was sighting down an arrow raised to aim at the top of the hill, concentrating on finding the optimal moment to release it), the paladin stepped upon it and stood, arms held out to his sides in a "Well? Take your best shot!" gesture.
Ageratum decided to remain mounted and pushed Munson ahead down the road, following the curve around the hill and looking out for other ambushers. After all, her thieves guild training taught her one of the best ways to focus a target's attention away from the true threat was to give him a false threat to worry about. But try as she might, she saw no other combatants in the area. However, the ogre at the top of the hill saw her advance and chose her as his next target, but his second throw was no better than his first, and it lodged into a tree she had passed seconds earlier. With a growl of disgust, the ogre started climbing down the staggered slope of the side of the hill, deciding he'd do better in hand-to-hand combat with these travelers, as that played to his strengths. Behind him, his loyal dire wolf did the same, but rather than follow his master he went to the far back end of the hill, where the slope was much less steep - an important consideration for a four-legged beast who climbed down hills head-first. But Ambrose saw the lupine's movements and warned his master; Alistair in turn warned the others.
Then the ogre came into full view, crashing through saplings growing from the side of the steep ledge as he finally reached ground level over on the right side of the hill, facing Ageratum. Alistair sent Zephyr off the road by the other two (currently riderless) horses so he could get a better view of the approaching ogre, then fired off a magic missile spell that sent two bolts of energy flying across the distance to hit the ogre in his broad chest.
Harlan leaped down from the wagon and charged the ogre, his flaming burst longsword out and ready to deal damage, for the paladin had read the ogre's aura correctly and determined he was irredeemably evil. Unfortunately, the ogre's longer reach allowed his greatclub to come smashing down upon the charging paladin before Harlan could bring his blade to bear, and the ogre had much more muscle behind his swing than the half-elf could ever hope to muster. He almost crumpled under the attack but managed to not only stay on his feet but bring his flaming blade in on a side-swing that cut deep into the ogre's side - and channeled a blast of holy smiting energy through it for good measure. And then the paladin felt a strange, mental sensation he'd never felt before: the absolute certainty he'd be able to channel a second such smiting attack if needed, something he'd not yet trained on, for smiting evil foes was a tiring task that took much out of the paladin and normally required many weeks of practice before a holy warrior could perform the maneuver more than once per day. Still, Harlan didn't need to reflect too much on the reason for this sudden assurance; he decided it was most likely a direct result of having the Blood Mirror on his person.
Ageratum rode Munson past the ogre and slipped from the saddle, stepping up behind the brute who, naturally, had his full attention focused on Harlan. The halfling gave the ogre a quick lesson on underestimating a person's capabilities based upon their size by stabbing her blade up into the back of a meaty thigh, causing the ogre to bellow out in rage. At the same time, Chaevaris - who had been sighting down the arrow looking for the best opportunity to let it fly - found the moment and released the bowstring, causing the ogre to suddenly sprout an arrow in its left bicep, nearly causing him to release his grip upon the massive greatclub he preferred wielding in battle.
Without understanding how this turn of events had come about so quickly, the ogre saw black dots flickering around the edges of his vision as, staggered, he swung his club down at Harlan again. But this swing didn't have nearly as much power behind it and the paladin easily dodged it, only to have the ogre fall, unconscious and face-down, at his feet.
However, the dire wolf had made it down the hill by this time and was rounding the back of the hill to come aid his master. Chaevaris released an arrow in his direction but missed, and the lupine clamped his jaws down upon Ageratum's shoulder - fortunately, protected somewhat by the leather armor she wore. But she couldn't prevent the much stronger creature from pulling her backwards onto the ground and looming above her. The halfling feared in the next moment he would bend over her and rip out her throat.
Alistair also shared the halfling's fear and kicked Zephyr into a forward charge, casting a magic missile spell at the dire wolf to redirect his attention away from Ageratum. Harlan sensed no evil in the beast but charged at him anyway, anxious to rescue his halfling friend. His flaming blade cut deep into the dire wolf's shoulder. For her part, Ageratum stabbed up at the wolf with her blade but couldn't get much power behind the blow from her angle. Chaevaris moved out from behind the cover of the overturned wagon, hand effortlessly reaching back to fetch an arrow from the quiver, place it to the bow, pull back, and release, all in one smooth, practiced action. The shaft buried itself beside the wolf's neck.
Confused by all the pain it was experiencing all at once, the wolf recalled it had grabbed a morsel and snapped down at Ageratum, but the halfling wriggled enough to the side the lupine's muzzle snapped shut on empty air. Alistair fired another magic missile spell at it as he dismounted from his horse and bent to try to drag Ageratum away from the wolf. It pushed a paw down protectively upon her chest and snarled at Alistair, as if making a claim about whose food this was. Harlan stepped to the side and brought his flaming blade in for another strike, singeing the beast's fur as he cut into his flesh. It yowled in pain and turned to face the paladin, allowing Ageratum an excellent opportunity at his exposed throat, which the halfling refused to allow to go to waste. Stabbing up with her short sword, she pierced the dire wolf's neck and it died instantly, crumpling in a heap atop her. Alistair had to pull her out from beneath the beast; it was too heavy for her to lift by herself.
Harlan walked back over to the ogre to deliver a killing blow, when he made an interesting discovery: the ogre's wounds were starting to scab over. It wasn't a full-fledged regeneration, or if it was it was an awfully slow one, but it seemed as if the creature's body was being stabilized enough that he wouldn't automatically die of blood loss. He frowned, trying to decide if that was something the Blood Mirror might be doing, as kind of an inverse of causing dead bodies to animate as zombies; perhaps the gem sent out a field of positive energy that prevented those who might be slowly dying from being allowed to do so? It made a sort of sense. Alistair cast a detect magic spell on the ogre and verified he wasn't wearing any magic items that might have been the cause of the scabbing-over effect. "Try this on for size," suggested the paladin, as he stabbed his blade into the ogre's head, piercing through the skull and stabbing into his brains. Whatever slow healing the Blood Mirror might have been doing, it stopped any further progress on the ogre's body now that it was a full-fledged corpse. Just to be sure, Harlan applied the same sort of "just-in-case" methodology to the slain dire wolf, making sure it wouldn't be healed and revived back into a hungry carnivore looking for food.
Ambrose flew back down by his master and the feeling of safety Alistair sensed from his familiar told him the bird had spotted no further enemies. However, the grackle had found something of interest and pointed it out to the others by simple fact of flying away and landing at the back of the hill, where the dire wolf had climbed down. There were drag marks in the grass from the back of the hill, heading over to the west, where another, even steeper hill made a sort of cliff face. The drag marks went directly to the side of the cliff, where, hidden among the shadows, stood the opening of a cave.
"I say!" declared Alistair upon following his familiar. "We should check it out!"
"Let me heal myself first," replied Harlan, applying his own healing touch to the worst of the wounds he'd received from the ogre's greatclub. He wasn't the least bit surprised to feel as if he'd managed to channel a lot more positive energy through his hand than he'd been accustomed to being able to handle; apparently there were still unknown aspects to the Blood Mirror yet to be discovered! However, seeing even this additional amount of healing still had the half-elf paladin looking much the worse for wear, Alistair unstoppered a potion of cure light wounds and passed it over to Harlan. The paladin tried declining out of politeness, but Alistair was having none of it. "You, sir, are our only source of healing through spells," he insisted. "It is in our own best interests to keep you hale and healthy, that you may attend to our own healing needs as required." Accepting the logic, Harlan drank down the potion and felt much better. Ageratum drank down her own potion of cure moderate wounds, feeling the pierced skin of her shoulder heal up. Later, she'd have to see what she could to about the puncture marks in her leather armor, where the dire wolf's teeth had ripped through.
Chaevaris led the group to the cave entrance, bow ready to fire off an arrow if needed. By this time, Ogilvy had returned from his pointless trek up the side of the hill and returned the waterskin to Alistair, who then swapped it out with Chaevaris's lit bullseye lantern and sent the unseen servant forward into the dark cave. The stench was quite horrific, and the reason soon determined when they found human remains among the soiled blankets and such being used for bedding. None of the bones were connected, merely an arm here and half a leg there, most of them with rotting meat still attached. But other than a small hole in the back of the cave, from which protruded the top of a wooden ladder, the rest of the cave was empty.
There was a different smell coming from the hole in the back of the cave floor, evidenced by the clumps of dung adhered to the sides of the wooden ladder. "Ugh!" complained Chaevaris, nose held firmly between fingers and thumb in an effort to avoid the stench. "The ogre's been using this hole as a latrine!" It only made sense, for the hole was much too narrow for the ogre to have been able to squeeze through, and even if the dire wolf had been able to wriggle into the hole, it was unlikely he'd have been able to traverse the ladder. But with Ogilvy shining the light down into the hole, Ageratum announced she could see a row of chests lined up against the back wall. "Probably where the bandits - I assume that's what they were, who made this cave their hideout until the ogre and the wolf got to them - stored their treasure."
"Do you wish to go down there and check it out?" asked Harlan, looking dubiously at the ladder.
"Not until Alistair does his thing," the halfling replied, and the sorcerer just looked at her with a blank expression on his face. "I'm sorry...my thing?"
"Prestidigitation spell to clean the dung off the ladder," she explained.
"Ah, yes, quite." Alistair performed the necessary gestures and had the wooden ladder stain-free in a jiffy. Only then did Ageratum agree to climb down into the foul-smelling pit, and only then with Alistair's handkerchief tied around her lower face to help keep out the stench.
"There are three chests and two barrels," Ageratum called back up to the guys. "The barrels are...ugh! Rotting meal. Never mind. Let me see about those chests...can you send Ogilvy down with the lantern?" Ogilvy, at the sorcerer's direction, climbed down the ladder and pointed the light as Ageratum indicated, the better for her to see if there were any traps on the first of the chests. As it turned out there was, but she missed it and she stuck her thumb on a poisoned needle upon picking the lock and opening the lid. But she pulled back her thumb, sucked out the poison, and spat it back out onto the pit's floor, declaring there to be no further traps on the chest. Inside were ten small pouches, each - after suitable investigation - containing a number of small diamonds. "Nice!" she enthused before moving on to the next chest.
After directing Ogilvy's lantern placement for optimal effect, Ageratum found the poison needle on the second chest and successfully avoided it while picking the lock. This was a larger container, more the size of a trunk, and it contained a ceremonial suit of armor with Pelor's blazing sun symbol on its chest. The halfling could tell this wasn't something one would want to wear into battle, but it probably looked mighty fine there in the temple, performing whatever ceremony Pelorian clerics got up to.
The third chest - this one the smallest of the three - wasn't even trapped, and it contained a series of glass potion vials. Four of them were labeled in cramped handwriting, identifying them as potions of neutralize poison. The others, judging from the looks of it, weren't even fully-formed potions at all, each containing reagents or chemicals or in some cases ground-up powders. Ageratum guessed these were useful in the crafting of potions, with only the four completed thus far. There were 30 of the unlabeled vials, with two empty spaces in the chest to hold another pair of potions, making a full 36 when fully loaded. Still, Ageratum was sure she could find a buyer in Veluna.
Harlan and Alistair climbed down the ladder and hauled the two chests and the trunk up to Chaevaris, Alistair fussing the whole time over whether his boots were getting filth on them. He rigorously applied another prestidigitation spell upon his outfit open returning back up to the cave. They decided to have Harlan try on the ceremonial armor just to see what it might do (for Alistair had confirmed it was in fact magical), and the paladin said it seemed to grant the wearer the effects of an eagle's splendor spell while donned. But he judged it too flimsy for combat and quickly removed it to put back on his normal armor; they packed it back into the trunk for transport to Veluna.
"How are we planning on bringing all of this with us?" Harlan asked. "Balancing it behind the saddle?"
"I have had some thoughts on that matter," replied Alistair, heading back to the overturned wagon. The others helped him remove the half-hearted camouflage attempt and flip it back onto its wheels, where Alistair - having spent the whole duration of the initial caravan to Ghourmand Vale as a "wagon lackey" - deemed it fit for use. Of course, they were missing the tack and harness that would normally be used to allow one or more beasts of burden to pull the wagon behind them, but Alistair was certain he could cobble something together using the assembled group's own lengths of rope. He offered up Zephyr for his experiments and soon had the horse pulling the wagon behind him, Alistair sitting in the driver's seat and steering the animal while the wagon held the treasures they'd taken from the cave. "We'll be traveling a bit slower than normal, at least until we hit a town and can purchase some normal gear, but I don't think we'll add more than a day to our travels," Alistair guessed.
And he was right: five days later (instead of the anticipated four), they first arrived in the kingdom of Veluna, where they purchased normal wagon tack and harness for Zephyr. It was still three days to the capital city of Mitrek, but they'd make it there just fine. Harlan picked up a wand of cure light wounds from the temple of Pelor in the town, and felt better about his ability to see to the group's healing needs beyond his own laying on of hands. Ageratum and Alistair made a few purchases as well, each buying a ring of protection from a magic vendor and Alistair adding a pair of bracers said to protect the wearer in combat, a goal of which the sorcerer heartily approved. Harlan had his masterwork half-plate armor given a layer of magical protection and Chaevaris did likewise with the masterwork elven chain armor given as a gift from the grateful elven couple whose daughter the archer had helped rescue. Chaevaris also dropped off the masterwork composite longbow purchased earlier for a magical upgrade, this time adding an enchantment said to help focus the archer's targeting and increase its damage potential. And with that, they pressed on with their journey, eager to see what Mitrek would bring.
- - -
And that's as far as we got last Wednesday. Furthermore, that's as far as this campaign will be going until at least the middle of October, as one of our number will be undergoing surgery that will require about six weeks of bedrest afterwards.
And despite the name as listed at the top of this post, while phonetically correct as written, a more exacting spelling would be "Ogre Ate Bandits" - as that's exactly what happened some weeks before before our PCs stumbled upon the area. Dan apparently enjoys the occasional pun-based adventure title, just as Logan and I do in our own respective campaigns.
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