Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pogre" data-source="post: 6574557" data-attributes="member: 6588">Intrepid Adventures of Legend or Hobo Murderers on the Loose (a pogre storyhour)Episode 17Ancient Enemies“So that’s how old Harry died?” Lant Marrowkind said.“Aye, but we avenged him,” Cabo replied.“Funny, never thought of Harry as the heroic sort. He was always a kind fellow, but sometimes people will surprise you with their actions,” Lant mused.“Indeed,” Osbourne muttered.“One of the Landgrave’s people came limping in here yowling about the attack and assassination of his master. It might be good if you headed out of here for a while,” Lant suggested.“We were thinking the same thing,” Gideon said.“What about the hold the Dark Elf mentioned? Does that ring any bells with ye’?” Brodek asked.“Mayhaps,” Lant said thoughtfully. “There is an old dwarven mining hold a couple of days from where the late landgrave was camped.”“Draw me a map,” Brodek demanded.Lant complied, but warned the group that it was some pretty rough terrain “This whole area was under the dwarves’ reign a millenium ago,” Land added.“This is known to me,” Brodek replied.“It could be one of several holds is all I am saying,” Lant said.“Fair enough,” Brodek replied. “What can you pay us if we bring the head of this dark elf back to you?”“Not much I’m afraid. I could give you some healing potions, but the cash reserve is rather low at the moment.”“It will do,” Brodek replied. “When it comes to hunting elves my rates are particularly low.”:*****The group was in its second day of travel and learned, if anything, Lant’s description of the terrain as rough was understated. The last few hours had involved a steady hike up a gradual incline and it was wearing on the group. In the distance the adventurers spotted the foundation of some old ruins.“Probably was a watch tower for the hold,” Brodek commented.“I would like to take a closer look,” Helja said. “Perhaps it could provide some additional shelter for our camp tonight.”As the group closed on the ruins they could see clearly that something else was already using it for a shelter!<img src="http://www.pogre.com/5th_edition_9910_wyvern.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Osbourne launched a series of magic missiles at the beast while the dwarves closed and hurled handaxes. Gideon and Cabo pushed ahead the best they could in the rough terrain.“Watch its tail!” Helja called out. “The sting of the Wyvern is deadly!”“Forget the tail, look at the size of the teeth on that thing!” Gideon replied.The Wyvern attacked the group in a flurry of wings claws and teeth. The creature’s tail struck out at the dwarves, but narrowly missed. Clawing attacks raked Gideon, but the halfling monk managed to shrug off the blows. Brodek had closed to where he could do some real damage and his blade did its work, wounding the wyvern deeply. The creature appeared ready to take flight and the group renewed its efforts double. Cabo managed a meek strike, but it was Osbourne’s magical onslaught that brought the beast crashing down.“Hurry Brodek! Help me!” Helja called out as she rushed towards the fallen wyvern.“What’s the rush lass? It’s dead,” he replied.“I want to harvest the tail stinger poison,” Helja called back. “It can be worth a lot of gold in the right market.”Brodek immediately set off at a sprint. “Don’t dawdle lass!” he called out.Helja expertly peeled back the enclosing chitin and made a slight incision with her dagger. Placing pressure on the internal poison sac, she squeezed. A few globs of gelatinous green stuff spilled out. “Curses!” she yelled.“What is it lass?” Brodek asked.“It’s ruined,” she replied dejectedly.“What happened?” Brodek asked.“I’m not sure. It is the first time I have tried to harvest wyvern poison,” Helja said.Brodek sat back on his haunches and put a gnarled hand to his forehead.“I’m sorry,” Helja said.“No worries lass,” Brodek replied with a weak semi-smile.A high voice broke out from behind the dwarves. Cabo had retrieved his imp corpse puppet held aloft by a mummified hand. “Nice going fumble fingers!”“Shut it peck,” Helja spat.“You may have just earned a starring role in the next Spot and Cabo puppet show!” the high squeaky voice replied.“Peck you have been warned. Put that thing away,” Brodek growled.“Alright, alright,” Osbourne said. “Let’s keep moving. We have a little daylight left and it looks like there is a valley over the next rise.”Cabo reluctantly put his macabre toy away and the group began trudging along again.*****There was a valley, but it was occupied - a pair of large ogres were arguing loudly in the middle of a stream. <img src="http://www.pogre.com/5th_edition_9911_ogres.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Cabo and Gideon snuck down ahead of the group and before the ogres realized what was happening, Cabo had sunk a short sword to the hilt into one of the large humanoid’s backs while Gideon had disarmed the other. The melee that followed was a lop-sided affair with both ogres falling quickly.The group moved up the stream a bit and set up camp.*****Early the next morning the group found an old paved path. Brodek reported to the group that it was certainly of dwarven construction. Helja and Brodek muttered something to each other about the lost empire and the group began following the road.Every mile or so the group encountered a stone pylon marker next to the paved path. The pylons were similar and marked in ancient dwarven runes. Though weatherworn, the runes were still legible to Brodek and he announced the pylons warned that the hold was closed. Further, some of the pylons’ runes had been reworked or added to - these pylons carried dire warnings of elemental evil. Undeterred, the group continued up the path.Late in the morning they could see that the path led to a large cavern mouth and as they closed the distance they could see the cavern was guarded.<img src="http://www.pogre.com/5th_edition_9912_orcs.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />“Orcs,” Brodek spat. “I hate me some orcs. Very nearly as much as elves.”The group quickly closed the distance and the orcs roared out to meet them. Many of the orcs flung javelins before closing with nasty-looking weapons. A couple of the orcs went down immediately, but a big orc gave a loud war yell and the other orcs redoubled their efforts. When the orcs managed to hit, the blows were heavy. Still, the melee was going against the pig-snouted humanoids and the big orc began a tactical retreat.The group pursued into the dark cavern. Osbourne paused long enough to cast a light spell and Gideon lit a torch. They caught the big orc and finally managed to bring the hoary, swine-snouted foe down. As the group tried to catch their breath, they looked up and saw the fun was only beginning!<img src="http://www.pogre.com/5th_edition_9913_more_orcs.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Helja and Brodek yelled dwarven war cries as they closed that bespoke of their ancient and congenital hatred. The halflings followed in their wake, with Osbourne hanging back just slightly. Osbourne unleashed a mighty fireball, and in an instant half the orcs fell. The orcs still standing came forward in spite of the fiery blast and the clang of metal against metal soon filled the large cavern.<img src="http://www.pogre.com/5th_edition_9914_orc_combat.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Helja’s whirling attack caused the orcs much consternation and they seemed so distracted by her fury that the rest of the group found ready openings in their foes. Orc heads were smashed right and left and Brodek was in full battle throat, maniacally laughing as his blade cut through the enemy like a scythe through wheat. Cabo and Gideon took a terrible toll on the orcs as well and soon the cavern was full of orc blood and orc corpses.As the group breathed heavily catching their breath, Brodek said, “Good fight.”“There’s a tunnel beyond,” Helja announced.“I need to rest a bit more,” Gideon said. The halfling had a length of cloth out and was dressing a battle wound.*****The group retreated from the cavern and found a resting place concealed by some boulders not far from the entrance. Around dusk that evening, Cabo whispered loudly at the group, “Gods’ teeth! What is that thing?”Everyone followed the halfling rogue’s eyes to the sky and saw a massive winged creature flying out from the mountain. The creature had a lion-like body with huge bat wings and a tail bristling with spikes.“I think it is a manticore,” Helja replied. “But, that thing is huge.”“You’ve seen one before?” Gideon asked.“Yes, but it was dead, and no where near that size.”The group followed the creature’s flight for a while, but it eventually glided out of sight. They bedded down for a tense night of fitful sleep.*****The following morning the group followed the tunnel out of the back of the entrance cavern. The tunnel emerged onto a stone landing with twin staircases flanking it leading down into an enormous cavern. The cavern showed signs of construction on the far side. The group descended the stairs for a closer look and saw that a number of cages or pens were being crudely constructed out of stone.“Slave pens?” Cabo wondered aloud.“Could be,” Osbourne replied. “We may be on the trail of our dark elf after all.”“This place is where they used to process the ore coming up from the mine,” Helja remarked.“Aye,” Brodek confirmed. “over yonder is some old mining tracks leading down into the mine.”The group followed the dwarven pair to the tracks and down deeper into the mine. Following the tracks for a few hundred feet they found themselves confronted by a group of ogres.<img src="http://www.pogre.com/5th_edition_9915_ogres.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Not only were there twice as many ogres, but these ogres were prepared to fight as opposed to the pair the group had encountered in the valley stream earlier.Brodek dashed in and swung his blade at one of the ogres. Cabo followed up with a lightning strike with his shortsword. Osbourne centered a fiery blast of fireball in the ogres’ midst that had the huge humanoids reeling. “I love that trick!” Cabo called out.Helja took some damage from one of the ogres nasty clubs, but her fury once again distracted the enemy allowing the rest of the group to quickly put down the giants.It was clear that this area served as the ogres’ den. It was also clear that the mine was caved in beyond this spot.“Why would the ogres cave in the mine?” Gideon asked.“They didn’t,” Brodek replied. “This was done a very long time ago. Remember the pylons? The mine went dry and they ran into something.”“Elemental evil,” Helja reminded the group.“That means we missed something,” Cabo said. “We need to look around for concealed exits or another cavern on the mountain face.”*****The group’s close inspection of the walls of the caverns finally yielded fruit in the entrance cavern. They found a cleverly concealed portal there. Cabo did a close inspection of the door and discovered that it was trapped. Following a bit of work he announced that he had disarmed the trap. Brodek took the halfling at his word and opened the door.The room beyond was full of boxes, crates, and sacks.<img src="http://www.pogre.com/5th_edition_9916_treasure_room.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />An inventory of the contents yielded several potions, nearly three dozen gems, including a magical one, and a bag that held far, far more volume than it should have. Due to all of their searching it was getting late and the group needed to make camp. They collectively decided they should bed down in the ‘treasure room’ as it had only one egress and was easily defended. As the group bedded down for a rest they heard a strange scraping at the wall opposite the door they had entered. Suddenly, a secret door swung wide open revealing a nasty-looking orc shaman and  the dark elf!<img src="http://www.pogre.com/5th_edition_9917_darkelf_shaman_ambush.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The orc shaman muttered a few arcane words and a bright fiery orb appeared in his hand.Cabo managed to yell, “Oh no, I hate that trick!”The room exploded in brightness as the shaman’s fireball struck home.to be continued….</blockquote>

Verification