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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Altalazar" data-source="post: 3696704" data-attributes="member: 939">Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Thirty-Six – Back in Cauldron one Night, New Job Finds Us    I was back in my warm bed with Crystal, contemplating our next move, when I heard what I always love to hear when I’m in bed relaxing.  Ee’s voice in my head.      “Meet Ee at Poseidon’s?  Ee have job.  Ee dragonslayer!”      “What was that, Ee?”     “Of course Cordozo is here, Ee talk to him now!  See, Ee smart!”      It was clear Ee was sharing with me his side of the conversation, though it was hard to tell who he was talking to.  I felt excitement from Ee that reminded me of the time Ee ingloriously selected our group moniker of Dragonslayers.  I did not know why he went to Poseidon’s instead of my home.  I think Ee has been living in the woods too long.  I gave it a moment’s thought and then I was standing in Poseidon’s foyer next to Ee.      Ee looked very excited.  “See, told you he be here!” He shouted.  “How me know me Ee be here if he not be here!” Ee said, with ironclad Ee logic.      The man he was with looked over at me and said simply, “Is he yours?”      I nodded, sighed, and then got the real information about the job.  Apparently this man and his companions were seeking Dragonslayers.  Apparently a black dragon was giving them trouble.  Judging from the gills in the man’s neck, he was merfolk of some kind.  His city was off the coast and well under the water, as in 1000 feet under the water.  Shellovar, population five to eight thousand merfolk.  Now it made sense that they had black dragon troubles.  Blacks can breath underwater.      The merman offered us 20,000 gold each to rid them of their dragon problem.  He could not tell us how big the dragon was, how old it was, or really anything about it except that it was west of their town in the “forbidden zone” that they were loathe to enter because of their strict taboos.  Apparently the taboo did not apply to us as outsiders.  He said we could also keep anything we found (e.g. the dragon’s horde) but that the dragon had stolen from them an egg-shaped gem that was blue with white stripes that they wanted returned.  He gave us four days to start on our task before they sought help elsewhere, starting with the Stormblades in Cauldron.  I definitely did not want to let those charlatans getting onto our territory.  Ee’s name, unfortunate though it was, creates certain expectations.  When there is a dragon to be slayed, you come to us FIRST.      Our arrangements thus made, it was time to get back to the ogre magi.      Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Thirty-Seven – Back to the Valley    I met up with the others and prepared to transport us all back to the ogre magi.  I could take all of us, save Larch.  Larch then turned into a bird and flew into Ee’s handy haversack, and then we were off.  I returned to my friend in the field to ask him further questions about the keep.      Larch was sent on ahead to plant some special berries by the outer gate.  The rest of us then flew up and over the wall invisible, with flight and invisibility courtesy of Higgins.  We saw at least a half-dozen ogre magi manning the walls and at least a dozen in the courtyeard between the walls and the keep.  Larch, in the form of a bird, flew up onto one of the tall columns by the entrance of the keep and perched, awaiting my signal to set off the diversion.      The main entrance to the keep was a large hole well off the ground.  I guess they can just fly in, so they don’t need a normal door.  Apparently their slaves do need one, though, so there was a side door at the base of the keep.  Morwen made quick work of it and then we slipped inside.  There were stairs inside leading to the second level of the keep, but we skipped those and headed for the main body of the structure.      Not wanting to arouse suspicion, whenever we came to a door, I simply dimension doored us through it, hoping there was sufficient room on the other side in this structure built for large creatures.  Fortunately, there always was.      The core of the keep was a huge dining hall.  They were apparently in between meals, though there were still servants carrying things around.  A full two dozen ogre magi were sitting at various tables engaged in ogre magi gossip.  With slaves to do all of their work, that was probably their primary activitiy.  They all looked rather soft and fat.      A door at the far end of the dining hall led right into the mountain itself, presumably to the fountain.  Flying over the gossiping giants, we transported through that door and into a long tunnel into the mountain.      Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Thirty-Eight – Fountain of Youth    There was indeed a fountain at the end of the tunnel.  There were also three cages suspended around it.  In each cage was an unclothed slave, probably barely 13 summers old.  Two were female, one was male.  I probed their minds and discovered that there was barely anything there.  The deeper I probed, the more horrid it became.  Empty.  These there had no memories of anything beyond this room.  They must have been practically born in these cages and left to live their lives in them.      Morwen was already unlocking and lowering their cages by the time I discovered this.  Such nasty creatures, these ogre magi.  To lay bare a mind like that, from birth, is an abomination.  The ogre magi must die.      The fountain proved to be as tainted as we thought.  I do not think we can untaint it.  It appears to be connected to another plane.  Probing it deeply, based on its aura, I suddenly got a flash of insight from my stolen planar knowledge from our former demon employer.  This water came directly from the River Styx.  To drink it was to die.  Damn, we’re not getting paid.  But the ogre magi still must die.      To facilitate their deaths, Morwen put the three young ones back in the cages, so they would not be discovered loose.  We can come back for them.  We then turned our attention to the keep.  The ogre magi must die.      Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Thirty-Nine – The Ogre Magi Die – Chapter One      We headed back into the main part of the keep and then up to the second floor.  I transported us instantly to the stairs from where we were, then we headed up into the upstairs halls.  I contacted my “friend” outside and asked him which room was the leader’s room.  Six seconds later, we were all standing inside the leader’s room.  Then I turned around and saw a sight so hideous I was tempted to immediately erase the memory from my mind.  I think my companions would also ask for a similar favor.      Hovering before us, ten feet in the air, was the leader of the ogre magi.  And his mistress.  And nothing else.  Not even a pair of ogre magi socks.  They were doing things that would give nightmares to small children and the sight was probably enough to keep the most amourous of young lovers abstinent until after five years of marriage.      I reached out my mind and wrapped it around both of theirs, careful not to get dirty in the process.  Distracted as they were, I easily grabbed them both and made them under my dominion.  But then I realized I had a problem.  Control can be broken if one forces a creature to do something very contrary to its nature.  In this case, it may be very contrary to force them to stop while deep in the throes of passion.  So I paused.  Then I decided I would just limit it to questions while letting them continue.      With my hands over my eyes, I started asking the leader questions.  In between grunts, he gave me his answers.      There were indeed forty to fifty ogre magi in the fortress.  They built this fortress hundreds of years ago.  They have always had slaves, bought from other humans with the money they make selling their wares.  They did see a group of six adventurers reacently and killed them.  Their possession have already been sold and used to buy more slaves.  All while he talked, he continued his “work.”  Still not wanting to risk losing control, I asked him, “Uh, how much longer are you going to be?”  Apparently, ogre magi can go for hours.  Finally, I decided to go for it.  “Where do you keep your treasure?” I asked, after some prodding from Morwen.  Not wanting to give that up, he broke free of his control and started to run for the exit.  Morwen jumped in and slashed him with her rapier.  No one but her and myself were visible to him, so he made his way for his door, his body turning to gas before our eyes as he walked.  The last thing he did before he lost his body entirely to the mist was shout “Guards!”  I sent a signal to Larch, “We’re attacking the chief.  We may need that diversion soon!”  My companions quickly surrounded the gaseous form of the leader and sliced it to bits.  Within seconds, the ogre magi’s body reformed and plummeted to the floor.  At that same moment, his door’s opened and in the hall we could see one of the aforementioned guards about ready to enter the room.  Thinking quickly, I grabbed a hold of his mind, dominated it, and then had the leader’s former lover (who was still floating, waiting instructions from me) scream “Aaaaa!  Get out!  How dare you disturb us!”  And then I had the now dominated guard at the door act appropriately embarrassed and close the door.  Though I sensed in his mind that probably he would have been more likely to sit and watch with the other guards rather than leave.  Ogre magi.  Must die.  In any case, that would not work because if the other guards made it to the door, they would have seen us.  My plan was brilliant.  Until Ee stepped in.  Before the guard could close the door, Ee stepped up to him, slicing his axe through the air, and slicing the ogre magi guard with four long, deep gashes.  The guard fell to the floor, dead.  “Well, there goes that plan.”  I ran to the window to see if the general alarm had been raised.  Yes, it had.  Time for plan A.  “Larch, NOW!”  Larch then, by his command, set off his berry bombs left along the outer wall by the gate.  Even from here, we could hear the many explosions and feel the ground shake.  Larch reported back that many of the guards were heading in that direction to investigate.  Marcus saw that many more guards were flying up from the courtyard to the leader’s three windows.  He then put up a barrier of whirring blades across the entire wall, blocking all of the windows.  That ought to slow them down.  I could see three getting close to the windows.  I reached my mind out to one of them, then grabbed it, and crushed it.  Then I sent two globes of fire into the remaining two, nearly burning both alive.  But this would not do.  There were more ogre magi than I could easily crush without resting.  My companions were busy slaughtering the remaining four guards in the hallway, but more would be coming soon.  I think we are going to need some additional help.      I closed my eyes and began summoning some additional help.  The ogre magi must die.</blockquote>

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