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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 1771140" data-attributes="member: 99">(Here's part II of Cathal's write up of the party's first delve into the much anticipated City of Endless Summer)"Busted by Ogres: Reloaded", or "Hey, at Least We're Out of the Hand Basket"[Turn 1]Lazarius, seeing Marcus give the high sign, quickly readied his crossbow and fired [hitting for 5pts], which distracted the ogre who had been doing the talking long enough for Marius and Cathal to both make successful attacks [for 17pts and 19pts].  The ogre, more than a little startled at the attack, cast a green burst of badness that swept outward and engulfed Cathal, and Lazarius [for 16pts], but Marius was able to leap out of the way.  Meantime, Speaks (in Quetzal form) continued to flit around in the treetops with his new birdie friends while nominally keeping an eye on the Beholder, who was still making its rounds.  Marcus stepped up and deftly avoided the ogre's attack, responding with his own more effective strike [11pts].[Turn 2]Lazarius shook off the effects of the badness and fired his crossbow again [7pts] as Marius drove his rapier deep into the ogre's hip [26pts] for a killing blow.  Mindful of the second ogre's presence, Cathal stepped to the corner of the room and waited for something to appear from the mineshaft where the ogre had last been seen…and he only had to wait for a few seconds before the ogre obligingly stepped through the doorway.  Cathal charged the second ogre, hitting it as much with his shoulder as his sword [for 20pts], as Marcus ran forward to support the attack.  Speaks noticed that the Beholder is now moving towards him (or maybe towards the melee below) and flew back down through one of the grates into the forge.[Turn 3]Lazarius reloaded his crossbow and moved to get a better shot as Marius tumbled up to the combat, hoping to flank the monster.  The ogre took a swing at Marius and missed, while Cathal chose to wait for an even better opportunity to attack.  Marcus moved up to attack, again dodging the counterattack, and struck the ogre [for 18pts].  Cathal, seeing his chance, swung at the ogre but failed to connect.[Turn 4]Another crossbow bolt from Lazarius [for 7pts] and successful thrust from Marius [for 19pts] brought the second ogre to the ground as Speaks fluttered down to Lazarius' shoulder and began making "the Beholder sign" with his wings.[Turn 5]Lazarius, whose Imperial training had neither included Quetzal Charades nor Avian Pantomime courses, squinted in confusion at Speaks' feathery antics.  Speaks tried a different approach, chirping frantically, while Marius, Cathal, and Marcus kept a watchful eye out for new foes coming in through any of the doors.  Occupied with things on the horizon and fluttering birds, the party nearly missed the giant cloud of dust that formed above them when the Beholder disintegrated the forge ceiling around the grate through which Speaks had fluttered.[Turn 6]Lazarius, catching a glimpse of the Beholder above, shrieked "ALBATROSS!" and began casting teleport as Speaks twittered the verbal component of feathers.  Marius, Marcus, and Cathal, ran towards Speaks and Lazarius, who cast feathers to turn the party into birds and cast teleport to return to cave.[Turn 7]When they arrived at their destination, maroon skies wracked with lightning twisted above a landscape of pitted black stone, and below them in the valley, many twisted figures labored with picks and mattocks, tearing down a massive white stone pyramid.  Lazarius stated the obvious, "oh, heck, this looks bad," and Marcus corrected him, "oh, Hell, this is bad."(DM note:  I came to refer to this session as "Operation Albatross". <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />)</blockquote>

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