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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 3730325" data-attributes="member: 16069">Dungeon Crawl Classics #2 The Lost Vault of Tsathzar Rho An Adventure for First Level CharactersTurn 13: What about OUR Ogre?Three miles west of the village of Tetknee, through the forest again they come, nobody knows the way, except Cas perhaps, he has a map given to him by Ladrasar, the wise woman of the village.They’d all met back up in the Frog & Parrot pub there; a lot didn’t get said, for ages, in fact all night. But then it all came together when the wise woman appeared, staggered over to the table that Cas was sitting at, with Ala, and shouted, while thumping the table hard enough to make their drinks dance-“What about OUR Ogre?” A price agreed, glances met shrugs, shrugs met nods and here they are again, nearly- Mischa it seems is not cut out for the dungeon experience, and so we have Ala.The story is less convoluted this time, Ogre in cave, normally quite sweet, well… except for the odd misdemeanour, suddenly gets uppity- starts smashing up trade caravans, farmers killed, livestock butchered or taken- can you fix it. Well… yes, we can… probably.And so in a low dustbowl where no crops will grow, between two steep and stony scarps is a cave; and here it is.“Newt, could you perhaps scout ahead, you all know the plan, anyway, just make it angry, make it come out here, we’ll do the rest. Shouldn’t prove too difficult for you, I mean…” Cas runs dry.“I know what you mean. One Ogre- coming right up.” Newt winks, and scuttles into the dark.Less than thirty seconds later.“Waaaaaaahh…”Newt comes running out, zig-zags once then sprints hard right, out of the line of fire, he’s giggling, he even manages to click his heals with a little jump- grandstanding.FWUNGTHUNGFWOOMEtc.Arrows, and associated missiles, fly- Ala buries an arrow into the Ogre’s shoulder, it jerks left, and into Bec who’s following up the artillery fire with his charge, the giant man crunches into the Ogre, immovable object meets… no, hang on, Bec crumples and falls. Cas dances forward, slices, and nearly takes the Ogre’s foot off, the creature screams, stumbles back. The Ogre swings its enormous club around, Cas ducks, and the Ogre lets go, the club hurtles off into the distance. Cas slices again ripping open the Ogre’s chest, a curtain of blood flows as Jim rushes by Cas and…THUNKSplits the creature’s chest open completely, the Ogre paws the air, and then topples over, no more.“Well that wasn’t so bad. If you’d like to wake Bec up and tell him it’s over.” Cas cleans his sword. Jim smiles, and does as he’s told.Ala and the others move up, they gather, staring at the Ogre.“That’s not… usual.” Anya states the obvious.The Ogre’s skin is jet black, his eyes a vile green, they seem to glow, even in death, rancid oozing pustules dot his face and body, he seems to have scratched them so hard that many of them have turned to scabrous cuts and sores.“He doesn’t look… well.”Newt kicks the corpse, “he wouldn’t, would he- he’s dead”, and then looks ahead, to the cave.“Shall we see what he’s got, before we go collect our reward?”The others nod, and with one last look apiece, head off into the dark.A sunrod flares.The cave is sparse, almost empty, not at all homely- something odd. They find two sacks stuffed with coin, and some rancid cheese. The coins sacks are too big to hide, so Newt steals the cheese, it’s in his nature.There’s a dank dark dripping passage that winds further back.Newt shrugs, motions with the sunrod, the others silently follow.Into an enormous cavern.“What the fu… fu… fu… fu… fu…”It echoes in here, the ceiling is lost from sight.FLAP-FLAP“Something’s coming, flying, switch to missile.” Cas warns, just in time.A group of long-nosed half-insect half-bird looking creatures swoop into the flare of the sunrod, Newt drops it, hefts his crossbow and-FWUNGPlucks one of the Striges out of the air- dead.Jim gets off a shot but misses by a mile, and then the remaining three Stirges are on them.One of the creature’s crunch-lands on Anya, squawks, and then plunges its proboscis into her shoulder, gargles blood as she tumbles backwards, falls, the Stirge swells and grows as it sucks down Anya’s blood.The other two swoop and circle around Cas and Ala who stand side by side, swords drawn.“Wait.” Cas readies himself, glances at Ala.The Stirges dive down.SLICEAla cuts through the creature’s wing, it bundles into the cavern floor, squawks a while, then dies, Cas misses as the other Stirge swoops by him. Newt quickly reloads, spins and fires, scoring a minor hit on the Stirge that sits on the fallen Anya, it takes to the air, it may have outstayed its welcome. Jim dashes in and crunches what’s left of the thing, it explodes spraying blood everywhere.Ala and Cas turn to face the last Stirge, it banks and comes again.“Wait.” Cas again readies himself- like some fencing master, glances again at Ala.She nods, then dances ahead, and brings her longsword around in a deft arc, slicing the final creature in two.Cas grins at Ala, shows her his sword.“Look not a mark on it, and yet”, he looks around, “they’re all dead. You know what that’s about don’t you?”“No, tell me Cas.”“Leadership Ala.”They grin, then remember there place and head over to help Anya, who turns out to be “ok, she’s lost some blood- it’s mainly the shock that made her feint, she’ll be alright in a minute”, Ala confirms after a brief examination.As good as her word, Anya is up in a moment, a little dizzy, but still up for a little more exploration.“Thank you Ala.”She smiles at the Elven Cleric, Cas’ new friend.“Hey, I’ve found something.”Newt appears; another burning sunrod in his hand.They head off to see what the Gnome has found.Thirty seconds later.“Up there.” Newt motions upwards.The gathering stops to stare up into the inky darkness- there’s nothing to see.“Where?” Anya manages.“Stand back, it’s up there somewhere.”The others do as their told.Newt affixes a lit sunrod to a crossbow bolt using a little Gum Arabic with a special substance known only to locksmiths.“Wait… and watch.”FWUNGThe bolt leaps into the air, a firework, and…THUNKJams into the rock, for a second, then falls.A second is enough to see the opening high above, a constructed opening, man-made, or at least, humanoid, probably…“How did you work out that was up there?” Cas stares.The others stare at the Gnome in awe, new found respect for his eagle-eyes.“Easy.”Newt shifts his feet to reveal a tangle of thick rope.“I found this rope, y’see the thing about gravity is, and stop me Princess if I’m getting this wrong…”The Gnome winks at Anya, then grins at Cas, he loves being right, and right here.“Good work. Now how do we get up?”“Do we want too?” Ala asks, causing Cas to turn.“Yes. We do, or at least, I do.”“Why?”Everybody waits for an answer, including Cas.“That’s a good question. And I think the answer may be up there.”He points up.“Newt, how do we do this?”FWUNGThis time the bolt and attached sunrod sails up and into the opening, catches on something hidden- and brings light to the proceedings.“Right then, anyone any good with one of these?”Newt holds a beautifully made rope ending in an equally well crafted grappling hook.It takes a while, six minutes to be exact.Newt scurries up the line, Cas holding it taught behind him, the grappling hook has obviously found a good purchase.He’s up.“All clear.”He drags himself the last foot or so and gingerly stands, bathed in the light of his sunrod, he squints ahead, tries to see what the future holds.FWUNGFWUNGTHUNGCrossbow bolts clatter and shatter on the rock behind him, including the one that has just taken the top of his left ear off.“CAAAAAAAZ.”He recognises the next sound, they’re reloading. Turn 14: They’re only…</blockquote>

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