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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 6882489" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 18: OGRE EIGHTGame Session Date: 23 April 2016 - - - Binkadink rolled out of bed knowing it was going to be a great day.  It was the morning after they had finally rolled into the town of Garonis and he had at long last been able to pick up the masterwork gnomish glaive he'd ordered several weeks ago.  Four days after the recent werewolf attack, he finally had a masterwork weapon - and one that had been crafted finely enough that, given time, he'd be able to have enchantments crafted onto it!Although the last four days had seen nothing in the way of combat, they had been eventful nonetheless.  Ingebold had been concerned that the bite wound Castillan received from the werewolf Andrei had scarred up; normally the application of healing spells smoothed over any resulting scar tissue.  Worried that this might be the first signs of lycanthropy in the elven bounder, she'd asked Gilbert to read up on the affliction.  Gilbert did so, paging through the books from the Purple Mage's library that he'd absorbed into the Omnibook, and the results of his investigations were somewhat grim.  There were several suggested methods, most of which were infeasible given the amount of time that had passed since the elf had been bitten.  But there was still one possible avenue left to them: Ingebold could cast a remove curse spell on the bounder under the light of the full moon.  Of course, if Castillan had contracted lycanthropy the light of the full moon would cause him to begin transforming into a wolf, so they'd have to take precautions to prevent his escape if the spell didn't work.  Fortunately, the next full moon was a whole month away, so they'd have plenty of time to make their preparations.They'd also met up with a wandering bard two days out from Garonis who had shared their campsite and a meal.  In return for their generosity, he'd sung several ballads from his repertoire, including several songs about the famed hero-king Galrich Slayer the First and his amazing exploits as an adventurer.  It turns out Galrich had been paying bards to create songs about his combat prowess and his very powerful fellow adventurers, all as a means to pass the message: "Don't mess with Kordovia."  To the group's further astonishment, the bard's latest song involved details of their own exploits; apparently Galrich had decided to spread the word that he had a new band of powerful adventurers working for him as well.The other item of note was the continuing, if erratic, hair discoloration.  Over the past four days, Castillan had returned from behind a tree (where he'd been relieving his bladder) with lavender hair; Gilbert had exited his tent the first thing the next morning with a bushy, green beard; the following day, after a lunch break on the road, Wrath had emerged from underneath one of the wagons sporting light blue fur (which he didn't seem to like much at all); and finally, right before entering Garonis the day before, Aithanar's long hair went from a deep black to a bright orange (he wore his hood up for the duration of the effect).  In each case, the new coloration only lasted about an hour before the hair (or fur) in question returned to its normal color; of more immediate interest, on several of these occasions there were sounds of childish laughter and the flutter of invisible wings, although no culprit was ever spotted.  Since the fairies - for the group was now convinced that they had somehow attracted the attention of prank-loving faeries of some type - weren't doing any real harm, the group decided to try ignoring them and seeing if they'd just go away.  Gilbert, however, picked up some honey at a shop in Garonis and tried leaving it by the wagon as an offering to their unseen pranksters.The others met up with the little gnome in the inn's common room, all sharing the view that it had been nice to eat a well-cooked meal, luxuriate in a warm bath, and get a good night's sleep in a comfortable bed before hitting the road again."Guys!" called Castillan, uncharacteristically clomping down the stairs in his haste.  "I think I found us a big stash of loot just waiting to be claimed!""What this all about?" asked Gilbert."I was up late playing cards with some of the locals and I picked up some details about a dungeon that's supposed to be about ten miles out of town.  Seems there was this retired adventurer named Arrogan who built himself a tower fort some time ago.  The fort's in ruins, but the dungeon below it is still intact, with a bunch of treasure ready to be taken by anybody who can go get it.""It's been there for decades?" asked Finoula.  "And nobody's claimed it in all that time?""That's the thing," replied Castillan.  "Arrogan's supposed to have been a distrustful sort, so he built a bunch of traps in it to kill trespassers.  Oh, and get this, Gilbert - he especially distrusted wizards, so his dungeon is called 'the Magekiller.'""Lovely," snorted Gilbert."It gets better," replied the bounder.  "The Magekiller is said to be extremely dangerous.  Several adventuring groups have entered it over the years, but none have ever returned.""I'm not sure that makes it better," pointed out Finoula."Sure it does!" argued Castillan.  "That means the treasure's all still there!""I suppose..." offered Finoula.  "What do you guys think?""Sounds good to me!" enthused Binkadink.  "It'll give me a chance to put my new glaive to use!"The group decided they'd give it a shot.  So they finished a quick breakfast at the inn, paid their tab, and headed over to gather their animals and wagons.  Once there, they started gearing up in their armor.  "I get to try out my new armor, too!" gushed the little gnome.  He'd decided to upgrade to a suit of gnomish full plate once he saw there was an armorer in town who catered to gnomes and halflings.  This was indeed going to be a good day!And so, half an hour after breakfast the Kordovians were on their way down the road, heading west out of town, following the directions Castillan had gotten from his card-playing buddies.  It was an overcast day that threatened rain before nightfall.  The group hadn't gotten too far down the road before Ingebold's hair was suddenly bleached of all color."Ach, not again!" swore the dwarven cleric.  "Ye're pesky little buggers, ye are!""You look like a little old grandma," chuckled Darrien from the back of the mule-driven wagon.Any reply from Ingebold was cut off by a scream from the road just around a bend ahead.  Finoula and Binkadink, astride their respective mounts, sped to the front of the group and were therefore the first to see a young elf maiden staggering at the side of the road.  It wasn't her screaming, though - the cries for help were coming from a cave about fifteen feet up the side of a rocky hill to the left of the road."No, stop - leave me alone!" called a female voice from the cave.  At the same time, the young elven woman approached the Vistani wagon, trembling and clearly frightened.  "That's my sister!" she cried.  "She was grabbed by a--by a giant caveman!  What do I do?  What do I do?"  And then she collapsed in tears at the side of the road.Aithanar pulled on the reins of the Vistani wagon, bringing it to a sudden halt, and leapt down from the driver's seat to help her.  In the back of the wagon, the door opened up on its squeaky hinges and Gilbert stepped out, plopping his hat of disguise onto his head and taking on the form of a young woman from his mother's faraway land.  He had heard the elf's statement and in typical Gilbert Fung fashion was immediately suspicious that this was some sort of trap."Let's go!" called Binkadink, urging Obvious up the slope to the cave opening.  Finoula dismounted from her pony and called for Wrath to stay with the wagons, then raced behind the hippity-hopping jackalope.  Darrien and Ingebold leaped from the mule wagon in the back of the two-vehicle caravan and followed, joined by Castillan from the front.  "Stay with the girl!" he called to his brother, who nodded in return."What your name?" Gilbert asked the elf in a falsetto voice - his magical hat altered his appearance but did nothing to disguise his voice."My name is Marielle," replied the tear-filled elf.  "My sister Danielle and I, we were running away from home to get away from our brutish stepfather.  Then, out of nowhere, this, this caveman rushed up and grabbed at us."  The elf showed where the shoulder of her blouse had been ripped.  "He almost got me, but I pulled away, and he grabbed up Danielle instead!"  As if to punctuate her story, Danielle screamed again from deep inside the cave, "What are you going to do to me?  No, no--HELP!"  Marielle cringed at the thought of her sister in the hands of a creature admittedly even more terrifying than their cruel stepfather.  "Will they be able to save her?" she asked, clinging to Gilbert's robes - which, fortunately, felt no different than the skirt they were currently masquerading as."They very strong heroes," Gilbert replied in his falsetto voice.  "They save your sister, you see."  Then, turning his attention to Aithanar, he said, "You give girl drink of water, I go into wagon and get her some food."  Extracting Marielle's clutching hands from his robes, he went back into the wagon and waited patiently.  Ever the distrustful sort, Gilbert had decided to put the elf maiden's loyalty to the test: if she was what she claimed, Aithanar would be fine upon his return; if she was playing them false, perhaps in league with the caveman, she might try to overcome the elf fighter if she thought it was only one against one.  The wizard strained his ears to hear what they were up to, but it sounded like Aithanar was simply handing over his waterskin and the elf girl was drinking from it.Meanwhile, in the cave, the rest of the group had an opportunity to make a quick perusal.  Upon first entering the cave, Finoula noticed a square, wooden structure some 15 feet to a side leaned up against the wall of the cave to the left of the entrance.  There were three poles, each about 20 feet in length, piled next to it.  There also seemed to be two passages from this central room, veering off to the east and the west.  Danielle's screams were coming from the west, so that's the direction Obvious headed with Binkadink still on his back.  They bounded into a larger cavern containing only the ashes from an old campfire, but there was another passageway out of this larger cavern to the northwest.  Obvious scampered down it, following a set of natural steps leading down another ten feet or so.  Behind them, Castillan and the two rangers followed, with Ingebold bringing up the rear."Stop, please!" cried Danielle from ahead.  "Leave me alone!"  Binkadink saw the next cavern was split down the middle by a 15-foot vertical drop, with another natural set of stone steps along the eastern edge of the cave leading down to the lower level, which held further passageways to the northeast and northwest.  But Obvious had no need for steps; a 15-foot drop was nothing to the surefooted jackalope.  Leaping over the edge, Obvious landed gracefully on the lower level and turned the corner to the northwest, where the volume of Danielle's voice told them she was just around the bend.Turning the corner, Binkadink and Obvious came to a sudden stop, for there was only a small, dead-end cave there.  Two crude beds of straw and grasses lay along the wall in the back, and two female ogres wielding javelins stood at the ready to greet the jackalope-mounted gnome fighter.  They both let fly at the startled jackalope with their javelins, one of them catching him in the shoulder, before each grabbed up a greatsword leaning against the wall.  Of Danielle there was no sign; the gnome at first thought these two giants might have eaten her, but there was no blood, no cast-off elven garments, just a smirking ogress pleased with her efforts at reeling in the ogre band's next meal.  As if to prove her point, she cried out "Help me, gnome, help me!" in the voice of the apparently non-existent Danielle while her counterpart chuckled.The ogre mancatchers, Grinka and Jorza, swung their greatswords at Obvious, who hurriedly backed off out of range.  His new glaive in hand, Binkadink jumped from the back of his jackalope steed, the better to shield Obvious from their attacks.  Fifteen feet above him and to the south, Finoula and Darrien had just exited the steps and could see Binkadink in a combat stance, but they couldn't see who he was fighting as the ogres were behind a corner, hidden from view.  But while the gnome caught their movement out of the corner of his eye, there seemed to be even more movement below them.  Daring a quick glance in their direction, Binkadink saw that the 15-foot-tall vertical cliff housed two openings into another, larger cave, from which spilled out three more eager ogre combatants.  Like the females he was already fighting, these three males wore tattered animal skins and carried javelins in their meaty hands, but instead of greatswords they each wielded a greatclub that looked to have been made from a tree trunk.  They hurled their javelins at Binkadink and Obvious, and as the two hurled his way clattered off his full plate, the gnome fighter was glad he'd upgraded his armor.  But Obvious took another javelin wound and was now bleeding heavily; at Binkadink's urging, he raced back up the steps out of harm's way.As the three male ogres rushed at the gnome, the heroes on the ledge above saw them come into view.  While Finoula and Darrien skidded to a stop, Castillan increased his speed to a full-out sprint and launched himself off the edge of the cliff, snapping his magic short sword into one hand and grabbing the dagger from his belt with the other.  He landed on the westernmost ogre's broad back, plunging both blades in deep and hanging on, letting the weight of his own body carve the blades deeper into the ogre's flesh and muscle.  He roared in pain and swung his body around.  "Get it off!  Get it off!" he cried in the Giant tongue to his fellows, and the middle ogre was more than happy to oblige, bringing his greatclub into a fierce swing straight at the bounder.  But Castillan's reflexes were well-honed and he released both weapons, dropping nimbly to the floor and ducking under the blow - which went crashing into the wounded ogre's spine, sending him smashing into the side wall of the cave.  He slid lifelessly down the wall; Castillan grabbed his weapons back in both hands and with a mighty tug extracted them from the ogre's corpse, spinning around to face his attacker with a grin of pure enjoyment on his face.Darrien summoned the magical mantis from the amber necklace he wore around his neck, allowing it manifest directly behind the third male ogre while Binkadink was focused on the females.  The giant insect caught the ogre in its claws, but not tightly enough to pin it; the brute spun around and smashed at this new threat with his greatclub.  Up above, Ingebold was just entering the cavern from the longer set of steps to the south.  Obvious called out a plea for healing to the cleric in the only language he knew, that of burrowing mammals, but the cleric didn't even register the jackalope as having spoken.  Instead, anticipating a sudden need for a lot of healing spells in the course of the rest of this battle, she cast a sanctuary spell on herself.In the larger cavern further south with the cold remains of the fire, a boulder shifted near the ceiling, and yet another ogre leaped down onto the floor, greatclub in hand, and raced down the steps Ingebold had just traversed.  He stoked his rage as he ran, eager for bloody battle and the flesh of slain enemies that always followed immediately thereafter.Outside, Gilbert had removed his hat of disguise and approached Aithanar and Marielle with a drawn wand in each hand, hoping to startle the elf maiden into thinking he was onto her - if, indeed, she had been up to no good.  However, she seemed to have ignored any opportunity to get the jump on Aithanar while the two of them were alone, and the wizard began to think maybe she was actually on the up-and-up.  But then the ogre barbarian's roar emanated from the cave and Marielle sprang to her feet.  "I guess I'll have to deal with you later," she said offhandedly, then dissipated into a cloud of mist, which narrowed into a thin column and raced away into the cave."I knew it!" declared Gilbert, mentally patting himself on the back.  You rarely get disappointed by expecting the worst from everyone, he thought as he raced up the slope to the cave.  "You stay here with wagons!" he called to Aithanar, then turned back to the cave to get quite a surprise, for a cone of crystal snowflakes came blasting out at him.  The cone of cold spell almost knocked him off his feet, but although he staggered in place he didn't give Marielle the satisfaction.  Only Marielle was no longer an elf, he noted - she was now a blue-skinned, male ogre mage with two curving, ivory horns jutting back from his white-maned head.  He held a greatsword in one hand and had a longbow strapped to his back.  Oni! Gilbert thought, remembering stories his mother had told him when he was young.  He cast a fireball at the creature in return, but the ogre mage's natural resistance to spells allowed him to shrug it off.Seeing Gilbert almost knocked over by the ogre mage's spell, Aithanar abandoned the wagons and went racing up next to the wizard, ready to pull him to safety if necessary.  But the ogre mage, Shin Sao, turned away contemptuously and was swallowed by the pitch darkness of the cave.  Gilbert swigged down a healing potion, then turned to Aithanar and said, "Let's go get him!"  Aithanar, pleased at being included as more than a wagon-driver and horse-tender for once, pulled out his longsword and followed Gilbert cautiously into the cave network.Deeper in the cavern, things were getting hectic.  Finoula had raced down the steps to fight at Binkadink's side, and together they had managed to slay one of the female ogre mancatchers and another of the three male ogres.  But from the tunnel to the northeast came yet another pair of foes, a female ogre spellcaster of some sort with a dire rat familiar.  The adept managed to catch Binkadink, Finoula, and the mantis with a burning hands spell, slaying the mantis outright and causing it to return to Darrien's necklace until its next use.  The rat then went straight for Finoula, who fled halfway back up the steps with the vile creature in hot pursuit, nipping at her feet with its foul teeth.  The last of the male ogre trio slammed his greatclub into Castillan's side, wounding the bounder to the extent that he decided to race up the cliff wall out of range of the brute's attacks.  But just as he was pulling himself up to the upper level, the ogre barbarian, Burrak, made his appearance, slamming his massive greatclub into the first target at hand - Obvious.  The jackalope crumpled under the barbarian's brutal assault, several ribs shattering from the blow.  His life blood stained the floor as he lay literally only a moment from death.Fortunately for Obvious, Ingebold was immediately at hand and she cast her most powerful healing spell on the wounded jackalope, mending his shattered ribs and bringing him just over the edge back into semi-consciousness.  But the jackalope, still far from fighting strength, opted to rely on a trick fervently believed by bunnies the world over: If I don't move, you can't see me!  He lay there on his side, breathing heavily but playing dead.  Trusting that the violent ogre barbarian would seek active combatants over a prone and unmoving jackalope, the cleric started heading down the steps to the lower level, casting a spiritual weapon at the ogre adept on her way down.  A field of energy shaped like a dwarven warhammer slammed into the enemy spellcaster, causing her to snarl in pain.Burrak took another step into the cavern and slammed his greatclub into the next available target - Castillan.  The bounder cried out in pain and willingly dropped back down over the cliff side to the lower level.  That left Darrien as the barbarian's only target on that level.  Rather than retreat, the half-elf ranger shot at the advancing brute with his Arachnibow, peppering his torso with arrow after arrow.  But the barbarian was skilled at ignoring pain until after battle had concluded, and he continued his advance.  His greatclub came smashing down on Darrien twice in rapid succession, and the ranger's lifeless body dropped off the edge of the cliff to land in a broken heap on the level below.  Seeing this, Castillan dragged Darrien into the large cave beneath the upper level, noting as he did so there was a steel shield and a light mace propped up as decorations on small ledges in the cave, which was apparently the living quarters of the trio of ogre males.  He almost grabbed up the Arachnibow for his own use, but at the last second recalled that doing so would only cause it to revert to a giant spider that would then fight him off.  But the last of the male ogres on that level had unwisely turned his back to the bounder to face the deadly gnome fighter, and Castillan took advantage of his error to stab him in the back, slaying him instantly.Out of victims on the upper level of the split-level cavern, Burrak leapt down off the side of the cliff and landed adjacent to Binkadink, who was doing his best to carve his glaive into the ogre adept and getting another burning hands spell in his face as a result.  He turned to face the larger threat, allowing Finoula - and Ingebold's spiritual warhammer - to deal with the enemy spellcaster.  But Burrak was a more powerful threat than any of the other ogres the gnome fighter had faced and he feared he might be brought down before he could do the same to his foe.  So he called out, at the top of his lungs, in the secret language of burrowing mammals, for help.Coming to his master's aid, the jackalope leaped off the cliff and stabbed Burrak in the back with his antlers, then jumped up and down on him for good measure.  The ogre barbarian, already bleeding from a dozen ignored wounds sustained thus far in battle, was slain - quite an undignified death for a brute who had until then thought himself as a combat machine.  Binkadink thanked his partner for the assist and Obvious skipped back out of the way of combat.In the room with the ashes from the campfire, Gilbert spun around the corner, expecting to find the oni he'd been chasing, but there was nobody there.  Aithanar came up behind him, sword at the ready, but there were no enemies within sight.  And then Shin Sao suddenly appeared behind Gilbert, popping back into the visible light spectrum as he brought his greatsword crashing down at the portly wizard.  But Gilbert spun around at the last moment and the ogre mage's strike missed by the narrowest of margins.  Aithanar stabbed at the ogre mage, then followed Gilbert's lead and raced down the stone steps, fleeing before the ogre mage's flashing blade.  Shin Sao followed the pair, his sword slashing out and catching Aithanar in the back, dropping him instantly.  Fearing he'd soon follow the elven fighter in death, Gilbert tapped himself in the head with a wand and instantly assumed gaseous form.  Deprived of his next intended victim, Shin Sao followed Burrak's earlier reasoning and leaped down to the lower level, where there was a pair of active combatants wielding dual swords and a glaive, respectively.  By this time, the adept had retreated back to her own cave, but Ingebold's spell effect followed her unerringly, battering her even as she desperately cast healing spells on herself.If Shin Sao expected to repeat his success with Aithanar, he was sadly mistaken.  Binkadink gathered all of his strength and stabbed forward with the point of his glaive, which penetrated all the way through the surprised ogre mage's body, slaying him in one fell stroke.  That left only the ogre adept in her own dead-end cave, and with only one exit there was nowhere for her to run.  She was brought down by a combination of Finoula's swords, Binkadink's glaive, and Ingebold's spiritual warhammer.However, any exultation over the vanquishing of their foes was soured by the high price it had cost the group, for Darrien and Aithanar both lay dead where they had fallen in battle.  Gilbert reassumed solid form and helped bring their fallen friends out to the mule-wagon.  Castillan was all for immediately returning to Kordovia to have his brother raised, but the wizard insisted on giving the ogre caverns a full once-over for loot.  "It cost plenty coin to have both raised at temple - it only make sense we use ogres' treasure to pay for it," he reasoned."I don't have but the one scroll of gentle repose," Ingebold said, "and I don't have the spell prepared meself today.  I can cast it on the one right now, and on the other tomorrow morning, if ye like.  We can probably make Kordovia in five days, if we push it.""Save scroll for later," Gilbert replied.  "We only going as far back as Garonis.  They have Temple of Pelor there, I pretty sure they can raise our dead.""Hey, good," agreed Castillan, thinking about how little he wanted to roll into Kordovia with his little brother's corpse.  If his father found out he'd broken Aithanar out of the Ravencroft Sanitorium, only to get him killed....The ogres' accumulated treasure paid for about three-fourths of the cost of a pair of raise dead ceremonies; the rest was donated by the heroes.  Ingebold didn't even flinch when they opted to forego saving half of the ogres' treasure for the kingdom of Kordovia; even she agreed that the need to return their slain to the land of the living was an overriding priority, and she was sure her father and King Galrich would agree. - - - This adventure was tougher than I had anticipated!  Of course, it didn't help that neither Vicki nor Joey recalled that "giant" was their respective rangers' "+4" favored enemies until halfway through the adventure.  It also didn't help when Gilbert more or less excused himself from combat for most of the adventure by being all suspicious about Marielle, but I should have come to expect that.  (Dan never trusts any NPC if he can help it!)  And while Aithanar's death was probably preventable (there's a reason the 2nd-level fighter doesn't usually adventure with the 7th-level party!), Darrien's was just some bad luck and high damage rolls.  (Burrak hit Darrien twice in one round, bringing him down from 12 hp to -33, well beyond his ability to survive even with our "dead at your Constitution score below zero" house rule in place.)  This was the first time Joey had experienced a PC death, too, and he took it kind of hard at first.  But after Dan had an encouraging chat with him in a back room, he came back to the table and finished the adventure out by running Ingebold, who had been controlled by Dan up until that part.  (It was his turn.)The mace Castillan found in the male ogre trio's cave was a +1 light mace of ranged healing I had stocked there specifically for Ingebold.  The group has already found itself in situations on numerous occasions where it would have been extremely helpful if Ingebold could heal the party members without having to physically touch the wounded PC; this was a way for me to integrate that ability into her, given that she's the party heal-bot/spare PC.The players had hoped that having Aithanar raised would fix his speech problems, but as the raise dead spell description specifically states that any missing body parts (say, a finger) remain missing after being raised, I ruled that the damaged part of his brain is still damaged.  So he'll continue only being able to speak gibberish for awhile.  (And no luck at the Temple of Pelor for a heal spell, either - we've decided that most NPCs cap out at 10th level, and heal requires an 11th-level caster.)We finished this adventure at about 4:30 PM after having started at noon.  I had brought the original adventure I had led them to believe they were going to go through that session - "The Magekiller" - and the group opted to get a start on it, even knowing that we wouldn't be able to finish it that session.  So we played through the first half of that one as well, but I think I'll wait until we finish the entire adventure and post it all at once as a single story instead of breaking it into two chunks.One final thing I want to record for posterity: "Ogre Eight" is a pun, sounding phonetically very much like "Oh great!"(Because puns are cool, that's why.) - - - T-Shirt Worn:  My Dalek T-shirt, with the word "EXTERMINATE" directly above the image of the Dalek.  Given that that was the intention of the ogre band - to exterminate (and then eat) the PCs - it seemed appropriate.  And unfortunately, it proved to be doubly prophetic, as I killed off Darrien and Aithanar during this adventure.  It also was an appropriate T-shirt for "The Magekiller," given the entire nature of that trap-filled dungeon.</blockquote>

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