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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 211932" data-attributes="member: 143">Horacio--yes, I'd forgotten that we've done this before!  But while ogres are a lot tougher (esp. w/barbarian levels, and a half-fiend sorcerer leader instead of a cleric), they aren't as organized or disciplined as hobgoblins, and as we'll see, the tactical situation favors the defenders this time.  Still, the upcoming battle may get bloody...  Here's round one of the confrontation, with more to come.* * * * * Book IV, Part 29“Oh, crap…” Benzan said, as the rocks clattered down into the gorge, giving away their position.  Even as thirty-five pairs of eyes shot up toward their hiding places, the tiefling rose up and drew back his bow, targeting the ogre leader.  Even as the twang of his bow marked the first attack of the engagement, Cal’s voice sounded loudly a few feet behind them.“Let them have it!”All hell broke loose as the world exploded with the sounds of battle.  A flurry of arrows and bolts descended into the gorge, as the companions and their new allies opened fire on the ogre columns.  There were no shortage of targets, and while many arrows bounced harmlessly off the stones of the gorge or stuck in the layered hides that the ogres wore, others inflicted wounds.  Benzan’s first arrow missed, slicing past Soroth’s head as the ogre spun around, already shouting commands to his forces.  A shot from another source stuck in the ogre’s arm, but even as Benzan drew and fired his second shot, the sorcerer uttered a magical incantation, holding up one palm toward them as if to push the missiles away.  The result was immediate, as Benzan’s arrow struck some invisible barrier and glanced harmlessly away.  A second shot, from a dwarf’s crossbow, suffered a similar fate a moment later.  “Damn!  That sorcerer’s got some sort of magical protection!” Benzan shouted in warning.  He did not hesitate, already shifting his aim toward the next ogre in line as the brute cocked its massive crossbow and loaded a javelin-sized bolt into its groove.“I got him,” Jerral said.  She’d already scored several hits, but now she shifted aim, drawing one of her few remaining red-tipped arrows out of her quiver and targeting the sorcerer.Despite being caught by surprise, and being in a very difficult position tactically, the ogres responded quickly.  A group of about twenty were already running down the gorge to the south, rapidly leaving the range of the archers above, while those with crossbows covered their retreat.  The ballistae, though powerful, were not particularly accurate, and the defenders had the advantage of height and good cover.  Even so, one dwarf fell transfixed by a mighty bolt, slain instantly, and a second staggered as a ricochet glanced off of his temple, opening a jagged cut.  The companions kept up their barrage, however, and their attacks began to tell.  A pair of ogres were down, struck by over a dozen arrows between them, and many others had taken multiple hits.  These ogres were the elite of the Beast’s forces, however, and as they began to respond to this attack the beginnings of rage began to build in their veins, a rage that, once it took hold, would drive the ogres into a frenzy of violence and blood.  Jerral cursed as her fire-arrow narrowly missed the ogre sorcerer, its flaming head tracing a bright streak through the air that ended with it shattering against a stone.  Soroth, however, looked up, and pointed toward the ranger woman, calling upon the power of a spell.At his call, a jagged streak of lightning erupted from the sorcerer’s hand, blasting up into their position.  Jerral’s eyes widened and she leapt backward, but she wasn’t fast enough to avoid the brunt of the blast as it tore into her body and knocked her roughly on her back.  The course of the bolt nearly hit Benzan as well, but he managed to duck behind the cover of a nearby boulder just in time to avoid being blasted.  “Damn it, we need magical arrows!” he shouted in frustration, rising out of cover just long enough to send another arrow down toward one of the few ogres left milling below.  “Give me your quivers,” Gaera commanded.  Benzan looked at her, read the determination on her face, and then unslung his quiver and tossed it to her.  Lok, too, gave his quiver over.  The cleric dumped the arrows onto the ground, and started gathering them together in a tight pile.  “I need more, I don’t want to waste any of the power of this spell,” she said.  “We’re going to need it,” she added to herself in an undertone.Cal started to hand her his quiver of bolts, but she shooed him away.  “All of the missiles must be of the same type,” she told him.  She looked up as Lok reached into his bag of holding and drew out one of the bundles of arrows they’d purchased back in Citadel Adbar.  He handed her the bundle, and she added it to her pile.   While the cleric prepared her magic, the others continued their attacks.  Jerral, singed but still conscious, returned to the line and continued firing, sharing her quiver with Benzan.  The bulk of the ogre force had already vanished out of sight around the bend in the gorge to the south, and Soroth was already leading the remnant in that direction, the ogres maintaining a withering barrage from their massive crossbows to cover the retreat.  Two more ogres had gone down, but another of their party had fallen as well—one of the human merchants, a bolt catching him squarely in the back of his skull while the man was reloading his crossbow.  Benzan fired one more parting shot at long range, ducking back down before he even saw whether the shot hit or missed.  Gaera, he saw, had leaned back against the stone, a tired look on her face, and for a moment he thought he saw the faintest hint of a glow around the pile of arrows before her.  “We’ve got to get moving,” he said.  “The way those ogres move, they’ll circle around and be following us up the trail in no time.”  “I know,” Cal said.  “Lok, we’re on your ground—is there someplace near here where we can make a stand?”  Gaera lifted herself up with some effort, drained from casting her newest and most powerful spell.  “Knuckle Ridge,” she said.  “The trail there runs up into a narrow cleft in the ridge, only wide enough for one opponent at a time to climb.”Cal looked over at Lok, who nodded.  “I know it.  It’s the best choice, and not far,” the genasi said. “All right then,” Cal said.  “Lok, you know the trail—start moving out the dwarves and the others.”  The genasi nodded, and rose.  Cal turned to Jerral, already drawing out his healing wand.  The ranger’s tunic had been charred away to reveal the links of her mailshirt underneath, and the skin of her neck at the edges of the garment was blackened from where the energy of the lightning bolt had burned her.“I’m all right,” she insisted.  “I can fight.”“I don’t doubt that,” the gnome said.  “But we’ll need everyone at full strength for what’s to come.”  She nodded, and he touched the wand to her chest, uttering the command that released a flow of positive energy into her battered body.“I’ll distribute these arrows,” Benzan said, reaching for the bundle at Gaera’s feet.  But the dwarf took his arm, forestalling him. “Is something wrong?  I thought these would penetrate the sorcerer’s defenses.”“No,” she said.  “I mean, yes, share them, but you must not use them all in the coming confrontation.  This spell… it is a special grace, a gift from my god.  I intended it for use against the demon.  The spell enhances fifty arrows, but use them sparingly, and be certain to save some for the final battle.”“How long will the enchantment last?” Cal asked her.“Six—no, seven hours,” she replied.  “By then, it must be done.”Benzan nodded, and he took up the arrows, slipping a handful into his own quiver and handing others to Jerral and Lok.  “I’ll see to the rest, and let Dana know what we’re doing,” he said, starting down the line.  Cal helped Gaera make her way back to the trail, and the dwarf nodded at him gratefully before starting off.  Cal turned back to see Jerral standing there, watching him. “I don’t know if you counted, but there’s thirty-one left, including that sorcerer,” she said.“I know.  But we’ve got to do what we can, right?”She looked at him intently for a moment.  Finally, she said, “If we get out of this, I’d like to try you at poker.”“Waterdeep rules?”  She nodded.  “All right then, it’s a date,” he said.He turned to see that their column had all passed onto the trail, save for Benzan and Dana, who were engaged in a quiet exchange as they brought up the rear.  The tiefling looked up as the pair reached them.  “Ready?”“Ready,” Jerral said.  Shifting her attention to Dana, she said, “Why don’t you and Cal join the others.  Benzan and I will bring up the rear, and see if maybe we can’t slow those ogres down a little bit.”“Be careful,” Cal cautioned.  “Those ogres are fast, don’t forget.”Dana smiled, but it was clear that it was forced.  “We always tell him that he worries too much,” she said to Jerral as she started down the trail.  When she looked back at the two rogues, however, her face was serious.  “Be careful,” she said to them.  For a moment, as her eyes lingered on Benzan, she looked as though she wanted to say something more, but then she turned and joined Cal in hurrying after the others.  Jerral turned to Benzan, who was watching the young woman’s departing form.  “Ready?”Benzan shifted his attention back to the ranger.  “Yeah.  Let’s see if we can’t leave a few surprises for those bastards.”</blockquote>

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