Party:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (337 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (329 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (323 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (339 points)
Day 69:
Weather: Perfect
Date: Khalis 48th, 2525
The party ran towards the horn in the north while the other adventurers headed south, and any townsfolk that were still outside this late fled to the nearest building. Arc cast Continual Light on a nearby rock to be able to see better ("Why didn't you just cast it on your holy symbol that you wear around your neck?" "...Right."), and Mor'ath, who is by far the fastest, arrived at the ditch at the edge of the town to see that five ogres had just killed the two guards stationed there.
Instead of attacking them, he crouched behind a pile of lumber to see what they did next, as there was still lots of distance between them and the nearest civilian. Thanks to his elven eyes, he noted that they had symbols of cracked and/or split skulls on their armour. The biggest ogre, and the only one wearing armour, pointed around and yelled at the others in some language that Mor'ath didn't know.
The ogres let out a battle cry and charged towards the town while splitting up into two groups. Zaxod heard this, though he could not see them, and took up an ambush position behind a house, while Arc and Aurum tried to catch up. The ogres saw Arc's brilliant light and fixated on it, letting out a scream of "Blood Drinkers kill you all!" in Giant as they charged. Aurum tried to take cover behind a house while Arc cast Shield 5, threw his light-rock as far as he could, and then cast Continual Light on his holy symbol and readied his urgrosh.
Mor'ath quickly checked the guards to see the extent of their wounds and found that one was cut in half at the waist, and that the other's head had been crushed. He charged after the smaller group of ogres while still being somewhat stealthy (-5 for going faster than Move 1 isn't a big deal when you have Stealth-18), and as the ogres passed Zaxod's hiding place he readied his great axe and did the same. Whether due to dumb luck, or dumb ogres, he also wasn't noticed.
Arc charged the ogres, while Aurum continued hiding for a bit longer. The big ogre lagged behind his less-encumbered fellows, and Zaxod ambushed him with a devastating swing to the skull. The ogre, howling in pain, turned around and slammed his own great axe into Zaxod's torso, doing over 30 damage. The two ogres tried to slam Arc, but he successfully dodged, and landed a hit to the back of one's head as they passed him.
Aurum came out of his hiding place and cast Panic on the flanking ogres, causing them to flee back out of town, screaming in terror. Zaxod shattered the big ogre's right leg with two heavy swings, and turned to join Arc, while Mor'ath ran past the fleeing ogres and towards the others.
Arc finished one ogre off as the other moved to attack him, and the big ogre started crawling after Zaxod. Aurum started charging a Fireball, but Mor'ath got to the last standing ogre first, and stabbed it through the eyes, directly into the brain, killing it. Frustrated, he launched the fireball at the big ogre, but it still took another blow to the head from Zaxod to finish it off.
Arc healed up Zaxod, and the party moved to the North gate to hold it in case the two ogres came back. One did, and was very quickly killed after it slammed past Zaxod and was attacked from four directions at once, but the other one seemed to be gone for good. They held the perimeter until another guard came over to get an update for Harthex, and after briefly mourning the loss of his two fellow guardsmen, ran back towards the mansion.
Several minutes later, Harthex came back with two more guards and told the party that they could rest, as the militia would be raised and on alert for the rest of the night. Zaxod went back to grab a chair and then spent the night out with the militia, while the rest of the group got a good night's sleep.
Day 70:
Weather: Sunny, Light Clouds
Date: Coreli 1st, 2526
The party discussed their plans over breakfast. Mor'ath suggested that they investigate the ogre camp to the southwest, as the hunters had seen a similar totem with a cracked skull there, but Arc told the party that their battle-cry had mentioned "Blood Drinkers". Zaxod realized that any strategy more sophisticated than "run straight at the enemy with as many ogres as possible" was too elaborate for ogres, and suggested that something else was truly in charge. He also checked one of the bodies and noted that the skull symbols were slightly wrong for Cracked Skull ogres.
After some consultation with the other group, who claimed to be able to handle the town on their own during the day, they set off to track the ogre that had fled. Arc picked up the trail easily, and followed it slightly north, and then west into the forest. After a while in the forest, he noticed a wooden wall off in the distance, and Mor'ath climbed a tree to get a better look with Zaxod's spyglass.
From the treetop, he could see a camp of single-room huts made from animal hides inside a crude elliptical wooden wall, with about 50 orcs moving around, some horses and oxen, and several banners with crossed axes. There was also an inner ledge at the top of the wall manned by some patrolling orcs, with ropes up from the ground inside. Mor'ath climbed back down, and, after confirming that these were the Stone Axe orcs, Zaxod argued that they should kill all the orcs right now ("Those other orcs even warned us about them!" "Wait, you trust the other orcs?")
Cooler heads prevailed, and they went back to the north of town to follow the tracks that the ogres left on their way there. It was very easy to follow the tracks of five ogres, which looped around to the west of town, where they joined up with the tracks of five more ogres and three horses. They followed them west, into the forest, and then north. The horses left in roughly the direction of the orc camp, while the ogres eventually came to a cavemouth in the side of a hill.
There was a crude drawing outside, in either blood or some kind of pigment, of a fanged pac-man head facing up with two tear drops above the mouth, and the group realized that this was the home of the Blood Drinkers. Arc took a closer look and noticed two ogres covered with dirt and mud camouflaged inside the unlit entrance, and the party came up with a plan. Zaxod and Aurum flanked around to the left side of the entrance while Mor'ath went right.
Aurum stepped out into the entrance of the cave and cast Panic, which scared the ogres off back into the cave. He then moved forwards and cast Shape Earth to create a 2m thick wall of stone across the entrance, sealing the ogres in. The party returned back to Chryssa's Rest as the sun began to set.
Notes:
Ogres aren't smart, strong-willed, or perceptive, but they're big (9'-12')and incredibly strong. They're also known to be "too stupid to scare", but somehow not a single one made their Panic rolls.
Happy (in-game) new year! Somebody asked, and there is a Christmas-equivalent called Khalisfall.
The enchanter's guild apprentice in Chryssa's Rest is Hue the Many-Coloured.
Too many Shrek references. ("Get out of my swamp!", "Are there any donkeys in the orc camp?", etc.)
They've decided to all walk at the same speed from now on, after realizing that Mor'ath goes twice as fast as Arc and Aurum, and over long distances (about 200m from the mansion to the North ditch), he gets there way before them. We'll see how this plays out.
I forgot the rule and said they could go 1/2 move without a penalty to Stealth. Wouldn't really have mattered either way, as ogres are not too sharp.
Arc and Mor'ath want to take Jaron the diplomat to the Stone Axe orcs to get their side of the story. Zaxod wants to kill them all. Aurum doesn't really care.
The magic ring with Panic was the MVP. Good spell with a reasonable FP cost to balance it out.
Aurum forgot that Move Earth is double-cost for stone, but he could still have afforded it even with the increase. He used 48FP in two turns.
Zaxod bought Armour Master from DF11, and got all excited about having 3 extra DR, but realized that none of his armour is rigid, and therefore can't be padded. Oh well, at least he gets the 1.
Zaxod also wanted to buy some neck protection, but didn't want a greathelm or a coif. So, using some saved-up Armoury time, he made a 5DR plate gorget. Used cost and weight ratios from Low-Tech, and it seemed reasonable. He is also now hilariously mis-matched (pot-helm, plate gorget, mail shirt, fur loincloth, heavy leather sleeves and leggings, leather goves, and boots).
Someone, I think it was Arc, pointed out that the ogres are so stupid that they might forget that there used to be an exit from the cave. The group is now reasonably sure that they'll show up later, thinking they're Morlocks.
XP:
1 for general progress
1 for roleplaying
1 for the hardest fight
0 for loot
1 for quests (dealing with the Blood Drinker ogres)
MVP went to Aurum for burying an indeterminate amount of ogres
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