| Current Turn? | No |  | Subject: | Tracking the Ogres |
| Campaign: | Greyhawk | | Turn Start Date: | 1/4/597 |
| Adventure: | Giant Raiders | | Turn End Date: | 1/17/597 |
| Adventure Number: | AAE | | Characters: | Darkthorn, Dyson Teague, Kalin, Lorcan Smythe, Wiley Finch |
| Turn Number: | 1.0 | | Send To: | fivewands@championsoftheempire.com |
| Greyhawk Campaign? | Yes | | Combat Turn? | No |
| Name | Lethal | NL | Current | END | PROT | LOW | DEF | ROF | Flash | Heal | Luck Pts | Fate Pts | |
| Darkthorn | 0 | 0 | 81/81 | /0 | 8 | 2 | 48 | 6 | 0/0 | 3/day | 2/2 | 1/1 | |
| Dyson Teague | 0 | 0 | 65/65 | 2/2 | 8 | 3 | 69 | 8 | 0/0 | 1/day | 3/3 | 0/1 | |
| Kalin | 0 | 0 | 64/64 | /0 | 9 | 2 | 37 | 0 | 0/0 | 1/day | 2/2 | 1/1 | |
| Lorcan Smythe | 0 | 0 | 54/54 | /0 | 8 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 1/1 | 1/day | 2/2 | 1/1 | |
| Wiley Finch | 0 | 0 | 70/70 | /0 | 10 | 3 | 50 | 10 | 0/0 | 1/day | 2/2 | 1/1 | |
| Barthon Brightwave | 0 | 0 | 64/64 | 10/10 | 8 | 3 | 61 | 10 | 0/0 | 1/day | 4/4 | 3/3 | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Mage/Psioncist Name | Psionic Pts | Spell Pts | Spell Pool | Miscellaneous Information |
| Lorcan Smythe | / | 13/15 | 13/13 | |
| Wiley Finch | / | 2/11 | 10/10 | |
| | | | |
| Name | Notes |
| Darkthorn | |
| Dyson Teague | |
| Kalin | Cleric Pool (19/19) |
| Lorcan Smythe | |
| Wiley Finch | |
| Barthon | Magic Points (13/13) |
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The group disembarks at Thief River Falls after a very wet 20 hours on the open boat. The rain finally abates as the group departs the village enroute the destroyed city of High River. The trail is very wet and the tributaries the feed into Mid River are roaring. The first crossing they come to is very treacherous. Lorcan casts Water Walking on Darkthorn to cross and tie a rope to a tree on the far side but even with water walking, it is difficult (like trying to walk across, rather than with, a moving treadmill). Dyson follows Darkthorn but, as the two are trying to run across the water, Lorcan calls out to Dyson, "I didn't cast a Water Walking spell on you!"
Dyson, who was running on top of the water, stops and looks confused for he was convinced that Lorcan also cast a Water Walking on him. When he stops, he immediately sinks and falls into the fast rushing current. He grabs hold of a branch and pulls himself back to safety. "If you didn't cast a spell on me, how come I was running on top of the water," Dyson asks Lorcan. After some discussion, they conclude (correctly) that Dyson's magical Boots of Speed gained a new ability that allows him to run across the surface of water but, if he slows down or stops, he will sink.
Darkthorn gets the rope tied and the group makes it across though a couple of people get pretty wet.
There are other tributaries to cross but none as bad as the first. Nevertheless, the wet and muddy conditions slow down the group such that they only make it about half way to High River and are forced to camp for the night. Darkthorn makes an adequate shelter with the help of Lorcan's tent, the Folding Boat and some dry cantrips provided by the mages in the group.
Darkthorn also managed to forage enough food to feed the group.
In the morning, the group continues towards High River. The rain starts up again, heavy at times. Nevertheless, the group reaches the edge of the jungle in the late afternoon. Wiley casts Walking Unseen on Darkthorn while Dyson dons his Ring of Invisibility and the two head up the hill to the walled village overlooking the jungle. Copses of trees of visible on the hillside. Beyond the hills, mountains rise up but are barely visible in the rain.
The two scouts reach the village and begin scouting. It has been largely razed and burned. At about the same time that both Dyson and Darkthorn see a man standing amidst the rubble of a building, taking shelter against the rain, the man seems to see them, despite the Walking Unseen spell on Darkthorn and the Invisibility on Dyson. As the two get closer, it is clear that the man sees Dyson but does not seem to notice Darkthorn. Dyson talks to the man for a bit but quickly determines that the man is suffering from PTSD-like shock and is unable to stay focused on Dyson's questions. He is clearly a survivor of the attack against the village.
Darkthorn heads to the edge of the village and waves a white cloth to signal the rest of the group to come up. Nightfall comes as the adventurers regroup in the destroyed village. It is still raining.
GM: This is where we stopped for the night.
6/27/2019 (GM-Steve)
Kalin is able to convince Denson Hi-Range to tell them what he knows. He remembers a very old, very large fortress that he explored when he was much younger and sketches out what he remembers in the dirt. He doesn't remember exactly where it is located or many details about the interior except to say that he found some secret passages that ran through the walls of the keep. He remembers where the exterior entrance to the passages are located and sketches them on his map.
The group makes camp for the night and invites Denson to join them. In the morning Kalin convinces Denson that he should make for Thief River Falls and tells the authorities there what he knows. The group departs the ruined town of High River and begins following the giants. Darkthorn is able to tell that the ogres and giants have over a hundred prisoners with them, no doubt taken from High River. They find a body a few hours later. It is the body of an older man who was bludgeoned to death. The group suspects that the man was not able to keep up with the brutal pace set by the giants and was killed. Over the course of the next few days, they find a few more such bodies.
On the sixth day, the group gets their first view of the fortress. They top a small ridge and can see the fortress about a mile away. It is in a cleared area atop a shallow hill. A thick line of trees border the hill on three sides. The group decides to make their way through the trees until they are behind the fortress. They spend most of the day making their way forward. Finally they find a suitable camping site about a quarter of a mile behind the fortress and well into the trees. Then Dyson and Darkthorn head towards the fortress to scout it out. Dyson uses his Ring of Invisibility while Wiley casts a Walking Unseen on Darkthorn.
The two reach the walls of the fortress without spotting any ogres or giants and apparently without being spotting. They note that the gates leading into the courtyard are in good repair and are closed. When Darkthorn gets close, he smells wolves and, when he reaches a point where he can see into the courtyard through the narrow gap between the solid gate and the wall, he sees almost a dozen very large wolves that he recognizes as dire wolves. The two scout all around the fortress and then return to the camp. They did not spot any ogres and giants.
The group discusses their next move using the rough sketch of the fortress. They decide that they will wait until morning where there might be a light fog. Then they will approach the rear of the fortress, climb to the roof and approach the corner of the courtyard from above. Lorcan will cast solid fog to hide the group while the find the secret door and enter.
The night passes uneventfully and, in the morning, they put their plan into action. It works well. Wiley uses a Levitation spell on Dyson who ferries people up to the roof. They cross and Dyson descends after Lorcan casts his Solid Fog. Most of the wolves are quiet and some are sleeping. Dyson finds the entrance, opens it and then ascends back to the roof to start ferrying people down. A few minutes later, the group is inside the fortress in a narrow, secret passage and Dyson closes the outer door behind them. The Solid Fog dispels after a couple of minutes.
The secret passage leads in two directions. One leads to a large room with a hole in the floor and a ladder leading down. Another secret passage is on the far side.
The group spends the next hour or so exploring the secret passages to their respective ends, and studying the rooms that lie beyond the numerous peepholes set in secret doors that have not been opened in a very long time. At first, the fortress seems empty but then they come across a peephole leading to a large dining area where a mixed group of hill giants, ogres and humans are eating a large breakfast. They are being served by other humans who appear to be slaves. The group finds a few more rooms housing resting ogres.
By the time they have explored the upper secret passages from end to end, they have a decent map of what they have seen as well as the numbers of giants, ogres and humans they have seen. They have not yet explored much down the hole in the secret room other than to have Dyson descend (while his Levitation was still active) and verify that there is another secret passage on the lower level.
GM: This is where we stopped for the night.
7/3/2019 (GM-Steve)
With the secret passages of the upper level fully explored, the group heads back to the secret room and descends the shaft to the lower level. There they find a wider secret tunnel that also has secret doors and peepholes leading into some of the rooms. The first three such rooms do not look to have been used in a very long time. Once is a decades old bunkroom of some sort. The fourth room is clearly a wine cellar and looks like it is being used by the ogres and giants for that very purposed. Towards the end of the secret tunnel, they come to a final secret door and peephole but the tunnel also intersects the edge of a large, natural cavern with a narrow river running through it. Before investigating the natural cavern, Barthon peers through the peephole of the door and sees a light approaching. He watches as a couple of men chain together by five foot long chains attached to ankle shackles come into view. Both are bearing the weight of a wooden yoke on their shoulders from which depend a pair of large buckets. In the center of the room is a marble cistern filled with water, probably fed by the same source as the river in the nearby natural cavern. More men follow the first two, all chained together in similar fashion. The men - there are seven in all - are guarded by three large trolls who could almost certainly carry the same amount of water or more much more easily. However, they force the prisoners to fill their buckets and then head back up the hallway until they are out of sight.
The group investigates the natural cavern. It is empty of anything of interest except for the river. Barthon, being a sea elf, says that he will investigate the river, swimming downstream first. He follows the narrow, twisting channel for about a hundred a fifty feet and then sees that it opens into another natural cavern. He pokes his head out of the water to look around. It is pitch black but he immediately sees three warm shapes crouched behind rock formations. He thinks that they also see him so he immediately goes back below the surface and swims upstream back to the cavern and tells the rest of the group what he found.
The group decides to go back and search the old bunkroom. Dyson oils the rusty hinges of the secret door and carefully pushes it open, eliciting only a minor squeak from the metal hinges. He and Darkthorn make their cautious way to the rooms other entrance with Dyson's hooded lantern mostly obscured. Darkthorn peers around the corner. It is dark but there is enough ambient light that he is able to see a long, dark passage going about a hundred feet or so. The ambient light is coming from around the corner at the end of the passage. Darkthorn continues to watch as the rest of the group searches the room. They find a handful of copper and silver coins but then Lorcan notices a loose rock in the wall under one of the bunks. He pulls it loose revealing a narrow cavity behind. With the hooded lantern, he sees a decayed pouch and the glint of gold.
Dyson pulls out the pouch and finds 10 gold coins and a silver pendant with a small red gem. Lorcan recognizes the pendant as a magical item, confirmed with a point of Power Perception, called a Pendant of Masterful Healing. He recalls that it beefs up normal healing spells but does not remember anything else about it. The group gives it to Kalin to attune to.
The group searches the other two unused rooms but find nothing of interest.
Then they return to the secret tunnel to plan their next move. They decide to head back to the natural cavern and Kalin will cast an Augury to determine if investigating the "warm bodies" that Barthon saw down the underground river might be a good idea. The answer to his augury comes back as "First contact has both reward and danger." This seems to indicate that they might be able to find help. They decide to all swim down the river but only Kalin, Lorcan and Barthon will make contact. The rest will stay back in the river channel and out of sight. Lorcan casts Water Breathing on himself, Darkthorn and Kalin. The others have their own means of breathing underwater.
Barthon is the first to surface in the cavern and immediately calls out in a quiet voice, "we come in peace and wish to talk."
As Kalin surfaces behind him, a voice calls back in heavily accented Aeridi, "Come out of the river on this side."
All three exit the river. The man who spoke tells them to drop their weapons and leave them at the river. Someone can remain behind to watch them if desired. Kalin asks if they can create a light and the is given permission to create a small light. Lorcan does so with a Soft Light cantrip. For the first time, the group is able to see that they are talking to gnomes.
Barthon volunteers to remain with the weapons while Lorcan and Kalin follow the gnome deeper into the cavern. This cavern is much more interesting than the previous one with all manner of crystal formations of many colors as well as natural underground growths. The gnome leads them to the center of the cavern where a group of four older gnomes are sitting around a council table built into a depression in the floor. The area lights up as they approach. The lead gnome at the table bids them to sit and asks them who they are.
The discussion with the gnome leaders goes well. The group introduces themselves and tells the gnome that there are a total of six of them and that they are here to find people taken from a human village to the south. From the gnomes, they learn that they call this cavern Deephome and the gnomes have lived here for decades. Deephome connects to the fortress. They also learn that the giants, ogres and trolls moved into the fortress a couple of months ago and then left again a couple of weeks ago. When they returned, they had a lot of human prisoners. There has been a bit of skirmishing between the ogres/trolls and the gnomes over the past couple of weeks with casualties on both sides. It occurs to Kalin that if the group starts taking out small groups of ogres and trolls, then it won't be considered too unusual as it will be assumed that they were killed by the gnomes. Of course, that could put the gnomes in greater danger.
GM: This is where we stopped for the night.
7/11/2019 (GM-Steve)
After speaking with the gnomes and getting a tour of the barricade, the group plans out their next move while some of the gnomes listen in. They decide first to have Wiley use his Wizard Eye spell to map out as much as the fortress as he can - limited to the lighted areas since his Wizard Eye can't see in the dark. Once that is done, the group will begin ambushing the trolls who bring the slaves to get water.
It takes a couple of days to map out the lighted areas of the fortress. Wiley is able to scout out the slave pens readily enough but much of the dungeon level is in darkness. He has better luck on the upper level. There are no windows but there are enough lighted rooms that he is able to scout fairly well.
As far as ambushing the trolls and rescuing the prisoners sent to fetch water, they enlist the help of the gnomes. The gnomes tell the group to have the freed humans set up in the large cavern to the north of the Deephome. With the aid of Barthon, Wiley and Dyson, all of whom are able to breathe underwater, the gnomes rig up a pulley system through the underground river that runs between Deephome and the cavern where the freed humans will stay. This will allow the gnomes to pass back and forth by holding their breaths and not need to use any water breathing magic.
The group is ready to do a couple days later. They head to the peephole overlooking the cistern. It is dark. The group decides to have Barthon and Wiley, both of whom can see in the dark with infravision, go through the door and scout the passage a bit with an eye towards setting up a future ambush. Neither are particularly quiet, especially Wiley who wears chainmail.
They enter the cistern area through the secret door and scout. About a hundred feet or so from the secret door, there is a side passage which they investigate. It leads to a bunkroom of some sort. As they are heading back, Barthon sees a light approaching. Assuming that the light means trolls and slaves on their way to the cistern, Barthon and Wiley retreat into the empty bunkroom. Unfortunately the light turns down the side passage and continues heading in their direction. Barthon and Wiley quickly flee through the opposite door and towards the wine room, which they had previously seen through the peephole on the other side of a secret door.
After Barthon and Wiley head off on their scouting expedition, Darkthorn stays at the peephole and looks and listens. Since it is pitch black on the other side, he mainly listens. And so he first hears the distant sounds of a group of trolls and prisoners approaching before he sees anything. However, they do not get closer. Lorcan (who makes a one half Insight roll) decides that he and Dyson should go back to the previous two peepholes to keep watch as well. Neither can see in the tunnels so Lorcan uses two cantrips to create weak lights that he and Dyson can use. Lorcan no sooner arrives at the peephole to the wine room when he hears Barthon and Wiley on the other side saying that they need to find the secret door. Lorcan tries to open it, but it is stuck so he calls for Dyson. Dyson rushes over and opens the door. Barthon and Wiley rush through after seeing Lorcan and Dyson waiting for them. Dyson then shuts the door.
About 20 seconds later, other door of the wine room opens and two ogres enter. They are very suspicious and on high alert, no doubt due to the fact that the wine room was not locked and, in fact, the padlock was missing. Wiley had to cast a spell of Opening to get into the wine room and he carried the padlock with him after it opened.
Lorcan tells the group they should go ahead and ambush this group by having Dyson run back and tell Darkthorn to charge through the cistern room and come up on the ogres and slaves from behind. He does this.
Darkthorn says, "It's about time!"
He, Dyson and Kalin rush through the door, down the cistern passage and then turn to the right. They rush into the bunkroom where a pair of trolls are guarding the slaves. Darkthorn issues a battle cry and rushes forward to attack.
GM: Note that Kalin is now attuned to the Pendant of Masterful Curing.
GM: This is where we stopped for the night.
7/18/2019 (GM-Steve)
GM: This is where we stopped for the night.
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