Challenging the Duke

General Summary

The party begins planning how to assault the Duke inside his small fortress. Another patrol of hobs leaves the fort. Tinky gets the idea of luring out the other hobs, including the bat riders. He uses disguise self to pretend to be one of the hobs that was ambushed. With a brilliant convincing story, he managed to get all but two hobs to leave the fortress.

Shei eliminates these two guards while Tinky goes in to "report" to the Ogre Duke. Unfortunately, Tika's disguise self does not fool him and a fight ensues. After a radiant blast from the Ogre duke the party storms in. Shei uses the spell Biting Jaws to tear the Ogre duke in half. He managed to throw his dagger at the last second and killing the ogre duke with it.

Inside a chest, there is a sending stone. Garuman finds a note as well that seems to be made from the stalks of mushrooms. It was sent by the current queen of the ogres.

Upstairs the party finds a sigil that depicts the Devourer's Snake, a servant of Graddios. There is a strange circle in the stone and with a dispel magic the party causes the pedastal rise. Inside there is abracelt with the symbol of a sword piercing a fist, the symbol of The Many.

There is a note about the Ogre army movements. They want to swing out to the west and attack Castle Sirather if the troops of Crook Crag fail.

The bat riders come back but flee due to the intimidation tactics of Garuman and then the party absolutely mercs the hobs that are returning.

They begin to rest for the night, although Shei has expressed interest in using the Sending Stone before bed.