The Return: Session #19
General Summary
Warned of Mother Graul, the heroes and the rescued Black Arrows were met by the matron leader of the Graul clan and what was left of her inbred ogres. Still tired and hurt, the heroes fought cautiously. Mother Graul was caught off guard when her most devastating spells were countered by Tiny Tymm's magics. The proved no match for the heroes, and even their powerful matron fell beneath their might.
With time to rest, the heroes learned the sad story of the Black Arrows they rescued:
Their regular patrol had been met with much hardship. They found their rations were ruined with mold and their flint left behind. With signs of an elusive enemy always around the bend, they were led on a week long chase. They returned to Fort Garnet cold, hungry, and exhausted.
To their dismay, they found their home take over by the Kreeg ogre clan. With the fort's commander out on a communion walk and the patrol long delayed, the fort was not able to repel the ogres. Jaka led the patrol to try to take the fort, but found the usually primitive ogres had been supplied with metal armor and weapons. The patrol was easily routed, and attempted to flee back to Uyo for help when they were captured by the Graul ogre clan. The Graul's had been slowly eating the soldiers when the heroes were led there by Jaka's ranger companion, the lion Kibb.
Jaka asked the heroes to help them retake the fort. He couldn't promise them any reward, but the heroes hoped the Amir and his seneschal would be generous.
As the heroes and the Black Arrows searched the farm for treasures and supplies, they saw that the Black Arrow scout, Kaven, had a seven pointed star tattoo upon his shoulder. The noted the Shung symbol, but kept quiet.
The Black Arrow, Vale, made a rough map of the fort and offered some ideas of how the fort may be accessed. The heroes perked up when hearing there was a cave behind a neighboring waterfall filled with dangerous lizards. The shocker lizards were usually passive unless disturbed, but the Black Arrows would burn a certain bark to drive them away when they grew violent during their mating season. The heroes made immediate plans to gather the bark to drive the lizards into the fort.
Scouting the fort showed that many of the usually nocturnal ogres were sleeping in a wooden building.
Their assault happened during a lightning storm, and the thunder of the storm helped provide cover for the coming slaughter. Susyn flew in oil and then was enchanted to breathe fire upon the sleeping ogres. The less than bright ogres panicked to fight the fire, and that is when the heroes drove forward the shocker lizards.
Many of the ogres died in the fire and from the lizards, but the leader of the ogres was not alerted to the heroes... thinking it was the lizards that just caused the fire. Animating one of the dead ogres, the heroes quickly slaughtered the last few outside of the keep of Fort Garnet.
The inside of the keep was turned into a house of horror. They found the infirmary had been turned into a art gallery of butchered troops, and odd ogre with a red gem sticking out of his head. This ogre was more powerful than the ogres that had faced, but it was only a hint of things to come.
Upstairs, a chapel to Jehan had been turned into a shrine to Quitic. The leader of the ogres at Fort Garnet was deep in prayer, and thought himself unstoppable with his heavy metal armor. The brute was soon helped by a ogre shaman and an ogre with a metal jaw. The bloody battle left the heroes hurt and low on magic.
While recovering, they noticed Kaven was missing. Unsure where he might be, the heroes searched the only place they had not explored: the basement/prison of the keep.
The prison had been turned into an area of luxury. Silk draped the walls and floor, and large pillows were sprawled about. It reminded the heroes to the home of the strange lion woman in Harcourt, Xanesha.
And, just like with Xanesha, they met a beautiful woman that knew the heroes and offered for them to join her master.
Rewards Granted
Mother Graul's spell book
A mysterious red crystal that had been sticking out of an ogre's head
Character(s) interacted with
Notes
A few things were noting:
When facing Jaagrath, the leader of the Kreeg, he mentioned his strength came from the "stone skins". This is something your characters have not heard of.
When meeting the beautiful woman in the basement of Fort Garnet, she asked for you to join their army and that "Mokmurian would love to meet you". Another name new to your characters...
Report Date
16 May 2021
Primary Location
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