Session 15: So Many Ogn Trolls

General Summary

On the evening of the 18th day after Midsommar, the Storm Eaters departed the ruins of what was once Isulf's homestead and continued north to the Elvish Gardens with Signi and her two wards. As the last rays of the sun disappeared beyond the mountains to the west, they encountered a pair of Ogn Trolls outside a cave in a limestone cliff face torturing a Grey Ear barbarian woman they had captured. Due to either their often-strange sense of altruism, or because they wanted to see if the Ogn Trolls knew anything about the magic axe Grim, the Storm Eaters decided to help. Signi and the two escaped thralls decided provoking Ogn Trolls was none of their business and waited a safe distance away.
With deft skill the Storm Eaters snuck up on the distracted Ogn Trolls. In a quick pair of flawless bow shots, Ottar felled both of the creatures with shots clean through the neck. The Storm Eaters quickly freed the Grey Ear woman from her bonds and struck up a conversation with her right outside the cave entrance, alerting the Ogn Trolls within and spoiling any further surprise they may have had. The Grey Ear woman said she was Jutta and little else, besides that her brother had been captured by the Ogn Trolls and she was going into the cave with or without help to find him. The Storm Eaters noticed the necklace of nearly a dozen ears around the imposing woman's thick neck and knew she had to be a formidable warrior.

Jutta of the Grey Ears, a woman of few words and a big club

Without much discussion it was decided that a direct assault on the cave was in order. The Storm Eaters could hear the Ogn Trolls making defensive preparations of some sort, as the sound of heavy things being moved and barked orders resounded from the cave's depths. The entrance to the cave sloped down sharply but there was a primitive ladder staked to the soft limestone floor to make the descend easier. Although the Ogn Trolls clearly knew their sentries outside had been slain and were preparing a defense of some sort, the Storm Eaters attempted to sneak down the shaft in complete darkness with Svagnir being the only one capable of seeing with his ghost-touched eyes.
The plan didn't work out as the Storm Eaters had hoped. They discovered the bottom half of the primitive ladder had been removed, and the ground below littered with sharp objects, such as antlers, jagged rocks, and broken branches. As the companions stumbled into the crude trap, some of them falling onto the sharp objects and getting minor cuts and scrapes, they found themselves in utter blackness surrounded by the fearsome sounds of barking Ogn Trolls!

Ogn Trolls, sometimes known as Orcs in southern Valkheim, are not to be trifled with in great numbers

Mabd summoned magical light so that the foes could be seen. A small band of eight Ogn Trolls, including a highly skilled warrior known as The Blade, a shaman to Ragnarr known as The Eye, and a powerful and venerable chieftain, all attacked as the light illuminated the limestone chamber. The Storm Eaters immediately found themselves pinned in the corner of the cave and outnumbered. Halstein, who had led the assault, took the first wounds, and the companions suddenly realized this was going to be a tough fight, and one they may not win. Although the two sentries outside had been easily slain, these Ogn Trolls were prepared, enchanted with divine strength by the spells of The Eye, and bolstered in their rage by their fierce leaders.
The companions tried to spread out and not be engulfed by the pack of swarming Ogn Trolls, which was both good and bad. On the good side, it allowed them to take the fight to the Ogn Troll leaders and not be surrounded. On the bad side, it left Mabd exposed to The Blade. The fierce Ogn Troll warrior nearly killed the young sorceress with a pair of sword slashes. Halstein immediately came to her defense, and Ottar astutely decided to light a torch in case Mabd fell and her magical lights were lost.
The battle raged, both sides decimating each other in an ugly struggle of attrition. The companions focused their attacks on The Blade initially, and eventually laid him low, but not before he had wounded several of them grievously. One by one, both Ogn Trolls and companions fell. Halstein, Janicka, Ottar, and Jutta all were knocked unconscious from many wounds at various points in the battle. Svagnir was forced to balance his attacks (to include a very, very effective heat metal enchantment on the chieftain's chainmail armor) with healing his friends' lethal wounds. Janicka's beautiful face was ruined by a wicked attack from the chieftain, a good portion of her cheek torn open revealing the teeth and gums beneath. At one-point Svagnir was so occupied with wounded companions and threatening foes that he never got the opportunity help Ottar as he bled in the dirt. Luckily, the resilient rogue recovered on his own, but would not rejoin the fight as he would be unconscious for hours.
At the end of the battle, the wicked and very wounded (mostly burned) Ogn Troll chieftain stood alone against the handful of Storm Eaters that were still on their feet. With his war spear he stabbed Halstein, taking him to the ground. He then stabbed the unconscious and defenseless Tomte a second time, hoping to kill the tough little warrior before Svagnir could revive him once more. This would be the chieftain's last act. The toll of Svagnir's heat metal enchantment, Mabd's lightning breath, and a dozen wounds from other companions, finally brough the powerful Ogn Troll warlord down.
Svagnir quickly expended the last of his healing magic to save Halstein and the other Storm Eaters that teetered on death's door. Many of them had nearly perished in the fight, and Halstein and Jutta had almost died twice! Weak, bloody, and exhausted, the Storm Eaters took defensive positions and rested in the cave chamber. To ensure there were no more threats further in the cave, Svagnir (who was the only companion with any sort of strength left) explored deeper, with a weak and bloody Mabd following a safe distance behind so that he wasn't alone.
Svagnir discovered another chamber where the Ogn Trolls prepared their food; in this case two human corpses hung from the ceiling, skinned and partially quartered. The druid suspected one of the bodies was Jutta's brother. The Ogn Trolls' whelps were hidden there as well, with one female warrior to defend the brood. Knowing her band had been decimated by these invaders, the last female Ogn Troll whipped the young whelps into a hopeless suicidal attack. Svagnir and Mabd fell back to the main chamber, where the rest of their companions could help. Although wounded and exhausted, the Storm Eaters made quick work of the last female Ogn Troll and the four whelps.
Svagnir informed Jutta about the partially eaten bodies he had found, and the barbarian woman confirmed one was her brother and the other was another hunter from her tribe. To no one's surprise the quiet warrior woman of few words took the loss stoically, at least on the outside.
Svagnir and Mabd then explored the rest of the chambers in the cave while the others rested. They found and looted the chieftain's quarters and found an offal pit where the Ogn Trolls shit and piled their garbage. They also discovered a strange chamber the Ogn Trolls were using for some sort of ritual. A ring of bloody stones surrounded a corroded battle axe, enshrined in more bloody rocks and stained with an unusual black blood that had dried weeks ago. Svagnir sensed the weapon was magical and took it for further study. Was this Grim, the magical axe of legend that Scalding Rain was looking for?
The Storm Eaters decided to rest in the cave for the night and lick their many wounds. Signi and the two freed thralls rejoined them now that the danger was gone. Janicka and Halstein stood watch outside the cave entrance, as Eiuin was too big to fit into the cave. At one point in the night Halstein got a strange feeling that he was being watched but could not find anything watching him. He told Janicka, who also could not find anything watching them, so the two of them brushed it off as a weird feeling and nothing more. Also, Skordal Skullbearer of the Lodge Eldritch checked in with the Storm Eaters via the sending stone he had left with them. He asked what progress they made toward finding the dragon in the Elvish Gardens and taking its last breath. Svagnir gave a nebulous answer stating that they would "be there presently," without giving any details about what they had learned about the curious dragon and its strange behavior.
In the last hours of the night's rest, with the sun about to rise on the 19th day after Midsommar, Svagnir was examining the magical axe he had found. He pondered if it could be Grim. It didn't look like a legendary axe from a folktale, as it was of crude orcish design and heavily corroded. He asked Mabd, who was sitting next to him trying to fashion something from the massive cosmic Crow feather she had found yesterday at Isulf's stead, to help him learn what could be learned. As the young sorceress studied the weapon her draconic eyes stared intently at the weird, black blood that was stained into the steel. She reached out and ran her finger along the blood-stained blade...then instantly stumbled back, screaming in pain, to collapse on the cave floor! "Dragon's blood!" she wailed, writhing on the ground in agony. The companions then watched in mute horror as Mabd began to change, painfully...green and gold scales erupted from her flesh, spewing blood and bits of skin everywhere. Her teeth shattered from her mouth and onto the ground in broken bits as fangs burst from her bloody gums to replace them. The horrid cracking sound of her all her bones breaking from within her flesh could be clearly heard by all. Her tiny body, covered in her own blood, twisted and grew and changed. Her screams faded to pain-wracked sobs and then to nothing but silence. Where ten seconds ago there had been a brave and kind-hearted 16-year-old sorceress, wrestling to find acceptance and love in the world despite her dark and cruel past, now stood a gods be damned mother fucking dragon!

What fate awaits the Storm Eaters, with a dragon suddenly in their midst while still weary and worn from their brutal battle with the Ogn Trolls? And to what extent did contact with dragon blood affect Mabd and her draconic lineage? Is her mind still intact within the dragon's body, or is she no longer Mabd at all? Does anything remain of the sweet, young sorceress, or is she just a beast hungry for a kill now? And how does this effect the Storm Eater's quest to get the last breath of a dragon? Could they take it from Mabd? Should they?

Report Date

02 Jan 2023