Runelords 19.0 - Ogre in the Woods

Having set out towards Fort Rannick, the adventurers made their way down the forested road that wound its way alongside a small river. After crossing a small footbridge, Khyrralien heard something that caught his attention; leaving the others standing in the road, he skipped off into the trees to investigate. Sneaking up through the underbrush, he spied movement: a group of five large dogs had surrounded a firepelt mountain lion that had its leg caught in a trap. The feline snapped and snarled, trying to dissuade the dogs, but its situation was obviously dire. Standing offside was a large, painfully ugly man, whose misshapen body was too big and brutish to be human: an ogre. Khyrralien felt pity for the cat and pulled out his crossbow, firing a bolt at the ogre. The dart lodged into his flabby flesh and he shouted in pain; Khyrralien turned and ran, with the dogs now ordered after him. 
The fey popped out of the woods with the dogs on his heels, giving a quick warning to the others to prepare themselves. Fanning out, Ilsa and Virgil moved into the trees to flank the animals, while Eamon stood front and centre with the remaining three posed behind him to attack with ranged weaponry. The dogs came crashing out of the bush and were met with no mercy; only Aldern hesitated to attack the animals, deliberately shooting wide, though the others took no notice of his feigned aggression. The ogre joined them mere seconds later, and immediately became emotionally devastated and furious that these people had evidently killed his beloved hunting dogs. Ilsa fought with a gravity and precision that belied her training as a Black Arrow, which seemed almost incongruous with her laissez-faire attitude that they were used to. The ogre was no match for the six skilled fighters, and he was quickly laid down with his dogs.
With the battle ended, Khyrralien quickly ran back to see how the mountain lion was faring. Ilsa tried to stop him, imploring Eamon to retain order over the group: she was very familiar with this land, and the area was known to be plagued by ogres. The implication of her words and actions was an expectation of a higher level of cohesion and decorum, particularly here, where she had trained and where her and her past comrades had risked their lives to prevent ogre attacks on Turtleback Ferry. Eamon brushed her concerns aside, seeing little issue with letting Khyrralien run about on his own. 
Finding the mountain lion still caught in the trap, Khyr called for Virgil's assistance. They approached the cat, who seemed excited to see them, showing an immediate trust and understanding of their intentions that was strange for a wild animal. It was still panicked and in pain, the beartrap cutting brutally into its leg, but Khyr used magic to calm its fear, leaving it insistent to be let loose. The trap wasn't complicated, but neither man was skilled in the manipulation of mechanics; they returned to the others, where Khyr called for the help of Luna's "tiny hands". At this point, all six adventurers moved towards the mountain lion. Virgil tried to get a sort of leash over the cat's head, to ensure that it wouldn't bolt before he had a chance to heal the wound left by the beartrap, but the lion shrugged it off. Deciding to just hope for the best, Luna disabled the trap and freed the lion. It danced around them, obviously trying to grab their attention and lead them somewhere. Virgil managed to cast a cure spell on it, mostly healing the cat's injuries, and the group began to slowly move to follow it, much to the feline's approval. As they started, they mused that the bodies probably shouldn't have been left lying on the roadside; a quick discussion split the group as half went back to deal with the ogre and his dogs, while the others very slowly let the lion lead them wherever it was going, with the intent of the first group catching up. 
Khyr, Luna and Aldern went back to the roadside, where they decided the best thing would be to cremate the bodies respectfully, seeing as how they had no time to bury them and they were uncomfortable leaving them in the road or in the river. As they went to move them, they found that one of the dogs was merely unconscious, as was the ogre himself. Changing their tactics, Luna stabilized the bleeding ogre and his dog, and they left them propped up near the road to recover, while lying the deceased canines out respectfully nearby; their master could determine what to do with them. They found that the ogre was carrying an enchanted spear and belt, both of which had a look of human make to them; they also found a crude, louse-covered blanket that had been shoved into his belt, and on it were several patches depicting arrows, stitched on haphazardly. Luna frowned, surmising that these were trophies collected from fallen Black Arrows. Khyr carefully toted the bug-infested belt and blanket back to the others, while putting the spear in Aldern's hands. When they caught up to the others, they passed the blanket to Ilsa, who confirmed with a heavy heart that these were indeed emblems of the Black Arrows, which meant at some point four of her comrades had died, whether to that ogre or not. Virgil investigated the filthy belt and confirmed that it held a strength enhancement; the devil considered which bug-laden belt was better, while Eamon asserted that the belt was not his to declare possession of.
The mountain lion led them all to a clearing: a ramshackle farmhouse stood in an overgrown field, and strange voodoo totems and artifacts were stationed around its exterior. Ogres seemed to patrol the perimeter of the field. The lion began to creep towards the house, avoiding the ogres; the six wondered what might be in the house that the lion was so adamant that they reach, and they began to follow after it.
Category:Rise of the Runelords