Chapter Eight

## **Ogre and Out**

**Bathjertdag 16th Biriskjur 1770**

It was a tough night. The mine floor was cold and uncomfortable, but warmer and safer than sleeping outside. It was crowded, noisy and the cave was filled with the smell of smoke and soot and filth. Nevertheless, Booker, Brandyr, Fitz, Nixe and Plymouth rested for the night on the cold stone, alongside over five hundred other survivors from Russet, all exhausted from the night before.

Delg and Wilf headed out for Rime at first light as the party instructed them to and as morning broke the group awoke to find town clerk, Gart Steakhammer, instructing a small team of workers on how best to organise the supplies in preparation for the journey ahead. Meanwhile, the group of adventurers made preparations to return to the mining settlement to gather whatever supplies they could.

Nearby, Combine Rostselmash helped Gantrant Lipsworthy and Bill Tong to provide rationed food for the other survivors and Set Straighpeen looked after his father Delroy, who was wounded in the dragon’s attack. Booker, having worked for the blacksmith, enquired as to his wellbeing and explained that they would be heading back into Russet, if there was anything that the dwarf needed him to fetch.

Squeezing his son’s arm, Delroy answered that he had everything that was important to him. Overhearing this exchange however, general store owner Mark Ungart explained that there was a chest of supplies that he was forced to leave behind that may prove useful, and some other items hidden in a grate to the left of his shop’s porch.

Nixe, deciding that they party should have some means of transporting the supplies, spoke with the assorted animals available to them. He failed to convince the dim-witted but enthusisatic mule from the night before to come with them, but the haughty carthorse agreed, for the good of the settlement. Telling the rest of the survivors to wait until mid-day before heading out, with or without them, the band of unlikely companions headed back to the dragon sacked village.

Approaching cautiously from the south, there was no sign of the dragon that had attacked the night before. The embers were still burning, but the fires themselves had died away to almost nothing. Whether by fire or the dragon’s might, the majority of the walls around town had been destroyed, with less than a tenth of the buildings within still standing, and fewer still being habitable. The mine entrance had completely collapsed and the oil drills had been destroyed, the oil still burning where they once stood.

They decided to split up to speed up their search, Booker was keen to ascertain whether there was any motive for the dragon's attack, linking it to the artefact they had found in Shaft-H, so he and Nixe headed out on horseback to investigate. Meanwhile, Fitz headed for the remains of The Flange and Whistle, while Plymouth and Brandyr made for the marketplace and Mark's supplies.

Alas, on arrival the duo found that the chest had been burned to a crisp, but they located the grate and found two Potions of Healing and a draught labled "Blight Cure" inside. They also found a barrel of unknown brown ale, an iron box of caltrops, a pair of matching handaxes attached to a fine leather belt, and some carpenter's tools located amongst the rubble.

Fitz also enjoyed success in his searches, locating the inn's cellar amongst the debris, prizing open the hatch with a crowbar and discovering a cask of salted meat, a small cask of seasoning, a basket of brown onions and two pounds of soap. In a feat of Herculean strength, he bound the casks together and hauled them from the cellar in a single trip.

Further to the north, Nixe and Booker were stopped in their tracks as they overheard two deep, guttural voices, accompanied by wet slopping sounds. Booker didn't recognise the language they were speaking but Nixe, identified it as Giant and could make out the conversation between two unseen creatues.

*“DAMMIT! Anuva charred wun!”* bellowed the first, throwing something to the floor with a moist thud.

*“Kwit yer moanin’! We ain’t eaten dis good in years”* replied a second, a mouthful of food obscuring his words.

*“But dey’s all cooked. I likes ‘em raw”* responded the first.

*“We bofe duz, bruva. We bofe duz. Dig out dat big cave next. Might be sum alive in theres”*

*“I hopes so. I do likes it when they scream”*

Nixe and Booker could hear the unknown creatures chuckling and scoffing as they backed the horse away slowly, back the way they came. Reuniting with the rest of the party, he relayed the details of the conversation to the group and they came up with a plan of how best to attack the creatures.

Gathering at the corner of a building, Nixe scouted ahead where he could see the creatures; one standing, the other sitting, a pile of carcasses of varying races piled in the centre of a sixty-foot clearing amongst the ash and rubble. They were ten feet tall, rotund but muscular, had tiny heads with small eyes and big, toothy mouths atop huge bodies, and were adorned with scraps of skin around the wrists, feet and groins. Around their necks they wore more scraps of leather, from which hung assorted bones and bits of flesh.

Catching the monsters by surprise, Nixe loosed an arrow which struck hard on his favoured foe. Brandyr uttered a prayer for Nixe, Plymouth and Booker, blessing them so that their weapons might strike true. Plymouth whispered to the wounded enemy and tortured its brain from within, in fear it stood and ran from the group and sensing his opportunity, Nixe struck the foe in the back with a second arrow.

Fitz stepped to Nixe and Plymouth’s side, surrounding himself a shimmering, icy armour that disappeared after just a moment. Booker moved forward too and the gnome delivered a one-two punch with his thunder gauntlets to the enormous creature who was bearing down upon them.

The wounded creature turned and with ferocious strength, launched two javelins, crude sharpened logs the size of tree branches, which both struck Nixe with a bone-crunching accuracy. On his last legs, the elf fell back and Brandyr stepped forward to heal him and then launched a dagger that struck the beast with surprising force. Rallying, Nixe relocated and fired another arrow but, still weakened by the assault, his shot went wide.

Plymouth pointed once again at the wounded monster and assailed it once again with his words. The creature stopped in its tracks as it's brain melted from its ears and a huge, limp body keeled over backwards, his head fitting the floor with a hollow crack. The second enemy roared with rage and delivered a barrage of blows with his greatclub to the tiny gnome in front of him. Booker was hardy and well armoured, but the repeated blows of an enormous club, delivered with a giant's strength is a hard thing to overcome. He hit the floor hard, and did not rise.

In retaliation, Fitz thrust his spearpoint into the giant's sternum. The ogre was held at bay, beaten and bloodied. It stared down at the shaft for just a moment, before a pulse of energy fired from the weapon and into its brain, smiting the creature once and for all. Booker let out a bloody gargle and Brandyr rushed forward to heal him with the divine might of Berronar.

The party gathered themselves and the supplies, Plymouth finding an out-of-place Tourmaline amongst the giant's tattered belongings, before heading back out of town. Whilst Brandyr mended a broken wagon to haul the goods, Fitz stopped by Easy Delg's Taxi Wagon offices, blasting the lock with an eldritch blast and entering the meagre residence, emerging with blankets and a barrel of vinegar for his efforts.

Not stopping to rest, they made it back to the rest of the survivors before they had set out on their journey to Rime. Tensions were high, and some distrust over the matter of potion distribution caused friction between Booker and Brandyr, but eventually the party settled in amongst the procession of refugees; Nixe and Brandyr securing the rear, Booker and Fitz watching the centre and Plymouth leading from the front with some tuneful bagpipe music.

Thus, the survivors left the settlement that had been their home behind, with no idea what the journey ahead had in store for them.

Next: Chapter Nine. From Russet with Love