| Session Date | January 30, 2015 |
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| Character's in Attendance | |
| Base XP Gained | 511 |
*Golag - half-orc warrior, overall leader of this ruined keep, in service of Gulliveg
*Gulliveg - “great giant”
‘*’ - mentioned, not encountered
The party waited under the cover of the trees until dusk, watching the fortress above, until deep dusk had fallen. The full moon was yet low and they were in deep shadow when they moved out. The party swung south and wide around the fortress, desiring to come at it from opposite the road where the monsters in the towers seemed most interested. With the two invisible thieves as scouts, they made it to the keep in an hour or so with no incident. Parker now slipped ahead and scouted the open gate -- it had clearly been damaged at some point in the past and was incapable of being easily shut. The courtyard was deserted, so the others soon came up, as well.
They slipped across the courtyard and to the courtyard door leading into the northeast tower. Drogo failed at the lock but Parker managed to unlock it, and Rowan threw it open to find four Ogres inside, apparently in their lair or camp. Rowan fell back a little to let a single Ogre out, and thus made it easy for the party to gang up on it. The melee was rather short, but the Ogres were powerful and well-armed, and did a fair amount of damage in the fight. The last two were pushed back into the tower as another one came running down a central staircase (probably the one that'd been seen on watch above). As this fight was winding down, Drogo and Parker kept watch outside on the courtyard, and the former heard some baying coming from inside the damaged central keep. The thieves made their way into the tower as the fight ended, and Iban threw several of the great Ogre corpses before the door to provide some protection. Parker, meanwhile, reported that the dirty bag they'd seen in the courtyard contained the much abused head of a dwarf. The others began to explore the tower, finding it to be a mere shell of three levels, obviously much neglected except for the Ogre's camp and signs of the watcher on the top level. The roof was unoccupied.
As the party kept watch on the courtyard from the tower roof, they saw the double-door of the central keep crack open and a pair of huge wolves came rushing out. The wolves moved quickly towards the party's tower, where they snuffled about, obviously having discerned the party's presence. Thinking to distract them with food, Iban dragged one of the ogre corpses up the tower steps to the roof (no mean feat), and then dropped it, crushing one of the wolves to pulp. The other set up a loud howling at this, and moments later a Hill Giant and three more wolves erupted form the central keep.
The giant immediately hurled a huge stone at those it saw atop the tower, but it fell short, smacking the side and sending up a cloud of shattered stone and dust as the tower shook. But the party had an excellent vantage, and immediately poured arrows into the giant (and a magic missile spell). The giant turned to flee back into the keep, but a last few arrows in the back dropped him in the doorway, dead. The wolves, with a few arrows in them and seeing their master slain, fled back inside, as well.
The party moved quickly to follow them, crossing the courtyard and thence into the keep. Here the party found a wide, door-lined corridor that led to a great hall of some long forgotten lord. The hall showed signs of old murals, now much faded, showing old imperial glories. The wolves were barely visible at the far end of the great hall, skulking before a smoky fireplace. The doors on this hall proved easy to open, but revealed nothing but rot, ruin and rubble. In one however, they noticed a small hole seemingly tunneled into some rubble, but no one desired to stick an arm in to see what they might touch, fearing rats. (As the others moved on, Parker made a concerted look in with her infravision - she was still invisible - and at one point saw a dark face looking back at her.
After this fruitless exploration, the party came into the great hall. A set of stairs that led to the demolished upper level were choked, and the roof looked none-too-safe, while there were large piles of rubble here and there. Across the room, the great fireplace had a small fire going, but apparently the chimney was damaged as the smoke was pouring into the room. Before that, where the wolves cringed, was a large sack and the giant's bedroll. The party began to methodically cross the room, and at one point a door to the north cracked open briefly then shut. Lune speculated that the giant was the lord of this keep and slaying him may have broken the back of those occupying it, or at least gave them pause. This proved to be not wholly true, as a short time later, two doors to the north flew open and a force of Bugbears rushed at the party with a shout.
The Bugbears numbered 13 in total, though it took a bit of time for them all to emerge from the two doors. As the party was somewhat strung out in the large room, it became quite a mixed melee. The two invisible thieves move around to backstab, while the fighters tried to protect Piper, who took a few hits before managing to sleep one of the bugbears. Surrounded and still outnumbered, Iban blew his Horn of Valhalla, summoning eight berserkers to fight for the party. This quickly turned the tide of the melee, and the Bugbears began to drop quickly. When a little over half had been slain, and most of the others wounded, they suddenly called quarter, and surrendered. The party disarmed them and, determining which seemed to be in charge, led him to one of the previously explored rooms for interrogation.
The Bugbears did indeed report to the giant. however, the giant was only in charge of the fortress - the overall leader was one Golag, a half-orc warrior with "plated armor." He was "down below" with a group of Ogres to protect him as "much of the tunnels down there were still filled with hostile creatures." Golag had not been topside in many days and the bugbear didn't even know if he were still alive. Their group was further in the service of one called Gulliveg, a "great giant." The Bugbear did not know where the giant was, beyond "off to the east, deeper in the highlands." The Bugbears were essentially mercenaries recruited for pay and promises of plunder, and could care less about giants and ogres. They, in turn, had command of a small unit of Orcs, slave troops taken from some local tribe. When asked why they were not used in the last battle, the Bugbear shrugged and said they were too unreliable.
The conversation now turned to dwarves. The Bugbear said that a party of the little things had came up on the fortress some weeks ago (before he got there) and had apparently been wiped out or something, though there were prisoners "down below." The head in the courtyard was one who'd managed to escape but was recaptured and then slain in response. The Bugbear knew little else of the dwarves and did not seem much to care, in any case. He did mention that there were Ogres on this level "to the south.
The party now consulted and decided to let the surviving bugbears and Orcs go. The former promised to leave the area altogether, having no loyalty to their former masters. Weaponless, they were allowed to depart (the wounded wolves and fled a short time previously, as well). Now, the Orcs were released. They were neither grateful nor overtly hostile, and seemed to be more angry that anything else. A few of them mumbled to themselves about the "vengeance of their goddess" and some other stuff, but they were only interested in leaving quickly, which they did.
Now, with the directions provided, the party found a staircase down, which they followed perhaps 40 feet down, leading to a short corridor that came to a four-way intersection. Knowing there was an enemy captain below and possibly other hostile forces, the party wondered if they should proceed or retreat to heal and recover from the recent melees...