Lost Galmagia Write Up Session 2.3

Aethra Chatoyant [Magic-User 1 – apprentice of a famous master / elf-sister]; Ayleton the Cat [Familiar 1 – animal familiar / ship cat of unknown port]; Oland [Rogue 1 – Spy / personal keyword not yet defined]; Brömm [Dwarf 1 – Dwarf-raised / Bonded Clockwork Guilds-dwarf]

The Ogre has nearly caught up with Oland when Aethra makes a gesture and a missile of magical energy silently streaks from her a strikes the creature square in the shoulder. Against a man, that would have blown its arm clean off. The ogre is slowed, but just enough for Brömm to clear the distance and interpose himself between the ogre and Oland. Brömm’s armor takes the first blow, and the dwarf responds with a counter-stroke that fails to connect but plants the battle here. Ayleton shifts to cheetah form and prepares to leap but Aethra warns him off – whatever parasites are under that ogre’s skin might be communicable to the cat via its bite – and then the mage lights a torch off the lantern to better illuminate the battle.

There are several tense seconds of attack and counter-attack between the dwarf and ogre before Brömm manages to set the ogre up for one of Oland’s sling stones, and then follow up almost immediately with brutal strike that should have laid the creature low. Alas those carrying the gift of Growth Eternal are hard to kill, and Ogres are past the age of boundless rage and are canny fighters. Aethra steps ahead and to the side and lobs the torch at the ogre, who bats it contemptuously away, where it lands in the oil. Unable to get past the dwarfs guard the Ogre slams its club down onto the ground, sending shrapnel from the floor up to cut the dwarf’s face and hands. It then leaps to the side and lays out Aethra with a single blow. Ayleton leaps forward and drags his mistress to safety confirming she’s badly  bruised and stunned but their familiar bond is keeping her alive. Brömm gets inside the ogres guard and wrong foots it, keeping it from dodging Olands sling. The stone strikes it square and it staggers back several paces before falling into the fire.

[If you’re wondering, this is Players win initiative, Brömm rolls under a 7 for tactical insight, Aethra uses her Magic Missile for 6 damage, Ogre misses Oland(chromed as because of the magic missile). Ogre wins initiative but misses Brömm, Brömm misses back with a roll low enough to “aid” Oland’s attack, Oland misses with sling, Aethra grabs torch; Players win initiative, both hitting for a combined 8+3=11 damage, Aethra lights torch, Ogre misses, but with a high enough roll that it doesn’t fail a morale check for being under half HP. Players win initiative, but all miss again, including with the thrown torch even with Brömm’s Aid for Aethra, and the ogre misses poorly enough to activate its ‘save or take shrapnel damage’ attack. Ogre wins initiative, hits Aethra, Ayleton makes a stabilize check with a roll of 19, confirming Aethra will survive if she’s not hit again, Brömm rolls poorly enough again to give Oland a +2 to hit, which just puts the rogue over the hit threshold, doing the last HP of damage needed on the 18 HP Ogre. 5 tense rounds of combat in under 20 minutes play time.]

Everyone gives a heavy sigh of relief, and are amazed when two glowing snakes rise out from the ogre’s skin, turn to the adventurers, nod, and fade away into mist. Oland, conscious of the role snakes play in human religion even if he’s generally agnostic, takes a moment to bow his head back at whatever hold forces were weakening the ogre into something they could defeat. Aethra staggers to her feat and everyone heads into the space between the crates to hide and recover. They will have to return to the surface soon; Aethra cannot manage another battle, and indeed needs time in a truly safe space to recover from that injury.

To their surprise they find the corpse of the man they had been following, his skull smashed by an ogre’s club. The figure is powerfully built but even of limb, with a beetle brow, jutting jaw and craggy features that somehow still convey nobility. They find his mask, amorpha and a sliver-chased club that must have been under his cloak tossed atop the ogre’s possessions, and Ayleton insists to his mistress that they give him as proper last rites as they can manage, with the cat dragging the mask back onto the fellows face. The others generally agree its best to be in the gods’ good graces, even at the cost of the silver-plated mask.

That done Ayleton takes a watch position on the ramp, spotting a trio of enormous rats approaching. A cat vs. rat stand-off leads the rats to accept the less threatening meal of slow roasted ogre.