A Gimble in the Wabe Session 3

A Gimble in the Wabe

Session 3

The Ogre Who Had No Heart.

We had another player join the game, and we created his character in the following order: Roll ability scores, pick race, pick background, and pick class. Creation only took a few minutes, yay!

Odolotino the Titmouse. Like many of my NPC's he is kind of a douche. 

The game began with the party resting around the campfire, and receiving a visit from Odolotino a titmouse messenger from Lady Haldora. The Thorn Knight sent the bird to learn what they had found in the ruins under Snoggle’s turnip patch. After telling the titmouse about the Wight they were asked to await further instruction and Odolotino flew back to Lady Haldora. While they waited Tekka and Pasco played Feeboo.

Tekka summoned a giant rat with her card, and Pasco a pony. The Pony survived a rat bite then smashed the rodent’s brains out with her hoof. Pasco won and the Pony absorbed the power of its defeated opponent transforming into a Wolf.

Of course derpy hooves won. 

Feeboo was fun. Everyone likes “safe” pvp and I also like having games within the game to help pass downtimes when someone is away from the table. I rolled randomly on a list of monsters by CR from the fantastic website: http://donjon.bin.sh/ to determine what the cards would summon.

Odolotino returned the next day accompanied by a Northron Human, a Paladin named Tolbert who served as a squire to Sir Kewish the Thorn Knight and had been released from service to find his own path to Knighthood.

Tolbert the Paladin. Deer horns are a sign of loyalty to the Faerie Queen. 

The party welcomed the able bodied warrior into their ranks. Odolotino warbled a mission from Lady Haldora:

“-chirp- The Lady Knight commands you to track down an ogre -squawk- that escaped the River Wardens. -chirp- They claim it arose after being slain -chirp- find out if it did , and slay it if it still walks. -squawk-”

Wanting to find favor with the Lady and gain acceptance into the honored circle of the Thorn Knights, the party accepted the task and set off behind the titmouse to the last known location of the Ogre near the river.

Reaching the banks of the western branch of the Sweetail River they heard sounds of battle and came to the aid of two Elfin River Wardens whose boat had been smashed by a voracious and overly large river trout. One of the Elfs was floundering in the water trying to fight off the attacks of the fish, and Bata the Druid bravely waded in to help. Hoping to befriend the creature with Druid magic, Bata cast his spell but it was resisted. The rest of the party stood on the banks firing arrows and flinging cantrips at the trout. Bata tried the magic again, casting while swimming in the swift river and again the trout resisted. The fish then turned its attention from the Elf to the Druid and grabbed Bata in its mouth thrashing him into unconsciousness. Pasco the Bard saved Bata’s life with the quick use of a magic healing word and the druid did not drown. Tolbert the Paladin cut himself and trailed blood in the water in an effort to draw the fish away from the now gravely wounded Bata. It worked and the Paladin who had removed his chainmail to enter the river was also mouthed to unconsciousness. After dragging the Paladin from the water, Pasco successfully put the ravenous and deadly trout to sleep with a spell and the Elf Wardens were saved.

I used the stats for a killer whale for the river trout. A CR 3 creature that can bite for 5d6+4 damage, the damn fish landed a crit on poor Bata. (14-64 damage). I never plan to intentionally kill anyone but I didn’t expect them to actually get in the water with the beast either…The damage hit the massive damage threshold on the nose for the Druid and I gave him a death save to stay alive.

In gratitude the wardens offered the party some feeboo cards. The Elfs pointed out the place where they claimed to have slain the ogre and gave them an owl skull charm they had found on its body.  Theolis the Ranger examined the sight of the battle and easily found the ogre tracks leading south towards the Maze Marsh. The party decided they could afford to rest or rather couldn’t afford not to rest with two members nearly slain by the fish.

The next day, Theolis led the party into the Maze Marsh tracking the path of the Ogre.  Late in the day they heard the cry of the Grey Bear but decided not to investigate. Towards evening they came across a dead Satyr, it’s head pulped by blunt trauma. Shortly thereafter they spied the Ogre. Theolis snuck forward and surprised his quarry and the rest of party followed up the assault. Surviving the initial ambush the ogre defended himself with a massive club. As they faced the creature they realized it had a gaping hole in its chest where its heart should have been. Ignoring the Ogres plea to leave it alone and weathering the furious blows of the monstrous club the adventures eventually slew the creature.

Just leave.. me.. alone! 

It then stood back up.

Crying again that it wanted to be left alone the reanimated Ogre dashed into the swamp. Instinctively the party chased it in order to attack again, and then they thought better. Rather than fight the obviously enchanted beast they followed it through the marsh. It led them to a lonesome hut standing in a weed choked pond full of crocodiles. The ogre plunged into the pond and promptly sank to the bottom with the crocodiles swarming over it. As a blood pool rose to the surface of the dark water, the party decided they could rest again before venturing to the hut. 

Placing Pasco on first watch they attempted to rest but the Bard’s vigilance was not enough to spot Lizardfolk. A volley of javelins awoke the party and their rest was interrupted by a furious assault by the reptiles. After a brief but fierce melee the lizardmen were defeated and we quit while the party considered it options. 

Continue to camp in the swamp  and risk more ambushes or press on to hut in the hopes of discovering what magics are sustaining the ogre?