The woman smiles and says "It's okay, she can help." The girl provides assistance as you gather the berries, and puts them into a bag for you, eating about every fifth berry. It does not take long for the bag to be full however, which is when a young man, battered and in disarray emerges from the woods. "The ogres grabbed my wife, and I cannot get into the castle."
Okeannetis was showing the girl how to pick the berries better, and sneaking more berries into her mouth, when the young man came from the woods, and she immediately adopted a defensive stance, over the little girl, but relaxed it a bit when he spoke "What ogres? Which castle?"
At the same time, she tried to contact Elephant-Killer "Be ready to lend me the power to turn into a Monocerous, there's something strange going on here, and I might need that to face some Ogres."
You find that your bond with elephant killer is not functional here for some reason, at least not without his presence.
The man points behind him "The ogres in the castle, the ogre king courted my wife, but she chose me, and he had his men grab her for himself."
"Show me the way to this castle. Am not sure what I can do, but I'll see, am not a knight that can face the ogres in combat."
The man nods his head and leads Okeannetis through a half league of wilderness before you come to a castle surrounded by a moat, three stories tall. You can see a pair of ogres at the top of the castle pacing, the man tells you the front of the castle is to your left, and asks if there is any other way he can help.
"Is there any side door to this castle? I can shrink us down, and we can sneak in, and being shrunk it would be harder for them to spot us."
He shakes his head, "there is no side door. Some people do bring food in, but they are all known to the watch. If you can shrink us down enough we could ask one of them for help to carry us in."
"I can shrink us down, not sure whether it would be enough. Let me show you how much." And she casts a spell to shrink down.
OOC: I have Preternatural Growth and Shrinking as formulaic
You are now the size of infants, about 1/2 pace in height. One of you might fit into a particularly large food sack, but certainly not both in the same one.
"Can you convince two of them to carry us inside? Or do you want to go in and rescue her yourself."
"I will speak with a couple of them." After a short while he comes back with two peasants with large sacks for you to climb into to get you inside.
As you pass through the gate you here the person carrying the other pack- the one with the husband in it, declare "milords, I was waylaid on my way in, and an intruder hides in my pack, and another in hers!" While you cannot see out through the pack it is a fair guess who they are pointing at.
Grimacing as she hears this, she casts Aura of Beguiling Presence on herself. If this is going to get nasty, she might need to use whatever she can to get out of this mess.
You hear the person who was carrying you scream and the bag is flung to the floor. As the top is opened by an ogre you can see the young man whose wife was taken across the room with his head bashed against the floor. There is no chance he is alive, excepting some form of faerie recovery when you have finished the adventure.
Looking at the young man's corpse, Oknneatis shakes her head at the Ogre and says "That wasn't the smartest thing to do." And as she does so, she cancels her shrinking spell on herself, returning to her full height.
You cancel the spell, and find you are still about half the size of the ogre, who grabs you. (attk value of 15, your defense of 4)- grapple strength 11
She didn't expect to be the ogre's size, but when he grabs her, she gives him a smoldering look "Is that how you usually treat a lady? Have you no shame?"
1 Like
The ogre simply nods once and tosses Okeannetis over his shoulder and starts up the stairs.
1 Like
She adjusts her clothes the best she can, waiting for him to bring her to wherever he intends. Meanwhile, she will try to regale him with stories about a little lamb lost in the mountains, looking for it's mother.
He climbs two flights of stairs and sets her sitting on the floor, and none too gently. Seated on a golden throne like a teacher on a child's chair is an even larger ogre who demands "Why have you invaded my castle?"
Okeannetis looks him square in the eyes and says "A young man came to me, claiming you kidnapped his wife, and asked for my help in rescuing her. I agreed, and when we tried to enter, your pal over here" and she points at the ogre that brought her "killed the young man, and brought me here."