Specifically, a legendary ogre that the Drake trio refers to as "The Brute", a menace that they cannot cope with but which their draconic pater is uninterested in dealing with for them. The dragon has made a bargain with you for the twofold purpose of having you deal with it for him as well as cementing the bonds of alliance.
The drake trio will guide you to the valley he rules over. But as you travel, you would be wise to ask a few questions concerning the nature of this menace and why the drakes are so bothered with it.
Johanna Coysset -- early 20s, middle class by education and demeanor. Married to one Guinot, whom she believes to have perished in the siege of Vareilles.
Martin (6, male), Esquiva (5, female) -- Johanna's children. "Irish Twins".
Beatriu de Rupe -- late 20s, lower middle class by education and demeanor. Widowed for the last several years.
Constancia (11, female) -- Beatriu's daughter.
Awww. Poor ogres. I feel for them, I really do.
Gardaitis watches the ogres through narrowed eyes, and smiles. (A smile, a rictus of bared teeth -- what's the difference, right?) He tells the women over his shoulder to move deeper into the woods, just in case, and prepares to face the mountain of meat lumbering towards him.
(( I'm assuming he'll have no more than a round to prepare. So he'll look to see if they have any melee weapons, and cast "Shriek of the Impending Shafts" or "Roar of the Descending Blade" as appropriate. Casting total of +21/+19, roll of 3: cast in either case.))
Once the ogres are to the other side of the road, he steps into view -- axe held loosely in the right hand, left hand (with the shield dangling off the forearm) resting against the bole of a tall fir -- and calls out "I wouldn't recommend it. Really. I wouldn't. We're tough and stringy. You'll be picking chain mail out of your teeth for weeks."
He doesn't expect that to work. It was worth a try, but no more than that. ((A Guile roll I did for sh*ts-and-giggles failed miserably.)) So, as the ogres continue to move forward without so much as a pause, he shrugs, quips "All right. On your heads be it"... and the lead ogre gets a fir tree toppling over onto him. Warning shot to the forehead.
(("Tree Falling In The Forest": CT +24, +roll of 9. Successfully cast. Targeting roll of 0+5+roll of 4=9.))
I'd say that a PeVi spell to hide magic should also hide itself. That stands to reason.
OTOH, Shroud Magic hides or changes the sigil... I'd say the spell is detectable, but with the hidden/changed sigil.
I see a pattern there... Like, any such spell would also affect itself
Anyway, even if she detects nothing, she knows she sucks at this and that there are things she wouldn't be able to detect, so she will be cautious.
Hum... Is there a crack or something she could send a spider through? If not, she'll refrain and wait for Guillaume. There is no impending doom, and she has a lot of things to do.
She also realises she needs to craft some kind of Terram item... That's good
Sure
This is middle ages architecture and all. A Hermetically sealed chamber would take magic or something.
Yes, a spider can fit between some bricks in the wall.
And it is Vulcanus you need
[color=red]"So, what's so special about these ogres," Vibria muses within easy earshot of the drakes, [color=red]"that such fine specimens of drake-hood like these couldn't dispatch them with ease?"
Maurice: It is just this one ogre, actually. My brothers and I have been bullying ogres for years. They deserve it, wreched cannibals. And ogres are a healthier alternative to eating people, and safer than hunting griffons.
But this one, whom Simon names "The Brute", it is of a peculiar magical nature. It can't be killed, not as far as I can tell. At the moment of death, it dissolves. Just disintigrates. Sometime later, it returns intact and whole as if nothing ever happened. Even then, to injure it enough to the point of dissolution is a feat barely managable! It will not burn, and it's skin is as hard as granite! It is half again as tall as any other ogre, and much more massive in girth and strength. It is ugly too, and fetid. Tusks and horns and long cracked nails and wet gray skin.
Truly, all this would matter little and we would just move on to easier prey, if not for the fact that it competes with us. It is a cannibal amongst cannibals. Whereas the preferred meat of the ogre is human flesh, El Bruto preys upon other ogres exclusively. Several times it has cheated us of our quarry or stolen our prize.
Sorry, I wasn't clear AT ALL. I meant one of her wood spiders. This is tiny, but no so much: Since these are supposed to be disposable, she does them little enough to be quickly done, big enough to be easily done, and without too much details (the shape is more evocatie, anyway). So this must be... I dunno, big as a child's fist, I guess. Bigger than a real spider, anyway.
If she can manage to send one, she'll do this. If not, I'll have to think about it. Best option is to go round, an destroy a part of the wall, but this might be unwise.
And I know about Vulcanus, but isn't he on the drake hunt? As soon as she can put her hand on him and/or guillaume, she'll anyway! She's not in a hurry, so she can wait.
Vocis: Maurice, could you give us some idea of where we are going? I prefer to have an understanding of the battlefield before picking a fight.
(Assuming he does, I'm going to call Celeste in, cast Veil of Invisibility on her (no roll needed), and have her scout the ogre's area. She can use her lvl 25 Discern the Images of Truth and Falsehood power when she arrives. Our mental communication is sufficient to transmit images through the bond.)
He is planning to go to the drake hunt, but that hasn't happened yet. The others are still trying to get permission to have a drake hunt. Right now they are hunting ogres (without shield grogs, I think) and Vulcanus is still at the covenant because treating with the dragon was expected to be diplomatic only.
My mistake then
Someone would have come and informed Vulcanus of this discovery as well. He could be arriving to investigate this door at the same time Arachne is looking for cracks in the wall (you can fit a live spider in there, but not a fist sized mechanical spider).
Maurice: It is called Bone Hill, where once dwelled a hag that made her bread from bone meal and devoured many a lost wanderer. Several years ago, we fought alongside some of your fellow Andorran magi and killed off her giant consort and their ogre children.
However, I do not believe that Brutus has anything to do with that wicked past, it is simply inhabiting the hill out of convienence as there is a stong aura there.
OOC: Callen was there as Valentino. But that old story is irrelevant. Just reusing the setting, since (in my mind) it is better to make reuse of a mythic location as opposed to inventing dozens of magical sites scattered all around the area like chocolate sprinkles on a doughnut.
Um, what about them? I'm enjoying the story. Gardaitis probably isn't -- in fact, the foremost thought in his mind right now is probably something like "This is going to hurt. A LOT." Even if the tree takes one out of action, which isn't guaranteed, he'll still have two to deal with.
I do not know if you are speaking in a language that the ogres can comprehend, but it appears the guile attempt is irrelevant anyways.
They are carrying wooden clubs, so Shriek of the Impending Shafts is appropriate.
And you succeed in dropping a tree on one of them. It can shrug it off with little effort, but it does slow him down.
But as they continue their advance, a fierce wind whips up, a whirling cloud of blinding snow envelops the ogres. You hear some noises, "thump-bash-scream-bleed". When it clears, only one living figure remains. Humanoid, larger than any ogre, gray skin with tusks and horns and cold blue eyes. It's mouth is bloody, for though man-shaped, it is stooped over the (now dead) ogres feasting on their flesh like a wild animal.
Gardaitis actually recoils a bit, eyes going wide. What the hell IS that, and where did whatever-it-is come from?
(( Int 3 + Magic Lore 3 + roll of 9=15 for the answer to those questions. Feel free to apply penalties because this is very much NOT the milieu he's used to. ))
Still, he's not one to look a gift monster in the mouth, especially since that mouth isn't trying to bite his head off. He's quite content to let it eat the ogres, as long as it doesn't try to come after him. Therefore, he backpedals a bit deeper into the woods before turning around and looking for where the rest of his company has gotten off to. The plan is to gather them in and swing wide around the monster through the woods, picking up the trail again a mile or so down.
I assume the mule either charged off in panic or got a boulder dropped on top of it. In either case, Gardaitis will keep an eye out for the sled but won't go near the monster to retrieve it. He'll get it later, if worse comes to worst.
So with an Andorra Area Lore roll of Int 2 + Ability 1 + either 10 or 0, does Vocis know where Bone Hill is relative to our current location? He's going to make Celeste invisible and send her out regardless - either he'll tell her exactly where to go or he'll tell her to look in the direction we're heading for the biggest ogre she's ever seen.
That's a 0, so roll one botch die. If no botch results, you can get her close enough where she can eventually figure out which way to go just by landmarks (the hill is littered with bones, after all). If it does botch, you send her the opposite direction by mistake.
Not at all the milieu you are used to, nor the one you would expect. But that is a really good roll. So I will give you the following non-specific information...
It appears to be some sort of magical creature, feasting on ogres for their vis.
Not an animal, either humanoid or the material form of a spirit.
Not an ogre or troll, at least you don't think it is.
It likelyt whipped up the snowy wind with some magical power, then ambushed the ogres from within the snowcloud. Seems probable.
It seems to have no interest in you. It takes slight notice, but when you back away it resumes feasting.
Long and short, it eats enough of the corpses that no retrievable vis can be found. The sled is fine, and the mule did not run off that far. You can reorganize and proceed on your path.
The refugees you are escorting (to where?), they begin speaking of the monster as a miracle of God, and decide it must be some divine monster. They have kind of a unique theology. They are Cathars who are considered heretics by other Cathars. They would be glad to explain more to you if you are interested (please don't be interested )
bump
Vulcanus should go investigate the newly discovered vault door. Preferably just in time to see Arachne try to shove a wooden spider in a corner joint
