Yesterday’s ordeal was pretty tiring, and we are still feeling it the next day. After we all get fed and watered and go to the bathroom, the whole party crams together so everyone can ride in the Windstream. Thoma is driving and Hildegard is sitting next to him up front. It’s a warm day on a nice smooth patch of road, and Thoma and Hildegard both fall asleep at the reins.
DM’s Note: Thoma and Hildegard both rolled 1’s on their Perception check here
Suddenly, Hershey trips over a big fallen oak tree that was in the middle of the road, and another tree falls down right behind the wagon, partially blocking the back door and making difficult terrain.
There’s an awful lot of noise outside, and it seems that having everyone piled up together like Spam in a can might not be a good situation. Aesandoral pushes past Lilly and opens the back door to find three happy-looking ogres surrounding the back of the cart.
“There’s 3 ogres out there!” he calls, shutting the door and wondering if it’s not too late to just have everyone duck and cover and pretend nobody is inside.
“Those were the same ogres from Trollhattan that we didn’t kill” says Agatha.
“No shit, Aggie!” says Aesandoral.
The three ogres, who were the ones who knocked down the trees, have started banging on the sides and back of the Windstream. At the same time five more ogres come out of the forest and start attacking Thoma and Hildegard. One gets a lucky blow in and Hildegard is knocked out immediately.
Freya sticks her hand out the window and fires some Magic Missiles at one of the ogres. Everyone who is inside can hear a scream when it hits. Magic Missile never misses. Encouraged, Freya lights some Roman candles and throws them out the window in the same general direction. The fireworks scare Hershey out of her mind. She freaks out, rears up, breaks out of her reins, and runs away. Three of the ogres follow her to an unknown location.
“Tasty treats!” cheer the ogres as they run off. “Let’s go wash our hands so we can eat!”
Thoma casts Tasha’s Hideous Laughter and jumps down from the driver’s seat. Meanwhile, Aesandoral uses Misty Step to teleport himself from inside the cart to a hidden spot in the woods off to the side, then he starts shooting arrows out from his concealed location.
As more Magic Missiles and Roman candles come out of the window and more attacks come from Aesandoral in the woods, the five remaining ogres have no idea what’s outside attacking them. Baccob yells a Healing Word out the window towards Hildegard and she gets to her feet. Lilly casts a Thunderwave out the back door of the cart which knocks the ogres back, and Agatha uses the opening to jump out the back and attack the ogres. Freya keeps on firing Magic Missiles and Hildegard stabs one of the ogres with her spear. Thoma casts an Eldritch Blast from the side just as the other ogre recovers from laughing. He knocks Agatha out and gives a genuine laugh. Lilly quickly puts Tasha’s spell back on him and Aesandoral crits with Firebolt to bring down the ogre by the door. Baccob heals Agatha as Freya’s Magic Missiles kill another one. Hildegard slashes and punches as she usually does, everyone keeps attacking, and finally all five ogres are dead. Aesandoral immediately loots the 5 bodies and finds 60 electrum coins.
Freya starts trying to make a mask out of one of the ogre heads but she really doesn’t have a good technique for it yet and it won’t stay together.
“Stop doing that, we need trophies to show the guards if we ever want to go back to the city,” says Thoma. “We should also get the troglodyte heads and maybe even those cultists.”
Freya cuts off the heads and puts them on sticks. “I want to at least try to scalp them later,” she says. She attaches the ogre head spikes to the Windstream to make it look more badass.
Lilly casts Mending on the Windstream and Hildegard and the others get to work cutting up the felled trees and clearing the road.
“Dude, where’s our horse?” asks Tycho suddenly.
Thoma and Hildegard go out and amazingly, they find Hershey mostly unharmed not too far away. There is no sign of the three ogres who ran off to wash their hands. They bring her back to camp to be brushed down and healed, and then we all have dinner and take a long rest.
The next day, we arrive in Trollhattan and pick up the gross bodies of the Carpenters, put them in the chest, and then head back to the temple district. Nothing else seems to have changed.
“Shouldn’t we make a copy of that writing thing?” asks Tycho. (Tycho never learned how to read.)
“Oh, the vampire diary? Don’t worry, I already made ten,” says Aesandoral.
“Ten? When did you do that? Where are they?” asks Thoma.
“When I’m on watch at night I like to copy books,” replies Aesandoral. “I was going to sell them as fan fiction.”
“This time, I’m doing all the talking,” declares Thoma as we arrive and park a safe distance from the gate. Thoma and Baccob get out of the cart and walk up to the gate. The guards send for Felipe and they inspect all of the skulls and other evidence. Felipe is really grossed out and turns away. At the guards’ request, we turn over the vampire diary and the Carpenters’ ledger, or at least copies of them. After four hours of negotiation during which the paladins criticize everything we did, and inspecting all of our trophies of battle, they concede that it’s impressive that we came back from Trollhattan alive and that hopefully we’ve cleaned up the area a bit. They finally let us through the gate so we can visit the temple.
At the temple of Mishakal, we go through the same show-and-tell again. James and Ezrin say that for our final task we should go to Marshall and clear the road between Marshall and Yamabuchi. There has been a lot of trouble up there. Someone or something has been crushing merchants’ caravans and there have been several casualties. The survivors aren’t talking so we can’t get any more information.
James and Ezrin suggest that as long as we are going to Yamabuchi we might as well escort a small group of travellers who need safe passage, and the paladins are going to provide two mounted men to assist us. This suggestion, of course, is not at all for our benefit. The elders of the temple are disappointed in Baccob for falling in with a group of mercenaries who are clearly being a bad influence on him, and this is something of a test. Perhaps even a final test, depending on the elders’ moods and if Baccob disappoints them again. The head paladin sternly warns us that they expect to get the two paladins and the two horses back in one piece (or 4 pieces total) or there will be Trouble.
Tablegang Adventures 