Kas slips her longsword into her scabbard and draws her bastard sword from her back.

"The foot prints lead from the horse to the cave, and given that the Ogre did nothing to hide his path back to his cave, denotes a bit of egotism and a sense of overconfidence."

"Alistrae is correct, there are alcoves, and the dark is what Ogre like. A sudden flare of light works well against an Ogre, it could blind them long enough to get some telling strikes in. Best if we can catch it napping after a heavy meal, hopefully only of horse."

Kas looks to the others, "Justice is best served, in this case, by quickly killing it, sentence is fittingly commensurate to the crime."

She had no compunction to call it out in fair battle, this was not such a case where the Honor of Justice needed to be served. Given the evidence around the cave the Orge deserved to die. Probably his midden pile was full of human remains.

Aelistae glanced over her shoulder towards Linnix, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

“When I was young I struggled to believe that anyone could live upon the surface. ‘The great ball in the sky is too blindingly bright,’ I thought then. But I was wrong. There are creatures who live and die in the light just as there are those who prefer the dark.”

The drow woman turned a little more so that she could face Linnix and her other companions.

“As for what we should do, I’m not sure I am the one to ask. When I have hunted with my Sisters we communicate silently.” Aelistae flexed her fingers in an intricate dance, each gesture correlating with a different word or concept. “And we use the darkness to our advantage.”

“Here I think Kasenarion may be right,” Aelistae bowed slightly to the strange woman. “We should not be afraid to light torches. It might serve to confuse the Ogre.”

Agreeing they should try to get the man’s family back, she rode willingly with the rest to seek out this ogre. Once at the cave, she dismounted and secured her horse to a tree. Sword in hand, she glanced at the discarded horse’s remains, then turned to Aelistae.

“I have a torch we can use.” She kept her voice low to prevent any echo into the cavernous opening, which could alert the ogre to their presence.

(OOC: See disclaimer re: this post in Q/A thread )

Xaris dismounted and walked to the mouth of the cave. His low light vision couldnt see much in the dark, so the mentioning of a torch seemed to be a good one. Going underground was something he didnt do to often, being a forest gnome. But for the good of this man and his family, he will gladly descend.


Stepping up to the front of the group, he looked back at them.

" If its alright, I would like to be near the front. I can take on big monsters like this ogre.

The giant of a barbarian woman smiled at the gnome's eagerness to take care of this "little" problem.

"I couldn't ask for a better warrior to be at the front to put that blasted ogre in its place. Although I would like to accompany you at the front. I want in on the action as well."

She removed a torch from her pack and handed it to Xaris. "I have another one should we need it."

"It might be best to not use torches at first, as they will give us away, and surprise will give us an advantage. Does anyone have a covered lantern, with a torch ready, even some oil. It may come to having to throw oil on the Ogre and set fire to him.

"I can see 3 score feet into the dark with no trouble." So I will be right with you two. The gnome can move in front of me; I can see over him and even fight over him. With my height and reach with my bastard sword I can easily reach the Ogre from behind the Xaris."

Linnix simply smiles and nods at everyone's suggestions as they converse with each other. She really didn't have that much of an idea of what was supposed to be done, or why; combat was not her thing. In the end, Linnix decided just to stick to the back, where she hopefully won't get in anyone's way.

“It is likely the passage ahead will open into a wider cave. The ogre would have had to bend over or crawl to get through here.”

Aelistae gestured towards the low ceiling of the tunnel, which only hung a couple of feet higher than the top of her head.

“If so we should surround it, and attack from many sides. But I wouldn’t try to set it on fire. If you throw oil on it and light it, you’re likely to create a blaze that will block our escape and create fumes that will starve us of air.”

The drow woman carefully checked the string of her bow, before falling to the rear of the group where Linnix waited.

“Don’t be frightened,” Aelistae whispered to Linnix with an encouraging smile. “If you shoot as well as you did before, when you were fighting those bandits, you have nothing to fear.

Linnix fidgets with her hand crossbow for a moment, making sure it is still loaded, the mechanism showed no signs of jamming and such. However, looking closely upon her face, one can see that she is biting her lip. Perhaps it was because she was questioning going on this trek, or perhaps she was just tense going into battle; what exactly was going through Linnix's mind couldn't be easily seen.

“Don’t be frightened, If you shoot as well as you did before, when you were fighting those bandits, you have nothing to fear."
Linnix smiles sheepishly, "I think that might have just been a lucky shot." She murmurs to Aelistae, "I'll try my best anyway."

She looks at the cave in front of her, ready to follow the others into the darkness.

The cave hung before them in a eerie silence. Having determined a marching order, the party decided it was time to flush out the ogre and put an end to his roadside terror. As they entered the cave the vines hanging over the entrance tensed and uncoiled as they reached out for Xaris, the leader of the pack, and lightest of the companions. As the vines lashed out for the gnomish warrior, Loriel spotted it at the last instant and pushed Xaris forward, leaving the vines empty handed. Knowing the danger that lied in waiting, it took little time for everyone to make short work of the animated plant. Threat level returned to normal, the cautious team proceeded into the foreboding darkness of the cave. As they neared the alcoves on the left and right side of the cavern, Xaris and Artanis (formerly barrbarra) carefully peered around the corners.

To their eyes appeared treasures presumably claimed by the ogre in the past. In the left alcove stood a bronze statue of a horse headed man, with ivory inlays and eyes of crimson hued jewels which reflected the torchlight. The statue stood as tall as Xaris, but seemed not to have been properly cared for in some time as dirt dust, and even some signs of rusting had begun to form along the seams.

In the right alcove, perched atop a wooden crate is a small chest (approximately 1 foot wide by 4 inches thick and 6 inches deep) The chest is of simple wood, with tarnished brass couplings and hinges. This too seems to have been neglected for quite some time.

Loriel moves softly across the dirt floor and it sloops sownwards slightly. Her bow is held up with an arrow notched and ready . Moonshadow padds silently aon her left side. She trusts Moonshadow's nose to alert her to the presence of the orge when they fraw closer to if it draws closer to them.

Curious, Loriel looks into the two alcoves. To her mind it looks like a possible shrine, though she does not recognized the horse headed figure The opposite alcove may hold a titing box in the form of a small chest. However they do not have time to waste examining these things ow. The family must be retrieve and made safe and the Orge killed.

"Thiese two alcoves will be here when we are through withthe Orge. I suggest we do nothing about them at this time." Loriells suggests. "They could also be traps to draw the attention away ftom what needs doing first."

Kas moves slowly and carefully, keeping an eye out for other traps. She has her sword and ready and moves her head to try and caught any telltale ssounds that might indicate the Ogre was ahead, heaaving breathing, movement, or even to cries of the captives. She is hoping the Ogre did gourge himself and that he was now resting.

Artanis jerked slightly as she sees Xaris suddenly lurch forward. She quickly realizes the situation and happily does her part to rid the group, and the cave, of the dangerous plant. Hoping their presence was still undetected, they moved on. Once they moved forward, they came upon two alcoves. Artanis paused in her movements to give the alcoves a once over. She made a mental note of the items before her eyes, and then continued moving forward. She figured the group would be able to further investigate the items once the Ogre had been dispatched, and hopefully, the Mother and daughter safely recovered.

Artanis looked ahead as best she could in the blackness, keeping her senses fully alert for any sign of the ogre and the humans they came to rescue.

Linnix began to question the situation as soon as she entered the cave; her sight was of hardly any use at all. Using her ears to guide her along with the others, she hardly trusted herself to breathe, inching along without any real sound at all.

This isn't good, she thought, the sooner this is over, the better.
However, when she passes the right alcove, a few of her doubts are reassured. So there was a reward here after all; that provides a good enough reason for coming.

I can't open that chest in this darkness if it is locked, Linnix thought, And besides, the excess coin, if there are coins in there, would be too noisy; I can't afford to give away our position right now.
Linnix's eyes go flat as her determination fills her mind. She steps forward, taking care to be as quiet as possible, but now with more purpose, holding her hand crossbow ready. She will go through with this, if only to collect the reward so owed to the party's efforts.

Aelistae’s violet eyes burned brightly in the long, dark of the tunnel. It had been almost three score years since she had left the Underdark, but she still felt more at ease in darkness than she did under the glare of the sun. She pulled back the hood of her cloak with one hand, and let her eyes adjust to the monochrome greys of her darkvision.

She placed her other hand upon Linnix’s shoulder, helping to guide the woman around rocky outcrops that might otherwise have caused her to stumble.

Aelistae nodded as they came upon the statuette and the chest, although she spoke no words in response. Loriel’s words had already echoed down the tunnel some way, and she had no wish to add another voice to that reverberating sound.