Fight The Ogres and Escape

Arion, Dofert and Picpoc find themselves with Arion's hero Clodar who informs them that they will be fighting ogres tomorrow and he has plans to escape.

            Suddenly the floor fell out from underneath the group. They fell eight feet to the arena floor. The floor to the room they started in swung back up and latched shut with a loud clangor. A second later they realized that they were surround by nearly twenty ogres. One of the ogre was a short one named Grunt. He eyed up the group and let out a snort as he tapped his cudgel in his hand. “There is our exit!” shouted Clodar as he pointed to the hole in the wall with his sword. Clodar shouted his battle cry and dashed towards the nearest ogre. “CCCLLLOOODDDAAARRR!!!” he shouted as he slashed its chest open. Grunt had sized up the group and chose Arion as a less risky prey. He charged at him with his cudgel poised to strike. Arion looked down and saw a small shield on the ground. He grabbed it and swung it up just in time to deflect the blow of the cudgel.

            Dofert saw that Arion was engaged in combat and quickly uttered a short spell to enchant Arion’s short sword. “Ogerus Mortus Optimus!” and Arion’s sword started to glow a bright blue. He turned just in time to duck as an ogre swung his axe. Dofert thrust his sword at the ogre and it laughed as it grabbed the blade in its hand.

Its laugh was cut short though as it was struck by an axe that was thrown by Clodar. Vortox and some of the others had taken down five ogres and were getting ready to climb the wall to escape.

            “Good luck suckers!” shouted Vortox as he pulled himself up into the opening in the wall. “Muhahaha, looks like I will live and Clodar will die. I wish it was by my hands, but I know these ogres wont let you live. Without further ado I am out of here!”

            “Vortex you fool! That is the wrong opening! You were supposed to help us all out.” Shouted Clodar as Vortox turned and went into the hole. A second later Vortox was screaming as his body was ground up in a fan in the hole. Clodar shook his head. Arion swung his enchanted sword and grazed Grunt across his chest leaving a long scratch. Grunt laughed at the boy because he had only scratched him with the tip of the sword. He raised his cudgel to strike the boy when suddenly the magic Dofert had cast on the sword kicked in. The scratch quickly became a large fatal wound as the spell lacerated open the ogre’s thick hide.

            “Die you foul beast!” shouted Picpoc as he thrust his sword into an approaching  ogre and slew it. Dofert tried to attack an ogre again and pierced the ogre through the shoulder. The ogre let out a howl of pain as it slapped Dofert to the side and pulled out the sword from the wound. It threw the sword down on the ground and it landed just about a foot away from Dofert’s reach. The Ogre raised his axe to hack at Dofert when its head fell to the ground. The axe dropped and the corpse toppled to the ground. Once again Clodar had saved Dofert from certain death. Dofert was beginning to see why Arion was so fascinated by Clodar.

            “Here.” said Dofert as he handed this sword to Clodar. “This will do more damage in your hands than mine.” Clodar grinned and took the sword in his other hand. Clodar swung the two swords in a way that looked like a dance of death as he slew the remaining ogres in the arena.

            “Quickly everyone go to the wall. Now is our chance while they get more ogres to subdue us again.”shouted Clodar as he ran towards the wall on the opposite side of the arena. “Vortox went to the wrong wall to get out. That was a ventilation shaft from the kitchen. I could smell the putrid odor eminating from the hole, but apparently he had no sense of smell.” Clodar quickly scaled the wall and was in the hole he pointed out. He pulled up Dofert into the hole. Then he pulled up Arion. As he reached down to get Picpoc more ogres burst into the arena and started charging towards the wall where they were.

            “Leave me! You guys escape while I hold them off!” shouted Picpoc as he turned to face the oncoming ogres.

            “I don’t leave anyone behind.” said Clodar as he grabbed Picpoc’s shirt and hoisted him into the hole. The rest of the prisoners were quickly subdued and some trampled to death as the ogres rounded up the remaining prisoners. The shaft was apparently made by someone smaller than the ogres because they could not fit in the hole to pursue the party. After what seemed like hours they finally found the exit from the hut. They dropped out of the shaft to the ground and went to look for their horses. They found their horses in the stable and surprisingly they still saddles on and had their belongings untouched. They mounted their horses and started out when a large crash came from the hut. A giant had came and destroyed Gora’s Hut killing all its occupants. Clodar turned his horse around and threw a sword at the giant. The sword struck giant in the chest and it kept coming.

            “This must be Titan!” Shouted Picpoc. Dofert then closed his eyes and murmured some words. “What ever you are doing is not working Dofert!!!” yelled Picpoc. Suddenly Titan erupted into flames. “Wow, you provided fireworks!” exclaimed Picpoc as he urged his horse forward. The small troupe cheered as Titan was vanquished by Dofert’s fire spell. A spark flew through the air and landed at Arion’s feet. As he looked down he watched the red spark cool into a golden ring just his size. Another ring Arion thought to himself as he picked it up and slipped it into his pocket. They trotted off towards the Bldrod River.

            “We can rest in Halflingor and formulate a plan of action once we get there.” said Clodar as they were nearing the edge of the Greenville Forest and standing on the Southern bank of the river. “Halflingor should be on the other side of the river and about ten miles up stream.” The troupe forded the Bldrod River. About half way across Arion fell off of Llyr and started drowning, but Picpoc dove off his horse and resued Arion. Once they got to the other side they started the jaunt upstream to Halflingor.

            They traveled for a few hours and found themselves at the gate to Halflingor. They all went to the inn to rest. It was the Prancing Pony Inn. Arion had heard stories about adventurers who stopped in the Prancing Pony to plan their adventures and now he was here himself. They ordered a quick dinner and devoured it quickly as they were hungry for real food.

            “Lets get a good rest and then we will do our planning over breakfast.” said Clodar as he rose from the table and headed towards his room. They trudged up the stairs to their rooms and quickly fell asleep on their beds. That night Arion had a dream that he had ten golden rings on his fingers. Each one was like the ring that they had taken from Titan. He also dreamt about Appax calling him to bring all ten rings to him. After that, he dreamt of riding Llyr in green meadows at home.