Attacking Fort Rannick

“Attacking Fort Rannick”
Rise of the Runelords episode
Episode no.	Episode 51
Date	2009
Game Master	Abbe
Characters	Dorothea Gloriana Honeypot Nell Velicia
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "Silent Lips, Talking Eyes" "Lucretia"
Rise of the Runelords chapter list

In this chapter the heroes travel to Fort Rannick to scout but attack the fort.

Attacking Fort Rannick

As I'm used to sleep alone I woke early and sneaked back to my room. I fell asleep again and was woken by Velicia banging on my door. She sleeps way to little. After a big breakfast and a big bag to keep me from getting hungry for two days we rode out. It was a boring ride and had to concentrate not to fall asleep in the saddle. When we got closer to the fort we left the horses hidden and sneaked closer to get a good look at it.

It was a stone fort built at the base of high vertical cliffs. Leaning on the cliffside was a stone keep with three smaller towers and a larger tower rising from the top. It was surrounded by wooden buildings and a guard tower in the courtyard. There was a stone wall with two gates and several small towers from the mountains base, surrounding it all. We saw crows circling over the fort suggesting the aftermath of a battle inside. One of the gates had been blocked by rubble and there were ogres patrolling the wall over the other. Luckily we had been told of a secret back door through a waterfall next to where the wall met the cliffs.

Honeypot got a crow which she possessed using some strange ritual and made it fly over the fort to get a better look at their defenses. It turned out that a house that the rangers didn't use as they couldn't fireproof it was used by the ogres. They also used the old storage house as a kitchen and were up in the unstable free standing guard tower.

Honeys crow also flew up to check the eagles nest further up in the mountains.

We settled down and waited for the afternoon rain. It seemed to be later than usual. We kept the fort under watch and saw Lucretia, the owner of Paradise's Gates, come out on the roof of the tower. There she cursed and cast magical lighting and thunder at the skies. Soon dark clouds came rolling down from the north. Pleased she returned into the fort.

We prepared for the assault. As Honeypot started casting rituals, both telepathy and protection from electricity, I wondered why we were attacking the fort. Wasn't we just hired to see what had happened to it? The ranger took off to go make a distraction and if possible attack the ogres in the back to create confusion. I wished them good luck and when the others didn't see I blew a kiss to Kaven.

It was time to go and the rain was worse than ever. It seemed as if it was making up for lost time. Visibility was severely limited as we followed the cliffs towards the waterfall. We could barely make out the wall and towers at the gate and vaguely hear ogres shouting to each others over the rain. When we got to the small lake the waterfall fell into I started climbing along the cliff wall. It was hard with floods of water rushing into my face. Suddenly the stone in my right hand let go and I fell headlong backwards into the lake. A few strokes took me up to the surface and through the waterfall. I crawled ashore in a cave. Well, I had already been soaked by the rain anyway. The others swam through the waterfall without any problems.

In the cave we noted that there was strange sparks on the walls. I touched it and it tickled of electricity. We guessed it had something to do with the shocker lizards reported to live there. While we were getting ready to continue down the tunnel a lizard as big as a cow peeked out of it. I wonder how it would taste. Apparently it had felt some disturbance when I got tickled by the electricity, but it didn't seem to disturbed by us. Honeypot suggested feeding it to make friends. She looked to Velicia to take out some food but she refused to waste any food on that. Then Gloriana took out some pie and before I could stop her she threw it at the lizard. It got scared and shot lighting at Gloriana and left. The pie was ruined on the floor. I wished she had used something like an apple that wouldn't have been spoiled.

We went down the tunnel and reached another cave with traces/tracks from more lizards. The tunnel continued and we followed. When it split we went right and soon got to the back side of a hidden door. I opened it with the help of Velicia. Just outside was the house we had planned to set fire to. I helped Velicia sneak in under the house so she could use her fire magic to burn it down, when Gloriana suggested using a torch she had found a little further down the tunnel in a arms storage. That way it might look like an accident and they wouldn't know they were attacked. Velicia crawled around and set the fire and even in the moist weather the fire spread quickly. We retreated into the tunnel and closed the secret door.

Continuing down the tunnel we reached a cave with several lizards. We moved on slowly and carefully to make sure we didn't startle any lizards or step on any eggs.

At last we were at the back side of a secret door leading into the guard room of the cell block. We stormed in but there was nobody there. We checked the cells and found about fifteen rangers all in a very bad shape. We opened the cells, tried to get them conscious and helped them out behind the secret door.

We continued up the stairs into a storage room there I peeked out into the corridor. There were several closed doors along the way and an open door in the end. From behind it I saw something stirring. I suggested to Honeypot that she should change her appearance to that of a ogre. It might come in handy in a pinch. When the other started discussing words in giantish I sneaked out into the corridor. I felt very vulnerable as there were no places to hide except the stairs leading up and the one behind the open door could come out at any time. Gloriana suggested that I should listen to all doors along the corridor, but I didn't want to spend that long time there. I sneaked right up to where the corridor split and I peeked around the corner. I saw more ogres standing there, near the double door leading out. I also noted that behind the open door was an ogre painting the walls with the torso of a human. I got the creeps and stealthily I retreated to the double doors to what should be sleeping quarters. I listened at them and heard discussions in a language I didn't understand. I retreated further to the double doors to the mess hall. There it was quite. Looking in I saw that it was empty. I told the others to stealthily join me. As they did Velicia stumbled a little and the painting ogre looked out the door. I held my breath as Honeypot looking like a small ogre tried to distract it. It started to talk to her but no one understood what it said. She tried to trick it by swearing at it. She succeeded and it went back to painting the room. After a big sigh of relief, we could all continue into the mess hall. The rangers outside told us that the ogres in the burning house were fighting over who would get to get out first with the result that no one had left at all.

When we were all prepared we sneaked into positions near where the corridor split. I helped Velicia sneak by giving her a few pointers. Honeypot went up to the door to the painting ogre. Then we attacked the surprised ogres. I threw my dagger wounding the painter and retreated back and hid in a corridor to a small tower. The ogres probably never used it as it was too small for them. Dorothea cast her scary spell creating the black cloud eating everything in it just in front of the main doors. It caught an ogre in it and blocked the way out. That made sure that all ogres would have to go through the scary cloud or through us towards the stairs and no others would be warned. In the big fight that followed Velicia split in two identical versions of herself and the ogres were all killed.