3rd Book: the Book of the Mountain
Copyright© 2025 by Luvirini
Chapter 18: Ogres
November 1
The group spends the evening asking for information. They find out that nothing has been heard from Fort Rannick for a few weeks. In addition, especially that Kreegwood has apparently become dangerous lately. They then stays overnight at the inn.
November 2
The group sets off. They reach the bridge. The bridge is a fine metal bridge, i.e., it looks like it doesn’t belong here. The group crosses the bridge and continues the journey. At some point, they hear some sound from the forest. Neeia recognizes that it’s probably a bear making noise. It may be that it has gotten caught in a bear trap or something. The group continues the journey, but at the same time, they also hear dog barking and after that, singing about bear roast. At this point, Kieron wants to go look, others don’t, so Kieron goes there about thirty feet, at which point she notices that the others are also coming after her. Kieron asks Ra to sneak ahead because it’s difficult for her to sneak quietly when she’s laughing so much. Ra sneaks closer and then returns. Ra tells that there was a bear in a bear trap, and an ogre was coming to the scene, so he returned. Kieron would like Ra to go talk with the ogre because Ra earlier wanted to know if that could be done, but Ra refuses. The group continues the journey.
They come to an intersection from which a road leads to Fort Rannick, and the other continues to that dam. The group starts climbing toward the fortress. They get about a three hundred feet away and stop there to observe it. They notice that the fortress gate at least looks damaged. The group hides the horses in the forest and sneaks by another way closer. They see the gate, and Neeia notices a couple of ogres behind the gate. Jaysek notices that from that side, one could get along a path behind the nearby waterfall high up; there could be, for example, some back route to the fortress. The group observes the ogres and notices that they are keeping a proper guard. Next, the group tries to get there behind the waterfall, so Ra goes sneaking closer and examines that climbing route. Ra returns and says that from there, one can’t climb up at all except for competent climbers, so we can forget that.
Next, the group sneaks to that other gate and observes there for about half an hour too. There also seems to be a group of ogres, but they are not as alert as the ogres at the other gate. The group returns, and after that, Ra gets a stroke of genius and notes that he could transform into a hawk, and then examine the fortress. The others cast protection spells on him, and after that, Ra flies to examine the fortress.
Ra observes that at one gate, there is only one ogre on guard, and at the other, there are two. In addition, at that other gate, there are apparently one or two ogres lying down. Ra goes to look in one tower, and there is a big warning bell. In another tower, he bumps into an invisible wall when trying to look inside through the window. He returns to the others and tells the situation.
The group camouflages the horses hidden in the forest, and after that, Jaysek and Ra remain to observe the gate and wait for the guard shift. The guard shift comes in the evening, and new guard ogres arrive from somewhere inside the fortress.
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.