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      When we last saw Decor, Def Lenard, Hollicar, John, Kelson, and Landriss they had just started exploring the ogre lair. A quick search was conducted that yielded three items of note. First, the room that appeared to belong to the leader of the ogres contained three locked chests. Second, only one door was locked or barred shut despite the lack of any apparent mechanical locks. Third, an unconscious dwarven prisoner was discovered in what passed for the dining room.

After being revived the dwarf introduced himself as Moradon and told his rescuers that he had spent the past four or five days as a slave to the ogres. He had been traveling with a merchant on a near-by road when the ogres attacked. He was one of several prisoners brought to the cave. The other slaves quickly became ogre snacks but Moradon was spared because he knew enough about blacksmithing to be able to take care of the ogre's weapons and armor for them. He also related that his father, a blacksmith of great repute, had been kidnapped from their mountain homeland and Moradon had been following up on a tip that indicated his father might be in this area. It seems that the tip was good because some of the equipment used by the ogres bears the mark that Moradon's father puts on all of his work.

While Moradon did not have the opportunity to learn a lot about the ogres he was able to share the following information. The lair had previously been owned by a wizard. The wizard had employed and supplied the well armed ogres as guards but, according to the ogres, he did not need them anymore since he is dead now. As far as Moradon could discern the wizard had died roughly 2 weeks ago. Soon after that some men came to the lair and took away the wizard and most of his belongings on a ship. The ogres had been left to their own devices. With their only source of income, food, and all other supplies gone the ogres had turned to conducting raids on the local roads.

Of particular interest to Moradon is that the ogres revealed to him that some dwarven slaves had been working for the wizard and had manufactured the equipment used by the ogres. Apparently there was a forge in the wizard's inner sanctum, which was locked away behind a door in the lair. The ogres were all afraid to go through the door despite the fact that their master was dead and gone. On a couple of occasions the ogres had also joked about wondering if the "prince" was "good eatin' now that tha wizard had cooked 'im down there." What this means, specifically, is a mystery. The fate of the dwarven blacksmiths was also a mystery. The ogres had never mentioned if the dwarves were still locked away downstairs or if they had been taken away on the ship.

Further discussion was interrupted when Lenard and Ahriallen proved they did not share the ogres' fear of the wizard's door. A loud "POP" echoed through the stone-walled lair when Lenard and Ahriallen forced open the door to the wizard's inner sanctum. Examination of the door revealed that it did not have any sort of mechanical locks or latches and must have been held shut by something along the lines of a Wizard Lock spell and that no apparent damage had been done to the door. The adventurous duo then proceeded down the stairs beyond the door.

At the bottom of the stairs they found a small room occupied by two large ogre skeletons standing guard in front of a door across the room. Next to the door was a large bronze gong. Unsure if the ogres would immediately put their six-inch thick clubs to violent use the two ducked back out of sight of the skeletons just before one of the skeletons used it's club to loudly ring the gong once.

Once John and Landriss had joined Lenard and Ahriallen, Lenard shot an arrow at the skeletons but the arrow vanished as it entered the doorway. The sound of impact was the only indication that the arrow had not simply vanished into thin air. Lenard then tried to prod the doorway with a sword but encountered something solid. The bard visually inspected the doorway and saw two shallow indentations on the far side of the doorway but no other blemishes in the smooth stone. He reached out to touch them but when his fingers encountered something solid, the landing at the bottom of the stairway was suddenly engulfed in magical flames. Lenard and Landriss were burned almost to death, John escaped with moderate burns and Ahriallen got extremely lucky (natural 20 on a save throw) and escaped damage all together. Working quickly John and the newly arrived Kelson used their divine powers to heal Landriss and Lenard.

The explorers could now clearly see a solid, wooden door blocking the previously empty doorway. The door was engraved with runes and it's surface showed signs of being lightly charred by the flash-fire. There were no hinges, door handles, or anything else on this side of the door.

Lenard ran upstairs to try and find something to force the door with but got distracted when he found a set of keys on the ogre chief's body. They fit the chests in the chief's room. The first chest contained a light suit of highly polished chain mail, apparently sized for a human. The second chest contained a cache of coins, mostly silver and gold with a few platinum coins. Deciding not to press his luck, the bard avoided opening the third chest. After finding nothing that would serve as a battering ram to use on the solidly shut door the party decided to leave well enough alone until they had time to rest.

It was decided that they could safely camp on the stairway since the ogres were afraid of entering the wizard's sanctum. If the remaining ogres came back the party would not likely be discovered if they remained quiet. After someone remembered that the horses were tied in the woods on the cliff, along the ogre trail, Decor went outside while everyone else discussed what to do with them.

When Decor reached the cliff-top he discovered that Hollicar was no where in sight despite the fact that he had never entered the ogre lair. Decor then heard a "scream" (for lack of a better word) from the horses. He immediately went back inside to report to the rest of the party, who all came outside to investigate. Upon reaching the cliff-top everyone else heard more sounds of fear and pain from the horses.

Running across the 100' open field between the cliff and the tree line the party slowed down and began to enter the thick underbrush of the strip of woods when they heard the sound of ogres laughing and slaughtering the horses. They had just begun to sneak into the woods when the ogres finished with the horses and proceeded to walk toward them through the woods. Ahriallen had penetrated the underbrush with a minimum of noise even though he didn't seem to pay any heed to where he put his feet. The rest of the party had to move much slower to remain quiet.

As the ogres began to get closer Hollicar suddenly made his presence known by breaking cover and running for the cliff face. Once he came out of the woods he seemed surprised to see the rest of the party there and yelled "RUN!" just after the ogres heard Hollicar crashing through the underbrush and began to give chase. There was no sign of where Ahriallen had gone since he had penetrated into the woods so deeply. Everyone else ran for the cliff side stairs.

They had reached almost half way back when the ogres began crashing into sight. Lenard, who had the fleetest feet of the group, had started acting as rear guard for the group and began to fire arrows back at the ogres in an attempt to slow them down. Soon, several more ogres crashed into sight. This brought the total up to five ogres, one of whom was wearing plate mail and two of whom were carrying ogre-sized composite longbows. Except for the plate mail wearing leader the ogres were wearing scale mail armor and carrying well crafted weapons just as the ogres they fought earlier had wielded.

Ogre bow fire dropped Decor while they were still 20' from the stairs. A couple more of the javelin sized arrows arced through the air, missing their targets. John and Kelson stopped for a moment to grab Decor and proceed to drag him to the stairway. Three of the ogres continued their charge and gradually closed the gap between them and the adventurers while the two archers continued to put their bows to good use.

About this time Landriss reached the rope that had previously been anchored to some stones for Lenard to use when initially exploring the cave entrance. Thinking quickly the ranger started winding the end of the rope around his wrist so he could leap off the cliff face and quickly reach the tunnel opening below. Then he could take up position to cover the stairs with bow fire as the rest of the party came down. This plan was foiled when an ogre arrow ripped through Landriss' right wrist as he was winding the rope around his left hand. While the impact was not great enough to knock Landriss from the edge of the cliff, it did destroy his wrist and leave his hand hanging by just a few strands of flesh. With a cry of pain and a fountaining of blood the ranger fell to the cold rocks.

Lenard heard the cry and abandoned his bowfire to run to Landriss. At this time Hollicar had made it half-way down the stairs in the lead as John and Kelson reached the stairs. Kelson told John to take Decor downstairs and began to cast a spell. As the three melee ogres were charging across the open field and the two ogre archers were fitting their arrows for more shots a wall of fog suddenly billowed into being in front of the stairs. The fog covered the adventurer's retreat.

At this time Ahriallen, who had been too far into the woods to safely retreat to the cliff, had hidden in the underbrush. But, he could not remain safely hidden after he saw two of the adventurers being dropped by arrows and the three melee ogres closing on the cliff rapidly. In an effort to buy the adventurers more time Ahriallen put an arrow into the ogre leader. This stopped the leader and as he turned to see where the arrow had come from, Ahriallen's second arrow buried itself in the ogre's eye.

The other two charging ogres continued their charge, but slowed to a more cautious approach when they neared the fog. The archers both turned their deadly weapons on Ahriallen just as the elf was about to move deeper into the woods again. Two large arrows sailed toward the warrior-mage. One cut harmlessly through the undergrowth but the other hit the elf in the head and dropped him into the undergrowth. When he did not get up again the two ogre archers ran for the cliff face.

On the cliff, the adventurers had gotten inside the tunnel. Lenard ran inside to find something to bar the door with while Hollicar and Kelson took up position to cover the stairway. John used the last of his divine powers to heal Decor. Kelson used the last of his arcane power to summon a patch of grease halfway down the icy stairs just as the first two ogres reach the top of the stairs and began down.

Hollicar started firing his bow at the ogres as they came down but was not able to penetrate their armor for a telling blow. The first ogre was so intent on reaching Hollicar that he didn't see the grease and slipped on it. Landing on his face the ogre had no hope of staying on the narrow, grease covered stair and plummeted 150 feet to his death. The second ogre, who had been right on the heels of the first, also did not see the grease in time and continued to follow the first ogre, right down to the rocky waters below.

As the two bow wielding ogres reached the stairs a call from Lenard brought Kelson and Hollicar inside. Kelson and Lenard wedged the ogre chief's huge two-handed sword in the door handle so as to block it then retreated beyond the steel gate as Hollicar closed it and yelled for someone to tie off the gate with a rope and loop the other end around the stone archer barrier inside to hold that gate for as long as possible. Kelson and Lenard had just begun to do that when they ran out of time.

With a roar the first of the ogre archers crashed through the heavy oaken entrance door. He took scant seconds to free himself from the debris then charged headlong at the steel gate. Kelson and Lenard quickly worked to get their bows ready for action but were too slow to take advantage of the ogre's hesitation with the door.

By this time John had finished binding Decor's wounds and had moved to Landriss only to find that the ranger had died from his wounds. The relative lack of blood around the body indicated that Landriss probably died before he was ever brought inside.

Though the gate was not locked the ogre decided he didn't want to slow down to open it while invaders stood in his home and the bodies of his tribe-mates littered the area. Lowering his shoulder the ogre slammed into the gate hard enough to spring it from it's hinges. As the gate crashed to the ground Hollicar stepped forward to engage the ogre with longsword and mace.

The ogre and Hollicar crashed together with a clash of steel on steel, neither giving the other a telling blow. John was moving to attack the ogre from behind when Kelson brought his bow into play, sinking an arrow deeply into the ogre's thigh. John then smashed his heavy mace into the ogre's back as Hollicar's flaming longsword found a weak spot in the ogre's scale mail. The combined strength of the adventurers killed the ogre just as the second archer finished navigating the icy, grease covered stairs and began his rush down the hallway.

Kelson and Lenard hit it with a couple of arrows as it charged before Hollicar and John once again stepped up to engage an ogre invader. Heavy blows from the two veterans quickly killed this ogre too, just before the freed dwarf arrived with his newly acquired bastard sword. Seeing that he was too late to battle one of his former tormentors, Moradon began to hack at the now dead body.

Back up on the cliff-top, the ogre leader was still alive. He had spent a some time gathering his courage and yelling orders at the rest of the ogres to kill everyone before grasping the arrow in his eye and yanking it out with a savage yell. Bellowing in pain and rage he didn't notice the sprinting form of Ahriallen before the longsword bit deeply into the ogre's plate mailed back. Fortunately for the elf, the arrow had only creased his skull and knocked him out for a few minutes. Being momentarily unconscious likely saved his life since he was not able to move and alert the ogre archers to the fact that he was still alive.

A brief fight between the near-blinded ogre leader and Ahriallen resulted in the elf's victory. The party had been rushing up the stairs to deal with the last ogre, not knowing Ahriallen had just killed him. Moradon dwarf charged through the fog to join the battle to find that his intended victim was dead before he got there for a second time. The increasingly enraged dwarf took the time to bind Ahriallen's wounds just as Kelson arrived to use the last of his diving powers to heal Ahriallen's freshest wounds.

Seeing that everything was being handled the now almost berserk dwarf ran back inside and downstairs and began to hack at the previously invisible door with his sword. As Moradon ran inside determined to find out if his father's body was still locked away behind that door, Kelson and John went to check and see if any of their horses or gear survived the ogres. Lenard followed the dwarf inside but returned to the entrance of the lair to borrow Hollicar's axe for the dwarf.

Now firmly in the grips of a berserk rage the frustrated dwarf finished hacking through the door just as Lenard arrived with Hollicar's axe. Immediately the two ogre skeletons moved to attack the dwarf. Using his race's tactics with defending themselves from big creatures to full effect Moradon managed to stay alive long enough for Lenard to arrive with help. A tired and seriously wounded Ahriallen charged into the fray just as Moradon took his last hit from the skeleton's club. Working furiously Ahriallen, Lenard, and Hollicar worked to destroy the skeletons. In the close quarters it was almost inevitable that Ahriallen missed the skeletons with one of his attacks and hit Hollicar by accident. With a growl of rage Hollicar finished the skeleton with his flaming longsword, then continued his battle momentum into a vengeful attack on Ahriallen with his mace. This was easily parried as Lenard moved to bind the dwarf's wounds.

Ahriallen and Hollicar began yelling at each other in elven, as they had at the pirate house, and the volatile half-elf attacked Ahriallen. Ahriallen took up a defensive posture and easily parried Hollicar's attacks until his anger played itself out. Hollicar sucker-punched the bard in the face (knocking him out) for not stopping the dwarf from hacking through the door then went upstairs to rest. Ahriallen also went upstairs but took up a guard position at the lair entrance overlooking the sea.

On their way to checking on their gear and horses John and Kelson discovered a second dwarven prisoner. This dwarf, named Grundall, was tied and gagged and had been unceremoniously thrown into the snowy underbrush when the ogres had begun to chase the adventurers. It was quickly discovered the Grundall was a childhood friend of Moradon and had traveled south with him to find his father. Grundall had been knocked out in the raid that lead to Moradon's capture but Grundall had been overlooked. He had been searching the area for the past few days looking for his friend when the ogres happened across him and captured him.

John and Kelson took Grundall back to the lair where things heated up again. Ahriallen was half-asleep in the entrance of the lair keeping watch. John demanded to know what happened since Ahriallen had fresh wounds again. The elf told him that the "damned dwarf" had almost got them all killed and that their "war dog" needed to be reined in. Fearing the worst, John stormed off down the stairs as Ahriallen explained the event in detail to Kelson and Grundall.

John and Kelson made sure Lenard and the old dwarf were alright before John stormed upstairs looking to confront Hollicar. John had seen clear marks of a chain mailed fist in Lenard's cheek and saw that the skeletons had nothing but their clubs. When John voiced his suspicion that Hollicar had hit Lenard, the bard had confirmed this.

John's anger lost momentum when he again saw the dead Landriss and realized the valiant ranger had not yet received any sort of last rites. John and Kelson each prayed for their gods to guide Landriss' soul to his final destination. Afterwards John took stock of the party and saw that almost everyone was exhausted and injured from the long, stressful day. He decided to put his anger with Hollicar on the back-burner. "The bastard will have to wait."

Hollicar, hearing this and also having had his nerves pushed to their limits by the day's events, spoke up from where he rested stretched out on a large table. "You got a problem, wolf-boy?"

From there things escalated into a yelling match. The yelling woke up Ahriallen, who had fallen into an exhausted sleep nearby, in time to hear Hollicar and John yelling about John being a werewolf. Grundall also heard the accusations from where he was taking care of his unconscious friend. Hollicar verbally attacked John about being a werewolf, about the party's lack of discipline and leadership, and about John's lack of leadership skills. John verbally attacked Hollicar about hitting party members and being out of control.

The yelling match came to a focused point when Hollicar asked John if he was going to keep pissing and moaning or if he was going to do something about it. John replied that he was done pissing. Hollicar said, "good, so am I" and drew his weapons, calling for his longsword, Zathis, to burst into flame. John drew his mace in reply and battle was joined.

Hollicar proved to be the better fighter and rendered John unconscious while Lenard and Kelson looked on, unsure of how to safely stop the fight. When John fell unconscious Hollicar moved to finish the job. This put Kelson in motion since he was not about to stand there and watch his friend be slaughtered. While Lenard hung back on the edge of the confrontation Kelson moved to tackle the armed Hollicar before he could kill John in cold blood. Kelson failed to tackle Hollicar but did stop his attack. The two wrestled back and forth while Lenard bound John's wounds.

Kelson managed to trip Hollicar and force him back and away from himself and John, but this only enraged Hollicar further. He moved to attack the still unarmed Kelson with his sword and mace. At this same time Grunddall had started to move forward to join the battle (on who's side was anyone's guess) but Ahriallen's call for the dwarf to get down resulted in Grundall diving to the floor. A heartbeat later a large crossbow bolt was buried into Hollicar's shoulder almost up to the fletchings. Ahriallen had produced an arquebus (a siege crossbow that could almost be considered a portable ballista) from somewhere and had put an end to the fight out of disgust with the situation and impatience with Hollicar.

Hollicar was incapacitated by the crossbow bolt but was still on the verge of consciousness. Out of physical and mental exhaustion Kelson kicked Hollicar into unconsciousness to make sure there would be no further difficulties for a while. With only minimal attention to the comfort of his patient, Kelson then removed the deeply embedded crossbow bolt from Hollicar and dressed his wounds.

While Kelson was tending to the fallen half-elf Ahriallen confronted Lenard about John's werewolf affliction. Lenard reassured Ahriallen that John was not a danger to the party or anyone else. The priest did not turn into the ravenous, mad dog killer type from folklore. Instead, John turned into a large wolf and maintained his own intelligence and mentality. Ahriallen decided to let things stand as they were as long as Lenard accepted the fact that since he was vouching for John he would suffer whatever fate befell John if things went badly because of the priest's affliction. Before long everyone fell into exhausted slumber in the dead wizard's lair despite any worries of what the next day would bring.

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