01.4 Logging Camp continued

[slug]

Carlton Blacks Mercenaries
Company members:-
Krachtig (Vervalsing Voorwerp de Meesten Krachtig) – Gnome Illusionist/Thief
Taran – Half Elf Fighter/Priest of Mannnanan Mac Lir, cousin to Carinne and Galvish
Carinne Rhianne Talynnart – Half Elf Ranger/Mage, Cousin to Taran and Galvish
Galvish – Half Elf Fighter/Thief, Cousin to Tarana and Carinne
Barrigan Stonebeak – Dwarf Fighter/Priest, Company Engineer.

We plan on a way to attack the logging camp and conclude that taking the Eastern most guard posts out then striking at the leaders cabin would be good, we array the crossbowman behind us to give covering fire in case of a hasty retreat.  Sleep spells are then thrown at the guards in the two closest watchtowers, to little effect.  Krachtig climbs up to investigate to discover the people are illusions, we then observe others in the camp going through the same repetitive motions.  We quickly enter the camp and hear some noise from the North Side, Galvish hurries to investigate and observes a large group of people leaving the camp – all the rebels and indentured prisoners.  He is then set upon by a rearguard, the rest of the party hurries into the combat, about a half dozen guards were left behind to secure the rest of the groups escape, we make short work of the battle and just as we are healing up our wounds one of the departing rebels launches a fireball at us, we survive this but decide against following them as they are nearly 100 strong.  We investigate the camp further and find 12 loggers who carry injuries and were unable to leave.  The rebels had broken into the tomb we had previously looted, when they found that things had been destroyed/looted they probably decided it was time to leave.
Eventually we are relieved at the logging camp by more guards and we make our way back to our barracks – it is quite a long journey and on the way are beset by Ogres trying to ambush us.
One of the Ogres is spotted crouching behind a small tree to the side of the trail, Krachtig approaches him and asks him what he is doing there, he replies “it’s an ambush……doh”. Missile fire is exchanged and we close to hand to hand combat.  Kalan Ghent makes short work of several of the creatures, before reinforcements and a shaman arrive, some of our party take a beating including Barrigan who takes a vicious wound to his throat, rendering his voicebox inoperable – at least we won’t hear him say that “binding wounds is for pussies”, Taran uses his herbs and successfully binds the dwarfs wounds, but not enough to restore his voice.  We manage to beat down the last of the ogres, Taran runs in to deliver two massive wounds to the shaman, but simultaneously falls to the ground suffering cold damage from a magic shield enveloping the ogre.  The shaman is the last one standing and decides to flee.  We cure our wounds and bring around the unconscious ones.  The wounded shaman had left a pretty easy to follow trail and once we regroup decide to track this creature down.  Kalan Ghent sends the crossbowmen with us and off we go.
We make good time along the trail and even above the noise of the dwarf in his plate mail armor we hear noises ahead of us on the trail.  We quickly get off to the side and sure enough a small group of ogres come into view, Krachtig creatures an illusion of archers firing at them off to one side which one of the dimwitted creatures goes towards, the battle rages on and one of the crossbowmen (Lars) is impaled by a huge spear killing him instsntly and easing to victory for us when an invisible creature, undoubtedly the shaman starts hurling spells at us.  Carinne casts Glitterdust in the area to reveal the creature at the same time that Taran runs there, thus blinding him, even so he manages to land a blow on the ogre.  We take him down and with his dying breath drops a skull necklace to the ground which almost immediately explodes wounding us further.  
We now decide to find a safe spot to rest and heal up before going further.  After doing so we carry on following the tracks and soon come across an encampment containing mostly female and young ogres, we launch our attack successfully and allow any non combatant ogres to run away.  Searching through their belongings we come across a healthy amount of coins and some magic armor, a magic sword and several potions.
We return to Kalan carrying Lars corpse and make the journey back to our barracks.
We bury Lars with full honors at our base, there’s some corner of a foreign field that is forever Barelin.
During the debrief we are told that the mill owner does not think our mission was successful as we had allowed the loggers to escape, although our CO says we have done a fine job and as a “punishment” we are to be sent to Jans Landing on the coast for training purposes, also he will call in a favor with a priest in the nearby city to restore the Dwarf to his normal state following the encounter with the undead, thus only costing half the normal amount.
We restock our possessions and make our way overland to Jans Landing whilst Kalan and the footsoldiers (including the recent replacement, Kirk, who wields a mean axe) will go by boat.  We stop at several fishing villages along the way and trade for some nice pearls which will help us with identifying magic items in future.
Before reaching our final destination we notice movement in the water and are shortly attacked by Sahaguin, Carinne charges into action as these are her natural enemies.  The fight becomes strung out with pockets of combat spread along the coastline, we hear a gnome shout out and turn around to see half a dozen of the creatures running to him, luckily he has cast a mirror image on himself to aid his defense.  We emerge relatively unscathed although Barrigan did run into Tarans backswing of his sword during the fight.
We meet up with the rest of our group at Jans Landing and are assigned various places to stay.  Galvish and Taran getting the hayloft in the village.