A feeling of satisfaction took hold of Veldruk as the sound of bones breaking took the air. A fine work, said the voice of his mind. Better only if the gnoll were to be alive when it happened. The last of the beasts didn’t take long to be defeated, but the wound on his body didn’t let him forget the one who left his line of sight.

“There’s still an ogre out there and I don’t like that he neither ran away nor did take part in the battle.” That suggested he was preparing something. Some magic item? Maybe an attack or even a spell. “If we find him inside a building, might I suggested we put it to the torch before attacking?”

He turned his eyes to Threla and Evelyn, more than a few questions on his mind. The way the other drow contorted worried him the most. If she transformed and lost control behind their lines the resulting attack could be catastrophic. Specially if targeting the wounded wizard. In the end he decided to speak of it later.

“Any idea what the Auntie could be?” He asked to one in particular and would be happy with any answer. Anything that an ogre would call for at the breaking of a battle was bound to be bad news.

Notes: Better late than never so happy one month birthday. Veldruk will take the help action to support anyone that starts looking for the ogre.

     Looking about the battlefield Nodjeim sees no more adversaries to fight.  With no foes, Nodjeim instead looks to his allies and tries to assess their welfare, checking to see if any are wounded more than just superficially.  Not that he could do more than perhaps bind the wounds but their status must be considered before moving fully into the village.

     "I had glimpsed an ogre," Nodjeim notes to Veldruk, "but I did not see what became of it."  He did not necessarily agree with torching the village but he'd not argue against it, the residents all apparently dead and not returning anyway.

     "Auntie?" Nodjeim asks.  "In what regards?" 

Olan hails them from his vantage point "Before we start setting fire to things, can we maybe try talking to it? I believe a few of us can be somewhat persuasive, and we may learn something to our advantage."

Evelyn joins the others, limping a bit, but Threla's spell went a long way toward making her feel better. The adrenaline starts to fade from her body, and she shivers a bit. Another close encounter, she thinks.

"If we can somehow restrain this ogre, I agree that questioning it could provide valuable answers," she says, nodding toward Olan. "But if that's impossible better to kill it before it can harm anyone else."

"I can help with talking to it, though I'm afraid I don't speak its tongue. Do you know if they speak any common?" Threla looks around for the ogre.

Perception (rolled w/ ADV due to Nodjeims help): 20

OOC: When I heard of the prospect of persuading something, I became very happy. The minimum I can get on persuasion is 18!

“We just raided his home turf and killed his gnoll company so I doubt persuasion can help much now.” He told looking at Olan and from him to Evelyn. “I think we could get him to speak but the crew here was waiting for something to arrive and this something may be reinforcements.”

Maybe in number and strength greater than we can attempt to survive, he thought with his usual optimism. The notion was enough to keep close attention to the globules of light. The moment they disappeared the warlock was ready to cast the rudimentary spell anew.

“I don’t know.” Veldruk admitted to Nodjeim, while helping Threla scan the area. “The ogre shouted the word while saying that ‘they’ not bringing new bodies and the ‘bad doggies’ lied. I’m assuming we are ‘they’ and the ‘bad doggies’ were the gnolls.” What could mean that hyena folk was paying with the blood of their victims for the help of other monstruous creatures. A larger horde, a more diverse horde. A stronger horde.  “My hope was that someone would have some idea about the auntie.”

Every single one of his instincts told him she was an enemy and that he would like to know of which kind.

The ogre, everyone knows, is still inside the house that it ducked inside. For a creature of its size to go anywhere else unseen would be a feat of unimaginable dexterity. The ogre also did speak common just a little while ago.

     "First we should surround the building it is in, ensure it is still in there.  Hard to believe it snuck out but there could be tunnels or something.." Nodjeim offers.  "Then we can test it's willingness to talk.  "But as Veldruk points out, more may be on the way.  We don't want to stretch things out."

     That said, Nodjeim does start heading down to the indicated house the ogre retreated into.  He sets up just outside whatever the main entrance appears to be and awaits for the others to take up positions.  "Who shall try to speak to it?"

Evelyn follows Nodjeim down toward the house. She stays further back and looks for anything she can hide behind in case things go wrong. After these encounters with the gnolls, she has begun to envy her companions' armor, but she knows that anything more than robes would interfere with her range of motion and ability to cast spells.

"Maybe Olan should try to speak to it?" she says, secretly thinking that the elf seems to have the silver tongue out of their group.

Quote from owlbear89 >>

"Maybe Olan should try to speak to it?"

 "Yes, I shall dazzle it with my sparkling wit and repartee." Olan looks at Evelyn for a moment "Oh, you're serious! Well I can try......"

Quote from Vedar >>

Quote from owlbear89 >>

"Maybe Olan should try to speak to it?"

 "Yes, I shall dazzle it with my sparkling wit and repartee." Olan looks at Evelyn for a moment "Oh, you're serious! Well I can try......"

 "I'm sure Olan could dazzle most anyhting with his sparkling wit, though I am not sure how adept an ogre might be at repartee." Threla says "Shall we?" she gestures to the house

Olan approaches the house but stops at a safe distance. Raising his voice he calls out "We know you are in there. We would like to talk to you rather than fight. Are you willing to talk?"

     Nodjeim goes up to the building and basically stands with his back against it next to the door, the idea being that if the Ogre rushes out towards the party it would need pass him first.  

((Kind of setting up for an Opportunity Attack and to have the thing surrounded if he does come out))

There is a brief silence. Then...

"Go away. You hurt Bartusk. Bartusk kill you if you get close."

"Bartusk, is that your name? I am Olan. We don't want to hurt anybody, but your gnoll friends attacked us, killed many of our friends and appear to have killed everybody here."

"We want to know why, and who sent them against us. Was that you?"

"Why I help you? You kill lying doggies, you hurt me. You no die like you should be."

"If you help us we will leave you in peace. We may even be able to help you."

"If the gnolls were lying to you, why were you helping them?"

Olan, roll me persuasion. Anyone else can give the help action by chipping in with something that might make the ogre more willing to listen.

     Nodjeim just waits patiently...

Persuasion 15