Dragon of Icespire Peak ***CLOSED***

 Tabeshal slips her graceful hand under Barris' arm lightly, as to indicate to stay by her as the robed, lithe silhouette advances on the ogres calmly but steadily. As she gets within about 30 feet of the pair of monstrous figures, she lowers her hood ans addresses them in a hypnotic, warm lulling tone :

" Of course I will help you satiate your hunger, friends. Why waste time and effort running after tiny prey, when so much more can be found elsewhere ? If you do something for me I can tell you where to find more FOOD : the most delicious, crunchiest things that you will ever find, and not far from this barren place ! You come and be Blue's friends, then Blue will help you find FOOD. Lots of FOOD ! Come to me now, friends..."

As she speaks, her left hand has left the fighter's arm and is opening and closing slowly, the fingers weaving discrete arcane patterns half-hidden beneath the robe's deep, wide sleeve. Her other hand is leaning on her cobalt staff, whose headstone soon starts glowing with a soft, golden light that seems to throb and pulsate with the pacing of each word she utters. Her voice is barely audible but at the same time every breath she takes seems to cut through the air like a strong, warm summer wind.

** Gets within spell range then casts Charm Person on both ogres, using a second-level slot. **  

@AshDrunbar Fantastic RP! Great post!

GOMP WIS SAVE: 8 vs. DC 13, LUMP WIS SAVE: 12 vs. DC 13

Both half-ogres are charmed by Tabesha’l.

GOMP: “Hey! Me know you...me like you! You like me? You help Gomp and Lump find food? Me give you present!”

The half-ogre opens up a blood-stained burlap sack and pulls forth the partially-decomposed body of a medium-sized humanoid and drops it at Tabesha’l’s feet. It is dressed in traveler’s clothes and has the strong scent of days-old death.

GOMP: “Look! For yous!”

As the pair of half-ogres engage in conversation with Tabesha’l, a small badger cautiously pokes it head out from in between two large boulders. It watches the brutes with suspicion and seems to be afraid to move for fear of alerting them to its presence.

Brutus turns to the badger, assuring it that now is the time to escape while the fires are distracted

Vaxis looks both puzzled and mortified.

"By the gods, that is morbid."

He moves to investigate the body.

(Perception: 19)

Barric lets out a breath of relief as Tabeshe'l's spell takes hold. As Vaxis moves to take a look at the body, Barric leans over his shoulder, seeing if he can spot the cause of death, wondering if these half-ogres scavengers or murderers.

(Assisting Vaxis with his perception check).

You see a the corner of what appears to be a folded up piece of parchment sticking out of the inside of the corpse’s vest.

Vaxis removes the parchment and reads the note.

The front side of the document appears to be a rudimentary map. The back side has a lengthy hand-written note in a language no one in the party is fluent in.

@VAXIS - please make a CON SAVE roll

Taking Brutus’ cue, the badger scrambles from its hiding place and darts away.

LUMP TO TABESHA’L: “What we do now, friend? You hungry? We eat blue thing now?”

Tabesha'l looks up at the monstrous being and points towards the now-empty burlack sack.

" Tell me, friend Lump, where did you find this one ? Did you hunt it yourself or was it simply laying around ?"

After she learns what she needs from her new ally, she continues: " I promised I would tell thee where to find food. Now listen carefully..."

As the half-ogres gather, she explains to them the way to the dwarven ruins the best she can.

" If thou goeth to that place, thou will find it full of the most delicious food : roasted chickens, legs of lamb, and raw meat too, lots of it. But thou must hurry, because I saw some orcs going there and everyone knows they always clean their plates, so best run now before they eat it all ! On thou goeth, friends... I wish thee Bon Appetit !"

(EDIT TO POST #433: you are able to recognize the hand-writing as gnomish, but cannot determine what it says. Also, still looking for a CON SAVE from Vaxis. I’ll give you advantage since you are a dragonborn.)

The half-ogres scratch their heads and look confusedly at one another after Tabesha’l finishes speaking to them. They know she spoke in the Common tongue, but they haven’t the faintest clue of the meaning behind what she just said. A few awkward seconds pass, then Gomp looks back at Tabesha’l: “You smart!”

(OOC: if someone would like to make a Wisdom (Insight) or Intelligence (Nature) check to learn something about half-ogres, now would probably be a good time to do so.)

Now that the critter is gone, Brutus turns back and looks over the ogres.  Being familiar with giants and half Giant like his kind, he tries to figure out any details.  Nature: 13

Connak watches on from his hidden vantage point, arrow nocked and watching intently.

Nature: 24

(OOC: @Brutus, @Connak - check the PMs I sent you on Discord to see what you can recall about the ogrish race.)

Connak tries to signal Tabesha'l from his hiding spot, making a 'mouth' motion with one hand, then pointing to his ear...

Barric has been watching the half ogres through all of this, not quite sure what to make of them.

Insight 5.

Tabesha'l gives the half-ogres a small bow. " Thank you. I am smart, yes. But you're strong, that's important too. And hungry. You want to know where there is FOOD ? I can show you where."

As she notices Connak's waving, she points a finger at the archer. Soon, the familiar telepathic whisper of the elven maid's Message spell spreads inside the wood elf's head:

" It seems I experience some modicum of difficulty getting my point across to these beings. I shall try and be as clear and simplistic as possible, so as to let their tiny brains register my meaning... What sayeth thee, Thuniviel ?"

Both of the brutes follow the direction Tabesha’l is pointing as they replay her last statement in their heads “...you want to know where there is food? I can show you where...”

LUMP: “Oooh, food in bushes! HA HA! Yay!”

The pair heft their axes and move past Barric and Tabesha’l towards Connak’s position, though they are not yet aware of the wood elf’s presence.

(Con save: 8)

Vaxis looks to Tabesha'l, "Your intervention would not go amiss, magician..."

Connak replies frantically at Tabesha'l's telepathic message, "You play a dangerous game.  Ogres like to collect junk, and are fascinated with gold and silver.  They're also very stupid, and if they don't understand, they break what confuses them, including too clever wizards.  They also only really speak Giant, barely.  Why are you sending them towards me!!!"