Tales of The Wanderlust Company - Their First Battle

The Wanderlust Company had recently arrived on the island of Inis Taim in the town of Dawnpoint.  The town itself was a grimy port town, filled with workers on the docks and warehouses.  It lent a rough air to the town, lots of drunks at all times of the day, and many colourful characters throughout.  Fights broke out seemingly on a whim.

The company had, on arrival, got some accomodations and proceeded to talk with the locals at the inn, and in the surrounding streets.  This led to hearing a rumour about a merchant looking for some mercenaries for some work.  The work as it turned out was monster hunting, specifically an ogre.  This ogre had been terrorizing the local farmers and the merchant, who's goods relied on the farmers, wanted it gone.

After talking amongst themselves The Wanderlust Company contracted to kill this ogre, their first job ever as a mercenary warband.

And so, after stocking up on things they needed, the company headed out the following day to where the ogre was last seen, near the forest edge a ways out from town.

Tobias Softstep, a halfling in the company was told to scout ahead.  A pre-arranged signal was decided on and Tobias went off, with some understandable trepidation, on his own to scout while the company waited near the edge of the woods.  The woods was fairly easy to navigate, having been logged off and on over the years and so was clean as far as forests go, this part of it anyway.  He quickly and quietly made his way in.  He came to an area where it was lighter and proceeded carefully.  He found a cave...well not a cave exactly but a small hill made of a jutting piece of stone which overhung a more open area underneath.  No ogre so far but the signs were that this was it's lair.  He creeped carefully towards the cave and found tied poorly but effectively was a person, still alive.  A young man, probably mid to late teens.  He looked somewhat beaten but was alert.  Tobias signaled for him to be quiet and he cut him loose.  The young man thanked him quietly.  Tobias unstrapped his crossbow and gave it to him along with the quiver of bolts and quietly told him where the rest of the company was and to quietly make his way there.  The young man nodded and went off, clutching the crossbow in his hands.  Tobias looked around and saw a brighter area near the cave, like a clearing and went towards it.  Here he found the ogre.  It was drinking water at a pond that was in the clearing.  Tobias quietly made his way back towards the company and did the prearranged signal which they saw and started moving.  Tobias went back near where the ogre was and waited.

Hector Clay, the leader of the Wanderlust Company had been waiting for the signal.  They went to alert when they saw a figure coming towards them but it was a young man, a little worse for wear.  He told them about being freed by a halfling and given a crossbow so he was armed and was prepared to show them to the cave, injuries or no.  Hector, seeing the young man being eager to help asked him if he could actually use that crossbow and he (who introduced himself belatedly as Ren Thatcher) nodded yes.  So Hector decided to use him for some fire support to which Ren readily agreed.

The signal came and Hector moved the company forward quietly.  They managed to get near to the cave and saw Tobias quietly waving and they moved towards him, spreading out in a semi-circle.  Ren went to a rise that overlooked the pond and he could see the ogre that had captured him still drinking.  He saw Hector wave to him which meant he was to start shooting so he did.  He sent a bolt straight into the ogre.  He saw it sink into it's flesh.  It stood suddenly roaring, turning towards where the party was and it may have seen somebody as it suddenly started rushing towards the party still making loud gutteral noises which may have been speech.

Hector called out and the company spread out further in a larger semi-circle.  The orc female Glasha prepared her sword and moved directly towards the ogre and was the first one to make physical contact.  The ogre stopped seeing her and seeing the others and seemed confused for a bit.  Glasha took advantage and moved in, hitting the ogre solidly with her sword but it seemed to almost bounce off it's tough hide.  The ogre decided in that instant what to do, and swung it's fist at Grisha.  It connected with her chest plate and sent her flying back, where she landed on her back, down and thrashing around on the ground.

Esta the elf moved in next and slashed her sword, striking true and actually cutting the ogre's hide but the would wasn't deep and just seemed to anger it more.  She struck again but this hit bounced off.  The ogre tried to hit her but couldn't keep up with the speedy elf woman.

Tobias had used the distraction to get around behind it and struck it's back.  But like the others, his sword was defeated by the toughness of the ogre.  Further strikes from the others bewildered the ogre and it kept trying to strike it's attackers to no avail.  Theron, the former knight was the first one to deal a serious blow, moving behind it and striking deep.  The ogre felt that one and swung around, trying to hit at this new source of pain but missed.  

Blows and crossbow bolts kept bouncing off the tough ogre and doing little to it until Hargoldra the dwarf got into range and swung.  Like Theron she struck true and dealt a mighty blow, causing a gaping wound to the gut of the ogre.  With a cry of pain it swung and connected with the dwarf, injuring her and knocking her off balance.  This caused Hargoldra's next attack to be weak.

Further exchanges of blows were performed to no avail as none of them did much to the ogre.  But it managed to hit Theron solidly, flinging him back and causing him to collapse to the ground, not moving.

But the former captive Ren aimed a strike true and strong with the crossbow and hit the ogre square in one of it's eyes.  The ogre let of a sharp roar of pain that was cut off as the bolt entered it's brain and it collapsed to the ground dead.

The company, bruised and beat up quickly checked on Glasha and Theron.  As it turned out, Glasha's armour absorbed the blow and was broken and knocked the breath out of her and bruised her but she was alive gasping on the ground.  Theron was also still alive, knocked out cold.  Hargoldra was injured but was able to still move.  All in all, the battle that felt like it went on forever was over fairly quickly and the party came out, not unscathed but triumphant.

Checking out the cave, they found a nice set of light armour and a nice shield along with some money and other goods.  With that stowed away and Theron having come to by this time, the company gathered themselves together and returned to town.