Part 12: By Other Means

Update 8: By Other Means

Since Sir Karl can go ahead and wait for a minute, we're going ahead and continuing on with the last side quest in the game before continuing onward.



The ogre base we're looking for is a bit hard to find, which leads to some wandering, which leads to one of the non-combat random encounters available in the game. Having a mobile training hall is unlikely to be useful, but it's kind of fun.



Our actual goal is due west of Gargath, which is a bit off from where the map you receive at the beginning of this quest says it should be.



"No guards at all? Typical ogre sloppiness…"

"Could be patrols instead… we should get off the streets."



"Uh… yes?"

"What do you think the odds of us running into this guy ducking into a house were?"

"Damn near certain to happen. Had to."



"We can certainly help you… you said the sign was like this?"

"No, no… you cross the middle two fingers. Like this."

"I think we've got it… let's go try it on the guards!"



"Works like a charm."

"So it would seem… let us continue. Perhaps starting with that building over there?"



"Wow, it seems like we've got an ogre genius here. Almost a pity to kill him."

"Just shows that this won't be as easy as we'd hope."



Oh, who am I kidding? These things are a joke. They can occasionally tag us for good damage, but the odds aren't in their favor and they die ridiculously easily to any kind of area of effect spell.

Following the brief struggle...



"Are we sure this is genuine?"

"Well, it says "I are going to kill boss with Myrtani help and be big boss me self. Hahahahaha! Signed, Morog"

"That is about what you'd get from an ogre that could write…"

"And it only has to be convincing enough to persuade an ogre that can read."

At this point, it's just a matter of going from door to door and avoiding the central building where the meeting is taking place.



"Er.. scuse us. Could you point us to the bathroom?"



"Thank you, ladies. We'll take care of the matter."



"Hey guys! How's it going?"



"I believe these may be the most incompetent plotters I have ever seen."

"It is truly a case where the only way they could succeed would be against opponents who were equally dim."



"Dammit, I want to murder him but he's just too pathetic to kill."

"With as much direction as we're getting to this room, I'm almost starting to believe this is a trap."



"Looks like the party got started a little early."

"I'd ask how anybody could have missed this, but… well, we're in an ogre encampment."



"Too easy…"



"Er… Ergothian takeout delivery."

"Did someone order the seafood surprise?"



"I can't believe that worked."

"Let's see if it works in the next room over."



"I guess that answers that. We should have just skipped straight to killing them."



Six seems to be a magic number in here. With the Girdle of Giant Strength Boo is capable of killing these guys in a single good shot, and Sam's bonuses against giants enable a similar performance. As close as these guys are and as narrow as the area is, we've got to deal with it by physical means.



"Hey, you guys aren't takeout delivery! You don't even got delivery boxes!"

"Well, you've caught us out. Now come get your seafood surprise!"



Why, it's the exact same fight, only in reverse! This one is a bit easier to clear out with a well placed fireball. With the two waves of ogres cleared out, we can continue on to the actual assassins.



"It's almost like they were expecting trouble."

"And they were right."

"I am simply amazed at how many draconians they crammed into this little room."



And that's not even all. This has the potential to be a fairly brutal fight, but the important thing to note is the draconian directly across from Sam. That's an Aurak, and this is actually our first chance to fight one in the game. They've got a wide selection of spells and have an energy bolt attack they love to use on spell casters. They're also quite difficult to kill, springing back up to 20 HP after you kill them the first time.



The wand of fireballs proves its worth once again, helping to clear out some of the minions so we can deal with the real threat. With this fight completed, we've pretty much done all we can here. It's possible to just charge in to the ogre council meeting without dealing with these guys first, but you end up having to fight them anyway. Before we finish up, though, there's one place that needs a second look.



"The crudely scrawled 'Morog' on the door causes me to suspect that this might be his bedroom. Surprisingly good taste for an ogre."



"The large piles of money marked as coming from Myrtani would seem to confirm that guess."

"Can't be that much. Even an ogre wouldn't be stupid enough leave a bunch of money under his bed in marked sacks."



"…although I could be wrong."

"This.. this is retirement money. I could buy a room at an inn and come down to the tavern every night with this."

"It's also really heavy. We're going to be moving pretty slowly with all this weighing us down."*

*At 10 coins per pound (which I believe is the official D&D weight) this is 800 pounds of coins.



"Uh… hello there, we've got something to tell you…"



"We've come to warn you that you were in danger."

"Assassins sent from Myrtani, let in by one of your lieutenants. We found this note."

"Let me see that…Morog, you traitorous slime!"



"I honestly don't think that could have gone better."



This looks worse than it is. The ogres behind us are allies, while the ogres to the front are enemies. You can only really tell the difference based on the color of their name. Friendly ogres have blue names. Luckily, being ogres they aren't terribly broken up if you accidentally kill one of the friendlies. Morog isn't actually considered important enough to have his own stat block or sprite.



"At this point, we truly have nothing to lose by going along."



"Of course!"



"We'll take your help, but don't think this makes us friends."

"But before that, I think we need to do some shopping."



You might remember from a few updates back that this place was too pricey for us to do much.



I think by now we can afford a few things. We also have quite literally nothing else to spend money on.



This is also a pretty good opportunity to show off the appraisal for gems and jewelry. You can use the appraise command at any store and you'll be offered a random amount for each gem a character is carrying. Usually gems are in values of 5, 50, and 500 steel.



Jewelry tends to be worth considerably more. We use the money to buy a wand of missiles, some scrolls, enchanted darts for Ishmael, and enchanted arrows for Sam.



The scrolls are static, and offer all of these spells for scribing. It's a pretty easy way to fill out your spell book a bit more.





Other than that our characters haven't really changed much, but this is more in the way of a side mission. Next time, when we finally rescue Sir Karl, things should get shaken up a bit.