Chapter Twenty-Three: Ogres Against Humanity...

Kent: the well-spoken male ogre

Dirkin had not returned from one of his usual hunting trips and so his brother Kirchin - and Kirchin's apprentice, Holly - left the refugee caravan to try and find him.

Having retraced his steps to where Dirkin left the main road, Kirchin managed to track his brother through the woods and eventually came to a large clearing, by a stream, where Dirkin was bound to a rock.

The rock formed part of a small henge, near a shepherd's cottage and a herd of sheep. The shepherd - now deceased - was secured next to Dirkin.

Dirkin had been captured by a family of very well-spoken ogres intent on sacrificing him - and the shepherd - to their sheep deity!

Kirchin and Holly fought, and killed, the male ogre and were then searching the area when the female attacked. Kirchin took a meaty blow to the head and Holly snapped her rapier in the ensuing conflict, but the second ogre was soon overpowered as well.

Kirchin, Holly, and Dirkin then followed the trail of the female ogre back into the forest, where they found the ogre's den, a cave with two young mewling ogre-babies.

After much soul-searching, Kirchin and Holly dispatched the younglings.

Having searched the area round the henge, and found an old military monument and a rusty broach, Kirchin and Holly snared a couple of the sheep (who they named Flossy and Dolly), and then - along with Dirkin - headed back to the main road to Bendwyn, and rejoined the caravan.

A rough map of where the encounter took place...

Cast:

• Dirkin - GMPC
• Holly - Erica
• Kirchin - Pete

Prologue To Chapter Eighteen...

Betty Entwhistle Blamed The Death Of Her Husband On His Former Student, Marigold Weaver

Peter Entwhistle's funeral was a beautiful, traditional Mnorean affair, conducted by Father Caleb, ending with the congregation chanting "your name will live on" as Peter's coffin was lowered into the ground, dappled by beams of midsummer sun lancing through the trees that dotted the graveyard of the Temple Of The Lady Of Healing.

It gave Marigold a degree of peace knowing that Peter's reputation as a great wizard had earned him his room in Ündain.

The past week had not been an easy one. Unsurprisingly when Marigold, Kirchin, Holly, and Harry had gone to Betty Entwhistle to break the news of her husband's death, she had not taken it well... and had to be restrained from attacking Marigold who she blamed for, well, pretty much everything.

This further compounded Marigold's growing doubt about her calling.

"It's going to be hard finding another mentor in this backwater," she had confided in Holly, "But if I cannot I may have to quit magic entirely as practicing without hope of progress would break my heart."

Except for a message from Tarik, telling Kirchin that he was heading to Dranning to alert the Duke to the coming of "the world-breaker", and the increased sightings of forest wights in the woods around the village, a strange solemnity had fallen over Bendwyn in the wake of Peter Entwhistle's death.

Davian locked himself away in virtual seclusion, working on some "project" in his forge, only appearing - with his trademark gruffness - when customers needed new horseshoes, tool repairs etc

Marigold working at Kirchin's
House Of Healing

Harry went back to entertaining the patrons of The Golden Axe, although few were in the mood for his usual raucous fare, and Kirchin and Holly took Marigold under their wing as they joined Kahl back at The Temple Of Healing.

They made every effort of keep Marigold out of the main village as whenever Betty Entwhistle - or her two children - saw Marigold they would pull out their Mnorean World Tree symbols and thrust them at her violently, as though driving out The Great God T'Ao himself.

After a few weeks, Holly started to notice something was a bit different about Marigold, who had become increasing introspective since the death of her mentor, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

One afternoon, with Kahl out running errands, just when it looked as though Marigold had plucked up the courage to confide in Kirchin whatever it was that was still bothering her, Harry came racing in to the house of healing.

"Kirchin, come quick, there's a man at The Golden Axe asking for you by name!" the halfling blurted out.

Interest piqued, Kirchin and the two women joined Harry, heading back towards the tavern.

Harry pushed open the doors to the tavern as his comrades strode in. Kirchin saw the back of a blonde-haired archer (his bow and quiver were on the table in front of him), dressed in green leathers, sat chatting with Kahl - who should have been fetching honey from Gwendolyn the wise woman.

Kahl jumped up, beaming from ear-to-ear, as the man turned to face Kirchin and the others.

"Look," blurted out Kahl. "It's Uncle Dirkin! Your brother, father!"

"It's so good to see you again, Kirchin," the man that Kahl had called Dirkin (why did that name seem so familiar to Kirchin?) proclaimed. "I have need of your sword-arm and bravery to help me loot the treasure-house of the gods..."

Kirchin's Brother Dirkin - Can You See The Family Resemblance?

Chapter Sixteen: Return To The Haunted Manse...

Forest Wights: An Omen Of Ill Fortune ('They Feed On Schadenfreude')

The latest chapter in the adventures of Cobblethwaite's Companions began with Kirchin and Holly sparring in the courtyard of The Merry Riot in Dundraville, while Davian was inside running 'tests' (ie hitting with a hammer) on the magical skull ring he had found the day before.

Marigold cleaned herself up from her sudden bout of sickness as Harry took a test shot with his onyx bow... and promptly broke it!

Kirchin became obsessed with the idea that leather wristband Harry had claimed from the treasure chamber was to blame for this disaster.

But that was only the beginning of Harry's bad luck.

With Kirchin pushing the wheelbarrow he'd borrowed from Bothwell, the group headed back into the hills outside the village, past the old ogre cave and deeper into the woods. As the canopy closed above them and it got darker, they began to see dark shadows - with bright, burning eyes - darting back and forth between the trees.

Holly explained that these were "forest wights", generally harmless, insubstantial ghost-creatures whose presence was a portent of bad things to come.

Arriving at the walled manse, buried deep in the woods, and overgrown after decades of neglect, the party opted to head through the main gates and try the front door.

Unfortunately, as they trooped in, the ground gave way beneath Harry and he crashed down into a subterranean room, that turned out to be the derelict remains of an old laboratory.

The party carefully climbed down and Kirchin went to practice his physicker's art on the wounded bard... and ended up making the problem even worse. Harry's scream of pain was probably audible back in Dundraville.

'Ceiling Monkey'

While other healers in the group started working on Harry - and he took a swig of one of his healing potions - Davian was keeping an eye on a strange creature scuttling around on the ceiling that retreated into the neighbouring room when it caught sight of the size of the party.

Looking into the next room, a water-soaked old library, Davian saw there were five of these "ceiling monkeys" as he called them.

The creatures retreated when the adventurers entered the library and didn't appear to be much of a threat.

Heading through the library, the party found themselves in Jerol's underground study and realised they were now in areas they had explored before.

They explored the passageway where Kirchin deduced - with Holly's input - that the 'snark' had lured Peter Entwhistle away and attacked him, but couldn't figure out how Peter has escaped. Marigold - his student - did point out that he was a mighty wizard!

Beyond this area, in an overgrown gallery, they found what they presumed was the snark's egg, but - as far as they could tell - they had killed the only snark down here.

After some discussion, they decided to make for the staircase back up to the ground floor, where there was a door they hadn't tried.

Breezing through the corridor, they wandered into a ghoulish ambush and once battle was engaged at the bottom of the staircase, more ghouls poured out the kitchen behind them and trapped the party in bloody battle.

Ghouls...

Holly heroically charged the ghouls that were attacking from the rear, while the others dealt with the first group of ambushers. Then Holly hid in the wine cellar, while Davian took her place in the hall and Kirchin fired arrows (as he could) past him into the flesh-eating creatures.

It was a protracted fight but, boosted by Harry's singing and occasional bursts of magic from Marigold, Davian managed to overpower the ghouls.

After this fight, the adventurers rested for an hour in the wine cellar, then headed back to Jerol's bedroom, through the secret doors and into the crypt where they had found Kennet the other day.

It turned out the crypt contained Jerol's tomb. Not wishing to desecrate it, they paused to think where they would head next.

To be continued...

CAST:

• Davian (Kevin)
• Harry (Simon)
• Holly (Erica)
• Kirchin (Pete)
• Marigold (Clare)

Chapter Fourteen: I Ain't Afraid Of No Ghost...

The overgrown trackway to Jerol's Manse - the "haunted house" the party are exploring...

After their mind-boggling adventure in the insanity of the Realm Of The Faerie, Kirchin, Davian and Harry were plagued by strange dreams.

Kirchin was walking the battlefields of his youth, searching for the wounded; Harry realised the man he thought was his father was in fact a cruel slavemaster running an illicit 'cobbling mill', that Harry had torched when making his escape; and Davian remembered a guard dog he had been fond of his youth that had given its life to alert his tribe of an impending orc raid.

Kirchin awoke to himself in the town's chapel, collapsed over the altar with no recollection of how he got there from his bed in the healing house!

Later that day, when the three heroes were dining at The Golden Axe, a young woman burst in and headed straight towards Kirchin.

It was Dayl, a barmaid at The Merry Riot in Dundraville, one of the women the group had rescued from the ogre a month or so earlier.

She explained that one of the sons of Bothwell, the landlord and her emploer, had disappeared and she feared that the ogre had returned.

Bothwell

Kirchin, Davian and Harry agreed to come and help in the search, alerting Holly, Peter Entwhistle and Marigold that they were going.

And soon the six-strong party were on the way to Dundraville.

By the time they got there, Bothwell's other son had admitted that he had 'double dared' his older brother to visit the haunted house in the hills beyond the Skulltop Hillock (where the ogre's lair had been).

The house had once belonged to a famous adventurer, Jerol Of Jirrey, but had fallen into disrepair after he died 40 years ago and no-one had been brave enough to venture there since as - as well as the ogre - they all believed it was haunted.

Guided to the bottom of the trail by the frightened villagers, by the time Cobblethwaite's Companions reached the house it was pitch dark, but they managed to find a trail through the overgrown grass between the manse and its curtain wall.

They followed the trail round to the back of the house, coming to a broken window where a small spot of blood was seen - the boy, Kennet, had cut himself on the glass getting in, making his trail inside easier to follow.

Cautiously they made their through a number of derelict rooms, following Kennet's trail, and calling out to him. Searching one room, a parlor of sorts, Davian found a 6" glass sphere, with a smokey interior, that he immediately wrapped up and put in his backpack.

In the manor house's tower, the group found a collection of old maps, some of which they thought might be worth something, so they pocketed those, but were generally pretty single-minded in their desire to track down the missing child.

A staircase in the tower led into the basement, and there the group found their first clues that Kennet wasn't the only creature in this building - there were a mixture of non-human (possibly monstrous) footprints before the trail disappeared completely.

In a wine cellar, Marigold siphoned off some mead-like substance from one vat labelled "Joy Juice" with the idea that she would study it later and then the party came into a looted armoury, where their attention was drawn to three precious stones embedded in the wall, with a cryptic verse underneath.

Cracking the code, they pressed the stones in the correct order. There was a click and the outline of a concealed door appeared.

To be continued...

CAST:

• Davian (Kevin)
• Harry (Simon)
• Holly (Erica)
• Kirchin (Pete)
• Marigold (Clare)

Marking Twelve Months Of Adventuring...

The Chronicles Of Cidri has now been going for 12 months, which is something of a record for the Tuesday Knights.

It kicked off using the The Fantasy Trip mechanics, the very old system (dating back to the late '70s) from Metagaming, under Pete's guidance (always with the understanding that he and I would share the gamesmastering duties).

During the Tuesday Knights' early adventures, fellow blogger Chirine ba Kal (of the excellent Tekumel blog chirine's workbench) drew my attention to the Dark Fable miniatures of Dr Mike Burns.

Chatting with Mike, who was also a fan of The Fantasy Trip, he turned me on to Heroes & Other Worlds, a modern adaptation of TFT.

I did some investigating, got a couple of copies of the core HOW rules (one for me and one for Pete) and we decided to 'upgrade' our campaign to this more current engine. We haven't looked back.

The adventures I've run for the Tuesday Knights have all been based upon scenarios cooked up by the brilliant Tim Shorts (either from his fanzine The Manor or his Patreon campaign to produce micr-adventures), while talented cartographer Simon Forster (who is also running a Patreon campaign) has provided us with fantastic maps - updated from the sketchy originals in the TFT books - of the heroes' home town, Bendwyn, and the surrounding area.

Links to Campaign Chapters:

PREQUEL: Origin Stories - we all make new characters, using the TFT rules, in the wake of our TPK in Meredith's Warcraft campaign.

CHAPTER ONE: Dem Bones, Dem Bones and CHAPTER TWO: Zombie Sex Slaves - our heroes clear the undead taint from an old healing house near their town, so Pete's character (Kirchin) can restore it to its previous function.

CHAPTER THREE: Let's Hunt Some Ogre, CHAPTER FOUR: Battle Thong Of The Ogre Republic and CHAPTER FIVE: Frogroth Rising - Our heroes go to the aid of a neighbouring town that is being plagued by ogre trouble.

[At this point I took over running the game and we segued into using HOW]

CHAPTER SIX: Who Let The Pigs Out? Our heroes help the local salt pit owner to rid his mine of a troublesome pest.

CHAPTER SEVEN: The Hunt For Margesh Blackblood (part one), CHAPTER EIGHT: The Hunt For Margesh Blackblood (part two), CHAPTER NINE: The Hunt For Margesh Blackblood (part three) and CHAPTER TEN: The Hunt For Margesh Blackblood (part four) - our heroes travel all around the region in pursuit of an elusive bandit (taking in some side adventures on the way).

THE TUESDAY KNIGHTS: 

Meredith's first character, an apprentice wisewoman, was killed during the ogre adventure and replaced by her fiery young rogue, Imogen.

Clare made a welcome return to the Tuesday Knights during The Hunt For Margesh Blackblood arc, bringing with her trainee wizard Marigold Weaver.

My wizard (Marigold's master), Peter Entwhistle, retired to NPC status when I took over running the campaign, as I wasn't comfortable with the idea of having him around as a GMPC.

Pete's GMPC, Kirchin, stepped up to full player-character status when I became the campaign gamesmaster.

Kevin is playing the group's tank, a beefy dwarven weaponsmith called Davian Battlebeard.

Simon is the group's moral support, morale officer and amoral thief, halfling bard Harry Cobblethwaite.

Chapter Ten: The Hunt For Margesh Blackblood, The Conclusion...

Captured: Margesh Blackblood

With the ogres dead, our heroes quickly found the hidden room where their quarry - the elusive bandit leader Margesh Blackblood - was hiding.

The charming outlaw endeavoured to open negotiations, but the fiery-tempered dwarf Davian Battlebeard was having none of it and attacked, backed up by the magical webs of young wizard-in-training Marigold Weaver. Blackblood shrugged off a couple of Marigold's treacherous webs and gave a dazzling demonstration of his swordsmanship, landing a powerful blow on Davian while almost simultaneously disarming the sneaky Imogen (whose twin daggers of death had come into play).

Harry the halfling bard provided musical support, his tune bolstering the party's morale.

He was, however, soon overpowered and bound in ropes by our canny heroes. Marigold used her staff to bludgeon Margesh unconscious. He was then stripped of his possessions and secured across the back of the group's mule, Charles.

Kirchin, the only skilled swordsman in the group, took possession of Margesh's fabled Sword Of Aquin (for safekeeping), before the group headed off back through the forest towards Horst, a village they planned to avoid because it was a hideout for Margesh's band of ruffians, on their route back to Bendwyn.

As they approached the tree with the word Croatoan carved on it, that marked the start of the narrow trail back towards the "hellmouth" crypt they had explored days earlier, they discovered three corpses across the path - two men (no good ruffians, by the look of it) and a bound-and-gagged peasant woman.

A trail of blood led away from the site along the same path the party was taking, so they investigated only to find themselves back at the murder site. Although this time the woman's corpse had disappeared.

Perplexed, they carried on and again found themselves back at the murder site, although this time the woman's corpse had returned and one of the dead thugs now looked suspiciously like Kirchin!

Pressing on, our heroes found themselves once more approaching the murder site - only this time the murder seemed to be in progress and the path was blocked by a gigantic bear of a man, with bulging eyes and a frothing mouth, swinging an enormous axe.

Kirchin fired an arrow at the berserker, alerting him to the party's presence and he charged them. Marigold zapped him with a magical web, but he kept charging, head-down, like a bull and went crashing into the party.

Kirchin had dropped his bow and drawn the Sword of Aquin and in the ensuing tussle he decapitated the insane murderer.

Davian recognised the dead man as one of the shady folk he had seen the other week in Skarg's bar, back in Bendwyn, and Imogen realised that's where she knew the other two dead men from. The woman's identity remained a mystery.

Harry and Marigold went through the dead man's backpack, finding a stash of adventuring equipment, which the group divvied up, and a coin purse that contained - as well as cash - a crumpled note that Marigold read out aloud:

"to those of you who have killed Garig, thank you. I extend my offer to you as I did to him, bring me a woman of virtue and I will reward you with magic"

Although the party had already suspected there was some powerful magic at work here, this confirmed it and Margesh identified the mark at the end of the note as the sign of the legendary "witch of the forest", although he thought she operated in the far south of the Huldre Forest, beyond the Bright River.

It took the group some time, and a diversion to the tomb of Viktor Volkov, to realise they had somehow broken the magic spell - although it wasn't until they got home to Bendwyn and were telling the tale of their adventures that someone recognised Garig as the berserker from his description.

The party made their way out of the forest, heading to Dundraville, where they were warmly welcomed and put up for the night, before finally making it home to Bendwyn.

Sir Browyrd, the duke's agent, had left a message that a runner should be spent to Dranning upon our heroes return with the captured bandit.

Margesh was taken into custody by guard-sergeant Max Beerfoam and locked up in the town watch house, leaving our heroes to catch their breaths, celebrate their triumph and try to return to their normal lives.

CAST:

• Kirchin (Pete)
• Davian (Kevin)
• Harry (Simon)
• Imogen (Meredith)
• Marigold (Clare)

Chapter Nine: The Vault Of Viktor Volkov (aka The Hunt For Margesh Blackblood, part three)

A Glimpse Of Hell? Inside the metal coffin was a blackness blacker than this...

Continuing their exploration of the Vault Of Viktor Volkov, the party debated whether to open the door with the hellish engravings on or head through the plain door across the way from the secret corridor where they found the silver ingots.

They opted to bypass the engraved door for now, taking the clear symbolism as a major warning of a possible Hellgate!

Through the other door, and over another pit trap that Harry spotted, they came upon a room with an altar to Volkov's ancestors. While examining this room they could hear heavy crashing sounds from back in the main corridor - the living statues were trying to climb out of the pit they had been pushed into.

An examination of the pillars in the room revealed crowns that acted as switches and opened a panel in the top of the altar, revealing three copper tubes, sealed with iron plugs and wax. Kirchin pocked these, but left a small (two inch long) drinking horn they discovered hanging on the side of the altar.

Heading back to the main corridor, Imogen scouted ahead and narrowly avoided being grabbed by the animated statues that had made their way out of the pit trap and were blocking the doorway back into the main passage.

Imogen: She may look sweet - but she's a demon
with her paired daggers

A fight erupted in the narrow passage with Kirchin wielding Volkov's sword and Davian swinging his mace. Marigold was behind them, using her magical healing when one got hit by a stone golem. Once Kirchin reduced the first statue to dust, Imogen slipped round the side and started with her trademark double-dagger stabby-stabby routine.

Harry has tried to sing a rousing ditty to boost group morale, but had instead choked on the dust in the air and lost his voice for the duration of the battle.

With three attackers on it, the second statue soon crumbled as well.

Buoyed up by their triumph, they decided to check behind the "Hellgate door" and found a large pillared room with a metallic coffin at its centre, locked by half-dozen padlocks. Through a small side door they found a room with a magically locked chest that they were unable to open or move.

After much discussion, Imogen picked the six locks and the coffin was cautiously opened. When Kirchin looked in he saw only a pool of impossible blackness and before anything else could happen, the party slammed the coffin back shut and relocked the padlocks.They were (rightly?) terrified of whatever the coffin contained and had no desire to hang around and find out what it was...

Taking a silver ingot each from their earlier treasure find, and four to load on Charlie the mule, who was patiently waiting for them outside the dungeon, chewing on his bag of carrots, the adventurers headed back to Horst.

At the village they were greeted by Jerron, lieutenant of the infamous bandit-prince Margesh Blackblood. Kirchin handed over the map of the vault he had made, along with the four silver ingots and a "detailed" description of what they had found - including a dire warning of an "otherworldly portal to Hell".

Jerron: The party
don't trust him...

Jerron was pleased with the information and gave Kirchin directions to a ruined tower on the banks of The Bright River where he should be able to meet up with Margesh Blackblood. He gave Kirchin some words of introduction and a password: Magpie.

Our heroes immediately set off - feeling quite paranoid about staying in Horst - and made camp on the way to the Bright River. They were convinced that Jerron was setting them up and they were heading into some kind of ambush.

However, after a lengthy discussion at their camp site they agreed they were pursuing Margesh out of civil duty - rather than for any financial reward (as they had already found treasure far exceeding the bounty being offered by Sir Browyrd, The Sheriff Of Dranning).

The next day they party continued on and as they approached the ruined tower saw the corpse of a mauled horse and heard the sounds of battle emerging from the stairwell leading beneath the tower.

Cautiously surveying the brutal signs of a bloody battle they came upon a pair of ogres - thankfully one at a time - and felled them reasonably swiftly.

There were a lot of dead bandits here and signs that one of the ogres had been pounding on a wall for some reason.

To be continued...

CAST:

• Kirchin (Pete)
• Davian (Kevin)
• Harry (Pete - in Simon's absence)
• Imogen (Meredith)
• Marigold (Clare)

Chapter Five: Frogroth Rising!

Descending the ladder (found at the end of the last session) further underground, we found ourselves in a corridor where Davian Battlebeard (Kevin) set off a swinging club trap - but managed to avoid serious harm because of his armour.

The corridor led into an alchemist's lab, that we turned over as we are wont to do. An animated broom decided to attack Harry the halfling (Simon), but in the end we overpowered it (I managed to set it on fire, but Pete's GMPC, Kirchin landed the 'killing' blow).

Among the books and alchemical equipment, on tables around the room, I found a diary belonging to someone called Suto who was allied with an entity called "The Voice Below", was hunting for the "Codex Illium" and wanted to summon the demon Frogroth.

So, we were kind of right in that the ogre we defeated last time wasn't the "Big Bad", it's just that he was working for this evil Suto guy.

There were three passages out of this room and heading north we found a bedchamber - with more books and a diary, this time belonging to an old man called Erazmus who went on about unspecified "secrets" under Dundraville.

We then took the eastern passage out of the lab and - after carefully avoiding a giant Shrieker mushroom, clearly left as an alarm - we came upon a temple-like room where the elderly Suto himself had a silver pentagram on the floor and was just in the process of summoning Frogroth.

This was my wizard's chance to shine and he burned the last of his stamina casting a magic rainstorm over the room that extinguished all the sorcerer's fires, preventing him from completing the ritual.

Davian waded in, followed by apprentice wisewoman Veriel Whisperwind (Meredith) while Kirchin and Harry shot missiles from the doorway.

Unfortunately, Suto was able to throw up a protective shield that blocked our attacks. Then he summoned a gargoyle - out of the ceiling stonework - to aid him. Both Davian and Veriel managed to land attacks through the shield, but didn't really seem to be doing that much damage.

However, around this time Peter Entwhistle (my wizard) remembered the potion of strength he'd discovered earlier and necked it, but just as I was going all Popeye, the gargoyle grabbed Veriel and tore her in half (splattering the rest of us with her blood!).

Taking my magic staff in both hands, I roared into physical combat with Suto, as Davian and I sought revenge on the summoner - by trying to beat him into a paste on the floor.

The gargoyle had also slapped Davian around a bit, nearly killing him as well, until Harry felled the rock creature with a well-aimed stone from his sling.

In trying to batter our way through the magical shield, I'd managed to break one of Suto's arms and, in quick succession, Davian landed a pair of blows that broke our enemy's legs - but not before he'd managed to summon a poisonous spider, that took a bite out of Kirchin.

Eventually, the epic confrontation came to an end, with us wearing Suto down until Davian could finally deliver the killing blow.

Once rested, we moved Veriel's body to the bedchamber before exploring the final passage out of the lab. Down there we found a room of cages where the two villagers were being held: Dale, a serving wench from The Merry Tavern, and gnome merchant called Jonas who promised us great riches for rescuing him.

After that we left the cave complex, heading back to Dundraville to get villagers and carts to help us retrieve Veriel's body (to give her a proper elven burial back at Bendwyn) and - of course - the treasure (including another library-worth of magical and mysterious books for Entwhistle to add to his growing collection).

Chapter Four: Battle Thong Of The Ogre Republic!

Although five weeks had passed in our world, mere seconds had elapsed in Pete's campaign world when The Tuesday Knights resumed our campaign yesterday, still on the hunt for that elusive ogre that had been pestering the townsfolk of Dundraville.

We also suddenly realised that we did know the name of Simon's halfling bard - it's Harry Cobblethwaite... although I dread to think what song he will compose after this adventure.

The next room our brave heroes came to turned out to contain the ogre we were looking for - dressed in a hero harness and a thong, drunkenly collapsed across a table and snoring loudly.

We debated, in hushed tones, for ages about what to do next - ultimately coming back to the simple stratagem of hitting him until he fell over. It was - as all fights in The Fantasy Trip appear to be - a quite brutal fight, but somehow we miraculously came out of it relatively unscathed, while the ogre ended up unconscious.

Davian Battlebeard (Kevin), our feisty dwarf, was all for killing him straight away and after further debate, we agreed to look away while he caved in the beast's skull with his mighty mace.

I must confess to my wizard's eyes, he seemed rather small for a typical ogre and I'm rather worried that he might have been just a pup and the real ogre is still out there somewhere.

Anyway, I magically opened the ogre's giant treasure chest, which turned out to be full of silver coins, but still no clue as to where the villagers that the ogre had taken hostage (and we were supposed to rescue) were being kept.

And so we headed on, narrowly avoiding the ogre's pet wolf - thanks to our resident elf naturalist Veriel Whisperwind (Meredith) who calmed him down (and aims to return later with the idea of adopting it as her own pet) - and found several other abandoned rooms, and the way back out the cave mouth, but so sign of the kidnapped townsfolk.

Coming out of the cave system, we rested for a couple of hours, had some lunch and then returned to the concealed entrance through which we had first entered the caves, so we could check out a couple of passageways we hadn't explored before.

A tussle with a dire skunk and half-a-dozen poisonous centipedes later and we were still no closer to finding the kidnappees.

At my suggestion we then checked the eye sockets of the giant skull face carved into the hill (the mouth being the main cave entrance), but besides Harry getting into a scrape with a young vulture there were no clues.

Finally, and I can't remember who suggested this, we returned to the ogre's room and re-examined his storage alcove, finding foot prints we hadn't seen in our hurry before - foot prints that disappeared into the back wall.

One magical 'knock' spell later (thank you very much) and a hidden passagway was revealed, leading to a shaft, with a ladder to one side, descending down further into the earth.

To be continued...

Chapter Three: Let's Hunt Some Ogre!

Turns out that our group's celebrity reputation - after our last adventure - isn't restricted to our own town and has spread far and wide.

Not only have we attracted the attention of a travelling halfling bard (Simon's character) who wants to chronicle our exploits in song, but we received a plea for help from a neighbouring town, Dundraville, that was having a spot of bother with an ogre.

At an impromptu council meeting in The Golden Axe, we learned that the ogre had been taking tributes of ale and sheep from the town for years, and the townsfolk were happy to oblige, but it had recently upped its demands to include building materials, gold and finally people. When the villagers objected to the last demand, the ogre - whose name might be Blerg - kidnapped two peasants and returned to his lair in the nearby Skulltop Hillock.

Accompanied by the bard (whose name we either didn't catch or didn't care about), Davian Battlebeard (Kevin), Veriel Whisperwind (Meredith), Kirchin (Pete's GMPC) and I, Peter Entwhistle, wizard extraordinaire,set off to Dundraville.

Dundraville is primarily known as the home of the Berkclay Brothers' Brewery - so we immediately knew how they could repay us for handling their ogre problem - but we also heard tales of ghostly lights in the woods, the disappearance of an itinerant dwarf carpenter and the belief that the ogre was now trying to excavate an ancient warrior's tomb.

After spending the night in Dundraville, we set off at first light towards the nearby hills, aiming to discover a "secret" passageway at the rear of the caves where the ogre lived.

Our first encounter was a dozing hobgoblin shepherd, surrounding by 'his' flock. While Veriel was able to sneak reasonably close to him, the sheep started bleating and he awoke. So we had to take him out.

Although we knocked him unconscious, Davian broke the monster's neck before we could interrogate him. Davian clearly has some anger issues to deal with when it comes to hobgoblins!

Nearby was a foul-smelling narrow passageway through the rocks into the back of the hillock, so we squeezed in - doing our best to tread in as little excrement as possible. Turned out there was a bat cave at the end of the passageway, its floor deep in a guano.

Venturing further in to the cave system, we were prevented from going down one passage by the presence of a giant skunk, but in another direction we found a sealed tomb in which apparently lay the bones of a great dwarf warrior. Davian stripped the corpse of its fine suit of chainmail but then he and Veriel disturbed a slumbering skeleton and were attacked by the undead fiend.

The creature was quickly dispatched, although Davian's new suit of armour helped protect him from taking too much damage.

While we rested - I needed to get my breath back after some spectacular magic use - a couple of fire beetles scuttled in and were promptly dispatched.

Heading on, we came to a large cave, where a couple of other fire beetles were hanging out, but we managed to avoid them and make our way down a long winding corridor that appeared to come to a dead end. Once again, the mighty wizard Entwhistle saved the day and used sorcery to open a secret door into a chamber filled with crates, casks and a hand cart.

We checked these out, then debated where to head next.

And that's where our story ended for the night...

This tale of great derring-do will continue in April and hopefully by then, the townsfolk of Bendwyn will have catalogued all our treasure from our first adventure (I have my eye on the baby dragon skeleton, for my shop, and all the tomes and scrolls - as the only one in our town who can read) and Simon will have come up with a name for his bard!