After several near misses for each of the combatants, Soth was able to execute another overhanded blow. Again the ogre protected himself with the branch, but this time the blow broke it in two, giving the ogre two too- short clubs and rendering him once again weaponless.
This time, however, Soth had no qualms about battling an unarmed ogre.
While the ogre was still looking dumbfounded at the broken wood in his hands, Soth lunged forward running the beast through with his sword.
After crying out in pain, the ogre looked at Soth with a mix of shock and terror for several long moments before Soth wiped the look from his face with a backhanded swipe of his shield. The ogre's eyes suddenly glazed over and turned upward as he fell heavily to the ground.
Dead.
Wasting little time, Soth ran to the elderly elf-woman who had been helped off the ground by Darin Valcic and Zander Vingus. Apparently, as
Soth had been finishing off the ogre, they'd made sure she wasn't in any danger, then ventured into the forest in search of more of the foul beasts.
'Are you all right?' Soth asked, seeing a thin line of blood running down from her pointed left ear.
'I think so,' she nodded, her eyes staring blankly before her. 'We're on pilgrimage to Palanthas,' she said. 'To become Revered Daughters of
Paladine.' A sigh. 'We stopped here for the night. We were just about to begin our prayers when… when… they came.'
'How many ogres were there?' asked Soth, his voice as calm and soothing as he could make it under the circumstances.
'Five or six. Maybe more. It was so hard to tell, they all look so much alike. Hideous, horrible…' The shock of her ordeal was beginning to settle in and she began to weep.
Soth had to know one last thing.
'How many in your party?'
'Five. Myself and… four young maidens.' She drew in a sudden gasp in realization. 'Oh merciful Mishakal!
What's become of them?'
Soth knew the woman needed further comfort, but there were others in greater danger. If there were ogres in the forest, his six knights would need all the help they could get in finding and defeating them.
'Will you be all right on your own for a short while?'
The question seemed to give the elf-woman reason to compose herself. She sniffed once and nodded. 'Go find the others. I'll be well enough.'
'Good,' said Soth, rising up and heading into the forest.
'There's two of them over there,' said Colm Farold, pointing to a small clearing just through the trees.
'Three,' said Wersten Kern, pointing to the right side of the clearing.
'So there are.'
Kris Krejigaard came up behind the two knights after circling the clearing. 'It looks as if they've captured a group of elf-maidens. Two of the women are tied to trees just past those bushes. They appear to be unharmed, but it's hard to tell from a distance.' 'Any other ogres?' asked Farold.
'Not in the immediate area,' answered Krejigaard. 'I heard some voices in that direction, but Caradoc was over that way and further along should be Vallic and Vingus.'
'Very well then,' nodded Farold. 'We'll sweep through the woods in that direction once we're done here. Did you see any weapons?'
'A few clubs and swords, maybe some daggers.
Nothing out of the ordinary for ogres.'
'Anything else?'
'There's a formidable foul stench downwind of them. It burned my eyes and seared my throat.'
Farold turned to Krejigaard and gave a little smile. 'All right then.
There are some maidens in distress. Let's save them, shall we?'
The three knights rose up proudly, drew their swords and rushed into the clearing with a loud, sharp battle cry.
There was the sound of running water up ahead. That seemed strange to
Caradoc because he hadn't seen any creeks or streams cutting through the forest.
He took two more cautious steps forward, using his broadsword to part the overhanging branches ahead of him.
And then there he was.
An ogre.
Relieving himself against a tree.
The ogre's weapons were lying on the ground several feet away. Caradoc laughed inwardly at the sight. Such a vulnerable position for an ogre to find himself in-for any warrior to find himself in for that matter.
He took a few more steps toward the ogre and smacked his hairy behind with the flat side of his broadsword.
'Ow!' cried the ogre, turning around to see which of his fellows had been so brazen. When he saw Caradoc he was suddenly in a hurry to finish relieving himself, but his body didn't seem to be cooperating.
Caradoc couldn't help but laugh at the ugly brute as he struggled to finish his business while he hurriedly tried to collect his weapons off the ground.
'If you were at all familiar with the Oath and the Measure,' said
Caradoc, a bit of smug confidence to his voice, 'you would know that it is against the Knights of Solamnia's code of ethics to battle an unarmed opponent in anything other than a fair fight.'
The ogre seemed to be comforted to hear this and calmly went about finishing his business against the tree.
The beast's sudden casual demeanor angered Caradoc.
It was obvious that the ogres had attacked innocent and defenseless travelers, robbing and looting them, and Paladine only knows what else.
In just a few moments they had turned an otherwise peaceful journey into a nightmare of horrors. And now the ogre thought he'd be getting a fighting chance just because the knights happened to be governed by a strict and chivalric code. Well, it was obvious to Caradoc that the ogres lived by no such honorable code of conduct, so why should he be bound by honor in a fight with one of them?
'But since you've probably never even heard of the Oath and the Measure,' Caradoc continued, his voice now edged with a hint of contempt. 'I see no good reason why I should remain bound to it.'
Caradoc immediately raised his sword and swung it from left to right, the sharp cutting edge leading the way.
Almost at once, the ogre's head became separated from its shoulders. It spun in the air and hit the ground with a thud, its mouth open and its eyes wide in a look of utter surprise.
A moment later, the ogre's great body fell to the ground like a tree, covering the upturned head and face with its trunk.
'Stupid savage,' said Caradoc, wiping his bloody sword on some of the leaves around him.
Just then, a loud call came from somewhere to his left.
He headed in that direction, the pointed tip of his sword leading the way.
After leaving the elderly elf-woman behind, Soth quickly came upon two more ogres, one a black-haired giant standing a head taller than Soth himself, the other redheaded and somewhat shorter than the first, perhaps even equal in height to Soth.
The black-haired ogre was holding an elf-maiden in his arms, moving his great thick-fingered hands over her seemingly lifeless body. If the elf-maiden was dead, Soth vowed, the ogre's death would be slow and painful. The red-headed ogre seemed to be asleep on the ground on the other side of a large log. He was of little concern to
