Seven members of the One Tree Hill cast in various poses.

Episodes 55 & 56 – One Tree Kill

The mysterious voice belonged to (big surprise) another orgekin, but this one was accompanied by two sniveling donkey rats that began to flank the party in the adjacent room. In the narrow hallway, the battle is congested and the bottleneck forces Fobias and Krask into the next room to free up the space for their ranged attacks and to prevent Barnaby from taking consecutive hits from this ogrekin who has a vestigial twin growing out of his side.

Unfortunately for the kobold, Krask is a perfect target for the donkey rats, standing down at eye level with them. The little monsters bite and claw at him viciously, and he falls over unconscious on a slippery pile of discarded skin. Retaliatory battle cries ring out as the party flocks to Krask’s aid as they attempt to prevent him from driftingoff into the next world. Their renewed burst of energy is enough to eliminate the donkey rats, but the ogrekin begins running through an unexplored room to a set of heavy double doors. Barnaby is able to knock him out, and the party conducts their typical interrogation after tending to their wounds.

Although the ogre doesn’t provide a ton of unknown intel, his connection and desire to be back with Mammy is strong. The party leverages that piece of primal information, promising to return the ogrekin to his Mammy if he cooperates. Mammy, of course, is deceased, but this ogrekin doesn’t know the difference and complies. This tribe of ogres had been picking off Black Arrow members, and other unsuspecting people, and bringing them to the farm under Mammy’s orders. The ogre claims to have lots of family members as well, perhaps foreshadowing towards future encounters. After his usefulness has been exhausted, the ogrekin is executed by a well-placed bolt from Krask.

Intrigued by the doors that the ogrekin was running towards, the party cautiously proceeds into an incredibly humid basement cellar that has become overgrown with thick foliage. The hot, sticky air swarms the group as they make their way towards the source of magic that Theo had detected earlier.

JACKPOT.

The chest they find contains a ton of high-quality weapons, including a magical bow that draws the attention of the ranged melee attackers. While they are dividing the loot, nobody notices a slithering vine that wraps itself around Fobias’ ankle before hoisting him into the air. Without warning, the huge mushy mound of overgrowth rises up from the floor, threatening everybody in the room.

As Fobias is pulled into the air, his memory snaps to a time where a younger version of him was roaming the forest checking his snare traps. He eventually sees that was of his carefully-laid traps had successfully caught a woodland hare, but as he steps towards his prize he steps into a trap that pulls him high up into the branches of a nearby tree. He swings there all day, unable to escape. Once night falls, an older man approaches, who rebukes Fobias for his foolishness and emphasizes that Fobias is becoming a waste of his time. In the end, the man decides to provide assistance by burying a bowie knife into the side of the tree, just out of Fobias’ reach, warning Fobias that the wolves are coming before walking away with Fobias’ spoils.

The man in the memory is none other than Garitran, more formally known as Gary.

Fobias is pulled back to the present as the creature opens its mouth and swallows him. Acid scorches his flesh, paralyzing him in place and leaving him completely at the mercy of his captor unless the rest of the party can save him from being entirely digested. Krask’s crossbow bolts find meaningful purchase in the fleshy mound of plants, but it is Barnaby’s daring feats that manage to finally subdue the magical creature. As Krask pulls Fobias out, the half-orc still sizzles from the burns caused by nearly being a meal for this tendriculos. Once again, the party gathers themselves before heading outside with the intent of resting before proceeding onward.

Outside, the firepelt cougar is nowhere to be seen. The heavy rain has pummeled the ground, which makes it easy to locate a set of firepelt tracks that head towards the barn on the other edge of the property. The animal is pawing upwards at something on the other side of the barn’s slatted walls, but Theo doesn’t detect anything magical within. Krask is able to hear a faint sound that resembles that of a shovel hitting the earth, but without the second half of the motion where the dirt is thrown aside. Intrigued, the party decides to enter the barn and investigate. Before they waltz through the front door, however, Krask hears the telltale sounds of three young ogrekin fighting over possession of a cracked jug of moonshine.

Being exhausted, the party quickly devises a plan to ambush the unsuspecting ogrekin in order to quickly eliminate the threat without expending an equal amount of effort in doing so. Fobias rummages through the bag of holding until he finds the Stalker’s Mask. As he slips it on, his skin bubbles, melts, and expands and his features contort until he looks exactly like Mammy Graul. Theo expends the wand of tree shape on Krask and Barnaby, who take the forms of a dead stump and a raspberry bush (respectively) to catch the dumb ogrekin off guard. As Theo steps off to the side with Richard, Fobias opens the door.

The ogrekin are surprised to see Mammy outside of the farmhouse and they drop the moonshine on the floor, shattering the jug completely. Through a mix of intimidation and diplomacy, Fobias convinces the ogrekin to leave their posts of guarding their prisoners, and head towards the farmhouse like he asked.

The ensuing ‘battle’ is completely unfair and is over in less than six seconds. The party drags the corpses back into the barn and head up onto the catwalk towards the next room. There is a large pit in the center and a towering funnel of spider webs encompasses the entire area, save for the far back corner where four figures lie unconscious and chained to the wall. Krask silently stealths over to the prisoners and unlocks a set of manacles that are binding a man with gorgeous locks and high cheekbones. The click, however, echoes down the hole and awakens a gargantuan ogre spider that scurries up the webbing to attack the party!

Who are these people chained up by the ogres? When was the last time this spider was fed? Have we seen the last of Mammy?