After navigating the forest, the band of armored men, some afoot and some ahorse, found themselves at the edge of vast, sprawling graze-land. No moon illuminated the sky, though off to the east, the first faint glimmers of dawn could be seen, and in the distance atop the hills, campfires glittered and the sounds of ogres echoed...
So began the first of several forays against a small clan of ogres in my online dungeons and dragons game. This was not the result of careful planning and preparation on my part. Not even I, the dungeon-master, knew this place existed myself even a day before. This place sprung into existence when the adventurers came across a warband of ogres a dozen strong in some dense forest. Meeting a dozen ogres at 50 yards in the woods makes most adventurers think twice, even when they have a fair-sized party. So they rolled their dice and the dice said they successfully snuck away from the ogres, who were none the wiser. Ah, but that was not the end of it. The ad&d monster manual states a percentage chance for each creature to have a lair in that hex, with more creatures of the same type and potentially more treasure. Lo and behold, the ogres do indeed have a lair! Jumping systems again, I went to Adventurer Conquerer King, which has a supplementary book with listed and written down lairs for most monsters, including ogres. 30 minutes after the players encountered their ogres, there is now a large village of several dozen ogres in the area, with a couple thousand head of cattle and sheep (ogres are carnivores don’t ya know!) and plenty of treasure. Conveniently, this ogre village is now dangerously close to the unsuspecting lands of men..
Speaking of whom, not all of my players act as a wandering adventurer. One of them has chosen the role of the local feudal lord, Edelherr (the equivilent to Baron) Karl Von Osten. He has a couple hundred square miles of land, all of it on the edge of civilization and only a few miles from the ogres. A couple hundred men-at-arms make up his personal army. Edelherr Karl had said beforehand he would offer bounties for ogre or greenskin heads, and the use of his men at arms in taking those heads. Deciding they wanted more swords and bows, the players went back and took a small group of 30 men at arms, a mix of archers, heavy infantry with javelins and swords, and light infantry with multiple darts and javelins. Ahh, but it takes time to traipse through the woods, and later that night as they were beginning to settle down for the camp, the random encounter roll came : a CHIMERA!
Again I roll the dice, and they say that the Chimera is “Neutral.” I thought the monster merely flying overheard wouldn’t be enough fun, so I had it land down by the campfire and act like a big cat; curious and tilting its head. After about a minute of confused noises and hurried discussion, one of the players threw some food at ithe creature, which it promptly ate. Thus encouraged, everyone decided they just HAD to kill this thing, which when you have a dozen longbowmen and two dozen javlineers isn’t that difficult to do. Cue the victory music.
But WAIT. They went out into the woods to hunt ogres, they’re still out there! One of the players decides he’s going to go out and scout on his own while people are sleeping. So he does, and in meeting more ogres I decided now is the time he comes across the ogre village. Rushing back to the war-party, it is decided that a dawn attack would be best. Thus do a band of men creep upon an unsuspecting village of ogres, confident in their arms and magic. What do they have to fear from a group of semi-people who probably can’t count higher than “One, two, many?”
Quite alot as things turned out.