Part 3: The Hook Mountain Massacre
Synopsis
After the PCs prove their mettle to the lord-mayor of Magnimar, he assigns them a dubious task: travel halfway across Varisia to check up on the town of Turtleback Ferry, the closest settlement to the strangely silent fort. Arriving in the town, the PCs find the place on edge, with stories of increasing ogre raids and worries on everyone’s mind that something might have happened to Fort Rannick. Heading north, the PCs encounter a deformed ogrekin—a half-human, half-ogre menace—and after defeating him, they discover among his gear several items from Black Arrow rangers. The PCs can track this ogrekin back to his nearby home where they find the survivors of the raid on Fort Rannick kept by a family of inbred monsters—the Grauls.
After rescuing the rangers from the Grauls, the PCs learn about the massacre at Fort Rannick. Once they reach the fort, they must formulate a plan to retake it from the ferocious Kreeg ogres who now dwell within. After a grueling set of fights, the party retakes Fort Rannick only to suddenly find themselves in charge of the stronghold. Yet defeating the ogres at the fort does not end the region’s problems.
Soon thereafter, unnatural rains flood Turtleback Ferry and the PCs must explore the ruins of an ancient dam called Skull’s Crossing, repairing it enough so that its floodgates can be opened before the entire structure collapses. After saving the town from this disaster, the PCs learn that the ogres of Hook Mountain were to blame for the strange weather. After encountering the ghostly lover of the fort’s previous (now dead) captain, the PCs finally climb Hook Mountain to end the ogre menace once and for all, only to learn that the ogres might be the least of Varisia’s problems: the giants of the Storval Plateau are preparing for war.
Image Highlights
Once the party had rid the Fort of its infestation, they claimed it as their new base of operations!
