Retaking Rannick, Part 3 (Wednesday, Kuthona (XII) 4th, 4707 AR)

The heroes continued their infiltration of Fort Rannick.

Main Hall. What might once have been a well-maintained entrance hall was swathed in horror. Dried blood caked the stone walls; bits and pieces of armor, weaponry, and flesh littered the floor; and flies clouded the air. Tapestries that once bore the insignia of the Black Arrows had been torn from the walls and lay on the floor in shreds, coated with filth.

The keep was old, its masonry battered by the elements for hundreds of years. The walls were worn and chipped in many places and significantly weakened. Ceiling height in the main keep averaged 12 feet - high enough that most of the Kreegs within didn't need to stoop.

Tower. This round room contained a ladder that could be used to access a trapdoor in the ceiling above.

Guest Quarters. This room was where the Black Arrows quartered guests, trainees, and other visitors. The ogres had tossed all of these rooms but hadn't bothered to go out of their way to ruin the furniture.

Library. A long table with benches to either side sat in this room opposite a bookshelf filled with dozens of books, most of which had been torn from the shelves, mangled, and then messily stuffed back in place. The rangers used this room as a place to keep important documents about their order, atlases, bestiaries, and other books that held their interest.

Storeroom. Crates, barrels, and a stack of firewood had been smashed apart and heaped in a tangled pile in the corner of this room. A flight of stairs led down to the west.

Nothing of value remained in the ruined containers. The stairs doubled back on themselves after a landing before reaching a retreat below.

Infirmary. Once used to house the wounded and sick, this chamber was a slice of blood-drenched nightmare. Hacked pieces of bodies littered the sick beds. The floor was slick with gore, strewn with mangled organs and heaps of entrails. A dead fat man sat at one of the operating tables, arranged as if he were merrily spooning chunks of his own disembodied organs out of a brown bowl. His guts spilled out of a large gash in his belly. He was once a cleric of Erastil who dwelt here.

An ogre resided here. The right side of his face was shaved off, leaving a pulped ruin with skull showing through in places. The heroes killed him.

Mess Hall. This ramshackle area was a mess of smashed tables, broken crockery, and rubble. No living thing stirred here. Once where the rangers took their meals, this chamber was just another demolished room.

Kitchen. This kitchen was in total shambles, as if a cyclone had moved through the room, smashed every bit of furniture, bent every bit of silverware, and partially collapsed the stone fireplace. The ogres had abandoned this room.

Pantry. All that remained in this room was a half-smashed crate and an untouched barrel. The barrel to the north contained pickled fish.

Retreat. This simple room might have once been a jailer's den, or perhaps even a torture chamber, but someone had gone through great pains to repurpose it. The air smelled of sweet exotic incense, and veils of multicolored silk draped from floor to ceiling throughout. Between the rustling of the veils, glimpses of giant cushions were revealed. The floor was strewn with luxuriant red throw rugs and sheets.

Cells. These grimy, blood-spattered cells were empty save some fetid straw mats and vermin-ridden blankets.

Lizard Warrens. These dank caves of dirt and stone wound and bent dizzyingly, narrowing to as small as 3 feet wide at points. In places, claws of exposed tree roots hung from the ceiling.

These winding tunnels were the nesting ground for a large pack of shocker lizards that had infested the place for decades. Introduced to the caves secretly years ago by a Black Arrow who had a soft spot for the cute little things, the lizards took to the environs with an unexpected tenacity. Since that ranger's death, the lizards had established a fairly stable ecosystem, feeding happily on the grubs, cockroaches, and centipedes that scuttled around the caves. The fact that their presence kept these vermin from infesting the keep above was enough (barely) for the rest of the Black Arrows to leave the lizards be, but during shocker lizard mating season the rangers took care to light stacks of bitterbark wood chips (the scent of which the lizards find repugnant) to keep them from swarming up into the castle.

The shocker lizards were relatively non aggressive since the heroes moved slowly through the warrens, didn't approach too closely to any of the several egg mounds in the caves, and didn't hurt the lizards.