The Meat Factory

THE MEAT FACTORY

Sitting comfortably on his throne, surrounded by beautiful naked nymphs bathing in their Pink Tower penthouse pool, the Elder Jigolanthas looked at the assembled adventurers approvingly. A motley lot, they looked exactly like the kind of foolish adventurers who would tackle dragon’s lairs for gold. Mercenaries in look of glory more than clever strategists and military leaders.

His plan would not fail.

He sipped from his piña colada and continued his story:

“The Kingdom of the Ogres is situated in the middle of the great Forest of the Ogres to the northeast of Minos, the Kingdom of the minotaurs; to the southeast of Castle Tutatis, home of the humans brought originally from Gaul on planet Earth; and to the southwest of Tiamat City, the city of the divine 5 Headed Dragon.”

“The principal inhabitants of this Kingdom are around a quarter of a million ogres and their *owners* the 25 thousand or so Ogre Mages who rule there. Other humanoid races, such as trolls, goblins and orcs also make their home there, mostly as servants and slaves to the ogres themselves. About five thousand demi-humans like dwarves, elves and hobbits have been befriended by local ogres and have chosen to live in their land. These brave souls understand perfectly that their flesh is considered a delicacy by their hosts, but all count with the protection of a particularly strong lord.”

“Now, most ogres live in the forest alone, some in caves, some in cabins, and some simply as animals, roaming from place to place, and finding whatever shelter they can. Others make great castles, which dot the forest here and there. But at the center of the Forest of the Ogres there is a city, which is simply called Ogre City, where the three roads, Tutatis Road, Tiamat Road and Minos Road meet and caravans and travelers that must pass through the forest of the Ogres meet.” 

“Ogre City is the capital city where lives the current King of the Ogres, a blue-skinned brute with two heads named iSam, respectively.  Now keep in mind that Ogre Kings change as often as they are assassinated by their rivals, which in some cases can happen four or five times a year. We do not need iSam to lose his throne, or his life, since it is he primarily who will allow us to go into his city to shut down the Meat Factory. It cost me a bit of gold to convince King iSam to let me do this, and I desire to keep King iSam as my ally for as long as he might live.”

The six adventurers looked at each other and smiled at the opportunity to do this great and terrible deed for Elder Jigolanthas.

The Meat Factory.

Rumors of its existence were known all over Nagaloka, but only the Ogres of Ogre City actually knew if those rumors were true or not, and since human flesh was one of the most expensive and sought-after delicacies for Ogres.  Murdering humans for meat who were not citizens was legal in the Kingdom of the Ogres, and therefore there was no law against breeding them for slaughter either. The Meat Factory was rumored to be a gigantic human-farm with innumerable dungeons filled to the brim with “breeder” humans. An absolute horror which any non-ogre being would love to destroy.

“Out and out war with the Kingdom of the Ogres is not something we need, especially since we have a large and healthy ogre population right here at home in Lollipop City, and they are mostly decent folk, their diets non-the-less. Besides, such a war would be an invitation for an invasion by the dwarves in Grumpslandia, not to mention that the ogres are great trade-partners. So stealth is the key to the success of your mission. You must go in, free the humans and destroy the factory and escape without being seen or at least not leaving any witnesses behind who can point their ogres’ fingers at you.”  

“In order to do this, you need a powerful magical tool. And this is it:”

Two of the lizardman guards who stood behind the gnome Elder produced a large chest made with a variety of strange devices, levers and buttons, attached to the surface.

“Once you put this in place, it will cause and explosion and a rift between two places to permanently appear. It is set to open a doorway to a secure location in the Centaur Mountains near Castle McCormick.  I have made a deal with Malcolm McCormick to send his men to receive the refugees of the Meat Factory when the portal opens. Malcolm shares my hatred of this place and he will be happy to give sanctuary to the survivors. Once he has rescued the survivors, he will cause an avalanche to shut off the rift. The ogres will not be able to follow. And since it’s the other end of the world, there will be no suspicion of the involvement of Lollipop City in the rescue of the humans in the Meat Factory.  It’s a fool proof plan.”

Another lizardman came up holding two scrolls which he handed to the mage in the party.

“This is a map of the interior of the Meat Factory. It cost a lot of money, so don’t loose it. And this is the instructions to activate the rift. Once you begin, you can not stop. Otherwise it won’t work.” Said the lizardman to the mage.

“This is it, folks. In and out. Do a good job, and I will pay you a bonus of 10 gold pieces for each victim you rescue.  We believe there is anywhere between 500 and 2,000 humans in the Meat Factory, so you’ll be filling your pockets with my gold if you are successful. On the other hand, you must bring me proof that you destroyed the factory. The head of Gurgle Kopf, the ancient mastermind behind the Meat Factory will do. But do be careful, he is rumored to be thousands of years old and a very powerful magician. Oh, and one last thing. There will be one more member of this expedition that will go to you to the Kingdom of the Ogres…”

A gigantic green-skinned ogre stepped out of the shadows, unseen until that moment. She was actually pretty sexy… for an ogre. Strong muscular limbs, waist-length green hair, red eyes, two great horns protruding from her head, she looked like a giant flat-faced, sharp-toothed oriental woman, were it not for the fact that she was actually an ogre. Just as surely as she was an ogre, it was just as surely, there was some human blood in there somewhere behind those red eyes and horns. 

“Well met, adventurers.” She said. “My name is Green Light and I will be happy to accompany you in this worthy mission. I am large for your standards, but I am efficient at making myself invisible to most, stealthy, good at picking locks and finding traps, and most importantly, I was born in Ogre City.  I detest the Meat Factory and I will be honored to destroy it with your help.”  

And thus began the adventure.