Care for a Trade?

You attack the hobgoblin encampment.

They see you coming but they are little match for the web that held 5 hobgoblins helplessly imprisoned as they watch you slaughter their comrades. The head hobgoblin, Hukar, exits his tent to easily jump the empty moat and charge the fleeing Stateira. Stateira hops around trying to use trees as cover from Hukar’s longsword. After being struck by Hukar’s full swing, Stateira shrieks in agony and runs, screaming at the top of her lungs like a little girl. The well-equipped and surprisingly fast hobgoblin chases Stateira around the forest until Jameyes comes to her rescue. Easily dispatching Hukar and his Lieutenant, Jameyes slides back and forth between the two foes delivering one slice to the abdomen of Hukar followed by a puncture to the Lieutenant’s kidney.

Meanwhile, in the middle of the camp, Nifen summons one monster after the next to attack the remaining hobgoblins. You all kill the hobgoblins and find their secret room. You find a bunch of treasure. You witness clouds moving overhead and realize they are above Verune. The clouds form what looks like a giant crystal ball over the town of Verune. The crystal ball remains there for about a day until you witness it pop and rain down water over the town. While Jameyes is witnessing this, Stateira and Romulus are out searching for tracks.

About a couple hundred yards to the south at the tree line, Stateira spots some obvious tracks heading into the mountains. Stateira wants to follow the tracks and Romulus wants to travel north-east to Yourn to follow the elves of Na’al. After arguing for what seems like half an hour, the group elects to follow the tracks going into the mountains. They follow the tracks for two days with no end in sight. Just as Romulus is about to walk off, they hear noise and see movement about a hundred yards off the path. Jameyes and Stateira approach to see two ogres arguing. They watch as a third ogre approaches and tries to stop the argument of the other two. Frustrated that he is not getting anywhere, the third ogre casts a spell and one of the two arguing ogres falls asleep. The awake ogre walks away.

Jameyes approaches the last ogre with hands held outward in a nonthreatening manner. The ogre, astonished at the gumption, yells out to Jameyes in his common tongue, “My, my, what the hell are you doing out here all alone? Are you crazy?”
“I mean you no harm, and I’d like to make an exchange,” Jameyes replies. He tosses a pouch full of coins over to the ogre.

The ogre looks down at the pouch and barks orders in a different language to his ogre friend. The ogre returns from being sent away previously and does as instructed—he bends down, picks up the pouch, and draws forth a gold coin, estimating that there must be about a hundred similar coins in the pouch.
The head ogre smiles. “Thank you. Now give me everything else you have on you.”
“Perhaps you don’t understand the meaning of ‘exchange’,” retorts Jameyes. “I give you something and you give me something. I gave you a hundred gold pieces and now you give me some information.”

The head ogre gets a look of disgust on his face. “Are you calling me stupid?” he asks in his gruff voice. “I don’t think you understand. You give me a hundred gold. Now you give me everything else you have. And in exchange, I let you live… at least for another five minutes,” he chuckles at his joke. “What do you expect to get from me?”

“Just information,” Jameyes says in a calm voice. “I am curious if you saw a troop of people walk by here within the last week.”

“Within the last week? You have to be kidding me. We don’t stay in any one place for a week in these mountains. It’s a dangerous place, you know. There are ogres around,” the head ogre chuckles loudly at his joke.

“Thank you. Good bye.” Jameyes turns around and begins walking away.