by PlaguePixie Wed Dec 04, 2019 12:05 am
Souldun, Maki, Alyce, Espirit, Bannor and Walster discover the king's bedroom but dismiss it as a risky spot for an ambush and decide to move on. He obviously keeps his pet cave bear under the bed and there are no maps or documents. The next room looks like it might be the family living quarters. There is a huge map on the wall. There are markings on the map in giant, but also a couple elven symbols. The markings seem to be planned raids on the human settlements. Alyce copies the map down to deliver back to the towns leaders. The group also finds a hidden door. In the secret room there are a bunch of empty scroll casings and a pile of logs. Maki investigates logs and find that the logs are not actual natural logs. They are hollow and it looks like the scroll casings fit in the logs. This must be how directions are being passed to the giants secretly. Maki also finds a log on the bottom of the pile that still has a paper in it. It has detailed plans on the next two raids written in elven. The plans are signed "Eclavdra". The group makes copies of the plans. Suddenly a roving pack of guards surprises the group and in the ensuing confusion the group is split up escaping the complex.
Tin, Raistlen, Krizdev, Kazoo, Ezio, Pax and Griselda came in behind the first group on a similar path but decided they could handle the risk of ambushing the king in his bedroom. Ezio positioned himself above the door; the other melee characters lined the wall next to the door and the ranged characters were on the far side of the room. The king, his wife and the cloud giant ambassador came to the room. The group focused fire and took down the king very quickly but both Ezio and Tin dropped and the queen ran for help. The group ran for it before more enemies could arrive.
Espirit, Maki, Alyce, Ezio, Tin and Walster regroup and head back into the complex to try and finish the mission. They head back in to the basement as a new group. They descend down a long stairway ending in a large room that has been recently worked on. It is giant sized and better quality than orc slaves could manage. The room glows with a luminescent mold near the ceiling and torches by the doorways. There are three exits and two doors out of the room. Two bugbears come out of a door across the room. They call for help and several more bugbears come out and attack. Espirit finishes off four regular bugbears a lieutenant and a captain; Ezio also killed four regular bugbears; Alyce blasted two more bugbears; Maki and Walster each killed one grunt and a lieutenant and Tin downed the last bugbear. They then traveled down the way the bugbears came from.
The adventurers can hear forge noises faintly down the passageway. Two other tunnels lead off and away. The party comes to a large heavy door blocking the way. Espirit can hear growling noises behind the door. Ezio picks the lock and there are two bugbears, one about to hit a gong. The group attacks and nearly kills the one by the gong. He offers to give up if we promise not to hurt them further. The heroes allow them to leave and find themselves alone in a jail room. The first cell has a wealthy man chained up. The second cell also has a man but not as rich, with glasses. The third cell is a female elf chained up. Espirit uses telepathy to ask why she is chained. She says she is a half elf named "Oaklock Gilder-leaf" and she was captured after killing bugbears in the woods. The fourth cell has three black robed characters that look like they may be undead. They have several rings but Ezio's magic ring tells us the rings aren't valuable although it can't tell if they are magic. The last cell has five orcs. The orcs ask to be freed; telling the party that the first prisoner is worth a lot of money, the second
is the architect that built this place. They claim the third prisoner is trouble and that the wizards are not allowed to be seen by anyone. They are the leaders of the orcs. The party decides to let the two humans and the elf out. The architect (named Archibald Reybeard) tells them to watch out for a large square room that he built a trap in the middle of. He received his orders from a stone giant. He also tells them there is an area of natural caverns that he had to construct barricades near, to prevent something in the tunnels from attacking. The rich man wakes up when Alyce splashes water on his face. He promises the group gold for saving him. The heroes ask the elf to escort him and the engineer to safety.
After they leave, the party attacks the undead, who pull out of their chains and walk out of the cell. Maki rebukes the undead, Alyce burns them with a ray of radiant energy and Espirit summons a giant crocodile to fight them. Ezio lands the final blow on two of them and Espirit downs one. As each undead falls in battle they explode, blasting the group with necromantic energy. After the battle the adventurers travel down the next corridor. Beyond the next turn there is a branch off to the left. Continuing on there is and unfinished tunnel with some work in progress with mining tools scattered about. They see nothing of use and turn back.
Back at the intersection the group hear noises in the distance. A stone giant sees Ezio but he bluffs being lost with Espirit's psychic help and backs off. The giant lets him go. The part tries the next corridor. It widens out into another hallway that is being worked on but is nearly finished (the ceiling needs work), with a smaller finished passage branching off. There are bubbling noises ahead in a circular room with a large pool a water in the center. It is bubbling but not from heat, the water is cold to the touch. Tin offers to scout ahead (since he doesn't need to breathe) and jumps in. He sinks to the bottom where it is dark but he can see by using his glowing shield. He sees a passageway twenty feet down. He enters and walks along until he comes to a passage up which opens up into a cavern. It is a large open natural cavern filled with bones of several races, even giants. Ahead he sees a large log or rock or something. It's 15 by 10 feet and begins moving. Despite the coins among the bones Tin decides this place is best left alone and goes back to the party.
The heroes move on, there are more tools of all sizes as well as baskets of rocks and dirt scattered about. The tunnel ends in a padlocked door. There are no sounds from the other side. Ezio picks the lock and opens the door. There is a room with shelves on all the walls and a cold lantern in the center of the floor. There are casks, large barrels, kegs, and glass jars lining the shelves. Alyce and Maki check the lantern but its bolted down. Espirit tastes the drink in one of the containers and begins chugging uncontrollably because its so good. Maki tries to stop him and Espirit responds violently and attacks him. Walster has to smash the jar to stop him. Ezio takes a jar and licks it. He also starts drinking uncontrollably. Walster smashes that jar too. Espirit and Ezio both gain resistance to damage but also blindingly drunk. The group heads back to the main room and goes down the hallway with the clanging forge noises. Coming to an intersection; to the right is the clanging, to the left Espirit thinks he sees bugbears guarding the hallway. Turning to the right and passing a doorway on the left, there are voices in giant behind the door. Ezio jams the door shut. Further along there is a three-way intersection; left is clanging, straight and right are silent. The noises are certainly forge sounds. The group tries the right passage but sees bugbears in the distance again. They double back and try the middle corridor. Ezio and Espirit have finally sobered up. There is a large room ahead lit orange by a flame. Wooden structures are scattered about the room. There are
loud breathing noises ahead. Ezio goes invisible and he and Espirit scout ahead seeing several cages and multiple torture devices around a huge bed of coals. Some of the devices are even big enough to be used on giants. There are two sleeping giants decked out in torturer gear. One has a massive axe and the other has a huge whip. Nothing in the room looks to be of value so they back out and head towards the forge.
As they head towards the forge there are weapons and armor hanging on the walls; all giant sized. There is a large helmet (not giant sized) sitting in the hallway too. The party consider taking the helmet because it looks valuable but decides to grab it on the way back. Ezio spots a dwarf ahead standing on a big stool next to an anvil. He is pounding away until he sees Espirit (as a cat, Ezio is still invisible) the dwarf calls a second dwarf in and points at the cat saying something in infernal (none of the group speak infernal) Espirit backs off and a giant comes over (a fire giant) and motions to the dwarf to get back to work.
The group has no interest in facing a fire giant especially with help so they head back and go fight the bugbear guards in a surprise attack. Ezio kills one before it moves. The other guard yells for help and attacks. Espirit downs the second guard. Ezio jams the door before any more guards come. Espirit hears them on the other side of the door trying to decide what to do. It sounds like there are several in there. Further down the corridor the group comes to a barricade. It is clearly designed to keep something from invading the giant's territory. It sounds like orc voices further on. The heroes go back to one of the locked doors the bugbears were guarding. It is full of thirty or so unarmed orcs. The party sets them free and they run to the barrier as fast as they can. The rest of the room is empty. The second guarded room has 24 more orcs in there. After setting them free too, the group tells them about the leader orcs back in the prison. They were slaves digging for the giants. They tell us the chief's half brother is patrolling around down here with his pets (two giant fierce hairy beasts he captured and brought back from distant lands) They also say the fire giant makes magic items and is a king or something like that as well.
The adventurers trace their way back to the last unexplored path. Ezio smells something like wet dog... he opens the door and sees giant sized furnishings and furs on the floor. Suddenly a giant horned ape drops down from the ceiling. Another ape and their giant master charges the heroes from behind. Walster killed the first ape, and also subdued the giant. The second ape gives up when its owner is subdued. The giant offers the chieftain's treasure room if he is allowed to live. He doesn't know what is making the magic black sphere that is consuming the town. The giant does agree to stop the attacks on the humans though. He leads the group back through the tunnels, through a secret passage and points them to the treasure room and explains the way out. The room has thousands of gold and platinum coins as well as gems. There is a patch of yellow mold on the wall. It appears to be magic but Alyce fails to dispel it. Ezio pokes it with a spear and a dynamic magic spear falls out. He also knocks loose a craghammer, and a longsword, both flaming. There is also a broken barrel that after a bit of investigation, turns out to be an illusion. Under the illusion is an invisible cask holding papers written in giant. The instructions on the papers describe how to take the magic chain (a long thin black metal chain also in the cask) and twist it in a pattern laid out on the ground to teleport up to six people to the rift of the jarl of frost giants. The heroes collect the treasure and use the chain to transport themselves in hopes the frost giants will have the information they need to save the human town.
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Meanwhile Krizdev, Souldun, Kazoo, Griselda, Pax and Bannor regroup and head downstairs as well. A couple roving bugbear guards enter from the far side. They spot the party and call for help. A giant horned ape and two groups of guards attack. Banner almost goes down but Souldun keeps him up and the group cut through them. Kazoo downs four bugbears and a captain. Krizdev blasted three bugbears and their sergeant. Griselda and Bannor each killed a couple
of bugbears and a sergeant. Pax kills a bugbear and the last sergeant. The room the ape came from is like a bedroom, it has furs on the ground and some basic giant sized furniture. The room the bugbears came from is a barracks.
The largest hallway has sounds of metal on metal, like a smithy, coming from it. Kazoo peeks in one of the doors and there is a guard right there. He manages to close it without being noticed. The party decided to go down the hallway that doesn't have hammering sounds. They came to an intersection (straight or right). There is a large unfinished audience hall being dug out of the earth. Continuing down the southern passageway which was lined with giant sized tools and echoing with the sounds of giants ahead, the adventurers decide to send Kazoo sneaking ahead to the next large chamber. There are two stone giants drinking and chatting about finishing their work with the orc slaves and a third stone giant sleeping nearby. It looks like a barracks with giant sized gear and weapons as well as a large pile of rocks. The heroes go to the hallway where the hammering noises are coming from. They come to a 'T' and decide to go right to avoid the two bugbear guards they see down the left hallway. There is a door on the left partway down the passageway. Kazoo checks it and its locked and reinforced. He listens at the door and hears snoring. He picks the lock and opens it slowly and peeks in. Seeing a large prison room; he closes and re-locks it.
Continuing down the hallway the group comes to a three-way intersection. There are more bugbears to the right and a hallway to the left and hammering sounds coming from straight ahead. Kazoo sneaks ahead and sees some large wooden structures and tools strewn about and two large hill giants in the center of the room facing away from him. The heroes decide to attack, hoping to get information from them. Pax fills one with arrows and severely wounds the second
before they can even move in a surprise attack. Interrogating the wounded giant reveals details of the approximate area of the treasure room, but he knows nothing about magic users or plans of his leaders. He tells them about all the monsters on this level so they can avoid them. The party knocks him out and leaves to look for the treasure chamber.
Backtracking through the tunnels, they notice the bodies of their fallen enemies have been removed. The next door they try is the one where Kazoo saw the guard right by the door. On the far end of the room another guard is about to ring a gong. The adventurers manage to down them both in time to prevent the alarm. Looking around they see this room is a jail. Kazoo opens each cell freeing two human men and a half-elf woman. When he opens the door of a cell with hooded figures chained to the wall; they attack. Krizdev and Kazoo burn them to nothing with radiant damage.
One of the rescued men is an engineer who worked on planning the giant's base. The party asks him for more details on the treasure room they are searching for. He gives them directions and tells them how to open the secret door. The other man is a hostage being held for ransom and he offers them the reward. The half-elf has experience fighting the giants and their allies and offers to escort the other two to safety.
The heroes go upstairs and look for the secret chamber. They come to a pair of large adjoining rooms. There is a distortion in the entryway between the rooms and through the haze Griselda spots a manticore. She also identifies the haze as a magical force-field. There is a spilled chest of gems in the first room. Kazoo sneaks across the room and sees another manticore in front of a tiny door. He summons a spirit to grab the gems and it triggers a trap dropping the force field and drawing the manticore's attention. There are a total of four manticores but Kazoo blocks two of them in the far room with a magical wall of bramble. Banner kills one, Kazoo downs another and Souldun kills the last two. The group finds the treasure room behind them. There are coins, ivory tusks, and gems in piles around the room. Among the riches, Bannor and Griselda each find flaming axes and Krizdev finds a magical chain with a set of instructions on how to use it. It's a long, thin black metal chain that after being laid out in a certain pattern on the floor teleports them to a frozen cavern. Jacoby (Souldun's legendary axe) tells them they are at the entrance to the stronghold of the king of the frost giants.
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