Recap 20200221 - Against the Giants - Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl - Upper Lev - Team 2

20200221 Against the Giants – The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

Team 2 – Session 1 (the segment – upper level), Session 4 series overall
Steve – Alyce – Halfling Bard/Warlock – Leader Striker
Tom – Maki – Deva Cleric - Leader
Chris – Krisdev – Deva Invoker - Controller
Ross – Kazoo! – Halfling Rogue/Druid – Controller Striker
Ken – Espirit – ½ Elf Druid/ Runepriest – Controller Striker
Ibuki – Walster – Human Warden - Defender

Using the magical chain found in the dungeons in the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, the team teleports and arrives on the wind swept surface of a mountain glacier.  Thinking that it may take more than one foray into the rift, the group sends the Warden to scout the caves in the cliff face behind them while the rest of the group heads down the main trail into the rift and then take the north fork.   After slowly traversing the trail, the group nears a cave entrances and hear frost giant guards casually speaking to each other down the tunnel.  The group decides to bypass the obvious hostile encounter and continue moving along the ledge to the south.  The ledge ends in front of a chamber of stalactites.  Kazoo! hears the sounds of what he thinks are puppies whimpering.  Kazoo! finds a couple of dead end tunnels, a tunnel to where the whimpering appears to be coming from, and a large cavern where there are eight dead adventurers, each encased in their own block of solid ice.  Every other adventurer has a powerful magic item frozen with them.  The group decides that trying to chip the items out of the blocks would cause too much noise and not seeing any point in fighting what they suspect are winter wolves, the group move back out to the ledge.

Wondering if they should go back and battle the giants, party sees another ledge about fifty feet away and rule out trying to fly there.  Espirit can almost teleport there, and after much debate, Krisdev creates a floating disk and ferries the group across the gap one at a time.  After crossing the gap, they push forward and enter a tunnel deeper into the glacier.  They decide to bypass a tunnel with voices sounding like hill giants and opt instead to push forward toward a tunnel that seems to slope downward.  Espirit is rounding a corner and spots a lone frost giant guard and the druid darts back behind the wall before he is spotted.  He warns the rest and they decide to attack the lone guard.  The group charges around the corner with Walster engaging the giant.  Alyce, Maki, Krisdev and Espirit all blast the giant with magic, dazing and slowing him.  Even under such a torrent of attacks, the giant guard smashes Walster with a mighty blow.  Three more giants appear down the hall with two of them hurling snow and ice balls at Maki, blinding and slowing her, and she retreats behind cover.  Alyce pushes the lead giant back and Walster follows.  A couple more spells hit the lead giant and then Espirit creates a cloud of darkness so that the remaining giants cannot throw at the group’s spell casters.  Instead, the lead giant hits the Warden again and all three remaining giants throw at Walster, leaving him blinded, dazed and seriously wounded.  In a rage the Warden hits the giant in the leg, causing him to stoop over and with an extra effort jumps up and smashes the giant in the head, downing the guard.  Walster grits his teeth and moves ahead, meeting the next charging giant head on.  Similar to the first giant, Walster blocks the passage while his allies attempt to shield him, heal him, and blast the giant.  Espirit creates another cloud of darkness and this time it shields the giant, causing several of the group’s spells to miss their mark.  Kazoo darts through the darkness, stabs and misses.  The giants further back throw into the darkness and also miss.  After another series of spells and snowballs (most missing the mark), Walster’s hammer and giant slicing axe blows, the second giant falls.  The third giant moves up to battle the stalwart Warden.  Kazoo again darts out of the darkness and this time finds his mark, but finds the passage behind him a bit crowded.  Wounded, the giant retreats and his last companion rushes up to take his place.  Again, the rest of the group blast spell after spell, wearing the giant down.  Maki hits time and again, her fast hitting beams of light flashing hard against the slow giants.  Sensing the giant is faltering, Walster strikes an extra mighty blow, aided by the bard and scores a hit, pounding down the third giant.  The group rushes forward firing all manner of magic and quickly overwhelm the last giant, who had already been wounded by Walster and Kazoo! and it is Kazoo!, using the barrage of magic as cover, who darts forward and finishes the last sentry.  After a quick rest and hearing more frost giants coming from two other passages, the group moves forward down the only passage that seems to slope downward.    

They enter a grand chamber and the rogue scouts a few dead ends, a passage that seems to lead ahead, and on either side of the passage, a large boulder.  The Warden uses the power of nature to see into the eastern cavern and spies a huge horde of treasure and a huge sleeping white dragon.  The group considers launching a surprise attack on the slumbering beast and decide against it.  Instead they elect to move to the other boulder.  It’s then that they realize that they have two small halflings, two angels who both have very slender builds, and an elven druid who although mighty in magic is lacking in muscles.  Walster alone has the strength to move such a large rock.  After considering their options, Espirit uses the power of nature to increase his strength and uses Kazoo!’s magic crowbar to help silence the attempt, Walster positions himself to assist, while the two deva’s use a long lever to add their weigh to the attempt.  With the rock falling away, the group sees two guard Frost Giants and a large horn.  Krizdev dazes both of the guards, Walster rushes in and strikes at the giant blocking the doorway.  Kazoo bolts over the boulder and grabs the horn on the far wall and the second giant swipes at the small rogue.  In fairly short order, along with a few musical notes, a grasping claw but primarily the searing heat of Pelor (Krizdev and Maki) along with a few hammer blows puts both guards down while Kazoo! examines his cool new horn.

<Additional Recap – Reserved – Spoiler Alert>
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