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Against the Giants: Campaign Journal
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<blockquote data-quote="cthulhu42" data-source="post: 7336774" data-attributes="member: 6792361"><p>Session 10</p><p></p><p> A rather strange night, with no combat, but plenty of role play, much of it weird. </p><p></p><p> We started the session in the Jarl's throne room, the party very wounded, surrounded by dead giants, with palpable bad vibes in the air given Edran's pot shot at Jef. Thoradin is especially moody. </p><p> </p><p> Laurali limps to the throne and has a seat, getting her breath after the battle. Jef, meanwhile, smells food, and heads straight for it, finding the spitted horse in the kitchen cave to the north. Thoradin, Krote, Selendra and Joshua follow him while Edran decides to wander down the SE tunnel, quickly finding it blocked by a huge boulder that he is quite unable to shift. </p><p></p><p> In the kitchen, the rest of the party discover a cage full of humans who quickly tell their saviors that they are captives from the village of Tanhaven in Ulek. They are, Dale, Win, Becca and Franz. As they tell their harrowing tale everyone tucks into some well done horse flesh, especially Jef, who happily gnaws on a leg. </p><p> </p><p> Thoradin casts a Detect Magic and they move from the kitchen to the NE tunnel, finding the armory, giants quarters, and the polar bear den. There are several chests in the giant's quarters, so Thoradin fetches Edran to check them for traps. He finds the young rogue spying on Jef while menacingly twirling an arrow. This sets off a rather unpleasant conversation as the pair head back to the giant's quarters. </p><p> </p><p> Thoradin is very upset that Edran shot Jef for no good reason. Krote tries to see both sides, but even he has a hard time defending Edran. Selendra looks on in ill concealed disgust as Edran defends himself, reasoning that all ogres are evil and that, of course, all of them must be slain. This back and forth escalates until Thoradin verbally dresses down Edran and finally washes his hands of him. He tells Edran that when they return to civilization, he no longer cares what he does, or where he goes, and quite frankly doesn't care if he never sees him again. Thoradin then retires to the throne room to stew on the steps of the giant throne. </p><p> </p><p> Edran, for his part, appears not to heed any of this and ropes Krote into helping him move the boulder in the SE tunnel. </p><p></p><p> It takes some doing, by at last they gain entry to the Jarl's audience chamber and trophy hall. After a quick look around, Edran slips through one of the tapestries separating this cave from another to the north, and before long he spies five young giants, huddled near the rear of the cavern, armed, but obviously unsure of themselves. Edran returns to Krote, and the pair of them fetch the rest of the party. As a group, they re-enter the cavern and demand the surrender of the young giants. The five teen aged giants, seeing Laurali towering over them, comply, and drop their weapons. With stern warnings, they escort the young to the throne room exit and tell them to run and don't stop. Unable to believe that they are being allowed to live, the five giants do just that. </p><p></p><p> The party heads back to the audience chamber and collect a few pieces of loot. Selendra is particularly taken by the suit of elven plate mail, which, despite her last bad experience with magic armor, she is soon donning. Thoradin sets off a trap, but the spear it shoots at him merely bounces off his armor. They also find out the hard way that one of the walrus tusks on display sets off a Magic Mouth alarm that yells bloody murder for a full minute. But no one answers the alarm, and the group is even more certain that they have slain all of the giants here. </p><p> </p><p> The next chamber to the east is the Jarl's quarters and they help themselves to his treasure, although in doing so they set off an Explosive Rune that knocks out Selendra, Joshua, and Sai once again. Thoradin and Krote scramble to heal them with potion and spell, but now Selendra is so wounded that she can no longer even limp anywhere. They put her in the Jarl's bed and are more careful with the rest of the treasure, which includes a map giving the location of the fire giant lair in the Sulhaut mountains.</p><p></p><p> But they are a long way from there, and they have wounded and freed commoners to deal with. </p><p> </p><p> It is decided that Sai will take the peasants, via Teleport, back to Pellak. The rest will stay in the Jarl's quarters until Thoradin is able to cast Word Of Recall to bring the rest back to that city. </p><p></p><p> Laurali makes her intentions known. She will stay until she is at full strength once again and then return to her people. The party (most of them) will be sorry to see her go. Krote, especially, is saddened. He fashions a giant sized necklace for Laurali of his walrus skull belt buckle – his first ever trophy – and presents it to her. She is quite moved by the gesture. </p><p></p><p> While the rest of the party try to relax, Edran entertains himself by poking around the cave a bit more, and finds the hidden escape tunnel behind a bear skin on the wall in the sleeping chamber. This leads to him finding the iron lever set into the wall. Things go rapidly downhill from there. </p><p></p><p> First, he shows the lever to Krote, who is absolutely opposed to pulling the thing. He has to physically stop Edran from pulling it. Thoradin finds out about the lever as well, and of course he is also against pulling mysterious levers, given their current wounded and separated state. </p><p></p><p> So Edran waits several hours, sneaks back to the lever and pulls it. </p><p> </p><p> He disappears. </p><p></p><p> Some time later Krote and Thoradin notice Edran's absence. It doesn't take a detective to figure out what happened when they investigate the lever and find the rope hanging from it that Edran had used to pull the thing. They walk back to the Jarl's quarters, discussing this, and Jef gets wind of Edran's disappearance and becomes quite agitated, convinced that he and Edran are best friends and that they must go save him at once! </p><p></p><p> Thoradin is having none of it. Edran is, as he is so fond of saying, immortal. The cleric is through chasing the boy around and picking up after him. He tells Jef that if he want's to go after Edran, be his guest. </p><p> </p><p> So, Jef heads for the alcove with the lever. Krote follows and watches from the hall as Jef pulls the lever and vanishes. </p><p> </p><p> Krote reports this to Thoradin, who rightly surmises that the lever probably teleports the puller to the fire giant lair, and that, by Clangadin, they are simply in no shape to go after the pair. Selendra can't be moved, Joshua isn't much better off and wouldn't leave Selendra anyway, and he is nearly tapped of spells. Krote want's desperately to go after Edran, but finally sees the wisdom in Thoradin's words. </p><p> </p><p> So they settle in to rest and wait. </p><p></p><p> ***</p><p> </p><p> Edran finds himself in a blisteringly hot mountain range, not fifty feet from a giant pile of lava rock boasting a massive set of iron doors, utterly alone, except for the ever faithful Rufus, as volcanic ash rains down upon him. There is not a bush or scrub to be seen in the blasted landscape, and Edran worries that perhaps this time he has gone too far. He casts about for a place to hide, and finally finds a cramped cave about a half mile away. He settles in to wait, periodically leaving the cave to watch the spot he appeared at, hoping to see the rest of his party. </p><p> </p><p> They do not come. </p><p> </p><p> But Jef does. </p><p> </p><p> Several hours later, Edran hears the ogre calling his name, searching for him. Edran want's no part of Jef and hunkers down to let him pass. But Rufus will have none of it, and bolts from the cave, barking for Jef's attention. Soon Jef pokes his head into the cave, and thus begins forty-eight hours of uninterrupted Jef and Edran time. Jef babbles. Edran double talks in his usual fashion, but where that ploy usually frustrates the average listener, Jef eats it up, hanging on every word with undisguised happiness. </p><p> </p><p> Time passes. Jef hunts for lizards to eat. Edran begins to regress. Goes a bit feral. Goes a bit catatonic. Curses Clangadin and lops off his own finger – the one Thoradin had so recently regenerated. At one point Edran wakes up with Jef holding him like a child, rocking back and forth, whispering soothingly that everything is going to be all right. Day becomes night. Night becomes day. Edran can take no more and demands that Jef go kill giants, pointing to the fire giant lair. Jef shrugs and off he goes. Hours pass and her does not return. Rufus is upset by this, whimpering at Edran, who slips further and further into himself. </p><p></p><p> ***</p><p> </p><p> Meanwhile, Thoradin is finally able to prepare new spells, and he uses Word of Recall to transport himself, Selendra, Joshua and Krote back to Pellak where they waste no time in finding Sai. It will be another full day before they can have everyone back to full fighting strength. During that time Thoradin uses Sending to request that Annabelle Zane scry Edran to find out his status. She is soon able to tell Thoradin that Edran is in a mountainous region, in a cave, with an ogre and his dog. Thoradin accepts this as Edran being just fine and decides to let the boy stew for another day. Unfortunately, this involves lying to Krote about Annabelle's message. Annabelle, of course, is scrying them at that moment, and very soon after she Teleports directly to the inn to tell Thoradin that it is not a good idea to lie in her name, and it is an even worse idea to tarry much longer. In addition to her eagerness to get the final tooth, she has also become genuinely worried about the giants and who might be behind their machinations. She urges them to get going as soon as possible. To that end, she Teleports the party back to the Jarl's quarters where they can finally pull the cursed lever and reunite with Edran. </p><p> </p><p> Which they do. </p><p> </p><p>It is not a very good reunion. </p><p> </p><p> Once they find the boy, they see that he is an utter mess. Nearly catatonic, his missing finger crudely bandaged, and wholly unresponsive to their questions. Selendra finally slaps him across the face and tells him to man up. Thoradin feels an unfamiliar pang of romance towards the elf knight at that. Krote uses Speak With Animals to talk to Rufus. Rufus tells him about the last two days, that Jef has gone to the giant's lair, and chalks up Edran's condition to loneliness. </p><p> </p><p> When they at last get Edran moving, they head for the massive iron doors. Krote and Selendra are able to open one enough for the party to get through, and into the fire giant lair they go. The long hall stretches before them, their steps echoing off it's smooth obsidian floor. They glance warily at the tapestries that adorn the walls: scenes of fire giant violence against all manner of foes. Edran smears blood from his finger stump on them as they walk the hall. </p><p> </p><p> On either side of the hall, Krote and Thoradin test the tapestries with their weapons, searching for hidden tunnels and alcoves. </p><p> </p><p> Krote finds one. </p><p> </p><p> As his axe finds no resistance behind one of the tapestries on the left wall, a massive horn blast fills their ears and reverberates throughout the fire giant lair. Only a few steps into the first hallway, and they are already found out!</p><p> </p><p> And that's where we wrapped. </p><p> </p><p> The party is 14th level.</p><p> </p><p> It is Harvester 12th, about 10:00am</p><p> </p><p> And best of all, the Patriots lose the super bowl!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="cthulhu42, post: 7336774, member: 6792361"] Session 10 A rather strange night, with no combat, but plenty of role play, much of it weird. We started the session in the Jarl's throne room, the party very wounded, surrounded by dead giants, with palpable bad vibes in the air given Edran's pot shot at Jef. Thoradin is especially moody. Laurali limps to the throne and has a seat, getting her breath after the battle. Jef, meanwhile, smells food, and heads straight for it, finding the spitted horse in the kitchen cave to the north. Thoradin, Krote, Selendra and Joshua follow him while Edran decides to wander down the SE tunnel, quickly finding it blocked by a huge boulder that he is quite unable to shift. In the kitchen, the rest of the party discover a cage full of humans who quickly tell their saviors that they are captives from the village of Tanhaven in Ulek. They are, Dale, Win, Becca and Franz. As they tell their harrowing tale everyone tucks into some well done horse flesh, especially Jef, who happily gnaws on a leg. Thoradin casts a Detect Magic and they move from the kitchen to the NE tunnel, finding the armory, giants quarters, and the polar bear den. There are several chests in the giant's quarters, so Thoradin fetches Edran to check them for traps. He finds the young rogue spying on Jef while menacingly twirling an arrow. This sets off a rather unpleasant conversation as the pair head back to the giant's quarters. Thoradin is very upset that Edran shot Jef for no good reason. Krote tries to see both sides, but even he has a hard time defending Edran. Selendra looks on in ill concealed disgust as Edran defends himself, reasoning that all ogres are evil and that, of course, all of them must be slain. This back and forth escalates until Thoradin verbally dresses down Edran and finally washes his hands of him. He tells Edran that when they return to civilization, he no longer cares what he does, or where he goes, and quite frankly doesn't care if he never sees him again. Thoradin then retires to the throne room to stew on the steps of the giant throne. Edran, for his part, appears not to heed any of this and ropes Krote into helping him move the boulder in the SE tunnel. It takes some doing, by at last they gain entry to the Jarl's audience chamber and trophy hall. After a quick look around, Edran slips through one of the tapestries separating this cave from another to the north, and before long he spies five young giants, huddled near the rear of the cavern, armed, but obviously unsure of themselves. Edran returns to Krote, and the pair of them fetch the rest of the party. As a group, they re-enter the cavern and demand the surrender of the young giants. The five teen aged giants, seeing Laurali towering over them, comply, and drop their weapons. With stern warnings, they escort the young to the throne room exit and tell them to run and don't stop. Unable to believe that they are being allowed to live, the five giants do just that. The party heads back to the audience chamber and collect a few pieces of loot. Selendra is particularly taken by the suit of elven plate mail, which, despite her last bad experience with magic armor, she is soon donning. Thoradin sets off a trap, but the spear it shoots at him merely bounces off his armor. They also find out the hard way that one of the walrus tusks on display sets off a Magic Mouth alarm that yells bloody murder for a full minute. But no one answers the alarm, and the group is even more certain that they have slain all of the giants here. The next chamber to the east is the Jarl's quarters and they help themselves to his treasure, although in doing so they set off an Explosive Rune that knocks out Selendra, Joshua, and Sai once again. Thoradin and Krote scramble to heal them with potion and spell, but now Selendra is so wounded that she can no longer even limp anywhere. They put her in the Jarl's bed and are more careful with the rest of the treasure, which includes a map giving the location of the fire giant lair in the Sulhaut mountains. But they are a long way from there, and they have wounded and freed commoners to deal with. It is decided that Sai will take the peasants, via Teleport, back to Pellak. The rest will stay in the Jarl's quarters until Thoradin is able to cast Word Of Recall to bring the rest back to that city. Laurali makes her intentions known. She will stay until she is at full strength once again and then return to her people. The party (most of them) will be sorry to see her go. Krote, especially, is saddened. He fashions a giant sized necklace for Laurali of his walrus skull belt buckle – his first ever trophy – and presents it to her. She is quite moved by the gesture. While the rest of the party try to relax, Edran entertains himself by poking around the cave a bit more, and finds the hidden escape tunnel behind a bear skin on the wall in the sleeping chamber. This leads to him finding the iron lever set into the wall. Things go rapidly downhill from there. First, he shows the lever to Krote, who is absolutely opposed to pulling the thing. He has to physically stop Edran from pulling it. Thoradin finds out about the lever as well, and of course he is also against pulling mysterious levers, given their current wounded and separated state. So Edran waits several hours, sneaks back to the lever and pulls it. He disappears. Some time later Krote and Thoradin notice Edran's absence. It doesn't take a detective to figure out what happened when they investigate the lever and find the rope hanging from it that Edran had used to pull the thing. They walk back to the Jarl's quarters, discussing this, and Jef gets wind of Edran's disappearance and becomes quite agitated, convinced that he and Edran are best friends and that they must go save him at once! Thoradin is having none of it. Edran is, as he is so fond of saying, immortal. The cleric is through chasing the boy around and picking up after him. He tells Jef that if he want's to go after Edran, be his guest. So, Jef heads for the alcove with the lever. Krote follows and watches from the hall as Jef pulls the lever and vanishes. Krote reports this to Thoradin, who rightly surmises that the lever probably teleports the puller to the fire giant lair, and that, by Clangadin, they are simply in no shape to go after the pair. Selendra can't be moved, Joshua isn't much better off and wouldn't leave Selendra anyway, and he is nearly tapped of spells. Krote want's desperately to go after Edran, but finally sees the wisdom in Thoradin's words. So they settle in to rest and wait. *** Edran finds himself in a blisteringly hot mountain range, not fifty feet from a giant pile of lava rock boasting a massive set of iron doors, utterly alone, except for the ever faithful Rufus, as volcanic ash rains down upon him. There is not a bush or scrub to be seen in the blasted landscape, and Edran worries that perhaps this time he has gone too far. He casts about for a place to hide, and finally finds a cramped cave about a half mile away. He settles in to wait, periodically leaving the cave to watch the spot he appeared at, hoping to see the rest of his party. They do not come. But Jef does. Several hours later, Edran hears the ogre calling his name, searching for him. Edran want's no part of Jef and hunkers down to let him pass. But Rufus will have none of it, and bolts from the cave, barking for Jef's attention. Soon Jef pokes his head into the cave, and thus begins forty-eight hours of uninterrupted Jef and Edran time. Jef babbles. Edran double talks in his usual fashion, but where that ploy usually frustrates the average listener, Jef eats it up, hanging on every word with undisguised happiness. Time passes. Jef hunts for lizards to eat. Edran begins to regress. Goes a bit feral. Goes a bit catatonic. Curses Clangadin and lops off his own finger – the one Thoradin had so recently regenerated. At one point Edran wakes up with Jef holding him like a child, rocking back and forth, whispering soothingly that everything is going to be all right. Day becomes night. Night becomes day. Edran can take no more and demands that Jef go kill giants, pointing to the fire giant lair. Jef shrugs and off he goes. Hours pass and her does not return. Rufus is upset by this, whimpering at Edran, who slips further and further into himself. *** Meanwhile, Thoradin is finally able to prepare new spells, and he uses Word of Recall to transport himself, Selendra, Joshua and Krote back to Pellak where they waste no time in finding Sai. It will be another full day before they can have everyone back to full fighting strength. During that time Thoradin uses Sending to request that Annabelle Zane scry Edran to find out his status. She is soon able to tell Thoradin that Edran is in a mountainous region, in a cave, with an ogre and his dog. Thoradin accepts this as Edran being just fine and decides to let the boy stew for another day. Unfortunately, this involves lying to Krote about Annabelle's message. Annabelle, of course, is scrying them at that moment, and very soon after she Teleports directly to the inn to tell Thoradin that it is not a good idea to lie in her name, and it is an even worse idea to tarry much longer. In addition to her eagerness to get the final tooth, she has also become genuinely worried about the giants and who might be behind their machinations. She urges them to get going as soon as possible. To that end, she Teleports the party back to the Jarl's quarters where they can finally pull the cursed lever and reunite with Edran. Which they do. It is not a very good reunion. Once they find the boy, they see that he is an utter mess. Nearly catatonic, his missing finger crudely bandaged, and wholly unresponsive to their questions. Selendra finally slaps him across the face and tells him to man up. Thoradin feels an unfamiliar pang of romance towards the elf knight at that. Krote uses Speak With Animals to talk to Rufus. Rufus tells him about the last two days, that Jef has gone to the giant's lair, and chalks up Edran's condition to loneliness. When they at last get Edran moving, they head for the massive iron doors. Krote and Selendra are able to open one enough for the party to get through, and into the fire giant lair they go. The long hall stretches before them, their steps echoing off it's smooth obsidian floor. They glance warily at the tapestries that adorn the walls: scenes of fire giant violence against all manner of foes. Edran smears blood from his finger stump on them as they walk the hall. On either side of the hall, Krote and Thoradin test the tapestries with their weapons, searching for hidden tunnels and alcoves. Krote finds one. As his axe finds no resistance behind one of the tapestries on the left wall, a massive horn blast fills their ears and reverberates throughout the fire giant lair. Only a few steps into the first hallway, and they are already found out! And that's where we wrapped. The party is 14th level. It is Harvester 12th, about 10:00am And best of all, the Patriots lose the super bowl! [/QUOTE]
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