Session 22 (1/28/06) - Fighting The Big Stuff (or "Why Haven't We Leveled? Why? WHY?!")
While the poisoned people are healed, the adventurers check the six dead trolls. All of them carry the barest amount of clothing, consisting mainly of straps and bags made of dinosaur skin. Only one has something worth taking, a thick golden belt studded with diamonds. After examining it, Dala suggests that it was a giant's armband. Imre estimates it as worth 2 to 3,000 galifars, maybe more to a collector. The Angels discuss whether to follow the trolls that fled, but eventually decide not to.
Collus, Maura and the dead porter are buried nearby. The remaining six porters are understandably upset about the death toll on this trip, but unable to do much, since retreating would mean traveling across more than a dozen miles of forest alone. To mollify them slightly, Arrok has a significant amount of the provisions buried in a cache, so that the porters have less to carry and can move faster. He says that since the provisions were to ensure that they have enough to return, the expedition can safely do without and recover them on the way back. As the group continues, some can hear the porters muttering darkly, "IF we make it back."
As the group continues on, Six offers to scout a little distance ahead. He says that there's a chance that he will detect dangerous creatures before they reach them, especially since Luna has trouble doing that (due to the multi-layered forest canopy) if she's flying overhead. Arrok agrees and Six takes point about fifty feet ahead of the group, moving as quietly and stealthily as he can. About half an hour later, he sees three carnivorous dinosaurs, all slightly taller than him but their long tails making them more than twice as long, heading towards the group. They have not detected him and seem more curious than hostile. Six drops back to warn the group and everyone stops, readying weapons just in case.
The three dinosaurs emerge from the forest some sixty feet away, stopping to look at the party. Arrok says quietly, "Bigger version of the Talenta clawfoot," drawing attention to the big hooked talons on the dinosaurs' feet. These three do not seem threatening, and after some ten seconds of staring at the group, turn and disappear into the woods. After giving them a little time to get far enough away, Six returns to his position and they continue through the forest.
The trail gradually ends. About an hour after it does, Six catches a glint of light on something a couple hundred feet away, which he soon sees to be a broken stone structure. He tells the others and the expedition quickly detours towards it. They find the structure to be the remnants of a stone floor and a 20 ft wide set of stone steps (of which only two steps and part of a third remain), each of which is three ft tall, with the remnants of the parapet on one side. The steps are cracked, with a large split between the top of the second step and the half-existent bottom of the third. A little searching reveals shorter shattered columns and pieces of stone in the area.
Nameless casts a spell and detects magic from within the split on the steps. He finds a magical adamantine dagger wedged within, sized for a user about ten feet or taller. It is extracted with some difficulty and found to be still usable, so Six carries it for the time being. Besides the dagger, they find no worthwhile artifacts in the area. Urden finds the bottom of a pillar with part of a word on it - "Pra'xi..." ("Pra'x" meaning "forest" in Giant). Luna flies around but finds no other such area, and the expedition continues.
Shortly afterwards, Luna warns that they are about to hit one of the large open spaces, about a mile in width. There are large dinosaurs out there, but not in the immediate vicinity. After some discussion, the group decides to travel across it as Arrok suggests, rather than take a huge detour. When they emerge from the forest, they find that the area is shaped like a bowl, with gentle slopes descending to about a hundred feet below the level of the forest floor. As they carefully and quickly proceed across it, Nameless and Six discuss whether it's natural or not. Six says, "I wonder if it's a giant's bowl" and stops to produce the adamantine dagger and dig it into the ground as deep as its blade will go. It doesn't hit anything, so he pulls it out and continues.
Though they see some large dinosaurs in the distance, none of the creatures seem interested in them, and after half an hour the expedition passes into the trees on the far side of the open area. They proceed for another couple of hours, before deciding to make camp. As before, they pick an area where the ground drops and make camp at the bottom. Or prepare to. As they are in the process of doing so, a soft whispering sound reaches them, which turns into a haunting song.
Everyone experiences the song in a different way, but to each of them it is the saddest thing they could hear. Corven hears the sound of Cyrans dying on the day of Mourning, Gareth hears the weeping of his mother and grandmother at his father's grave, and Nameless ... well, Nameless probably hears tentacle soup being spilled somewhere. Luna shakes her head at the sound and says, "Hey - maybe this is that singing tree I heard about!" The opinion doesn't seem to get the hearing it deserves, as all around her, the other Angels and the members of the expedition quickly drop whatever they were doing, rise to their feet, and head into the forest in the direction of the sound. Luna, Arrok, Dala, Imre and one of the porters are the only ones who are unaffected.
After a few seconds of calling to the others and trying to physically stop them, which they discover is possible but difficult, Luna uses an entangle spell to ensnare as many as she can. Nameless, Niff and most of the porters are affected, but Nameless and a couple of others quickly manage to extricate themselves and continue on. Arrok and Luna leave Dala, Imre and the porter to restrain the remaining ones if they escape, and hurry after the others.
That group manages to reach the source of the singing, which is a tall tree with dark-gray bark and strangely leafless branches. Six, the fastest of the group, is the first to reach it. As he walks up to it and gazes upwards, one of the branches swings downwards, clubbing him brutally on the head. This promptly ends the strange effect that the tree's singing had, but only upon him, as the others keep moving towards it. As Six dodges away from the tree, Urden and Corven reach it, followed by a couple of the porters. More branches lash out at them, knocking them into sensibility. At least Urden and Corven, that is, since the two porters are both smashed to the ground.
Racing up to the scene, Luna sees what's happening and yells to those conscious, "Use fire! Plants are weak against it!" She illustrates her point by calling down a flame strike. The tree actually tries to bend away from the blast but is too large to do so, and branches wither and bark chars under the magical inferno. Arrok fires a couple of arrows at it, but finds that they are ineffectual. He shouts to Luna, "Keep doing what you're doing," and turns to try and hold back those trying to get to the tree.
Nameless and Gareth are already too close for Arrok to stop and each of them suffers a heavy blow, which at least makes them recover their faculties. Near them, Urden tries to dodge away from the tree, but stumbles on a hidden root*. Before he can recover, a branch shoots down like a spear, impaling him to the ground. Corven, right next to him, decides that he can't get out of reach and pulls out a wand instead. He unleashes a scorching ray that chars the tree's bark.
While Luna begins to call lightning down on the tree and Six abortively unleashes a series of arrows, Nameless backs off as far as he can and summons three pseudonatural bison, which begin trying to butt and gore the tree. Their attacks draw its attention, as more branches smash down at them. Unfortunately, it has multiple branches, and another swings down at Corven. It slams him full-length into the ground, breaking bones and knocking him unconscious**. Gareth too takes a heavy blow as he retreats, but manages to get out of range and begins to heal himself.
Over the next few seconds, Luna lashes the tree with bolts of lightning and Nameless uses an acid arrow, while the bison keep attacking it, but the tree has incredible vitality, and it smashes the life out of two of the bison. This leaves one bison and the retreating Nameless as the only targets. Realizing that one blow will kill the already wounded mage, Luna (who has been yelling futilely at Gareth to get in there with his sword, only to be met with an "It'll kill me in one hit!") decides to take a considered risk and runs forward, waving her arms and yelling, "Come on, you ugly weed - I bet you can't hit me!"
Fortunately for Nameless but not for her, she apparently does catch the tree's attention. To the surprise of the watchers, it pulls a huge root out of the ground and places it in front of it, pivoting as if on a foot. Three huge branches swing down at Luna, all of them hitting. The druid is flung backwards, battered and broken***. The focus on Luna does, however, give Nameless an opportunity to fire off another volley of magic missiles, even as his earlier acid arrow burns further into the plant and the bison slams into it one more time. The tree teeters and then keels over, barely missing some of the unconscious people.
Those still standing rush to those who are down and attempt to revive them. Urden is stone dead, as is one of the porters, but the other is barely revived, along with Corven and Luna.
Nameless, having ordered the bison to keep battering the tree just in case, gives Gareth a dirty look and says, "How about healing them?"
Seeing the look, Gareth asks in puzzlement, "What did I do?"
"Nothing - that's what!" snarls Nameless and stalks off to see to the others.
Once those still alive are revived and all the wounded are healed, the adventurers cautiously search the area. They find that the tree had actually walked (as the root impression show) to this point from an area a couple hundred feet away, which is piled with the bones of its past victims. These include a couple of skeletons that may have come from forest trolls and one giant-sized one. There is no useful equipment or treasure to be found, and the group quickly heads back to camp. Luna suggests camping near the now-dead tree, since creatures that know about it would be scared of approaching, but nobody wants to risk the chance that "maybe it has friends!"
Once they return to the camp, Urden and the dead porter are buried. Arrok seems a little more obviously upset than he has been with the previous deaths, saying that Urden was a reliable friend of his. He takes most of the drow's possessions, but offers the others use of some of his things, saying that Urden had no family and would have preferred the equipment to see some use. Six and Luna take one of the scimitars each, while Corven takes a Cloak of Protection.
***
There are no more interruptions and the rest of the evening and night passes peacefully. Corven's homunculus, which has been working on Six's spiked chain (since the previous night) while the others are asleep, has completed enchanting it by dawn. The group soon breaks camp and heads out. Arrok asks Luna if she can take a couple of hours and fly as close to the mountain (which is now a little over fifteen miles away) as possible, specifically to look for structures and signs of habitation. She agrees, changes form into an eagle, and flies off.
The others continue on foot. After traveling for a little over an hour, they hear the sounds of loud bellowing (evidently from a number of huge creatures) and crashing trees off somewhere about 4-500 feet to their right. They quickly conceal themselves. The bellowing quickly devolves into screams of pain and is abruptly cut off. Six suggests that they remain where they are till Luna returns and can find out what it is, and they do so.
Luna, meanwhile, heads directly towards the mountain. On the way, she passes over the largest of the open spaces that she has seen, about 3 miles across and like a bowl set about 300-400 ft below the level of the forest. It is strangely formed, as if someone dug out huge chunks of the ground, leaving deep gullies and trenches. There is a lake about a quarter mile across in the middle. Despite the distance, she can see large dinosaurs there, as well as in other parts of the bowl. When she is almost across, she also catches sight of some large humanoid shapes in the distance. A quick detour reveals them to be seven large hill giants (though they seem larger and even uglier than hill giants she has seen or seen pictures of) stalking a herd of dinosaur. After watching them for a little bit, she heads on.
As she nears the mountain, Luna still sees no signs of any structures near it. When she is less than six miles from the mountain, she does notice something strange. Ahead of her are a few birds that appear to be perched in mid-air, floating a few feet above the tallest branches of the trees below them. They seem otherwise normal - or as normal as a bird floating in mid-air and preening itself can be. Luna flies closer, circling around to study the strange sight, and suddenly crosses an invisible barrier. Though the general sight in front of her remains the same, the details change a lot. Many of the trees are taller and it turns out that the birds she saw were actually sitting in the branches of trees that were masked by the illusion that seems to cover the area. Even more interestingly, Luna can now see a city sitting at the base of the mountain. It is about two miles across and despite the distance, she is sure that the buildings in it (which seem to be in ruins, though she can't be sure) are giant-sized. It is apparently inhabited, as indicated by a couple of thin plumes of dark smoke rising from it.
Having found what she was looking for, Luna heads back to the group. As she goes, she notes that the illusion doesn't affect those within the area when looking out. Arriving back with the others, she finds them waiting for her. They explain what happened and she flies off to check. Some 400 ft from their position, she finds a number of knocked-down trees and the corpse of a large dinosaur, which has been killed by a series of very large bites. Huge chunks of meat are missing. A swarm of small carnivorous dinosaurs are feeding on it. Luna's doubts that they killed it are quickly confirmed, as a tyrannosaurus (also known as the swordtooth) comes charging out of the trees. The small dinosaurs flee as the huge reptile takes a big bite out of the corpse, rushing back as it turns away.
Luna heads back to join the others and changes shape so that she can report what she saw there and near the mountain. After her description, Corven and Nameless surmise that it is some sort of a hallucinatory terrain spell, which can affect the appearance of natural terrain and artificial structures, but not living creatures. Nameless also points out that since the average hallucinatory terrain would cover an area a few hundred feet long and wide and maybe sixty feet high, this is by far the largest one he's heard of.
The group continues, Luna now traveling in shifter form with them. Eventually, they reach the large open space she told them of. Picking one of the gullies that will get them across quickly but also not take them towards the center of the 'bowl', they quickly head across. When they are most of the way across, the adventurers hear thunder. It takes only a moment of looking up to see a complete lack of clouds, followed by the feel of the ground trembling and the sound of loud bellowing breaking out behind them to confirm what it is. "Dinosaur stampede!" yells Arrok, "Get the heck out of here!"
With little time to respond, if the thundering of huge dinosaur feet is any guide, people respond in various ways. While backing away as far as he can, Nameless quickly casts a web spanning the roughly thirty to forty foot width of the gully, some sixty feet from their position. "That'll slow them down!" he says, then snapping to the nearby porters, "Stay close - I'll get you out." Two of them comply, though clearly shaken. Three others are not as trusting, screaming in fear and running as fast as they can. Nameless quickly casts a fly spell on one of the porters and says, "Get him out!" The porter immediately grabs the other and begins to rise upwards.
Six and Arrok both rush to the rough rocky sides of the sixty foot deep gully and begin to climb as fast as they can, Six quickly outpacing the slower gnome. It's quite clear, however, that neither will reach the top before the dinosaurs get there. Gareth, after one look at the walls and another at his heavy armor, also rushes to the side. But instead of trying to climb, he tries to back into an indentation in the walls. Just in case, he casts a shield of faith and throws in a quick prayer for good measure, followed by a shouted, "Someone throw down a rope!"
"Sure!" says Luna, changing form into an eagle. She soars up to the top and changes back again. As she does so, she also gets the first good view of what's thundering down towards the adventurers. Above the walls of the gully around the turn, she sees the long necks of a dozen brontosaurs, jostling for position and racing forward as only a panicked dinosaur can. The reason for their panic is not immediately evident, until a break in the gully wall reveals the sight of not one but two tyrannosaurs charging after them, jaws agape. Just to round off the tableau, a few pterosaurs fly in their wake, toothed beaks agape in excitement. "Oh bugger!" says Luna fervently, as she begins to pull a rope from her pack.
Still down in the gully, Imre has pulled out a potion and swigged it. "Grab hold!" she cries to Niff and seizes the gnome cartographer. Both of them begin to rise slowly upwards. Dala follows suit, using a potion of her own. Seeing them, Corven hurriedly pulls out a similar potion of levitate that he has been carrying for weeks on end. He follows suit and begins to rise. It's only when he's a few feet off the ground that he remembers how slowly the spell works. Corven quickly begins to cast a bear's endurance on himself, figuring he can use all the protection he can get. Close enough to both see and hear him, Gareth quickly follows suit.
And this is the point when the first two brontosaurs turn the corner and hit the web. The magical obstruction creaks and stretches, holding for a few moments despite the fact that it isn't designed to take this kind of stress. A number of strands snap, but the web holds and the brontosaurs' momentum slows. For a couple of seconds, it looks like they might be stopped - until the rest of the brontosaurs pile into them from the rear. One brontosaur is actually knocked off its feet by the impact and a couple of others almost climb onto it, and the web finally gives way. The watchers are treated to the sight of multiple tons of confused, terrified, bellowing dinosaur sliding through the gully like the world's largest cork being popped. With a chorus of moans, bellows and screams, the dinosaurs are upon them.
Or almost all of them. The seconds that the web lasts is just enough for Nameless, having made his way as far down the gully as he could while casting his spells, to summon a trio of pseudonatural creatures. He barely has enough time to mount one and as the dinosaurs come surging down the gully, the hippogriff soars out in the nick of time. The other two, at his command, pursue the fleeing porters. "They're here to help!" he yells after the porters, but with the distance and the noise he doubts they will hear.
The others - except for Luna at the top - are not as lucky. Though they all try to take up as little space as possible, each is smashed against the gully's side to some degree, though that would count as being brushed by the creatures in passing. What is lucky for them is that they are all off the ground and above the bulk of the brontosaurs, so they are not actually squeezed into the gully's sides or stepped on. Other than Gareth, who sees a huge foot descending near him. He shoves himself as deep into the gully wall as possible, which stops the foot from more than brushing his shoulder, though that is enough to rattle his teeth.
The sight of the dinosaurs passing below her are distracting enough for Luna, but quickly added to it is the fact that she seems to have caught the attention of two of the pterosaurs, which turn and fly in her direction. She hurriedly throws Gareth the rope and begins to cast a spell. It's only a second after she has begun that she realizes that in her hurry, she didn't actually anchor the rope before throwing it down. Gareth realizes it a moment later. As he looks up past thirty feet of rushing dinosaur, he sees the rope descend next to him. His happy "Yes!" is quickly cut off as the rest of the rope then hits him in the face, leading to a couple of comments that Cedric might have appreciated. His mood isn't improved as he looks beneath the huge legs of the brontosaurs and sees something Luna couldn't see from the gully top. A few clawfoot dinosaurs race along below the brontosaurs, snapping at them like excitable terriers. One of them spots him and charges at him. Luckily for him, as it hurls itself forward with talons raised, a brontosaur foot brushes its side, bruising it badly and sending it sliding off to the side.
Above Gareth, the various levitating and flying people reach the gully top. Corven, nursing some bruised ribs and having had the singular experience of his life as well as four brontosaurs flash before his eyes, is among the first to do so. Seeing the two pterosaurs heading for them, he quickly pulls out his wand and begins to apply an infusion to double its power. The two porters, Dala, Imre and Niff also emerge nearby. Nameless is further along the gully, and he quickly dismounts and sends his hippogriff to join the other two in rescuing the porters.
Some distance below the gully top, both Arrok and Six have managed to hold on to the sides despite the battering they have taken. As they try to climb closer to the top, a chunk of rock that Six was holding onto comes off in his hand. He claws vainly at the surface and then drops. Luckily, his fall is cushioned by a passing brontosaurus. Six hits on its side and bounces off, desperately trying to hold on. He finally hits the ground, bruised and battered, and desperately rolls away from the huge feet pounding around him, though the bare touch of him slams him against the gully-side. A nearby clawfoot, apparently deciding that Six must be dinner from the sky, rushes towards him.
Meanwhile, on the gully top, both Luna and Corven dodge away from the pterosaurs, which squawk in disappointment and continue on. Before they can make another pass, Luna finishes her spell, summoning three hippogriffs to surround and attack them. Corven, seeing what has just happened to Six, decides to go help him. Then, seeing what is about to pass by, he politely waits until each tyrannosaurus can pass by. Once they have, he steps off the gully top and begins to levitate down.
The clawfoot that attacked Gareth still shows fight, leaping forward to slash him with his talons. Being stepped on has left it a little wobbly, however, and Gareth cuts it down with Kizmet. Six, realizing that after the fall he is in no condition to fight, pulls out a potion. Before he can drink it, the clawfoot is on him in a flurry of teeth and claws, and he slumps to the ground, unconscious. The clawfoot hesitates for a moment, apparently having found his combination of wood, metal and fibres somewhat unappetizing, and that's just enough time for Corven. He levels his wand and fires, sending two scorching rays through its head, killing it instantly. Corven then descends to the gully floor and revives Six.
With the dinosaurs far enough away (though the sounds indicate that the tyrannosaurs have managed to kill at least one brontosaur), the expedition-members quickly fall to healing. Amazingly, not one of them has been killed, with the three fleeing porters having reappeared, struggling and screaming in the grasp of the hippogriffs. The creatures drop them near Nameless and fly off to join Luna's summoned creatures in dealing with the pterosaurs. Once everyone is healed, the group quickly descends into the next gully, hurrying to exit this area as soon as they can. As they leave, Nameless points out to the porters how much effort he had to put in to save them and suggests that they stick close to him and follow directions next time.
***
In comparison to being caught in a dinosaur stampede, the rest of the day's travel is completely uneventful. By the time the group makes camp, they are only about a mile from the border of the hallucinatory terrain and four miles from the giant city's outskirts, Luna estimating that they will reach it around noon the next day. As usual, the group makes camp near the bottom of a slope, picking a spot that gives you a little space between the bottom of the slope and the trees.
Shortly after they have made camp, most of them hear the sounds of multiple large creatures moving through the trees towards the camp. The expedition-members either back away and ready weapons or conceal themselves as well as they can in the undergrowth. Except for Gareth and two of the porters, whom he is giving a crash course in the worship of the Silver Flame. The three of them are too engrossed in the conversation and only realize something is afoot when they look around to find half the expedition apparently missing and the others pointing crossbows at the forest.
Gareth just has time to rise and say, "What...?", when a hulking shape emerges from the trees. It resembles a hill giant, but stands close to one and a half times as tall, and is significantly deformed, with a twisted face and one hunched shoulder higher than the other. It wears a chain shirt and carries a club that is the size of a small tree. Three more, slightly shorter, figures move through the shadows behind it.
The prepared adventurers hold their fire, just in case the giants are not hostile, but the hope is quickly dispelled. The giant raises a trunk-like arm and points at Gareth and the others visible in the middle of the camp and bellows a word, which Corven and others translate as either "Food!" or "Poop!" Presuming it's the former, the group promptly unleashes a hail of weapons and spells on the creatures.
Arrows hit a number of the giants, though they seem to have little effect. More troublesome for them is the fog cloud that Luna drops around them, which is followed by a black tentacles spell from Nameless. Though the others cannot see it, the grunts of surprise and pain from within the mist signify to its efficacy.
While the others reload or move closer, Luna casts another spell, creating a spike growth in the area around the cloud. Her action is timely, as the big giant rushes out of the cloud. It promptly stumbles into the spikes, and with a howl of pain, rushes through the area. Gareth, running forward to attack it, takes a blow from the club that rocks him from head to toe. The three other giants also emerge a moment later, to step on the spike growth and also be surrounded by a glitterdust from Nameless. Two of them are blinded, taking them out of the fight, and one of them is lamed too.
The remaining giant manages to resist being blinded but by the time it makes its way through the spikes, it is hobbling. With a cry of rage, it rushes at Corven, who has just blasted it with his wand. Corven's cries of "No, no - not me! Look at the big armored guys!" apparently doesn't convince it and he barely avoids being crushed to the ground by a blow that leaves him bruised and battered.
Arrok and Six have been sniping with great effectiveness all this time and they focus their fire on the giant threatening Corven. The porters, Dala, Imre and Niff have also been doing their part with their crossbows, and with the two blind giants blundering off (one of whom wanders back into the tentacles****) after having been blasted by a fireball from Nameless, they switch to the two remaining targets too. While Luna uses produce flame and hurls bolts of fire, Nameless further summons two pseudonatural bison to attack the giant facing Gareth.
The big giant seems very surprised at the appearance of the creatures and Gareth seizes the opportunity to smite it with all his strength and the power of the Silver Flame. Badly wounded, the creature bellows in anger and brings down its club with all its strength - on Kizmet. There is a tinny sound and the sword shatters, leaving only a hilt-shard in Gareth's hand. As he screams in anger, the giant turns and smashes one of the bison.
Across the clearing, Corven realizes he is too close to escape and levels his wand at point-blank range, blasting the giant looming over him. It screams in rage and swings, hitting Corven amidships. Ribs crack as he is lifted off his feet and hurled backwards, landing in a heap ten feet away. The giant promptly turns to flee.
The giants' momentary triumphs are completely transient. More spells and arrows slam into them, as do the two bison, and they both collapse. An angry Gareth uses the remaining fragment of Kizmet to dispatch the one next to him, having to literally saw its huge throat open.
As Luna rushes to heal Corven and the others move forward to ensure that the giant stuck in the black tentacles is dead, Gareth picks up the fragments of Kizmet. Once he has collected them, he asks Six if he can try using the magical adamantine dagger they found, to see if its magic helps heal Kizmet. Luna, having got Corven back on his feet, offers Urden's scimitar too. Gareth places the two in contact with Kizmet, before placing the pieces of Kizmet in order. As the others watch curiously, he places his hands on them and prays to the Flame.
There is no change in the other weapons, but there is a short flash of light and the pieces of Kizmet gradually knit together. As they do so, Gareth feels the same draining sensation that he had when first doing this, after the sword had been sundered by Desro. The feeling is stronger this time. As he picks up the now complete sword, Gareth feels a dim sense of relief. It takes him a couple of seconds to realize it, but the emotion is not his own. As far as he can tell, the sword in his hands is relieved, and he can feel it.
* Also known as John cursing him so that I rolled a 1.
** Well past -10 - the first time for Corven.
*** Took her from completely healed and 75 hp to below -10; also a first for Luna.
**** Poor guy was shot, sneak attacked, burned, blind, lame (down to 1/8 speed!) and grappled.