(IC) Against the Giants PBP Group 2

[FitzTheRuke]

OOC Chat Thread
Rogues' Gallery Character Archive

Against the Giants

Part One: Steading of the Hill Giant Chief

Group Two Players:
@Kobold Stew playing The Colonel, Air Genasi Tempest Cleric Soldier
@Snarf Zagyg playing Doc Vileweir, Reborn Warlock/Rogue Gunslinger
@JustinCase playing Duvrael Oolo, Yuan-Ti Diviner Wizard
@Tonguez playing Kahru Karavetra, Human Druid Barbarian
@Maxperson playing Kaligan Wainwright, Human Psi-Warrior Fighter
@Steve Gorak playing a Gimlak, Dwarf


Introduction

Giants have been raiding the civilized lands in large bands, visiting death and destruction upon villages, towns, and farmlands. Entire militias have been conquered, whole crops wiped out. These marauding bands consist of mixed groups of hill giants, stone giants, frost giants, and fire giants, as well as ogres and other monsters allied with the giants.

Determined to repel the invaders, local lords have begun hiring brave adventuring parties. The first few groups didn’t fare so well. Some were crushed beneath the boulders and boots of rampaging giants, while others fled into the wilderness and never returned.

The closest giant stronghold — and the greatest immediate threat to the safety of nearby settlements — is a great timber fortress populated by hill giants, known simply as the hill giant steading. Nosnra (pronounced noz-en-rah), a grossly fat and thoroughly despicable hill giant chief, rules from this stronghold. Sly and vicious, the hill giant chief routinely plunders farms, ambushes merchant caravans, and threatens trade roads. He has gathered ogres and other vile creatures to his banner and uses them as fodder during his brutal raids.

Nosnra’s alliance with more powerful kinds of giants, such as frost giants and fire giants, is a matter of grave concern. Many suspect a sinister influence at work, a secret motivational power behind the unusual
banding of different races of giants. Civilized authorities seek answers and they are willing to pay.

A new band of adventurers has assembled to punish the marauding giants and banish them from the civilized lands!

Day One: Culligan's Cairn

Lord Falldur coughed and waved to his squire, who helped him to his feet. He made his way down the long, intricately carved passageway of the dwarven tomb that he had used as his base - his home - for the past week. Had it only been a week since he had lost two-thirds of his men, and most of his supplies, on his way to the steading? He had retreated into the hills with what was left of his forces, hiding from roving bands of giants in an ancient burial mound, hidden from the giant's view.

All he could do now was wait for reinforcements to arrive, and to send his scouts to spy on the steading. Wait, gather information, and heal. The old knight, veteran of the War of the Fallow Fields, had been badly injured when a rock had struck his knee - a rock the size of his head, thrown by a fourteen-foot Hill Giant.

He nodded to the guard at the mouth of the cairn, and peered out across the rolling foothills. The skies were grey, with a light rain, leaving the furthest hills (and the mountains beyond) obscured by mists. Still, his heart rose with a renewed sense of purpose, when he saw a figure coming along a worn animal trail.

An adventurer - the first of many, he hoped - had arrived.

GM: You have arrived at Culligan's Cairn, where you can meet your allies and get some information off of Lord Falldur before tackling the Hill Giant Steading. Good Luck!

OOC: Feel free to introduce your character and say a word or two about their journey through the hills.

 

[Kobold Stew]

He doesn't like like a holy man, though the symbol on his shield proclaims him as such. The uniform he wears shows the dust of the road, but is well-kept, and the cluster on his collar marks his rank for those who care to read it. A backpack over his shoulders is tied tightly, and he sets it down at his feet before he speaks.

"My Lord Falldur," he says, clicking his heels.

"Colonel." The man returns his salute. They have never met before, though each has a reputation to warrant at least name recognition.

"I received your... invitation. I hope I can be of service."

He's an older man, and the walk from the wagon station that had brought him here had been more than he had expected. He wipes his brow. The Colonel carries no weapons, and the service markers that would normally be on his sleeve have been removed, carefully, stitch by stitch.

"The wasgon I had hired broke down on the way here; we had to mend the axel. I expected others to be here before me. Surely the call went to others as well?"

 

[FitzTheRuke]

"Oh yes, yes." replied the old Knight, "I am expecting more. Welcome to Culligan's Cairn, abandoned by the Dwarves a hundred years ago when they disappeared into the mountain. Not much left inside after all the looting, so if you're worried about disrespecting the dead... well, you shouldn't."

Lord Falldur wanted to appear optimistic, and to make the best showing of his command, but the Colonel could tell that he was tired. He knew the look, just behind the eyes, of a man that had seen too much death. He knew the knight's reputation as a fair and capable commander (a rarity among the noblemen of the Fallen Kingdom). He should have retired long ago, but his reputation suggested that the old man did not see anyone to take his place.

After showing the Colonel around, Lord Falldur took him aside and said, "I have a favour to ask: My squire, Donnell, shows promise as a leader of men. Take him with you and show him what it is like. Try to keep him alive, of course, but he needs to come into his own. Can you do this for me?"

OOC: The Colonel's Quest: Teach the Squire

 

[Maxperson]

I will walk up to the nearest person and say, "My name is Kaligan. Please point me to the person that is in charge here."

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Kaligan had arrived at the cairn with little warning to the guards. They bristled, then relaxed when he made his demands, and pointed him into the cairn, saying, "Lord Falldur is our commander, sir. He's speaking to the Colonel in the burial chamber."

 

[Maxperson]

Kaligan had arrived at the cairn with little warning to the guards. They bristled, then relaxed when he made his demands, and pointed him into the cairn, saying, "Lord Falldur is our commander, sir. He's speaking to the Colonel in the burial chamber."

I nod to the guards, ignoring their bristling. "My thanks to you. " After I finish speaking to the guards I will make my way to the burial chamber and head over to the two men who are speaking to one another. "My lord Falldur, my name is Kaligan Wainwright and I have come to answer your call for aid." I will then bow in the general direction of the two men, since I'm not yet certain which one is the lord.

 

[Kobold Stew]

"I have a favour to ask: My squire, Donnell, shows promise as a leader of men. Take him with you and show him what it is like. Try to keep him alive, of course, but he needs to come into his own. Can you do this for me?"

Hurm, the Colonel grunts.

"I'll do what I can, my Lord." He turns and stares at Donnell, who is standing off to the side looking expectantly. "He looks raw."

It's not a criticism from the Colonel. But it is an assessment, and one tinged with a note of regret. He's lost soldiers Donnell's age before, and it doesn't get easier. But the Colonel accepts the obligation and introduces himself to the squire.

"Donnell, is it? Hurm. We'll see this through, shall we?"

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Both men were old soldiers, but the elder, injured-looking one nodded as the new arrival bowed and offered, "Welcome, Kaligan. I am much obliged to you for your aid."

He took Kaligan aside as the Colonel spoke to his squire, saying, "I am sure you will all work together on this, but I have a particular charge for you, if you please. These giants of the hills have some sort of alliance with the mountainous stone and fire giants. I have seen them. I have heard that there might be giants of the northern glacier as well, but what fears me most is that they may ally themselves with the giants of the skies. The world will tremble. I need you to find evidence of a possible alliance with the cloud or storm giants. I don't know how you might prove that there is none - but if you can find that, well... that would be all the better."

OOC: Kaligan's Quest (if he wants it): Find evidence if the 'sky' Giants are involved or not.

 

[Tonguez]

An eagle soared in the grey morning sky, its sharp eyes scanning the hills below seeking signs of life; a pair of rabbits scurrying back to their burrow, the dessicated carcass of an elk, a she-bear and her satisfied cub, and there, inevitably, a wagon, brokendown on the wayside, a sign of humanity.

“Kaaah -ruu” the druid called his own name, his eagle cry sharp and piercing as he darted forward following the path of a uniformed traveller below him, no doubt another who had heard the call for aid.

What Kahru had not seen yet was sign of the loathsome ogres that he had sworn to destroy. Kahru Karavetra, Warrior of the Storm Bear Clan, hated Ogres and he wasnt much for distinguishing between Ogres, Hill giants and others of that kind either.
Fortunately for him Kahru wasnt an orphan yet, and his village hadnt been raized by ogres either. Nonetheless he did have cause to join this battle and ensure his homeland remained unmolested.
12 years ago he had been a young warrior guarding his icy homelands from the encroachment of some outsiders war when his life path had been changed forever. As the full moon reflected its ancestral fire and lightning rent the distant skies, an ogre raid had crossed the border and suprised a Storm Bear patrol as they camped. Kahru was struck hard by an ogres spear and left wounded and bloody in the snow while his kin were slain. He may have died in the snow that night but had managed to drag his raging body to shelter and somehow found himself in the den of a hibernating she-bear. Whether it was the drowsiness of her long sleep or the intervention of spirits, the bear did not kill the warrior outright, she let him stay, her warmth sustaining him as he healed.
The encounter changed him, his life now belonged to the spirits, the Ancestral Storm Bear and he would be their champion.

Finding a rock upon which to perch, the eagle descended and with a shudder transformed back into the form of a human man, tall and weathered, with heavy brow, thick moustache and thick flowing dark hair that was showing signs of grey. His armour was beaten and edged with white fur. Around his neck hung the claws of a bear and at his side a greatsword and axe.

Walking the rest of the way to the Cairn, the Barbarian sniffed as he passed the guards and gazed around the camp. He wasnt much for unnecessary talking but paused and nodded respectfully at the old knight who had come out to greet them…

 

[FitzTheRuke]

"You have travelled a long way to be here and are most welcome," Lord Falldur said to Kahru, recognising his clothing and stylings to be from the north. The old knight introduced the others, and told them, "I would offer you all food and drink, but for our supply wagon was taken when we were attacked. We have enough to hold out for three or four days, if hunting stays as sparse as it is."

Kahru was on something of a hunt himself. When ogres had attacked his people, a warleader's son had perished; his head knocked in like an egg. The ogre had taken a trophy - the young man's Eagle Whistle. Carved from the breastbone of a giant eagle and inscribed with runes, the magic whistle could allow a person to fly.

It had taken Kahru many months just to discover the ogre's name - Mudsmuck - and many more to discover where the giant-kin had gone. He had travelled south, following signs, asking plants, animals, and occasionally people, what they had seen or heard. He now hoped to find Mudsmuck among the Hill Giants. If he were lucky, he would find him at this steading. If not, he would bash any ogre he did find, which would hold him over until he did.

OOC: Kahru's Quest: Find Mudsmuck and the Eagle Whistle