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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 1899638" data-attributes="member: 8530">Game #4  11/21/04Chapter Five, “The bigger they are the harder they fall”, May 28th, 1020, 10:45 A.M.Upon hearing that there is a group of fire giants right around the bend Mark, Mojo and Narg all opt for a strategy of Get’em!    Fiona decides to first cause a distraction by flying up and out and tossing down a Lightening Bolt, which wounds three of the giants.   She also then sees that the giants have eight hell hounds with them.   Serita pulls from her belt pouch a handful of gas pellets, which she throws onto the ground in front of herself and her allies.  The effect of the gas simulates a Haste spell so they all pick up speed closing on their foes. Fiona pulls a maneuver to pivot her pegasus around while dodging some large boulders tossed by the giants.    Mojo uses his hammer of throwing to strike at the first giant who the ranger Mark makes a beeline towards.   Seeing flames coming form the mouths of the canines, Narg decides to make himself the target for them, given the fire resistant magic that he has.  Several of the giants toss rocks over towards Serita and Purge.  Between her Boots of Speed and his monk speed as well as the magical haste they are both able to dodge but keeps them from closing for an attack.   Narg manages to kill the first two hell hounds that reach him.  Mojo continues to toss his hammer at the giants but then changes opponents when a hell hound lunges at his throat.   As the hammer returns to his hand he bludgeons the canine.   Mark manages to cut down the first giant.   Narg yells to Mark “Save some for me looks like fun, I’ve had it with these dogs,” as he decapitates another.  Serita tosses a Chill Metal spell onto the giant’s weapons.  Fiona is getting annoyed at rocks being tossed up at her and her mount.   She waits until several giants have lifted up large boulders above their head to throw when she hits them with a Rock to Mud spell, disintegrating the swords weapons.   The mud also temporarily distracts the giants allowing Mark, Mojo and Narg to close on three more.   Fiona begins tossing Magic Missiles down into them.   Purge’s staff strikes the few remaining dogs and they then retreat.  After two more giants fall it becomes obvious which of the remaining three is the leader as the other two move to protect him.   Mojo and Narg both target these two guards allowing Mark to close supported by spells thrown by both Serita and Fiona.  Purge deals with the remaining hounds.  Once the battle is done the animals are searched and Serita extracts a few critical components from the bodies to use to make giant strength and control potions.   A magical sword is found but it is too large for any to use so they wrap it and then put it into a Bag of Holding.    A pouch of money is found on each of the giants with a large number of coins.   Serita examines the coins finding them all to be local currency. Mojo comments, “We should find us some jobs being giants, it apparently pays well.”    Purge looks at the bodies and says, “It may, but I don’t care for the retirement plan.”  Based upon the items in their backpacks it appears that the giants were traveling to this area from somewhere else.  “Where do you think they came from?” Serita asks.   Mojo replies, “Well, I’d say that a long time ago a mommy fire giant and a daddy fire giant got together and decided to make some babies.”   “Oh shut up,” Fiona comments.    Narg stands there contemplative.  Serita asks, “What are you thinking?”  He answers, “I’m thinking that I want to go kill some more giants.   I’m guessing thy are the ones behind the disappearance of the knights.”   They follow the tracks along the northeast road until the road then turns northwest but the giant’s tracks continue from the east.   Narg says they should continue to follow the tracks.  Purge says, “That isn’t our mission.”  Mojo just shakes his head and tells Purge, “Like we’re going to listen to you, a guy who lives in a sod house and doesn’t wear shoes.”   Narg says, “The parameters for this mission weren’t that clear.  This is the best lead we’ve found so far.”  Fiona says, “You’re thinking like a fighter.”  “What’s wrong with that!” he replies.  She answers, “Would you like a list?” Serita says “We didn’t bring a cleric with us to speak with the dead.  It would have been helpful if you had left one of the giant’s alive to question.”  Narg says, “Hey I gave them a chance.”  “When?” Fiona states.  He replies, “I’m sure I must have said something or other to them about surrendering.”   “I don’t recall hearing that,” she states.  “Well, then I at least meant to,” he replies. Mojo suggests having Fiona fly up and do some reconnaissance.  “But the giants might see her.  That would give away our position,” Purge states.  Mojo says “So?  They’ll attack her not us.  Then we’ll get to kill giants.  Seems like a win-win situation to me.”   Serita suggests invisibility but Fiona says that she didn’t study that spell this day. They continue to debate what to do.  Serita exclaims “How much time do we have to spend pretending to look for this kid before we can go home?”   They discuss looking for the gray gnomes again but are unsure of where to best do that.    They then examine the map to try to ascertain where the giants may have come from, being cognizant of the fact that both fire giants and hell hounds prefer warmer climates.    They see that in addition to Mount Torch there is one more active volcano on the map, Roaring Peak Volcano some twenty miles east, and decide that should be their destination.   They ride on for the remainder of the morning and most of the afternoon, finding the valleys between the mountains to be passable for the horses but at a much slower pace than the road had been.  By early evening they detect a plume of smoke rising up from the opposite side of the next hill.  Mark and Purge scout ahead and return to tell the others that it looks like an organized encampment of some fifty or so armed men.   They assume these must be troops working for King Querchard and ride forward to greet them.    As they approach the men take up arms and move out to surround them.  Fiona says, “Guys, they aren’t wearing any type of organized uniforms nor do they look friendly.  I think we’ve stumbled onto a camp of brigands.   They also realize that Mark and Purge had underestimated the size of the enemy force, with them actually numbering close to eighty.  Narg tells his friends “Don’t do anything rash.  I’ll handle this.”  Mojo rolls his eyes.   Narg rides forward ahead of the others and a man armed in magical armor with a very fancy two-handed sword moves forward towards him.    Narg says “Hello.  The Queen sent us.  I’m Narg of the Silver Moon.”    That results in an unexpected reaction and the man yells out  “The Silver Moon found us!  Throughout the camp he and all of his followers drop their weapons and throw up their arms to surrender.    The brigand leader says, “We thought we had gotten far enough away from you.”   The others in the party begin to talk among themselves.  “Do we know these guys?” “Not sure”,  “Something seems familiar.”    Narg pulls back and Serita says, “I think they may be from that bandit camp that was near Gelorynth.”   He says, “We cleaned their clock three times, but the last time was when?”  Mark says “Eleven years ago”    Narg returns to the brigand leader and first confirms that that is who they are.  He then says, “The Queen sent us but not to hurt you unless absolutely necessary.   You are ordered to disband and steal no more.”   The bandits all nod in agreement to this.    Mojo adds “And turn over to us all that you have stolen from others.”   “So that we can return it,” Mark adds.   “Never said that,” Mojo mutters.   The bandits are all relived that they are not going to be either attacked or imprisoned.   They have a large stockpile of food and drink and decide to have a celebration, making the Silver Moon the guests of honor.   Serita and Fiona are both cautious about partaking in the festivities but it soon becomes obvious that this group is too afraid of the consequences to attempt anything devious.   The horses are tended to and everyone gets a chance to fill their bellies.  Serita and Fiona both use this as an opportunity to find out about the region.   The outlaws have been in the Istivin area for the last year but have operated mostly along the main highway.  They indicate that they only retreated to the mountains the previous week when a large army was heading down the road.   The party realizes that this contingent was the King’s guard heading to Fort Silan and had nothing to do with the bandits but do not tell them that. They ask about any encounters in or near the mountains.  The bandits say that they attacked and robbed a group of four clerics of Ukko who were on pilgrimage.   Serita insists that they surrender what they took from the clerics.  The bandits turn over to them four clerical scrolls, a potion, a suit of magical ring mail and a magical mace.   The bandits have not seen any giants but do tell of running into and fighting a group of fifteen ogres.   Following the meal Narg orders the bandits to split up all of their remaining possessions, to go separate ways the following dawn and to never steal again.   He adds, “If we ever run into any of you again and you’ve been committing crimes we will not be so forgiving.”   Mojo adds, “King Querchard knows about you.  He told us right where to find you.  You’d best get out of his kingdom.”  Narg whispers, “Why’d you tell them that?”  Mojo replies, “So they’ll get the hell away from us.”It is starting to now get dark.   The Silver Moon gets ready to depart.  Narg tells the former leader of the group “We’re going to go report to the King.   If any of these men try to follow us they’ll regret it.”    They decide to ride on for at least the first few hours of nightfall to put some more distance between them and the bandits. DM’s Note:  The players were now in a section of the module’s map that was totally devoid of description.   So I needed to quickly come up with a scenario involving fire giants and an active volcano.  Fortunately the module “Preemptive Strike” by Paul Culotta from Dungeon #74 should fit in perfectly and enhance the overall mega-module.</blockquote>

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