Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
Hacking, slashing and blasting in a fury, the surviving adventurers brought down the giants, who began to panic, but had no way to retreat. They fought bravely, but their best efforts were futile, especially after Stedd managed to stun one, and a second was viciously hacked down by Miles in a tremendous series of attacks.
Standing, covered in blood, over the bodies of enemy and ally alike, the group did what passed for mourning amongst them.
"What was he carrying then?" Stedd asked the others.
Yvgeny and Halbrinn at least had the decency to look embarrassed at this question, but Miles dived in merrily, and began looting the dead bodies of his fallen comrades before sparing the giants' corpses so much as a glance.
Soon enough, the cavern rang with cries of "dibs!", "mine", or "he had how much gold?" Even Halbrinn was swept along in the frenzied tide of looting, whilst Yvgeny alone wept for the suffering of Rand and his comrade. Even if nobody in the group could remember what his name was.
During the course of looting the unfortunate Rand, Miles heard a strange sucking, slurping noise coming from the sorceror's head.
Turning the body over (it had been face down to allow Miles to remove Rand's cloak), he was horrified to see that Rand's left eye was protruding slightly from the socket on a short stalk. As Miles fumbled for his shortsword, the eye pulled away from the inside of Rand's skull, and then simply faded from sight, leaving a fist-sized hole just inside the sorceror's head. Revolted, they rolled the body back over, and turned to looting the giants.
Miles decided to start by hacking the heads off the giants, just to be certain that they didn't rise again to challenge the party. Taking three mighty swipes with the intelligent blade Slayer, the head was removed, leaving a ghostly mist between head and body. This mist poured out of the ruined neck-stump, forming a large ghostly giant-like form, which wailed faintly as it was sucked away, through the mound of stones and into the chamber beyond.
Suddenly, similar wraith-like forms were sucked from the other giants, as well as from the bodies of Rand and his cohort. Wailing, the group leapt into action to behead and then immolate all the bodies.
{DM's Note - I feel very sorry for Mark, the player of Rand. His last character, Adamo the alienist, was also beheaded and burned after an encounter with a group of bodaks… I have a horrible feeling that there's a pattern emerging…}
Halbrinn was curious. In the form of a pixie, he flitted through one of the spear-hole gaps in the rocky wall, and when he emerged on the other side, he gasped.
He was in a tremendous cavern, so large that he could barely make out the other side. Rather than being pitch dark like the rest of the Underdark, Almost all of the cavern was littered with tiny pinpricks of flame. Ruined buildings as far as the eye could see, and a thick miasma of smoke obscured the ceiling.
A cloud of smoke rolled across the ruined city cavern, but parted just long enough for Halbrinn to see an enormous oval construct, surrounded by small fires. Across the cavern, a tall spire-like stalacmite stretched up towards the cavern's roof, whilst other buildings either stood proudly, or slumped in ruins.
His gaze was taken when a large wall several hundred feet away collapsed, as beyond it one armoured fire giant wrestled with a titanic zombie, fully as tall and broad as the giant itself. Ogres with flaming brands darted around the struggling figures, stabbing and bludgeoning at the huge zombie with swords, spears and cudgels.
Masked in the smoke, something screamed.
Chilled to the bone, Halbrinn retreated back through the boulders, and rejoined the group.
{And that's where we left it. Playing again on Friday. Ironically, the group's been more spurred to action by the wraith-like spirits being torn from the giants and Rand (a image I stole unashamedly from Wraithdritt's Story Hour), than all the prophecies and wotnot I've been force-feeding Aeron. These prophecies were recently related to the group to the near unanimous response of "huh?" - A DM's work is never done…}
Standing, covered in blood, over the bodies of enemy and ally alike, the group did what passed for mourning amongst them.
"What was he carrying then?" Stedd asked the others.
Yvgeny and Halbrinn at least had the decency to look embarrassed at this question, but Miles dived in merrily, and began looting the dead bodies of his fallen comrades before sparing the giants' corpses so much as a glance.
Soon enough, the cavern rang with cries of "dibs!", "mine", or "he had how much gold?" Even Halbrinn was swept along in the frenzied tide of looting, whilst Yvgeny alone wept for the suffering of Rand and his comrade. Even if nobody in the group could remember what his name was.
During the course of looting the unfortunate Rand, Miles heard a strange sucking, slurping noise coming from the sorceror's head.
Turning the body over (it had been face down to allow Miles to remove Rand's cloak), he was horrified to see that Rand's left eye was protruding slightly from the socket on a short stalk. As Miles fumbled for his shortsword, the eye pulled away from the inside of Rand's skull, and then simply faded from sight, leaving a fist-sized hole just inside the sorceror's head. Revolted, they rolled the body back over, and turned to looting the giants.
Miles decided to start by hacking the heads off the giants, just to be certain that they didn't rise again to challenge the party. Taking three mighty swipes with the intelligent blade Slayer, the head was removed, leaving a ghostly mist between head and body. This mist poured out of the ruined neck-stump, forming a large ghostly giant-like form, which wailed faintly as it was sucked away, through the mound of stones and into the chamber beyond.
Suddenly, similar wraith-like forms were sucked from the other giants, as well as from the bodies of Rand and his cohort. Wailing, the group leapt into action to behead and then immolate all the bodies.
{DM's Note - I feel very sorry for Mark, the player of Rand. His last character, Adamo the alienist, was also beheaded and burned after an encounter with a group of bodaks… I have a horrible feeling that there's a pattern emerging…}
Halbrinn was curious. In the form of a pixie, he flitted through one of the spear-hole gaps in the rocky wall, and when he emerged on the other side, he gasped.
He was in a tremendous cavern, so large that he could barely make out the other side. Rather than being pitch dark like the rest of the Underdark, Almost all of the cavern was littered with tiny pinpricks of flame. Ruined buildings as far as the eye could see, and a thick miasma of smoke obscured the ceiling.
A cloud of smoke rolled across the ruined city cavern, but parted just long enough for Halbrinn to see an enormous oval construct, surrounded by small fires. Across the cavern, a tall spire-like stalacmite stretched up towards the cavern's roof, whilst other buildings either stood proudly, or slumped in ruins.
His gaze was taken when a large wall several hundred feet away collapsed, as beyond it one armoured fire giant wrestled with a titanic zombie, fully as tall and broad as the giant itself. Ogres with flaming brands darted around the struggling figures, stabbing and bludgeoning at the huge zombie with swords, spears and cudgels.
Masked in the smoke, something screamed.
Chilled to the bone, Halbrinn retreated back through the boulders, and rejoined the group.
{And that's where we left it. Playing again on Friday. Ironically, the group's been more spurred to action by the wraith-like spirits being torn from the giants and Rand (a image I stole unashamedly from Wraithdritt's Story Hour), than all the prophecies and wotnot I've been force-feeding Aeron. These prophecies were recently related to the group to the near unanimous response of "huh?" - A DM's work is never done…}
