pogre
Legend
Episode Four
“The Iron Pits I have heard of,” Gusil began.
“Do tell,” Erik replied.
“Not far from the Barrow, where we found the crown, are the Crimson Slopes. The Crimson Slopes house an old Northern Dwarven iron ore mine. The ore was so rich it literally rusted down the mountainside – staining them red and orange. After just a few years the iron ore veins were no longer pure, but were intermixed with numerous other metals, including lead, making extraction far less profitable. The Northern Dwarves had numerous other problems and abandoned the mining complex.”
“So you know where an iron mine is,” Taurus said. “That seems like a start.”
“There’s more,” Gusil replied. “A few years after the Dwarves abandoned the mines a certain summoner, by the name of Triumph Rellaring…”
“Triumph?” Erik interrupted laughing.
“Hey, I did not name him,” Gusil replied. “Anyway, this summoner took over the mine complex and reshaped them for his own purposes. He was reputed to have created a number of cells or pits that he would use to summon all manners of horrible beasts, demons, devils, and force them into compacts.”
“Thus the iron pits,” the cleric Taurus observed. “What happened to good old Triumph?”
“A few years ago he apparently had a poor negotiations session and disappeared. That’s where are favorite saint steps in,” Gusil said.
“Traydor?” Gwena asked.
“None other,” Gusil replied with a smile. “He was rumored to have made a little visit to the iron pits.”
“To hide a gem from the crown?” Erik asked.
“Ummm, there’s a bit more to it than that,” Gusil said. “He supposedly imprisoned one of his greatest enemies in the pits. The Eye of the Messiah was the first mention of the possibility of something more being buried in the pits.”
“So we have to go take on this enemy to recover our gem?” Olaf the ranger asked.
“Perhaps more,” Gusil admitted. “I have checked around with some of the tribes in this area. They avoid the Crimson Slopes, because a group of giants supposedly has moved into the area.”
“So we kill a bushel of giants, the prime enemy of a heretic or saint, grab the gem from pits deep in the mountain and run,” Erik said. “And I thought this would be hard.”
“How close is it?” Olaf asked.
“About three days,” Gusil replied.
“Let’s go,” Olaf said.
***
Olaf spotted a group of bugbears in an ambush along the trail the next day. A fireball from Antonious the fire mage, arrows from Olaf’s bow, and a good thumping from Erik’s backstabs and Taurus’s spiked chain destroyed the bugbears in seconds. Surprisingly, the leader of the bugbears had a fair amount of magical gear, which brought a smile to Erik’s face.
A couple of days later in the morning hours on the trail the adventurers spotted a huge bird flying overhead. The avian landed on a tree in front of the group. It was a giant eagle, with a wingspan well over 12 or 13 feet in length. It was obviously trying to communicate something.
Gusil quickly cast tongues and began talking to the eagle. He turned to the rest of the group and explained, “The eagle says two giants are throwing rocks at his nest. They have not come close yet, but it is a matter of time before they get lucky. His nest contains his young who cannot fly yet.”
“Let’s get those giants,” Olaf announced.
“Whoa, whoa, what’s in it for us?” Erik asked.
“He’s promised to help us in any way he can,” Gusil replied. “Think of having an eye in the sky as we approach the iron pits.”
“Alright, I’m sold,” Erik agreed.
The group moved down the path and saw a pair of fire giants down in a streambed. The giants were picking up sizable boulders and lobbing them up towards a cliff face. None of their shots were coming close to the eagle’s nest, but they laughed heartily as each heavy boulder shook the entire mountainside.
Following a few preparatory spells, Erik, Gusil, Taurus, and Antonious dimension doored within 120 feet of the giants. Olaf stayed behind to pepper the giants at range with his compound longbow. Erik used his ring to become invisible and took up a position behind the giants to set-up a backstab attack. Taurus uncoiled his spiked chain and closed the distance to the giants. Thanks to a haste cast upon the cleric by Gusil, Taurus was a whirling cyclone of death.
Despite the cleric’s furious assault the giants still stood and when they returned blows it nearly crippled Taurus. Erik launched a furious backstab attack from his secret position that seriously wounded one of the giants. Olaf’s long-range fire hit home on the same giant. Finally, a well-placed series of magical bolts from Antonious put one of the giants down.
The other giant had seen enough and decided to try and flee. The combined efforts of the group were too much for the giant. An acid arrow from Antonious was the final straw that brought the second giant down.
The Giant Eagle swooped down and gave a multitude of praises to the group. Gusil, still under the effects of the tongues spell acknowledged the eagle’s gratitude. The giant eagle promised to come to the adventurers’ camp that evening when his mate returned from her hunt. Gusil gave the eagle his thanks and told the bird where he anticipated setting up camp.
Olaf scouted a bit further down the stream and discovered they were not far from the Crimson Slopes. “They will send others out looking for these two,” the ranger warned.
“We’ll be ready,” Antonious replied. “Let’s set up a cold camp on the slope where we have cover and can see them coming.” The group readily agreed and began hiking up the slope to set-up camp.
No sooner had the adventurers cleared an area, than a large dead mountain goat was plopped down from above into the clearing. The giant eagle perched on a tree above the camp and began screeching. Gusil quickly cast tongues and began interviewing the eagle.
“Do you like goat meat?” the eagle asked.
“Yes, you are too kind,” Gusil replied. “Now I have some questions for you if you please. How many giants are there?”
“Not sure, perhaps 20. There are many fire giants and hill giants and a few servant ogres. There are also at least a couple of the two-headed giants.”
“How many entrances into the mine are there?”
“At least three visible from the sky – two in the cliff face and a large chimney that spouts black smoke day and night.”
“Are there any other monsters working with the giants?”
“I do not know. However, from time to time humanoids of medium size come to conference with the giants. They never stay for more than two or three days.”
“Would you be willing to help us tomorrow?”
“Of course, you did me a great service today. I owe you much.”
Gusil gave the eagle his thanks and the eagle bid him goodnight as it flew off into the darkness. Gusil quickly conveyed the information to the rest of the group and they discussed a battle plan before turning in for the evening.
***
They came early the next morning.
The ground shook with the approach of the giants as they noisily splashed their way downstream. The last watch quickly woke the other adventurers as they watched the approach of an ettin, four hill giants, and a large fire giant traveling down the streambed.
The adventurers had just enough time to say a few preparatory spells before they launched their ambush. Antonious started things off by launching a tremendous fireball right in the midst of the giants. The fire giant was unscathed of course, but the rest of the giants looked pretty wobbly after the explosion.
Olaf launched a number of arrows and Taurus brought down divine fire upon the giants. The Ettin succumbed to the damage and fell dead into the shallow water. The hill giants charged up the slope towards the adventurers. Gusil managed to cast an uncontrollable laughter on one of the hill giants, which took it out of action.
Erik tumbled invisibly into position and waited while the cleric Taurus set-up a flank with his mighty whirling spiked chain. The pair quickly had one of the giants down and bleeding, while some well placed magical bolts from the wizard put another of the giants down.
The fire giant had lobbed rocks at the group, but had not closed. Olaf shot three carefully aimed arrows at the fire giant and one hit home, ripping into the giant’s thigh. The fire giant fled back up the streambed, leaving the remaining hill giants to their fate. Although the hill giants did a fair amount of damage it was just a matter of time, and fairly quickly the remaining trio was vanquished.
The adventurers quickly decided to move their campsite even further back away from the streambed and await any more hunting parties that might be sent out by the giants. The rest of the day and the evening passed without event.
***
The early morning peace was shattered by the sounds of exploding trees, crashing rock falls, and huge splashes.
“What in the nine hells is going on?” Olaf swore pulling himself up. The ranger crouched down with his bow at the ready and headed down the trail.
“No wait Olaf,” Gusil called to the ranger.
Olaf ignored the gnome’s plea and continued down the trail. As the streambed gorge came into view Olaf saw a remarkable display of fire and stone. Huge, flaming boulders were seemingly pouring out of the sky bombarding the tree lined slope and the streambed. Trees were splintering right and left and numerous small fires had broken out in the woods.
Olaf snuck back to camp. “I think the fire giants are bombing the slope and path hoping to catch us.”
“Are they that foolish?” Erik asked.
“You got to see this though. I would say if we were still camped back there they probably would have killed a couple of us.”
The group quickly broke camp as the crashes from ahead continued unabated. They snuck down the trail and watched as the flaming boulders came bouncing down one right after another. The slope that had been heavily wooded earlier was nearly barren. Most of the half twisted tree stumps that remained were on fire. The constant barrage was an impressive sight.
Erik suggested slipping around the barrage on the far side of the other slope and checking out who was causing this barrage. The group followed Erik closely and after 45 minutes or so could spy nine fire giants on a ledge of the Crimson Slopes. Each giant had a supply of boulders and they were rapidly chucking them with all of their might towards the riverbed. This continued for another hour or so until the giants finally ran out of boulders and retreated back into the mines.
“Shall we go after them while they are tired?” Taurus asked.
“Sounds like a plan,” Erik agreed.
Erik agreed to scout ahead to see what precautions the giants had made to guard the entrances of the mine. Using his ring to be invisible Erik snuck quietly and efficiently up the sloped path to the mine entrances. At the near entrance there were two hellhounds near an ettin. As Erik crept closer one of the hellhounds began to growl menacingly.
Damn! The beast can smell me, Erik thought. He quickly began scaling up the Cliffside as the Ettin and two hellhounds emerged from the mine entrance to look around the ledge. Erik continued climbing the cliff side effortlessly until he was well beyond the hellhounds’ range of scent. Erik then stealthily scooted over to the other mine entrance, where he saw a hill giant posted in the tunnel. The hill giant looked exceptionally bored and was picking at his nails with a large knife.
Erik could see that the trail actually continued past the two entrances and curled up the mountainside for a fair distance before and ancient collapse ended the trail. He quickly scooted down from the mountainside to report what he had found to the rest of the group.
***
The entire group was on the ledge just around the corner from the two mine entrances. Antonious had dimension doored the majority of the group, while a favor was called in on the giant eagle to transport the remaining two members to the ledge.
Gusil cast invisibility on the cleric Taurus and Taurus then cast silence on a coin he was carrying. The now invisible Taurus along with Erik who employed his invisibility ring snuck around the corner of the path. The pair ducked into the chamber being guarded by the lazy hill giant. Erik quickly tumbled past the giant to set up his customary flanking position. Taurus then wound up his spiked chain and began striping the hill giant.
The hill giant attempted to scream out a warning, which was silenced by Taurus’s coin. A glancing blow from the giant’s club hit Taurus. Erik unleashed a multitude of backstab attacks that saw the giant nearly double in half in pain.
Taurus kept up the assault with his chain and in short order the guard hill giant was face down in a puddle of his own blood.
Erik snuck back out to the ledge to check if the coast was clear. Not seeing the Ettin or the hellhounds in the immediate area he signaled for Taurus to follow him around the corner. Coming around the corner, Erik lowered his invisibility and gave the group a thumbs up sign.
This sent Antonious into action. The wizard cast fly on himself and then was the beneficiary of an invisibility spell from Gusil. Antonious flew arounf the mountain side just below the ledge. When the wizard was even with the entrance guarded by the ettin and hellhounds, he popped up and placed a wall of force behind them. A quick signal was given to the rest of the group and they came around to confront the ettin and hounds.
Just as the ettin began to realize something was amiss Antonious appeared directly in front of him and zapped the giant and his dogs with a nasty lightning bolt. The result was two fried canines and a badly hurt two-headed giant. The ettin turned to run into the mine complex, but ran square into a wall of force! Trapped, the ettin charged out of the tunnel and was quickly eviscerated by the combined efforts of Olaf and Taurus.
A brief debate followed and the group decided to go in through the passage the hill giant was guarding. The adventurers came to an empty chamber that apparently had served as a barracks for giants. Their light source shined further down the hall into another room, where a massive hill giant was scrambling fitting his armor on.
Taurus charged the brute with his whirling spiked chain. But his charge was met and then some and with one mighty swing the hill giant had nearly killed the cleric. Erik who had tumbled into his usual position invisibly launched a fairly ineffective series of backstabbing attacks. The giant shrugged off an attempt to cause it to laugh uncontrollably by the gnome, Gusil.
To make matters worse the giant appeared to be shimmering and it was tough to ascertain exactly where he was. Olaf launched a series of arrows at the giant. All of the missiles would normally have hit, but the shimmering of the giant caused two arrows to miss. Another attempted backstab from Erik also missed in large part to the giant’s displacement.
Antonious was slowly grinding down the giant with magic missiles, but almost no one else was doing serious damage. Taurus meanwhile had to flee from combat and Gusil rushed over to give the cleric some healing from a wand. Taurus paused and said a prayer to heal himself further.
The hill giant gave Erik a decent thumping with a lucky guess on where the rogue was hiding invisibly. Erik debated on what to do; knowing he could not last through another sustained giant attack. Antonious poured more magic missiles into the giant and Olaf finally hit home with a pair of arrows.
Erik decided to stay for one more swipe at the giant and his final pair of cuts brought the hill giant down.
“Damn! That was one tough S.O.B.!” Erik exclaimed.
Much of the group was so badly wounded that clerical prayers and wand charges were attended to for healing before the adventurers even attempted to search for treasure. Once the group was in fighting shape again they searched the hill giant’s chamber they found numerous coins and some very interesting magical items, including a cloak of displacement!
***
The group delved deeper into the mines and discovered a number of 20-foot wide passageways. The rogue Erik moving ahead of the group also found a pair of fire giants guarding one of the halls.
Erik snuck back and reported his findings to the group.
Antonious stepped out in the hall and blasted the giants with a cone of cold! The ice ripped into the giants and it was clear they were badly hurt.
Erik then moved back down the hallway and took up a position near the giants. Taurus followed Erik, with his silence coin in hand. The cleric dashed right up to the giants. Olaf then stepped out in the hallway and landed several arrows on one of the giants.
The first fire giant charged Taurus and with one attack very nearly killed the cleric. The other giant charged past the invisible Erik towards the ranger Olaf. Erik took advantage of the giant’s distracted state and launched a surprise attack as it went by. The giant ignored Erik’s efforts and continued its charge towards the ranger.
Erik’s wounds must have unbalanced the giant somewhat, as it miraculously missed the lightly armored ranger. The giants did not last long after the initial exchange had done so much damage. Taurus on the edge of death, made a courageous charge at the last giant standing and killed it. Both giants lay dead in the hallway.
The adventurers who were wounded and largely tapped out of spells and prayers made the decision to retreat from the mine complex for the night and rest.
The group made their way down the mountainside and headed for an out-of-the-way campsite to regroup and strategize for the next day. That evening as dusk fell the adventurers heard a group of horns sounding off their deep bellows from the direction of the mine.
To be continued…
“The Iron Pits I have heard of,” Gusil began.
“Do tell,” Erik replied.
“Not far from the Barrow, where we found the crown, are the Crimson Slopes. The Crimson Slopes house an old Northern Dwarven iron ore mine. The ore was so rich it literally rusted down the mountainside – staining them red and orange. After just a few years the iron ore veins were no longer pure, but were intermixed with numerous other metals, including lead, making extraction far less profitable. The Northern Dwarves had numerous other problems and abandoned the mining complex.”
“So you know where an iron mine is,” Taurus said. “That seems like a start.”
“There’s more,” Gusil replied. “A few years after the Dwarves abandoned the mines a certain summoner, by the name of Triumph Rellaring…”
“Triumph?” Erik interrupted laughing.
“Hey, I did not name him,” Gusil replied. “Anyway, this summoner took over the mine complex and reshaped them for his own purposes. He was reputed to have created a number of cells or pits that he would use to summon all manners of horrible beasts, demons, devils, and force them into compacts.”
“Thus the iron pits,” the cleric Taurus observed. “What happened to good old Triumph?”
“A few years ago he apparently had a poor negotiations session and disappeared. That’s where are favorite saint steps in,” Gusil said.
“Traydor?” Gwena asked.
“None other,” Gusil replied with a smile. “He was rumored to have made a little visit to the iron pits.”
“To hide a gem from the crown?” Erik asked.
“Ummm, there’s a bit more to it than that,” Gusil said. “He supposedly imprisoned one of his greatest enemies in the pits. The Eye of the Messiah was the first mention of the possibility of something more being buried in the pits.”
“So we have to go take on this enemy to recover our gem?” Olaf the ranger asked.
“Perhaps more,” Gusil admitted. “I have checked around with some of the tribes in this area. They avoid the Crimson Slopes, because a group of giants supposedly has moved into the area.”
“So we kill a bushel of giants, the prime enemy of a heretic or saint, grab the gem from pits deep in the mountain and run,” Erik said. “And I thought this would be hard.”
“How close is it?” Olaf asked.
“About three days,” Gusil replied.
“Let’s go,” Olaf said.
***
Olaf spotted a group of bugbears in an ambush along the trail the next day. A fireball from Antonious the fire mage, arrows from Olaf’s bow, and a good thumping from Erik’s backstabs and Taurus’s spiked chain destroyed the bugbears in seconds. Surprisingly, the leader of the bugbears had a fair amount of magical gear, which brought a smile to Erik’s face.
A couple of days later in the morning hours on the trail the adventurers spotted a huge bird flying overhead. The avian landed on a tree in front of the group. It was a giant eagle, with a wingspan well over 12 or 13 feet in length. It was obviously trying to communicate something.
Gusil quickly cast tongues and began talking to the eagle. He turned to the rest of the group and explained, “The eagle says two giants are throwing rocks at his nest. They have not come close yet, but it is a matter of time before they get lucky. His nest contains his young who cannot fly yet.”
“Let’s get those giants,” Olaf announced.
“Whoa, whoa, what’s in it for us?” Erik asked.
“He’s promised to help us in any way he can,” Gusil replied. “Think of having an eye in the sky as we approach the iron pits.”
“Alright, I’m sold,” Erik agreed.
The group moved down the path and saw a pair of fire giants down in a streambed. The giants were picking up sizable boulders and lobbing them up towards a cliff face. None of their shots were coming close to the eagle’s nest, but they laughed heartily as each heavy boulder shook the entire mountainside.
Following a few preparatory spells, Erik, Gusil, Taurus, and Antonious dimension doored within 120 feet of the giants. Olaf stayed behind to pepper the giants at range with his compound longbow. Erik used his ring to become invisible and took up a position behind the giants to set-up a backstab attack. Taurus uncoiled his spiked chain and closed the distance to the giants. Thanks to a haste cast upon the cleric by Gusil, Taurus was a whirling cyclone of death.
Despite the cleric’s furious assault the giants still stood and when they returned blows it nearly crippled Taurus. Erik launched a furious backstab attack from his secret position that seriously wounded one of the giants. Olaf’s long-range fire hit home on the same giant. Finally, a well-placed series of magical bolts from Antonious put one of the giants down.
The other giant had seen enough and decided to try and flee. The combined efforts of the group were too much for the giant. An acid arrow from Antonious was the final straw that brought the second giant down.
The Giant Eagle swooped down and gave a multitude of praises to the group. Gusil, still under the effects of the tongues spell acknowledged the eagle’s gratitude. The giant eagle promised to come to the adventurers’ camp that evening when his mate returned from her hunt. Gusil gave the eagle his thanks and told the bird where he anticipated setting up camp.
Olaf scouted a bit further down the stream and discovered they were not far from the Crimson Slopes. “They will send others out looking for these two,” the ranger warned.
“We’ll be ready,” Antonious replied. “Let’s set up a cold camp on the slope where we have cover and can see them coming.” The group readily agreed and began hiking up the slope to set-up camp.
No sooner had the adventurers cleared an area, than a large dead mountain goat was plopped down from above into the clearing. The giant eagle perched on a tree above the camp and began screeching. Gusil quickly cast tongues and began interviewing the eagle.
“Do you like goat meat?” the eagle asked.
“Yes, you are too kind,” Gusil replied. “Now I have some questions for you if you please. How many giants are there?”
“Not sure, perhaps 20. There are many fire giants and hill giants and a few servant ogres. There are also at least a couple of the two-headed giants.”
“How many entrances into the mine are there?”
“At least three visible from the sky – two in the cliff face and a large chimney that spouts black smoke day and night.”
“Are there any other monsters working with the giants?”
“I do not know. However, from time to time humanoids of medium size come to conference with the giants. They never stay for more than two or three days.”
“Would you be willing to help us tomorrow?”
“Of course, you did me a great service today. I owe you much.”
Gusil gave the eagle his thanks and the eagle bid him goodnight as it flew off into the darkness. Gusil quickly conveyed the information to the rest of the group and they discussed a battle plan before turning in for the evening.
***
They came early the next morning.
The ground shook with the approach of the giants as they noisily splashed their way downstream. The last watch quickly woke the other adventurers as they watched the approach of an ettin, four hill giants, and a large fire giant traveling down the streambed.
The adventurers had just enough time to say a few preparatory spells before they launched their ambush. Antonious started things off by launching a tremendous fireball right in the midst of the giants. The fire giant was unscathed of course, but the rest of the giants looked pretty wobbly after the explosion.
Olaf launched a number of arrows and Taurus brought down divine fire upon the giants. The Ettin succumbed to the damage and fell dead into the shallow water. The hill giants charged up the slope towards the adventurers. Gusil managed to cast an uncontrollable laughter on one of the hill giants, which took it out of action.
Erik tumbled invisibly into position and waited while the cleric Taurus set-up a flank with his mighty whirling spiked chain. The pair quickly had one of the giants down and bleeding, while some well placed magical bolts from the wizard put another of the giants down.
The fire giant had lobbed rocks at the group, but had not closed. Olaf shot three carefully aimed arrows at the fire giant and one hit home, ripping into the giant’s thigh. The fire giant fled back up the streambed, leaving the remaining hill giants to their fate. Although the hill giants did a fair amount of damage it was just a matter of time, and fairly quickly the remaining trio was vanquished.
The adventurers quickly decided to move their campsite even further back away from the streambed and await any more hunting parties that might be sent out by the giants. The rest of the day and the evening passed without event.
***
The early morning peace was shattered by the sounds of exploding trees, crashing rock falls, and huge splashes.
“What in the nine hells is going on?” Olaf swore pulling himself up. The ranger crouched down with his bow at the ready and headed down the trail.
“No wait Olaf,” Gusil called to the ranger.
Olaf ignored the gnome’s plea and continued down the trail. As the streambed gorge came into view Olaf saw a remarkable display of fire and stone. Huge, flaming boulders were seemingly pouring out of the sky bombarding the tree lined slope and the streambed. Trees were splintering right and left and numerous small fires had broken out in the woods.
Olaf snuck back to camp. “I think the fire giants are bombing the slope and path hoping to catch us.”
“Are they that foolish?” Erik asked.
“You got to see this though. I would say if we were still camped back there they probably would have killed a couple of us.”
The group quickly broke camp as the crashes from ahead continued unabated. They snuck down the trail and watched as the flaming boulders came bouncing down one right after another. The slope that had been heavily wooded earlier was nearly barren. Most of the half twisted tree stumps that remained were on fire. The constant barrage was an impressive sight.
Erik suggested slipping around the barrage on the far side of the other slope and checking out who was causing this barrage. The group followed Erik closely and after 45 minutes or so could spy nine fire giants on a ledge of the Crimson Slopes. Each giant had a supply of boulders and they were rapidly chucking them with all of their might towards the riverbed. This continued for another hour or so until the giants finally ran out of boulders and retreated back into the mines.
“Shall we go after them while they are tired?” Taurus asked.
“Sounds like a plan,” Erik agreed.
Erik agreed to scout ahead to see what precautions the giants had made to guard the entrances of the mine. Using his ring to be invisible Erik snuck quietly and efficiently up the sloped path to the mine entrances. At the near entrance there were two hellhounds near an ettin. As Erik crept closer one of the hellhounds began to growl menacingly.
Damn! The beast can smell me, Erik thought. He quickly began scaling up the Cliffside as the Ettin and two hellhounds emerged from the mine entrance to look around the ledge. Erik continued climbing the cliff side effortlessly until he was well beyond the hellhounds’ range of scent. Erik then stealthily scooted over to the other mine entrance, where he saw a hill giant posted in the tunnel. The hill giant looked exceptionally bored and was picking at his nails with a large knife.
Erik could see that the trail actually continued past the two entrances and curled up the mountainside for a fair distance before and ancient collapse ended the trail. He quickly scooted down from the mountainside to report what he had found to the rest of the group.
***
The entire group was on the ledge just around the corner from the two mine entrances. Antonious had dimension doored the majority of the group, while a favor was called in on the giant eagle to transport the remaining two members to the ledge.
Gusil cast invisibility on the cleric Taurus and Taurus then cast silence on a coin he was carrying. The now invisible Taurus along with Erik who employed his invisibility ring snuck around the corner of the path. The pair ducked into the chamber being guarded by the lazy hill giant. Erik quickly tumbled past the giant to set up his customary flanking position. Taurus then wound up his spiked chain and began striping the hill giant.
The hill giant attempted to scream out a warning, which was silenced by Taurus’s coin. A glancing blow from the giant’s club hit Taurus. Erik unleashed a multitude of backstab attacks that saw the giant nearly double in half in pain.
Taurus kept up the assault with his chain and in short order the guard hill giant was face down in a puddle of his own blood.
Erik snuck back out to the ledge to check if the coast was clear. Not seeing the Ettin or the hellhounds in the immediate area he signaled for Taurus to follow him around the corner. Coming around the corner, Erik lowered his invisibility and gave the group a thumbs up sign.
This sent Antonious into action. The wizard cast fly on himself and then was the beneficiary of an invisibility spell from Gusil. Antonious flew arounf the mountain side just below the ledge. When the wizard was even with the entrance guarded by the ettin and hellhounds, he popped up and placed a wall of force behind them. A quick signal was given to the rest of the group and they came around to confront the ettin and hounds.
Just as the ettin began to realize something was amiss Antonious appeared directly in front of him and zapped the giant and his dogs with a nasty lightning bolt. The result was two fried canines and a badly hurt two-headed giant. The ettin turned to run into the mine complex, but ran square into a wall of force! Trapped, the ettin charged out of the tunnel and was quickly eviscerated by the combined efforts of Olaf and Taurus.
A brief debate followed and the group decided to go in through the passage the hill giant was guarding. The adventurers came to an empty chamber that apparently had served as a barracks for giants. Their light source shined further down the hall into another room, where a massive hill giant was scrambling fitting his armor on.
Taurus charged the brute with his whirling spiked chain. But his charge was met and then some and with one mighty swing the hill giant had nearly killed the cleric. Erik who had tumbled into his usual position invisibly launched a fairly ineffective series of backstabbing attacks. The giant shrugged off an attempt to cause it to laugh uncontrollably by the gnome, Gusil.
To make matters worse the giant appeared to be shimmering and it was tough to ascertain exactly where he was. Olaf launched a series of arrows at the giant. All of the missiles would normally have hit, but the shimmering of the giant caused two arrows to miss. Another attempted backstab from Erik also missed in large part to the giant’s displacement.
Antonious was slowly grinding down the giant with magic missiles, but almost no one else was doing serious damage. Taurus meanwhile had to flee from combat and Gusil rushed over to give the cleric some healing from a wand. Taurus paused and said a prayer to heal himself further.
The hill giant gave Erik a decent thumping with a lucky guess on where the rogue was hiding invisibly. Erik debated on what to do; knowing he could not last through another sustained giant attack. Antonious poured more magic missiles into the giant and Olaf finally hit home with a pair of arrows.
Erik decided to stay for one more swipe at the giant and his final pair of cuts brought the hill giant down.
“Damn! That was one tough S.O.B.!” Erik exclaimed.
Much of the group was so badly wounded that clerical prayers and wand charges were attended to for healing before the adventurers even attempted to search for treasure. Once the group was in fighting shape again they searched the hill giant’s chamber they found numerous coins and some very interesting magical items, including a cloak of displacement!
***
The group delved deeper into the mines and discovered a number of 20-foot wide passageways. The rogue Erik moving ahead of the group also found a pair of fire giants guarding one of the halls.
Erik snuck back and reported his findings to the group.
Antonious stepped out in the hall and blasted the giants with a cone of cold! The ice ripped into the giants and it was clear they were badly hurt.
Erik then moved back down the hallway and took up a position near the giants. Taurus followed Erik, with his silence coin in hand. The cleric dashed right up to the giants. Olaf then stepped out in the hallway and landed several arrows on one of the giants.
The first fire giant charged Taurus and with one attack very nearly killed the cleric. The other giant charged past the invisible Erik towards the ranger Olaf. Erik took advantage of the giant’s distracted state and launched a surprise attack as it went by. The giant ignored Erik’s efforts and continued its charge towards the ranger.
Erik’s wounds must have unbalanced the giant somewhat, as it miraculously missed the lightly armored ranger. The giants did not last long after the initial exchange had done so much damage. Taurus on the edge of death, made a courageous charge at the last giant standing and killed it. Both giants lay dead in the hallway.
The adventurers who were wounded and largely tapped out of spells and prayers made the decision to retreat from the mine complex for the night and rest.
The group made their way down the mountainside and headed for an out-of-the-way campsite to regroup and strategize for the next day. That evening as dusk fell the adventurers heard a group of horns sounding off their deep bellows from the direction of the mine.
To be continued…
