Archer Arrowsmith - Human Scout (250 points)
Argua - Half-Orc Barbarian (271 points)
Elana - Human Holy Warrior of Melora, goddess of the wilderness and sea (262 points)
Masha Deathfoot - Human Martial Artist (250 points)
Puddin' Noddington - Gnome Thief (252 points)
Mahk Strawngmussle - Human Labourer (62 points)
Vaelcor Treehippie - Human Druid (258 points)
Jahn the Bear - Bear (193 points)
Amothius 30th, 2546, Dirhin Mountains
Continuing on their journey through the mountains, the party came upon a road carved into the mountainside, and (after a surprising amount of deliberation) decided to head up. In the afternoon, the road crested a hill to reveal a small valley with a stone bridge spanning the middle. On the far side, in front of a massive set of bashed-in bronze double doors, were four 21' tall, pale blue-skinned, bearded giants dressed in furs and leaning on giant great axes.
They tried to figure out what kind of giant they were for a while ("Probably frost?" "They could be storm or cloud too." "Or blueberry!"), thought about trying to ambush them, and then left to set up base camp, which Argua Camouflaged. After a short break to rest, they returned (except for Mahk, who was no good in a fight) to the hill to observe the giants, hoping to get a sense of their patrol/shift schedule, and just before sunset, a fifth giant leading three leashed giant hounds came to join the others.
Shortly, he and the hounds crossed the bridge and started up the hill, towards the party's hiding place. Archer and Puddin' climbed up a tree, while the others crouched behind shrubs in ambush. Once the hounds topped the hill, they started barking (having crit their smell roll), and, as the giant unleashed them, charged towards the hidden party, who stood with their weapons ready. Just before the hounds closed, Archer fired an 11-damage arrow into the eye of the giant, knocking him to the ground and leaving him stunned.
The party's Wait actions triggered, and Masha missed her first kick badly and fell over, but landed the second while tumbling to the ground, the shock of which kept one hound at bay. A second grabbed onto Masha's leg with its mouth, coming a single point short of crippling it. The third charged towards Elana, who stunned it with a Mighty Blow to the vitals; Argua finished it off with a blow to the neck. Vaelcor started casting Capturing Vines, and Masha kicked the dog biting her with her other leg hard enough to stun it.
Archer took a shot at one of the hounds beside Masha, but missed badly due to targeting the eyes (in spite of a Tactics reroll) and hit and stunned her instead; Argua charged out of her ambush shrub and finished off that hound anyway. The giant tried to stand up and bellow something, but only got out a brief yell before passing out. With only one hound still left, Vaelcor dropped his spell and ran up to swing his axe at it, but missed.
Jahn missed his move and attack, but Archer finished off the last hound with a vitals shot. Argua suggested they hide the bodies, and went to go grab Mahk to help while Vaelcor healed Masha and Archer went around and put another arrow into the wounded. By the time Argua and Mahk showed up, Puddin' could hear heavy footsteps, and the party moved to another ambush position slightly further back.
Four giants crested the hill and, upon seeing their allies either injured or dead and full of arrows, two grabbed the injured giant and dragged him back down the hill, not noticing the party. They moved up to the top of the hill and watched the giants retreat back to the entrance, leaving two outside standing guard for a while before the others returned. Puddin' and Archer waited around until the sun set and saw the giants light torches, which they figured meant they lacked night vision.
The party decided against a nighttime raid and retreated to camp for the night.
Amothius 31st, 2546, Dirhin Mountains Outside Kral Aklaz
In the morning, the party checked and saw that there were now 6 giants standing guard in front of the entrance, and decided to spend the day doing recon of the area. South of the valley with the bridge and entrance, the mountain fell off onto a cliff several hundred feet tall, meaning that even if there were an entrance there, they'd have issues getting to it. North of the valley was forested mountainside which sloped up to a peak to the east, above where Kral Aklaz probably was.
They decided to scout to the north and, several hours of climbing around the mountainside later, Archer noticed thin wisps of smoke being blown over the treetops. Eventually, they managed to find the source: a dozen or so chimneys coming out of the mountain. Puddin', as a tiny gnome, could easily fit through, but any of the others would have trouble, and Jahn would never fit. They listened for a while, and heard noise, but nothing discernible.
The party headed back to the west, and found themselves overlooking the giants and bridge some 60m below to re-orient themselves, and then doubled back to lower Puddin' into a chimney to scout. They tied her off with all of their rope (50m) and sent her down into one of the less-smokey ducts, which, though filthy, only caused her to cough a little bit. At the bottom of the (40m) shaft, it split off to the left and right; left went straight for a ways, with branches that led down off to either side of the main path.
Above, Vaelcor suggested using Body of Leaves to get everybody in this way, though it would be difficult to get out. Puddin' headed right and found that the ducts led to a single giant furnace that was partially on, and then pulled the rope to be raised back up. There was a suggestion of using Shape Earth to close the chimneys and try to smoke the giants out, but they decided against it, and headed back to camp for the night.
On Puddin's watch that night, she noticed a group of four giants carrying torches moving around the forests outside their campsite and stealthily woke everybody except Jahn, who Vaelcor woke up with Animal Handling to calm his Bad Temper. Argua's Camouflage seemed to have worked, as the giants missed the camp. The party set out back through the darkness to the Ambush Zone™ at the top of the hill to get the drop on the giants when they returned from their search.
Once the giants showed up, Archer fired an arrow at the vitals of the only one with his axe ready, followed by another before they could recover from surprise, though he wasn't wounded too badly. One giant threw a torch into the darkness, and it landed in the bush right in front of Elana, revealing her, Masha, and Archer (who was in a tree). Elana activated her Holy Might, and Masha activated the lantern of Continual Light while the party held their ground. Another arrow from Archer had similarly little effect.
A giant charged in and Argua moved to intercept, but he stepped into her on the way by (with a crit dodge), knocking her to the ground. Fortunately, he missed Archer with his massive axe, though he took off some tree branches; a second giant moved in and All-Out Attacked at the prone Argua, who was unable to roll out of the way and took 46 damage.
Elana stepped out to attack the giant that was going for Archer and stabbed him in the vitals ("I go for the eyes!" "He is 21' tall" "Riiight") through chinks in the armour; it seemed like their armour was quite light, and most of their DR came from their thick hide. Jahn ran out from his shrub and bit into a giant's foot, and Masha moved up and launched a flurry of kicks on the giant going for Archer, but he wasn't badly wounded despite taking three 4d damage kicks.
Archer shot the one closest to her in the eye, stunning him and sending him prone, while Puddin' Disappeared. Another giant charged in to slam Vaelcor and missed; he almost trampled Argua on the way, but she managed to dodge his massive footfalls. Elana moved up and stabbed at a different giant vitals with a Mighty Blow, stunning him. Vaelcor healed Argua for some health, and Jahn worried away at the prone giant's foot.
Notes:
Archer is the replacement for Zephyra, and showed up once they had completed the journey and established a base camp for their ongoing expeditions into and around Kral Aklaz. Going forward, it'll be the same: new characters can only join either in town, or once a camp is established in the field.
Before the session started, I described the Scout as "very good against anything with eyes", and this session has illustrated that beautifully; they would have stood almost no chance against the giants in a melee brawl.
At some point, someone asked if any of the giants were women. They can't tell; all of them have beards, but who knows what's underneath?
On one of Masha's turns, somebody brought up kicking the giants in the groin, but she declined, stating such an attack was forbidden.
XP hasn't been distributed yet, because we ended mid-combat. EDIT: XP was 1, MVP was Argua for her actions in the giant combat continued next session.
No comments:
Post a Comment