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)
Uncle Ruckus - Human Wizard (250 points)
Vaelcor Treehippie - Human Druid (258 points)
Jahn the Bear - Bear (193 points)
Amothius 31st, 2546, Dirhin Mountains Outside Kral Aklaz
Masha, Argua, Elana, and Jahn all attacked at the prone giants' legs, Argua and Jahn each crippling one, while Archer put an arrow in the eye of the closer one still standing and sent him to the ground. The further giant was still unable to snap out of his surprise and just stood, gazing in terror as his friends were slowly murdered and filled full of arrows, and one of the prone ones crit failed his "stay conscious" roll and passed out while trying to stand up.
Vaelcor healed Argua some more, though she was still well into the negatives, and Masha ran over to the surprised giant to try to bring him down before he could act. Archer shot another arrow at a prone giant's eye, leaving him prone, stunned, blinded, and disarmed. Argua crippled the other leg of the prone giant she had attacked last, and he retaliated with a prone All-Out Attack swing of his massive axe, which severed her left leg at the hip.
The surprised giant finally recovered and started running along the edge of the cliff towards the tree where Archer was hiding, almost trampling Masha on the way. Elana, still under the effects of Holy Might, crit one part of a tip-slash Rapid Strike on the giant that had just removed Argua's leg, forcing him to drop his great axe, and Vaelcor moved up to swing his axe at the same giant's foot, inflicting far less damage. Jahn continued gnawing at the blind giant's foot, and inflicted just enough injury to finally kill him.
Masha kicked twice at the giant that had almost trampled, but he stayed up and continued his charge even after taking an arrow to the vitals from Archer, almost grabbing her out of the tree. Argua passed out (Puddin' while Disappeared: "Oh man, it'd be a shame if the Shadowmantle signet ring went to someone else"), and the non-blinded prone giant grabbed at Masha, who only barely evaded his grasp.
Archer jumped out of her tree but tripped on a branch and landed on her face. Elana turned and stabbed at the still-standing giant in the vitals, staggering him, and Masha followed up with a roundhouse that knocked him over the cliff edge and down 100' to the stone below. The last conscious, prone giant was finished off by Puddin', who suddenly appeared on top of his face and stabbed her katar into his eyes until he stopped breathing.
Puddin' started searching the bodies for loot, finding only 3 bronze armbands probably worth several gold coins each, while Archer walked around slitting throats and stabbing eyes with her sword. Elana initially wanted to put their heads on pikes as a warning, but stopped when she realized they had no pikes. Masha suggested they push the giants off the cliff, and with Mahk's help, had no issue disposing of the bodies. The party went back to sleep just before sunrise, making sure to take Argua's severed leg with them.
Amothius 32nd, 2546
The party were all exhausted by losing so much sleep the night before, and decided to take the day off. Uncle Ruckus, who would be replacing Argua going forward, showed up and identified some of the magical loot the party had picked up. The tapestry showing a dwarf holding a tapestry up to a wall was discover to allow the holder to see through walls it was held against. The scrolls were Create Water and a 3d-3 3m radius Spark Storm, and the potions, which had to be tasted, were speed and death.
Amothius 33rd, 2546
In the morning, Puddin' checked the front door and saw there were now only 3 giants standing guard, though they had built a crude rubble barricade. The party decided to take the northern route around the valley to get back to the chimneys, and sent Puddin' down again. Once at the bottom of the shaft, she untied herself from the rope and the soot and smoke sent her into a coughing fit and left her eyes watering.
She checked out some tunnels away from the forge, and the first few alternated between being blocked with natural stone, and 20' drops down to wood stoves. A ways down the narrow tunnel, she found one which led to a ladder built into the side of the wall, which descended into a broom closet. Puddin' climbed back up to the tunnel, retied herself to the rope, and climbed out.
The party debated how to get in, discarded the plans of "Grease everybody up with Thieves' Oil" and "Cast Body of Leaves on everybody!", and finally decided to just squeeze everybody through except for Jahn, who would never fit. Puddin' Gizmo'd some cloth for everybody to act as a gas mask, but Mahk got stuck almost immediately and they resorted to just have Uncle Ruckus and Vaelcor cast Shape Earth over and over until the opening was wide enough for almost everybody to fit through.
They ended up casting Shape Earth over 30 times without any issues, but it took the rest of the day. With their alternate entrance finally completed, they headed back to camp.
Amothius 34th, 2546
The party headed back to the chimneys first thing in the morning, and Vaelcor realized that Jahn might now be able to squeeze through the wider chimney. Masha was sent down first with the lamp of Continual Light, and Jahn soon followed, almost immediately lost his footing, and fell, backwards, ending up stuck. He let out some roars of frustration until Vaelcor took the rope down and cast Body of Leaves to get him free, but this didn't seem to attract any unwanted attention.
Everybody else made it to the bottom without further issue, and they headed to the broom closet. It wasn't wide enough for everybody to fit there at once, so Elana opened the door to a 2m-wide hallway running left-right and she and Masha stood guard outside while Vaelcor rested after dropping Body of Leaves and casting Minor Healing on Jahn. 45 minutes later, Vaelcor cast Pathfinder to find their position relative to the front door and determined that they were Northeast of it, and that the hallway ran East-West.
After they rested for another 10 minutes, the party headed east, where the hallway turned to the south, to a locked door which Puddin' picked open instantly (14 MoS) to reveal a small living space with bed, kitchen, and stove/fireplace, which she instantly started to search. While the rest of the party stood guard, an elf in green-camouflaged mail with a bow slung on his back rounded a corner to the south accompanied by five white-furred hunting dogs with glowing eyes.
Vaelcor recognized the dogs as Hounds of the Wild Hunt; extradimensional beasts and servants of the goddess Melora that hunted down unnatural beings across the plains. Uncle Ruckus introduced himself to the elf, and they both asked what the others were after. He introduced himself as Celebor, and informed the party that, as far as he knew, the dwarves here were all dead, and that he was looking for a magical artifact in the area. Elana managed to convince him to join up for a while, and they all waited for Puddin' to finish her search.
Puddin' found nothing of value (Ruckus: "Is there any paper?" "No. Wait, you already have 20 sheets." "I need MORE"), and they took the hallway south to a side passage which had light and noises coming from a hole in the wall, so Puddin' was sent to scout. Through the hole, she saw two giants and one 10' tall child, and that the floor between the first and second floor had been smashed away, leaving a door 10' off the ground, and returned to the party.
Archer suggested they attack and kill them all, but the others suggested more caution (Masha: "You want to kill children? What's wrong with you?!" GM: "Well, Paranoia, Bloodlust, and Callous, to start"). They argued a bit over where to go next ("Follow the right wall?" "No, that's how you end up fighting five oozes in a row!" "That probably won't happen twice."), and eventually went south to a four-way intersection with doors west and south, and a hallway that opened into another smashed hole to the giant room east.
Puddin' looked through the west door's keyhole and saw a wide room with stone pews; after checking for traps, she picked the door open (in 5 seconds) and sent Masha in. She saw a pile of robes on the floor in the north, and a large silver hammer and anvil sigil hung on the south wall above a combination anvil/pulpit. After a moment, she heard something and asked if anyone was there, and a response of "who are you?" led her to a young dwarf lying on one of the pews, his legs horribly mangled.
The dwarf, Thrunvir, told them what had happened in Kral Aklaz to the best of his knowledge: frost giants had attacked and broken through the front gate, where he had been stationed to help the wounded, his legs were crushed by a massive boulder, knocking him out. He woke up in the temple to an ear-splitting rumbling, which he figured was the great bridge being destroyed. From then, he heard hammering, followed by the sounds of battle, and then only the heavy footfalls and loud voices of the giants occasionally.
Masha asked what Thrunvir knew of the fate of the dwarves and the rest of Kral Aklaz, and, though he hadn't left the temple since his legs were ruined, he suggested that all were dead and the town fallen. Puddin' walked in, muttered "Oh man that's so sad" and started off towards the silver hammer and anvil to grab it, but eventually gave in to Thrunvir's begging not to steal his church's holy symbols.
Elana asked how many giants had attacked, and they learned that there were two or three dozen giants, though some had surely been killed (far exceeding the party's estimates of 5-6 remaining). Uncle Ruckus brought forth the map he'd been working on and asked Thrunvir to fill it out as best he could, and the dwarf started away, after a surprised remark that they'd came in through the chimneys. He was unsure how much time had passed, but guessed a month or so.
His quick map done, Thrunvir pointed out some points of interest; stairs down to the crypt, a magic door leading to the "Order of Orb and Lightning" that would shock them if they tried to open it, and stairs down to where they kept the acid lizards ("Why do you have a pit of acid lizards?" "They can cut through stone pretty fast") and gryphons(!). Thrunvir asked that they take him with them when they left, and, though he was only a junior initiate, he knew healing spells and could use the energy stored in the temple and sigil (another good reason not to steal it) if they'd help him.
Vaelcor mentioned that he could cast Beast Summoning to get gryphons while outdoors, though everyone agreed it was likely they were in some sort of "pigeon coop-stables" and wouldn't be able to make there way out on their own. When asked, Thrunvir suggested that survivors might be in the throne room or upstairs in the barracks, but the party knew from the two maps that giants were for sure on the same side of the collapsed bridge as the throne room so that was unlikely.
The party decided to go check out the wizards' area, because "they might have a Kill All Giants spell they just didn't manage to cast in time", but they figured they'd have to deal with the giants first, as the door was directly across from one of the holes into the giant room.
Notes:
The one giant failed a 50-50 roll to recover from surprise 5 times in a row. He deserved to die.
Keeping track of giants on a battlemat which just dice is tricky, moreso when they are knocked prone because they take up 21 hexes, and I don't want to just dump dozens of dice on the field.
Jahn did a good job of locking down the giants with his bite... and I now realize that they shouldn't have counted as grappled, because they're too big. Oops. On the upside, it's unlikely that it would have made much difference; it mostly just slowed down the last one and inconvenienced the others which were already prone and crippled.
Uncle Ruckus was subbed in for Argua after she lost her leg and would be substantially less useful. She can potentially get Restoration cast on it by Thrunvir (I allow it if the limb is kept in reasonably good condition), if she can somehow get to the temple, or if he can get out.
There was some discussion of upkeep costs and what they represent, given that we don't track rations/water and just charge $150/wk. Elana/Vaelcor's player suggested that there are food fairies they leave money out for.
A new ruling on how long it takes to Search a room: 1 minute per square meter.
There were two new proposals for group names: The Boom-Dawgs and Mahky Mahk and the Funky Bunch.
The classic "orc child problem" arose this session with the giant child, but ultimately nobody is forbidden from murdering children. After all, Chivalry only mentions protecting the weak, and giant children are still super beefy!
I made a bit of a mistake when describing Thrunvir. I told the players that the reason he had been unable to leave was because he couldn't cast Restoration to fix his legs, and immediately followed this by him offering to heal people with spells like... Restoration. I had to double-check my notes and finally corrected myself that he'd tried to cast the spell but failed.
XP was 3, MVP went to Puddin' for enabling them to use the chimney entrance.
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