Archer Arrowsmith - Human Scout (250 points)
Elana - Human Holy Warrior of Melora, goddess of the wilderness and sea (262 points)
Masha Deathfoot - Human Martial Artist (265 points)
Puddin' Noddington - Gnome Thief (272 points)
Mahk Strawngmussle - Human Labourer (62 points)
Uncle Ruckus - Human Wizard (250 points)
Vaelcor Treehippie - Human Druid (271 points)
Jahn the Bear - Bear (201 points)
Amothius 36th 2546, Kral Aklaz, Upper Floor (Cont.)
Puddin' showed up beside the rest of the party and started to lead them down the unlit hall with her Dark Vision, when one of the giants shouted that he was the Thane Ingmar, and that they were accused of Trespassing, Theft, and Murder. They were to come to court, and face trial by a jury of their peers. Instead of that, the party continued down the hall. After rounding a corner, Masha turned the lantern of Continual Light back on, and, following a Cartography roll and a look at their map to get their bearings, they made their way back to the displacer beast room to rest and plan.
After much conjecture, they decided the best course of action was to assemble a team of "Superfriends", and went to talk to Celebor. There were a pair of guards outside the fey court, and blocked the party's way with their glaives. When Ruckus asked to be let past, one of the guards let him know that the Princess of Snowflakes was still upset with their presentation, and it would probably be best if they didn't go back into the court. One of them guards went and fetched Celebor for them instead. They thanked the guards, and, once he returned with their friend and his five hounds, they went out of earshot to discuss their plans.
The party informed Celebor that the giant thane had the fourth key to the vault on his necklace. Celebor was on board to attack them and take it, though he requested that the party come up with some sort of plan other than "full frontal attack" first. When asked what resources he could contribute, Celebor said that he was a skilled archer, and, though he was not a wizard, knew some spells like Dark Vision and Hush. Ruckus pored over his maps for a while, and figured out that the room in the "wizard area" where they'd found the fancy robes should line up with the throne room on the floor below.
They came up with a plan to use Shape Earth to create arrow slits and snipe the giants from that room, and asked Celebor to meet them there that night. As they were finishing up, another glaive-armed elf and her retinue of guards walked past; she teased Celebor about working with mortals (triggering a whispered conversation about whether or not elves were mortal) before heading on her way. The party asked if they'd need to be worried about her, but Celebor said that Gelawen probably wouldn't attack them unprovoked.
The party left and headed back towards the wizard area, and found that the floor by the stairway where they had hidden from the giants had been destroyed, so they headed south to loop around instead. Puddin', scouting ahead, saw light down a hall where the floor was also missing, and climbed down to find a pair of giants drinking a cask of ale in the remains of a ruined tavern.
Puddin' returned, and the party made it to the fancy robe room, noting that the mushroom farm was now empty on the way. Elana asked about the glowing circle on the floor in the far corner, but Ruckus insisted that it was definitely not magical. They tried the Tapestry of Glasswall on the corner of the room that should connect to the throne room, but it couldn't see through, though it could see out the south wall, revealing a pair of giants standing guard in front of the throne room. Shape Earth also failed, which meant that it was either a No-Mana Zone or contained meteoric iron or something.
The party decided to find Sturri to try to recruit him to their team, and headed back to the farm, then followed the blood trail to the ground floor, and towards the "halfling area". Partway down a corridor, they extinguished the lantern, as part of the wall to the ruined tavern, which still contained a pair of giants, had collapsed, and Puddin' disarmed a noisemaker trap before leading everyone in the dark again.
The blood trail went right into Sturri's room, and they could hear grunting inside. Ruckus shouted "It's Ruckus, open up!", but when nobody did, he opened the door himself. Inside, a still blood-coated Sturri was doing push-ups, and asked the party what they wanted. They proposed an alliance, but he said that he was in hiding after the party had set the giants on high alert. He mentioned that "This body isn't as good as the one I'm used to", and Elana voted to not recruit the ghost.
Without any other plans to enact, the party headed back up to the Observatory, and Vaelcor cast Create Plant to make a tree that Puddin' and Archer climbed before lifting everybody else out.
Notes:
Pretty much nothing happened this session; the first three paragraphs took 2 hours real-time. Too much time was spent on out-of-game-digressions, discussing who they should go talk to first, and looking at spell lists for the "one perfect solution".
One of the players suggested that they each pay me $500 to get 500 points, but I had to correct him; the actual exchange rate is $2/pt. There are also microtransactions for loot boxes, obviously.
The party is unsure what submitting to "Giant Law" would entail, but briefly considered it.
Other plans for dealing with the giants, from most to least viable:
-Puddin' goes in solo and Pickpockets the key and rod segment
-Use the Phial of the Mad Alchemist to create a "Potion of Murdering Giants"
-They use their orichalcum weapons (Puddin' has a dagger, Elana has a spear) to slowly excavate a hole through the Magic-Proof wall
-Everybody rolls up Vaelcor's "druid friends", and each takes a bear ally
-Vaelcor and Archer look for poisonous plants and "poison their soup"
I'm considering houserules for penalizing Stealth against hearing and Pickpocket/Traps to disarm if wearing heavy armour on feet/hands, respectively. At the moment, I think DR/2 might work.
0XP, MVP was Puddin' for scouting.
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