An hour after starting out, you come to another intersection. A road runs north across the head of the Big Fish valley, while the Devil's Road continues its steep ascent to the west. A signpost informs you -
The Devil's Road: Southeast: To Long Valley and Yeti Pass.West: To Dead man's Pass, Naza Lake and Dortleburg.
North: To The Hall of King Snurre and the Land of the Giants.
"Almost there," says Jo-owrn, as he leads you north.
This road is faily level, so you make good time. An hour before you pause for lunch, though, you come to another intersection. A trail heads west, up into a narrow, desolate valley between two of the volcanic peaks, while the road continues on to the north-northeast. You pause to read the signpost -
North: To The Land of the Giants and Dragon's Rift.South: To The Devil's Road and Dead Man's Pass.
West: To The Hall of King Snurre.
You turn west, and it begins to snow.
It snows all afternoon, before tapering off as evening comes on. By the time you camp, there is 69" on the ground.
"This is a good spot," Jo-owrn says, looking around. "Snurre's hall is only about two miles away. This is a good place for a base camp."
Your long journey from Sandas is over.
"Make your preparations," says Leslie. "Tomorrow we're going in!"
She seems to be quite excited at the prospect.
"Not much to do," Illyana replies. "Work some kinks out, get the weapons ready."
Illyana glances down the road. "Do you have any maps?"
"Of the area?" asks Jo-owrn, "Only in my head."
Humphrey is smiling at the prospect of finally seeing some action.
"Anyone care to spar? We haven't had much opportunity to fight as much of late. We could also have Farad and a couple of others scout around from the ethereal plane so we know what we are getting ourselves into. I'll be glad to volunteer."
Brtian looks over at Humphrey and says with a smile, "Sure. I would love to spar with you, It would work out the coldness in the joints."
Britan stands up grabs his shield and draws his sword.
"Ready when you are, Humphrey.."
Humphrey says, "Then let us begin."
Ayazin takes a few more deep breaths of the frigid mountain air before retiring to Kelar's tent. "Such a breathtakingly beautiful country this is!" he exclaims, "When I grow old I think I shall retire here. Wild as the Blackwood, but so much larger, and grander! The silence alone is incredible, and my wolf hasn't been happier since we left the forest.
"Jo-owrn, I'd like to thank you and your companions for providing us with such a swift and safe journey through such an unforgiving land. Speaking for myself, it's been like a vacation -- the perfect thing after tromping through those dank, musty chambers of that pyramid -- vigorous exercise, cold air, and wide open skies. On our own, I doubt that we could have made it here in twice the time, or in one piece. Of course, many thanks also to Kelar for providing us with the perfect means of shelter to keep our strength up."
Jo-owrn smiles, but says little.
"I like this land, too."
"Now, about the place we are about to enter -- what exactly is our mission in this place? Are we here to find facts, ask questions, deliver a message, or simply to hand out beatings? Do we care why the giants here are raiding into the lands of men, or who is leading them? Or are we going in there to crack the heads of whomever we find?"
Raz nods in agreement with Ayazin's questions...
"I'm here to bash giants," says Jo-owrn.
"Didn't Ray Jay give you a mission?" asks Leslie.
Raz shrugs and looks to the others.
"I wasn't really paying attention at the time," he comments, "Be that as it may though I think that the magic users of this group should get together to plan out spells and such. We are very likely to need some heavy duty magics at our fingertips if we are gonna tangle with giants."
Britan calls over, " I thought we were here on a fact finding mission, But if a few giants get in our way and want to tango... Well I brought my tango partner."
He fingers his sword.
"Yes," says Ayazin. He then pulls out one of his little notebooks and flips among its pages for a long, long time. You can see his lips move when he reads.
At last he says, "Ray Jay has asked us to explore the region called the Underdark, specifically, the part that can be entered from the bowels of King Snurre's stronghold. We are to map out the areas that surround the pathway that the previous party took from this portal on their way to the Drow city, and then judge the state of affairs of the Drow."
"'The previous party'?" says Leslie. She smiles at Jo-owrn.
"Looks like I'm the only one here," says Jo-owrn. "Nobody thought to invite Yuri, Gimlet or Valdar."
"Unless I had fallen asleep at some point while he was talking, I don't believe that Ray Jay told us anything about the stronghold itself. I suppose that unless we find that the giants' activities are somehow connected with events in the Drow city, we can kill them or ignore them as we need to."
"Well, we won't ignore them," says Jo-owrn in a tone that does not encourage further discussion.
Raz looks about and aks, "Farad, are you around?"
Farad reappeared shortly after the party stopped.
"Yes?"
Humphrey says, "Farad, we are a couple of miles from the Giant's complex. I had suggested that you and a few others scout the complex from the ethereal plane. We could even use the tent so that you do not have to spend the energy to move people over."
Farad shakes his head. "The tent's back door doesn't open to the border ethereal, so it would not do us any use. As for scouting, lets wait and see what we find with our eyes first."
The elf looks at our ranger guide. "Is this a cave we'll be entering, or a castle, or what?"
"It's a cave complex that's been worked into a collection of rooms and chambers. It's volcanic. There are lots of lava pools and such, if my memory is accurate."
Jo-owrn smiles at Beth and Raz.
"You'll be warm soon enough, I'd say."
Sharone decides that maybe endure heat will be more appropriate for this leg of the journey.
"What else can you remember of this place Jo-owrn? Or of its inhabitants? Do they have magic users or the like? Who is likely to co-reside with the giants? "
Jo-owrn scratches his head.
"Now, remember I haven't set foot in the place in about 25 years," he says, "So things are probably different now. The first and second levels were pretty well worked stone passages and chambers. Fire giants aren't bad stoneworkers, you know. The bottom level was just crude caves and tunnels, though. I remember the entrance into the underdark, though. It was through a large cave with a river of lava running through it. You crossed the river by a little bridge. The inhabitants of the Snurre's halls were mostly giants and their friends: lots of fire giants, loads of trolls, ettins, hell hounds, gnolls and such. Behind it all were the drow, led by Eclavdra. We killed the lot of them...except for Eclavdra and some of her friends. They escaped into the underdark. We went after them...followed them all the way to their city. But then I guess we got sidetracked. We ended up trashing a temple dedicated to Lolth, and then going to the Abyss to deal with her. Eclavdra kind of got forgotten in the shuffle."
Finally you settle down for the night. It passes quietly.