The
EARTH story - December 8, 1372
You rest overnight and in the morning, after preparing your spells you set off back the way you came.
Aldarin makes sure his Stoneskin is still active.
Jon moves over to Aldarin, "Would you mind if I learnt that spell out of your book, as I think it will come in handy today."
Aldarin nods in earnest. "Absolutely, my friend."
"Aldarin - I've heard of that spell, would it aid a warrior who wears no armor?"
Today is bright but bitter cold (11F). A wind at your backs makes it
feel more like -17F. There is about 5" of snow on the ground.
It is late afternoon when you arrive back at the large wooden house. As
previously described, it is roughly rectangular shaped, and over 300'
long on a side.
With Drinor leading, you march up to the door. There does not seem to be anyone about.
There are a number of large (bare) footprints in the snow, converging on the door.
"Kithus or Op Code, can you tell what kind of giant made these tracks?"
The rangers examine the tracks.
After a few moments they conclude that the tracks were created by hill
giants...but larger specimens than what is typically found on Earth.
There are at least a dozen of them.
The tracks are several hours old.
"Al, if you would be so kind?" says Equinox, nodding at the door, "there appears to be a door in our way."
The cavalier grins and with Claw in one hand and his shield in an another, he tries to kick the door open.
"That's a pretty big door you're trying to kick open. Heck, if we're just going for a slaughter, why not just torch the place and pick them off as they try to escape?"
Al pauses in mid kick, foot raised, and shakes his head.
"Brother E, you think that would work?" he asks seriously.
"Whoa, I was being sarcastic Al. Seriously, I think we're going about this the wrong way. If we go for the slaughter, our karma is screwed. We're a resourceful group, why can't we do something like send someone in invisible to find the key, try to charm them, or put them to sleep or something."
"What karma, Aron? We just got
our butts kicked by a bunch of Ogres and Trolls. Anyway, I'm sure this
is the best way because this way we get to see Al kick this door in!"
"Yeah, and it's possible we're going to get our butts kicked by a bunch of hill giants that aren't the normal hill giants our rangers are used to. And before we go any further, can we get some input from the mages?"
Sharone looks around, expecting an attack from behind.
"If we move quickly we can
ransack this place and be out before they return. Remember we were
warned not to draw attention to ourselves."
The tracks seem to be going into the house.
Jon, invisible, offers, "I will fly around the building and immediate area looking for anything unusual."
Jon takes to the air and circles the building looking for other doors and windows.
A short time later he returns with a description of the building. Op Code readies his mapping implements.
The door you stand before is in
the middle of a wall facing (arbitrarily) east. It is 60' long. The
double doors are 30' wide in total.
At the south end the wall goes
east for 110', north for 60', east for 80', north for 240', west for
40', north for 100', west for 280' (double doors in 100' - 120'
section), south for 340' (double doors in 110' - 130' section) and then
east for 110' to close up.
Jon then flew up and over the
building. He discovered that it is actually two buildings within the
wooden walls, separated by an open compound accessed through the doors
in the west and north walls. The dimensions of the compound is as
follows: to the right of the north door the wall runs west for 20',
then south for 60', west for 60', south for 40' (double doors in
middle), west for 70', south for 40' (the double doors mentioned in the
previous paragraph are in the centre), west for 190' (double doors in
the 50' - 70' section), north for 140' (door in the northernmost 10'
section), and then west for 20' to close up.
There are at least a dozen enormous wolves running around in this enclosed compound.
The building is all one (tall)
storey, except for a second level in the southeastern portion of the
wing where the door you stand before is. The walls of this second
storey are encircled with narrow windows, which led Jon to believe that
it is some sort of watch tower. That said, you wonder why no one has
given the alarm of your approach as yet, if the watch tower is
manned...or gianted...or whatever.
Jon struggles to make sense of his directions looks to Op Code for a map.
"Op Code can we have a map?
"Well, I will go have a closer look at the snow covered watch tower.
"Can I suggest that we try and enter quickly and quietly through the door. Maybe a silence and then kick the door down. There appears not to be many home.
"When we are discovered a fireball or similar on the wolves would be best."
Jon takes to the air again and goes to investigate the tower windows.
The philosophical discussion resumes.
"Mikodin, true that the letter of the law of our society does not apply
here, but the moral intent of the law of our society, and our order,
stays with us regardless of where we go.
What do you think of all this Drinor?"
Drinor says, "Well, for me the law of society matters little, it is the
law of my patron Tyr that guides my hand. We are on a quest at the
bidding of Thor, and naturally Tyr's blessing is with us, so we can do
little wrong in the pursuit of that quest. The giants of Jotunheim have
been enemies of Asgard since before time, and since we know that we
need to get something from that stronghold, I think we're perfectly
justified in attacking it. If you recall, I suggested we pass it by at
the time, thinking it just a diversion. But if our quest lies through
that door, I'll kick it in without a moment's pause!"
Equinox casts Protection from Fire and Protection from Lightning upon himself.
Then: "Let's go!!!"
Al - still paused on one foot - kicks in the door. Drinor is beside him.
The doors fly open to reveal a large entrance hall (60' X 80': 10'
north, 10' south, 80' east; door at each end of the north wall; double
doors in the north wall 50' - 70' section; 20' wide passage running
east out of the east wall north section). There are many pegs along the
walls, from which hang an assortment of giant - sized cloaks and bags.
There are also two large hill giants in here. Supposedly guarding the
door, they had been asleep on their stools. A keg sits on the floor
between them.
"Oi!" says one of them, jumping to his feet, "Wot's this?"
Jon rejoins you in time to see that the door has been opened and that you are now confronting a pair of hill giants.
Aron says, "Drinor, your devotion to the studies of Tyr has enlightened
me to what we must do, I apologize to all for doubting what we should
do. These giants must die, but let's take care that we do not
become over zealous and destroy what we seek - a fireball from a mage
might destroy the object we seek."
"Silence," Al barks as he he intones, "Great Thor, wrap me in your holy
silence!" as he casts Silence 15' radius on himself as he charges the
giants.
Long before he is anywhere near finished casting his spell, the hill
giant clobbers him with his blunt instrument for 11 hit points,
spoiling everything and knocking out a face full of the cavalier's
gleaming white teeth.
"A foot, aimed at your groin," says Mikodin, launching himself at the other giant.
The giant clubs him over the head for 16 hit points, and deflects the monk's attack.
Equinox throws his Rope of Entanglement at the second giant, trussing up both the giant and Mikodin.
Aldarin charges with flaming sword and shield.
Attacking the first giant, the elf skewers the big fellow in the shin.
"Greetings from Asgard," says Drinor, drawing his avenger. Seeing the
other fighters swarm the two guards, he strides forward into the
stronghold, already looking for the next fight.
Ayazin draws his scimitar and turns around, guarding the party's rear
from possible attacks. He prepares an Entangle spell in case anything
nasty comes charging out of the woods.
Brennon launches magic missiles at the closest of the hill giants,
aiming for their faces, hoping to blind them temporarily at least.
His first spell hits the giant attacking Al and Aldarin.
Op Code rushes over to attack the giants, hoping they don't raise the alarm.
The ranger attacks the first giant as well, opening a gigantic wound in his belly.
Devlin strolls over and kills the entangled giant, thus freeing Mikodin.
Meanwhile, the injured survivor nails Al again for 20 hit points. The cavalier attacks back, killing the giant.
You check out the room and the bodies, finding that they had 4000gp in total of coins on them.
Otherwise, the chamber is uninteresting.
You look down the east passage, and see that it runs for 40' and ends.
At the end in the north wall is a door. At the end in the south wall is
a 10' wide opening.
"Gweat Tor, pwease heal your serwant from da fwucking bwastard dat knocked his tweef out!" Al tries to intone to Thor in casting a Cure Serious Wounds spell.
Thor hears him and Al is healed for 12 hit points.
Equinox retrieves his rope and casts Cure Serious Wounds on Mikodin.
The monk is healed for 10 hit points.
"If no one objects, I will go quietly down the east passage. As I go I'll look for traps, when near the opening in the south wall I'll look for anything in hiding. Also, could those with bows cover me in case something pops out?" asks Aron.
Aron heads up the passage. On the
way he finds no traps. Looking through the south opening, he sees that
is an entrance into the second storey watch tower that you saw from
outside. It is 40' square, and a flight of stairs runs up to the right
around the perimeter walls.
From somewhere up above him, Aron hears someone snoring loudly.
While Aron is going up the passage, you hear the sounds of clinking coins from the trove of gold that you just found.
Glancing about, you note that Jon is not to be seen...
Aron quietly returns to the party and reports his observations.
Jon whispers to the group, "Well done Aron. Well, let's go and
say hello to the sleeping guards. Op Code, Kithus, Drinor and Al should
lead the way with the rest following. The snoring should at least
partially cover our movements. There may be something else in the tower
as it was very dark and I was unable to see from outside. Drinor you
may need to call light on entering the room.
"I will not attack at the moment saving the invisibility cover for the moment."
Sharone reaches into her purse to locate a couple of continually lit coins, in case light is needed.
"Thanks Jon." says the monk looking for the elf. "If Al's silence
is still active, can he go with you so that you can slit the sleeping
giant's throat without raising any alarms?"
"Aron, I don't think the silence worked as he was hit before it went off and we are talking after all.
"I have a feeling there is more to the room somehow....let's follow the
fighters up the stairs. After you Op Code, Kithus, Drinor and Al. The
snoring should cover movement up the stairs. Okay let's go..."
Jon waits expectantly for the warriors to move forward and then follows.
"Ok."
"I'll go with you and Aron," Mikodin says to Jon.
The cavalier takes the lead.
"Right," Op Code answers as he cautiously goes up the stairs, sword in hand, ready for anything to jump out at them.
Equinox follows the warriors, Rope ready for action.
Brennon follows the rest.
The stairs wind around and eventually come out into a 40' square room.
Narrow slits line the walls, giving a view of the surrounding
countryside. In the middle of the room is a table. A flagon of mead
sits atop the table. Sitting before it on a stool is another hill
giant, asleep. However, Drinor's armour gives a clank at this moment,
and the giant snaps awake.
"Oy!" he shouts, "Invaders!"
He jumps up and moves to attack you!
The cavalier lashes out with Claw.
Al slices into the monster's shin.
"Owwww!" howls the giant, and swings at the cavalier with his club, missing. Al connects again.
"And this is why the silence spell would have been tactically useful.
While you take care of this giant, I'm going back down and wait to see
if any others come through the door. Can anyone charm this
guard?" asks Aron.
"Why bother?" asks Equinox, "I think Al has this situation well in hand."
Aldarin also leaps forward to attack.
"Curses!" says Drinor, and plunges into battle with the giant.
Op Code rushes forward to attack.
Ayazin, guarding the rear, closes the front doors of the stronghold and bars the door from the inside.
Beth tries to zap the hill giant with her wand of paralyzation.
Kithus, who has been pretty quiet until now, quickly draws his sword.
Aldarin fans badly. Drinor fares better, cutting the offending monster in two.
The rangers are left standing there. Beth puts her wand away.
On the floor by the chair is a sack. As you watch, it seems to open of its own accord.
Beth gets her wand back out, and aims it at the sack.
A voice by the sack says, "Hey,
well done, Drinor. It's only me, Jon, and it's got gold pieces inside.
Nothing else of value I could find. Let's head down the stairs and
continue the exploration of this place. Aron and Mikodin do either of
you want to go point with me?"
Mikodin, who was amused by all
the fuss over one giant, looks long in the direction of Jon before
replying, "Only gold, eh? Well, at any rate, I'd be honored to be
on point with you, Jon."
A trace of a smirk can be seen on Mikodin's face.
"Even assuming that Jon found only gold in the sack, Mikodin, what did YOU find?"
Jon, invisible, smiles, "There was only gold."
"I haven't looked at the bag
yet," says Mikodin, "but I am sure that Jon was telling the
truth. He would never lie to his friends, I am positive.
Right, Jon?"
"Err...well...Ummmh...Maybe possibly...Err, no but..."
There is a pause of a minute and then -
"Definitely I'm positive that I have lied to my friends. Now let me discuss the ways I have lied.
"There was that cute lady vampire I think that had Sharone charmed or whatever and I'm almost definite that I lied to Sharone about something there, if only it wasn't about thinking about the opportunity to examine what she was wearing under her armour when she was indisposed there was Violet - sob - was another friend that even so briefly that I knew when I said I would do
everything to help her and she laid probably unconscious while burning to death. I feel in some way that I lied to her in that I didn't do everything in my power there was to rescue her because none of the group seemed interested in trying to rescue her...I don't know what I could have done but there must have been something and I have used all the things at my disposal
to get her back as we are away on another plane and we don't have time to research what is required and people don't want me using a wish even if I had one...
"The letter to Baron what's his name saying I would send help and being unable to find any and then there was the matter with the brothel and the girls when I had gone there to ro...ummmmm...errr...ummmm...anyway the thief gui....no let me try this another way...I went to the brothel to err...and errr... but instead there was a nice lady who err...but I didn't want to err... and anyway she put me in the hands of a good friendly girl and she well I think I lied to her and I counted her my friend but the thief would have killed me and I didn't know who to trust <breath>. This can wait till after the coming battles....Mikodin."
"What?" says Equinox.
Drinor casually cleans the
giant's blood off his blade. "This certainly is an odd place, could
someone else please take the lead? I'm feeling a bit confused at the
moment."
The cavalier steps back and says,
"When we leave this room, I will cast the silence spell on myself, so
all spell hurlers stay away from me!"
Once the contents of the sack are discovered, Al intones,"Great Thor, allow no sound to be near me," as he casts silence 15'radius on Claw. He then takes point and leads the way.
Jon, getting bored, says, "I will count the gold later. I will take the lead. Let's go down the stairs and continue to explore."
Jon takes the flagon and then goes down stairs.
Equinox watches Jon walk
away. Then, frowning a little because he is confused by the
situation, dumps the contents of the bag onto the floor to see what he can see.
In the sack is 1000gp, and nothing else.
You head back down to the entrance foyer.
There are two doors here in the north wall plus an additional door at the end of the passage leading up to the watch tower.
Jon listens at each of them but hears nothing.
Aron is a little peeved.
"In a way I feel I'm just a grunt on this quest. To say 'All the
fuss over one giant?' just pisses me off - just that one giant, or
whatever allies it may have had, could have wiped us out - I couldn't
fight the giant one on one.
"And I'd also like some support from the priests and magi - some
protection magic on other than yourselves before a battle would be much
appreciated."
Jon, invisible, looks at Aron, "Me too, somewhat, but it could be
worse. You could be dead like Violet. I have a couple of spells that
may be useful but it's hard to know when and what to use. I will learn
an extra stoneskin for you tomorrow, but that's about all I can do. What
else are you after???"
Looking in the direction of Jon's voice, Aron says, "Thank you; that's exactly the
kind of protection I could use."
"Relax, Aron, we are all grunts on this quest," says Equinox, "I will
provide you whatever magic protection I have but I don't have much to
offer. What do you want from me?
"Anyway, that WAS a lot of fuss over just one giant," Equinox adds with a smile.
"My brother, no one was expecting either of us to take on that giant by
ourselves. One must look within for safety and protection, not to
others; it is our way. There are times when we are less useful to
the group than other times, but it all balances out in the end,"
Mikodin finishes his solemn speech with a trace of a smile.
Equinox draws MC Hammer, "Quietly now, MC," he cautions his weapon in a whisper, "Can you sense evil behind any of these doors?"
"Nothin' bad but me!" exclaims the weapon.
Silenced, Al walks up the stairs again, Claw in hand.
Jon follows Al up the stairs...back up to the room where you just slew the giant.
Al returns from the upper level, looking sheepish. He says something but with the silence spell you hear no words.
You next see him mouth the words, "Eenie, meenie minie, mo!" and he picks the left door and opens it silently.
Aron, while going to back Equinox, comments, "Next time, let me check the door before you go to open it."
Jon rejoins you.
Brennon prepares for whatever may lay beyond the door.
The leftmost door - the one closest to the exit - opens to reveal a 10'
wide passage running north for 40'. After that it ends at a "T"
intersection with a 10' wide passage running east - west. There is a
door in the northernmost 10' section on the right hand side.
Sharone wakes from her reverie.
"Can I have a look at the first key? Maybe a quick locate object will save us having to blunder around in this lair."
Aron says admiringly, "Sharone, your wisdom once again shines. An
object such as a key must me be rare among these brutes."
Devlin throws a look at the monk for some reason, then there is silence.
Off in the distance you think you can faintly hear the sounds of music.
Except for Al, who can hear nothing within the confines of his silence
spell.
After a few minutes, Devlin clears his throat.
"So, uh, who has the key?" he asks. He glances at Mikodin and Aron, "One of you thieving types?"
"Devlin - why do you think we're thieves?" asks Aron.
"You mean you aren't??"
"Just as a man who swims in the water is not a fish, a warrior who uses stealth is not a thief."
Devlin snorts.
Equinox smacks the invisible Jon on the back of his head: "Yo Jon, wake up! You found the key. Remember?"
Jon wakes up...and drops the key in Sharone's hand.
Sharone looks at the key, then casts a locate object.
Holding a lodestone, she slowly rotates through a full circle. With a
sigh, she announces that she detects nothing with the spell.
"Priestess, what is the range of that spell?" asks Devlin, "And does it even function on this plane?"
Op Code tells the others, "OK, I'm done the map. This is where we are."
Jon says, "Well done...it's clearer now."
"I may be out of range, I will continue to check as we move about the building."
Sharone continues to hold the key and the lodestone.
"Does your magic locate magic?" asks Aron, then continues, "Can any of
the mages turn into something like a ghost and explore the unknown
areas? Or a druid into a small thing like a mouse? This is a
giant camp and everything is large and there should be lots of cracks."
"Al, why don't you choose a direction?" suggests Equinox, "I'll be right behind you."
Al cannot hear you.
Tired of watching mouths move and not hearing anything, Al turns to the left corridor and starts to walk down it.
The rest of you follow, keeping out of the range of his silence spell as best you can.
Reaching the end of the passage, you look both ways at the "T" intersection.
To the east, the passage runs 30', turning north after 20'.
To the west, it runs for 60', turning north after 50'. There is a door at the end in the south wall.
Jon listens at the door just south of the "T" intersection but does not hear anything.
Sharone announces that she is picking up a faint signal with her spell...off to the north-northeast.
Ayazin says to Aron, "Personally, I don't like the idea of turning
myself into a mouse with a large number of giant wolves running around
nearby."
"Ayazin, I didn't know wolves care for mice - thought they would be too small to consider for a meal. I apologize for my suggestion that would have put you into an unnecessary danger."
A faint smile brushes Sharone's lips. "Can we move a bit, in that direction? The feeling will become stronger as we get closer to the key."
Sharone points north-northeastish.
"Good going, Sharone!" says Equinox, "East passage, everyone?"
"Yep!" Op Code answers, prepared to attack more giants.
Drinor pulls out his crossbow and
loads it, ready to fire at any giant that comes into view. His avenger
is sheathed, lest he accidentally dispel Al's silence spell by drawing
it.
You set off to the east, as Devlin mutters under his breath.
Reaching the corner, you look
north. The passage runs for a further 30' and ends. There is a door in
the middle of the west wall.
You proceed to the end of the
passage. Sharone reports that the signal is stronger still, and still
pointing to the north-northeast.
Op Code looks for fresh tracks coming from the north-northeast.
He sees none.
"What's up with you, Devlin?" Equinox asks.
"I hate leaving unopened doors behind us. Unopened doors tend to have monsters behind them."
"Fair enough," says Equinox, "I
see your point; we don't want to be caught in the middle of two groups
of monsters. Do you want to go check the door? I will go with you
if you want."
Devlin nods, and heads back the way you came.
Jon rushes ahead to listen at the doors before the silence takes effect.
Brennon tags along in case his spell use might be needed.
The cavalier, however, signals that he thinks they should go through the door in the west wall.
Equinox plucks Al's sleeve and,
once he has Al's attention, shakes his head in response to Al's desire
to go ahead and points toward the "T" intersection toward which Devlin and the others are headed.
The cavalier mouths "alright" and follows, not entering the door on the west wall.
Back at the "T" intersection, Jon listens at the door again but does not hear anything.
Devlin and Al move up and bash it open in silence.
Revealed is a room (30' X 40':
20' east, 30' south). This place is decorated with hides on the floor
and a bear skin on the wall. It is furnished with a chair, a stool, a
huge chest and an enormous bed. The latter is piled high with furs.
Sitting on the stool before a
mirror is an enormous hill giantess, primping herself as if in
preparation to go to a party. The sudden movement of the opening door
catches her attention, and she jumps up with a soundless cry, grabbing
the obligatory club leaning against the wall nearby.
"I told you so," mouths Devlin, as he moves to attack!
"How could you have known?" mouths Equinox in a wide-eyed amazement.
Sharone puts the lodestone in her pocket, "I thought this was supposed to be a low profile expedition???"
She moves to safe vantage point to watch the battle.
She then casts a silence spell onto a copper piece, so it is ready when the other spell runs out.
"HIYAAAH!" forms Al's mouth silently as he rushes forward with Claw.
Brennon lets fly a barrage of magic missiles against the hill giantess.
Op Code rushes to attack before she can raise the alarm.
The warrior, the cavalier and the ranger face her just inside the doorway as Brennon's missiles blast into her.
Devlin jumps aside, dodging her crashing club, which hits the floor and
sends up a shower of splinters. He chops into her with his broadsword,
putting a run in her stockings.
Al connects next, twice, and she drops dead.
You notice things moving about in the room and the chest lid opening as if by its own accord.
The cavalier pats down the giantess to see if she has anything of interest on her.
He finds nothing of interest or value on her.
Aron looks and listen for other giants while the cavalier pats down someone much bigger than him.
Al dispels the silence so he can cast a detect magic.
He then looks around the room. Detect magic is virtually useless here, he discovers, as everything on this plane radiates magic.
Meanwhile, various and sundry items are flying out of the chest. These
include petticoats and lacy underthings of disgusting proportions,
enormous pumps, worthless trinkets, brushes and combs.
Equinox frowns and gets his rope ready.
Beth trains her wand of paralyzation on the chest.
Op Code spins around and readies himself for more battles.
Sharone laughs silently and mouths the word - "JON!"
The voice of Jon by the chest says, "Let's go."
Finally, you see a small gem (100gp value) rise up out of the chest and hang in the air.
When Jon speaks you realise that he must be holding - or hiding - the gem on his person.
Unfortunately the thief does not seem to realise that it is rather
difficult for an invisible person to conceal a visible object.
"MC, you sense any evil around here?" asks Equinox.
"No!" replies the hammer.
"Well," says Devlin, regarding the location of Jon dubiously, "Now that
we have this area cleared I feel better. Shall we go and open that
other door at the end of the dead end passage?"
"Who else, besides me, is getting tired of Jon lying and stealing from the rest of us?" asks Equinox.
"Me!" Al grins widely. "Jon, I
suggest you learn the error of your ways, if you want to be a thief,
fine, but you steal from us, I promise I will bring the wrath of Thor
down on your head!"
Jon says, "Only a 100gp gem...poor pickings. What about on the giantess? Lead on. Let's go."
"It's only money," comments one of the capitalistic, materialistic monks.
Jon asks, "What's this...stealing? I told you I found the gem. Who's carrying the group treasure?"
Jon tosses the gem in the air.
"I was just trying to speed things up. Someone else can search in future."
"While Jon is truth-challenged," says Mikodin in defense of the thief,
"I don't think he means us any harm. He is always ready to defend
anyone in need, and is a fun person to be around. He simply lacks
a certain moral compass."
"Let's move on," says Devlin, "As Aron says, it's only money. We have a key to find and then a sword. We can kill Jon later."
When no one responds, the warrior mutters to himself and walks away...back up the dead end passage.
After a moment you hear the crash of a door being forcefully opened.
Claw in hand, Al rushes out to see what happened.
Mikodin runs after Al, attempting to use his speed to gain surprise on whatever just knocked a door down.
Brennon rushes after the others to help in any way he can.
Ditto for Equinox.
Beth follows calmly to see what's going on.
Op Code rushes past Beth, sword in hand, to confront the cause of the commotion.
Jon follows as well.
Aron goes to, but hangs back with Beth.
Aldarin brings up the rear, being sure to keep watch so that we don't get surprised from behind.
In other words, you all go.
Going back up the dead end passage, you see that the door to the left is now open.
You look through it.
Revealed is a large room (30' X 80': 10' north, 10' south, 80' west,
door in middle of opposite wall). It is a dormitory room, filled with
giant-sized beds and furnishings. It is deserted, except for Devlin,
who is striding towards the door at the far end.
You follow after him.
He bashes the door open. Through the doorway you see a 10' wide passage running north - south.
Looking south, after 10' it turns west. There is a door in the south wall at the corner.
To the north, it runs for 50' and ends at a door. There is another door in the 10' - 20' section of the east wall.
Sharone offers the coin to Devlin, to try and reduce the noise he makes as he 'opens' doors.
Devlin takes it and bows.
Then she moves back and directs the group.
The group awaits her direction.
Sharone looks at her lodestone and points to the northeast.
Aron follows the group northeast.
North being the closest direction to northeast that you can go short of
passing through a wall, you head up the passage with Devlin and Al in
the fore.
You reach the next door. Sharone still points northeast...which could
be through the door, so the warriors silently bust it down.
You see another room (40' X 50': 30' north, 40' east). This is another
bedchamber, which is also deserted, you discover. Sharone moves to the
northeast corner of the room. The locate object spell still directs you
almost dead northeast, so you leave and continue up the passage to the
door at the end.
Opening the door, you find yourselves looking into the intersection of two 20' wide passages.
To the east, the passage runs for 50' and ends at a large set of double
doors. 40' back from the east end of this passage is the entrance to
the other 20' wide passage, which runs north for 60', turning east
after 40'. There is a double door in the north wall at the corner.
Looking west, you see a large chamber through a 20' wide opening (50' X
100': 50' west; 80' south; 20' double door in north wall west end; 20'
double door in south wall east end). In here are two tables, five
chairs and two stools; plus rugs, hides and skins on the floors and
walls. The tables have flagons and plates upon them, and pots and kegs
are all about the place.
From the doorway where you stand Sharone indicates that the key is now
more to the east-northeast. That would imply that you should go east to
the double doors rather than up the north passage...but you never know.
You also hear the muffled sounds of a party and music through those
eastern doors. It almost sounds like the Cantina Band from Star Wars is
playing in there.
"Well, how rude, someone's having a party and we weren't even invited," Brennon comments with a wry smile.
"Before we break up the party, let's prepare ourselves. Priests, if you would bless us before this upcoming battle?"
"It sounds like a wretched hive of scum and villainy," Beth agrees.
"It should be a fun fight," says Equinox, "And I look forward to it,
but I cannot offer any bless or other forms of that type of
protection. When we go in there remember to leave enough room
around one of the monsters for me to throw my rope at it without
entangling any party members again."
Tully says, "That is wise. Let's see what we are preparing against."
He drinks a potion of clairvoyance and checks to see what is going on at the party.
Aldarin prepares a fireball to lead into the room with.
Op Code waits for a report from Tully's clairvoyance.
Jon, off to the back and side of the party, speaks. "Well let's give them a party to remember. I have a slow that should come in helpful...but let's open the doors then blast them with magic."
"Shouldn't we see who is in there first?" asks Mikodin quizzically.
"What, you mean find out of they're enemies before we try to kill them? Spoilsport."
Equinox draws MC Hammer, "Hey MC, do you sense any evil through that door or anywhere else around here?"
"Nope!"
Drinor readies his crossbow, and prepares for the fight ahead, keeping his avenger in reserve for now.
Ayazin sheathes his scimitar and pulls out a non-magical javelin, ready for the assault.
Tully says, "I can fire some arrows as the door is opened as well. I
also have a rope of entanglement and will try to deploy it where no one
else is. Maybe we should lead with magic spells, a volley of arrows and
then Equinox and I can lead in and use our ropes. Then the fighters
charge in. I will fall back and then use my bow. Thoughts?
"I heard one person mention fireball. Any others? This is probably going to be a pretty big battle."
Aldarin nods, "That was I, friend Tully. I also, have a lightning bolt to share with the creatures."
Devlin nods and says something, but since he is holding Sharone's coin you cannot hear him.
"Blow them up first," says Equinox, "I don't want my rope to be burnt up."
Tully then reports that he sees a large chamber (80' X 120': 20' north,
40' south, 120' east; 40' wide passage running south out of middle of
south wall; double doors directly across in east wall). A large dining
hall, in here are trestle tables, benches, stools and chairs. Near the
centre is a fire pit, where a whole ox is roasting, surrounded by four
pigs. To the north is a higher table with chairs. Hanging on the wall
above the table is a small ballista. All of the tables are laid out
with platters full of meats, cheeses, breads and such, along with
horns, mugs and cups filled with various libations. The place is filled
with giants and their ilk. Tully estimates that there is at least of
score of them partying it up. Ogres move here and there, keeping the
platters filled with food and the drinks topped up.
Drinor drools a little as he listens to Tully's description of the scene.
"Sounds like enemies to me," Beth says. "Blast away with the
fireball. I'll follow with a lightning bolt going along the long axis
of the room, as there should be room for it."
"Yes," says Drinor, "Only try not to ruin all the food if you can help it. No sense in letting it go to waste."
"We're just going to cook it for you," Beth says. "You know giants...like their food too rare."
Jon says, "When the door is open I will throw a fireball centred on the
high table and follow up with a lightning bolt 10' wide on a giant
giving orders trying to rebound of the walls to catch as many as
possible."
Op Code asks Jon, "I hate to throw water on your fire, but are you sure
that fireball won't come rushing back out the hallway at us? I have had
enough eyebrows singed by fireballs coming back at the party in my
adventures. It's hair-raising to say the least."
Jon (invisible) pulls off his shoes and counts on his toes,
"80 feet x 120 feet x 10 feet high equals 96,000 cubic feet a fireball
is about 33,000 cubic feet so I get about a third of the room notice
I'm throwing it at the farest end of the room...nar it fits..." Jon
rechecks his calculations. "Two large toes multipled by pinkie and a
half...it fits....mind you I have these fire gems or such that Equinox
gave me I'm not sure what damage they will do but my thoughts are to
hit them with as much as we can as quickly as we can as I don't think a
fireball will kill any giants by itself...the ceiling has to be higher
than 10' as these are giants and the fireball will take out the
balista...hopefully.
"Violet died because of a badly cast fireball and no one offered to
help and try and save her, no one said sorry or even appeared to
care...guess I won't make a mistake but I digress."
Op Code pleads his innocence.
"If anyone has magical items that would be of use, now is the time to
share them as these ogres and giants will surround us very quickly as
we are in their stronghold and they have many ways out of the room and
they have a bunch of giant wolves outside. I can offer a very powerful
long sword if someone can use it."
Jon puts his shoes back on.
"Brennon and Mikodin, I suggest we stay back and out of the fight as
these guys are too big for us. Two hits and I will be dead. We can
offer support or such killing held ones, but it's up to you."
Brennon, holding his wand of lightning smiles and says, "I can help with sending in a bolt as well."
Op Code has his two magic missile spells ready to cast.
"Someone better find a way to tell Devlin what's going on, too."
"Instead of talking about it forever, how about Al opens the door,
mages blast everything in sight and then warriors and everyone else run
in to mop up what's left?" says Equinox.
"I concur," Brennon says, "Whatever spells I have are at the party's
disposal." Hand o hand I am not well suited against giants."
"Good idea," Al grins as he grips Claw tighter.
Once everyone is ready, he kicks the door open.
It takes two attempts, so you lose the element of surprise.
He steps out of the way so the mages can do their thing.
Tully laughs. "Not a good idea, but heck, it hasn't really been working for us so far, so why change?"
He pulls out his bow and nocks an arrow.
As previously described, the place is filled with giants and their ilk, scattered here and there.
As the spell casters start casting the giants bellow and start to move on you.
Tully lets loose an arrow as Op Code unloads his first magic missile
spell. The arrow bounces off of a thick-headed giant without doing any
damage. The ranger's spell does damage, though; and then he, Kithus,
Al, Devlin and Drinor find themselves in melee.
The giant attacking Op Code bounces a club off of the ranger's
all-too-good of an armour class. Op Code replies and kills the fellow.
Beside him, Kithus is mashed for 17 hit points as he misses twice with his two-handed sword.
Al connects with his scimitar as his foe misses, then hits a second time.
Devlin is clobbered for 16 hit points as he strikes with his flaming broadsword.
Drinor is belted for 14 hit points as he digs deep with his avenger. The giant howls.
The spells go off...
....and the chamber behind is ablaze with lightning bolts and fireballs.
And to conclude it all, Tully misses with another arrow.
As best you can tell, the combined firepower of the mages and warriors
have killed eight giants and two ogres, and the rest are all severely
injured.
The battle in the doorway continues, as most of the giants converge on
you. A few, you note, are heading south through that 20' wide opening,
though.
"Stop them!" Beth says, and fires off a beam of paralyzation at the
departing giants and ogres with her wand, as fast as she can to stop
them.
One giant freezes up solid. The other four rush down the passage and out of your sight.
Jon moves to the corner of the two walls, attempts to hide in shadows
and move silently, saying, "Beth, Brennon, Mikodin, Sharone get ready
for the giants to attack us from behind. Brennon a lightning bolt may
work up the corridor, I will try a backstab if I get the chance."
Mikodin nods in agreement with Jon, and hides in the shadows to rear attack a giant, should one get near him.
Ayazin nods at Jon, and turns to guard the rear. Sheathing his javelin,
he casts a Flame Blade spell to give his melee a little extra punch,
followed by a Barkskin for a little extra protection.
Aldarin turns to prepare to meet the giants seemingly coming around behind us with 2 Hypnotic Pattern spells.
Drinor dives gleefully into melee with the giants.
The paladin strikes first, and another giant drops. Another hill giant attacks him.
After missing, not once but twice, Kithus is rather annoyed. But,
adding being hit painfully by a giant, he is furious. He charges the
attacker that just hit him, trying to impale that giant with his sword.
Kithus drives his blade into his adversary, and the monster's entrails
bulge out of his belly. The giant fans. The ranger strikes again,
and the giant drops.
Another giant moves up.
Aron joins the battle in the doorway - doing his best to kneecap the giants.
Aron runs into a giant's club for 12 hit points. He kicks the monster
in the knee and the giant howls, hopping around on his other foot.
The cavalier charges on, Claw cutting in to whatever he can.
Al cuts down his giant. Another one steps up.
Op Code presses his attack on a new enemy.
The ranger connects against a new foe and chops him in two.
Tully spreads his wings and flies into the chamber.
Fluttering over to the south passage, he sees that it extends for 80',
ending at a set of double doors. The four giants are just skidding to a
stop at those doors, preparatory to opening them.
Brennon sprays the closest giant with magic missiles. He hits two
giants, killing the one which had been about to attack Al, and almost
polishing off the one on Aron.
He also looks over his shoulder for enemies coming up the rear.
Equinox stands guard in the rear with Ayazin.
Devlin easily deflects an attack by his foe, then kills the attacker.
Currently there are six giants and six ogres fighting or trying to
fight you...plus four more giants apparently fleeing or moving to
attack from the rear. All but three of the ogres are seriously wounded.
Equinox slips on his Ring of Invisibility and stays where he is to protect the rear of the party.
Beth looks over her shoulder to make sure nobody is coming from that
direction. Seeing no one as yet, she targets one of the giants
with her wand of paralyzation.
The giant attacking Aron freezes up.
The monk butts him in the nuts and kills him.
The cavalier continues his onslaught, facing off with the giant who is
evidently the chief and carving into him. The cavalier in turn is
conked for 25 hit points of damage. Al shakes his head and hits the
monster again.
Tully tosses his rope of entanglement at some of the ogres, trussing up
two of them. He then taunts the giants that are going through the
double doors.
"Cowards! Chicken shits! Afraid of some humans? Thor was right about you monkeys! Your entire clan is cowardly!"
He is hoping they don't go get reinforcements.
The giants disappear through that door.
Op Code takes a pot shot at another giant. The ranger, apparently
attacking the mate of the chief, misses. She, however, crowns him for
14 hit points.
Drinor continues to lay about with his avenger.
The paladin chops down another giant. An ogre steps up.
Ayazin continues to watch the party's rear.
Jon casts invisibility on himself and flies after Tully.
Devlin, fighting a subchief now, fans badly and curses his sword. The giant also misses.
Kithus, dealing with a wounded giant, also misses badly. The giant
nails him for 16 hit points of damage. This gets the ranger mad again,
making him connect on his next swing, dropping the attacker.
An ogre jumps up.
Al almost drops in surprise when he misses the giant chief, who laughs
harshly and crushes him again for 20 hit points. The cavalier does not
miss again, though, and the chief falls.
The last ogre leaps to attack him.
Kithus swings at his ogre and the monster drops.
Op Code lands a solid hit on the giantess and she dies as well.
Aron finds himself facing an ogre. He kicks the big fellow in the belly as the ogre swings his club ineffectually about.
Devlin dodges an attack by the subchief, and chops deeply with his flame tongue twice, leaving the monster ready to drop.
Drinor, facing an ogre, allows the monster to bounce his club off of his magical breast plate before carving into him.
During the last few seconds those at the rear have heard the
approaching steps of more giants, and now, the four who fled the
chamber a few moments ago burst through the doorway behind you. All are
badly injured but nevertheless pose a threat.
In the doorway to the chamber, Devlin fights the subchief, Drinor fights an ogre, as do Aron and Al.
Devlin kills the subchief.
"Die," Al says as he cuts into the ogre battling him.
The ogre drops.
Ae casts heal on himself...curing himself for all but 4 hit points.
Drinor continues hacking away at the first group of nasties.
The ogre drops.
Aron kicks his ogre in the arm and you hear a bone snap. The monster still attacks back, but misses.
Op Code helps out the monk, and the last ogre drops.
Kithus, meanwhile, is killing the held and paralysed monsters.
Equinox tosses his Rope of Entanglement at the closest giant, becoming visible as he does so.
The giant is trussed up.
Brennon blasts the giants coming from the rear with a spray of magic missiles.
The mage kills the three remaining giants.
The rest of you, who were about to attack or cast spells, hold off.
The battle is over. You have killed 25 giants and 8 ogres.
Jon returns back to the room and starts searching the room and the dead for treasure, piling it all on the giant's main table.
"It's only me piling the treasure on the table."
Tully watches the invisible elf closely.
You all loot the place...eventually tallying up a grand total of 50
articles of jewelry (1000gp each), 32 items of jewelry (1300gp ea.) and
150,000gp. You do not find the key, though.
By this time, though, Sharone's spell has ended. Just before it ended,
though, she noted that it still pointed her east-northeast, from the
doorway.
"Good job people and thank Thor for his guidance," the cavalier says
with a happy smile. "When we are ready to move on, I say we follow
where Sharone was going. Sharone, do you have another locate object
spell? I will make sure to ask Thor for that by tomorrow."
You head back to the four way intersection with the 20' wide passage running north and head up there to the corner.
Looking east, you see that the passage runs an additional 40' from the
corner and ends at a set of double doors. There is also a pair of
double doors in the north wall at the corner.
"Based on Sharone's last reading, East seems the better bet," Equinox says. "Does anyone else have a Locate Object spell?"
Jon comments, "Can't be many left. Just kick in the doors."
"Famous last words!" Equinox says with a grin.
Devlin snorts and kicks in the doors at the east end of the passage.
Through it is a small (by giant standards) dining room (40' X 60': 20'
south, 60' east; door in west wall south corner). In here is a long
table, a great chair, a smaller chair and six stools. There are several
shelves, a smaller table with a chair and a china cabinet. Some
bearskin rugs lie on the floor.
Searching the place reveals nothing of interest or value...until Jon discovers a secret door in the east wall south corner.
Outside, it is getting dark as evening comes on.
"This may be a good place for us to rest, administer what healing
spells available and allow our priests and magi to recover their
spells."
"I agree," Brennon says, "I could use the time to recover some spells."
"I would like to keep going," says Equinox, "if anyone is wounded, I can heal them."
"After you, Jon," Al says.
Jon searches for traps on the secret door and then detects magic to see if there is a strong presence.
He finds no traps. The entire plane radiates magic.
Ayazin examines the bearskin rugs, to determine what kind of bear they are from.
He notes that they are the hides of Cave bears and polar bears...enormous specimens of both.
Finding the trick to the door takes about ten minutes; then Jon opens it.
Drinor draws his avenger and prepares to head through the secret door. "Be careful everyone, they know we're coming now."
Through the doorway you see a 20' X 40' room (20' east, 30' north).
There are no other exits. In here are a number of enormous chests, just
bulging with goodies. Most of them are open.
Jon peers into the room saying quietly, "After the fighter, please."
Mikodin waits until either a fighter or Jon enters, then follows.
You head in and search the place, finding 60,000cp, 40,000sp, 19,000ep,
10,000gp, 1100pp, 20 gems (100gp ea.), 25 various articles of jewelry
(2500gp ea.), four potions, a wand and a glowing blue key.
"Good Gravy!" Equinox exclaims, "that is a lot of loot!"
"Indeed," Beth says. "I can't wait to identify that wand."
"Is the copper worth it?" Op Code asks, wondering about the weight of it all.
"WOO HOO!" Al says as he looks around at the loot and more importantly
the key. He reaches for it and takes it for safe keeping. "I think we
should return and give the key to those it should go to."
"It goes to us to get the sword, you idiot," answers Devlin.
Aldarin moves in and begins to determine how we might be able to haul all of this stuff.
Tully takes out his portable hole.
Jon, unable to resist, grabs the wand.
Jon searches for traps and then looks closely at the wand for writing,
"A wand. I don't have one. Would anyone mind if I carried it?"
Upon it are engraved the words 'Snurre Lives!'
"I think we ought to gather all this loot and then go finish off this
stronghold," Equinox says, "I don't think we want have anything behind
us as we continue. Does everyone agree?
"By the way, Jon," Equinox says, temporarily changing the subject, "not
counting that wand, exactly how many magic items do you have?"
Mikodin chuckles softly to himself, then adds, "Remember, Jon, honesty is the best policy."
Jon, looks to Equinox with a surprised look and which turns into an almost serene smile with glistering eyes.
"I don't know. I've never counted them. Do you want me to count spells
on scrolls as one item? What about those black beads you gave me,
Equinox, do you want me to count those as one item? Then there the
extra spell books with all those spells. Do I count each spell? Ohh and
what about all the cursed items I have, do you want me to count those?
What about the items lost with Violet do you want me to count those?
Also the items I'm having made even if they aren't completed? Are
potions counted? Do you want me to count the items left behind or only
carried by me? What about the items I donated to my church? What about
Geerzo? He's a partner but still magical. Should his powers be counted
separately?"
Jon is stretching his fingers and appears to be getting ready to undo his shoes to use his toes in counting.
"Equinox, a wand makes a mage complete in that it enables hopefully
good damage when all their spells are gone. There have been many times
in the past where I have run out of spells and a blast from a wand
would have been very helpful. It was only the last battle were Violet
died and I saved Brennon and then ended up fighting those giant trolls
with..."
Jon babbles on. Finally he concludes.
"Equinox here was a deadly situation where I was out of damage spells
and a wand would have been ideal. Maybe next time I won't be so lucky
and actually hit the monsters."
The druid is not carried away by Jon's torrent of words.
"You can count your magic in any way that you wish on your own time,"
replies Equinox, "but, for right here and now, I would appreciate it if
you would tell me exactly what magic items you have."
"Of course Jon," Beth says, "you are far from the only mage in this
party, and there are many others of us who could benefit greatly from
that wand. Don't try to take the treasure before we divide it
fairly amongst ourselves, or you might just find that you have become a
toad, and the rest of are be dividing up everything you've got, not
only that we've found, but that which was yours to start with."
Beth gives Jon an arch look.
Jon looks to Beth. "Oooh..."
Jon drops the wands into Beth's hand.
"I wasn't taking it, I was only holding it until the treasure is divided fairly."
Meanwhile, the others have been loading the loot into Tully's hole and are now ready to set off.
Equinox looks at Jon.
"I have three things to say to you. First, I don't trust you. I think
you have stolen from the party and lied to us. Second, don't go near
any more treasure during our quest. And third," Equinox concludes as he
ticks off the points on his fingers, "The next time we stop to rest and
recuperate we are going to find out exactly what your story is, what
you have stolen from us and how you have lied to us. So I don't
particularly care whether you tell the truth about your magic now or
not, but it would certainly be more pleasant - for you anyway - if you
do start telling the truth and stop stealing from your own party
members. And finally, perhaps this is a fourth point, if you have done
none of these things and are in fact an honest member of this party,
then I offer my sincere apology in advance for my false accusations."
Equinox turns away from Jon: "I am still in favor of moving on. Anyone else agree?"
Devlin nods. "Let's kill more giants. I need a bastard sword."
Jon gesticulates, then replies to the druid's back, "Equinox, Sharone and any others, cast whatever spells you want."
Jon waits takes a big breath and begins, "Yes I was or am a thief and
I'm not proud of my history or some of the things I have done in my
past. I would steal from everybody and whenever I could. I had an
uncontrollable lust for magical items, would back stab and had no
loyalty to anybody but myself.
"However, on joining with this group I have over time come to understand the error of my ways and have changed significantly.
"Before coming on this quest I had many a long talk with the high
priestess of my god in Sandas and to the best of my ability atoned for
my wayward ways.
"I have made my peace with my god as I didn't expect to survive this
quest. So I tried to do what was best for the people less fortunate
than myself and I tried to send whatever aid I could to help, what you
probably call the little people, Equinox, farmers with young families
to help my church and its flock.
"I gave almost all my gems, jewels and money to support the church,
more than a Paladin would. I offered my magical items to the church if
they could be put to good use. I stayed at the church, was accepted and
spent many days in prayer, self evaluation and trying to make a
difference. I agreed to build a church for my henchperson and other
things. This I will now do in her memory.
"It is true, I would have stolen that trifle of a gem, sometimes still
I forget myself and I act before thinking, on the spur of the moment as
I have lead my life.
"However, I have not stolen any magical items from this group. Let me
repeat that, I HAVE NOT STOLEN ANY MAGICAL ITEMS FROM THIS GROUP.
"I have offered assistance to the less fortunate and new members of
whatever items I think would be helpful. I have done my best by the
group to use my abilities to further this difficult quest. I have taken
risks recently that I have and would never have taken in the past like
attacking a giant troll when one hit would almost certainly kill me, to
try and save another party member. I start to feel as though maybe we
will succeed and live through this and you then come out with these
orders and dictation. Perhaps we should have a list of all your magical
items as it appears you are not yourself. But at least you can count
without the need to use your toes.
"Your apology in advance is not accepted.
"I will take my share of the money now and roll for the wand.
"I'm leaving, as I should have left earlier. Since Violet died my heart
is not in this quest and my word to Violet overrides the quest at the
moment. No one else seems to be at all concerned at her loss. So I will
leave, attempting to keep my word to her in death and will attempt to
somehow resurrect Violet, my henchperson.
"For the rest of you, I can be found north of Sandas protecting the
flock of my church to the best of my ability with all my resources,
battling evil."
Mikodin steps forward as Jon seemingly prepares to leave, and says, "I
have never threatened or criticized you, Jon, because I felt you were
loyal, courageous, and usually honest. You saved my life several
times when i first started adventuring with this group. There are
others here who feel as I do. I am sorry about Violet; I would
have thought if you wanted her resurrected, you would have said
something to somebody, or, if you did, I missed it. At any rate,
let us continue to make your life important, to feel as if this quest
is partly your quest, and that you are a trusted companion within this
group."
"That is your opinion," says Devlin. "By his own admission, Jon has
proven himself to be unworthy of our trust. For stealing from us he
should be tortured and put to a slow, painful death. But now is not the
time. Let's get the rest of this place cleared of vermin and then find
this sword."
"I'm sorry you feel that way, Devlin," says Mikodin slowly, "But I must
disagree with your assessment. Jon hasn't said anything
implicating himself, and your proposed punishment methods are both
unlawful and sadistic. Really, we can all do much better.
We are seeking to restore good and law to this land, after all."
Devlin shakes his head.
"The law of the land where I am from is torture and execution for the
crime of thievery. It is not sadism. It is a just punishment. As for
restoring good and law to this land...this is a plane of chaos and
good. The good is already here. I wish you luck if you try to impose
law upon it."
Aron speaks.
"If this is a plane of chaos and good, what are these giants doing here?"
Devlin looks to the clerics for a theological explanation.
"And if it's chaos and good, why punish Jon for doing something chaotic like stealing when there wasn't evil intent?"
"We bring our own rules of conduct with us regardless of the location, do we not?"
"Jon erred, admitted it, and has fought for us - I say fine him with no
cut of this current treasure and drop it. And as far as the the
cut of the current treasure goes, I'll forego mine if Jon stays and
continues the quest.
"Don't get me wrong, I don't approve of his thefts, but we're all under
pressure and make mistakes. Punish him, but do it with tolerance. Also,
we're not on our 'plane' and letting him go is almost a death sentence.
And Jon, would Violet want you to abandon the quest?"
The elf, however, does not answer.
Jon leaves.
Drinor, who had been biting his tongue during Equinox and Jon's
exchange, now blinks in surprise at Devlin. "Why didn't you say so? I
have one right here." He pulls a bastard sword from his pack and hands
it to Devlin. "It's non-magical, but it served me well before I joined
this party. You're welcome to it."
Devlin takes the blade and hefts it, testing its feel and balance.
"A good sword," he says to Drinor, bowing. "I thank you from the
deepest depths of my soul. I lost my last bastard sword to the
remorhaz. My flame tongue is a good blade as well, but I am not so
skilled with it. I am in your debt."
He turns and exits the treasure room, looking for more monsters to kill.
Jon has departed.
"All agree that our rules of conduct still apply?"
Mikodin nods, and says, "They still do as far as I am concerned. Traveling on a plane of chaos doesn't turn us chaotic."
"If so, then conduct dictates that we get Jon back before he gets
himself killed because of our accusations. Elves are hard to
track by us humans, but do any of you spell slingers have something
that can locate him or bring him back?
"And if you don't care about getting him back, perhaps this plane of
chaos is interfering with what we perceive as right and wrong."
"I agree completely," states Mikodin emphatically, "and I will try to bring him back alone, if necessary."
That is not necessary, as Jon reconsiders and comes back.
"Devlin, I never stole from this group."
Jon then says, "Thank you for you support, Mikodin. We seek to restore
law and order to many worlds, I think. On hearing your concerns and
kind words I have tarried awhile."
"No one, except for Jon himself, suggested he should leave the party,"
says Equinox. "The question remains only whether we should trust him.
His response to my simple question was, at best, evasive and he has
admitted to lying to the party. I don't trust him. I want him to stay
away from the treasure we find in the future. I hope to be able to take
the time, later, to determine whether he has stolen anything and what
he has lied about but right now I want to clear out this place and
continue our quest."
"That seems to be the prudent decision," Brennon says, "That should be
our main focus right now. The longer we sit here and argue the finer
points of morality we are just inviting trouble. I'm sure by now
someone knows we're here. The sooner we clear this hell hole, the
sooner we find the sword, the sooner we can go back home. Unless the
treasure we find has an immediate benefit to our current situation, I
am sure we can divide it up fairly when we are through here."
"Make it so," Beth says. "I'm a little low on spells, but not completely expended. My wand of paralyzation
should have some magic left in it, although I do have to warn you all
that it's expensive and difficult for me to recharge it, so I have to
be a little careful with it."
"Before we continue to clear out this place, why don't we head outside
for a second or two so Beth can try out the new wand? It might be a
potent weapon for us."
Beth looks at the command words and regards them silently. She
refrains from saying them out loud. "Given what we know about
Snurre, I'm guessing that this is going to be some sort of fire
wand."
With a gleam in her eye, she adds, "Sounds like fun! Some of the
fire wands I've heard about have a number of different functions, so it
may take a little playing with it to figure out what it does.
But, yeah, we want to test it out somewhere with lots of room before
using it in a crucial situation."
"Looks like a lot of room around here now."
"No, Aron we would need to go back to the main eating hall, it was
huge. However, putting out the fire may be difficult if we play with
the wand too much. Beth how do you recharge wands?"
In the end you head outside, gathering up Devlin who was waiting nearby
to open up that southwest door off of the small dining hall.
Once you are clear of the building Beth points the wand across the clearing and utters the words, "Snurre Lives."
A fan shaped sheet of fire erupts from the wand, 12' long and 10' wide at its greatest extent. It is gone in one second.
"Cool!" Beth says, her eyes lighting up. "When it comes time to
division, I'm gonna ask for this one - of course, a couple of others
here could use it. Here's the thing, though - from what I've
heard of these fire wands, they usually have a couple of different
functions. I'm gonna try blasting a fireball out of it, so stand back."
Beth concentrates on a fireball, aims the wand away from the group,
concentrates on a spot sufficiently far away from the group, and then
repeats the command word.
Aron takes cover, calling out "Beth - from what I understand, such
magical devices are useable only by mages, is that correct for this
wand?"
Something shoots out of the end of the wand, and then a fireball explodes at the specified location.
"Excellent," Beth says. She then giggles a bit, unable to conceal her pyromaniacal glee.
"Wow! If Beth vows to use the wand for the party I think she should
wield it with no treasure division stuff - she had the initiative and
knowledge to use it."
"Equinox was the one who spotted the command word, and that was the
hard part," Beth says. "I mean, hey, I'd love to have it!
And, if you want, I will use it now. But, really, to be fair,
it'll have to go back into the pot when treasure division time comes."
Jon says, "Hmmm...I thought I found the wording on the wand but it
matters not. Beth, as the senior mage you should use it. However,
perhaps it would be wise to let someone else hold your other wand so
both can be used at once.
"It is unlikely we will complete this quest without having to let loose like we did here and in the forest again."
"Usually that's true for these fire wands, yes," Beth says, replying to
Aron's earlier question. "Of course, we have several mages in the
party."
Beth says, "To recharge wands, you have to be a full-on wizard, which
I'm not yet. Which means that for me to recharge wands, I have to
pay somebody to do it."
"So what's Jon's status with the party?"
And to the spell slingers, Aron says, "So far I haven't discerned
anything special about this cloak I'm wearing; can anyone tell me
anything about it?"
"Yadda, yadda, yadda," the cavalier replies. "Let's finish this place
and move on. Time is not on our side. If the thief wants to leave, let
him, if he stays, let him as well, we can sort out his supposed sticky
fingers later."
You head back into the entrance foyer of the giant stronghold. In here
are three doors in the north wall. The westernmost one you have been
through...it led ultimately to the treasure room...though there were
other places along the way that you have not looked into. The double
doors in the middle obviously lead to the centre chamber where you
killed all those giants. The easternmost door is unopened.
Aron goes and listens at the unopened door.
He hears nothing but Al's gas.
"'Cuze me." Al blushes red.
Beth says, "Al, if you're going to do that in an enclosed space, it
simply won't be safe for me or anybody else to use the fire wand."
"When ye gotta release, ya gotta release," he smiles.
Mikodin, holding his breath, gets ready to enter the room, should his assistance be necessary.
"Can't be any worse than the smell of the dozen or so roasted giants we just left behind."
It is.
"Any spell slingers got a gust of wind to cast?"
"It'll pass...eventually!" the cavalier gives a sheepish grin.
"Too much red meat and who knows what else in your diet? Talk to Al."
Jon also listens.
He hears nothing.
He pushes the door open and steps off to the side to allow the fighters through.
Op Code is ready to move in.
Brennon readies himself.
The door swings open to reveal a 10' wide passage running north for
40', turning east after 30'. There is a door in the north wall at the
corner facing you.
You move up to the corner and look east.
The passage just jogs east for 10' and then continues north. There is a door in the east wall at that corner.
You crane your necks and look around the corner to the north. From the corner it runs for 60' and on.
Devlin leans against a wall and waits for some direction from someone.
"Let's go through that door."
Equinox points to the door facing the party.
"That's sounds fine with me," Brennon says. He readies his Wand of Lightning.
Jon goes to the door and listens. Hearing nothing, he then backs up. "After you Equinox."
Opening the door reveals a 40' square room (30' west, 40' north; door
in south wall west corner). An armoury, in here you count 30 helmets,
26 shields, 22 spears, 9 clubs and three great axes. All are sized for
giants. None of them look extra-special.
You open that door in the south wall.
This is a 30' X 40' room (20' east, 40' south; double doors in middle
20' of west wall). An arsenal, in here are all manner of weapons.
Unfortunately, all are sized for giants.
You open the double doors. On the other side of them is a 40' wide
passage running north - south. To the south, it only goes 10' and then
ends at a set of double doors, which obviously open out into the
entrance hall. To the north it runs for 50' and then opens up into the
main hall where the giants had been partying earlier.
You return through the arsenal and armoury to the passage you had been exploring previously, then open that east door.
Through this door you see another 10' wide passage running east for 70'
in all. In the 30' - 40' section of the north wall is another passage
running north. There are doors in the north wall on either side of the
north passage. There is a door in the south wall, right across from
that north passage.
"Let's go through the door in the South wall," Equinox suggests to the party.
"Sounds good to me."
You go and open the south door. Through it you see a large dormatory
chamber (30' X 80: 30' east, 40' west, 30' south). In here are six
beds, four chairs, four stools, seven chests and two tables. Skins and
hides cover the floor, and several hang from the wall. Searching the
place turns up nothing of value.
Returning to the passage, you look north. That passage runs for 80' and ends at a door.
You turn to the door to the left of the passage and open it, seeing
another large room (30' X 80': 20' west, 80' north). A sleeping
chamber, in here are ten cots, ten boxes, four stools, a table and two
benches. The place is deserted, and searching finds you nothing.
You next open the door to the right of the passage opening, seeing
another large room (30' X 80': 20' east, 80' north). A sleeping
chamber, in here are ten cots, ten boxes, four stools, a table and two
benches. The place is deserted, and searching finds you nothing.
You head up that north passage.
Opening the door, you are confronted by a large chamber (40' X 60': 20'
west, 30' east, 40' north; 20' wide passage running north out of the
north wall east section; 15' wide opening in the west wall, 5' - 20'
section). A typical giant kitchen with counters along the walls,
several tables, benches, two stools, and various pots, pans, kettles,
bowls and whatnot. A large fireplace dominates the east wall.
In here are a grand total of 14 orcs, 8 ogres and 5 hill giantesses,
hard at work preparing more foodstuffs for the feast...unaware that you
have ended the giant's party a little early. When they see you, though,
the giants and ogres move to attack! The orcs scream and run away.
Jon, with a look of invisible sadness and disappointment, says, "Cup of tea, Sharone? I'm out of damage spells."
Before rushing in, Aron waits to see what the mages throw at them.
Brennon blasts one of the hill giantesses with his wand of lightning.
Three giantesses are hit.
Aldarin hurls a web into the room.
A web springs up, but only snares one of the ogres. She is strong and starts tearing through the rubbery strands.
Equinox looks back down the way the party came to make sure there are no nasty surprises during this battle.
The cavalier steps forward and swings with Claw at the nearest enemy,
cutting a giantess deeply. She swings back with a meat cleaver and
misses. Al swings again and kills her.
Mikodin waits only a moment, then launches himself at the closest
ogre/ogress. The monk is greeted by a club in the kisser for 7 hit
points, as his kick misses.
Seeing Al and Mikodin running in, Beth refrains from letting loose with a fireball from the fire wand. Instead, she picks the biggest and baddest giantess, and attempts to cast polymorph other on it, changing it into a slug.
Suddenly one of the giantesses is turned into a slimy slug. The shock of the transformation kills her.
Drinor draws his avenger and strides calmly into the room, attacking
the first creature foolish enough to challenge him. The first foolish
creature clobbers him for 12 hit points. His avenger opens a massive
wound, but the giantess keeps fighting.
Ayazin draws his scimitar and turns to face the rear of the party, guarding against surprise attacks.
Devlin also helps out, attacking an ogre. With the bastard sword he handily kills her with a single swing.
Two giants are down, the other three are injured; while one ogre is
dead, another will be freed of the web in a moment, and the others are
waiting for a chance to attack.
The cavalier continues his onslaught, slicing and dicing whichever enemy gets in his path.
He badly injures another giant as she fans. His next swing kills her.
An ogre steps up.
Mikodin squares off with his giant, and gets it again for 14 hit
points. Undaunted, he fights back, but misses with both his hands.
Op Code jumps in and attacks the soon to be freed ogre, killing it.
Drinor continues to do battle with the giantess, swinging his holy avenger for the greater glory of Tyr.
The paladin deflects an attack with his armour-plated ego and then cuts down the miserable monster.
Devlin squares off against another ogre, who misses him badly. She does not get another chance, as he guts her.
Ayazin inspects his fingernails, keeping one eye on the party's rear.
The druid finds some dirt under one of his fingernails.
Aron takes out his crossbow and shoots at the closest ogre.
He misses.
Beth picks one of the healthy ogres and subjects it to a barrage of magic missiles. She badly injures her target.
Aldarin attacks an ogre with his flame tongue. They both miss.
One giant remains, plus five ogres.
Aldarin pierces his ogrish adversary twice and kills her.
Op Code deals with another ogre and kills it.
Aron unloads his next shot at the giant on Mikodin, nicking the creature.
Devlin is hit for 8 hit points before he kills another ogre.
Drinor attacks the ogre that Beth wounded, and gets clobbered for 6 hit points. He then kills the monster.
Mikodin and the giant both miss.
Al lands two hits on the last ogre and kills it.
Only the hill giant on the monk remains, and the rest of the fighters converge on her.
Mikodin misses, then is sent flying for 6 hit points. Still undeterred,
he staggers back and chops her in the cellulite. She sits down on Al,
stunned, and Mikodin kills her.
Searching the kitchen, you find some treasure: 10,000gp.
Mikodin is in pretty rough shape, and several others are a bit beat up as well.
Mikodin smiles crookedly, says, "We won!" and then sits down for some meditation and, hopefully, some healing.
"SOME-ONE - URGH - WANNA - OH - GET - ERRR -THIS - EEE - LARDASS - ACK
- OFF OF ME!" Al yells as he tries to breathe under the cellulite of
the fat hill giantess that unceremoniously sat and died on him.
You pull the body aside, and Al emerges.
Sharone unpacks her staff of healing and applies it to Mikodin.
"Seems like you need some assistance," she smiles.
The monk is healed for 12 hit points.
Drinor says, "Well done, my friend," and then lays hands on the monk for 16 points of healing.
Equinox casts cure serious wounds on Mikodin, completely healing him.
"Anyone else want some healing?" Equinox asks, "I have five more Cure Light Wounds and one Cure Serious Wounds to pass about."
Ayazin casts cure serious wounds on Drinor, and cure light wounds on Devlin, then looks around to see who else needs some healing.
The warrior is healed for a grand total of 3 hit points. The paladin is healed for 14 hit points.
"I have a few light cures if someone needs assistance," Sharone offers the others.
Al has 3 cure lights, 2 cure serious, and 1 heal to spread around.
Equinox casts cure serious wounds and two cure light wounds on Kithus for 22 hit points, two cure light wounds spells on Aron for 9 hit points and his final cure light wounds spell on Devlin for 8 hit points.
"That's it. I'm out of healing spells for the day."
"Thank you Equinox."
"Thor, please heal your warrior," as Al casts a cure light wounds on himself for 4 hit points.
Al then casts heal on Kithus. The ranger is healed for all save 4 hit points. A cure light wounds, one cure serious wounds on Aron and the other on Devlin. His last cure light wounds spell is on Drinor.
Aron is healed, Devlin gets 1 hit point, and Drinor gets three.
Jon looks around for doorways that have been opened.
"What are we after again?" he asks.
"Right now, the rest of the monsters in this place," says Equinox,
"after that, the rest of the keys to open the door to get to the Sword."
As previously mentioned, there are two exits from the kitchen. There is
a 15' wide opening in the west wall, as well as a 20' passage running
to the north.
Looking through the west opening, you see a 20' wide passage. To the
north it runs for 60', jogging west by 10' after 50'. There is a door
in that 10' wall to the north. To the south the wall to your left runs
south for 5', then west for 10', then there is a 10' wide passage
running south. In other words, the passage becomes 10' wide to the
south. There is also a 20' wide door in the west wall, right across
from you.
You go and look north up the other exit from the kitchen.
This passage proceeds for 40', then opens up into another chamber.
You head up there and investigate.
This is a large, odd shaped chamber (right wall runs north for 40',
west for 40'. north for 40', west for 30', south for 80', east for 20'
(door in each section, you discover), north for 10', west for 10'
forming an alcove around that second door, then close it up). The
kitchen workroom. This place serves as a preparation area, pantry and
sleeping area for the servants. There are three tables, a long counter,
stools, benches and kitchen gear about. There are many sacks, boxes and
barrels (flour, dried meats, dried fruits, honey, etc.). Various
cheeses, smoked meats and sausages hang from the rafters. There are
several tuns and casks here as well (beer, ale). Loaves of bread are
stacked on one table.
You open those two doors. The westernmost one opens out into the 20'
wide passage. The other opens into a larder (40' square). The latter is
quite cool, and filled with more foodstuffs.
You head out into that 20' wide passage. The first thing you notice is
a door in the south wall of that jog. Looking north, you see that the
passage runs north for a further 80', ending at a set of double doors.
You open that door in the south jog.
Here is another odd shaped room (right wall runs north for 40', west
for 30', south for 60' and east to close up). This is a dormitory room
for the ogre servants. In fact, five of them are in here sleeping,
though they sit up and yawn when you come crashing in.
You have surprised them.
Equinox conks the nearest one on the head with MC Hammer.
The druid somehow manages to miss. The ogre jumps out of bed, grabbing his club, and a melee starts.
Al swings Claw at the nearest ogre. The cavalier does not miss, and injures the ogre. His next swing kills it.
Mikodin launches himself at closest target. The monk misses and buries his head in the monster's pillow.
Op Code rushes in and not so politely introduces himself, with the blade of his sword, to the waking ogre.
The ranger opens a massive would in his target.
"More beds than those here, we killed some, I wasn't keeping count...I'm hanging back in case the others come back."
Devlin goes after the last one...but fans badly. His second swing is better, and the ogre groans.
Equinox attacks again and misses. MC curses. The ogre clobbers the driod for 3 hit points.
Al helps him out, though, seriously wounding the monster.
Mikodin misses again, then is mashed for 3 hit points. His next attack also misses.
Op Code does very well against ogres. His next swing chops his target in two.
Devlin and his foe trade misses.
Three monsters remain.
Equinox and MC finally connect, bruising the ogre. Al swings again and the monster drops dead.
Mikodin continues to miss his ogre. Op Code helps out, landing another hit.
Devlin sidesteps an incoming club, then kills his assailant.
Mikodin continues to avoid the club of the last ogre, as he kicks him in the midrift. Op Code swings again and the ogre drops.
You search their quarters, finding 300gp, 44 gems (350gp ea.) and 4400ep.
Moving right along, you head north up the passage to the double doors
at the end. You open the door, and look into a large room (60' X 80':
30' east, 30' west, 60' north; door in the south wall west end; door in
the west wall north end). These are more servant's quarters. There are
lots of cots, tables, chairs and such. The place is in some disarray.
In here are six giantess maids and one large male giant. The latter
carries a whip.
With a bellow he comes at you!
This time Equinox steps out of the way to allow the warriors to do their work.
Jon says, "These are too big for me. I'll watch the back."
Jon moves to the back of the group, waiting to see if the party is attacked from behind.
Mikodin, deciding that Jon is probably right in his assessment, decides that he, too, will watch to the rear.
"I'm with you, Jon," the monk says.
Aron says, "This might be a good time to use that wand of fire."
Brennon blasts the hill giant with the whip with his wand of lightning. The bolt strikes a glancing blow against the male giant.
After the mages and clerics get off their first round of magic against
the giants, Aron moves to attack. To Mikodin and Jon he says,
"Dwarves are half our size and fear not these creatures."
Jon, invisible, says with a huff, "We are not scared. It's just
effective use of resources for our superior fighters to fight the
giants. There's only six of them, and besides what would you have me
do? Run into the room for a back stab and get blasted by all the magic
that should go off?"
"I'm not going in either until the mages have gotten off their first
round of magic. After that, the fighters will be engaging the
giants and the mages won't be able to use their area effect
spells. So why not sneak in for a back stab?"
"I was the one attacking the ogres headlong back there, Aron," Mikodin
reminds him. "And I do not possess the native dwarven abilities against
giants. After a few hits from one of them, tell me how you
feel. I simply am not yet able to stand toe to toe with a
giant. When my training enables me, I shall be glad to do so."
"A few hits from them would probably kill me, but as a warrior of Tyr I
will fight these giants. I'm not questioning your courage," says
the monk.
Aron attempts to move to the closest giant not being attacked by the
party's main fighter force, using his ability to climb walls to go up
the front of the giant to its head, and go for it's eyes with open hand
attacks.
The monk drops off of the wall to the left of the door, landing on the
head of a frizzy haired giantess. She fans at him but misses. He in
turn chops at her ineffectually.
Aldarin moves in to engage the nearest giant with his flaming sword and shield.
The elf chops into the leg of a maiden, who clubs him. He takes no damage.
"ARRGH back at ya!" Al yells as he meets the charge with one of his
own. Claw in hand, he puts up his dark shield and charges, to cut and
jab at the giant when he is in range. He slices into the make giant,
who cracks his whip at the cavalier. Al suffers 21 hit points of
damage. Al replies with a second slash.
"Come and get it big boy!" Op Code bellows back as he rushes the male
giant as well. He pokes his blade into the monster and and it explodes
in a shower of giblets, inundating you all.
Drinor shakes his head to clear it of Jon and Aron's muttering, and
strides boldly into combat with the giants, swinging his holy avenger.
The paladin takes on another female, opening a massive arm wound. She howls and swings her purse at him, missing.
Ayazin leans against the nearest wall and begins flossing, while keeping an eye on the party's rear.
Devlin takes a hit from another female as he misses twice with his bastard sword.
The male is dead, but all six females live. The last two are heading to take on Al and Op Code, respectively.
Equinox jumps into the fray and tries to bash one of the giantesses with MC Hammer.
Jon, getting bored and seeing no attack from behind, runs forward to attack a giant from behind if possible.
Op Code turns his attention to the female that is rushing him and tries to dispatch her.
Brennon launches two daggers at one of the hill giantesses. Both daggers miss.
Mikodin alters his strategy, and leaps at the nearest giantess already engaged with someone.
"Bastard," Al cries as he is hit hard. "Die!" he yells as he focuses his anger at the remaining enemies.
Mister Aron, making like a hairdresser with the frizzy haired giantess,
pulls out a clump of her hair with a chunk of bloody flesh attached.
She screams and beats him with her hair brush for 10 hit points of
damage. He yanks out another fistful of hair in retaliation.
Down below, Equinox and MC Hammer bruise her knee.
Close by, Aldarin barely evades an attack from his adversary, as he fans badly, twice, with his flame tongue.
Jon attacks the same giantess from the rear, but she sees him coming so
he does not take her unawares. Nevertheless, Geerzo pierces her hide
and she lets out a yelp.
Next door, the paladin easily cuts down his foe and then looks for more targets.
Devlin makes up for his ineffectiveness by all but chopping off his giantess' arm, as she misses him. His next swing kills her.
Al hurls himself at another giantess, landing a glancing blow. She clobbers him for 8 hit points. He returns the favour.
Mikodin helps out the struggling cavalier, kicking the giantess in the
knee. She screams and collapses atop Al, stunned. The monk then kills
her.
Op Code launches a grand attack on the final giantess, slashing her thigh to the bone. She flails away and misses him.
Meanwhile, Aron continues to do the giantess' hair, and she collapses
in pain. Equinox clubs her to death with MC Hammer. These monks are
becoming increasingly effective.
Aldarin continues to struggle, as he is beaten up for 3 hit points. Jon attacks again but misses.
Op Code easily avoids a faltering attack from the wounded giantess, then finishes her off.
Mikodin hurls himself at the last giantess - Aldarin and Jon's -
hitting her in the small of the back. You hear the crack of breaking
bones and she drops, stunned, her spine fractured. Aldarin stabs her,
putting her out of her misery.
Some of you search the room while others pull Al out from underneath the corpse of the giantess. In the room you find 6000gp.
You head over to that door in the southwest and open it. Through it you
see a long room (30' X 60': 20' east, 60' south). Evidently the
dormitory room for the orc slaves, it is currently deserted but for a
large contingent of fleas. Searching the place turns up nothing.
It looks as if you have completed this wing of the hill giant stronghold.
Brennon retrieves his daggers, and prepares to follow the others.
"How badly is everyone hurt?" asks Equinox, "I would like to finish off
this place without stopping to rest or train, but we obviously cannot
do that if people are badly injured."
Ayazin balls up his floss and drops it on the floor amid the corpses on
his way over to Al. He casts Cure Serious Wounds on the cavalier for 17
hit points, and Cure Light on Aron for 6 hit points.
"I've got one Cure Light left if anyone wants it."
Appraising the rest of the party, he says, "We're not too badly banged
up. I think we've got a few more fights left before we need to rest,
unless there's a giant spell caster waiting around the corner with a
fireball."
Drinor nods at Equinox. "Aye, let's press on. If we take time to rest,
they have a chance to regroup or call for reinforcements. So far, we
haven't fought any of those nasty doggies outside, and I'd rather keep
it that way."
"I'm in pretty good shape," offers Mikodin. "We monks seem to be getting better and better. I heard that somewhere."
The other monk begs to differ.
"We should rest before we move on, just in case."
"Not unless we are badly hurt," Equinox says. "How badly are you injured?"
"Not bad, Ayazin has healed some of the damage I took in the fight.
"In recommending resting, I was also thinking the spell casters might
need time to get their spells back."
"It has taken us forever to get even this far, and we seem to be miles,
figuratively and literally speaking, from the darn Sword we are to
recover. I want to move us along. So far nothing has challenged us and
this place does not seem likely to provide any major challenge that we
cannot handle.
"By the way," Equinox changes the subject and addresses MC Hammer with
a grin as he holds up the weapon and nods at it in mock seriousness:
"Good job back there. You actually hit something!"
"Cut th' sarcasm, nature boy!" MC retorts, "Yo wanna see me hammer sumpthin' then give me to someone who knows how tuh use me!"
"Oh, Pulease!" Equinox says in mock exasperation, "you gotta work with
me! You would be lucky if you hit a barn door if Al were wielding you!
But I got to admit, you are good at conking creatures immobilized with
my rope of entanglement."
Equinox laughs as he holsters MC again.
"Mmmmmph!" says MC, his reply muffled.
Aron appears to be overruled, so you head back south and then west,
cutting through the main feasting hall and into the western wing of the
house.
You head west down the 20' wide passage and look south to where it
opens up into a chamber (50' X 100': 50' west, 80' south; door in north
wall 35' - 45' section; 20' wide door in south wall east section).
In here are two tables, five chairs, two stools, plus rugs, hides and
skins on the floors and walls. The tables have flagons and plates upon
them, and pots and kegs are all about the place. Otherwise, it is
deserted, and searching turns up nothing of value.
You open the north door.
This reveals a room (50' X 60': 60' north, 5' west, 35' east). This
room is hung with rugs and skins. There is a bed, two chairs, a small
table, an old shield and a chest in here. This place is also deserted.
Searching reveals nothing of value. The chest is filled with clothes.
You open the double doors to the south.
Through them you see a room (40' X 50': 40' south, 30' west). In this
bedchamber is a bed, two chairs, a small table, two chests and a stool.
The floor is covered in rugs.
Also in here are two enormous wolves, who leap at you, howling to make your blood curdle!
Mikodin, flush with his recent success, launches himself at the mearest charging wolf.
Op Code tries to position himself to block the attack of one of the wolves.
Ayazin steps up quickly, intervening, and casts Animal Friendship on
one of the wolves, attempting to befriend the beast and prevent its
slaughter.
To the other wolf, Aron asks, "Why are you howling?"
The wolf hesitates, then barks back.
Aldarin prepares to meet the charge of one of the wolves but will allow the druidic people to possibly handle this encounter.
Equinox decides against casting Animal Friendship on the wolves since
the wolves decided to attack the party and because it takes about an
hour to cast the spell.
Both wolves have ceased their hostile movements, though the wolf that
Ayazin is trying to enspell is ignoring the druid. Instead, it seems to
be more interested in following the conversation that its companion is
having with Aron.
The cavalier grins and goes for the attack with Claw.
Beth puts a hand on Al's shoulder and says, "Hang on a sec... Let's see what our druids and such can do."
"Ok," he says with a sheepish grin and holds back.
"Good work, Aron," says Equinox, slightly embarrassed that he did not take the initiative in trying to speak with the wolves.
"Thanks, but we're not in the clear yet. They want to scare us
and eat us. I'm telling them that there's food elsewhere and
we'll let them out of this room."
The wolf barks back at Aron and growls.
Jon looks on with amusement. "Hmmm...how are you talking to these wolves?"
"He's a Monk, Jon," Equinox explains. "At a certain level of experience, monks can speak with animals as a Druid can."
Aron barks some more and points to Equinox.
The wolves bark and growl back. One of them eyes the druid, as if sizing him up for dinner.
These wolves are about the size of ponies.
Aron barks some more, and then says to the party, "They're going to attack!"
Aron barks back at the wolfs.
Op Code is ready for an attack, his sword between him and the wolves.
The cavalier sighs as they all have wasted time talking when the wolves would have been dead already.
Al uses Claw to dispatch the nearest wolf to its next life.
Suddenly the wolves ears perk up and they start barking excitedly, apparently hearing something that you do not.
From behind you, you hear a loud baying and howling in reply; then more
than a dozen more dire wolves come charging around the corner to the
north, with seven more hill giants bringing up the rear.
"Party time!" Al grins widely as he uses Claw to take down the a wolf.
Al puts a dent in the second wolf as it manages to miss him. His next
swing carves off a bloody chunk of flesh, leaving the wolf badly
injured.
He then turns and faces the newcomers.
Equinox casts hold animal on as many of the wolves as he can get.
"So much for diplomacy," mutters the monk as he does some kung fu on the closest wolf he was talking to.
"It really wasn't much of a conversation," Mikodin mutters as he leaps at a giant.
"At least I tried," says Aron as he does his best to pop the wolf in the snout.
The wolf lunges at the monk, though, and bites him around the waist for 11 hit points, spoiling Aron's attack in the process.
"Perhaps we should try out that wand of fire now?" Brennon says,
looking at the approaching wolves and giants. Pointing his wand of
lightning, he sends a bolt down the hallway at the approaching
creatures.
His bolt catches two giants, sizzling them badly.
Jon looks to the back of the group on hearing the giants and wolves approach and throws slow on the group trying to catch the wolves and thus slow up the giants.
Nine of the wolves are slowed.
Jon then attempts to fly over the wolves in front to attack them from
behind. As he takes flight a giant throws a rock at him, striking him
but causing no damage.
Op Code attacks the nearest wolf that isn't affected by Equinox'a
spell, hoping that the others in back can fend off the newcomers.
The ranger greets a wolf with Longsword # 2, shearing off a large tuft
of fur. The wolf tries to bite him, but is turned by Op Code's
disgustingly good armour.
Four of the wolves are held by Equinox's spell.
Mikodin, reaching a giant, is greeted by a club to the kisser for 14 hit points.
The rest of the wolves are on you.
Aldarin plunges his flame tongue into a wolf, singing its whiskers. The elf is then bitten for 6 hit points.
Kithus hacks away with his glowing two-handed sword, landing a solid
hit. He is nipped for 2 hit points. The ranger connects on his next
swing and the wolf drops.
Beth tries to flee from a dire wolf, but it chases her, biting for 7 hit points.
Sharone is also attacked, getting a bite for 9 hit points of damage. She attacks back but misses.
Devlin strides into battle with a feral grin on his face. A wolf lunges
at him, but he fends it off with his shield, then jabs it with his
bastard sword twice, killing it.
Close by, Drinor is bitten for 9 hit points as he slices into a wolf.
Ayazin finally realises that his animal friendship spell has failed.
Tully shoots an arrow at a giant, but misses.
The slowed wolves and the giants are on you next.
Equinox throws his rope of entanglement - but only at something that is far enough away so that it will not catch any party members, too.
He entangles two wolves.
After he throws the Rope, he moves to attack with MC Hammer, killing a held wolf.
Drinor continues hacking away at the wolf, trying to press his way
toward the giants. He lands a glancing blow on his wolf, who yelps and
bites him for 12 hit points. The paladin strikes again and kills the
monster.
Drinor next confronts a giant.
Cursing silently to himself, Ayazin draws his scimitar and moves to assist Beth with her lupine attacker.
He fans badly with his scimitar as they run by him.
"I really wasn't disparaging your attempts at befriending the wolves,"
Mikodin mumbles painfully, testing his jaw after the giant's hit, "but
it didn't work out too well, that's all, Aron."
He then attempts to kneecap a giant. The monk misses again, then his
clobbered for another 10 hit points. His next kick shatters bone,
though, dropping the giant, stunned.
"No problem," replies Aron as he pulls a wolf tooth out of himself.
Aron is nipped for 4 hit points, as he misses his target two more times.
Op Code continues attacking the wolf. The ranger chops into the wolf as he turns its attack. His next attack all but kills it.
Jon, having gone the wrong way but luckily drew fire away from the
group, returns over the group to attack the two wolves in the doorway
from behind.
Landing behind them, he stabs the wolf on Aron.
Aldarin engages one of the giants with his flaming sword. This he does,
as a dire wolf continues to attack, opening a nice wound. The wolf and
the giant both miss.
Al continues to brutalize the wolf. Al kills the wolf, then turns to attack a giant.
Beth instead uses a magic missile spell to blast one of the incoming
hill giants. As she does so the wolf that has been pursuing her jumps
on her, biting for 5 hit points, spoiling her spell.
Kithus goes for a giant, but misses.
Tully is attacked by a giant for 5 hit points of damage. He fights back, injuring the monster.
Devlin rushes over to help Sharone, chopping off the wolf's tail. The
monster misses the priestess, who then hits him with her flail.
The battle continues furiously, the halls echoing with your shouts, the
barking and howling of the dire wolves, and the war cries of the giants.
Aron is bitten again for 7 hit points as his next chop misses. Jon and Geerzo connect, though.
The wolf attacking Aldarin misses, as does the giant. The elf replies in kind.
Equinox continues swinging away with MC Hammer and kills another held wolf.
Mikodin attempts to finish off the stunned giant, and succeeds.
Op Code finishes off the wolf before moving on to the next opponent. A slowed wolf now faces him.
Drinor hacks into the nearest giant with his sword...but not before he is belted for 13 hit points.
Beth has a wolf atop her. It snaps at her as she rolls free.
Ayazin continues attacking the wolf that's attacking Beth, and continues to miss.
Sharone misses with her flail, then is bitten for 9 hit points. Devlin attacks, connecting once, killing the monster.
Tully gets dinged for another 8 hit points, as he misses with his longsword.
Al attacks whatever he can with Claw. The cavalier lands a glancing
blow on a giant, who bellows and clobbers him for 10 hit points. Al
prods him a second time with his scimitar.
Kithus is creamed by a giant for 18 hit points. Undaunted, the ranger fans twice.
Four wolves and six giants remain functional.
Equinox continues to bash held wolves and anything caught in the rope of entanglement until all such restrained creatures are dead.
He kills another dire wolf.
Aldarin continues to melee with the giant and dire wolf that are
engaged with him. He concentrates on dispatching the giant first
and foremost.
His swing misses as the wolf snaps at him. The giant nails him for 13 hit points of damage.
"I could use some help," says the very bloody Aron.
"Be right there," says Mikodin, who is nearly as bloody.
Seeing Mikodin's condition, Aron says, "There's no need for two corpses; thanks but get some healing from a priest first."
Aron looks at the surrounding area for a way to get away from the wolf.
Aron's attacks miss their target. The wolf bites him for 3 hit points.
Jon and Geerzo fan.
Mikodin leaps to the attack...and leaps right by his intended target.
Beth starts to cast levitate
on the wolf to raise it into the air high enough where it can only
flail about and not actually attack anything. The wolf jumps her again,
spoiling her spell, and biting her for 2 hit points.
Ayazin's attack also misses.
Brennon, with daggers drawn, moves to help Beth. He comes up behind the
wolf and springs at its back. Unfortunately he bounces off its flank
instead and tumbles to the ground.
Al continues to attack. Al slashes with his scimitar again as he dodges a swinging club. His next swing kills the giant.
The last giant steps up, and bonks the cavalier for 5 hit points.
Drinor cuts down another giant.
Tully is hammered for 17 hit points as he misses with his longsword.
Hearing the conversation between Aron and Mikodin, Aldarin decides to intervene. "I will lend you aid, friend Aron."
Devlin rushes over to Aron, and with two swings of his bastard sword kills the wolf.
Aldarin, who had been reaching for a card, does not draw it.
Op Code continues to have difficulties with his dire wolf. The wolf cannot seem to bite him through his armour, though.
Kithus gets hammered again for 12 hit points. He chops into his giantish assailant but does not kill him.
Three wolves and four giants remain.
"Obviously," mutters Mikodin, "The gods want me to heal myself before I
continue attacking," so he promptly does so. He rubs a salve on one of
his wounds but it does not seem to have any noticeable effect.
Aron barks at the wolves.
The wolf attacking Beth barks back.
Beth scrambles away from the dire wolf again as it bites her tail off
for 5 hit points of damage. Ayazin swings his scimitar again and misses
again. Brennon attacks the wolf attacking Beth, with his daggers,
missing both times. Devlin turns after killing the wolf on Aron and
chops into Beth's wolf, landing a massive blow. The wolf howls a
bloodcurdling cry and turns on him.
Sharone drags out her staff of healing and applies it to Aron, to try and stop the blood flow.
Aron feels its touch for 15 hit points of healing.
Equinox attacks whichever wolf or giant that is closest.
Op Code tries to aim for another part of the dire wolf's body, hoping
to have better luck. His change in tactics results in an immediate
result, as he chops an ear off.
Close by, Aldarin is slammed by his giant for 11 hit points. He buries
his flame tongue into the giant's thigh, then carves off a hunk of hock
with his next swing. The dire wolf, meanwhile, misses him.
Drinor attacks Aldarin's wolf, badly hurting it.
Al connects handily with the last giant, all but killing it. Weakened, the giant fans, and Al finishes him off.
Kithus, meanwhile, his pommel covered in his own blood and slippery,
almost drops his glowing sword. The giant attacking him seizes the
opportunity and clobbers him for 3 hit points. Getting a grip, the
ranger connects and te giant drops dead.
Tully is hit in the midrift by a giant for 6 hit points, badly bruising
his ego. He strikes back, though, and his foe is looking seriously
hurt. Equinox and MC Hammer help out, and the giant suffers another
bruise.
Op Code still tries to deal with his pesky slowed wolf, lopping off some more hair. The wolf misses him.
Tully is struck again for 12 hit points, hurting his self esteem.
Nobody loves him, he thinks. His attack misses. Equinox also misses.
Kithus helps out, though, and misses a few times as well.
Devlin takes a bite from the wolf that had been attacking Beth for 10 hit points. He growls and kills the monster.
Aldarin lands a lovely hit on his giantish foe, as the monster misses.
Al joins him and drops the giant. Meanwhile, the dire wolf is trying to
nip at the elf's heels. Drinor swings mightily, but misses twice.
Aldarin turns on the wolf, and with a quick thrust kills it.
One giant remains, on Tully. The bard is hit again for 8 hit points as
he fans. Equinox connects again, though, staggering the giant. Kithus
finishes him off.
Op Code still struggles to kill his dire wolf. The monster breaks a
tooth on the ranger's armour. Op Code nicks the monster again. Devlin
arrives and kills the monster.
You finish off the held and trussed up monsters and pause to catch your breath.
Searching the bedchamber where you originally encountered the first two
wolves, you find a grand total of 29 diamonds (1000gp ea.) and 6000gp.
Feeling a cold breeze, you head back north through the large chamber to
the intersection of the 20' wide passages. Looking up the north
passage, you see the double doors in the north wall at the corner are
now open, giving you a limited view of the courtyard outside...where
Jon originally saw the dire wolves running around. It is dark outside
now, for it is late evening.
You get the impression that you have pretty well cleared these halls of their evil occupants.
Devlin leans tiredly on his bloody bastard sword.
"Op Code, what more of this place is there to explore? I am exhausted,
but I think we should look at this courtyard and the buildings beyond
before retiring."
"Good plan," says Equinox, "So long as we are almost finished with this
place. If there is a lot left, then we should rest before
continuing."
Looking at the map, Op Code replies, "Unless someone can find a way
down to a lower level, if there is such a thing, it looks like we are
done this place."
"There are areas across the courtyard, I think," says Devlin. He heads
over and takes a look through the open double doors, and across the
courtyard he sees an outbuilding 40' to the north.
Scratching his head, Op Code remarks, "I thought we already checked that out. I guess not."
"Well," says Equinox tiredly, "Let's go. I want to finish this place
before we rest. We'd best have that wand of fire ready to go,
though, just in case we have another fight on our hands."
Drinor stretches his shoulders and groans a little. "It's been a long
day, but I'm in good enough shape to continue. I agree that we should
finish this place before resting."
Ayazin says, "I am in good condition as well. I have one Cure Light spell left; does anyone need it more than Aron?"
No one replies, so he applies the spell to the monk for 7 hit points.
Jon, looking tired but not injured, asks, "Does anybody know if we have we found the thing we are after?"
"Well," says Equinox, "We did find the glowing blue key, if that's what
you mean. I want to see what is in that last area. We might find
something else useful and necessary."
You head through the double doors and outside into the courtyard area,
where the dire wolves frisked and frolicked before you slaughtered
them. It is 40' wide at this point and to the left runs for 50' before
ending. There is a pair of doors in the middle of the west wall, which
you know lead outside. To the right it opens up into a wider area.
You proceed to the right, taking care to avoid stepping in the enormous
piles of doggie doo which litter the area. From the door that you just
exited, the right wall runs east for 110', then north for 140' (door at
end), west for 60' (double doors in middle leading outside), south for
60', west for 60', then south for 40' (double doors in middle). These
latter doors are open, and light floods out through them.
You go over and take a look.
Through the doors is a large room (40' X 70': north 10', south 10',
west for 70'; doors in north wall, 0' - 10' section and 40' - 50'
section). This is a guard room. A huge horn hangs on a wall. Also here
are eight stools and two benches along the walls. Eighteen spears lean
against the wall by the door. Seven giant sized spears and four clubs
lean against the south wall. There are also seven sacks in here,
containing a grand total of 21,000gp.
You open the first door in the north wall. This leads into another room
(right wall runs east for 60', north for 30', west for 20', north for
30' (20' wide opening after 10'), west for 50', south to close up). A
barracks, the place is deserted of monsters, having all been killed by
you earlier. Searching the place, you find a further 40,000gp.
Looking through that opening to the east, you see a smaller chamber
(20' X 30': 10' south, 20' east). Apparently an officer's quarters, it
too is devoid of monsters. There are three chests in here. Searching
them, you discover that they contain only clothes and equipment of no
value.
You return to the guard room and open the other door in the north wall,
to see another barracks hall (60' X 60': 30' east, 20' west, 60'
north). In here are ten beds, ten chests, ten stools, two tables, one
bench and lots of junk. There are no monsters in here. Searching, you
collect another 60,000gp.
It looks like you have explored the entire giant stronghold. It is late
evening, most of you are injured, and Tully announces that his portable
hole is pretty well full of treasure.
Mikodin, still stunned at his failure to heal himself, says dazedly, "I
think we could all use a good rest. As for myself, I could use a
little healing and some rest."
"I suggest we find a well defensible room and rest, I know I could use it!" Al smiles.
His wounds are not critical, but he would like to rest.
Jon says, "Perhaps we should retire to the guard tower for a good
night's rest and then continue next day. It will give us some
protection and a good lookout post. I certainty could do with learning
some spells."
You return to the tower, remove the corpse of the giant and clean the place up a bit, and settle in for the night.
Next day