The giant swings as Miana moves about:
Kufieno and Rissi stumble about as Lucian heals himself. Miana and Thunderpuss win a few blows against the giant, although this only angers the runeslave more. He bellows ferociously as he swings at Thunderpuss!
Thunderpuss deftly dodges the attacks by the giant. He continues to press the attack.
Sealman dry heaves in support.
Hands on his knees, bent over, Kufieno holds up a finger. "I'll...be...there....'blarch!'....in...just..a..sec...."
Lucian aims and shoots two rays of scorching fire at the giant.
Seal's head lifts in surprise as two gouts of flame rupture from Lucian's ever-scarred palms. The dwarf's spirits perk up for a moment as he sees the priest bring the pain.
Seal and Miana finish off the giant!
"Gather 'round, my friends, Desna shall bathe you in her holy starlight and heal your wounds."
The evangelist then proceeds to cast a few spells to put his friends back to good health.
After a few more moments, Sealman regains his facilities. He promptly lops the head off the rune giant and scratches Thunderpuss behind the hears.
"You've been...Thunderpuss'ed. Yah-yah-yah, Thunderpuss'ed!
All healed, Seal awaits by the door. Once given the all clear by Kufieno, Seal will tap Isoult with Lead Blades and march on down the hall.
To the south, runes are carved in bands along the walls, which are unnervingly lit by a reddish glow from the slowly burning flames in a shallow fire pit in the center of the room. An immense iron cauldron, its side emblazoned with an etching of a seven-pointed star, stands above these flames. Smoke rises from teh cauldron's unseen bubbling contents and a halo of human bones and scraps of what might be dried flesh lie scattered around the cauldron's three-pronged base.
Guardian this foul concoction and slowly stirring it with what appears to be a femur bone is a large creature made of stone with a small flat-topped head. It makes no noise as it drops the femur to the side and hulks over to guard the room from the intruders!
"A stone golem! Do not bother with energies derived solely of magic, unless spells that affect the earth!!" a tiny voice squeaks from near the ceiling.
She casts haste upon the party and flies back.
"What kind of weapon do we need to harm it?"
"Starmetal... adamantine... I *chhhh* imagine. Such it is for most of these things."
"Aye. Thunderpuss, defend the rat-mage."
Seal looks Miana up and down and quickly notices an absense of adamantine.
"Miana, you may want this," Seal says as he unclasps his Golembane Scarab. Tossing it near Miana, Seal this makes his away across the room to drawn the golem's attention.
Rissi speeds the party's movements as Seal makes his way into the room!
Kufieno darts into the room, circling from the north. Drawing his blade, he casts a spell along the way, then reaches out to touch the golem.
Kufieno moves in to shock the golem but slips at the last second. The stone automaton raises its massive fists to bring down on the suli!
"Ow...."
Grimacing from the pain, Kufi tries to touch the golem.
Rissi unleashes a mighty splash of acid upon the golem!
Seal charges into position to also flank with Kufieno.
"Way to rush into danger, Kuffy!"
Kufieno's shock has no effect on the golem! Miana then darts into action as Rissi's acid falls to the floor. Seal charges in and knocks a chunk from one of the golem's legs as Lucian moves in to heal Kufieno:
The golem then lets out a burst of foul of energy that saps your dexterity and speed!
The statue then turns its attention to Seal!
With the aid of Rissi and Lucian, Sealman is able to negate a majority of the golem's vicious blows. However, the dwarf's mind is unable to defend against the golem's mental assault. Now at normal speed, Seal moves into flank with Miana and flies into rage to stop it sooner before harming others.
Kufieno curses his own stupidity as his spell fails. Charging his sword with arcane power, he stabs at the golem.
Seal and Miana take down the stone golem!
The smoke spreads to a radius of 30 feet around the cauldron, and while the smoke isn’t thick enough to obscure vision, its foul-smelling vapors sting and burn those of good alignment. Each round such a creature remains in the smoke, he must make a DC 20 Fortitude save or be blinded and nauseated for as long as he remains in the area plus an additional 1d6 rounds after leaving the area.
This 12-foot-high, 10-foot-diameter cauldron is made of solid iron, cast in one piece and thick enough to withstand great heat. Its side is marked with the Sihedron Rune, while many other Thassilonian runes grace its rim.
A runeslave cauldron has the ability to infuse the body of a freshly slain giant, reviving it and transforming it into a runeslave. Before it can be used, the runeslave cauldron must first be activated by filling it with a specially prepared broth of rare necromantic ingredients and rainwater collected from several open graves. The cost of the special ingredients is 10,000 gp, but once the cauldron is filled, a fire lights under it automatically and keeps the broth bubbling and functional for 1 year.
Once the cauldron is filled with broth, one need only sacrifice a giant (the method of killing the giant is incidental) and then place the giant’s corpse wholly or partially within the cauldron’s bubbling contents. One hour later, the sacrificed giant rises from the cauldron as if true resurrection had been cast on it. In addition, the newly revived giant gains the runeslave template (see page 412). The cauldron can revive up to five giants a day in this manner. Non-giant corpses placed in the broth are unaffected by the cauldron’s magic.
Any living creature (save for a runeslave) completely immersed in the boiling broth inside a functional runeslave cauldron immediately takes 6d6 points of fire damage per round. In addition, the smoke produced by the cauldron as it boils is particularly noxious to good-aligned beings. It spreads to a radius of 30 feet around the cauldron, and while the smoke isn’t thick enough to obscure vision, its foul-smelling vapors sting and burn those of good alignment. Each round such a creature remains in the smoke, he must make a DC 20 Fortitude save or be blinded and nauseated for as long as he remains in the area plus an additional 1d6 rounds after leaving the area.
DESTRUCTION
By brewing a certain variant mixture of broth and then attempting to use the runeslave cauldron to transform a good-aligned giant who volunteers for the job, the cauldron can be caused to crack open across the Sihedron carving. This immediately destroys the cauldron and slays all living runeslaves it has created.
Seal politly declines the scarab's return.
"Better for you, just wear it under your amulet. If we come across another golem, remove amulet and unleash fists of fury."
Seeing how the cauldron is affecting his friends, Seal will lift it up and move it into another room away from everybody else.
"That... cauldron. Don't you feel it, the magic *chhh* flowing from it." Rissi looks pointedly at Lucian and Kufieno.
She continues. "It is an artifact, and those runes on its sides indicate it is used enslave giants. I could destroy it, I think, but it would take time and the cooperation of a *squeak* friendly giant. However, doing so would cause great damage to Mokmurian's forces.
Sealman nods, "Destroying giants is what I do. What do you need of me?"
"You can help me carry ingredients. They are *chhh* too heavy, in my current state."
Rissi flies back up to the kitchen, keeping a wayward eye out for overeager birds as her magic carries her along.
Kufieno follows along. "I'll help, Miss Rissi."
"An artifact?! I've always dreamt of seeing one, but that one is so twisted and foul that we should destroy it if we get the chance. Please Miss Rissi, let me know how I can help."
Rissi leads the charge back to the kitchen and finds a couple ingredients there that should suffice in the ritual. In the shrine where the lamias had taken residence she finds a type of incense that will work as well.
You find Conna awaiting your report. When she hears your plan to destroy the artifact, she readily agrees to help in any way she can and follows you back down to where the cauldron awaits.
Rissi begins stirring the ingredients into the pot (well, with the help of others since she's still tiny), mixing the process with several arcane chants that turn the poultice from dark purple to bright green and finally to a deep shade of blood-red. Finally the moment comes when the willing giant should step into the cauldron but as Conna steps in, her good nature clashes with the evil of the artifact and the brew begins to bubble violently, spilling from the sides. A crack is rent down the side of the cauldron as the liquid begins to pour out, evaporating almost immediately as it reaches the floor. In just a few seconds, the broken cauldron sits empty in the middle of the room and Conna slowly steps away from the broken cauldron.
"Well done," she nods. "This will be a blow to Mokmurian's plans and the world will be better without such an evil device. Thank you, friends, and good luck." Conna exits and makes her way back upstairs where she is more safe.
Seal thumbs Isoult's edge as the giant's back is turned, staring at her as wolf stares down an unknowing rabbit. After being shaken back into the present, Sealman is ready to lead the party deeper into the dungeon.
"Good job everyone! By the way I would love this opportunity to rest if we can, before we move any further in the ruins. I'm almost out of spells for today."
The next room down the hall has a chill that is not quite enough to frost the floors and walls, but is certainly enough to frost the breath of everyone as you move in. The room itself contains several large sutis of armor mounted on what appear to be frozen or preserved ogres, trolls, and hill giants, all staged as if rallying for war.
As you move closer, however, it becomes apparent that the ogres and giants are not totally frozen and their joints creak and crack as they slowly turn to consider you. The most horrifying feature is the lead ogre, which is nearly 11 feet tall, dressed in plate armor, and wielding a wicked-looking hatchet in each gauntleted hand but featuring only a raw, ragged stump of a neck where its head should be!
Evanya activates her wand, imbuing the party with good hope as Lucian conjures a blessing of fervor on his companions.
Rissi and Lucian recognize that the headless ogre is a fast zombie. It will probably take magical weapons to deal full damage to such an abomination. The others look like standard zombified hill giants.
Tiny Rissi gets back to basics with a fireball amongst their midst.
Rissi's fireball burns some of the flesh from the zombie giants!
headless: 15 dmg
red: 30 dmg
blue: 30 dmg
orange: 30 dmg
pink: 30 dmg