Leira becomes suddenly dull when Doja comments about the little baby's parents death. She looks sad at the baby "The town then"
Agreed. An orge hunt is no place for a baby
Farther along the trail beyond the cottage, smoke rises from the remains of two more stone cottages, spaced a few hundred yards apart. Both cottages show signs of extensive damage; their interiors have been ransacked and large boulders litter the ground around the buildings.
There appear to be no living survivors.
A half-mile down the trail from the sacked cottages, the party arrives at the edge of a village called Shinnerman’s Fortune. Ulfgard will know that this, very spread-out, village consists of mainly prospectors that mine for silver and gold.
Panicked villagers are scrambling about trying to organize and recover from recent giant attacks. A small band of villagers quickly gathers to greet the party, led by a stern-looking middle-aged woman with graying hair and a burly man with a salt-and-pepper beard wearing worn leather armor. The woman introduces herself as Alderwoman Straya Kraum and the burly man as Alderman Jerak Sneth. The two quickly inform the party that they have arrived in the wake of a savage giant attack on the village—a wandering band of giants passed through the region the day before the party's arrival. Straya describes the brutal raid: after bombarding the village with rocks, the giants rushed into the settlement, indiscriminately attacking those they encountered, maiming or killing a number of villagers. The giants eventually retreated back into the mountains, but only after seizing livestock and several more people as “tribute” and promising to return for more later. According to Straya and Jerak, there are at least a dozen people whose whereabouts are unaccounted for, most notably Tarram Shinnerman, a descendant of the village’s founder and the speaker of the council. The villagers pray that the giants have not yet eaten the captives and that at least some of them are still live. They fear that the giants are going to return soon to exact more tribute.
"Can you help us? Unfortunately, we have little to offer," The stern woman pleads.
An even older woman runs out to Leira recognizing the infant girl, "That is my grandchild."
"They headed to the south," The stern woman responds to Kaos.
That happens to be the same direction to Minderhal's Valley.
"Nothing to be seen in these cottages. Let's find that village" says Leira after her inspection.
----------------------------
Leira nods to Straya "Do not worry, I think some food and a bed to pass the night will be just wonderful. We are here to face the giants as they are also a thread for our people"
When the grandfather of the child approaches Leira softly frees the infant from the blanket and let it be "She is going to be a brave one. We are just sorry we could not do anything for her parents..." The girl feels a bit sad for splitting parts with the baby, which surprises herself as she had not thought it would be difficult for her to do so "Just... what is her name? Perhaps we can visit her in the future when all this is done..."
"We can be waitin... Ragnir begins but cuts off at mention of others taken. Richt then, we'll be headin' tae th' sout, an heaven be havin mercy on the carcasses of the giants we'll be leaving behind if'n we be findin' any giants that be livin'
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Haskyll drives his spear butt into the dirt, when he hears of the further villagers.
I agree with Leira, let us have one nights rest, and then we will be on our way to make sure those Giants do not bother you again.
He then leads the mule into town following on the heals of the party.
Haskyll looks around the group.
I be wondering if we might higher a stout lad from here, to look out after our mule, which frees us to be more aggressive in hunting down these giants and Ogres.
He then takes a drink of his ale.
What say the rest of you?
Haskyll looks to the others in the party, starting with Djorja.
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"You are, of course, welcome to stay the night. I am sure you will wake up refreshed while our kin and friends are eaten by the giants. They may not make it through the night," Straya Kraum says with no small amount of irony.
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The other older woman responds to Leira, "Her name is Abria. I can't thank you enough for rescuing her. We have seen so much lost this day."
"Please take this," the woman shoves a silver cloak clasp in the shape of an arrow into Leira's hand.
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Leira takes the clasp in her hands "Abria..." then sets it to hold her cloak of resistance "I will keep it as a token of gratitude until the day I can return it back to Abria" she smiles a last time to the baby.
The girl cannot avoid feeling ashame after Straya's words. She places her hand in Haskyll's shoulder "Do you think there is a possibility we can keep going a little further? Perhaps those ogres are not far from here..."
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Ulfgard raises one eyebrow, but then nods.
"They are right. We got fat and lazy in a city. Let´s hunt some giants!"
And Ulfgard moves toward the tracks, following them.
"Thank you. We can watch your mule for you," the Alderwoman says with a bit of a sigh of relief.
Ulfgard finds obvious Giant-sized tracks and heads south.
About one mile south of the village:
Taking his hammer out and his shield infront of him Ulfgard ducks behind it."Beware!"
The humanoids are humans. They see the party, "Help! We are being pursued!"
A moment or two later, the forest echoes with pounding stomps and cracking branches as a huge one-eyed giant lumbers through the forest trees. It sees the party.
Round One
Not really knowing what this thing is Droja blurts out, "That is a big one!"
Indeed the creature is huge. One of the largest humanoids the party has ever seen.
"I wonder if this will work," she mumbles to herself.
Droja casts Hold Person on the towering one-eyed giant.
The huge humanoid ignores Droja's spell.
Anga slips a scroll out and casts shield on herself.
Chastened, haskyll looks at the townfolk.
Aye, we will do our best to get them for you, or leave smoking corpses of the giant behind in retribution.
Haskyll moves back from the group, keeping them all within range,
but putting the group between him and the oncoming big bugger and readies his spear.
Hey, over here you Half blind lout. May Torag strike you down.
Haskyll yells this to try and gain the beasts attention and to give the others a chance to close, as he casts prayer.
Ragnir moves to follow Kaos, adding noise to the din that Kaos is making. He sets his shield and gets ready to dodge any incoming rocks. His axe is ready though, should the thing get close enough.
Ulfgard will move forward, casting longstrider along the way!
"Oh no! It's going to catch them!" without hesitation for concerns on her own safety Leira suddenly starts running towards the cliff. When she is reaching the chasm she clenches her teeth in tension and suddenly disappears! The girl just appears at the other side and keeps running, very forced to just reach the two villagers and place her stance with just her Trunau's hopeknife against the colossal humanoid in front.
"Over my dead corpse!" she just manages to yell to the giant.
Round One
Kaos will put up a Shield and charge towards the one eyed monster, yelling at the beast to get its attention.
Ragnir moves to follow Kaos, adding noise to the din that Kaos is making. He sets his shield and gets ready to dodge any incoming rocks. His axe is ready though, should the thing get close enough
Droja casts Hold Person on the towering one-eyed giant. It fails to slow down the huge humanoid.
Anga will recognize this is not a more common variety of Cyclops. It is a Jotunblood Cyclops. Legend has it that this variety shoots out death rays from its eyes.
The Dwarf Wizard pulls out a scroll and brings up a Shield to protect herself.
The Villagers keep running.
The Cyclops briefly hesitates when he sees more prey.
Leira heroically Dimension Slides in front of the fleeing villagers. She too taunts the Cyclops.
Ulfgard moves up next to Kaos with an extra length in his step.
Haskyll brings up a prayer while moving back away from the party.
The Cyclops then moves toward to the yelling little people. It notes the Rogue-Arcanist movements and comment. But it is looking for numbers. A beam of energy comes out from the Cyclops one great eye toward Kaos and the front of the party.
Anga will likely think, "Imagine that, the legends are true."
Round Two
"Well! Isn't that interesting," Droja comments as she sees the Cyclop's Eye Blast. Droja then moves to her right to take cover behind a pair of trees, "If at first..." Droja tries to cast Hold Person once again on the huge Cyclops.
Rolling a bit aside Ulfgard dodges the brunt of the attack.
"Was that your best?
Moving forward Ulfgard replies the attack of the cycplops in hammer.
One can never underestimate the power of Prayer. Without divine guidance Droja's spell would have failed. But as it is, the huge Cyclops is held in place.
[dice=Fort]1d20+10
Rolling a bit aside Ulfgard dodges the brunt of the attack.
"Was that your best?
Anga casts a powered up magic missile spell at the cyclops.
watch out for its eye it can... BLAMM! oh, ye worked it out. Ouch.
empowered x1.5 is 27 damage.
Current ac is 25
Leira's legs are still shaking when the cyclops decides to shot to the other way. Observing the villagers are getting out to safety, the girl places her hopeknife back to the safety of her belt. She then extends both hands forward and says the words that Anga taught her, letting her orcish ragging blood to take her.
"You think I am not dangerous monoholder?!" The fire burns in her hands and spread forth in the form of two scorching rays she directs towards the cyclops' eye "Met the wrath of my inner fire!!!"
She then steps behind the tree and tries to hide.
Haskyll now runs towards the Cyclops as fast as his legs can carry him.
May Torag strike you down you oversized lump of boneheaded gristle
Looking back over his shoulder to ensure the others were still standing as he runs by the smoking crater.
I'll look after your hurts after we deal with this
First time I seen something like that
The ray blasts Ragnir who lets out a gasp of breath and then a low growl,"Well now tha' was a bloody f**kin' surprise!" He charges in next to Ulfgard
Kaos takes the full force of the strange but powerful Eye Blast.
Kaos takes on a fierce dragon like visage and charges forward with greatsword in hand and anger burning in his eyes. But the Cyclops takes a mighty swing at the Dragon Disciple, "Gsurak confused. What a strange little creature. I wonder how it will taste." The Cyclops' huge Greataxe hacks into Kaos, leaving the Dragon Disciple bloodied.
Kaos fights through the pain and delivers a punishing strike himself against the Cyclops.
Ragnir takes the full force of the Eye Blast as well, then double times it behind Kaos to engage the monstrosity.
Droja moves behind a stand of trees. She tries again to place a Hold on the Cyclops. The huge humanoid freezes in place.
Anga strikes the huge humanoid with a Magic Missile.
The Villagers stop to take in the action, for this is better than the Coleseum Morpheuon. Well....almost.
Then with fire burning in Leira's hands that then spreads forth in the form of two Scorching Rays that leaps towards the Cyclops' great eye. The first ray strikes the head and eye solidly. The second does damage too.
Ulfgard, with a little extra spring in his step, reaches and clobbers the held Cyclops with Agrimmosh.
Haskyll moves toward the big one-eyed, yellow-skinned, burly people eater.
The Cyclops comes around letting out a terrible roar, "My eye!"
Round Two
With a massive cut by Kaos that severs a key artery, the big Cyclops topples over and dies.
The Villagers thanks the party profusely. They then tell the party that there are about a half dozen villagers being dragged by four big ugly Ogres. They point toward the south.
The trail is easy to follow as there is evidence that some of the humans are literally being dragged.
"I am ok here Kaos" says Leira moving out of his hiding "Are you ok? We will save those villagers friends of you do not worry"
The girl gives a fast look to whatever the cyclops has of utility to the party. She helps herself with detect magic.
The huge Greataxe is of masterworks quality, but beyond that the Cyclops had nothing of value on him.
However, Leira notices that the silver cloak clasp in the shape of an arrow radiates magic.
Droja will quietly walk up behind Kaos and touch his arm.
After Leira moves away from the dead Cyclops, Droja will kneel over it for a spell.
Ragnir hefts his axe and shield and starts after the trail left by the ogres. "Let's be goin'
Leira gets intrigued by the clasp magic and tries to further study it to identify its powers.
The dead Cyclops does not reply to Kaos.