Daseem snarls in surprised pain and lashed out at the Aurochs. He then snarled, "Gorrrum! and slammed his fits into his wounded side.
Daseem damages the piece of art badly, bet doesn't manage to erase it. The paintings move away and instead two aurochs appear again. They run after each other through the whole group again.
Bupkis get run over by the auroch he thinks is a phantom, and dodges the one he thinks is real. Then he tries to blast the 'real' one. All the while, he doesn't notice that his wound is gushing blood.
Menrozzar dances to either side, avoiding the two trampling aurochs, before looking for a painting he can claw.
Amira casts a healing spell on Ivan.
This time, Ivan flutters above the worst of the trampling. But he slowly starts to boil in his tin can.
As the next one charges again, Ivan roars, having had enough of these pestering aurochs. He takes the hit head on, slamming his helmeted head into the creature as it charges.
He then unleashes a fury on the moving painting.
Ivan: -5
Ivan hammers the second ochs rigth into the ground.
Daseem cuts the second one in half.
Menrozzar jumps Daseem's painting and scratches it from the floor. Ivan hammers the last painting out of existance.
Amira starts poking the party with the wand. Those who are bleeding first.
With all the enemies gone, Bupkis wonders where all the blood is coming from, until he realizes it's from him! He quickly heals himself.
Then he looks around the cave for things other than nasty paintings!
Menrozzar's rage ends as Amira pokes him with the healing wand, stopping the bleeding.
"Thank you, Amira. I could use more of that, if you can."
Checking the room in magical light she sighs "You can't dig into the pockets of paintings and illusions. But this thing on the floor looks interesting..."
There are carvings on the cavern floor beneath the sediment deposits. Clearing the silt away reveals a huge geometric carving that spans most of the floor, consisting of eight long lines radiating outward from a central point, similar to a compass rose. The central point is bracketed by three indentations in the floor. Four of the lines point toward the four murals on the walls and are divided into equal segments by small, regularly spaced carved notches.
Bupkis can tell that Menrozzar is in a bad way; he heals the draconic warrior.
Then the goblin examines the designs on the floor, looking for anything like a concealed door of some sort.
Menrozzar looks over the carvings as well.
No secret door is found, but between the bones and other garbage are some coins, a rusty dagger and a silver ring on a finger bone.
Ivan will grab up the four items and hand them to Amira, who is possible still clinging to his leg.
Here, do ye think these 'ave anything to do with that there contraption lookin'... thing.
Badly hurt still Daseem sighed and asked incredulously, "H-how can a p-p-painting be the most dangerous thing we've seen?"
Amira looks the items over. Dhe does her usual magic to look for magic in the item. As she does she gets a joyful smile on her face. She puts the ring on and starts jumping straight up into the air. The first jump isn't too bad, but with the second one she almost hits her head on the ceiling. "Woohoo!"
As she lands on the ground again she tells in dead serious tone. "I don't think those items have something to do with the lines on the ground. It's some random stuff from passer byes that were killed by the paintings."
Bupkis heals Daseem as well. He wouldn't be in any shape to kill more things in the name of Gorum much longer otherwise.
Then he joins Amira, propelling himself with self-telekinesis dangerously close to the roof of the cavern.
Ivan shakes his head at Daseems question, not sure how to answer.
Trickery I suspect. Most O' the giant's we've fought been the dumb sort. All brute and brawn. But, loathe as I am ta' admite it. I've 'eard tales O' Giants what make use of their intellect as much as their brawn. Likely this was there doin'. And Magic. Magic is always ta' be viewed as dangerous.
He watches the halfling and goblin perform their acrobatics.
Well, Any idea what to do with that then? He points to the strange mechanism in the floor.
The buggane wears a curious necklace consisting of a leather thong from which hangs a glimmering,reddish-black chunk of mineral with a hole bored through one end. The mineral is a piece of magnetite, and its magnetic properties are immediately apparent when it’s placed near any ferrous metal.
Daseem had no idea about such things so he asked tentatively, "S-smash?"
"It seems to be some kind of compass. And the drawings on the wall might be actual locations in the direction the compass rose shows. Only thing missing is something to tell us where North is." Amira tells, wondering how one could establish that without the sun, stars or moss on the side of trees. Or a compass, which she apparently doesn't have.
The buggane wears a curious necklace consisting of a leather thong from which hangs a glimmering,reddish-black chunk of mineral with a hole bored through one end. The mineral is a piece of magnetite, and its magnetic properties are immediately apparent when it’s placed near any ferrous metal.
Bupkis pulls the buggane necklace out of his pocket. "This thingy helps? Seems to be magnetic." He holds his dagger near it, showing how the mineral is attracted to the blade.
Magnetic didn't mean anything to Daseem. "How'd it do t-that?" asked he suspiciously as he eyed the loadstone and Bupkis's dagger, "More hoodo?"
"That's it!" Amira calls out in joy and grabs the necklace. Then she needs two endless minutes to untie the leather thong. Once that is accomplished she puts the crystal in position in the middle of the compass rose.
Studying the paintings at the wall and the markings on the floor she comes up with the meaning. "One line points to a painting of a large stone temple in the middle of a lake. According to the compass, this temple lies approximately 10 miles south-southwest of the Dark Passage . Which is strange, because we have been there, and there was nothing in the middle of the lake."
"The second line points to the drawing of a small chapel overlooking a canyon. This area is about 20 miles to the north-northeast ."
"The third line indicates a small cave in the mountains around 24 miles east-northeast of here ."
"The fourth and final line leads to a stone temple in a swamp. This temple is to the east-southeast, approximately 25 miles from these caves ."
She takes out her notebook and copies the paitings, and notes down the information gathered from the compass. The result is presentable.
"Where to now?"
"Let's make sure this cave is clear, then go back to that lake. I wonder if the temple is hidden, or perhaps underwater."
Bupkis isn't sure if it's wise to copy the paintings, given that some had just attacked them. He asks Amira, "Do lines show this passage?"
When Menrozzar suggests going back to the lake he wonders, "If lake temple is underwater, then what we do?"
"I don't think so. But I assume the center of the lines is this cave. The lines only show the direction and distance, no path." Amira explains.
"This is just a map on which someone marked things important to them a long time ago. This might help us to find things IF they become important to us too. On this map the temple was above the water in the middle of the lake. Maybe it's gone. Maybe it's underwater now."
Bupkis tries to think of which place might be most important. He says, "We need to stop giants from gathering and getting ready to attack others. Maybe swamp temple where organizing happens? What gods giants worship?"
"As we are in Minderhal's Valley, I guess we are talking Minderhal, smith god of the stone giants."
Underwater? Daseem felt his brow prickle with sweat, "Can't s-swim!" he mumbled. The idea of drowning terrified him, that was no way for a warrior to go.
He sniffed, on the other hand it had been a while since any of them had a bath. Perhaps there was something Gorum could do to help...
Rather tentatively he suggested, "M-mebbe Gorum help us breathe underwater, if I pray h-h-hard enough."
Bupkis isn't sure about trying to find an underwater temple, but he curiously isn't as afraid of water as he used to be; he says, "Could look in lake if we can breathe underwater."
The temple wouldn't run away, but this carefully cleaned out tunnel might repopulate, so the group presses on. Bupkis leads all safely around the spiked pit traps that are placed here and there.
After another half mile walk, you see the sunlight again. Haphazardly pitched massive hide tents spread across the valley floor and along the canyon walls. The sprawling campsites are filthy. Huge garbage pits dug between the tents are smoldering and filling the valley with smoke. Not so much hindering sight, but creating an awful smell.
Waiting for an hour to observe what is going on you find out that there are mostly cave giants, hill giants, and ettins. It is hard to tell how many giants are there, but a quick count shows at least 50 tents over the stretch you can see which could mean hundreds of giants. Lucky for you the tents are spread out and the giants are busy cheering on some rats in the garbage pits that are not burning. All in all it looks like they are all waiting for something.
Daseem takes the sight in with giddy glee, imagining the slaughter of this congregation of giants. There was only one problem, it was unlikely they'd form a nice orderly queue...
"Eh w-what now?" Daseem asked the others.
Bupkis sneaks forward for a better view of what's going on. Attacking the giants all at once would be madness, but maybe they could pick off a few at a time? Why were all the giants gathered here, and what exactly were they waiting for?
Sneaking around some of the tents Bupkis listens in on a few talks of the giants. And he finds, that this matches the threat they were going to investigate: The storm giant warlord Volstus the Storm Tyrant gathering an army of giants in a secluded valley in the Mindspin Mountains that could threaten not only Belkzen (and Trunau), but other nations bordering the mountains as well. Some of the giants wonder when the war will start.
Do ye think we could cause a landslide and wipe out most O' them? Ivan asks gesturing around at the mountain cliffsides.
While I don't mind bein' rung like a bell, and I do enjoy hammerin' the bastards, but just for expedience sake.
Daseem glanced at the cliffs and his imagination ran wild, but then he stopped, surely you'd need to hammer the cliffs like a god to trigger a big enough landslide. Instead he shrugged at Ivan and suggested, "Mebbe we find sunken t-temple?"
As no one has an idea what to do the group walks back through the tunnel and to the lake. Yellow pine and spruce trees poke through pale outcroppings of gray stone, spilling down into the open grassy vale below. In the center of the vale is a broad, placid lake, whose bluish green surface ripples and glimmers in the light breeze.
As it is getting late, a camp is set to wait for morning with further exploration and to prepare proper spells for the watery adventure next day. No giants or other nuisances show up during night and a wonderful sunny morning comes after a restful night.
Bupkis enjoys the unspoiled natural setting at the lake, and starts the day with his characteristic huge breakfast.
After he's finished, he asks Amira, "Where you think temple is exactly?" He flies above the lake to see if that helps him see better into the depths.
Amira shrugs "It was in the middle of the largest part in the painting. It would help to have a boat to find out as the lake is large." She looks in direction of the far end of the lake, which can't be seen. It is behind the horizon. Only the mountains rising behind.
"Eh a b-boat?" Daseem was alarmed and excited. He was not a good swimmer especially in armour and boats where something he didn't really do if he could avoid it.
A little sheepishly he continued, "We uh h-haven't got one... We're we get o-one?"
Bupkis looks around for materials to build a simple boat or raft. "Might take a while if have to build one," he tells his companions.
Could always send one O us out ta' find the temple, then come back, pick us up and use that magic ye got so we can breathe. Then just drop us over the side above tha' temple. Be like some sort of airstrike, but in water. Ivan shrugs, looking to his armor.
I'd sink fast enough to put a rock ta' shame.
"Can you fly? Or how did you want that scouting to go?" Amira asks couriously everybody around.
As a matter of fact lassie, yes, I can. And so can Bupkis. He grumbles a bit.
"A dwarf flying over water to scout ahead. What a rare specimen you are. If I'd sing a song about that in Janderhoff I'd be booed off the stage for telling fairytales."
"But of course that is much faster than searching by boat."
Amira sits down, and unpacks a halfling trail ration, consisting of dried fruits and a honey cake for today.
Bupkis says, "Boat still helps for those who can't fly."
He starts gathering supplies and cutting down trees using his kinetic powers. He uses his carpentry skills that he honed while helping repair Alicia's house, and builds a simple raft. It's not pretty, but he hopes it will serve the group's purposes. He also makes a couple of paddles.