Round 3 (ongoing):
Trianne plinks away at one of the giants while Seamus and Kronug hold their fire. Haftor advances with such stealth that no one without magical divination realizes he's gone.
Jarrek, in spite of being badly hurt, leers at the closer of the two giants. "What are you even swinging at? Are you afraid to come after us? Or are you too stupid to know we're getting away?"
The shouted challenge has no apparent effect on the giants, though both frown, their coarse features contorted in something like confusion. Both of them swing at the space Haftor vacated, without apparent effect. One growls to the other in Giant.
Round 4:
Initiative order
Trianne
Jarrek
Haftor
Seamus
Kronug
Hill giants
Haftor wanted to get into a position where he could attack both giants before he turned back visible, but this was going to have to be good enough. He made one more maneuver around the northern giant, then attacked, turning visible as he did so.
Kronug smiles as he hears that the giants are preparing to close with him for melee, then frowns and curses as he sees Hathor become visible out in the room.
Why is he out there?? Have to back him up.
"Seamus, bomb them! Jarrek, follow me!"
Kronug waits for Seamus to make his attack, then uses Total Defense and moves up. This should (hopefully) draw out both of the giants' AOOs, allowing Jarrek to move into position without being attacked. (Unless the giants have Combat Reflexes.)
At the point when he takes an AOO, he is adjacent to 1 ally (for +2 from Lastwall Phalanx), with +4 AC from Total Defense.
That makes his total AC 34 against the giants.
Should they choose to use combat maneuvers as their AOOs, his CMD will be 30 against Disarm or 34 against Trip.
Seamus, finally seeing Haftor, and hearing Kronug's shouted orders, pulls a bomb, flinging it at the closest giant.
"RAAAAAAA!" Jarrek charges in next to Kronug.
Round 4 (ongoing):
Haftor appears and attacks a giant, hitting it solidly. Kronug directs tactics before advancing carefully. Seamus does more damage to both giants, Kronug dodges or deflects the giants' attacks of opportunity, and then Jarrek charges and hits. Both giants are looking beat-up, but their tremendous mass and vitality keep them in the fight.
Trianne knows she can’t thread that melee with anything serious, and she chastises herself mentally a bit. She should have more scrolls at her disposal for versatility, but she’s been spending too much time on hard item crafting. She makes a mental note to remedy that as she sends another bolt into one of the giants.
Trianne does a bit more damage to the marginally more wounded giant. The giants try to pound on Jarrek and Kronug, but miss with all their attacks.
Round 5:
Initiative order
Trianne
Jarrek
Haftor
Seamus
Kronug
Hill giants
Haftor continues to hammer on his opponent.
Kronug attacks the same giant that Haftor attacked.
Round 5 (ongoing):
Initiative order
Trianne
Jarrek
Haftor-acted
Seamus
Kronug-acted
Hill giant-
HHaftor and Kronug finish off one of the giants!
Seamus pulls a flask of acid, flinging it at the giant. See how you like this one! he cries.
"YES!" Jarrek spun his falchion in a full circle as he focused on the remaining giant.
Seamus and Jarrek both hit the giant, leaving it reeling but still conscious.
Trianne watches as the others carve their way through the giants, assessing resource need now versus what yet lay ahead. She glances backward to verify they haven’t drawn attention from behind them yet before lashing out with a band of energy to bite into the remaining giant.
Trianne can't quite drop the giant. In turn it rounds on Jarrek, pounding him and missing Kronug with his next attack.
Round 6:
Initiative order
Trianne
Jarrek
Haftor
Seamus
Kronug
Hill giant
Kronug holds his ground as Jarrek falls, and continues to hammer at the giant with Gorum's Thorn.
"Die!"
Kronug slices clean through the giant's midsection, disemboweling it and knocking it to the ground with the force of the blow.
"PRAISE GORUM!!"
The last giant falls with a thud that seems to shake the floor.
Jarrek lies on the ground, knocked unconscious.
"Hey, the half-orc isn't looking so good. Haftor, can you do something?"
Kronug tries to stop the bleeding.
He succeeds at that, at least.
Seamus heads deeper into the chamber, scanning for valuables, and keeping an ear out for any martial response to their assault on the two giants.
Haftor nods to Kronug, kneels beside Jarrek, and intones a quick healing prayer to Torag.
"Runnin' very low on healin', I am."
Jarrek groans and rolls over onto his side before pushing himself into a sitting position. He glances over at the giants and nods. "Well, good then. Knew we could take 'em." The big half-orc nods his thanks at the kneeling dwarf. "Thanks."
Nothing appears to have noticed the giants' shouts...at least, not yet. Perhaps they were drowned out by the screams that occasionally filter into the chamber from outside, interspersed with guttural laughter.
The party finds nothing of particular interest on the bodies or in the room, besides a strong indication that more than two giants habitually slept here.
Trianne comes forward from her position at rear guard, comfortable enough with the fact they haven't drawn any attention from behind them.
Haftor does a bit more healing for Jarrek.
Jarrek rolls his shoulders and stands up grinning. "Ha! You fixed my headache, Haftor! Best I've felt all day!" He looks at the door. [b]"Let's go find some more giants to kill!"
"Let's be tactical," advises Kronug.
"Catch them unawares if we can. If not, use bottlenecks and ranged attacks.
If we pay attention to tactics, we can make our remaining healing last.
I am happy to take the lead as I have heavy armor, and a shield, and training against giants, but even so I will try to avoid giving them easy shots at me."
"Or not. That is how I'm going to fight them. You can do what you wish."
"Let's try this room to the southwest."
Kronug will search the door for traps before opening it.
Haftor nods, hammer hefted in preparation for any surprises.
"Ha! With you on our side this whole fort needs to watch their backs!" Jarrek follows Kronug and Haftor to the next room.
Kronug finds nothing out of the ordinary on the door.
It opens onto a large circular chamber, mostly filled with a huge iron cage. Crates, chests, statues, paintings, and other art objects fill the space between the cage and the walls of the room. Inside the cage, a large piece of furniture sits under a cloth drapery of some sort. Also inside the cage are a pair of large creatures, with vaguely humanoid heads, leonine manes and bodies, long tails with spikes embedded in their tips, and clipped draconic-looking wings.
As soon as the door opens and they register that you're not giants, they begin to beg for release. "Please let us out! A terrible giant has imprisoned us, and she starves and mistreats us because we won't do her bidding."
Kronug isn't sure what these talking lions are, but he is not particularly soft-hearted. Even as basic lions they would be dangerous, let alone the intelligence, wings, and spiked tails that these ones have. Letting them out seems a risk.
Although he doesn't say anything, his hesitation and posture suggest that he is wary of the creatures.
He waits to see what the others have to say.
Trianne tilts her head and through her pursed lips says in low tones to her comrades, “I...believe these are manticores. The chimerical elements are very unique, but I’ve never encountered one in the wild before.”
She sidles a little to her left to get a different perspective, eyes narrowing at the oddity that strikes her.
“Why the draped…piece in the cage with them?” she muses quietly.
Their wings have had the membranes sliced, and Trianne figures that they're unable to fly until the damage is healed.
Maybe they are like cats? And want something to roll on? Seamus pauses, So do we let them out? he asks the others.
"Maybe in exchange for information, if we judge them to be truthful."
“Errr…” Trianne hesitates. “I don’t know manticores that well, but any starving animal is not something to take lightly.”
She gives it a moment’s thought and her mouth quirks in distaste as she glances at the fallen giants. “We could solve one of their problems, if we’re feeling that generous.”
Jarrek shrugs. "I don't like the idea of leaving anything for the giants to play with but," he turns to whisper to the others "can we trust these things?"
The alchemist swaggers up to the cage, So Man-ti-cores, what can you tell us of this place? Other than there's two giants in that room, [b]he jerks his thumb in the direction of the dead giants, [b]An' they got you in a cage in this room? Help us, and we can maybe help you....
Haftor squints suspiciously at the creatures. ”These look like beasties to me, and I don’t trust them.”
He waits for a response from them before taking any action, though.
"It wasn't them alone that put us into this cage--it was the giant woman! Beware of her, she's dangerous. If you let us out, though, we'll help you fight her even though we can't fly."