Sven delivers a blistering attack on the giant! The rest of you quickly fell the giant!
The still invisible Brother Hawthorne states, "that sucked! I need to get a bow, so I can help take things down more quickly!"
Brother Hawthorne 15(26/90)WOUNDED
Rask Hammersong 15(51/126)WOUNDED
Kurag Urlot III 13(51/86)WOUNDED
Sven The Mazebreaker 4(71/120)WOUNDED
86/90
111/126
86/86
120/120
"The magic in yer voice was well enough." Sven said, as he rolled his shoulders following the strain of combat. "Now, make sure that they all be dead. Gonna be mending our wounds, and I don't want to have to put these fookers down again." Sven said, as he prepared to perform the required ritual to heal the group.
"Thank you very much!"
Kurag does as asked and chops the heads off the giants before the party is healed. After that as the healing washes over them he searches the bodies for magic items and the reason the main giant was resisting some of his arrows damage.
perception
There are no other threats in the Cathedral, but the forge is still unlit and the Cathedral itself is surrounded by Urathash's army.
"I will gladly wear the baldric, unless one of you have a use for it. Everything else is too big for me. Oh, and I will pilfer the spell component pouch as well, so I am all set!"
"Glad ye can use it." Sven said, somewhat wearily as he stretched his sore arms. "We've got the Forge now. And we need to get it lit, before Urathash's army comes in."
"Well, grab all of this magic stuff, it'll sell in Magnimar or somewhere."
Indeed, what we can't use ourselves we sell and put to good use that way. First stop is to find a bow for you Brother. After that we need to go retrieve the rest of the ingredients to get the forge relit. There were 4 components we needed: clay, water, dragon's breath, and fire geodes. We have 2 of them but we will need to get the other 2 if we want to relight the forge. All told I believe we could make the trek in 4 days time to get there and back unless one of you have ways of magical travel to make the trip shorter.
"Can anyone summon a dragon to do the breathing?"
I have never been one to mix and match wits with words. My skills lie in more direct action or subterfuge. I can safely say that I could get out of here with Lucky but no guarantees that I could get the rest of you out without one of you being spotted. I could retrieve the items we need and make it back here in short order while staying mounted and hiding my tracks. However, that still doesn't solve the problem at our doorstep. We need to disperse the army by flooding the valley here, giving them orders to disperse, or finding a way for them to attack each other and do the dirty work for us.
As Kurag literally has no way to influence an army other than killing one giant at a time he heads to a window and tries to survey the army before him watching and looking for weaknesses.
After a few hours of watching his inaction gets the better of him and he makes his way through the complex clearing out any remaining riff raff. Once that is done if there are still no answers, he volunteers takes Lucky out to go grab the materials for the ritual himself.
Kurag would leave at night to allow himself the advantage of darkness and his darkvision ability.
Stealth check using pass without trace wand twice Uh oh
"We don't have many good options here." Sven said. "We aren't the stealthiest of dwarves. And if the giants realize what is going on, we are all as good as dead. Sadly, it makes the most sense to gather the materials and to perform the ritual as quickly as possible. Kurag, if ye be sure that ye can sneak out to do this, then we will hold our position as best we can, and will retreat if the giants start moving in."
Brother Hawthorne, in fact, CAN, and does hit Kurag with Invisibility, for an additional +20 on that stealth.
There is a stone coffer that is locked that you quickly open. It contains the following:
A human-sized Andoren lace wedding dress of obviously very high quality, which is slightly torn and stained with blood on one of its sleeves.
The coffer also holds a wooden game board carved with strange notches, a leather pouch with 30 stones polished and shaped to resemble eggs, and a collection of 12 quartzite crystals carved to resemble rocs in flight. These are all part of a popular betting and strategy game among giants called “Rocs.” Lastly, carefully wrapped within oiled deerskin are three torcs that Urathash sometimes wears as rings. Two are forged from mithral and have designs of dwarven origin , while the third is a torc of lionheart fury .
There are upper layers of the tower.
Carved into center of the floor of this chamber is the symbol of a mountain and a giant anvil. Mystic runes painted with a fine, glittering dust sprinkled over what appears to be blood encircle the carving. Six iron cages stand in a circle around the floor carving, interspersed with stone braziers burning small coke fires scented with smoldering pine cones. A few tables holding a variety of iron implements stand against the walls nearby. The walls are windowless and covered with lines of carved text. Staircases at opposite ends of the room lead to floors above and below.
Four of the cages contain gaunt and mutilated humans, each one curled into a fetal position. Long strips of flesh and muscle have been torn from the corpses, the result of feeding by Urathash’s pet rukhs, though whether this killed the prisoners or they starved to death is unclear.
Two of the cages still contain living people, both prospectors from Shinnerman’s Fortune, whom Urathash has kept as playthings. The two prisoners lie quietly starving in their cages, mentally and physically broken and ready for death. The prisoners are still conscious (albeit barely).
The group did one last check of the citadel before sending the brave dwarf out. If there was a chance that they could fulfill their quest without such a risk in both time and safety, then it was worth exploring it. As they came across a human-sized wedding dress, Sven picked it up and looked at it with a discerning eye. "This be well-made and will sell well to a Duke or Baron. But first..." He chanted a prayer to Torag and as he did so the dress was slowly but surely mended, until it was right for sale. The dwarf gently folded the clothing and added it to the bag of loot that they had gathered. He was certain that the others would pick the coffers clean while he worked.
The group made their way to the Inquisition Room, and Sven pointed out the sign of Minderhal upon the floor. "Seems appropriate that we walk on top of this slag." He said, stopping when he saw the cages. His jaw dropped at the sight of the cruelty. "What the-" He said. Without even thinking he rushed forward and began to heal the figures, so as to stabilize them.
"Let's get them out." He said, in between prayers.
Brother Hawthorne takes 10 and nods knowingly, "Minderhal indeed."
"Now, as to these items. They are all worth something, but it seems only this one torc is magic." He scans the other items to make sure, and describes the functioning of the magic torc.
The captives begin to show some signs of life as Sven begins to heal them. Thank you good Dwarf! Please free us 'fore Urathash comes back! He'll torture you too!
"No, I don't believe he'll be bothering anyone."
Brother Hawthorne will see about freeing them.
Urarhash is dead and will trouble this realm no more. Kurag then pulls some rations out to give to the captives to help after their wounds are healed.
So this symbol of Minderhaal…do we leave it or get rid of it? Do we still need to recover the other pieces of the ritual?
Urathash is dead? Bless your Dwaraven souls! But I I wouldn't make too much noise cause there be a dragon upstairs!
"What can you tell us of the drake above?"
"Aye. Such as, does it breathe fire?" Sven added in, remembering that dragon flame was needed for the ritual they had before them.
I don't know iffen he breathes fire, but he be read if that will be helping? One of the captives responds.
"Fire it is then!"
"Aye, it does." Sven said. "Right lads. Looks like we have an ingredient ready and waiting for us, so we should get to it." Turning back to the captives he said "Ye be free. There is a giant army camped outside, we had to sneak in here past them. I'd advise ye to catch your breaths and rest up. Ye can leave with us, should we survive. If not, then we will wish ye the best, aye?"
Are we ready to take on a dragon though? If it is dragon fire that is needed for the ritual, should we gather the remaining components first? Then, once he breathes fire, we light the torch and bring it down here for Sven to complete the ritual. I don't fancy trying to keep a dragon trapped for a few days while we gather the clay and water.
”Aye…but what if it leaves? Still…keeping the fire…” Sven sighed. ”I see both sides to this. I’m fine with getting the clay and water first.”
"How do we 'capture' the fire anyways? We can't drug the dragon, and drag the drugon to where we need it, right?"
Kurag looks at the others and shrugs his shoulders. My best guess is that we piss off the dragon enough that it breathes fire upon us. When it does so one of us holds up a torch so that it is lit and then takes it down to the forge. Anyone want to volunteer to be the target of the flame?
"Despite my dashing good looks and flaming beard, I'm no azer to be resistant of fire itself, but if that's what is needed, I will do the deed for the group."
”Brave.” Sven said, matter of factly. ”It would make a fan verse in any saga.”
you take the survivors to their village and while he town mourns those that were lost, they celebrate those that were returned.
There is a great feast (or as great a feast as a small village can provide) where you are the guests of honor. They feel bad they cannot provide you with more but they tell you that you will always have a welcome place to stay!
You spend a few months getting the remaining components and travel back to the cathedral. There are a few giants remaining each calling themselves the 'New Urathash'. You quickly make them the 'Dead New Urathashes'
You have scouted out the Cathedral and know that the drake is also still in residence. You climb to the top and are at the door that opens into the drake's lair.
Sven walked in with a light step. The break had done him well. All of the hiking and adventuring had been hard on his old body. But now he was rested and was ready to begin anew. "Right." He said. "We had a month's worth of last meals. Ye all ready to dance with a dragon?"