"As I said, I defer to your wisdom Priestess."
After exiting Nargrym Steelhand’s tomb, you continue on your journey to the hidden valley where the giants are gathering to join the Storm Tyrant’s army. According to your map, the valley is about 40 miles southeast from the tomb. Assuming a speed of 30 feet, it should take you approximately 3 days to reach the valley traveling on foot through the wooded mountains.
On the second day of the journey, after about 18 miles of travel, you reach a small stream that f lows from the southeast, the same direction you’re traveling. An overgrown footpath runs alongside the stream, allowing you to set a faster pace. After a few hours, they come you come across a small clearing a few hundred feet from the stream, a wisp of smoke trickles from the chimney of a two-story stone cottage. Its front door has been bashed inward, its splintered panels hanging crookedly from a single hinge. Several large chips mar the exterior stonework and a sizable hole has been torn in the thatched roof. Loud crashing noises come from within.
"What poor folk live out here? Tough ones I'll wager, but not tough enough today. LEt's get in and help them!"
Kurag takes one look at the situation and agrees with Kiln. Our work is never done. Let’s go Lucky. With that he spurs his horse and rushes forward with notched arrow ready to fire at any foe there might be.
Perception
"Lets see what is going on. Perhaps they need our help."
Seeing the smoke and the hole in the thatched roof, Khari feels her blood boil. "Dragons." she spits out, presses her lips tight. Following behind Kurag, Khari already drawing her pickaxe from her belt.
Ondek leans down and touches Kurag on the shoulder briefly.
"Now is the time for heroics, my good dwarf."
"I am ready, lead the way mighty warriors."
When you enter the cottage, you see and hear a whimpering infant girl swaddled in a coarse wool blanket and stuffed into a basket on the second floor of the cottage. Inches from the child, beneath the hole in the roof, a large boulder lies wedged between cracked floorboards. Fortunately for the child, the cottage’s current occupant has been unable to reach her. Determined to leave no spoils behind, a lone troll still prowls about the cottage. More than anything else, this troll loathes human children, and the smell of the baby wafting from the second floor is driving her crazy, as she is too big to fit up the cottage’s narrow stairs. Stymied, she has flown into a rage and is currently tearing apart the ground floor.
The troll decides to take her anger out at Kiln as he enters the door!
She misses!
Rask yells, "for Torag! Die you foul creature" and moves next to the troll and swings Agrimmosh, hitting the troll but not doing a whole lot of damage.
Kiln charges the creature alongside Rask...
19-20/x3, S
From up on his horse Kurag can see the troll ransacking the house and trying to destroy it. Firing quickly he tries to sink 3 arrows into the troll and soften it up before the others get there.
Point blank improved precise rapid favored enemy deadly aim heroism for
Second shot for
Iterative for
Kiln acts nonchalant as the arrows come zipping over his shoulder.
Kurag puts three arrows into the troll.
As Rask nears the creature, she tries to bite him.
Rask retaliates by slicing the trolls flesh!
Kiln also injures the troll who falls!
Between all of you, the troll falls, but her wounds start to heal!
knowledge local
Hopping down Kurag makes his way closer to the troll and places and arrow directly between the troll eyes. Next time leave the child alone.
coup d'grace
Kiln moves to the basket to check on the status of the infant. He makes cooing noises and funny faces, as he understands children of all races are conversant in such shenanigans.
Rask stands over the hopefully now dead troll as Kurag puts an arrow thru its head. If it starts regenerating, he will query if anyone has acid or alchemist fire.
Feeling her blood boil at the sounds of the crying child, Khari for a moment feels out of sync with her actions. By the time she enters into the home, the troll lays dead and Kurag delivers a killing blow to its head. Watching Kiln interact with the child, she casts a weary gaze over the room. "Is it alright?" she asks gruffly, feigning indifference.
At first the child is scared of the severe looking dwarf, but as he starts to make faces the child starts to laugh and playfully reaches for his beard.
Kiln looks around, "now what? Do we feed it or something?"
At Kiln's question, Khari shrugs. "We should take them with us, hopefully its parents are alive and not far off." Looking around for supplies, Khari feels the hair on her temples gray at the thought of raising another child. She had done her time! This was suppose to be her hour of vengeance against dragon-kind. "I would start by ensuring that it has a clean nappy on, before we leave. It's a pain in the neck to do it on the road, but it can't be helped." she offers.
"Sadly, I have no fire or acid available. I imagine a decapitating stroke might work, but there is no guarantee. If we must, I suppose a simple torch should be enough to ensure the death of the troll."
Ondek looks at the devastated house, surprised to find the child still alive.
"If the child's parents were in here at the time of attack, I believe they may already be gone. That is a shame, to be sure. Perhaps there are some things here we can use to locate their kin, or at least neighbors in the area."
Kiln curses as he yanks his finger away from the child, "how does a thing with no teeth bite so hard?" He rummages through his pack and pulls out a piece of deer jerky and puts it near the creature's dangerous orifice as an offering, rather than getting his finger bit again.
While the others fuss with the human child Kurag takes a more practical endeavor and pulls an alchemist fire from his back and pours it upon the troll. Once that is done only then does he focus on the baby and finding clues to the parents.
Search
Laughing at Kiln’s blight Kurag comments dryly. Can it even eat that without teeth?
"This is a human infant, not a wild beast. They sup milk and chew soft foods just like dwarf children, obviously. That bit of jerky might serve more as a teething instrument than food, to be honest."
Ondek casts detect magic and aids in the search.
”It was damn well able to chomp my finger I tell you!” Kiln shows the offended digit.
Pinching the bridge of her nose as she watches Kiln offer the jerky to it, Khari tries to intervene. "Kiln, if I may offer a suggestion, this child is young; probably younger than five or six months. Let's keep things away from its mouth that it can choke on."
If it hurts that much then perhaps I should remove it for you and the entire hand as well. We have a spare right now and would keep you from complaining about a toothless babe gnawing on you. Kurag tries to keep his face straight and deliver it in a dead pan voice but fails at the last minute as his face lights up with a smile.
Hearing Khari's suggestion, Kiln offers, "mead then?" Kiln makes no attempt at response to Kurag's ill humor.
Shaking her head, Khari makes a shooing motion at Kiln. "Maybe later, when they're teething. Right now, we should do our best to find its kin." Checking the child's diaper, Khari ensures that her pickaxe is stowed properly before picking the child up and grabbing the necessary supplies for the journey. "Is everyone ready to go? That thing isn't going to raise up again and attack us, right?"
Seeing the troll begin to heal, Ondek stoops and grabs up a board. He uses a flint and steel to spark a small flame then jams the burning brand into the trolls skin.
"That should do for the troll, then."
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.
Unlike at the first cottage, there appear to be no living survivors here.
"In case the destruction and boulders strewn about weren't clue enough, there are Large boot prints and other indicators that giants did this. We should bury the dead, if they left anything to bury, and track them down. Perhaps I can glean some details from one of them, especially if we can come across one or two of the beasts operating away from the main group."
+2 vs unusual stonework
"Well, seems like there's more giants what need a butt-kicking. No time like the present to get started." He looks too Khari, "do we need to drop the kid somewhere?"
Rask watches as Kiln gets bitten by the small thing in the cradle, and just chuckles. He is not one for babies or children so he lets the others do what they intend to do.
When the group gets to the next cottage, he nods his agreement to Ondek, but looks more closely at the tracks to see if he can glean any further information.
"If memory serves, there should be a village just down the road. That a ways, I'd wager."
Ondek turns and points down the cart roads.
"I'd guess the giants hit here and then continued for further prey."
Looking at the destruction, Khari shakes her head. "This is nothing but a slaughter. I know that most giants are not kind, but what do they get out of this cruelty?" Following along with the others, she cradles the child to her chest. "With any luck the village will still be in good shape. Should we check it out?"
Kurag takes the lead on Lucky and leads the group onto the village. He keeps his eyes peeled for signs of other trolls or giants as well.
Perception +2 hills, +2 orcs, +4 giants
A half-mile down the trail from the sacked cottages, you all arrive at the edge of a village called Shinnerman’s Fortune. Panicked villagers are scrambling about trying to organize and recover from recent giant attacks. A small band of villagers quickly gathers to greet you, 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 speaks. Well met, good dwarves! I am Alderwoman Straya Kraum and this here is Alderman Jerak Sneth. As you can see we are just recovering from a savage giant attack on our village. A wandering band of giants passed through the region yesterday. After bombarding the village with rocks, the giants rushed into the settlement, indiscriminately attacking those they encountered, maiming or killing a number of us. 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. There are at least a dozen people whose whereabouts are unaccounted for, most notably Tarram Shinnerman, a descendant of our village’s founder and the speaker of the council. We pray that the giants have not yet eaten the captives and that at least some of them still live, but the threat these giants pose has left us feeling helpless. Few of us are qualified to fight orcs, much less giants. We fear that the giants are going to return soon to exact more tribute. Please good dwarves! Can you find their missing kinfolk and put an end to the giant threat?
Feeling overwhelmed as the townsfolks swarmed to greet them, Khari offers the woman a nod. "We will do what we can. Are there any distinguishing features of Shinnerman?" Gently rocking the baby, she glances to between her party members and the townsfolks.
"Slow down there. At least pawn the kid off on them!"
"Indeed. We came across a ruined cottage about a half mile back up the road. The child was the only survivor, sadly. Are any of you her kin, or know where they might be? If we are to hunt down giants, an infant would be amiss in our group."
Offering a gaze that could curdle milk at both Kiln and Ondek, Khari clears her throat. "Do you take me for a fool? Besides, it wouldn't be the first time I've had to move children through a dangerous situation."