Eager to be done with the cathedral, the part wends their way back down the tower, from the Dragon's roost, down to Urathash's inquisition room, to Urathash's chambers, to the trophy room. Finally down to the spire sentry room where the corpse of the ettin is beginning to stink...
Raen's fingers spark with magic as she contemplates the next move. "There are likely to be many giants in the mess hall, the priestesses informed us yestermorn. I will keep our movements hidden, but you must keep close."
Vael nods to Raen, thankful for her protective magics. He follows close to the rest of the group, spear at the ready.
I'm actually rather eager to see the Forge relit. If no one has a strong desire for another course of action, I'd direct us there.
Then let's go. :)
Whistle Pig gives the all clear on the door. Without a moment to lose, Raen casts a spell to make the party vanish....
Rough wooden benches sit alongside huge feasting tables the size of river rafts, stained black with beer and blood. Atop the tables lie greasy piles of chipped wooden bowls of congealed stew, piles of bruised apples and scorched root vegetables, dirty iron cutlery, and the cracked bones of half-eaten meat shanks. The floors are equally filthy and are littered with rotting straw, food scraps, and puddles of slop. In huge recesses along the outer walls, iron cauldrons suspended by thick chains simmer above blazing fires in massive hearths of soot-blackened stone. Three huge hogsheads stand against the western wall. The hall is uncomfortably hot and reeks of sweat, fetid stew, and stale beer. Rats skirt the room’s fringes, greedily darting from shadow to shadow. Five giants currently occupy this room: a frost giant, two hill giants, and two ogres. The giants are preoccupied with feasting, fighting, and drinking themselves blind...
Nargrym's Hand beckons Doxon forward, but he stays his approach, not wanting to alert these foes to their presence just yet.
Raen carefully leads the way to the set of doors leading south.
The doors open southward (push from your side.)
Under the field of invisibility, Raen conjures an image of identical doors overlapping the real ones, then pushes the true doors open and ushers the others through. "Walk straight through," she whispers, "the doors are figments."
"Huh.... sounded like the doors opened..." The giants go back to their meal.
Fortunately for the party, they find themselves in a hallways with another set of doors.
"Whistle Pig, are these doors safe for ingress?" Raen asks gently.
Whistle Pig finds no traps, but he stands in wonder at the room beyond.
The nave of the cathedral opens into a huge amphitheater. Three tiers of curved stone benches are arranged in immense horseshoes around the chamber’s centerpiece, a great pit filled with cold black slag. From the middle of the slag pit rises a wide, round platform of black basalt. A great forge, its fire gone cold, sits in the center of the platform, along with a massive iron anvil the size of a cow. The soot-stained ceiling arches far above the chamber floor. A bridge of stone connects the platform to a dais at the rear of the hall, where a towering statue of a stone giant ominously overlooks the entire cathedral.
To his left, by the main entrance, he sees more. The vaulted ceiling of this immense hall climbs high overhead, above great stone benches that stand taller than a human. To the west, the room widens, opening into some sort of amphitheater. On the walls, long strands of runes divide panels set with bas-reliefs reliefs depicting a stone giant with a tremendous hammer in various stages of assembling the world and forging its creatures from fire and metal.
Guarding the front entrance is a pair of particularly strong looking ogres and a two-headed troll.
Raen carefully maneuvers the hidden adventurers through the massive cathedral. To do their work, she knows they must be alone.
All at once, the glamer vanishes and is replaced by a blooming conflagration.
Raen opens with a spell that makes a big entrance.
The ogres take the blast full in the face, but the troll manages to pull itself somewhat out of the way.
With the spell gone, the giant foes roar into action. The acoustics in the hall make it sound like a second peel of thunder after Raen's spell.
Yellow: 26
Purple: 26
Troll: 13
Round 1:
Whistle Pig: Go
Doxon: Go
Ushyle: Go
Hamilton: Go
Vael: Go
Raen: Go
Giants: TBD
Yellow: 26
Purple: 26
Troll: 13 (Regeneration off until Round 2)
4d20 ⇒ (14, 1, 13, 10) = 38
The element of surprise well spent, Raen relies on the others to maintain the front line while she prepares a longer incantation.
|
WP sighs as the marble size ball leaps from Rean's hand,"A bit for warning next time, hmm? I could have gotten closer." WP looks at the illusionist which is half friendly goading and impish spite.
Pig follows the fireball with three small stones of his own targeting the Troll:
1st attack
2nd attack
3rd attack
Hamilton lowers his lance and charges the two-headed troll.
Heartspit:
Damage on Hit:
Raen's words lengthen into the spidery lilt of a complex spell. Meanwhile Whistle Pig cracks each head with a stone (the third passes between the heads.)
Hamilton's charge hits the troll at center mass. The troll begins to panic as the fire prevents his wounds from closing, and those wounds are extremely serious!
Round 1:
Whistle Pig: Hit
Doxon: Go
Ushyle: Go
Hamilton: CHARGE!
Vael: Go
Raen: Casting
Giants: TBD
Yellow: 26
Purple: 26
Troll: 75 (Regeneration off until Round 2)
4d20 ⇒ (14, 1, 13, 10) = 38
Ushyle ewatches aas the fireball bursts into the room with a smile. Now there's an entrance, he thinks to himself, afraid to say it aloud with Raen's attitude lately since...since his return.
He channels that angst into his attack, taking a heartbeat to study it (and Yellow) while drawing Milani's Thorn along the way as he charges the two-headed troll, intent on finishing it before it can recover.
"Hold, Doxon!" Vael urges his dwarven friend, then gathers the energy and chants to the Spirits of Heaven. Starlight swirls around him, transporting the warpriest to the other side of the troll!
Vael then strides forward, spear at the ready.
Just before Hamilton's spear arrives, Ushyle's blade cuts very deep. The troll, overcome while burned, dies from his wounds! Both heads gurgle a sick harmony as the body dies.
Round 1:
Whistle Pig: Hit
Ushyle: Hit
Hamilton: Kill shot
Vael: BAMPF
Doxon: Go
Raen: Casting
Giants: TBD
Yellow: 26
Purple: 26
4d20 ⇒ (14, 1, 13, 10) = 38
Vael moves forward and calls on the Spirits of Heaven to bless his friends actions. An aura of invigorating energy flows from him, washing over his allies.
Doxon shuffles forward next to Ushyle, forming a wall against the oncoming giants.
Vael and Doxon do the dwarf thing as they close for a bolstered battle against the remaining ogres.
The ogres fly into a rage and both close on Ushyle and Hamilton, greatclubs swinging.
Hamilton
THREAT
for
Ribs break as the ogre laughs. The echo of the chamber turns his laughter into a chorus of depraved evil.
Ushyle
THREAT
for
Ushyle takes a hit, though nothing compared to Hamilton.
Round 2:
Whistle Pig: Go
Ushyle: Go
Hamilton: Go
Vael: Go
Doxon: Go
Raen: Go
Giants: TBD
Yellow: 26
Purple: 26
A spontaneous combustion ignites behind the embattled ogres. Raen speaks to it in a quick, clipped, chaotic tongue.
The fiery being lashes out forcefully with a whip of flame.
THREAT CRIT?!
plus plus DC 11 Reflex or catch fire
Hamilton! The wizard herself thinks hurriedly for how she can get the (fortunately) thick-skulled cavalryman out of danger. She decides on a conjuration spell.
Vael feels his life force leave him...
He moves forward and calls upon the spirits to displace Doxon
Raen's magic rages in the hall. The elemental wraps it's flaming whip-arm around the ogre and promptly burns its head to a crisp. The ogre drops with a sickening thud as the charred head shatters.
The other ogre slips and falls in an almost comically similar fashion to its dead comrade.
That's when the party hears shouting from the mess hall...
"THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG IN THERE. GET IN THERE YOU PUNY GIANTS!"
Vael manipulates the field of battle with his strange and esoteric powers... Doxon arrives ready for trouble.
Round 2:
Whistle Pig: Go
Ushyle: Go
Hamilton: Go
Vael: Shaman-fu
Doxon: Go
Raen: All the magic
Giants: TBD
Yellow: 26 (prone)
Ham swerves and teeters in the saddle. He grits his teeth and squeezes with his legs, and Applejack deftly moves away from the battle.
Potion of Cure Serious Wounds:
Bones snap back into place and Ham blinks away much of the pain, but he's still suffering from the wound. That doesn't stop him from winking and blowing a coy little kiss to Raen. He spits out some blood as he does so.
I'm alright. Just need a breather.
Doxon channels the power of Torag into his limbs, infusing his body with the celerity of the flame. He then attacks without mercy (Yellow then Pink).
Swift cast Channel Vigor: Limbs
Reeling from the blow, Hamilton and AJ pull back as Doxon steps in. The dwarf annihilates the prone ogre, leaving a very, very dead foe.
Round 2:
Whistle Pig: Go
Ushyle: Go
Hamilton: Heal
Vael: Shaman-fu
Doxon: Kill
Raen: All the magic
Giants: TBD
"We have company," Raen informs the others quietly, breaking the stillness that fills the hall along with the spreading blood. "They heard us from the mess hall."
Bring them on, Ham coughs.
Bring them on, Ham coughs.
We'll be ready. Ushyle nods, trying to ignore the ringing in his ears from Purple's greatclub.
A heartbeat later, a thought occurs to him. Should we silence this fight, so we don't get a host of 'em coming in?
the reinforcements barge into the room with a mighty battle cry!
Round 3:
Whistle Pig: Go
Ushyle: Go
Hamilton: Go
Vael: Go
Doxon: Go
Raen: Go
Giants: TBD
Raen's summoned servant churns through the pews toward the newcomers. The Varisian follows at a more deliberate pace, reaching deep into the aether to fling yet more death on the newcomers. The bronze ring on her hand burns hot with magic.
"Durned human! Too far ta heal ye," Vael curses Hamilton as his life force flows to the rider and Ushyle.
He then moves forward, calls upon the Spirits of Life, and channels energy to heal his allies. He manages to catch Hamilton and Ushyle.
Vael calls upon the spirits to close the party's wounds for ever more battle.
As Vael heals, Raen throws another ball of fire which rocks the main hall.
All five foes take the full brunt of the spell, with the frost giant being uncannily burned.
Round 3:
Whistle Pig: Go
Ushyle: Go
Hamilton: Go
Vael: Cure
Doxon: Go
Raen: Fireball!
Giants: TBD
White: 31
Black: 31
Orange: 31
Green: 31
Frost: 46
Ushyle positions himself between the onrushing horde of oversized humanoids and his party members, Milani's Thorn at the ready, as he knows Raen's spell will make her an immediate target especially.
Draw and drink a potion of Cure Moderate Wounds
Potion Heals:
Round 3:
Whistle Pig: Go
Ushyle: Move
Hamilton: Cure
Vael: Cure
Doxon: Go
Raen: Fireball!
Giants: TBD
White: 31
Black: 31
Orange: 31
Green: 31
Frost: 46
Doxon rushes after Ushyle, hoping to provide a bulwark between the oncoming giants and his friends, while at the same time summoning more divine power from Torag.
Doxon rushes forward, hoping to not miss the action!
Round 3:
Whistle Pig: Go
Ushyle: Move
Hamilton: Cure
Vael: Cure
Doxon: Move and buff
Raen: Fireball!
Giants: TBD
White: 31
Black: 31
Orange: 31
Green: 31
Frost: 46
|
|
Finally, We are getting down to business.
Pig, steps up to Raen and strains to view the giants over the pews, but they are large enough to give him a decent target. He lets three stones fly at lead ogre (green).
(full round attack:2nd ranged increment, deadly aim, favored enemy +4, clustered shot, large target (+2 damage), rapid shot, precise shot, etc...)
Whistle Pig's sling whistles as bullet after bullet strikes the target. One hill giant goes down after a trio of hits and the fireball!
The giants continue to close, spreading out to avoid another fireball. The frost giant holds back a bit and hurls a boulder at Whistle Pig! for
Round 4:
Whistle Pig: Go
Ushyle: Go
Hamilton: Go
Vael: Go
Doxon: Go
Raen: Go
Giants: TBD
White: 31
Black: 31
Orange: 31
Frost: 46
|
|
WP tries to dodge the incoming fire but takes the boulder to right rib cage. The strike hurts but not nothing Pig can't manage.
"Stones?" WP chuckles, "you throw stones do you? This is how to throw stone properly..."
The halfling move a bit closer to the northern Giant and let's three more stones fly:
(full round attack:2nd ranged increment, deadly aim, favored enemy +4, clustered shot, large target (+2 damage), rapid shot, precise shot, etc...)