With little he can do to help at the moment, Sander uses the wand again to help Chwaer, then pulls out a jar of alchemist's fire. If he's going to die, maybe the dwarf will escape and can tell Louly he died bravely.
Noticing the badly-battered Storn, it chimes once... and bombards him with the Aid-spell.
As the magic surges over Storn he gasps for air a little, but remains still on the ground, bleeding out.
Molly's elemental blasted into the badly injured Urathash. The stone giant turned to face it, even as Quill moved to a new position and fired a single arrow. The giant stood up straight, almost as still as a statue, then looked down to see the arrow poking out of a gap in his armor at his left armpit. The arrow was buried near to its fletching, having hit one of the few folds of a stone giant's skin that wasn't super dense. In slow motion, Urathash fell first to his knees, and then to his face on the stone tiles. The commander of Minderhal's recruitment camp was dead.
Once you got your teammates healed and stabilized, you had time to look around the room for anything of interest or value. In addition to his armor and weapons, Urathash had a scroll, some daggers, a magical baldric, and a stone unholy symbol of Minderhal.
The room itself also held a locked stone coffer. Too big to carry with you, the lock could be picked or the container smashed, if you weren't worries about the fragility of the contents.
Chwaer slumps down next to Storn, "you ok, big guy?" She eyes the baldric but quickly realizes her axe won't fit in it. He smiles as Quill plays a quick two step on her head with a wand.
AC 26, touch 14, flat-footed 23 (inc. barkskin, mutagen)
Fort +11 (+6 vs. poison), Ref +10, Will +4 (+2 vs. fear)
CMD 18
Bombs: 12/12; Mutagen: 1/1; Spontaneous healing: 20/20; Blast
Sipping jacket: Bomber's eye (4/8); +10 range increment, +1 to hit
Effects: +4 Con (+2 Fort saves), +2 AC, -2 Cha; barkskin (+3 AC), shield (+4 AC)
Extracts; Blast Finesse ritual: []
1st (5/day): bomber's eye [x], ant haul [x], enlarge person [x], shield [x][x]
2nd (3/day): alchemical allocation [x][x], barkskin [x][x]
3rd (2/day) fly [x], invisibility [x], fly [x]
"Good shot, Quill!" Sander says. "I was sure he was going to kill all of us. We should get back to Etena and let her know before someone comes up to see what's happened. We can rest and then hopefully get out in the disarray to find the stuff she wanted."
He takes a look at the chest to see if it's safe to open, and if he can manage it.
Storn lets out a loud gasp as he is healed from the brink of death. His eyes snap open as he looks around wildly. He grins at Chwaer who is leaning over him.
"Not time to face the Grey Lady yet. Thought that was the end. Gorum will have me fight. I WILL NOT RUST! There is more fighting to do." He leans on his stupidly big spear to get to his feet before kicking Urathash.
"HAH! The leader of this army has fallen! Trunau is ... well maybe saved? Regardless, a great victory. FIST!"
A fist the size of Quill hammers Quill on the back, but very friendly-like. After taking several healthy shots from Quill's wand, he grabs his own and drains it like a juice box.
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Quill watches Storn suck down his wand like a man dying of thrist might tackle a garden hose. After Storn hands it back, Quill carefully wipes it off and puts it back into his belt pouch.
Well, I did offer it around. But sheesh.
He then waits to see what happens with Sander's attempt at the locked object.
Chwaer watches Sander fiddle with the lock on the chest, "I never could figure those things out. Give me a nice key and a well oiled lock any day of the week!" She looks at the stone Minderhal symbol, "should we bring this back to Etena?"
"Greatswords are nature's key," says Storn sagely. He nods over to Chwaer. "Yeah give the symbol back to Etena."
Despite his best efforts, Sander is unable to open the stone coffer. The lock was either extraordinarily good, or so corroded his tools wouldn't budge the cylinder. Perhaps a bit of both?
Despite his best efforts, Sander is unable to open the stone coffer. The lock was either extraordinarily good, or so corroded his tools wouldn't budge the cylinder. Perhaps a bit of both?
Chawer eyes the chest, "we can probably break it open but not sureit wouldn't destroy whatever is inside." She walks over to search Urathash again.
After fumbling around in Urathash's clothes, she shakes her head, "keep going up while we're here?"
Sander blinks. Looks at the now open chest and then back at Quill.
"Why didn't you just do that in the first place?!"
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"Why didn't you just do that in the first place?!"
Quill looks perplexed as he has no real good reason.
"Well, you looked so happy to try. I just...I just wanted you to feel useful, I guess," Quill rubs the back of his neck uncertainly. "I wanted you to succeed...and besides, I wanted to save my magics in case I needed them elsewhere, you know?"
Storn nods as Quill shapes the chest. "Sometimes it's nice to let everyone have a turn," he says sagely. While Quill works with the chest he stomps over to the papers and starts scanning them.
"WORDS! I always hated reading. Anyone good at it?"
Sander glances hastily over his shoulder, making sure Storn hasn't turned into a goblin, friendly or otherwise. Wait a second...
"Yeah, I'm aces. Budge over," Molly tells Storn as she starts scanning the papers.
Quill's spell allowed easy access to the stone coffer, though the lid was still heavy enough that it caused him to strain to open it. On the top was an exquisite Andoran lace wedding dress, with only a small tear and bloodstain marring the left sleeve. Underneath that was a game board carved with small notches, and a hollow containing a leather pouch with 30 agate stones polished to resemble eggs and a collection of 12 quartzite crystals carved to resemble rocs in flight. Finally, at the bottom there was a oiled deerskin containing three torcs, once of which radiated magic.
Not seeing anything that can immediately help, Sanders looks to the stairs leading still farther up.
"Should we investigate there? I don't know how long we have before Urathash's giants realize he's dead, so maybe we should look around quickly, then check those papers and maps then go back to the forge to rest? Then we can try to fix the forge..."
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"Why..." Molly says, very slowly, "was a big, honking evil stone giant saving up a lacey wedding dress that wouldn't fit 'cept over his... I wanna say hand?"
The Witch shudders. "F'get it. Some things is too horrible ta consider. Like how a flaming giant managed ta kill the thing off'f a bride this neatly."
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"Should we investigate there? I don't know how long we have before Urathash's giants realize he's dead, so maybe we should look around quickly, then check those papers and maps then go back to the forge to rest? Then we can try to fix the forge..."
Quill hands out the loot from the coffer, taking nothing for himself. He looks at Sander when the little not-man speaks, and nods along.
”Yeah, we probably have a bit more time and shouldn’t be walking around as injured as we are,” Quill agrees. ”I could use a rest too, but yeah, probably not here. Maybe back someplace else? I dunno.”
Quill will help read the papers on the previous floor.
Storn looks at the wedding dress curiously and then shrugs helplessly. "Some sort of tragic romance, who cares. Let's grab this and look at that forge."
After a bit of banter and decision making, you decide to at least investigate what lay on the floor above. Chwaer went first, being the sneakiest of the lot, and then motioned the others up when she saw no immediate signs of danger.
Carved into center of the floor of the 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, though whether this killed the prisoners or they starved to death is unclear.
Chwaer tries to identify any of the prisoners from where they are, reluctant to enter the room. She sees the other stairway across from them and reports back that the tower still goes up.
Sander creeps up, face paling as he tries to make sense of what he's seeing.
From your position on the stairs, there is nothing more to be seen, though prolonged observation tells you the bodies in the cages do not appear to be breathing. So, dead for now.
"Maybe we should just leave them and wait until all the giants scatter," Sander suggests.
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You quickly left the upper levels, descending back down the tower to the map room. There, you collected a bag-load of documents, with some of you scanning them as you went to get the gist of what they had to say. There was a lot.
First and foremost is the revelation that Minderhal’s Valley is just a recruiting station for Volstus’s armies. Urathash has been evaluating the new conscripts here and sending the most promising recruits to a frost giant village called Skirgaard for additional training. One of the maps on the walls pinpoints the location of this training camp, which lies in the Mindspin Mountains nearly 150 miles south-southwest of the Cathedral of Minderhal.
Secondly, you learn that the Storm Tyrant himself resides in a stronghold built upon a cloud that can soar through the sky, which is also currently located somewhere within the vast range of the Mindspins. Unfortunately, there are no clues as to the flying fortress’s exact location—not even Urathash has this key piece of information.
"Well, bugger," Molly curses. "The bastard ain't here ta be assassinated! I can talk ta the birds, but it'd be a major undertaking ta find this flyin' castle."
Sander moans in displeasure as he realizes there's still a threat to Louly and Trunau even after they're done here. Still, he steels his resolve. This first, then they'd figure out what's next.
"We need to rest. They probably still don't know about Urathash yet, and we need that to happen before we can get out, if Etanna was being honest. Let's maybe go back to the forge. In the morning, we can finish checking out that tower and then get what we need to activate the forge."
Chwaer helps carry what she can, keeping her axe ready as they move back to the forge.
You managed to make your way back to the forge without being seen, though it was close going in the big amphitheater room. Still, you managed it, and Etena cackled as you told her of Urathash's death.
"Bout time someone smashed his head in! Good job. Now all you got to do is find the elements to re-light the Forge!"
Etena agreed to let you rest here in her room, seeing as she didn't move about much anyways. It was in the wee hours of the morning when Chwaer, who didn't need much sleep on account of the ring she wore, saw the giant slowly creeping towards where Storn was lying flat on his back, snoring to the high heavens. Despite her blindness and great size, she moved with stealth and slowly reached out unerringly for Agrimmosh, the hammer Storn carried looped to his pack.
Chwaer slowly reaches down for her axe.
The blind giant didn't see Chwaer's stealthy movments, but she does pause when the dwarf started talking. She hesitated, her massive have inches from the hammer, waiting to sense if she would be able to grab the hammer without being caught.