Chwaer laughs and looks at Storn, "I guess we're running. Be ready if you see us coming!"
She joins Sander in sneaking.
Storn grins over at Chwaer. "Just bring back some giants when you run."
Molly quickly realized that the camp was well beyond the range of her Detect Magic spell, so she slurped down the invisibility potion and activated her flight hex. She flew up and over the camp, aware that her flight hex only lasted ten minutes or so, and Sander's potion about the same. She made a beeline for her target, the mammoth stables.
A giant-sized rail fence cordons off this large plot of land. To the north are four large barn-like structures. A barred gate is built into the fence to the south. Bales of grass and other vegetable matter are stacked on either side of the barns.She cleared the paddock there, and perched on top of the stable roof for a moment to figure out what to do. There were about 10 mammoths in residence at the moment, with the others on patrol somewhere.
Also in the paddock is a giant-sized centaur-like creature with eight legs teaching a frost giant how to ride a mammoth.
_____________________________________
Down in the fields, Sander and Chwaer scurried over to an emaciated human woman and caught her attention. Given that you weren't wearing rags, she knew immediately that you weren't slaves.
"Oh, praise Desna! Are you here to rescue us? You can't let the overseers see us talking. They'll flog me to death after they capture you! When are we leaving? My old bones can't take much more of this. Does Xander know that you are here?" The words came burbling out of her like water from a leaking dam.
Molly makes a beeline for a cluster of mammoths if she can find one.
Once she is within the beasts' hearing distance, she activates her Feral Speech Hex and whispers: "The Giants are plotting to eat you all for for dinner tonight! Spread the word!"
Sander nods to the woman.
"We are, but you need to hold on a little longer! If everyone escapes now, the giants will know something's wrong and come looking for you, and we don't have anywhere yet to keep you safe!" he says, trying to look like he's actually working instead.
"Who's Xander?" he asks.
Chwaer takes Sander's lead, "how many of you are local? Do you have a place to go? And where can we find Xander?" She looks around for anything that might help them escape or at least put the giants off their tail.
This is a svathurim (say that 5x fast!).
Svathurims and frost giants consider each other allies and distant kin. The hindquarters of an adult svathurim are up to 10 feet tall and 16 feet long, while its giant trunk and head reach up to 18 feet in height. They typically weigh more than 5 tons and may live up to 500 years. Svathurims dwell in arctic regions, where they are immune to the cold, galloping along the shores of polar seas or between high mountain peaks, with individuals organized into clans headed by the strongest hunters.
The nearest mammoth looked around at Molly's words and didn't see anything. It went back to eating. One of the others mumbled something about "What else is new?"
Chwaer and Sander talk with the woman in hushed tones, everyone leaning over to look as if they were picking weeds. She explained that Xander is an Ulfen man that is one of the more recent additions to the slave pool. In addition to being in better condition than most of the slaves, he has spent much of his life in the Mindspin Mountains, and would likely be an excellent guide for the slaves, should they escape. He is tall, lean, and only has one hand.
"He's over there in the barley field, but the giants keep close to him, because he's fresh."
Sander looks at Chwaer to see what she thinks.
"I still have the one invisibility extract," he suggests, "but then we might not have a way out."
Storn tries to pick his teeth with one of his armour spikes.
"So, what is the mightiest floe you have slain? Do you have a good song about it?"
Chwaer nods, "a one-handed man should be easy to find." She turns to Sander and mumbles in Dwarven, "do you think we should wait for Molly's signal?" Again in common, she continues, "let's see what we can find out." She stretches her back and begins to move toward the barley fields if Sander agrees.
Sander nods, and will continue dissembling for a bit until they see what happens with Molly's mammoths.
Pyrrhus thinks about Storn's question. "I guess Gvrack and Ignag, a pair of hobgoblins, a male and a female... never figured out if they were siblings, lovers, or both. Gvrack was an exceptional hunter and bowman while Ignag was stronger than him and preferred melee combat, wielding a large two-handed hammer."
"Alone, each would not be really impressive, but together they were deadly! Gvrack used his arrows to cover for Ignag's wild swings, in a way that whenever she opened her flank to attack, we could do nothing, since there was always an arrow coming from Gvrack." Pyrrhus tells, his mood somber. "Lost two good friends that day and I'd have joined them in their graves if I had not thought about being hit. Instead of defensing myself, I accepted Gvrack's arrows and attacked Ignag, for without him to cover for her, she was a lousy defender. One of his arrows hit my left arm, the other grazed my right leg."
"Hit Ignag first on her ribs and then, once she bowed, on her skull. As she fell, Gvrack shot once more, trying to main my leg and slow me down before I got him, but sadly for him he hit my wood leg! Almost lost my foot, but managed to shred his bow. Then it was easy." He finishes his tale.
"It is not my place, though, to make songs or poetry about myself. I'm a scholar of my people and if my accomplishments become notorious, it would fall to one of my kin to tell them." He explains.
"They're going to eat the calves first. While their mothers are watching," Molly tries. "Come on, lads; you're big and strong! Why not break out? There's wide open plains full of grass out there. And no fat Giants to sit on top of you."
"Ah! The archers are my bane. I pray to Gorum for a longer sword, but Heartspit seems to work." Storn gestures to the ludicrously oversized barbed spear he carries everywhere.
"It is good strategy to take the wound to bring your enemy closer. Hobgoblins sometimes try to be too clever. Best to just run up and stab them. For us it is probably the great giant Urathash in the Cathedral of Minderhal. He sent his minions force to pen us in while almost killing several of us with boulders. Using Gorum's blessing I broke free and the bastard almost caved my chest in with his warhammer. I knew that I was going to Elysium to fight the eternal battles but my comrades won the day and brought me back. That is not the fight I will die in, and the giant army was scattered."
He looks over the area. "Which is why we are now here. Go further up the chain until we cut off the... head. I'm not good at metaphors."
The mammoths still didn't appear phased at Molly's words. They were so focused on eating and being chill that she just couldn't get a rise out of them. They spoke to each other in languid tones.
"Calves? What calves? Who is that? Gred, is that you blathering? Cut it out. I'd like to eat in peace before my turn for the giant bucking contest."
"Not me, Forge. I thought it was you. Who's out there? What do you mean by 'eat the calves first'? There's no calves here. Besides, Willie's got to take his turn now. Shame he has to throw them off the far side of us, cause of not having only one eye to watch them fall."
The mammoths looked around once more, then went back to eating.
-------------------------
As Pyrrhus and Storn traded war stories, Chwaer and Sander left the old woman and headed for the barley fields. The barley was tall, almost 4 feet, and the halfling and dwarf had little trouble hiding in it. They had a lot more trouble finding the person they were looking for, as only Chwaer could see out over the foliage. Finally, they found him, the one-armed Ulfen that still looked to be in decent condition, despite his missing right hand. And, just as the woman warned, there was a frost giant guard not thirty feet away. The giant scanned the entire field, but centered his gaze on the Ulfen more often than on any of the other slaves.
Molly looks at the mammoths to make sure -- do they all have only one eye?
If so, she uses Feral Speech Hex again. But this time, she mimics the voice of a creature even mammoths must fear: the Smilodon!
"I see you, Meat! We'll eat you ALL!"
Molly looked at the two mammoths closest to her. They had two eyes. But then, she glanced over at the mammoth that was being used for riding lessons and she got it. The creature's right eye was missing, and a large scar ran down across the socket and onto the cheek there. A one-eyed mammoth named Willie.
She got the idea then to sound like one of the mammoth's natural predators and tried that. The laid back mammoths looked around again, but still seeing nothing, they relaxed. These guys were really chill. What was in that hay they were eating?
"Alright, boys. Can't say I didn't try," Molly sighs -- and she chants a spell.
Flame, crimson and baleful, blossoms out of nowhere and lances into the dry hay...!
The hay flared into flame and did what Molly had not been able to do yet with subterfuge...it got the laid back mammoths moving.
Willie read up, throwing the giant on his back into the svathurim, knocking both to the ground. The handful of mammoths in the pens burst through the gate, trumpeting their fear. They ran amok in the giant camp, with giants of all kinds running either to catch the panicking beasts or scrambling out of their way. The chaos was all Molly could have hoped for. She only hoped that it was a distraction for the giants far down the mountainside. Her hopes were answered when one of the lookouts in a tower blew its horn, the sound echoing through the mountains.
Sander waits, hoping Molly can come through and will draw the giant's attention away.
He makes a beeline for Xander.
"Psst!" he calls as quietly as he can while hopefully still attracting his attention. "Are you Xander? It sounds like you're the leader of these prisoners?"
Chwaer watches Sander to Xander and looks for somewhere near Xander to stay hidden. She darts out and slides down next to one of the weed piles ready for burning. "psst, the old lady said you were in charge"
The man looked startled at the appearance of Sander and Chwaer, but then quickly looked around and muttered. "Who are you? What's going on here? I'm not in charge of anything. I'm a slave, and a one-handed one at that."
The man sounded very bitter, and looking at the stump, you can see that the wound id relatively fresh.
"Damn giants cut my axe hand off. Who are you?" he repeated.
Chwaer keeps watching the giants to see if they look her way, "I'm Chwaer, this is Sander. The old lady said you were a local and might be able to help the others hide once you're free. That true?"
"We're from Trunau (or, at least, I am)," Sander explains. "We've been trying to stop the giants, so they don't kill everyone we know and love. We just arrived here outside camp, and discovered you. We want to free everyone, but we need someone who can take care of everyone if we do!"
"Not a local, but been in these mountains for a while now, before the giants caught me. I know of a few places this lot could get shelter in if we could get free of the giants. We'd need a pretty major lead on them, though. There's a lot of folks here that move slowly."
The echoing blasts of the giants' horn up at camp continued to make their way softly down to the fields at the base of the mountain. The giants on slave patrol started looking about nervously, then one of them blew his own horn in a specific pattern. The slaves all started to gather together at this signal.
"Look, I've got to go. If we don't move fast enough to gather when they blow that signal, they'll just beat someone. What are your plans?"
"We're still trying to figure them out!" Sander shoots back. "We'll let you know as soon as we can. In the meantime, if you think it's safe, let the others know to be ready!"
With that said, unless she objects, he uses his remaining invisibility extract with his alchemical allocation extract to turn him and Chwaer invisible again.
Chwaer gives Sander a thumbs up and tells Xander to stay safe.
Xander hurried off to join the throng of slaves as the giants worriedly looked around them, but mostly up towards the mountain plateau. One slave was beaten when he didn't move to the group fast enough. A giant strode up to him and backhanded the man across the face. The scrawny man flew through the air and crumpled to the ground. After a moment, when he didn't rise, the giant prodded him with the butt of his axe. When the man didn't stir, the giant shrugged, bent over and picked up the body by one leg, and dragged it behind him as the entire group made their way back up the road towards Skirgaard.
------------------------
Within the camp, pandemonium reigned for a good half hour as the mammoths knocked down tents, pushed giants aside, and generally ran amok. Apparently fire was all the motivator they needed to get a really good rampage on. Molly's flight and invisibility extracts wore off a few minutes after the carnage started, but she had all the distraction she needed to investigate or flee.
No fool, her, Molly gets going as soon as the mammoths run from her fire. She flies back to her original vantage point, then cautiously makes her way back to camp -- making sure no one and nothing is following her.
"Heya, lads. What'd you get up to?"
Once everyone is back together, Chwaer grins at the witch, "that worked well Molly, the guards down by us started pulling all the prisoners back together. They definitely looked concerned. Do you think it would work again? We had a chance to talk to Xander - he knows a few places he could help the other prisoners hide if we can get them free."
Once they are reunited and the information has been shared, Pyrrhus gives his opinion. "If this Xander knows of places to keep the other slaves hidden and safe, then we could try to indeed free them first. Tomorrow we could ambush the giants that are keeping watch over them."
"It'll work as long as mammoths fear fire and I can get close enough," Molly replies, shrugging.
"You didn't learn anything more about the camp while you were there, Molly?" Sander asks, disappointed.
That could have been useful.
He turns his attention back to Pyrrhus at the dwarf's comments, though.
"Maybe. They're horrible to the slaves. I think that's a good idea, and if a bunch of giants come again, we can join them and maybe ambush anyone who comes hunting for them for a few days? Or ... if they seem safe enough, we could try to infiltrate their camp again while the giants are out looking for the escapees!" he suggests.
"I know they got at least one svathurim, teaching them how ta ride mammoths," Molly replies, shrugging. "I know there's a one-eyed mammoth by name of Willie. Honestly, if I'd been after doin' some espionage, I'da needed more time invisible. I got in, made a big mess, and I got out. And I can do it again; there's loads of stuff I can set on fire in there."
Storn beams and is about to hammer a giant steel fist on Molly's back enthusiastically... but he also remembers she barfs spiders on her enemies.
"Sander is smart. I say we free slaves and conduct a raid when they are on the hunt. Although we want to make sure the slaves don't get caught and killed. That would be awkward."
Sander immediately starts doubting his plan the moment Storn says it's smart.
Chwaer grins as Storn stops himself from accidentally pummeling Molly, ]b]"Sounds like a plan."[/b]
As Molly and the rest of you compared notes, it seems clear that your initial plan worked, and that you all agreed on the next phase of your plans - freeing the slaves by ambushing the giants guarding them. From your observations today, you know that the giants guarding the slaves stay together near the slaves as they march up and down the mountain, but spread out among the slaves in the fields as they work. The real question is, do you attempt to free the slaves tomorrow? Or wait a few days and see if the pattern holds?
Sander looks at the others. He thinks they should wait so he can prepare his proper extracts, but otherwise do this as quickly as possible.
"We're not very good at this, but maybe we can try to take them while they're spread out? Just kill one at a time? That seems easier, right?"
"My strongest spell is still Lightning bolt," Molly notes. "That works best if they're lined up. Also, we need to keep in mind that as soon as something goes wrong, the giants blow their horns and then the whole camp comes charging out."
The Witch scratches herself behind an ear, thoughtful. "I hate to say it, but I think we need to do more harm to the camp before we free the slaves. MUCH more harm. We need to weaken them so they won't react as quickly as they like... or desensitize them."
Slowly, a nasty grin spreads across Molly's face. "Anyone here know how to cast ghost sound? If the sound of a horn blown keeps sounding from one of those towers when there's nothing wrong, well... I reckon that'll be a good start to begin breaking their security."
Molly laughs at the idea, "that would be fantastic Molly. the classic 'boy who cried goblin'! For the lightning, how precise can you be with it? Would we be putting the slaves in harms way too?"
"It's a straight line," Molly replies, shrugging. "I can aim over the slaves' heads, and with my Flight Hex I can make double sure they're not in the strike zone. That said, nothing's stopping a giant that spots me from picking someone up as a living shield. So I'd need invisibility... again."
The Witch gives Sander a crooked smile. "Sorry to keep putting you on the spot, my friend. If I could cast that spell myself, I would. But I'm no Deception Witch."
Pyrrhus shakes his head. "Deception is also not my thing... don't make good and proudful stories most of the times. I'm a dwarven storyteller, not an elven one."
"I think we need to know more about the camp if we're going to disrupt it. Maybe we go try to scout again tomorrow?"