GM Bigrin's Giantslayer (Inactive)

Game Master bigrin42

"It's been here for a while, so unless the giants just realized it, I don't think that's the problem..."

Thank you all. Fun maps to make in this AP

Storn followed the dropoff to the west, seeing that the path they were on did indeed slope down to meet up with the rising floor from the skeleton room. It also met up with another path headed north, possibly intersecting with the split you came across when you first entered the cave.

Molly took the time to study her surroundings with her arcane sight, but saw no signs of magical auras on anything other than the gear you brought in with you.

Here's the map

So, where to?

Map link comes back to this page.

"I guess we should go down? See if there are any clues to what's going on? We still need to find out what made that noise and if it's a threat to the town, right?"

He carefully makes his way down, fully expecting the skeletons to animate.

Quill casts Light on a stone and throws it ahead.

"If the orcs came this way, it would stand to reason that they would have seen and fought any of the undead, right? So...either this is the right way or the wrong way, huh?"

Quill takes a moment to find tracks.

"Wait a minute, I just had an idea..."

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22 Survival

Storn grunts as he wanders through the halls, looking around and being fairly impressed by everything.

"Well, it is a way."

Spotting Quill looking for tracks, Storn takes a step back and waits for the elf to complete his work.

So it does. Try this link instead

Quill continues to look to for any recent tracks.

"Please remind me to come back here when we clear this cave and defeat the greenskins. I'm going to take home some bones. I have a project in mind for them." Yelena smiles at the thought. "But for now, let's keep pressing forward. Our families are depending on us."

Molly turns on Yelena, and there is just no way to describe her expression other than 'furious'.

"'Orcs have killed people and are using their skulls as totemic decorations. Oh no, they are evil and we must kill them! An Ogre smashed a man flat and sliced off a few trophies to keep. Oh no, it is evil and we must kill it!' Are you even hearing yourself? These were not animals you killed out of need; no matter what their crimes were in life, these were people whose kin laid their remains to rest! You are talking about bloody grave-robbery! If you think this crypt is an unholy place, drag a priest or two down here and have it consecrated, but otherwise leave them be. Even if they were evil in life, their fate is in the hands of higher powers now. You got no more right to go carving up the dead for your amusement or convenience than any Orc, Ogre, Troll or anything else does."

"This isn't the time for that talk. From either of you. We have to stop what we can and keep fighting. I am not even from here and I fight and defend at your sides. We can discuss morality afterwards, but the only morality we need right now is that there are people attack the city and we need to stop them. If we can find a reason...fantastic..." tired from the fighting...the bloodshed...and she knows that everyone else is too, so perhaps they were all on edge.

I apologize...restaurant + this time of year. I'll be able to post regularly, but weekends get much, much harder.

As the others bicker about comparative morality and the disturbing of the dead, Quill was busy looking at the ground. Mostly stone, with a thin covering of sand and grit, it should be a good surface for displaying any recent movement. The fact that it yielded no tracks was somewhat shocking to the elf.

Quill holds up his hands, trying to stop the party.

"There are no tracks here...nothing!" Quill alerts. "The orcs didn't come this way or are master trackers. We should go back the other way. There might be unpleasantness this way. You know...undead."

"It'd have to be floating bedsheet variety, then. Shamblers'd leave footprints... unless they've been waiting for something warm and juicy to get close enough to trigger whatever orders they got given by who made 'em stir."

Molly looks pensive.
"I'd rather it's shamblers. Bedsheets are downright nasty."

"I agree with Molly and Mariana," Sander says. "There's no need to disturb the dead, even if they aren't our dead. And it's not the right time to talk about it. If the lad says there are no tracks this way, we should probably backtrack. Quill, can you find any other tracks back there?"

"Quill, can you find any other tracks back there?"

Quill shrugs.

"Sure, I can try...let's go back there and look."

Quill returns to where they encountered the orcs. He checks the area or orc tracks beyond the initial battlefield.

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18 Survival

The dwarven raises her eyebrows in surprise. "Well, first, I'm not doing it right now, genius. We have more important things going on. And second, I was planning on getting a permit before I collected them. In fact, I think I have an extra one right here..." Yelena reaches into her pocket, only to draw out her hand in the universal sign of disdain, which she broadly displays to Molly. "There it is! I like to keep this permit on me just in case. I call it, 'Don't tell me what to do." She lets her hand drop and winks at Molly. "Don't fret none. I'm not going to make a gruesome fetish or anything like that. Bone is a light but surprisingly strong material due to the lattice structure of the calcium. It is rare to find bones of that size. It's just raw material for me, not an insult to their ancestors. Which I wouldn't care about in the first place." She makes sweeping motion toward the other side of the cavern. "Shall we move on?"

Returning back to the crossroads, Quill found that the orcs and explosions had made a pretty mess of things, and it was difficult to sort out which from what. Still, there was a clear boot impression that showed the wearer heading off to the eastern path.

Here's the map

Quill kneels, looking at the boot print.

"I think...I think this is a boot print! Here!! Look!!" Quill points and looks to the east. "Yell-ena! Storn! That way!"

Quill casts light on a stone and tosses it that way.

The stone bounced into a large chamber, illuminating the stone bridge and quite a few large rocks and stalagmites. From your position on the western side of the bridge, you can see dust and cobwebs on the floor and walls.

Here's the map

Disinterested in the argument about ancestors and that sort of thing - they aren't Storn's ancestors after all - Storn lounges around, bored while he waits for Quill to find something. He leaps up as Quill spots a boot print.

"Ha hah! We have found our quarry! Onwards to glorious battle! We shall play a funeral dirge on their windpipes!"

Storn starts stomping ahead - cautiously - to the east, in the direction Quill indicated.

Storn stomped along the bridge, with Yelena and Quill close behind, and the others following. As he reached the entry to the next chamber, his light fell on something moving in the shadows. It looked like a stork, with six legs and ratty feathers. Another moved in the distance with a jerky motion. Sander, always on the lookout for danger, spotted them even before Storn, and was quick to act.

Sander moves up, scooping up a rock he can throw at the creatures.

Move to N-32; pick up a rock to throw.

Yelena moves up behind Storn [M35] and raises her hammer in a readied stance.

Possible AoO if they come...
Large dwarven longhammer 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 143d6 + 7 ⇒ (3, 1, 4) + 7 = 15

Molly frowns at the odd-looking birds, puzzled as to what they might be.

What kind of Knowledge check might serve?

K. Arcana to identify

Sander moved up, snatching a good throwing rock from the ground. Before anyone else could respond, the two stork-like creatures took to the air, swooping in to slash at Storn with jagged beaks. One caught him on the side of the face, leaving a small wound on the man's left cheek.

Knowledge (arcana) 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14

Molly shoulders her crossbow, aims, fires and starts reloading even while the arrow is in flight!

Firing at the lower bird: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7 for 1d8 ⇒ 3 damage.

Storn roars as the weird bird thing jabs at him. The beady-eyed, huge-bearded warrior just screams at the creature for a bit before slashing out as hard as he can with his greatsword.

"BEHOLD THE MIGHT OF GORUM!"

Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26 Damage: 2d6 + 4 ⇒ (2, 3) + 4 = 9
It's not my birthday!: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19 Damage: 2d6 + 4 ⇒ (6, 5) + 4 = 15

"BAAAHAHAHAH! TONIGHT I DINE ON WHATEVER THE HELL YOU ARE!"

Free action to bluster, standard to kill whichever one done me wrong.

Round 1, Init 5

"Bad birds! Bad birds!!"

Quill fires whatever bird wasn't just flattened by Storn's yelling mighty blow. He moves to get a clear shot.

1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 6 + 1 = 20 to hit; (+PBS)
1d8 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 + 1 = 4 damage.

AC 17, HP 15

"I'm coming, Storn!" Yelena takes a big step [M34] and takes a big swing with her hammer.

Target M37
Large dwarven longhammer 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 143d6 + 7 ⇒ (3, 1, 4) + 7 = 15

Getting her weapon ready, she pulls an arrow and prepares for just the right moment.

"Careful in the back, we don't want to get into our fighters' ways..."

Sander loads his stone into his sling and lets it fly toward the nearest bird.

Mwk sling (into melee): 1d20 + 5 - 4 ⇒ (16) + 5 - 4 = 17
Damage: 1d3 ⇒ 1

Both of the gryphs fell as Storn and Yelena sprang to the attack. Quill's arrow found its mark in the southern bird. Even Sander got a hit in, his stone bouncing from the skull of the smaller gryph just before Yelena crushed it to the ground. Storn's loping strike neatly severed the head from the other gryph, sending it tumbling down.

"I shudder to think what those ugly freaks were doing here..."

While others heal, Quill checks the area for tracks again, trying to confirm if the orcs came this way.

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9 Survival

Knowledge Arcana to identify, peeps.

"What were those things? Why would birds live down here? It's very wierd," Quill mentions as if nothing else that day had been equally weird. "Do birds live underground?"

In all the fighting and bird tracks, Quill lost the tracks he was following. Still, this chamber only had one outlet other than the one you entered by. To the east, another stone bridge leaped out over the water-filled chasm below. The bridge is covered with cobwebs.

Here's the map

"Webs," Molly warns while reloading. "Look up, down and all around. Giant spiders could be hiding anywhere."

Quill leaves the others to examine the webs while he moves forward to check for more tracks.

"Let me look again. We want to be sure this is the right way."

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23 Survival

Knowledge (arcana): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20
Earlier
"They live underground, Quill. I don't know why, though. I guess it's like dwarves, or moles ... Some things just like to live underground..."

Later
Sander shudders.

"Giant spiders. As if things couldn't get any worse."

He looks around, hoping to find no further sign of poisonous, web-spinning arachnids.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24

Sander looked all about for signs of spiders, but other than the webbing, he wasn't able to pick up any. There were plenty of cracks and crevices for such flexible creatures to hide, though, so that didn't mean anything.

Quill continued to sort through the dirt and bird tracks - six feet per bird left a lot of tracks - to find the trail once more. Finally, he found it. The boot print continued eastward, towards the stone bridge. There was also a smudge of something else - the hand-sized pad of a large dog or wolf.

Quill cheers happily.

"I found the trail! And there is a dog or wolf print as well! They must have come this way!"

Quill casts light on a stone and tosses it down the way, as if to see the ones they track standing in the circle of light, just waiting to be found.

"Storn! Yell-ena! Molly! Mariana! Sander! Let's get going!"

"Son, I know it's hard with Storn around, but we should probably try to be quiet, right? So they don't know we're coming?" Sanders whispers.

Stealth: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16

"NOISY?! HOW DARE YOU I'M NO--- oh."

Storn does his best to tippy toe.

Tippy Toe: 1d20 - 4 ⇒ (9) - 4 = 5

clank clank clank clank clank clank clank

"Given you couldn't sneak through a big-band performance, how about you just go ahead and take point?" Molly suggests.

"How 'bout we take the initiative and just set those webs on fire? You know, in case we can't see some giant bug waiting for us."

The attempts to be stealthy weren't exactly successful, especially with Storn crashing about. Still, nothing else attacked as you approach the next land bridge over the water. Yelena wondered aloud at the possibility of just burning the bugs out, but no one responded to her.

Here's the map

Storn sheaths his sword, grabs a torch, and lights it. He draws his sword again, holding it with his off hand as he approaches.

"Huh, no big bugs yet. Well, keep on. If webs block our way, I'm burning 'em!"

Storn presses on. If webs comes close enough for something to ambush him from them, he burns them.

Move to L 49.

"Go on," Molly says as she sways forward. "Advance, brave heroes."

Situating herself after being distracted in her thoughts again Or restaurants in the holiday season... and she knocks an arrow and looks to the front. "Yelena had a good idea...I'd be a bit more happy about this situation if I still had any spells left..."

Yelena wondered aloud at the possibility of just burning the bugs out, but no one responded to her.

Quill casts light on a rock and tosses it to O60ish.

"I can't worry too much about being stealthy, Molly. It's not as if the light isn't giving us away. Whomever is there has got to know someone is coming because of the light," Quill opines, shuffling up with Molly.

"Don't worry Mariana, I have plenty of spells left." Quill offers not-helpfully.

"You and me both," grumbles Storn. "If I ask anything more of Gorum he's going to get irritated. And you do not want a God of war irritated with you."

Storn waves the torch at the rest of the group.

"I've got a torch here. I'm just not burning out bugs unless it looks like I'm gonna get bit. Come on, let's move!"

He then pauses. And looks over his shoulder at Quill incredulously.

"You cast spells? More than just that water orison? You saving them for some sort of emergency we haven't encountered yet?"

As Storn converses he's heading down the bridge, lighting any webs that get too close to him.