GM Bigrin's Giantslayer (Inactive)

Game Master bigrin42

Sander blanches.

"That's horrible," he says. "I mean, you may be right, but if we do things like that, are we any better than the orcs?"

Maybe we just take the +2 axe and leave the rest of the armor/weapons? They aren't value-less, but might not be worth the hassle of carrying. Dieter might actually be able to use that Large handaxe as a two-handed weapon? (I'd have to look up the details but it is a handaxe so if used two-handed...)

Speaking of horrible war crimes, do we want to go try to blow the dam? And do we want to just try to flee the fort or look around more?

That sounds good to me. Take the handaxe, geode, correspondence, consumables, and coinage.

"Yes. We are burning her DEAD, not alive, and we're not roasting her for dinner. 'Sides, it's no worse than burial."

Storn looks sadly at the ground. "It'd be nice to take her head and scare some folks, but I don't really feel like it. Another option is we just cut off her head and throw it off the balcony. The fort will fall apart. ... Just like my people did when the demons attacked."

Quill tries to figure out why others are so sad while others search and loot. He agrees with taking Gren's head, both as a trophy for Trunau and as protection against reanimation.

Dieter stands beside the giantess, adjusts his footing, and grips the handle of his bardiche. The blade comes up... And down. And again and again until the head is severed. "I need a bag... "

Quill solved an emotional problem with violence. That's like Storn 101. He'll be proud once he stops feeling sad.

shacking his head a bit still feeling the effects some. Kipa struggles to get up and continue on his tasks but is happy to not get the attention that Storn is getting from Quill.... he wouldnt want to have to pretend that it hurt to save his feelings and then have another thing weighing his soul down.

Well Storn also rolled a -one- on his will save. Also it's more fun if Storn has a good cry. :D

"OK, let's go make sure there are no prisoners here and then get out of here. We'll take what we can carry -- the axe and potions, coins, letters and geode -- and on the way out go blow up the dam."

Molly, Sander, see the spoiler above. If there are knowledge checks that you could do, that would be keen.

Quill readies to leave, following Sander. He wipes away the tears from his eyes. He wasn't crying because of the malevolent spell, no. He was crying because his hand was stinging from slapping Storn.

Dude's face hurts.

Quill clenches and unclenches his hand, trying to work out the pain.

Knowledge (arcana): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (12) + 12 = 24

And ha!

So, what is the plan? Vacating the premises? Out the window? Down the toilet? Out the front door?

We're waiting for the result of Molly (if she posts one) and Sander's Know (Arcana) check on the sadness effect. We try to figure out if it's permanent or what.

Quill waits to see what Sander says.

Doh! Totally missed Sander's post

Sander looked around and winced at the swirling miasma that coiled into and out of the three affected party members. The melancholy was definitely magical in nature, and as he watched, he could tell that its strength was not fading. In fact, it looked...permanent.

I'll let others advise what to do. That effect is the suck. Sadly, this may end our exploration of the Fort.

Quill shakes his head at Sander's explanation (when it offered) and wonders if it will lead to another round of Storn's blubbering.

Storn grumbles as he stares sadly at the floor.

"You threw that skull out the window that caused this sad thing. Maybe we should smash it. Can we get it back?"

I'd say it's up to the folks who are suffering it. We can do what they want.

"I think it's some sort of curse," Sander says. "I thought maybe the skull might be the secret to breaking it -- maybe it's some type of haunting -- but we can't do that now, thanks to Quill."

Is the skull somewhere we could get it?

"I wonder if that skull belonged to someone important?" Dieter looks out the window to see if he can sight where it landed and if the party could reach it safely.

Dieter looked out the window into the darkened courtyard of the fort. There wasn't enough light to see any details, but he did see several groups of ogres still tormenting that orc from earlier.

Dieter sighs and shakes his head. "It's gone." He leans back into the room and stares at the floor in thought for a few moments. "I say we get back to Trunau and find a cleric to break this enchantment. Plus,the whole region needs to learn about this army in the mountains."

Quill shrugs, having no regrets about his course of action. It was impulsive act, sure. He learned it from Storn.

Quill is happy to leave, believing that he'll get a hero's welcome back in Trunau...especially from Marigold Pottersmoot. He can't possibly ignore him if he's a real hero to the town.

"Let's hurry to the dungeons, then find the back door," Molly suggests. "Sander, if you've a bomb going spare, drop it on those Ogres. It's sick what they're doing."

Maybe Spellcraft for the curse....? 1d20 + 11 - 2 ⇒ (1) + 11 - 2 = 10

"Won't that let them know we're here, though?"

Sander decides to ignore that advice...

"Once they find out Grenseldek is dead they're going to tear each other apart," mutters Storn as he stalks off, doubly sad that they're too sad to go kill everything else in the keep.

So, what are you guys going to do? There are a number of ways out of here, but you have to actually, you know, move. Let me know where you are going, and what your plan is.

Do we have an overall map we can look at? I think we want to retreat back the way we came and see if we can find a way to descend.

Seconded. Let's find the dungeons and then find a way out that is not the toilet.

You are in Grenseldek's chamber which takes up the entire top part of the tower. Here is the map of the upper floors where you came out of the toilet. The door at the North leads out onto a stairs area that leads to the courtyard.

Then we'll try the double doors to the south. Presumably after an inspection from Kipa.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (17) + 10 = 27

To be clear, only three of us are crying like little babies right now from the crushing despair, Storn, Kipa, and Molly? (Quill might be crying, but only just to fit in. He's not sad.)

Quill is happy to follow Sander to the south, staying in the back with bow ready.

I'm not crying, Ears; I'm grumpy, instead. :p

Kipa walks over to the doors Sanders is looking at and does his normal checks on it

percep to locate traps: 1d20 + 11 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 11 + 3 = 19
disable if there is a trap: 1d20 + 18 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 18 + 3 + 2 = 43
disable to unlock if it is locked: 1d20 + 18 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 18 + 3 + 2 = 33

"Looks like this door way is clear for us to move through now"

Dieter waits for Kipa to examine and open the door. Who knows what the giantess keeps in her back chambers?...

You made your way back down the stairs, and were passing through the cage room, headed for the outer rooms when something caught Kipa's eye. It was a white dress, with something sparkly on it. The halfling couldn't not go for a closer look, could he?

It turned out to be a wedding dress, sized for a giant, with sparkling gemstones sewn into the lace at hems, and cuffs. The whole thing weighed more than the halfling, but it had to be worth a small fortune. The dress was laying on top of a trunk, and sandwiched between dress and trunk were several letters. One was obviously a draft of the marriage proposal you had seen in Grenseldek's chambers. The other was a crumpled up response to that proposal. The response had several tear stains on it, and was torn in places, in addition to being crumpled.

There was also a detailed catalog of the proposed dowry, which included treasures looted from Redfort and the surrounding areas, many of which you can see in the room around you as you look. It also contains several items from Uskroth's tomb beneath Trunau as future additions to the list; most notably, Uskroth's armor, Uskroth's hammer, and something called "Uskroth's rock". This last item is accompanied by a rough sketch of the geode half you found on Skreed Gorewillow, and currently have in your possession. The scribbled notes around the sketch hint that the geode is part of a treasure map of sorts.

In addition to the items scattered around the room, the chest contains a sizable trove of coins, gems, jewelry, and other items.

Quill nearly begins blubbering again as he reads the notes of unrequited love and infinite disdain. He feels the rejection all too keenly.

Ow. Maybe I shouldn't speak to Marigold. I couldn't take the pain.

"Uh, you guys should read this. Apparently, the Storm Tyrant is some sort of uhm...tyrant." Quill hands the note around or offers to read for those who cant read good and want to learn how to do other stuff good too.

Quill will offer to help carry some of the loot with his limp, noodly arms...like the gems and anything else of minimal weight, like his own self-esteem.

"Heh," Molly says after reading the letters. "She underestimated him. Thought he was little shakes like her, but he's out of her league. He's BIG shakes. Thought she'd walk inta that valley as Mrs. Big, but instead she'd creep in as the lowest dog in the pack, a laughingstock who'd lost all but her life. Don't feel too sorry for her, even if she did die virginal; she was trying to buy her way into his regard with what she took from her victims."

The Witch shakes her head. "Well. We know where he is. Sounds like he's a Druid, or a Cleric of a sky-god."

"Wait. What? Dying virginal is a bad thing? You make it sound like a bad thing," Quill asks Molly as if he may be in that boat...and on the verge of dying before he's even...you know...done...things...with someone else.

His heart pines for his beloved Marigold Pottersmoot but the letters from Voltus show how badly it can end.

"Well, no, not really, I s'ppose," Molly amends. "Whatever floats a girl's boat is fine, really. But believe me, if a girl spends this much effort on gettin' hitched and pays for a white dress this fancy, she wants to die a fat granny. That, or a fancy lady."

"That's so sad," Sander says. "I can't imagine how I'd have felt if Louly hadn't wanted to get married. Though it didn't seem like Grenseldek even really knew him. Still..."

Sander thinks for a few moments as the others go through the treasure, musing on love and marriage. Finally he gives himself a shake.

"We need to get back home, and let people know about this Storm Tyrant!" he declares.

"Let's figure out what we're taking here and get going! This stone head looks familiar, but I can't place it. Storn? Quill?"

I saw we take the following if we can, in this order: 53 gems worth around 3000gp, 5 pp, 147gp, 103 sp, large gem-encrusted wedding dress, book of love poems written in giant, gem-encrusted scabbard for a huge falcata, bronze statue of a giant riding a dragon, giant-sized drinking horn made from a mammoth's tusk. (Unless someone has Appraise -- oh, wait, *I* have Appraise -- and something else appears to be more valuable.)

Knowledge (religion): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10
Appraise (dress): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16
Appraise (book): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24
Appraise (scabbard): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16
Appraise (statue): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25
Appraise (Storn horn): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24

Storn's eyes shake a little bit as he - tries- to read the note. "No wonder she was crying... I almost feel bad for killing her."

He snaps out of it. "Wait, no I don't! That was great!"

Storn loads on as much treasure as he can carry, ditching his now-battered spiked shield which has only partial use since he found Gorum's Thorn.

After losing the shield, Storn can take 130 pounds of treasure before he's at absolute heavy limit. It's not like he was running much anyways.

Dieter can carry another 230lb.

"Now this," Dieter gestures to the carpet. "This is art. What's worth carrying, Mr. Thistlewight?"

Appraise (Carpet for Dieter): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9

Sander didn't really know what to make of the carpet. The quality was fine, but the subject matter was...gruesome wouldn't be too strong a word. He finally settled on a number - 100 gold - but really wasn't sure how close it might be.

And the others?

"I'm not carrying that," Molly says in a flat tone of voice. "You couldn't shift it unless you find a special kind of customer. Very special. It's gross."

Geez, how did I miss that post?

Looking at the rest of it, Sander was flummoxed. he was pretty sure that the dragon statue and drinking horn were worth about 150 apiece, and the book of poetry would go for 25 or so to the right buyer. The other stuff? Maybe 300 gold pieces? 1000? I mean, where would find a buyer for a wedding dress meant for a 13-foot tall giantess? That had to be a pretty niche market.

"This, now," Molly says as she aims a casual kick at the dress. "Strip off the gems. If you're raiding, a handful of gems is your best loot. Easy to move, high value."

Quill grabs the gems and is ready to move on.