The troll senses what is going on and tears up some more, then starts yelling at Mouser in giant gibberish as it runs outside.
"Get back here you little runt with my lunch!"
Also speaking giant Somer winces at the thought of the child being lunch. As the giant clears the door his arrows fly wreathed in scorching heat. His power has grown to the point that both arrows have the same effect.
Even as the arrows fly Somer curses under his breath. Clearly he was to excited about killing a baby eating troll.
"He Ugly come down here, we have a nice Dwarf who wants to meat and beat you." Derrik calls out in Giant.
Somer misses his shots, but it does catch the troll's attention, which he turns on the rest of the party. He charges towards you, reaching out to claw Balmir. The dwarf's superior training against the giants, hoever, allows him to easily anticipate and dodge the attack.
Somer tries to time his next shots so that they hit when the troll is extended. Again arrows wreathed in scorching heat fly at the troll.
Derrik steps back 5' avoiding the Trolls claws and brings his spear to bear.
Balmir doesn't waste a second. He steps forward and then with all of his strength he swings the hammer at the monster.
In a triple-pronged attack, the troll goes down very quickly.
With the baby safe, you look around for clues to where the rest of the family is, but you find no signs of life - only death and destruction.
Farther along the trail beyond the cottage, smoke rises from the remains of two more stone cottages, spaced a few hundred yards apart. Both cottages show signs of extensive damage; their interiors have been ransacked and large boulders litter the ground around the buildings.
"Giants attack these people. Sickening. Best we get the little one to safety before we run into more things like this."
You continue on.
A half-mile down the trail from the sacked cottages, you arrive at the edge of a village called Shinnerman’s Fortune.
The village’s populace consists almost entirely of prospectors, with individuals claiming large swaths of land along the stream, and the settlement is uncharacteristically spread out. The villagers mostly prospect for gold and silver. Though they are not wealthy, they earn enough to have a stable income, and the surrounding lands provide additional resources. The citizens of Shinnerman’s Fortune thrive upon their independence, both as individuals and as a community. A small council of elders provides what little government the village needs, but the council’s primary function is to represent the villagers as a single business entity for the purpose of trading with outsiders. In all, the residents of Shinnerman’s Fortune are a hardy folk, usually quite capable of defending themselves against local threats.
Panicked villagers are scrambling about trying to organize and recover from recent giant attacks. A small band of villagers quickly gathers to greet you, led by a stern-looking middle-aged woman with graying hair and a burly man with a salt-and-pepper beard wearing worn leather armor. The woman introduces herself as Alderwoman Straya Kraum and the burly man as Alderman Jerak Sneth. "You have arrived in the wake of a savage giant attack on our village. A band of giants came trough here yesterday, and caused great havoc."
"Giants? Well, where did they go? They have a reckoning coming." Balmir glares at the town leaders almost as if was blaming them for letting the giants leave.
"Then we best hurry to the city." Derrik says turning to Mouser. "You must feel a giant to that babe right now, do you wish me to take her so that you can sneak more effectively?" Derrik asks putting his shield on and his new spear away.
"Yeah, what do we do with the baby? Taking a baby on the road adventuring against giants is a bit... risky," says Tam. "But if this village has just been attacked there's probably nobody to take care of an orphan. Assuming the parents didn't escape from the last attack."
Derrik takes the baby then looks at the leaders from the village they just met. "The cottages down the way, are they associated with your village?"
Somer has no intrest in getting into the messy emotional part of this baby exchance and unless there is some resistance from the village about taking the kid he stays silent. He will however pull a bit of gold aside and hand it to whoever agrees to take the baby.
Straya Kraum instantly recognizes the child as her granddaughter Abria and bursts into tears of gratitude. She immediately takes the infant into her home, but soon returns and rewards you with a family heirloom: a small silver cloak clasp in the shape of an arrow.
Straya describes the brutal raid. "After bombarding the village with rocks, the giants rushed into the settlement, indiscriminately attacking those they encountered, maiming or killing a number of villagers. The giants eventually retreated back into the mountains, but only after seizing livestock and several more people as “tribute” and promising to return for more later."
According to Straya and Jerak, there are at least a dozen people whose whereabouts are unaccounted for, most notably Tarram Shinnerman, a descendant of the village’s founder and the speaker of the council. The villagers pray that the giants have not yet eaten the captives and that at least some of them still live, but the threat these giants pose has left these people feeling helpless. Few of the townsfolk are qualified to fight orcs, much less giants. They fear that the giants are going to return soon to exact more tribute, and they plead for you to help find their missing kinfolk and put an end to the giant threat.
Derrik hands the baby over to the grandmother. "I am sorry for your loss, may Milani watch over your granddaughter from now till her last day and protect her. Do you know where these Giants were headed?" Derrik says, turning to the others "We shall go to the village and see if there are any who are in need before we head out to follow these giants?"
"This story sounds familiar," Balmir grumbles. His subdued demeaner gives no hint at the turmoil kindled inside him as he heard the villagers describe a scene so much like the one he witnessed first hand not so long ago.
The villagers welcome you in, and if you have any smaller purchases or anything else you want to do before heading out, please do so.
After leaving Shinnerman’s Fortune, you continue on toward the giants’ valley. About a mile outside the village, mouser spots a pair of humanoid creatures darting through the thickets. They are about 100 yards ahead of you.
They appear to be human - possibly lost villagers. It looks like they are trying to hide. In just a few moments, you see why... a giant, with just one central eye.
At the sight of the giant Balmir quickly pulls out the hammer. As fast as his short legs can move him he rushes towards the one-eyed beast. "Come and face me you foul beast!" he shouts as he runs.
"I would think its depth perception must be terrible. Bet it can't even hit you Balmir!"
Derrik steps near Balmir and readies his spear for the Giant to come and attack.
Somer moves forward a bit as he invests some of his inate magical abilities into his bow giving it the flaming property. Just barely in range he lets two arrows fly.
Balmir races forward to meet the creature.
Derrik double mvoes to keep up with balmir
Somer hits the cyclops, and while the giant closes with Balmir, he focus his eye on Somer and fires a beam of force from his eye. Derrik gets caught in the blast as well.
Somer is caught very off guard by the cyclops using some soft of beam attack and takes the full brunt of the attack. The attack is hard enough that it nearly knocks him over.
"Ughh was not expecting that."
Moving forward he casts a spell to cover his flaming arrows in snow as well before planing his feet and firing two arrows.
with 1st hit
He lets out a sigh as the arrows go. "That really hurt. Another like that and I will be out of this fight."
Balmir takes another step closer to the Cyclops then swings with the hammer.
Derrik moves up to assist Balmir, wielding his new spear as he stabs it at the Cyclops. Grunting as the beam from the Cyclops' eye hits him full force.
Tam moves to an angle from which he can blast a beam of brilliant light back at the cyclops.
Somer realizes, having now seen it, that the force blast from a cyclop's eye is very real, and the stories say it recharges in less than a minute! He also recalls notes indicating that cyclops are highly resistant to magic.
Mouser moves into position. As Balmir gets in close enough to attack, the cyclops swings at him (AoO), barely clipping him on the shoulder and the dwarf rolls under the attack.
Miss
Balmir's first hit glances off, but the second is solid.
Derrik manages to approach from a safe distance, that huge spear making a great way to attack at length. Unfortunately, Derrik is still learning how to best use it, and didn't manage to skewer the giant.
Somer fires 2 arrows. The first misses, but the second strikes true.
The cyclops swings again at Balmir, hitting him once.
Somer relays what he knows to the group and advises caution with this brute. He moves so as not to be in a line with any of his companions as he again calls snow to his arrows.
The arrows feel good as they leave his string and Somer smiles thinking they will be effective.
Derrik shifts his grip a bit and stabs out again. 'You will die for what you did to this settlement."
Mouser sneaks in from behind, and slices at the giant's ankles, missing the first time, but cutting something vital the second. As the giant stumbles, Derrik stabs at it, also just missing, and then Somer lets arrows fly. The first sails overhead, but the second thumps right in the beast's chest, and it false over, Mouser barely leaping out of the way.
"Whew!"