”Solid logic. Ye sound like a thane! Lead on.”
Birdzar bobs his head in agreement, eager to finally stick it to the orcs and giants. We've waited long and done much for this chance, now it's time to avenge their assault on Trunau!
"Aye, lead and we'll follow."
You open the east door.
This large, open chamber has been thoroughly gutted. Where smaller rooms once divided this hall, only the remnants of former walls remain, leaving exposed joists jutting from the stone walls like branches. Crude pallets and piles of smelly furs and moldy straw lie on the floor.
You catch two hill giants by surprise, lounging on their pallets!
Belir - HP 57/57 AC 24/11/23 (+4 vs Giants) CMD 18
Gundar - HP 58/58 AC 22/12/20 (+4 vs Giants) CMD 19
Ingrahild - HP 57/57 AC 19/18/17 (+4 giants) CMD ?
Thozar - HP 51/51 AC 18/12/16 (+4 vs Giants) CMD 15
Ulark - HP 60/60 AC 23/10/19 (+4 vs Giants) CMD 18
Seeing the giants, Ingrahild quickly put an arrow downrange. It was as the old saying went. Hi we do you kill a giant? One arrow at a time.
Birdzar wreathes his talons in green flames, before fluttering up as high as he can. Temporarily satisfied with his ascent, he flings a gout of flames at the nearest Hill Giant. "CAAAAAAWWWW!" Burn in Hell you pitiful beasts!
________
Gundar's crossbow sings. Or twangs, at least.
Angradd, guide my sword! Ulark cries as he moves up to the closest giant and strikes.
for
for
Gundar puts a bolt into the giant's flesh, but Ingrahild's arrows simply skip off the tough hide. Birzar seems to do some damage with his flames, though, as Ulark clanks away, doing no damage to the lounging giant.
Both giants rise up, rubbing the grogginess from their eyes. Then they try to smash these little nuisances.
Luckily, both dwarves are well trained against the likes of giants, and dodge the blows.
Frustrated Ingrahild replaced quality for quantity, with arrow after arrow flying at the wounded giant.
for
for
Ulark slices at the giant as it rises. Dodging its retaliatory slam (barely) he smiles at it. That all you got? Dwarven babes can hit harder!
He then lashes out twice, hoping to prove his point.
for
for
"CAW!" SHOW THOSE GIANTS, DWARVES! Birdzar throws more fire at the Giant Ulark as begun ripping apart. Unfortunately, his talon twitches at the last second, sending the burst of flame straight into the floor.
________
As the giants rise, Belir takes a swing and misses, while Ulark makes a nasty cut in the side of his - not enough to kill it, but certainly enough to make it angry.
Belir swings again at his target, but again the weapon bounces off the giant's tough hide. Ingrehild sends arrow after arrow into the fray, but only the last one makes a dent. Birdzar throws flames on the scene, but misses quite badly.
Despite having giant-sized greatclubs nearby, both giants just try to squash their foes with their bare hands.
Belir - HP 57/57 AC 24/11/23 (+4 vs Giants) CMD 18
Gundar - HP 58/58 AC 22/12/20 (+4 vs Giants) CMD 19
Ingrahild - HP 57/57 AC 19/18/17 (+4 giants) CMD ?
Thozar - HP 51/51 AC 18/12/16 (+4 vs Giants) CMD 15
Ulark - HP 51/60 AC 23/10/19 (+4 vs Giants) CMD 18
The hail of arrows continued unabated. Even if only a quarter of them did anything, that was at least something. The archer was unrelenting in her efforts.
Keeping his focus this time, Birdzar flutters a little closer before trying to singe their foe.
________
Ulark spits out a bit of blood as the club connects. He turns back to the giant and ducks and slices. Love tap.
for
for
Gundar moves to the nearest Ogre and sets-to with his scimitar.
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for
Gundar smacks Blue pretty good (before the giants attacked).
Belir continues to struggle in this battle. Gundar then swings again at blue, caving his chest in. (First attack finished it off).
With Blue down, everyone else redirects their attacks on red. Ulark moves across the room and makes a solid hit (but the first one, so no crit yet). Ingrehild strikes twice, and Thozar's flames singe the giant.
The giant bends down to retrieve his greatclub, and Ulark takes the advantage to cut him deep. Blood flows freely as the giant falls on the weapon he was trying to grab.
Gundar controls his breathing, listening for any sign that the brief fight alerted more of the fort.
With the foes defeated, Birdzar reverts back to Thozar and turns his attention to the room itself. "It's hard not being able to talk when I'm like that! I'll have to find a way around it when we get back to Trunau," he comments. "Nice swing Ulark!"
________
Ulark nods and smiles at the druid. Angradd guided my hand well. Though to be fair, it seems Gorum blessed a fine weapon to be guided.
The dwarf then goes very carefully towards the opening to the northeast. He tries to peek out carefully to glimpse what's beyond the first wall - and to see if any orcs or giants seem to have heard the scuffle.
Ulark does not see much in the courtyard below. He does see a stack of boulders stacked up across the way (K26)[/ooc]
With nothing else of interest in this room, Thozar opens the doors to the southwest.
A huge iron cage fills most of this circular chamber, with several crates, chests, statues, paintings, and other art objects crammed between the cage and the walls of the room. Inside the cage, a large piece of furniture sits under a cloth drapery of some sort.
Within the cage, you see a pair of manticores. These creatures have vaguely humanoid heads, the bodies of lions, and the wings of a dragon. Their tails ends in long, sharp spikes.
"Please, please. Let us out." the male says. Then the female follows with "We have been imprisoned here by an ugly she-giant. Let us out."
Ingrahild looked into the manticore's eyes, trying to judge whether it seemed trustworthy or not.
"And if we let you out, will you help us kill these giants and orcs?"
When he lays eyes on the beasts, Gundar is glad for the cage. He can tell they are not a part of the natural order as he understands it. Still, if the giants had put them in a cage...
He keeps shut and lets Ingrahild do the talking, keeping an eye on the rest of the room.
These beasts should be freed, even if they don't help us. A cage is no place for anything. "And if things go south during the fight, I see you have wings, you must merely fly away!" Thozar adds in.
________
Cautious, but mindful of the creatures' plight, Ulark prepares to move into the chamber and loose them if they seem more desperate than scheming.
"Kill the giants? Sure, we will gladly attack them. But we cannot fly - our wings have been clipped!" You sense this is true.
"Why would we attack you if you free us?" Ulark and Ingrehild both easily sense that these manticores have no intentions of not eating you.
”Aye then. If there is one thing I understand it is vengeance. Let’s go kill some giants.” Ingrahild moved to free the manticores.
With Ingrahild and Belir both moving to free the Manticores, Thozar joins them. Worst things to have ever been made...
________
The manticores rush out of the cage.
"Thank you, thank you!" They stretch out their wings, and turn around. "Now, the next order of business... lunch!"
And with that, they attack.
"Wretched beasts!" Thozar shouts at the lying Manticores. In retaliation, he summons a ball of fire to slow cook them from the legs up.
________
Apparently Ingrahild was, as three arrows were fired accurately into the manticores the second they showed their treachery.
Remind me: why did us frogs give the scorpions a ride here? Ulark says as he swings the Thorn out at the slavering beast.
for
for
for
Gundar lunges forward with scimitar whirling.
Belir and Ulark double team red, hurting him severely. Gundar smacks green soundly, and then Ingrehild cleans up by putting 3 arrows in green, and then another in red. Both manticores drop, surprise evident on their dead faces.
Looking back into the cage that held the beasts, you find a treasure trove!
At the far side of the room, a door opens onto a staircase that climbs up.
Of particular interest is a giant-sized, gem-encrusted silk gown, is draped like a tablecloth over a large oaken desk inside the cage. The gown is worth 500 gp in materials alone.
Under the gown are a number of important documents. Several of the papers appear to be drafts of a formal letter addressed to “the Storm Tyrant Volstus”.
To the Great Storm Tyrant Volstus,
You call all giants to bring ruin
to the small folk. I, Grenseldek,
answer your call, but I am not
your soldier. I offer something
better. I pledge my hand in
marriage to you. I bring a dowry
and a tribe of giants , ogres , and
orcs , and I will serve at your
side as queen. Take me and you
will not regret it.
Your future bride,
Grenseldek, Glorious Chieftain of the Twisted Hearts
Crumpled into a ball next to Grenseldek’s final draft is the Storm Tyrant’s response to her letter.
Grenseldek,
I have no interest in your proposed union. Even now, hundreds
of giants flock to my banner within Minderhal's Valley. You may
bring your trinkets and your tribe and offer them as tribute,
and I will consider not killing you outright for your audacity.
I give you this one admonition-do not approach me again
with such a proposal. You are far below my station, and the
very prospect is absurd. If I ever hear such nonsense again,
know that I shall take much more than just your “hand.” I
am the Storm Tyrant-my word thunders with the might of
the sky and my justice strikes swift as lightning. You have
been warned.
Volstus
There is also a detailed inventory of the crate contents (Grenseldek’s dowry, it seems), and besides cataloging the items found in this room, the list includes several items from Uskroth’s tomb beneath Trunau as future additions to the dowry: most notably, Uskroth’s armor, Uskroth’s hammer, and something called “Uskroth’s rock.” This last item is accompanied by a detailed drawing of a geode half surrounded by scribbled notes hinting that the rock fragment forms half of a treasure map. The depicted geode is not among the papers on the desk, and though it looks similar to the geode half that you found in Uskroth’s tomb, it is clearly a different stone. A final note mentions adding “the stuff in the giantkiller’s tomb” to the dowry. Lastly, a parchment map shows the location of a secluded valley in the Mindspin Mountains south of Belkzen. “My future with Volstus starts here” is scrawled on the back of the map in Giant.
Grenseldek’s dowry consists of the following, scattered among the chests, crates, and loose piles of coins outside the cage: a book of love poems written in Giant worth 25 gp; a marble bust of a stone giant (actually the giant god Minderhal) worth 100 gp; a woven 25-foot-square carpet depicting two giants making love worth 125 gp; a polished, giant-sized drinking horn made from a mammoth’s tusk worth 150 gp; a macabre necklace made from petrified human and elf ears; a series of 12 framed drawings or proportion studies of different giants (cave giant, ogre, hill giant, marsh giant, stone giant, ettin, frost giant, tomb giant, fire giant, ash giant, cloud giant, and storm giant), each worth 50 gp; a gem-encrusted scabbard for a Huge falcata worth 200 gp; a bronze statue of a fierce storm giant riding a dragon worth 150 gp; as well as 5 pp, 147 gp, 103 sp, and 976 cp.
"Nice work Dwarves. It is a shame that confinement turned those beasts away from valuing their freedom over their lives, but chains and cages have a way of twisting the mind of anyone," Thozar explains.
Seeing the trove they were guarding, however, his jaw drops. "Some of this is simply sickening, however this should be worth a good sum of gold once we pawn it all off, haha!" he says as he looks through it all. "AND LOOK AT THIS!" he exclaims, holding up the love letters. "If that Grenseldek is still here, we'll likely have to slay her too. I can probably get a good rise out of her by reading it while we fight!" he says while folding up the letters neatly and placing them in an easy to reach pocket.
________
Ingrahild nodded. ”Mad or fools, it matters not. But...did ye read this? If the giant tribes are organizing then this is bad news indeed. A handful can destroy a town, what could an army do?”
Nothing good. Ulark snarls. But one army at a time. Even if this 'Volstus' thinks the forces here are minor, they're plenty strong enough to take Trunau now it's still reeling from the last strike.
The warrior stops and pauses for a moment, then asks Thozar to borrow that last paper. A giantslayer's tomb though. If they were a warrior of note they'd likely have had their gear put in the ground with them. Could be useful. Think she's stored them somewhere in this fort?
A handful can destroy a town, what could an army do?”
"Topple kingdoms, and create new ones. Destroy entire civilizations," Gundar says. "If Volstus can really rally them all and make them cooperate, nothing nearby will be safe."
”Not even our homes. The giants will scour the mountains, driving our people into the deepest dark.” Ingrahild said darkly. ”Let’s begin here. Pick apart their coalition before they become a horde.”