"I can give you a reasonably detailed layout of the Ashpeak area - i went there once before I realised the danger. Although Akazerath has done bad things in the distant past, many centuries ago, time has mellowed him and now he only looks for a quiet life. The inhabitants of Ashpeak, the Fire Giants, have another dragon who is willingly in their employ- an old magma dragon called Tesharat. He thinks nothing of spreading death and destruction in his wake and regularly attacks your human towns and villages in the area."
"That sounds like a start tell us what you know and we will continue to thwart the giant's plot."
"Ashpeak is an elite training academy contained within a volcano. It is made up of a number of clans, ruled over by a Fire Giant couple - King Tytarian and Queen Quivixia.
The complex itself consists of a number of caves and chambers of various levels. Entrances are by lava tubes. The first level mainly consists of fire giant warriors with some stone giants and ogres. The main barracks are the next level down,
The third level is as far as I have been able to scry on. This consists of more fire giants with hellhounds."
”My Fire magic won’t do me much good against the fire giants. I’ll need to prepare different spells in the morning.”
"Is there any giant clan we can convince to rebel against King Tytarian and Queen Quivixia?" Leira asks with her eyes half-averted.
She whispers to the others "Can anyone of you see if this dragon is evil? I think we should get rid of him before it is too late..."
"I do not think so. The clans here are the elite. They are highly trained and loyal to the King and Queen."
"I think the higher up we get the more they will have screened for loyalty but if we can find even one traitor it could help bring the house of cards down. Your information was very helpful. We will try to do what we can."
"I see" Leira nods "We had to take some slaves to safety and buy some supplies. Where can we find you afterwards?"
To the party, the young girl whispers "I do not know what do you feel about this dragon, but I do find the guts to kill cold someone who is helping us. I thought I had, but I have not"
"For the time being I'm inclined to just leave him. We can use magic to find him if we want to do that."
"Very well, I will wait here until you are ready, as I say I cannot fly you all the way, as it will be too dangerous for me to get so close to the Orb, but I can take you perhaps three quarters of the way- will that be sufficient?"
"I think so"
With the dragon deal settled, Leira will help to conduct the slaves to safety, then visit the city to resupply and acquire new items "Let's teleport back once we are done Sid!"
"Sounds good to me."
After taking the slaves to safety and shopping you head back to a deserted ice giant fortress, where the dragon sits idly waiting for you. Without further ado she kneels down allowing you to climb on her back and flies you towards Ashpeak. She stops about 10 miles away and you make the rest of the way there on foot.
Cresting a rise you can see that Ashpeak is a squat, ugly, dormant volcano, broad at the base, with a jagged crown of stone surrounding its base. The entrance to the fire giant's lair seems to be on the southwest face of Ashpeak and it appears to be guarded by a pair of secure portcullises
Leira is marveled by the dragon flight "I never before traveled by dragon. Have you?" the girl is almost crying of emotion at the air sight of the Midspin mountains that have framed her childhood memories. She observes the high peaks, the rivers, some goats and other animals here and there. By when the team lands, her eyes are full of drops and a wide smile on her face.
Cleaning the tears on her ears with her arm the girl readies her falchion as the group looks at the volcano from afar "Back to business, aren't we?" she casts greater magic weapon, magic vestment and defending bone on herself and hunter's blessing against giants on the whole party.
Once they face the portculis, Leira casts enlarge person rising herself to a giant size "Shall we look to open this Zavier?"
First of all, Leira checks if there is any guard or trap around.
Secondly, she puts her hands to open the portculises.
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This large, deep pit has rough edges crumbling into the depths of the mountain. The western end has a a large ramp made of huge flat stones leading to the floor of the pit. On the east end of the ridged pit floor is a cave entrance blocked by an iron portcullis. On the other side of the portcullis are 3 fire giants.
Sid says to the girl while on dragon back, "A dragon ride is but one day I can turning in into a dragon, if you like, and you can fly as a dragon."
Upon arrival.
"Let me find an area to study. I don't know how deep we will be going into the mountain and I need a way to get us out but that means I need to study a location. Then we should make a plan to prevent people from running deeper in and alerting the rest of the stronghold. Once we have those plans then we should proceed. Also, do we want to do any scouting?"
"Turning... a... dragon?" Leira contemplates the possibility with eagerness "Can you really do that? It would be incredible to see the world like that!"
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Observing the current situation Leira comments "There does not seem to be much other thing that this entrance. Do you think you could dimension door us at the other side of the portculis like you did at Skirgaard? If we could teleport beyond the giants, we could block their escape to the inner volcano, ensuring they cannot raise the alarm"
"I can get us behind them."Do we want silence for this portion?"
As soon as the group is ready Senn will cast a couple of quick spells on Gallant and is ready to go.
"The place seems massive. Silence is probably not going to help and will hinder our casting abilities. I think we are fine to go" Leira will not cast enlarge person just yet, so Sid can move all of them with the dimension door. Instead she prepares with shield of faith and ironskin.
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Dolgrym you can bring smasher along!
”Yep, seems like there’s a better chance for him to help us here than last time!”
"Let's go."
Leira closes by and touches Sid so he can dimension door her behind the giants with the others "Let's do it team!"
BAMF
Using dimension door you appear behind the fire giants.
Leira sidesteps to offer a potential flank to Dolgrym, then delivers a vital strike on the fire giant "For Trunau!"
Zavier grabs the same giant.
The dwarf uses his Enlarge Person ability, turning giant sized himself, hammer at the ready.
Sid casts monstrous physique II on Gallant.
Gallant will take a big bite.
Before it even realises it Leira moves forward and deals a mighty blow to one of the giants. The next moment Zavier grapples it and then it is bitten by Gallant.
Zavier pins the giant and then smacks him around twice.
Leira flanks the fire giant with the help of Dolgrym "Yay! Surprise surprise!"
[i]Zavier grapples the giant and pounds it into a bloody mess.
Leira strikes the second one, it howls in pain.
In response it tries to attack Leira
Gallant tries to slay the creature as quickly as he can.
----------------------------------------------------
Sid will delay.
With a series of blows Gallant bears and tears the remaining fire giant into pieces.
Loot: 2 potions of cure serious wounds
+ 2 half plate
+1 greatsword
minor ring of cold resistance
everburning torch
2 large sized greatswords
"Mmmm.... a ring of cold resistance... these giants have been really preparing up" Leira looks at Gallant and smiles "They were not prepared for the Dinosaur Beast"
Picking up everything Leira points to the tunnels northeast "The way forward! If we hurry up we can reach their King and Queen before they manage to find out we are here assaulting the place!"
Is good start! Zavier agrees.
This large, magma-formed cavern reeks of animal waste, sweat and despair. A few braziers hang from the ceiling on stout chains, bathing the chamber in flickering fire light. Multiple patches of large mushrooms grow on beds of dark soil. Two hewn passageways lead out of one side of the cavern. There are three fire giants in the chamber watching over a group of a dozen Orc slaves. So far they do not appear to have noticed you.
"Orcs... the giants are enslaving my grandfather's kin..." Leira feels her blood to boil "Shall we try to free them? I might be able to convince them to help us defeat these giants"
"Anyone knows if the mushrooms are dangerous?"
"Not ready for a paladin dinosaur beast." Gallant smiles with his gargoyle face.
"The mushrooms look familiar. We can try to free them but how strong are they? I don't know if they will be helpful in a fight."
Are they strong enough to help in a fight.
The mushrooms appear to be just ordinary mushrooms, they would be edible but are likely to have a slightly ashy taste due to their location.
The orcs look demoralised but potentially they could help slightly in a fight, although they are weaker than a normal orc.
"I have misjudged orcs in the past. Many are evil, but for the most part what they do is just part of their brutal culture. That said, they can sure cause some confusion among the giants" Leira observes the orcs from a distance.