Giantslayer: With GM Placeholder of Doom

Game Master Foxy Quickpaw

”Bupkis, could you open the gate from up in the watchtower? It would probably be safest for all of us to be up there.”

The camp has for sure enough rope and so Bupkis works his magic to tie one end to the mechanism to open the door. The other end he navigates up to the watch-tower. Once everyone is up there in a combined effort the door is opened.

The really hungry - and frustrated, because Umlo did defy them their meal - bears leave the moat really fast. But any hope they would leave quickly are shattered, as they move into the fort and settle with the almost fresh orc corpses. They are obviously not choosy and won't leave as long as there is food.

Bupkis returns to the others and says, "Now time to return to Trunau and prepare for journey to Mindspin Mountains. There we find Nargrym Steelhand tomb!"

"Good thing we didn't plan to stay here," Menrozzar says as the bears move into the fort and begin eating orc corpses.

"Agreed, Bupkis. Let's go back to Trunau. Umlo, you are welcome to come with us - we can look for your sister, as well."

The group packs up and leaves the fort to the bears. The walk back to Trunau takes several days. But it is surprisingly uneventful. With no murderers with inside informations lying in ambush and even the wildlife steers clear of the group. Now that the travel is downriver it would be nice to have a boat. But the travel by foot is surprisingly fast too. Yet more strenuous.

At the Ghostlight Marsh the group takes a little detour to look for Umlo's sister Ingrahild. She still searches in the marsh for him and as they meet, a great happy family reunion the dwarven way. As the next destination of the group will be the Mindspin Mountains, the two decide to come along to Trunau.

After some more days of uneventful travelling along the river Trunau comes into sight. It is a bright day, it is market outside of town and the doors into town are open.

Bupkis enjoyed the trip back to Trunau. He was looking forward to seeing Alicia and her family again, even if only briefly. The group didn't need to spend time obtaining fresh water, as Bupkis' new ability with water allowed him to create pure water whenever he wanted.

He had formed a friendship with a fragment of his aether element, which he could communicate with emphatically. When he concentrated, this fragmented manifested as a ghostly version of "Bear", his friend Alicia's toy companion. Bear did indeed watch for him, helping him notice danger and unusual things.

He was happy to find Ingrahild in the Ghostlight Marsh, and reunite her with her brother. "Bupkis glad Ingrahild and Umlo together again!"

Finally they reached home. He was glad to see the market set up again, and people browsing the stalls. He said to his companions, "We report Halgra first, Bupkis thinks, and tell her that Twisted Hearts won't attack any more!"

The trip back to Trunau was uneventful, for which Menrozzar was grateful. It gave him time to think. Clearly the family tales of his grandfather having the spirit of a dragon were accurate - the way he seemed to have begun turning into one was an indication of that. He wondered if his grandfather had gone through the same thing.

Once Trunau comes into sight, he looks at Bupkis and says, "Agreed. We should report to Halgra first. Perhaps we can give some of the falchions and armor and whatnot we took off the orcs to the town armory."

The guards on the towers are the first to spot Trunau's heroes. They call out to the people, pointing over the fields. An uproar goes through the crowd as all turn to see. Most come to the road to greet the group and take a look at them closely. Anxiously they wait to get to know the outcome of the crucial mission.

As the heroes come close, in their armor that has seen many battles now, but still upright and unbeaten with that larger than life aura around them the folks break into cheers. With the folks crowding and pushing them, Bupkis suddenly finds himself hugged by Alice who pushed through to him. The guards at the gate offer high fives to their colleagues. Inside the Trunau people come out of their houses to see what's going on. Ever more come out and join on their way to the upper part of town. And soon all of Trunau is with them on the commons.

Chief Defender Halgra of the Blackened Blades also joins and brings some order into the celebration and manages the people to settle down. "I see you come back victorious. Tell us your tale about the battles you fought and the victories you achieved."

Ivan stoically nods at the dwarven siblings reunion. While he wouldn't say it, he was happy for them, and glad he had been able to help in it. After all, thats basically was one of the reasons he was here. He was looking for anything that would point to his mother. Sadly, nothing had as of yet.

As the group is about to be swarmed Ivan Looks up to Menrozzar and Daseem and mutters Well 'ere we go.. gonna be a long an' pestered walk by my reckoning His worry proved right, and the grumpy dwarf merely glowered as he trudged along. Despite it all, and to his minor surprise, he found himself feeling happy. By the time they got into town, his glower had broken and been replaced by happy, if mildly exasperated, smile.

Ivan looks around at the crowd of folk before letting out a loud BAH! He steps up slightly, Weren't nothin' done but what was needed. naught' ta' say at all. He waits a few moments before looking to the others.

Though, then again, Don't want all O' ye ta go an' pester us later about it.. He beckons the others to help in a collective spinning of the tale, leaving most of it up to the others, starting with the stowaway, then the river drakes, and once they get to the battle against the giantess, Ivan uses his hammer to grow to large size shouting Why, she was even bigger than me!

Bupkis feels good to see Alicia again. He's glad that the immediate threat to her home is gone. When Halgra arrives, he adds his descriptions of the Vault of Thorns, and the battle at Redlake Fort. Finally, he tells her, "We find more information about giants, which we tell at Longhouse." He didn't want to upset the townsfolk by going into detail about the Storm Tyrant Voltus and his plans right now.

Daseem was jauntily marching back to Trunau high on the victory. It wasn't until he saw the settlement on the horizon that his thoughts turned to Tessa. His good cheer and confidence crumbled away, what would he say to her?![</I] He just knew she'd tear stripes off his back for being away so long, nevermind anything else. So when Ivan started grumbling, Daseem was much of the same mind and even more taciturn than usual.

When the Chief Defender asked for a story with everyone's faces watching them, scrutinizing them, [I] judging them, Daseem folded in on himself and stammered, "Err well uhmm. Ah y'see. Er w-whats new round here eh? Things g-gettin back ta n-normal?"

Realising he was jabbering nonsense, Daseem suddenly stopped and felt a heat rising as he flushed with embarrassment. Looking back on it later, Daseem reckoned it would have been a mercy if the ground had opened up to swallow him whole, especially when he saw Tessa's warm smile turn into a scowl at his 'antics' as she put it later.

Menrozzar gave as detailed a report as he could, filling everyone in with the events of their excursion. He made sure to emphasize that the Twisted Hearts tribe had been wiped out, save two lone orcs who had escaped. The Storm Tyrant was a problem for another day, at the moment, and like Bupkis, he didn't want to panic the townsfolk. He did say, "We took a lot of equipment from the orcs in Redlake Fort - we might be able to use some of it to help outfit the militia, if anyone's willing to use it."

It occurs to me that donating a lot of the mundane, ordinary stuff to the militia would be a good use for it and probably make more sense in-game than us selling it. I also think that the only person who could use the Glory Medallion would be Tyari, at the Church of Iomedae. We should give that to her.

All this is really exciting for the folks of Trunau and they spontaneously decide to have a celebration. Not a real decision. It's just someone bringing out a bottle of wine and a few mugs, the next a bread and some cheese, and soon a goat and a piglet are rotating on a spit over a fire. A barrel of ale comes out of the tavern and the celebration starts.

Everyone got his own fanclub. Bupkis got Alice and her family, Ivan and Menrozzar are surrounded by their colleagues, the Patrol Guards, for details of the fights. Daseem is met by those who are done with talking and want to start drinking for celebration. They make sure his mug never gets empty.

Umlo joins the fire and gives advice and offers spices for the roast. As he can easily persuade the folks that he knows what he is talking about, the cooking is left to him. Ingrahild tells the story of how they got beaten by the hags in the marsh and how the town's heros saved her and later Umlo. Umlo tells only a very shortened version of events, and only if someone insists. He tells that he this event is the stage for the heroes. But in truth de doesn't want to tell about what happened to him.

Amira didn't exactly go unnoticed, but as curious a well dressed girl is, she doesn't look like she was heroic. As the celebration is underway she takes a seat on an elevated place and starts singing. The praises of the towns heroes are told, so she decides to sing along to the joyous mood with some drinking songs and songs about general heroics.

Sara comes ove rto Menrozzar to clink mugs. "Cheers to your victorious return!"

"You brought some steel? Is it any good? Orcs are no goblins, but they are not known for their fine crafts. But I'll take a look in the morn." she offers.

Bupkis talks to Alicia's parents about how their home rebuilding is progressing, and promises to come by and have a look for himself. After a few hours of celebration, he takes his leave saying, "Now must go and tell Halgra details about Redlake Fort, orcs and giants."

He heads to the Longhouse and reports what happened in more detail, talking now about Voltus and his possible plans for conquest.

Menrozzar clinks his mug against Sara's. "Yours is better, but I've seen a lot worse. There's also some higher quality and magical weaponry, as well. Taken in raids, like as not, but quality nonetheless."

"After the raid on Trunau the need for weapons has risen greatly. I'd rather buy from you, making a good cut than having a dwarf deliver the stuff and me having no part in the business. Bring it to me and I'll check what I can give yo for it." Sara replies.

Halgra listens shortly to Bupkis, but then decllines. "Today is a celebration. Tomorrow the council will be in session and we'll do a proper debriefing and talk strategies."

"Or go to bed, if it's too late for little ones to still be celebrating!" Halgra jokes and gets a new fill for her mug.

It takes until dawn that the celebration comes to a halt due to lack of participants. And soon thereafter life comes back to town, starting with the ringing of Sara's hammer on the amboss.

Daseem didn't really know what to do with himself and as everyone kept foisting drinks on him his head soon began to swim. He wasn't a particularly heavy drinker at the best of times so this celebration ended up being something of a trail for him. As it was as the sun fell and darkness abounded he found an excuse to slink away and stagger home.

Or was it home? He still had the key, but the house belonged to Tessa's aunt. He stood there for a long while on the threshold staring at the key, if he opened the door there would be Tessa and he didn't know how that reunion would go. Oh but he did know, his fool mouth would spoil things. He was about to turn away when it occurred to him that the night was cold and had nowhere else to sleep, so out of habit he fumbled the door open and stepped inside to see Tessa. With strange look on her face she whispered, "Thought you're never going to come." He started to say something, make some excuse when she placed a finger on his lips and whispered gently into his ear, "Shh! Not tonight" She pulled him inside, closed the door and lead him to their room and whispered once more into his ear, "Relax. Aunty won't be back for hours..."

Next morning, Daseem didn't rise until the sun was well into the sky, but soon old habits took hold. He made his way to Sara's workshop and started sweeping the metal shavings near the stone wheel before moving onto tending the fire. He nodded to Sara and didn't say much, nit that swords where needed. Besides his head was pounding something fierce, Tessa had convinced him to share a bottle of firewine. Mindless physical exercise was about the only thing he knew that worked for a hangover, that and a fried breakfast but given his delicate stomach that would come later.

Sara wonders if Daseem likes to punish himself or if he is special in that way. She stops and adresses the man. "You come here to listen to my hammering. That's a strange hangover pastime. Trouble at home?"

The massive amounts of orc steel in tow, a still somewhat bleary-eyed Menrozzar approached Clamor. The sound wasn't that bad, since he wasn't too hungover, but he definitely hadn't gotten enough sleep. "Daseem, good to see you here. Sara, I brought the steel we found there."

I figure this should be all the weapons and any armor that we found and no one has claimed.

Sara takes a look at the stuff. "It's not especially good quality, but not bad either. Falchions are not the typical weapon around here, but they are awfully effective and with that large a number it's worth training some of the folks with them. I'll give you 60gold for each."

She checks the studded leather armors next. "It's a wonder. You know leather is created by putting animal hide in piss. And still these orcs manage to make it stink worse by wearing it. I'll give you 15 for those. It's been 20 if you hadn't cut down the orcs wearing them. The cuts and the blood are not good for the resell value."

"What are the special items, you have in that pile?" Sara inquires.

Daseem grunted when Sara mentioned hammering, in truth it wasn't the kindest sound for his ears but the sweeping of the brush and the tidying of the workshop was strangely cathartic. When Sara asked if there was trouble he mumbled, "S'ok no more than u-usual..."

Menrozzar says, "We have a scimitar that lights on fire, this magic leather armor, this actually decently made chain shirt, a couple of greatclubs and some hide armor that are more like battering rams and tents large-sized, this magic scale mail, a magic handaxe and a finely crafted handaxe that are more like battleaxes, a bow I don't think any human can draw, this magic studded leather, this very large butcher's cleaver, this well-made greataxe and some throwing axes, a couple of ogre hooks, these two well-made composite longbows that a very strong human might be able to use, this magic half-plate, a magic greatsword, and some very nicely made javelins."

"Wow, that are some really nice things. Magic! That takes weeks to forge. that large stuff though..." Sara looks over everthing again pondering what to make of it.

"Ok, everything of right size and magic I'll pay you full price. Well, not really, I'll talk to Halgra, if she is willing to pay, but it would surprise me if she wouldn't. Same goes for anything of fine make."

"The normal stuff made for giants, I have no use for. Maybe ask the carpenter if he wants the spears? There are a lot of barricades that need to be rebuilt. Ot picket fences?" she jokes. "Just don't sell it to a merchant. Or it will turn up in Trunau again with the business end pointed at our neighbors."

"All summed up that'd be 21 thousand gold, give or take."

In the morning, Bupkis went to have a look at Alicia's house, to see how the reconstruction was coming along. He talked to her parents for a while, and then went to find everyone else and go to talk to Halgra.

"But you know what?" Sara adds after a pause. "I only give you that money if you promise to stay in Trunau. If you want to take that money and start a new life somewhere else, you get naught!"

As time goes on and Bupkis shows up, the time comes to visit Halgra and the Council. Sara comes along. Halgra is already there, Agrit Staginsdar and Lessie Crumkin join shortly after the others. The oval table is laid for the council members on one side and the party on the other.

Ruby brings in a large pot of stew that she places on the side of the table. "Hi! Enjoy your meal." she says, before she disappears through the door to the next room.

"We're all busy, so lets have this meeting over lunch. I'm glad you're all back in one piece. And I'm glad to hear that this tribe of orcs and giants is no longer a threat to Trunau. But Bupkis mentioned, that you found out something else that is bad news." she looks at Bupkis to finish what he started telling last night.

Bupkis helps himself to a generous portion of stew. When everyone is assembled, he asks for Grenseldek's letter and Volstus' reply to be brought out. He shows the documents to Halgra saying, "Volstus, who is called Storm Tyrant, gathers many giants together. Greseldek's letter speaks of him calling for the ruin of small folk. Bupkis afraid that an army of giants could attack Trunau!

"We also find other half of rock from Uskroth's tomb. We think it map to tomb of Nargrym Steelhand — Ingrahild and Umlo ancestor. Maybe has giant-slaying weapon!"

Ivan heartily eats the tasty meal, after all, he had only recently gotten back to a place where food of this sort was made! Over his large bites, he nods.

Aye... I'm sure ye heard O' the reason I originally came ta' the town? Was lookin' fer me mother. Our hold, twas' an outpost lookin' for rich veins O' ore. We found 'em, but then about 3 years ago it was attacked by one O' the largest warbands I've ever seen. Ivan takes another bite, his face mostly a visage of anger. Not many O' us survived. Afterwards, me mother tried to track down the band. See why they had attacked. I always thought it was just fer the ore, an' cuz its what they do. She had been worried about somethin' bigger. Starting to think she was right to do so... makes me even more worried for her as well. Ivan stares at his food for several long seconds before speaking again. I'm for thinkin' that I'm gonna go lookin' for this tomb of Nargrym. Mayhaps I can find something.

Menrozzar says, ”That’s a fair price, Sara. I think all of us will stay in Trunau - I know I don’t want to live anywhere else. We may need to leave town again, though. While we were at Redlake Fort, we found evidence of threat greater than the ones who attacked Trunau. If you come to our meeting with Halgra today, you might be able to find out more.”

At the Meeting

Menrozzar eats with the others, and chimes in after Bupkis and Ivan speak. ”We may also need to scout out this so-called Storm Tyrant’s gathering place, and see just how dangerous this threat is.”

Halgra pales and gulps. "The Storm Tyrant?"

After a long silence Halgra clears her throat. "If that comes true, Trunau would be the least worry of the 'small folk'. We'd be the collateral damage of giants stomping through the land and attacking nations." She shoves her bowl of stew away. She lost her appetite.

The other council members sit there staring at Halgra. They are lost for words.

As Halgra pales, Daseem perks up ,for the greater glory of Gorum. Rather eagerly he asks, "T-tell us of this Storm Tyrant. Is he a worthy foe?"

Lessie Crumkin answers with a chuckle "Yes, he probably is.", while Agrit facepalms herself and Sara groans as Daseem voices that one thought again, that is constantly running around in his head.

Halgra just shakes her head in disbelief. "The Storm Tyrant is a Storm Giant, who would step on you, reducing you to a splat without noticing." she tells, exxaggerating only a tiny bit. Then she moves on to answer Ivan and Bupkis. "It would be a great idea to get more weapons that were made to defeat giants. So I encourage you to seek out Nargrym Steelhand's tomb. We won't give up Trunau, no matter what."

"Were the weapons you found in the Vault of Thorns any good? Did they help?"

Sara looks up to see the reaction. She suspects that a good deal of that lies on the pile in her forge.

"Some of them did - Daseem's blade is a weapon known as Gorum's Thorn, sacred to his god. This breastplate I wear was in the vault as well, along with several magic arrows specifically designed to kill Orcs. None of us is a skilled archer, so they weren't put to their best use, but we were able to kill the orcs. There were also some wands and scrolls, but none of us really knew how to use them."

Menrozzar leaves out the fact that the flaming scimitar was in the pile in Sara's forge - they still had the rest, after all.

"We also found this ironwood crown with a thorn motif, and jeweled ceremonial cudgel, but neither of those was a particularly useful weapon." Menrozzar put the crown on the table in case anyone recognized the motif.

The only thing from the chest that we sold was the flaming scimitar +1 - everything else we kept.

"I agree that seeking out Nargrym Steelhand's tomb should be our next course of action. The more weapons we have that allow us to better kill giants, the better."

"Where is that tomb?" Halgra asks. "You should take your time to properly prepare your travel."

They didn't take him seriously, not that it mattered. Daseem grinned, Gorum would be the final arbiter so why set your sights low? Thumping for emphasis his chest he informed Halgarta, "I will s-slay this Storm Tyrant." Of course Daseem didn't mean he'd try this in the near future, no doubt he'd have to work his way up thought the Tyrant's minions, but such was war.

Bupkis says, "Let's look at rock halves again. Maybe someone recognizes location."

I can't remember if any of us had an idea of where the tomb might be.

Amira figured it out here.

Menrozzar said, ”The tomb is located in the Mindspin Mountains. This carved groove here might be a trail of some kind, leading to the location.”

Kn:Geography: 1d20 ⇒ 13

The funny rock didn't mean anything to Daseem.

Halgra gets up. "Clear the table." she orders and walks over to a large sturdy oaken cabinet. She opens it and takes out a three feet long scroll case.

Inside the scroll case is a map of Trunau and its surroundings. Halgra places the map on the table and weighs it down with four polished stones that were also in the case. "Here is Trunau. These are the Mindspin Mountains." she tells moving with her hand over the area. "That's over 200 miles of mountains. You might want to narrow it a bit down. With no marked settlement on your treasure map, it is hard to find out where the trail starts and where to go. So point me to it?" she asks Menrozzar.

One clarification later Ruby is sent to find Amira.

As Amira arrives with Ruby and is requested to help with the two maps she gladly does.

"This geode is really a marvel, both how nature created such a wonderful thing and the craftmanship with which the coincidental similarity was worked into a perfect miniature of the mindspin mountains. If you look here" she tells pointing to the crystal formation with a hairpin "you recognize the mountain silhouette as seen from Janderhoff." But as Halgra clears her throat and gives Amira the 'hurry up' look, she skips further details.

"Here is the start of the trail, and it leads there to this plateau overlooking the source of the Runtash River."

"That is quite the distance from Trunau." Halgra tells. "That's over 200 miles to Janderhoff And then you still have some travel to that place left. There is no river going there. I suggest you travel by horse or cart." Halgra tells.

So...do any of us have ranks in Ride?

"Horses would be faster and more mobile - better able to deal with any difficult terrain we encounter."

"Horses dangerous!", Bupkis declares. He hasn't quite got over goblins' natural distrust of equines.

"Maybe take a donkey then? They are clever creatures and not as easily spooked as horses." Amira suggests. "Or maybe don't smile at the horse. They are afraid of anything that looks like it could eat them. And those teeth of yours are very pointy."

"Maybe," Bupkis replies hesitantly. Donkeys weren't quite as big and scary as horses. He can see the point that they will have a long way to travel.

"What are you going to bring along? What will your preparations be? I guess I'd like to stock up on some magic stuff. Where would I get that ?" Amira inquires.

"That would be with me." Agrit replies. "I run the House of Wonders. And as you're with our heroes here, you get even a discount."

Daseem unsheathes a foot of his Gorum blessed blade and patting it he proudly declares, "My p-precaution!"

Erm I think we'd better buy ourselves another couple of CLW wands at least, possibly a Wand of Lesser Restoration too. How are we doing for ranged weapons? Daseem has that hand xbow still, but I think that'd annoy a giant more than hurt it!