"If it was important enough to attack the town for, it's important enough for us to hold on to," Astrid says, after directing her now favorite cetacean to push the giant's body up onto the shore.
Although Astrid's orca summon fades back to the plane it was summoned from well before it manages to get the body to shore, you're all able to follow up on its efforts and bring the body the rest of the way. The lean, craggy stone giant is dressed in light leathers and adorned with massive bones from some kind of terrible beast. He has two glimmering, visibly magical picks at his belt, a war horn, and a silver ring. Unfortunately, you don't find any missives or other items that might shed more light on the purpose behind the raid. If he had anything, it has either been left behind or destroyed.
As for the stone, you dive briefly under the surface of the water where the stone was thrown and find the depth here is already quite significant. Given the massive size of the stone, it'll take significant strength and some significant time to get it back up to the surface. Alternatively, swimming down there to inspect it would just require a good swimmer and possibly some water breathing in order to have sufficient time to get a good look.
Kellek takes his time to survey the damage and examine the remains of any giants for magical items.
Kellek inspects the gear on the giant leader and finds some surprisingly potent enchantments. One pick is a +1 dwarf-bane heavy pick, while the other is a +1 light pick, both sized for a large creature. Although the warhorn is ordinary, the ring is a +2 ring of protection. His armor also appears magical, though again it is sized for a large creature. Kellek determines it to be +2 hide armor.
With the giant empty of any hints as to his true mission, it seems you'll need some other means of working out what his master sought in Sandpoint.
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”Does anyone have the wherewithal to investigate the stone that was thrown? We could also check the Old Light and see if that stone was blocking a secret chamber or some such,” suggests Guiness. ”I volunteer for the land-based mission,” he adds, moving that way after they are done with the stone giant leader.
”Does anyone have the wherewithal to investigate the stone that was thrown? We could also check the Old Light and see if that stone was blocking a secret chamber or some such,” suggests Guiness. ”I volunteer for the land-based mission,” he adds, moving that way after they are done with the stone giant leader.
Still flying above the water, Colvyn tries to calculate how deep is the stone and how far from the shore it is.
Colvyn eyes up the spot where the stone fell and estimates that its about 200 feet from shore. The water there should be about 50 feet deep.
"I'm spent," Astrid says, giving a tired shrug. "Given a day's rest, I can ask for Pulura's aid in retrieving the stone."
Taking note of where the stone is, Colvyn heads to the docks. There he grabs multiple ropes and a bright buoy of some sort. Once he as what he needs. He flies back to the spot where the stone is. He ties one of the ropes to the buoy and then dives in the water to the stone. While underwater, he ties the other end of the rope to the stone, making sure to make multiple pass to really secure it. He then swims back to the surface and tie another rope to the one tied to the buoy. Once he is convinced that the rope is secure, he flies back to the shore. As he stand on the beach, he gives the rope a few good tug to make sure everything is solid.
"Hey, you there," Kargas wearily waves down one of the cheering townsfolk. [b]"Big hero here, could you bring a ladder? I'm pretty sure a few of my ribs are broken and I don't want to stay up here all night."[/b[]
Despite her exhaustion, Astrid spends the rest of the day tending to the injured, drawing on every bit of her remaining blessings in the process.
You leave the loose block from Old Light alone for today and, after ensuring the stone is flagged with a buoy, fly back to the mainland. In town, the hardy folk of Sandpoint are still in action, looking for a few missing individuals and working to make the smoldering houses of the north western edge of town safe. Your return into town - as well as Kargas descending from the roof - attracts an immediate crowd. A vibrant chorus of cheers surrounds you as more and more of the town's survivors find that their saviors have pulled through.
Not long after Astrid's healing takes effect, Mayor Deverin arrives at the site of the growing crowd. With a few shouts for space for the heroes, she manages to make a path and get close enough to talk to you.
"All of you! You're alright? Thanks to Miss Astrid, no doubt." She clears her throat, suddenly aware that she's momentarily the center of the crowd's attention. "Ahem! Heroes of Sandpoint! You've once again outdone our greatest hopes, stopping this raid in its tracks, protecting the citizenry, and well... slaying a dragon! A dragon!" She blinks, suddenly quite overwhelmed by the immensity of the threat that's been averted. "The town would be nothing but a ruin without your selfless protection. We're all in your debt." The bows her head as another massive cheer rises from the crowd.
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In the hours that follow, a spirit of relieved celebration fills the town, though at times its tempered as missing people are discovered to be casualties of the raid. Mercifully the number of deaths is quite low. More worrying at the missing people. You learn later in the day that the Scarnetti Manor was attacked at the same time as the town. Most of the manor's servants were slaughtered - the few that survived brought warning to the town too late. The survivors speak of giants grabbing and stuffing the Scarnettis and their treasure alike into sacks.
Ameiko and Rig track you down later in the day, with the first of those two throwing her arms around Kargas almost the moment she spots him. They describe their fight in the southern end of town before Colvyn came down and finished the group of giant raiders off.
Once you manage to extricate yourselves from the celebrations and recovery efforts, you head back to Old Light and take a look around the structure. The open spot where the stone was removed from the walls is quite obvious - from inside the town you now have a good view of the ocean waves. However, there's no obvious reason for the stone's removal. It was part of a mostly collapsed wall on the sea-facing side of the ruin, but nothing about the stones around the missing one comes off as particularly remarkable. Guiness also checks the bodies of the giants here and across town, but other than their non-magical combat gear, pouches of supplies for an extended trip, and a few personal items, he doesn't find anything of interest. They don't have any missives or objects that would betray their purpose in the town.
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On the possibility that the giant leader was looking for something in this particular location, Guiness shifts some of the stones around so they gap a bit and asks Astrid or Kellek to Detect Magic, just in case there is something secret buried in the ruins here.
If he finds nothing, he gratefully accepts her healing and listens to the report about the condition of the town and its kidnapped inhabitants. He also personally goes to check on his infantry teams and thank them (or their next of kin) for laying their lives on the line for the defense of the town.
On the possibility that the giant leader was looking for something in this particular location, Guiness shifts some of the stones around so they gap a bit and asks Astrid or Kellek to Detect Magic, just in case there is something secret buried in the ruins here.
Astrid blinks in surprise when the Mayor calls her out by name, and opens her mouth to protest before Muninn interrupts her with a sudden peck at her ear. Her cheeks redden in embarrassment at the praise but soon finds herself basking in the town's adulation despite herself.
Nothing registers to detect magic among the ruins of Old Light, and a detailed search of the premises reveals nothing secret or hidden other than a few broken bottles and sodden remains of tobacco. Whatever significance the stones here have, it's not obvious to the naked eye or magical inspection.
Among the beleaguered remnants of the town guard, rather than accepting Guiness' thanks, the men and women deliver their earnest appreciation. After all, without his intervention, many more of them would now be dead.
Rig leaves later that same day at Guiness' urging, taking a couple of competent woodsmen with him in order to follow the trail left by the giants that raided the Scarnetti manor. For your part though, you're finally able to rest and recuperate after the pitched battle and subsequent investigation.
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It takes another day and the help of Astrid's magic before you're able to retrieve the massive stone block from its resting place on the ocean floor. After all the work it took to bring it back up to the surface, the stone is surprisingly uninteresting. Though you take your time to inspect it in detail, you don't find anything unusual about it. The stone was clearly quarried a long time ago and it shows signs of significant wear on its ocean-facing side especially. It doesn't bear any markings or any magical auras. Comparing it to other stones that make up the base of Old Light, it seems more or less similar to the rest.
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After celebrating the prior evening and pulling up the stone the next morning, Guiness speaks with his companions at the seashore with the unremarkable stone sitting on the beach nearby.
"I know not what tactical significance Sandpoint has to warrant such a deadly attack, but it is obvious to me that the town has no standing defense against such foes as stone giants and dragons. I feel that we should soon follow the escaped giants and retrieve our kidnapped townsmen, but after that, I am not so sure," he begins.
"We need to sift through the leads we have and track down those behind the threat to this whole region, but Sandpoint needs stronger defenders than those who permanently reside here," he adds, saying, "Sure, we could rely on Sending and Teleport and other such spells, but what if the threat is unanticipated or we are recovering from a battle elsewhere, having little to offer?"
"We seem to be needed in two places at once...If I stay here and train the town defenders, I will worry that our implaccable foe grows stronger left unchallenged and will soon strike the killing blow. If we continue the chase, we leave those we care for vulnerable here behind us. What should we do?" he concludes.
Ironically, Kellek is away today rounding up useful spells at the the Acadamae, and Theumanexus College, both schools of magic in Korvosa. He teleported away in the early morning after preparing his spells for the day.
"There has to be something we're missing," Astrid says, frustrated. "They wouldn't have thrown away so many lives--theirs and ours--just for a random bit of masonry!"
A single exploratory strike hits hard against the stone, separating off a small chip. A pick might produce better results.
Blinking in surprised delight, Kargas enfolds Ameiko in a gentle hug and reassures her and Rig that he's alive. "Careful with my ribs, they're all smashed up," he grunts with a pained grin before the three of them make their way over to rejoin the others. As the celebration picks up the half-orc limits himself to just enough mead to dull the pain, and otherwise contents himself with watching the exultations of the town he'd just helped to save. "Heh. We killed a dragon!"
"We seem to be needed in two places at once...If I stay here and train the town defenders, I will worry that our implacable foe grows stronger left unchallenged and will soon strike the killing blow. If we continue the chase, we leave those we care for vulnerable here behind us. What should we do?"
Kargas grunts in agreement, surveying the thin curls of smoke still rising from the burnt town as visions of devastation and destruction dance behind his eyes. "Yeah...I don't think it's good to leave Sandpoint undefended again. We have a lot of enemies, seems like."
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”A difficult conundrum indeed,” remarks Guiness, ”Though I am personally inclined to keep chasing the evil to its source, there is great honor in staying to defend one’s home.”
Following Kargas’ gaze back to the town, Guiness says, ”But we have a more immediate issue for today—let us catch up with the trackers and find where the stone giants have gone with Sandpoint’s kidnapped citizens. Hopefully Kellek will catch up with us after he has finished his shopping trip.”
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"That, at least, is something I can do," Astrid says, relieved to have something she can turn her focus to. After casting a spell to enhance their effectiveness against the giants, she sets out with Guinness and Muninn to find the trackers and their prey.
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Within the first hour of following the trail, you're forced to ford the Turandurok River and delve right into the center of the Tickwood. Not long later, you locate a discarded wooden cart, axle splintered and the interior lined with tattered tapestries. From the look of the tapestry scraps, they came from the Scarnetti manor. Unfortunately, the kidnapped people and remaining loot are nowhere to be found. You do see more boot-prints leaving the scene north-east-ward and you're able to continue.
The path never rejoins the Old Coast Road. Instead, you follow up into the Tors, where tracking grows more difficult. Thanks to your patient approach and Astrid's spell, you're able to continue without losing your way, and eventually the trail descends into the Mosswood and heads almost directly eastward.
Late in the afternoon, you cross paths with Rig's group of woodsmen. You learn that they followed the trail past the wagon last night, but lost the trail up on the Tors and had to retrace their steps. After some success finding the trail again, they managed to follow for a few more miles eastward before they once again encountered difficulty and camped overnight. They've been searching the Mosswood for the path the giants took ever since.
After 8 hours of tracking, you're still on the right track, heading eastward out of the Mosswood and into the hills. The giants don't seem to be doing much to hide their flight, but the varied terrain means that it's sometimes quite tricky to follow after them. Their speed also means that you're unlikely to catch up to them like this - but you might be able to at least get a direction before their tracks get too old to follow.
"Hey, you lot go on ahead. I'll stay here and keep things safe," Kargas waves the others off and goes back to helping to clear rubble from one of the burnt down buildings from the day before.
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In the grey light of false dawn, a pinnace cuts through the dark waters as it draws nearer and nearer to Sandpoint. Near the prow stands a tall, broad-shouldered woman with a bastard sword slung over her shoulder and well-oiled ringmail under a thick grey cloak. She leans against the ships railing, eyes straining towards the shoreline.
"Captain. We should be arriving shortly, no?" She calls over her shoulder to the woman at the helm of the Swallowtail, her voice containing a hint of an Ustalavan accent.
"Aye, aye Lady Vilcek," the captain calls back. "Right on time, as promised." Just then, the ship rounds a promontory and the lookout calls out that the town is sighted. It soon becomes apparent that something is wrong--thin plumes of smoke, to dark and too large to be hearthfires, rise from the town. Ziva's jaw sets in a line, and she goes quiet and still as the ships draws closer. As the Swallowtail bumps up against the pier she suddenly leaps onto it and strides up towards the dockworkers.
"Pardon me sirs, but what occurred here? I know a raided town when I see one."
Ziva finds the docks surprisingly barren for a port town, and the signs of recent recent damage are in evidence all around. A barge lies half-sunken at the largest dock, several houses have buckled walls where something extraordinarily heavy must have struck them, and a pile of splintered wood has been built up in the cobblestone square just in from the docks. Lying atop the oversized un-lit pyre are the corpses of a half-dozen stone giants.
A dockworker comes up to Ziva. She looks weary, but in relatively good spirits for someone who must have gone through something traumatic recently. "Welcome to Sandpoint. You came at quite an odd time. The Heroes just defended the town from a raid by a whole army of stone giants and their red dragon leader. I still can't quite believe it myself, but then again, we've got some giant corpses to deal with, and they sure didn't appear out of nowhere."
Another dockworker sidles up "Aye, the town's recovering, and the inns are all handling the wounded right now. Not a good time to come visitin'."
One eyebrow goes up at the report of giants and dragons, and the other eyebrow joins it when she spies the corpses. "Thank the gods that these heroes were present, then. They must be quite formidable." Ziva scans the streets, picking out a route towards the larger stone building further in, likely either a guardhouse or a church. Thanking to two locals, she makes her way over to the building, where a handful of very exhausted-looking humans appear to be organizing repair and recovery operations.
Ziva walks right up to the woman who appears to be most in charge, introducing herself without preamble. "I recognize that you have suffered a grievous harm here, and I will provide what assistance I can but my reason for coming unfortunately cannot wait. I've heard that your town has recently suffered from the attentions of a cult, or something close to one. A similar hard recently afflicted Magnimar--and my own home as well. I seek to unravel this mystery, and your assistance would be invaluable."
Mayor Deverin is rather skeptical at first, offering Ziva a weary "Hello stranger." as Ziva explains her purpose. "We'll take all the help we can get here. There's a lot of repair, and a lot of mourning to be done. As for the cult you're mentioning, it sounds like the stories that the Heroes brought up from Magnimar when they returned. They'd crossed a cult there led by a lamia, if you can believe that. She'd been behind some murders in Sandpoint, or at least one of her followers was. It was a grisly thing... marking people with a seven pointed star and leaving them to die. Then there were the ghouls... The less said about those those the better." She shakes her head, the old bad memories now mixing with the new. "We heard about how the Heroes had tracked the murderer down to an old manor on the coast, but if you need to know the details, well you'd be best served by meeting the Heroes themselves. Most of them just left, tracking the Giants that raided us. There's also Kargas, still here in town, but the ordeal wiped him out - he'll probably be in bed most of the day."
From the way she talks about Kargas, you can tell she holds the man in high regard, if not open hero worship. She shakes her head "If you're in a rush, you might be able to find them by tracking them east. What did you say your name was? "
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Ziva tabs the symbol sewn into her cloak and the heavy tunic over her armor: black stitching of a lantern with an open down in silver where the lantern's flame would be.
"I am Captain Ziva Vilcek of the Order of the Argent Lantern--I am something between a special investigator and a marshal for Lastwall and parts of Ustalev. Your cult sounds precisely like what I am looking for, and I am pleased to learn that they have been dealt with. I'm far from my jurisdiction, but I will help you all however I can. This Kargas has earned his rest, I think, speaking with him can wait."
Ziva shrugs off her backpack and baldric, wrapping them up in her cloak and setting the bundle aside. Rolling up her tunic sleeves over her muscular forearms, she accepts whatever instructions Mayor Deverin provides her and sets to clearing rubble and recovering the dead with a will.
Mayor Deverin is grateful for any help offered, softening her attitude as it becomes clear that Ziva's intentions are good.
”We’ll never catch them at this speed,” says Guiness, asking ”Does anyone have any magic that might either speed our travel or directly spy on the kidnappers?”
He considers if this is the best use of their time, especially given Kellek’s teleportation ability…
POP!
Kellek arrives in Korvosa with piles of heavy giant equipment. He promptly arranges to hire a sturdy-looking though ugly porter with a pair of coconut shells to carry things though the city streets a quick skip while announcing the wizard's arrival with the clattering of his shells.
He does NOT hire a bard.
After a day spent trading the party's goods for coin and lighter weight gemstones he pays off his porter and settles in for the night in one of the city's many derelict zones after conjuring up his magical shelter.
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As evening falls even the work winds down, weary townsfolk trickling back to their homes or preferred watering holes. Ziva recovers her equipment and gets directions to the Rusty Dragon, where this Kargas apparently resides. Sweaty and dusty from the rubble, she steps into the tavern where folk who just survived a dreadful assault are gathered to celebrated their fortune--but it doesn't take her long to spot the towering half-orc with the ritual scarification. He was sitting in a booth before a pair of tankards and a mostly-finished plate of food, massive purple and green bruises mottling his grey skin. He looks young to her eyes, an impression not helped much by the mooning, infatuated looks he kept sneaking towards the Tien woman at the bar.
Ziva feels her jaw tighten and she tenses--those scars were unmistakeably Belkzen--but a moment's observation is enough to make clear that the people in this bar weren't afraid of him. On the contrary, everyone seems to be taking turns coming over to thank and congratulate him, though few of them touched him. Perhaps out of caution for his injuries, perhaps not. It does not matter, Ziva. You're a long way from the Hordelands and you have a job to do.
Forcing herself to relax, the Lastwall captain pushes through the crown and seats herself in the booth opposite him. "Hello, you must be Kargas. I am Ziva Vilcek, and I have come a long a way in search of a vicious foe. I think perhaps we have a common enemy, you and I."
While the party awaits Kellek's return, Astrid busies herself assisting with the town's recovery from the attack. Much of her time is spent tending to the wounded, led from home to home by her familiar's insistent croaks. Beyond her healing magics, she also turns some of her divine blessings toward rebuilding homes or conjuring food for the townspeople.
It's toward the end of one of these taxing days that she spies a rather severe looking newcomer speaking with the mayor. Concerned, but still focused on more pressing issues, Astrid tasks Muninn to watch the stranger for her.
While the party awaits Kellek's return, Astrid busies herself assisting with the town's recovery from the attack.
"Whew, it's so hot in there. What? 'Where am I staying?' In that new lodge around the corner. It sleeps eight." ;)