Astrid doesn't see or hear anything approaching. It seems the ball is in your court for now.
Colvyn walks back toward the group and explains the situation. "Two giants and a cage filled with humans being used as slave work force. They don't look in the best of shape. Should we free them now."
Astrid takes a deep breath before taking up a position behind the party's front line.
"I can get them out of their cages while you take care of their captors."
As Guiness begins to advance, his "slightly" less subtle presence draws the attention of the stone giant smiths. They look up from their work and almost identical expressions of annoyance pass across their faces. The one closest to the entrance calls out "You intruders aren't dead yet? How's that?" in giant as he raises his hammer and red-hot weapon in tandem.
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|||| INIT ||||
Guiness (4 dmg)
Astrid
Blue Giant Smith
Red Giant Smith
Kellek (5 images)
Ziva (15 dmg)
Colvyn
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”Blast it,” Guiness scowls as his lack of stealth has again cost him the element of surprise…Trotting up as quickly as possible (double move), he answers as he enters the room, ”We live because those who sought to kill us either died or ran away…Which category will you fall in, I wonder…”
The battle-hardened dwarf stands ready with heavy armor, gleaming shield, and flaming warhammer.
Ziva rolls her shoulders and cracks her neck left and right, sword gleaming in the forge-light. She strides towards the two giants, lighting shifting her weight from foot to foot in preparation to dodge at any moment. A golden light begins to limn the blade in her hand.
"I feel that I'm wasting by breath, but perhaps the third time's a charm: I offer you one chance to surrender, will you accept it?"
The front giant smith sneers at Guiness as the dwarf enters "Tough words, for a tiny little guy. We'll make good use of that metal you're wrapping yourself in. Might make for a nice tidy dagger, don't you think?" Ziva's offer to accept surrender earns only a hearty overconfident guffaw from the smiths.
|||| INIT ||||
Guiness (4 dmg)
Astrid
Blue Giant Smith
Red Giant Smith
Kellek (5 images)
Ziva (15 dmg)
Colvyn
Guiness is left only with a choice of letting the body impact him or dodging, and he manages to avoid the hurtling projectile. The thrown victim on the other hand crashes into the floor and wall to the west, then slides down into a crumpled pile. The seven pointed star burned into his back bleeds freely. He doesn't stir.
|||| INIT ||||
Kellek (5 images)
Ziva (15 dmg)
Colvyn
Guiness (4 dmg)
Astrid x2
Blue Giant Smith
Red Giant Smith
Horrified by the brutal manner in which the prisoner was murdered, Astrid rushes forward, hand outstretched toward the cages in a strange gesture. Then, with a yanking motion, she opens a stitch in the world that pulls one of the prisoners through and out, leaving them standing next to Ziva. Then, after a quick warning to the warrior to hold on to her lunch, she does the same thing in reverse, this time teleporting Ziva into the face of the nearest giant.
Stumbling a half-step and blinking rapidly to clear her vision as the unexpected teleport lurches her into the room, Ziva recovers smoothly and darts past the first giant, hoping to hem him in between Guiness and herself.
Colvyn stares at the giant that threw the man. "You shouldn't have done that."
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The two giant smiths deliver a flurry of strikes against the nimble fighter. Even at a disadvantage between the two giant figures, she dodges and deflects several strikes, though several more strike her soundly from multiple angles she isn't able to cover.
|||| INIT ||||
Kellek (5 images) x2
Ziva (70 dmg)
Colvyn
Guiness (16 dmg)
Astrid
Blue Giant Smith
Red Giant Smith (82 dmg)
With the demise of the first giant, Astrid advances further into the room, releasing a pulse of positive energy to heal both her allies and the surviving prisoners.
Taking a step closer, Colvyn sents more arrows flying at any living giants.
Guiness' first heavy strike is enough to bring the giant smith to his knees. The fellow is agape at the ferocity and power of the strike, but doesn't get more than a second of surprise before Guiness' second strike takes him out. Astrid's wave of healing restores the party, and the way is clear for Colvyn to stick a single arrow into blue's shoulder.
|||| INIT ||||
Kellek (5 images) x2
Ziva (47 dmg)
Colvyn
Guiness
Astrid
Blue Giant Smith (21 dmg)
Nodding at Guiness in acknowledgement of a blow well struck, Ziva whirls to confront the remaining giant, her expression grim and wrathful. "Foolhardy," she growls back at him mockingly.
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|||| INIT ||||
Kellek (5 images) x2
Ziva (95 dmg)
Colvyn
Guiness
Astrid
Blue Giant Smith (64 dmg)
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Guiness moves straight into combat with the blue giant smith, angling his shield to try and block any incoming strike as the dwarf moved through the giant's outer guard.
"Time to switch," he says, looking worriedly at Ziva before returning his concentration to the giant and taking a swipe with Dragonfist.
Grimacing as even the giants' glancing blows add up, Ziva still shakes her head in denial of Guiness' offer to switch. "I'll see this through," she growls through gritted teeth, stepping around so the giant can't face her and Guiness at the same time. Her blade flashes forward, no longer slashing but in brutal stabs intended to puncture organs.
Colvyn walks over to the cage and looks at the prisoners, trying to dertirmine if they are chained or not.
Lightning cracks through the giant, opening it up to be crushed by Guiness and Ziva's assault. Burned and with blood spraying from its wounds, the giant smith collapses face first with a terrible crash.
Combat Over!
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Inside the cage, most of the prisoners look at you with weary, defeated eyes. Two of the women, the ones that were working the bellows earlier, look to be a bit fresher. They come up to the bars and one croaks. "Keys... pouch." She points to the closer of the two giant corpses. Looking over the prisoners, they're not manacled while within the cage, but their wrists and ankles bear the scrapes and bruising that suggest manacles were on them relatively recently.
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"Aye," says Guiness succinctly, searching the giant smith's possessions and separating out anything that looks like it might be high quality or magic for others to appraise. He grabs the keys and opens the cage, saying, "Let's get you out of here and to temporary safety. What can you tell us of your plight and the location of any other prisoners?"
Once the prisoners are out, and once you're able to get them some water to alleviate their severe dehydration, the woman who spoke earlier manages to compose herself and straighten her back enough to gain a little bit of haughtiness "I... you're the heroes of Sandpoint, aren't you? Your rescue could have come a little earlier." She presses her lips into a tight, cracked line. "Those foul giants broke into our manor without warning, killed the guards, and took every living member of the Scarnetti family they could find along with, I expect, most of our wealth." She grimaces "Kept us tied up in a cart for days, then on some giant's shoulder for days after that. Then they brought us here, to work us to death like common laborers. And they kept us in a cell with this riff-raff." She waves a hand to the more worn-down members of the group of prisoners. "I don't know where they're from. They don't speak much. I expect they had other things on their minds. As for other prisoners, we didn't see any when they were marching us down here. I suppose they already ate anyone else."
When asked for more details about the members of the Scarnetti family, the woman says "Only dear mother and me are still here. Old Titus was branded with that foul... symbol... the moment we arrived and they took him away. Charn and Adimar were the day after that."
As the second giant falls, Ziva half-sighs and half-groans, leaning against the wall as the prisoners are released. "That seems...very targeted, like they knew who you were. Is there any reason...they would go after the Scarnetti family?"
While the freed Scarnettis answer, the knight looks around the forge-room for anything of interest, but her injuries are more than a little distracting.
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"Without warning? The entire town was warned even prepared for the attack for multiple days. No one in town was captured. Fatality was at a minimun and injuries were quickly treated. For some reason, you and the others decided to stay isolated in your manor instead of joining the bulk of the defense were you would have been safe."
Walking past the woman, Colvyn start looking over at the other prisonners. "I am Colvyn Dashtail, warpriest of Erastil. We will get you to safety. Could you tell us who you are?" He gives the closest man his waterskin as he speaks.
The woman, Elisse Scarnetti, answers Ziva "I don't know what we did to deserve this. Mostly we have to deal with thieves, and while these giants took our valuables, they made certain to grab all of us as well." She has no good rebuttal for Colvyn, but still manages to look unfairly insulted at his suggestion that she should have joined the town's defense.
Ziva and Guiness check over the two giant smiths and the rest of the room for items of interest. You find several dozen large-sized weapons of ordinary make, including the unfinished longswords that the giants used to fight. Their hammers are of more sophisticated make, but don't appear to be magical .
The other prisoners take longer to get into a good enough shape to answer questions, but eventually Colvyn is able to coax some answers from an older man. "Merchants, all of us, mostly. I've crossed paths with all the others, except for the newcomers, before. We all worked the routes between towns in the Churlwood and Curchain Hills. The giants fell upon my caravan and slew everyone who didn't run, except for myself and my son."
As the second giant falls, Ziva half-sighs and half-groans, leaning against the wall as the prisoners are released. "That seems...very targeted, like they knew who you were. Is there any reason...they would go after the Scarnetti family?"
"I can think of few, but go on."
Kellek half listens to the rest, but is too busy looking for magic to be bothered yet by anything said so far.
"That far out? Wonder if they also tried an attack against Riddleport." Colvyn guides them toward the corridor. "We have something of an ally here. She's a giant, but her mate as been killed by the current leader, so... you know, enemy of my enemy thing."
He signal them to stand by as he goes to verify that the tunnels are still free of giants or other foes.
Kellek doesn't detect any magic in the smithy or cages.
Most of the prisoners are too battered to be alarmed by Colvyn's mention of a giant ally and follow after him with stumbling steps. Only Elisse has the presence of mind to be concerned for a moment. Still, she doesn't voice any concerns and follows with the rest.
Out in the hallway, Colvyn looks and listens in both directions and hears nothing close by other than the ogres in the tanning room next door doing their best to be quiet. They're not doing a particularly good job of it and sound rather frightened.
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”She has pledged to keep rescued prisoners safe until we can leave this place with you,” adds Guiness as he watches for foes on the way back. ”We will do our best to rescue everyone who can be,” he says a bit sadly as he looks at the crumpled body of the prisoner used as intimidation during the beginning of the fight.
Limping over the the broken form of the fallen prisoner, Ziva cafefully arranges his limbs as best she can and rises holding him. She moves to follow the others. "Can't just leave them behind," she says tiredly.
Astrid does what she can to ease the worst of the prisoners' remaining injuries before turning her focus to the brutal beating Ziva endured. Taking a moment to center herself, she places a hand on the warrior's shoulder and becomes a temporary conduit for life-giving energies.
Her work done, Astrid opens her eyes, takes a step back, and then shakes her head ruefully, as if to say "be more careful next time."
With prisoners in tow, you make your way back westward, Colvyn keeping an eye out for anyone intercepting you. The grand feasting hall is still filled with the corpses of the giants you felled there and you don't find any others patrolling and searching for you. You head back up the tunnel and reach the mural room.
Conna gets up from her kneeling position at the altar. For a moment, the room seems to darken, shadows deepening as the oil lanterns lighting it flicker. The murals of animals and hunting scenes begin wriggling as some unseen force wills them to life. Conna places her fingertips atop the shrine and the strange darkening of the room halts and slowly reverses, and the murals lie still once more.
"My husband's spirit is agitated, but it is nothing to worry over." She nods once toward the altar and then asks "Are these your kin? They seem in need of rest." She waves toward the dire bear-skin rugs piled up in one corner. "I will keep them here, in anticipation of your success."
"Do we take out the ogres in the tanning room or just leave them be?"
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Guiness shrugs and says, ”I don’t know, Colvyn, it might be instructive for a remnant to be spared so that someone can inform the giants what awaits them should they choose to side with Mokmurian and mistreat our people so. I’d rather not fight anyone we don’t have to…unless they are irreversibly committed to committing atrocities against our people”
"There are more dangerous foes about--if the tannery ogres don't directly threaten us or hold any captives, we should ignore them for now."
Guiness shrugs and says, ”I don’t know, Colvyn, it might be instructive for a remnant to be spared so that someone can inform the giants what awaits them should they choose to side with Mokmurian and mistreat our people so. I’d rather not fight anyone we don’t have to…unless they are irreversibly committed to committing atrocities against our people”
"Well then I suppose that depends upon who they are tanning." says the wizard. "If they seem cowardly though, we might at least scare them off."
"Well then I suppose that depends upon who they are tanning." says the wizard.
Astrid grimaces.
Gesturing towards the central chamber, Ziva inquires partly of Conna and partly of Colvyn: "What lies in there?"
"The center of the pit? It leads back up to the surface, to the old fort." Conna comments "As well as down, to a sea of bones, where waste and refuse have been tossed since Mokmurian first moved to occupy this place."
A half-dozen Kelleks sigh and then gesture deeper into the dungeon. "Lead on. My spells won't last forever." they say.
Walking past the tannery and the forge, Colvyn silently explore the corridor. Let's see what we have down here.
Dim evening light up above provides a hazy illumination to the great open space at the center of the Pit. The space is dominated by a large circular opening, narrowing below to a bed of bone and refuse, and rising and widening above to the cloudy sky. A chiseled stone ramp circles clockwide up the side of the shaft, circling up to ground level some hundred feet above. Closer to your own level, you see openings in the walls of the pit to the east and west, each large enough to admit a medium creature or a large one squeezing. The smell of animal dung, raw meat, and wet fur wafts from the east side, and if you strain your ears you can hear the snuffling of some beasts that must be inside those eastern cubby holes.
With the center of the Pit viewed, Colvyn turns and heads to the south, circling around past the tannery and smithy and through the abandoned barracks. He sneaks up to the corner and peers down the tunnel continuing southeast. Up ahead, he spots a smaller branch tunnel heading north, and a wider, grander passage continuing southeast. The walls of the southeastern passage are hung with luxurious furs of all kinds, while standing braziers cast the hall in a warm, flickering light. Beyond, the hall narrows to barely wide enough for a single giant to pass.
Colvyn makes it back to the group and explain what he saw. "Where do you to go from here?"