GM Zero/GL's Giantslayer! (Inactive)

Game Master GM_Grandlounge

"It's too bad we can't find out what's going on in that mountain. It's obviously important to them. If we could disrupt it, they might scatter for lack of purpose," Ulretha comments.

"Sure. While I take up a watch on the roads leading into the camp, maybe you can take on a flying form and do a broader reconnaissance of the area leading up from the lowlands." she says to Ben.

Lidia still seems to be in a relatively good mood, and for once she opens up a little. "I suppose I can't help but be reminded of the years I spent captive in Urgir when I think of those slaves. That's probably part of why I want to get them out. I can almost feel their fear and hopelessness from here, but I know that's just me reliving some bad memories. But I also know that whatever those giants are doing in that mountain, they need those slaves to do it -- if the slaves go, it will cripple whatever the giants are up to in there and may help break up the whole operation."

"...Which means they won't give them up without a fight, no matter how bad conditions are," Thyste points out, "but they're not going to be inclined to harm them if they can help it. That plays to our advantage, I think."

Ben nods along with every comment.

"A scouting mission would do me good. As an Archaeopteryx I doubt very much I would be seen. And don't worry, Lidia, it might take a little while but we will free them. I dislike the caging of any creature."

Once this conversation is over, Ben will shift and start a high altitude reconnaissance.

As it's the middle of the night, Lidia will finish her meal then go to sleep.

In the morning, she'll move out to do her recon on the roads, first finding all the likely approaches to the camp from the lowlands, then staking them out unseen.

Survival: 1d20 + 17 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 17 + 4 = 39
Stealth: 1d20 + 20 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 20 + 4 = 26
Perception: 1d20 + 18 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 18 + 4 = 31

Ben you can give me some rolls in you animal form.

perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (7) + 12 = 19
survival/tracking: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (16) + 17 = 33

Note:
Signature skill with 10 Ranks: You can track creatures that leave no tracks, including flying and swimming creatures and creatures using trackless step or pass without trace, taking a –20 penalty on your Survival check.

Lidia and Ben, you are easily able to evade notice. Be you get some weird looks as it's a bit north for that species. Some of the giants speculate about what you may taste like.

Tracking the comings and goings in the low lands, Lidia, and further into the base, including the mountain, you come to the same conclusion that giants are not well organized. The tracks, compared to the current arrivals and departures, indicate that there is very little planning happening. Groups of scouts tend to set out at sunrise and sunset but come back whenever they get bored or hungry. The carts full of ore coming from the mountain leave seemingly as soon as they are full. The odd calls during the day for an additional slave or two suggest that people are dying in the mines. Good for the giants that there were four groups of slaves delivered today. There seems to be a steady stream from the lowlands.

Given the lax attitude of the scouting giants, they would be trivial to follow.

For the whole team, throughout the day, you increasingly hear scuffs and brawls from the camp.

Lidia returns to camp to relay her findings to the others.

"It looks like there aren't a lot of supplies going in, but there's a lot of some sort of ore coming out of that mountainside. I don't think this is really a military camp -- the patrols are erratic and don't seem to have any sort of organization or discipline to them-- it seems more like this is just a mining operation. Honestly I'm not really sure why so many giants are in there, they aren't doing much of anything. The slaves are doing all the work."

"And they're bringing in new prisoners all the time. They're working those people to death. We need to interrupt that right away; getting people out of that camp may not be easy, but stopping the supply of new victims shouldn't be hard."

"And I think our efforts are working. It seems like the camp is in turmoil. Honestly I think if we planned a raid that released those slaves, we'd have a good chance to succeeding. And I think that given the giants' lack of discipline, this whole operation might just collapse."

"So, let's set up an ambush spot to stop any more slaves from going in and man it during the day. We can also interrupt the supply of ore going out. Then some night very soon, like tonight or tomorrow, I say we raid the camp and help the prisoners escape. We can send in Blix with a heads up to the slaves to let them know we're coming."

Thyste beams with pride.

"Look at you, all tactical. You're weighing and considering the factors and picking your battles and everything. I know that sounds patronizing, but I'm legitimately impressed. I'm proud of you, Lids."

"Let's do it! We'll hit their incoming first, then hit the camp tomorrow once they've had some time to panic and blame each other some more. That poison ought to be fanning the flames away from preparing for an assault and more toward suspecting each other."

"I'm still concerned that if we free them now, they will all die. Not just a couple of them, but all of them. We really need to provide provisions for them before we do this. I agree about preventing any additional slaves from arriving though."

"Gathering provisions from the lowlands could take weeks. We shouldn't wait that long. If the camp breaks up in the next few days and they abandon their mining operation, they'd most likely just kill all the prisoners."

"After we get them down the mountain, we can come back up here and deal with whatever is left. And investigate what's happening inside that mountain. It wouldn't be smart to hang around here immediately after the prisoners are freed anyway, the giants would likely swarm out here scouring everything for enemies. Though one of us could potentially remain behind and give them red herrings to chase for a few days."

"Look at you, all tactical. You're weighing and considering the factors and picking your battles and everything. I know that sounds patronizing, but I'm legitimately impressed. I'm proud of you, Lids."

Lidia blushes deeply at the praise, though it seems to confuse her a bit, and she's clearly not sure how to respond. She just smiles awkwardly and shrugs while looking at her feet.

"Hell, if we're waiting until tomorrow to break 'em out, I can start stealing provisions today. It won't be enough to feed 'em all, but it'll be a start."

"We're going to walk all the way down the mountain with a bunch of scrawny, underfed former slaves then walk all the way back up to finish off the giants?"

Ulretha shakes his head. "No thanks. I don't mind gathering some supplies from the incoming caravans and passing it out but, as far as I'm concerned once we get them out of the camp, they're on their own. The ones worthy will survive and the rest will feed the wolves."

Ben raises his eyebrows in consideration.

"That is a really good point. I can provide a huge amount of food using he goodberry spell, well as long as we have fresh berries to use. And if they have no slaves, they will probably quit. But I would still prefer we get provisions for them first. It's not just food, but shelter they will need to have. Remember how fatigued we all have been since coming here, and they don't have magic to help them. Between the thin air and the cold, I'm telling you most of them will die."

How many slaves did you say there are?

survival: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (13) + 17 = 30, to estimate their chances at survival.

Lidia's head whips around to look at Ulretha, her jaw clenched and her lips firm. She glares at him, silently seething for a few tense moments.

"Fine. I'll do it myself." she says finally, her voice thick with emotion.

Ben raises his eyebrows in consideration.

"That is a really good point. I can provide a huge amount of food using he goodberry spell, well as long as we have fresh berries to use. And if they have no slaves, they will probably quit. But I would still prefer we get provisions for them first. It's not just food, but shelter they will need to have. Remember how fatigued we all have been since coming here, and they don't have magic to help them. Between the thin air and the cold, I'm telling you most of them will die."

Already mad from Ulretha's comment, Lidia just shakes her head and stalks out of camp to go cool off.

She wanders off for about a quarter of a mile, then climbs up into a tree and begins to sharpen one of her knives.

"Well, that's one more slave we'll be saving," Ulretha comments when Lidia is out of earshot...or did he say it just loud and soon enough for her to faintly hear?

Thyste sighs and shakes her head, letting Lidia wander off--but not without shooting a surprisingly withering glare at Ulretha.

"If our goal is to take down the camp within the next couple of days, all the slaves will need is enough food to get them through that time and somewhere to hide. Then they can go back in and take whatever provisions aren't destroyed for their journeys back to wherever they come from. They weren't born slaves and I would reckon they'll be happy to return to their lives--even if that means rebuilding them or starting anew."

"It's optimistic," she admits, "but probably the best we can do. It doesn't sound like they're treating them much better than they could manage on their own."

...or did he say it just loud and soon enough for her to faintly hear?

Perception: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (3) + 18 = 21

I think she probably heard his voice saying something but didn't catch the words. :)

Ben raises his eyebrows in consideration.

"That is a really good point. I can provide a huge amount of food using he goodberry spell, well as long as we have fresh berries to use. And if they have no slaves, they will probably quit. But I would still prefer we get provisions for them first. It's not just food, but shelter they will need to have. Remember how fatigued we all have been since coming here, and they don't have magic to help them. Between the thin air and the cold, I'm telling you most of them will die."

How many slaves did you say there are?

[dice=survival]1d20+17, to estimate their chances at survival.

I would say you have clocked 30ish in the pen during the day. With many others working double that at night. There are still some slaves working at night but mostly in the mine.

You think that 1 provision cart for giants would be enough to keep slaves alive for a few days easy. That could be picked off easily.

"Would it help if I made some stone hovels for the trapped people while you all continued with your important work? I can make walls of stone that should shelter them well enough."

"Actually, if we were able to capture at least one provision cart and you were able to provide shelter, they should do quite well. There are about 30 of them that we will need to deal with. Can yu make enough shelter for that many? Then we should free the slaves and mess with their ability to get food themselves. We leave the camp full of hungry giants and no slaves and I think the place will fall apart all by itself. I'm liking the way this plan is shaping up."

"We'll want to stick around to make sure that camp does fall apart after," Thyste reminds, "otherwise our nice stone shelter is just a buffet for hungry giants."

"Should be simple enough, I figure."

After stewing and brooding for about 45 minutes, Lidia climbs down out of the tree and begins to hunt around the area for any decent sized caves.

Like the others, she came independently to the conclusion that if the people need shelter before making the trip back to the lowlands, a large cave might be the answer.

Survival: 1d20 + 17 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 17 + 4 = 34

"Right. No buffet. And I think I can help with the shelter thing too. I'd prefer for them to have something non-magical though, in case we get tied up or something." Ben is actually thinking about how dangerous this all is and that they might get killed, but he is trying to be diplomatic. And then there is Ulretha who might get excited by the prospect in a bloody death and try to make it happen.

"Oh, don't worry about that. I'm not going anywhere until there aren't any giants left in that camp. One way or another," Ulretha says, patting Gorum's Thorn.

"If stealing supplies and freeing slaves helps, so much the better."

After stewing and brooding for about 45 minutes, Lidia climbs down out of the tree and begins to hunt around the area for any decent sized caves.

Like the others, she came independently to the conclusion that if the people need shelter before making the trip back to the lowlands, a large cave might be the answer.

[dice=Survival]1d20+17+4

Lidia, you find a couple of caves near one another. If you got everyone out, they would likely need to be split between at least two caves, but they would be safe.

Old Grandmother says, "I can take them back. It will take several trips over several days, but I can teleport them. They will still need a safe place away from giant patrols."

So do you want to actually do the raid combat or hand wave it? And can we find a source of food, like a farm.

Old Grandmother says, "I can take them back. It will take several trips over several days, but I can teleport them. They will still need a safe place away from giant patrols."

At this point, Lidia walks back into the campfire light.

"I found some caves not too far from here. If we can get the prisoners to them, they should be safe enough until Azardra can teleport them down the mountain to their homes." she says. Her voice is calm but betrays some remaining latent tension. After speaking she stands very still, as if bracing herself for something.

Ben, I doubt there are any farms up here. I think between the provision carts in the giants' camp and conjured food from you and Blix and whatever else we can scavenge with some hunting and gathering, we should be in good shape for food. Probably better than they're getting now.

Probably not. I figure out only bet is to capture a provisions cart. But it does look like we have all the tools we need to provision the slaves and make this work.

"Excellent! Then as soon as we capture a decent cart we can go ahead and free the slaves. Shall we start in on the details of doint that now, or wait until after we have the food they will need?"

"Let's do it now. The faster we destroy this place, the better," Ulretha says.

"Assuming grandmother can keep making us invisible, freeing the slaves from their compound will be no problem. But we'll have to escort them out of the camp because there are sure to be giants who try to wrangle them. Let's have Blix tell them where the caves are before hand. They can scatter then gather there again. It'll make it harder for the giants to track them down, too. Lidia and Thyste can take that watch tower and that will give them good lines of fire with their bows and, maybe give us a few more minutes before the whole camp knows what's going on. Ben and I can be on the ground, invisible and hit any giants who come to try to stop the escape," Ulretha says.

"I say we go in under cover of night again. Less wandering giants to deal with. If we manage it right, we might take those towers out and get away without any alarm is raised. The giants having those guard towers seems to make them think they don't need any other guards anywhere."

"I don't really think it's a good idea to have the prisoners scatter after getting out of the camp. Some of them will inevitably get lost. If you're worried about tracks I should be able to help cover those up once they are out of the camp."

"My biggest concern is incapacitating the guard towers before they can raise an alarm. They most likely have something like a bell or a horn that allows them to alert the camp. So we need to either incapacitate the giant before he can react, or remove his ability to use the alarm device, whatever it is."

"Sneaking into a giant tower and removing an alarm device sounds decidedly like a Thyste thing," says Thyste.

"No argument there. You should go take a look and make sure. It might be that the alarm is affixed to the tower and you could not move it, but if you can without being noticed and can get it done on both towers, that would help a lot. Either way we should try sneaking them out without notice under the cover of night. I don't mind fighting a bunch of giants, but I do mind doing it while trying to corral a bunch of half starved people to safety."

"Whole lot of ways to sabotage something without unbolting it from the wall," Thyste grins. "...As long as it's not just a big gong up there."

"Sneaking into a giant tower and removing an alarm device sounds decidedly like a Thyste thing," says Thyste.

Lidia considers this a moment, then speaks slowly.

"There... may be something else I can do..." she says. "Now that I think more."

She shuffles in place uncomfortably for a moment, like this next bit is being dragged out of her against her will. Finally she shrugs a little and sighs.

"I can talk to animals. Birds too. I mean, you kinda know that, since I've talked to Ben in his animal forms before. Most people think I'm crazy when I say that, but it's true. If I really concentrate and have a minute or so to, like, create a bond with an animal, we can communicate. I talk to Esmé every day, pretty much."

"Anyway, what I'm getting at is that I could talk to a bird or a squirrel or something and have it go look into the guard towers, just to see what the alarm mechanism is. And if the giant seems alert or just sleeps up there. It won't be able to give us a lot of detail, because animals don't always understand things like we do, but it would certainly be a safer thing to try first."

"Then Thyste would have a better idea what she needs to deal with."

"That's not why we think you're crazy," Ulretha comments.

"It's a good addition to the plan. The more we know up front, the easier it will be to conquer these giants and free the slaves."

"That's not why we think you're crazy,"

Lidia looks at Ulretha and narrows her eyes sharply, her lips a little pursed.

Thyste grins.

"Must be why I like your voice more than most people's," she says, fox ears wiggling. "Sounds like a plan to me, though."

So, if there are no objections, Lidia will immediately begin looking for her spy animal, a bird or a squirrel, preferably something fairly inconspicuous, and then cast Speak with Animals on it. She will then direct it to go to one of the tall nest structures in that camp of giant men and (A) look first at what the giant in that nest is actually doing, if anything and (B) look for a horn or bell or metal triangle or any other noisemaking device for sounding an alarm, then report back as soon as possible, so Lidia doesn't have to cast the spell twice.

Survival (to find an animal): 1d20 + 17 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 17 + 4 = 23
Handle Animal (to effectively communicate her intent and describe what to look for): 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (10) + 14 = 24

Sounds good.

So do you want to actually do the raid combat or hand wave it? And can we find a source of food, like a farm.

The raid is trivial. You can secure what you need. The only farming is happening in the fort.

So, if there are no objections, Lidia will immediately begin looking for her spy animal, a bird or a squirrel, preferably something fairly inconspicuous, and then cast Speak with Animals on it. She will then direct it to go to one of the tall nest structures in that camp of giant men and (A) look first at what the giant in that nest is actually doing, if anything and (B) look for a horn or bell or metal triangle or any other noisemaking device for sounding an alarm, then report back as soon as possible, so Lidia doesn't have to cast the spell twice.

[dice=Survival (to find an animal)]1d20+17+4
[dice=Handle Animal (to effectively communicate her intent and describe what to look for)]1d20+14

As a first step, you ambush a cart. Your previous scoring allows you to pick an ideal point for the ambush. Approaching with invisibility, you break every bone in the giant's body before a word is uttered.

You then take the provisions and a decent amount of weaponry. The large daggers and short swords are awkward but better than nothing for the slaves to defend themselves should they have to.

Lidia, you are able to find a tern and lure it close enough to talk. "Lad Lidia, Lady Lidia. I will do this.

When the bird returns, she says, That's a dragon nest. Little dragons, but I won't go near. No clangy metal in the towers, but there are paper tubes with a string out the bottom. They smell a little like a forest fire."

Ben chuckles and says, "You know, Lidia, if we want to have some fun I could just send some Mephits over to light their little alarms on fire and laugh at them. maybe someone could start another fire somewhere else and do the whole distraction thing again. Nut I like your plan too."

Ben chuckles and says, "You know, Lidia, if we want to have some fun I could just send some Mephits over to light their little alarms on fire and laugh at them. maybe someone could start another fire somewhere else and do the whole distraction thing again. Nut I like your plan too."

"Lighting them on fire might be what sets off the alarm."

"How about this--Thyste goes in and deals with the alarm devices in the two towers along the slaves escape route on the eastern end of the camp. Then we deal with the guards -- if we have magic to incapacitate them or put them to sleep that would be best. If we run into trouble walking them out, we set off a few of the alarms at the opposite side of the camp with your mephit to create a distraction."

"Ooooh, I like this plan. If those are mortars or something like it, they should be easy enough to disable."

"Sounds good."

"If we're in no hurry we can just keep setting them off over and over again until no one is paying attention to them," Ulretha says, in a good mood after having had a chance to get some fighting in.

"But I know you're in a hurry to free the slaves."