Arie D'Nostica. CG Female Kitsune (Appears to be a Varisian human most of the time) Bard 9 CG bard 9 | HP 66/66 | AC 21 FF 15 Touch 17 | CMB +7 CMD 22 | F+7 R+12 W+8 |Init +4 | Perc +7 SM +20 Speed 30' Spells: 0: 6 1)5 2)4 3)4 | Conditions: none
As they top the steps and see the tableau...
[b]"How horrible. We should help that giantess..."[b]
Unless everyone disagrees she will help the giantess down,telling her that the group is here to help and giving her a charge off a CLW wand to heal her a little.
She will be flying about 10ft above the large landing platform
Momoko uses her Telepathic Bond to notify the team of her discoveries.
Knowledge Local:1d20 + 20 ⇒ (19) + 20 = 39
We now know what happened to the Shoanti. The King of the Storval Stairs will pay dearly for these transgressions. She thinks as images of the charred corpse fill her companion's minds.
Momoko relays what she has seen above on the landing via telepathy, including identifying the Shoanti corpse...her companions slowly make their way there. As they move up the stairs to join her, Momoko further notices feces and rubbish marring the shoulder on the massive statue northwest of her current position. (Yellow circle marks the spot on the Storval Stairs Map)
Philetius tries to keep watch while Arie heals the badly wounded giantess and tries to talk with her. While he sees no foes at present, he, along with the rest of the party, can hear an occasional scream from the cavern openings to the left (aka north) of their current position...their other senses also detect smoke and ghastly burning smells emanating from the same cavern.
The giant woman's eyelids open and she looks at Arie, eyes rolling back and forth as she groggily murmurs, "Ich...nacht...beerDyn..."
Seldanna flies her way up the stairs behind the others, returning to the ground on the landing. "I must do some further study in the language of the giants. I'm quite embarrassed to say it's not a tongue I currently understand."
Arie D'Nostica. CG Female Kitsune (Appears to be a Varisian human most of the time) Bard 9 CG bard 9 | HP 66/66 | AC 21 FF 15 Touch 17 | CMB +7 CMD 22 | F+7 R+12 W+8 |Init +4 | Perc +7 SM +20 Speed 30' Spells: 0: 6 1)5 2)4 3)4 | Conditions: none
Arie look at the group,"Anyone else speak the language? No?" She turns back to the giant, keeping a soothing tone to her voice, "I'm sorry we cannot communicate well. We are here to help if we can. Let's see if we can figure out what happened here."
She then begins a serious game of charades, trying to get a point of communication from the giant. Starting with pantomiming the area and people coming in and fighting and then shrugging.
Philetius walks over to a cavern entrance...his sight is obscured a bit by the smoke and his plugged ears can hear an occasional scream but it's too muffled to be able to make anything out...
Shortly after Philetius shouts into the cavern, the screaming stops. Once Arie cuts her bonds and taps her with the wand, the giantess leans up, puts her hands to her mouth and shouts towards the northern cavern as loud as she can in her condition, "Hyrnanti," and then collapses back to the ground...
With both Combat Reflexes and Uncanny Dodge, Philetius can't be caught flat-footed. That said, the 27 hits regardless.
He will take an AoO on the blue giant as he advances.
1st Attack no Power Attack:1d20 + 15 ⇒ (6) + 15 = 21 for 1d12 + 7 + 2d6 + 1d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (3) + 7 + (4, 5) + (1) + (5) = 25 Weapon/Vicious/Electric/Acid, doing Vicious:1d6 ⇒ 3 to me. 20% Miss Change from goggles:1d100 ⇒ 28
Looks like Purple passed through a threatened square on his way up as well (15ft reach with Lucerne Hammer + Longarm. 1st Attack no Power Attack:1d20 + 15 ⇒ (17) + 15 = 32 for 1d12 + 7 + 2d6 + 1d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (1) + 7 + (5, 3) + (2) + (5) = 23 Weapon/Vicious/Electric/Acid, doing Vicious:1d6 ⇒ 4 to me. 20% Miss Change from goggles:1d100 ⇒ 51
With nothing assaulting his eyes that he can see, and having difficulty seeing the giants, he will push the goggles off his eyes and shout to the group GIANTS HERE, NOT HARPIES. Not sure if you want to count removing the goggles as a free or a move. If the latter, only use the first attack below.
Then he will take a 5 ft step back, rage, and swing on blue.
Arie D'Nostica. CG Female Kitsune (Appears to be a Varisian human most of the time) Bard 9 CG bard 9 | HP 66/66 | AC 21 FF 15 Touch 17 | CMB +7 CMD 22 | F+7 R+12 W+8 |Init +4 | Perc +7 SM +20 Speed 30' Spells: 0: 6 1)5 2)4 3)4 | Conditions: none
"Well, that's gratitude for you... Let's see if we can end this quickly."
Arie makes a gesture and casts a spell. Everyone suddenly feels faster...
Haste. Will last 9 rounds. Make an extra attack when taking the Full Attack option. Add 30' to your move. Add a +1 bonus on attack rolls, a +1 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves.
Apologies for delay in posting; I am going through sleep schedule changes.
Momoko can actually speak and understand giant, so earlier at the woman giant...
Giant:
"No, I can confidently say we are not harpies. Why are you strung up like this?"
And in combat...
Momoko looks at the blue giant and begins to cast her spell.
Mind Thrust IV:10d8 ⇒ (4, 6, 3, 1, 6, 3, 1, 4, 4, 2) = 34 Will Save DC25 for half, failure means full damage and fatigue for 1 round.
Momoko casts a spell attacking the mind of the blue giant...while it resists the worst of her spell, the giant still cringes in pain from the effect...
Combat! Round 1: The bold may post!
Hill Giant Barbarians (blue -129, purple -23)
Keos & Mordiskitos
Philetius (-40)
Momoko
Seldanna
Arie
Rogar
Hill Giants
Seldanna shuffles up towards the middle of the group, reaching into her spell pouch to grab some fine dust. With a few arcane words and gestures, she blows the dust into the air. In a small cloud the now shimmering mass speeds its way over to the clustered hill giants, bursting in a spray of golden particles that cover three of the big brutes.
Glitterdust (WILL DC20) centred on the middle of yellow, so as to catch yellow, blue and red in its 10' radius.
Keos sends two arrows from his great Orc Hornbow into the purple giant's chest with devastating impact, rocking the creature...but somehow, it still stands...
Seldanna moves forward slightly, casting Glittering Dust into the line of giants...
Keos sends two more arrows from his mighty hornbow, one in the gut, the other through the heart, and the purple giant drops like a rock...
Mordiskitos makes short work of the blue giant, ripping out its throat as it falls with a resounding thud...the wolf continues on to the yellow giant, sinking teeth deeply into the calf, tripping the giant to the ground...
Philetius, having both given and taken a pounding, moves untouched past the remaining giants via grace, healing himself afterwards...
Arie D'Nostica. CG Female Kitsune (Appears to be a Varisian human most of the time) Bard 9 CG bard 9 | HP 66/66 | AC 21 FF 15 Touch 17 | CMB +7 CMD 22 | F+7 R+12 W+8 |Init +4 | Perc +7 SM +20 Speed 30' Spells: 0: 6 1)5 2)4 3)4 | Conditions: none
"Good job on those giants! This reminds me of the time that Roget the Rascal met a hill giant and managed to convince the giant to settle combat with a game of chess. Roget was a real rascal. As you can guess, the giant had no clue how to play..."
Inspire Courage. +2 Morale bonus on saves versus charm and fear, +2 competence bonus on weapon attack rolls and damage.
Note: The bonuses stack with haste so an extra +2 to hit and weapon damage. Total +3 to hit and +2 weapon damage...
Arie inspires her comrades with a tale of bravery as Seldanna uses her witchy ways to put the yellow giant fast asleep. Momoko then casts an excruciating spell of pain upon the mind of the lone standing giant.
The red giant, blind and not knowing he’s alone, rages madly, lashing out with his great club, hitting no one, but is easily dispatched by Philetius, Rogar, and Mordiskitos...
GM, you good with average (5.5 per charge) on CLW wands? If so, Philetius will pull out his CLW wand and start tapping himself with it, hitting himself a total of 13 times 71 HP at average.
Arie D'Nostica. CG Female Kitsune (Appears to be a Varisian human most of the time) Bard 9 CG bard 9 | HP 66/66 | AC 21 FF 15 Touch 17 | CMB +7 CMD 22 | F+7 R+12 W+8 |Init +4 | Perc +7 SM +20 Speed 30' Spells: 0: 6 1)5 2)4 3)4 | Conditions: none
Arie pulls out her wand but sees that the healing seems well in hand.
"Well. Let's see what interesting things they are carrying and what else is in there..."
With the healing done, you start to take a look around the cavern. Among the giants, you find similar equipment to what was found among the wrecked caravan: 2 clubs, 2 rings, and 2 cloaks that radiate magic, just like before. You also notice that all 4 of the giant corpses had earplugs in place...
This two room structure rises fully fifty feet above the base of the landing ending in a cathedral style ceiling. The inside is very smoky due to the dancing flames of a large cooking fire. Within a large stewpot hanging over the fire, you find what would appear to be the source of the screaming you heard before; a human body, bound hand and foot, simmering along with vegetables, spices, and various pieces of meat of dubious provenance in an unknown liquid, obviously the main course for the giants' grisly dinner.
There are also ladders leading up to lofts for the giants sleeping quarters but nothing of note is found there...
Momoko identifies the equipment, finding these items have the same magical qualities as those found in the wrecked caravan: +1 giant club (x2), +1 ring of protection (x2), and +1 cloak of resistance (x2).
Arie carefully checks the body and finds no pulse. With help from her stronger companions, the fire is put out and the body removed. You notice a still visible tattoo on his upper right arm of a golden snake on a shield; you recognize this as the emblem of the Aspis Consortium...
Is there anything else in the room, like maybe a sign of his gear? Perception:1d20 + 13 ⇒ (4) + 13 = 17Earplugs only apply a -5 to hearing-based perception checks, unlike the goggles which apply a -4 to all perception checks. Dunno why the difference.
Philetius finds some clothing with an Aspis insignia but nothing more of note...
A harmonic song, from a most lovely voice, pierces the eery quiet caused from having found a partially cooked man in the stew pot...you find it captivating and are tempted to search out its source...
Need a Will Save from everyone.
Will Save DC17:
Fail the save and you are at the mercy of the captivating song; you start moving south, 30’, towards the cavern opposite the one the giants emerged from.
Yeah, that was some bad luck, Arie. I moved all the icons into the other cavern since I assumed that everyone was involved in the search...since you were in the most northern part of the cavern (where the stew pot was), I moved your icon 30’ south from that point...
"Vile harpy! Its song reminds me of my mother's bedtime lullabies." Seldanna shivers at the thought of her hag stepmother's influence on her as a child.
Will:1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 7 + 2 = 17 whew, thank the gods for earplugs... Philetius is going to move toward the sound anyway, as he expects trouble.
THESE THE HARPY THINGYS? THEY SING? MAYBE WE JOIN IN? Philetius starts singing at the top of his lungs as he follows Arie. ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BOAT, GENTLY DOWN THE STREAM. MERRILY, MERRILY, MERRILY, MERRILY, LIFE IS BUT A DREAM.
While most of you have resisted the captivating song, it appears that one of your party has not. Arie's eyes have that glassed over look and she has wandered south towards what would seem to be the source of the song...you feel a sense of foreboding...
Philetius will take a swift to pull his wand of long arm out, a standard to use it, free to drop, then move up 40ft. He is not yet raging, so his reach with the Lucerne Hammer is 15ft.
Arie, what's up - why are you walking down here alone?
