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The party flies its way up to the flying castle and finds it somewhat taxing (Valin ends up chugging two potions) And en route you are chased by two hillgiants on Rocs! (we will be doing theater of the mind for this because there are no good sky maps) spoiler=Initiative]
Mak'da
The Giant Chief looks caught in a loop of complete indecision when asked which powerful force he wants to lean towards Well...if they are done serving her then yes return them home! The trip northwest is likely uneventful, although cold. You arrive at the spot described and...nothing is there. You wait and wait and then ultimately, Arisira spots it - this massive rolling in formation of clouds that she recognizes as being unnatural - a sort of Sky Barge. But how to reach it?
STORM QUEEN SOUGHT US OUT WE SWEAR. YOU WANT US TO GO KILL BIG WIZARD GIANT FOR YOU TOO? He asks with a big appeasing grin on his face. STORM QUEEN IS HUGE STORM GIANT. SHE HAVE BEEF WITH OTHER STORM GIANT. BUT SHE NOT TELL US ABOUT ALL THE AIR CATS! BUT SHE WAS SO PRETTY. AND RODE ON GIANT BIRD. PROMISED MANY THINGS TO ME IF WE CAPTURED SKY CASTLE. SHE TOLD US TO MEET HER FOUR DAYS WALK FROM HERE BUT WE SCARED TO GO BACK. BUT SHE PAID IN BIG BUNDLE OF TREASURE, INCLUDING MAGIC SWORD. TOOK SIX STRONG JURN WARRIORS, OBVIOUSLY TO BE GUARDS
The chief produces big slabs of meat that have clearly been carved from sort of giant cat - they look fresh but severely undercooked. The cyclops mutters something to him quietly WE DID NOT MEAN ANY OFFENSE TO SUCH STRONG ONES AS YOU BY ATTACKING THE CASTLE! He tries to assure you as he drops one such cat-haunch in front of Vera, expectantly. BUT THE STORM QUEEN PAID VERY WELL FOR THAT CLOUD GIANTS HEAD He says whilst bitting some of the raw meat himself.
The warrior giants and the elementals all split their path and nod Speak fast tiny creatures You are allowed into the cave where you encounter a group of ornery trolls who appear to be in charge of sewing the hide tunics everyone here is wearing who nearly grow hostile til they realize how powerful you all are. You! Puny HUMANS who fought the JURN at the Cloud Castle! Why have you followed us here! The chief shouts as soon as he sees you. He is a big tattoo covered hill giant flanked by a Cyclops who appears to be the brain trust of this operation. You come for big feast! Chief Grunf HONORS strong ones who come to his court!
OH DAT OLE FUDDY DUDDY WE BEAT HIM CASTLE REAL GOOD! They laugh and start boasting to each other about how awesome they were but Arisira is able to get back on track. DEY TALK MAYBE BUT ENFORCERS LIKE TO SMUSH LIL RACES AND MAKE RAISINS OUT OF EM JUST FER BEIN HERE AND THEIR LIVING ROCK BUDDIES SMASH EM GOOD Knowledge planes?
They look at each other and laugh and puff their chests up as they approach you - it appears to be two male hill giants, a female hill giant and an ettin We just kinda go whatever and do whatever we please! He shouts in an awful pidgin that only Arisira somewhat understands. YOU WALK RIGHT INTO DA CAMP OF THE JURN KINGS AND YOU WANN ASK DUM QUESTIONS? The woman shouts WHAT GIVE YUU DA NERVE?
Valin ends up on the trail of a Giant who has clearly broken off from the main stomp of giants that came here, while Makda winds up on the proper trail. It takes 5 days of travel on foot following the trail - a farmers furious over trampled crops confirm youre hot on their trail. Ahead is an ugly, simple camp of crude, hide tents gathered around the side of a rocky, barren hill. A few illkept fires burn lazily in pits, roasting large haunches of meat or boiling pots of stew whose contents are better left unknown. By human standards, the tents are large, but the giants that live here likely find them barely big enough to sleep in. Piles of crudely painted stones lie near a pile of various weapons; most of the weapons are immense clubs, but there are also a few massive axes, swords, and spears. A few giants wander slowly about the camp, not terribly vigilant or energetic. The entire area stinks of dung, rancid meat, wet leather, old iron, and offal. Standing at the entrance of the camp are a pair of hill giants speaking with an enormous Ettin with one female head and one male head all talking some sort of strange pidgin language. One of them upon seeing you excitedly waves and throws a big raw partially maggot eaten steak at T'Khan.
Zoarth chuckles at Veras question. The ritual is kind of an unlock spell. Without it your book is just nonsense. After the ritual the words unscramble and the book of Titan contains unique Giant spellcasting knowledge. Its not too bad but only a Giant Wizard can do it. He thinks a moment when asked about enemies he stops and thinks and you soon realize this castle is absolutely lousy with cats and the man has a half dozen cats in his beard alone. Honestly No...I dont think so. I have never done anything to make rhe Hill Giants cross with me.
He looks around and interrupts himself Oh right before we go any further, I simply must reward you for your help - by all means help yourself to some of my extra potions over there.
He strokes his beard Well, I would certainly be willing to help you with a ritual, but I am afraid it will have to wait. I have utterly no idea why these Hill Giants all came here to attack me and I am afraid if I dawdle I will miss my chance. Of course if you would be willing to investigate for me, I could stay here and start prepping for your ritual, if you don't mind telling me what it is
As you make your way to the main hall, a very large pale skinned giant with a flowing long white stands in the middle of the hall surrounded by dead hill giants. Ah thank you - their goal was to keep me occupied while their friend destroyed my keep but you have averted that skillfully. I am the wizard Zoarth - what has brought you to me with such fortuitous timing?
Mak'da and Vera are ineffective at exorcising the demons but Arisira is able to disrupt the magical runes holding the whole thing together. In a flash a portal to the Nine Hells briefly appears as about a dozen devils are forced from this frost giant's body. Once this over he stands there, almost catatonic and drops his weapon.
You go down the stairs into a room that is swirling with a chilled mist. Down here in the basement its easy to see the pillars that serve as the foundation for this place, holding it up even in these clouds. In fact, this area is a chamber of sorts whose the floor, walls, and ceiling are also solid mist. The central portion of the chamber is a column of white mist sixty feet across. Near it is a bizarre creature that looks like a humanoid insect, twelve feet tall with a long tail and a thick, ice-blue carapace. It wields a wickedly barbed spear in both hands and is stabbing it into the misty column. With each blow, a portion of the mist turns to ice and shatters into a thousand brittle bits. Every third blow or so, the entire castle shudders and shakes. A giant with pale, blue-white skin and a scraggly white beard crusted with its own frozen drool guards the creature. The giant stands hunched over and looks toward the staircase with a weird, half-vacant look.
Arisira can tell that this Frost Giant is possessed by a number of Bone Devils and serves as the vessel for this Ice Devil. She thinks it likely that someone has purposefully bound all of these devils inside of him, possibly as some kind of punishment. She thinks that, rather than fighting this giant, it should be possible to convince him to put away the Devil, at which point you'd be left with just a fairly simple giant to deal with.
In fact she senses that the Frost Giant isn't hostile at all outside of his connection with the Ice Devil and will probably be easy to convince to stand down at that point.
Once inside the keep, you find yourself able to go through the corridors, with air elementals seemingly pointing you towards the correct direction to go. Soon you find a small housecat who wanders up to you and opens his mouth, qand out comes the voice of a wizened elder, probably Zoarth. "Please. I need your help. I’m in the central hall holding off the main force, but some… thing is at the foundation. Somehow, it’s causing damage. I don’t know how that’s possible, but please find it and stop it. Any stairway that you find can take you down to it—it’s at the very bottom of the keep.”
The front rank of giants are easily cleared. The Red and Stone Giants run to fil the gap That bastard Zoarth will pay for what he's done no matter how much weird s&+# he summons! He says in reference to all of you.
And whiffs Valin then steps forward and destroys the Stone Giant! Vera steps into a flank with T'Khan on the Red Giant and deals big damage! Arisira
As you make your way into the breach a half dozen giants stand in the breach, looking a bit more intelligent than the others and seeming more intelligent than the rank and file ones you saw outside. One of them turns to you More interlopers? YOU GONNA MAKE ME MAD. The one giant that doesn't look like the other looks back at you and before he can react an air elemental appears and attacks They must be working with Zoarth. GET THEM BOYS Initiative:
Stone Giant
The lead Giant thrashes against the elemental, destroying it. Finally!
As you make your way up the path you see that these Hill Giants are joining what can only be described as a Siege as Giants tangle with giant blue cats in the entry way to this castle in the clouds. While these large blue cats and elementals fight off Giants, there is a large breach in the wall which 6 giants seem to have poured into - it seems possible in the chaos for you to follow.
It doesn't take terribly long for you to arrange boat travel if that's what you want to do but the journey is long and somewhat uncomfortable as you sail Northern Choppy Seas. You make your way to the port fishing town of Buried Hatchet which puts you just a few days hike up a mountain. Along the way you are beset by bandits and mountain lions but at your level of skill these encounters present barely a challenge. Finally you reach the peak of the mountain where a golden road of hardened light leads up to a castle in the mountain peaks. But from up the road the sounds of grunting and rock on rock can be heard.
Well...It's pretty darn unlikely our enemies know about this book unless one of the Hellknights saw you guys taking this book and somehow read and translated the whole thing...or if we have spies inside this organization. Either way is pretty unlikely. He scratches his belly as he thinks Well...it is still the lands of the Linnorms, not just their kings. You're headed into the mountains, so maybe look out for those Crag Linnorms. Otherwise, I really don't know what you might run into or what that Giant Wizard might want - after all Wizards are pretty darn weird and want all sorts of oddball stuff! Adril does NOT offer to teleport you or anything like that so youre on your own.
He waves his hand and says Ah well...Giants are well known for their nasty tempers and territorial behavior. Usually even just approaching a Giant's stead is enough to get boulders chucked at your dang heads. Fortunately, the previous agents found Zoarth more willing to cooperate. He didn't do much - simply provided some shelter for a group of agents attenpting to sneak into Irrisen. He takes a puff of his cigar - a designer brand that Arisira recognizes - and seems quite pleased with himself. I have no idea what he will ask. Being a wizard AND a giant makes him hard to predict. Giants are notorious grudge holders though so I imagine it'll be something like getting back at one of his rivals
Roughly a week or two after you return the grand lodge, the Venture-Captain of the Grand Lodge, the big hairy near-toothless Adril Hestram summons you to his office - it is cramped with all the trophies of his various travels stuffed into it seemingly at random. I'm glad you all came. He says with a big deep laugh. He offers whiskey and cigars much like Finze Bellaugh, but a discerning palate like Arisira's immediately notices that these are the cheapest lowest quality versions of these products around. His big meaty palms thumb a tome and he grins Among the many treasures you brought back from Rachikan, was this gem of a tome right here - The Book of The Titan He grins In addition to being a manual of gainful exercise, which the society will put to very good use one of its seekers, it details some very interesting lore details regarding the Giants living in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings and details a very powerful ritual which we need a giant-blooded mage to assist us with. Fortunately, the nerds down in the archive have searched and found a candidate - a Storm Giant named Zoarth who we evidently encountered quite some time ago and who was unusually friendly towards the small races. He may be able to help us, for a price. He guffaws as if impressed by his own shrewdness. He has a castle at the peak of the Kodar Mountains. I know you all have mostly adventured in the nice warm south, so one last time before you retire I figure you can brave to North for once. If you can accomplish securing this Zoarth's help with this ritual, well...the Decemvirate have been hinting that they may have some new Venture Captains to name in new lodges all over the world. Not promising anything naturally but just saying...this is your shot
Ok so thinking about it, we really only have two options. The first is to run a pair of modules that Mak'da takes no credit for and which Vera and Arisira take half credit for to get everyone properly legal for Eyes and the other retirement arc stuff. At these levels this would be:
or Two Floors of the Emerald Spire. I would VASTLY prefer the former to the latter. The second would be to kinda fudge it. Give you 7000 gold per scenario you'd be skipping and get directly to Eyes from here. Given the state of high level core play in the play by post (practically non-existent), I am fine with the fudging option since there's really no other options available for most of you. I am also fine with doing it "the right way" provided that it doesn't cost us Mak'da's participation.
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