"Wait! Don't go alone, you foppish fool!" Aradesh calls after Pierre as he zooms off waaaay in front with the enhanced speed of Sivi's spell.
She grumbles some orcish curse words and casts a defensive spell of her own, then begins heading after him.
Round 1: Initiative 17: Giants
Seeing the speedy cavalier rushing toward them, the hill giants launch their rock salvos at him! "Puny human! You will die with all the humans in town!"
The first rock hits the water, while the other two are easily dodged by the agile cavalier. The giants grunt in frustration.
Dolgrym runs forward towards the giants trying to catch up to the fool running headlong into them.
Aradesh glances at the gnomish Illusionist during the run and grins as they cast the exact same magic to protect themselves. "You have good taste in spells, Sivi. Do you also have something to stop them from throwing those rocks, by any chance? Even if they miss, they damage the town."
"Haha, so do you! Illusions are great, aren't they?" Sivi runs for all she's worth. But even with haste, it's going to take some time for her to get into crossbow or spellcasting range of the giants. "Yeah, I have a few options. Need to get closer though. How about you?"
The blurry images of the sprinting shaman all shake their head solemnly. "I'm afraid not. If it was just us, I could summon a large cloud to hide us from view. But that doesn't quite protect the villagers or their town. ...I suppose we'll just have to kill them. I won't let them take this town as well!"
Round 2:
Pierre uses a swift action to challenge the giant and then charges! "By the Order of the Cockatrice, I condemn you to a swift death, giant!"
Pierre charges across the bridge, sidesteps the giant's blows and pierces the giant's shin, causing it great harm!
Round 2 - Giants - Init 17:
Wounded Giant #1:
The wounded giant tosses his bag of rocks to the side and grips his greatclub with both hands to bring down on the cavalier's head! Unfortunately, its attacks are pathetic, with Pierre easily dodging them.
The other two giants are blocked off from the bridge by the wounded giant. so they target the two dwarves running toward them. The rocks fly at the dwarves and had they not been dwarves would have been pounded by them, but they're both familiar with giant tactics and shrewdly use their weapon or shield to deflect the attacks harmlessly to the side.
Seeing herself fall behind compared to the others, Aradesh makes a few arcane gestures accompanied with a short incantation in the orcs' agressive tongue. The next moment, she appears to become weightless and begins taking to the sky in the middle of the group's charge!
Dolgrym continues to move toward the giants.
Ah, it looks like Sivi is just about within range for a useful spell. The gnome skids to a halt, points at the two rock-throwing giants, and sings a slightly more complex incantation than the previous one. A cloud of glittering golden particles appears around the giants, almost blinding in the sun.
Giggling, Sivi begins another tune, this one a well-known battle song in Common.
Hanna continues to move down the street towards the giants with Dolgrym by her side.
Round 2:
Pierre laughs at the giant's pathetic attempts to hit him, "You couldn't hit the side of a barn with those swings, let alone me. My turn, big fella. Let me show you the skill and grace of a true warrior."
The giant screams in frustration as it goes blind.
Pierre's second thrust this round pierces the giant's abdomen and kills it. It collapses to the floor in a thud, ending the cavalier's challenge.
Round 2: Giants = Init 17
The blind giant does nothing for the round other than pick the particles from its eyes.
The remaining giant grabs its club and moves forward to smash the puny human who killed its friend.
Oddly, despite the party soon overwhelming the giants' odds, they look confident. And then you see why, when they look behind you with smiles, and you hear screams from Sandpoint's citizens and defenders coming from the north. As you turn around, a majestic 30' long beast of emerald green scales and a prominent horn on its snout with wings flies over the town about 50' off the ground, breathing acid in a strafing run! The dragon is currently by the Sandpoint Cathedral.
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As the giant falls, Pierre mockingly calls out, "Timberrrr!"
He then looks down at the giant's corpse and looks at the party who is getting closer. He smiles like a little kid and screams, "Tell me you all saw that!"
When the other giant rushes in, Pierre sees the blow coming very close and about to hit him and he winks at the giant, "I don't think so!"
When the dragon appears in the distance, Pierre narrows his eyes..that dragon horn would make a great trophy!
"Less talking, more fighting! Hah, I sound like a dwarf." Aradesh responds from the air, grinning slightly, just when a dragon, of all things, appears right behind her! "What in the- Is that thing with the giants!? Why would- No. Tyche! Quick - what is its weakness?"
She flies up to where she's out of range of the giants' melee attacks, 30 or so feet from the ground, gets 90 feet closer to the giants and...
The giant's club slams into the ground with incredible force as the cavalier dodges the giant's blow at the last second.
Only years of practice keep Sivi singing when the dragon appears. Oh, that's just not fair! The giants are closer though, and if they turn to go after the dragon, they'll be dodging boulders the whole way. So she resumes running toward the giants, singing her song of courage as she goes.
Round 3:
As the he dodges the giant's last blow, Pierre moves closer and feels inspired by Sivi's song. He yells out, "Great voice, dear!", as he pierces the giant's thigh with his sword repeatedly!
If the giant dies, Pierre will bow and soak in the adulation.
"Hmmm... At least he's not all talk." Aradesh thinks to herself, somewhat amused by Pierre's theatrics as he starts cutting into the second.
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Still, twenty feet away from the giants, Hanna cocks back her arm and throws her Warhammer at the attacking giant.
Attack:
Damage:
Dolgrym moves forward again as far as he can.
Two dead giants, one fresh giant left and a huge dragon plus more giants in the distance.
Ugh, Pierre will probably have killed the last giant before Sivi can get within range for her other disabling spells. Crossbow it is! Still singing, she runs far enough to get within range and stops. The bard raises her crossbow to her shoulder, aims, and fires. A bolt covered in glittering ice flies toward the giant. She quickly loads another bolt with practiced speed.
From the air slightly above the party, Aradesh begins assaulting the giant's mind with fate-bending magic, willing it to succumb to ill fortune and clumsiness!
Dolgrym charges the remaining giant trying to end the fight as quickly as possible.
Round 4 - Giant - Init 17:
Seeing his dead buddies, the final giant, about 20' from Pierre, pulls out a potion and drinks it, becoming more muscular immediately. It then grips its club with both hands and beckons the cavalier and the rest of the party to dare and attack it!
The act of charging does not provoke but the movement does as the giant has reach and you do not so you move through its threatened square.
Round 4
Again the dwarven priestess throws her magic hammer at the now super buff giant.
Attack:
damage:
Round 5
Aradesh golfclaps for Pierre. "Not bad. But you know there's a third one, right?"
She continues her mental assault on the giant in the meantime!
"We should start thinking about how to handle the dragon, too. I can protect us from its breath if we huddle up, and lift someone there through the air. Anyone have any other ideas for it?"
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Pierre looks around, as Aradesh's words snap him out of his reverie. "Oh, right. Be right back." The cavalier rushes at the remaining giant and stabs in the thigh with his sword.
Pierre bows with a smile, "Where to next?"
Seeing the flamboyant cavalier lived up to his claimed reputation - again - the shaman can't quite help but snort, amused. She wondered how many men out here displayed this type of behavior, and whether it was common. Her mind did an amusing foray into her native lands as she tried to imagine the savage to-the-death duels often fought for clan leadership, and how drastically different those would look if either fighter would preen *THAT* much every time they scored a hit. It was funny...
...But effective, apparently?
"A good hit. Now, let's take down that remaining giant and focus on the dragon!"
The cavalier's blades punctures the giant's femoral artery and it collapses and dies in a bloody mess!
When the giant falls rapidly, Aradesh decides to quickly fly straight up to get a sense of the towns surroundings and the numbers and direction of attackers.
Hanna turns and looks around to see if there are any other threats to the town.
"Is that it? Can you see anything else up there?" she calls to the half-orc.
"There have to be more! We heard attacks from multiple directions, and that was before the Dragon appeared!" Aradesh shouts back as she surveys the area through the chaos of at least that thing still attacking the town.
Dolgrym looks to the sky and says "I think that dragon is more of a danger than the giants. We need to take it out first I think. We should head back into town as quickly as possible as a group." He emphasizes the last word.
Sivi cups her hands around her mouth and shouts up to the flying half-orc. "Hey, Aradesh! Can you carry me as you fly?" For such a small person, she has an impressive set of lungs. "There's a magic song I know that could really help against the dragon, but it takes time to sing and I can't concentrate while I'm running!" She pauses. "About how far is it from here to the dragon, can you tell?" It wouldn't do to finish the Vindictive Aria before they reach the enemy, after all.
Aradesh flies up to get a bird's eye view of the town. He can see fires in the N and NE section of the town. He sees the dragon in the distance do a strafing run of breathing acid before dropping out of line of sight by where the Sandpoint Garrison would be. The dragon's last distance is about 1500 square feet from you in a straight line. But if you travel through the town's streets, it is not a straight line, so it will take longer. Right now, you are all on the east end of the Sandpoint Bridge. You also see in the distance that the northern gate has been smashed and you see giants entering the town!
Pierre smiles and winks at Dolgrym, "Thank you for weakening the giant for me with that crazy charge, so I could land the finishing blow." He sees Aradesh fly up and looks around. "I need Francois, if I'm going to go up against a dragon, as he's got my banner. He should be in the Goblin Squash stables, next to the Rusty Dragon."
Seeing enough, Aradesh lets herself fall from the sky and skids to a halt mere feet off the ground. "There's two other groups of giants - one to the northeast and one to the north. The one up north is already moving into the city - the gate is down!" She quickly answers Hanna first.
"The dragon is pretty far away by flight, at least a thousand feet and half that again. It will take almost a minute to reach by flight with your speed magic," She continues with Sivi's latter question first, " And while I agree it is the larger threat, how do we fight it as a whole group from the ground, Dolgrym? You mean to get closer on foot through the streets, and shoot it from below? In that case, I'd suggest going around slightly and fighting through the giants on the way there," She then asks the ranger, not feeling the need to point out every second counted.
"Though If Sivi has a quicker plan to engage the dragon directly, I'd be happy to try it out. I can take one, *maybe* two others with me through the air to fight it right now. If it falls, perhaps the remaining giants would flee. That would leave the others behind to help out the townsfolk against the giants below."
Dolgrym frowns for a moment and says "Giants! We take out the ones through the gate first then the other group. Hopefully we'll cause enough trouble to them that the dragon comes to us!"
The shaman takes a moment to consider, then gives a tight nod. "A good suggestion. We draw its attention by killing its allies, and when it comes close, we fight it. We just have to hope the houses provide the people enough cover against the breath in the meantime."
She glances back at the Sivi. "What do you say? We can simply fly up to it when it decides to come for us. Would your song still work?"