Fireday, Sarenith 10

Most people have completed their training and today we will be speaking with the mayor and sheriff about how best to prepare the town against an invasion of giants. I expect

• incredulousness
• disbelief
• denial
• and lastly, acquiescence

How fast we move through the list will be an indicator of our credibility in the town. If they take us seriously, incredulous to acquiescence should take about 20 seconds. However, I will add that I also expect us to make very little difference. Having seen and battled ogres and giants, I fear, as I look around “my” little town, that the same town that barely survived a plague of goblins would not do well against ogres or giants. While there is a wall at the north gate, there are only bridges to the east. Even if they were to arrange for the destruction of them in defense of the town, I believe giants and maybe even ogres would be able to ford the river in their absence .. and it would leave the townspeople unable to escape.

The priests will set up some glyphs of warding near the bridges which should both warn us and injure, to some extent, any approaching enemies. We’ve outlined some training the town guard might undergo to better prepare them for the possible battle. But as I look around at the wood frame buildings, and wooden bridges, I have to admit that the town would be but a playground if giants actually appeared. We probably should also speak of how best to evacuate the town, and send word of any problems to other towns to warn them. If poor Sandpoint is put under siege by giants it doesn’t seem very defensible even with an intelligently placed town guard.

Wealday, Sarenith 11

“My” town lies in splinters. Parts of it, anyway. And charred timbers (most of which aren’t my fault this time.) I see Tekkad sitting down and scribbling furiously as well – this is the first break we’ve had all day and putting quill to pen gives us a legitimate reason to sit down and try to catch our breath.

Well, me, anyway. I won’t put words in Tekkad’s mouth.

They came. Even before we could execute any of the defensive strategies (save a few glyphs of warding), they came. And “they” wasn’t one. Or two. We thought we were pretty good taking out two giants up in the mountains. Three or four would fairly test us, even with the town guard backing us up.

Try seven? Eight?

Our first clue that we’d start to remember goblins fondly was during our meeting with the sheriff and mayor. The mayor had not yet arrived when we heard loud booms from the northern gate. Fortunately, as part of the recommended precautions it was closed already, but we looked in horror at each other even as we thanked our favorite god that at least they’d chosen the fortified gate to attack. Giants were generally stupid and that might count in our favor.

We rushed to the gate, Derel getting there first. There were three giants there tossing rocks at the wall and gate, and issuing weak taunts like “human insects come out to play”. I got there in time to catch that last taunt so I tossed back that their mama threw ugly babies and smacked ’em with a fireball. As the others arrived, we heard a different kind of boom, more like an explosion, off to the east. Tekkad called out “the glyphs!” and sure enough, from my vantage point at the top of the wall I could see the bridges. And more giants — several more — were crossing the bridges and approaching the town. They brought with them what looked to be dire bears. Not only would we be facing more than two giants at a time, but we’d have to split up the group to do it.

On the plus side, looking at those, it appeared those at the north gate might either be juveniles or growth-stunted giants. Still, this was Not. According. To. Plan.

Quickly, those of us who were not directly engaging the northern giants (Derel, myself, Kane) rushed over towards the bridges. I flew (I’m going to like knowing a Fly spell) and the rest ran. Derel, of course, ran much faster and ran into trouble (fighting giants and dire bears with no support and no healer). Although with flight I could go in a straight line, my flight speed is slower than running speed, so ultimately the rest of the group reached the dire bears and giants before I did.

The giants were calling out for people to bring out their merchants and they would leave, but as I watched them reach in through second story windows and grab people, it became apparent this was not being done simply to frighten them. People we really being grabbed. Some were really being eaten.

All I could think of was how attractive goblins appeared right now. And how woefully underprotected this town was for this sort of assault.

And then Derel running off ahead. Both a giant and a bear attacked him viciously and it looked grim without a healer nearby. I managed to drop a fireball very precisely to scorch the giant and the bear but not Derel (but also, unfortunately, a nearby building).

Just then I happened to glance to the east and up and on the horizon I saw something that did not bode well at all.

A red dragon was approaching the town. Flying. I mean, really. A dragon too? And a red one meant he’d be immune to all my fireballs and fire spells. As I quickly ran through my arsenal I realized there was not a lot I could do to a red dragon, while I’m sure there was plenty he could do to me. Me, the only aerial combatant, I suddenly realized. And if I could see him …

“Red dragon from the east!” I yelled. While not everybody in my party heard me, some of the townspeople did and you could tell they were wishing they’d just stayed in bed that day. (But not a second story bed. Good day to have a bed in the basement.)

I saw Kane get attacked as he tried to reach Derel. But I also saw the fighters from the north wall approaching at a run. The giants there must have been killed or driven off. Fighting the dragon would be no mean trick but with the rest of our band here, perhaps the two giants and the three dire bears would be too occupied to be gathering townfolk.

Avia started walking in the air, as if on steps. I did not know this magic. Meanwhile, the dragon came in and began circling the town, and as you might expect, townspeople panicked. Thinking for a moment that maybe I was right and that this dragon was too much and might be an illusion, I smacked it with magic missile as it came by. It did not, unfortunately, disappear.

Boom. Another explosion. The south bridge. More giants. No additional dire bears. But how much magic did we really have in us? What worked in the past? Remembering, I flew down and got as many as I could in a haste spell to give them additional attacks.

By this time the ground forces had wounded much but actually taken out little. There was the dragon, there were two giants (plus three more now) and all three dire bears. I fired magic missiles at one that looked a bit ragged and it fell. But all this and only one invader down. And we were using magical healing a LOT. I myself had fared okay but almost everybody on the ground had gotten carved up at some point. Not a happy party.

Then the tide turned a little. A giant and another bear fell. We’d been pounding on these creatures for dozens of minutes (it seemed; really it had happened so fast that it had only been one or two) and finally we were getting the upper hand.

Then the dragon, feeling he as not getting enough attention, flew over the cathedral and bathed it in flame. All the wooden parts immediately caught as it swooped down to sit on the stone portion of the cathedral and screamed, almost like a challenge.

I wasn’t sure what I could do, but certainly the rest of our group was in no condition to take on the dragon. So I approached it and (not knowing if it understood Common or not) started yelling insults at it. “What are you, some sort of freakish flying weasel? Why don’t you go somewhere else to hunt for mice? You’re not needed here!” And his response was to cast a spell — a ray reached from a talon to me and I suddenly felt a WHOLE lot weaker. Thank goodness for always being lightly loaded. This was not good. But I needed the dragon to be worried, not me. So I made a point of shrugging, yelled “Hah!” and quickly cast greater invisibility upon myself, hoping the dragon had no means with which to see invisible. Just to be safe, I also flew 20 feet up after doing that so if he breathed fire at my old position I’d be safe. (It wasn’t until later I realized how this looked to my companions: dragon shoots something at me and I wink out.)

The dragon took to flight almost straight up, and then came down in a strafing run.

Meanwhile, Kane had called up his small fire elementals again and they were helping singe a dire bear.

The dragon swooped out of his dive bomb having breathed fire on the venerable old theatre. What could I do to stop him? I felt helpless. Nobody was powerful enough to drive him off other than … other than … another dragon! I smiled.

From the north came a screech. A white dragon, almost twice the size of the red dragon, was arriving. Since this was a Major Image, it had both the appearance and sound of a white dragon, but it would be unable to actually injure anything with its cold breath. I was hoping the red dragon knew enough about its brethren to be frightened. For my part, I only knew what I’d read after my discussion with Berik, so I hoped my dragon was visually accurate enough to fool the red dragon.

By this time, all the bears were down, the three giants at the north gate had been either killed or discouraged, and the two who had originally arrived from the east were also down. This was beginning to look possible. Except for the other three giants that had arrived via the southernmost bridge. And the dragon.

The white dragon definitely had drawn the red dragon’s attention. It seemed apprehensive of it, and it landed near the beach where it could keep an easy eye on it. The rest of the party was trying to convince the last three giants to leave but the apparent leader seemed quite strong and sword resistant. He told the other two to get the rocks, which meant nothing to us but apparently did to them as they headed off to the old lighthouse. Some of our group tailed them, while some stayed occupied with the apparent leader.

As I played with the red dragon, giants continued to fall. And yet, three more appeared. Eyeing my new friend nervously, the red dragon quietly withdrew from the battlefield and flew off, affording me the capability to help out elsewhere.

Meanwhile the rest of the group had finally managed to finish off the leader, and they found the other giants easier to kill. So, looking around at the carnage and discussion, I realized the town had been through a lot that day. 13 giants. 3 dire bears. 1 dragon. No scratch that, I realized, 2 dragons. They probably can’t tell that one of them was helping them. But I could fix that. Nothing like a little thespian skill to complete the illusion.

I flew down in front of the town guards, making myself visible as I did so. I caused the white dragon to fly down before me and I said, “I release you from your service, and your service will be both appreciated and remembered.” Then with a flourish I dismissed the dragon, and he flew away, finally disappearing at a range of about a hundred yards just as I ran out of spell. There were ooos and ahhhs from the crowd, which leads me to feel nobody will be held liaable for the damage here and that the prestige of our group just improved again.

I had noticed, during the middle of the battle, that the Scarnetti mansion across the bay seemed to be on fire. Avia and I hurried to check that out while our aerial spells were still holding out. The rest of the townspeople and the rest of our group began the arduous task of putting out fires, assisting the injured, and assessing the damage?

We found that the place had been ransacked and set aflame. No sign of the Scarnettis, although we did eventually find a maid hiding. Apparently giants here, too. We caught them taking a wagonload of stuff and so I used my last fireball spell to discourage them from doing that. We brought the wagon and the lady back to Sandpoint.

All told, there was far more prestige at stake here than goods. We managed to get only a magic hide shirt [604], a magic pick [605], a light pick [606] ; a magic ring [607], and a warhorn [608] from all the bodies.

‘Twill be a day not soon to forget, for many days to come.