Moonday, Sarenith 16

I can barely hold the quill as I write. I am still weak from laughter. I did not realize I’d signed up with a troupe of comedic bards; nor did I recognize how contagious such skills were.

In short, by appearing (quite convincingly, apparently) to be drunken buffoons, we managed to kill eight giants and rescue five hostages. And the good news is that since none of them escaped to tell of the tale, it may well work again!

But as usual, I must back up.

After the giants’ bodies in Sandpoint were gathered up, we were disappointed that we didn’t find more good to be resold. In fact, after identifying things, all we found worth mentinoning was

[604] +2 hide (giant sized)
[605] +1 pick, dwarf bane (giant sized)
[606] +1 light pick (giant sized)
[607] +1 ring of protection (being worn by Sabin)

In talking with the mayor, we learned the missing paladin (Gavin Devlin) was her cousin, and his brother Brak, who had helped him co-found the brewery, had died in the “late unpleasantness” several years ago. Interesting, in that this seemed to be yet another tie, even across years, to the Rune Lord mysteries we keep bumping into. The mayor mentioned that she was going to institute mandatory longbow practice and draw up evacuation plans. No telling when the giants may return, and while there was rebuilding to be done, it was also important that as much of the town’s people be protected as possible. The tunnels under the city may serve a good and useful purpose yet.

The woman that Avia and I had saved from the house was, in fact, a Scarnetti matriarch. Perhaps the Scarnetti matriarch; somehow I felt that I should not speak unless spoken to so I never got to ask directly. For saving her and their family, she succinctly (and yet almost warningly) said, “We Scarnetti remember those who help us out.” And they brought out a box, within which was a red jewel which turned out to be a ruby worth about 1000gp [609].

Sabin, after some contemplation, was able to tell me more about red dragons. Yes, of course they breathe fire; we picked up on that. Yes, they are particularly vulnerable to cold; makes sense. They are probably not magic resistant, and one probably doesn’t need magic weapons to hurt it … but then killing a dragon is no small feat.

So, Takkad said he wanted to interview the giant prisoner we had. He thought he might be able to get some information from it by “befriending” it. I was skeptical but he’d done it once before with the ogres so, no harm in trying I suppose. Sabin would be “bad cop” and Takkad would be “good cop”; I was to be backup “bad cop”.

I was not needed.

Takkad quickly realized the best way to this giant’s heart was through Mokmurian. The behemoth went on and on about Mokmurian’s splendor and the splendor of Jörganfist, the great vacation place and spa for right-thinking giants. He went on and on about how he had seen Mokmurian himself, and he had been to Jörganfist, and how the giants would take back the lowlands that were rightfully theirs anyway, and blather blather blather.

And Takkad hanging on his every word – Really? Could I see it? It sounds wonderful! Oh if only I could see it, I would certainly see exactly what you mean!

The giant was amused that a puny human should want to see Jörganfist, but equally amused at the thought of what would happen to a human entering there. He struck (what he thought was) an extremely lopsided deal. Let me go, he said, and I will tell you how to get there.

Takkad and Sabin agreed to find a plausible way to lead the giant out of town to the Devil’s Platter, and unchain him. They would not harm him. In return, he would tell them how to find Jörganfist. Careful phrasing meant that while they would not harm him, the rest of us certainly would.

Why did you want a rock from the Old Light? asked Takkad. Legends have it that it is possible to get information from stone. But I don’t know how to do that, he added.

Why the dragon? Mokmurion forced him into servitude. Mokmurion strong! Mokmurian can cause stones in the earth to reject intruders by flinging them into the air! He can turn his own skin into granite! To hear him talk, he’s a god. But I remember hearing similar stories about Barl Breakbones, and, well …

Having been informed of the plan we took off sufficiently early to get to the Platter about an hour before they would. There happened to be a large fire bowl where trees (yes trees, not branches) had been burned, probably by the giants on the way in. Provided a fair amount of cover. By about 3pm we were good to go.

About 5pm they reached the same spot and found it a convenient place to stop. Apparently the giant had been released from his chains earlier and he and Takkad had continued to yak on about Mokmurian and his splendiferousness. At this point, though, Takkad reminded him it was time to keep up his part of the bargain.

He said (paraphrasing a bit): Go to the valley of the Black Tower; that is where Jörganfist is. It’s technically blasphemy for Mokmurion to call it that because it isn’t really, but he’s cool enough and it’s cool enough that he can get away with it. To get to this valley, climb the Storval Stairs, go due east and cross the Iron Peaks. Find the Muschal River and it will lead you to the valley. There you will find your doom, er I mean be enlightened.

With a hearty, “well then, off to Jörganfist!” Sabin announced that we were done with him, and sure enough, the rest of us made short work of the previously injured giant. Nolin’s been practicing with a big pointy stick on his horse and was able to kebab the giant.

We huddled for a quick conference. The track was still relatively fresh and so far as we knew, the giants had hostages including the paladin brewmeister. The giants could take longer strides than we could, but were probably unaware they were being followed and we were mounted; if we pressed our mounts we thought it possible to catch up with them.

When we stopped for the night, we thought from the signs that we might be gaining ground. The tracks seemed a bit fresher. Still nothing in visual range though, even now at night. We kept our fire low.

Toilday, Sarenith 17

We rose quickly and resumed the chase. We were rewarded just after lunch by the distant sight of lumbering giants. We could pretty much guess from our conversations with giants how much respect they accorded humans — that is to say, none — and Takkad suggested we use that to our advantage. If we appeared to be easy marks, we might be able to pick off one or two at a time instead of all five or six that appeared to be in the group ahead of us.

We closed the gap and immediately started shouting like drunken soldiers: Heya! We still got some left if you want to come over. We’ll share and all, cuz that’s the friendly thing to do! Kane fell off his horse. “At least, I THINK we have enough,” I shouted, eyeing the giants. “How mush do ya drink ennyway??”

Four of the (now we could see) eight giants pointed, and chuckled and started walking over. Their companions stopped and watched. They too seemed amused. But as the group approached, Nolin’s clumsy handling of the lance and meandering of his horse suddenly because much crisper. A couple of the fighters dismounted from their horses, slapped their horses to the back line and sloshingly announced that the new guests looked positively huge! Giant like, in fact!

But about this time, a fireball exploded, engulfing three of them. One also got skewered by the galloping lance of Nolin. All four stopped, momentarily confused. I yelled, “Hey, do you have fireworks too?” as five magic missiles leapt from my fingers and struck a giant. The fighters moved in with their swords and the healers moved in with their healings and suddenly the four were in dire straits. Two more were pointing and laughing it up before they good-naturedly started over to help their obviously clumsy companions.

But giants started dropping. And just as two of them decided maybe this wasn’t so funny anymore, a wall of flame erupted near them to cut them off from their escape path. I had cast greater invisibility on Derel and in a flash he was over there cutting the ropes of the prisoners. The two giants holding on to the prisoners gave a sharp yank in an effort to retreat, only to find that there were no prisoners anymore. Derel gladly beat up on them and they looked confused as his invisible blows rained upon them. To add to the confusion, we kept a constant chatter of conversation and song, and for the full effect, Kane, the halfling, charged at two giants babbling nonsense.

They clearly had no idea what was going on.

In surprisingly short time (and using a very modest amount of magic) the giants were dead. Eight this time.

The prisoners were understandably grateful. The old paladin was among them, and even largely devoid of weapons and armor he volunteered to lead the rescued prisoners home by way of Windsong Abbey. I cast a mage armor upon him so he’d have some protection, and it seemed likely that would last for the duration of his journey there. There were bags of loot from the giants, but we surmised they were simply items all taken from Sandpoint so even though I did detect magic items among the bags, we sent them along with the townspeople and counted on the paladin to make sure that the right things ended up in the right hands.

With light left, we have continued on to Galduria. We likely will not reach it by nightfall, but stand a good chance of reaching it the next day.

Wealday, Sarenith 18

We reached the outskirts just before evening. While there was not utter ruin about, such as almost happened to Sandpoint, it took only light conversation to hear about the giants that had been appearing and raiding almost at will here. Not only livestock were affected — as with Sandpoint, people had also been lifted and taken away.

One farmer mentioned his son had been taking while gambling at a neighbor’s house. We were reminded again of the link to the gambling boat near Turtleback.

Upon arriving in town we hastily arranged for a meeting with the mayor. Having the credential of a giant’s dismembered head (ala Takkad) is a wonderful way to establish credibility. The mayor was happy for the help, but although this town is comparable in size to Sandpoint or perhaps a bit larger, it is not nearly so defensible. There are no natural barriers, nor a city wall, that could protect even a part of the city. There is a city guard and they are vigilant but we’ve seen how useless that can be against the giants when they are intent on a task.

We set up usual watches again, although we were able to spend the night in nicer than usual accommodations.

Oathday, Sarenith 19

Leaving Galduria behind, we headed north to Wolf’s Ear.

Along the way, Takkad found a cairn that contained a giant killed by a manticore.

We expected a much smaller town, but it seemed even smaller. Apparently it has been more frequently visited by giants and others, because I believe there was not a building in town that did not show signs of having been damaged, burned, or completely rebuilt lately. An elder in the town confirmed the frequency of destructive visitors and was happy to see some skilled protectors stop in. He also confirmed that the woods around did contain manticores as well as other ill-tempered creatures. We stayed in an abandoned house, and although slept uneasily, found that nothing bothered us overnight.