Fireday, Sarenith 20

It was today, as we caught the barge heading upriver to the Storval Stairs, that we had a long discussion about the horses. It would cost money to bring them along on the barge, and to what end? They could not navigate the stairs without assistance, and would need to be fed and cared for (more money). In the end, we decided to send them back to Galduria, to be cared for there and retrieved upon our return. We will see when we return if our instructions were followed.

I must admit, it is a pleasant interlude that finds the most difficult decision to be whether to take horses or leave them behind. We expect the barge trip to be largely uneventful, although it may yet be informative depending on how talkative the barge crew and any other passengers are. The trip shall take 5 days total and cost 2gp/person. Weather and current willing, we should reach Ravenmoor in 2 days and the Stairs 3 days after that.

I’ve a mind to practice my illusions (say, a large serpent in the water or another dragon flying in from the sky) but I suspect all but me would find my practice to be … disturbingly distracting.

Sunday, Sarenith 22

The trip did indeed take about two days, and was quite peaceful. Although I did sleep a little uncomfortably, it is still better than sleeping in the wild. I sleep a little better and a little deeper knowing that there is small chance our camp will be disturbed. We still set watches because surprises still could happen, but the nights are quiet and with the barge always available as an escape route, guard duty is much more relaxed.

We are now approaching Ravenmoor, and we intend to stop here to release some cargo, pick up some cargo, and restock supplies. The bargemaster tells us we will cast off before dark. He said we can’t stay here, but it wasn’t clear if he meant there was no place to stay or if we weren’t welcome here.

Sunday, Sarenith 22, late

So I have the answer to my question. It is both. There is apparently no inn, nothing resembling a formal eatery, no place to visit, and no place to stay. There is a pub, and it offers some basic food, but it’s the only deal in town. The barkeep did offer that the stone giants have been more active and that there have been raiding parties and there’s not much they can do about them. Still, Kane told us quietly he sensed a protective evasiveness in the conversations whenever the topic of religion came up.

I asked if there was a wizard or two in town I could speak with and that turned a couple of heads. In hindsight, perhaps it was better asked as a quiet question but who knew? Anyway, there was, out on the outskirts of town, so I travelled out to visit. Perhaps he would be more friendly. I sensed the town was, at best, “tolerant”. The people here seemed to realize they needed to interact for trade, but visitors were still infrequent and I guess they’d just rather keep to themselves.

When I got to the wizard’s place, there was an attractive young lady outside. She said her grandfather was the “wizard” I’d been sent to meet but that he really didn’t do much magic anymore. She said she was something of a magic user too and what magic was needed, she usually provided now. I asked her what magic might be needed and she shut down like I’d asked her the location of the nearest winged demon. Got nothing more than skeptical looks and terse replies after that. I was going to impress her with the spells I know and see if she opened up, colleague to colleague, but not knowing what she was capable of, perhaps they wouldn’t be that impressive. In the end, I finished the uncomfortable conversation and returned to the pub.

As recommended, we left on the barge before nightfall. The bargemaster anxiously herded us onto the barge and shoved off. “Nobody stays here at night” he said, which made it sound more of a safety issue than an accommodation issue. Still, Avia had reported a fair number of (mildly) evil people in town, so although I’m curious, there’s no good reason to find out why one doesn’t stay overnight there.

Toilday, Sarenith 24

Today, we saw a small band of ogres on shore, and they followed us like they would attack. But they didn’t have any weapons of particularly good range so after we all took a pole to move the barge a bit faster, they fell behind and returned to their camp. The bargemaster said this was not that unusual.

Wealday, Sarenith 25

We have arrived at the Storval Stairs. Well, to be precise, at the barge landing closest to the Stairs; they are still about 10 miles away. Here we are within sight and easy walk of a great and beautiful falls, though, probably a thousand feet high. Although the land has been appearing increasingly rugged as we’ve gone upriver, here the spray of the fall and the river itself creates an oasis of green.

However, since the Stairs are our goal, we don’t really get to enjoy it. Unload, and start trekking. And now that we’re closer to actual Giant land than ever before, precautions must be taken. It is bright and sunny today, with no cover. We kept relatively close to the cliff formed by the edge of the plateau, as it afforded what little cover (and sometimes shade) that there was.

It didn’t take too terribly long to reach the Stairs. The cliff had been slowly losing height as we walked east and now we could see the top of the stairs was only about 400 feet higher than the base. Still, the steps themselves were two feet high each, easily, which meant this stairway couldn’t simply be walked.

With the sun near our backs, we figured it was safe for me to fly up and scout the top. Kane, he of negligible weight, came along for the right and an extra pair of eyes.

The stairs were flanked by two great statues (nearly as high as the stairs themselves) and the face looked familiar on these figures. We’d seen this face before, at Thistletop in the looping speech. As expected, there were some giants (three) guarding the top of the stairs, although they appeared bored and disinterested .. all the better.

In one section of the ruins, a couple of our party detected (by nose) what appeared to be a remains garbage pit. Don’t know if these were previous residents of these ruins, or creatures that wanted to cross to the top of the stairs and failed. But either way, it did remind us of the strength of a stone giant.

There were enough ruins in the side of the cliff itself that it appeared there may have once been a functional city here at the stairs in the distant past. Now, we decided, they would serve as good cover for our camp. Through a combination of fly and air walk and spider climb, the entire party wedged themselves into a not-too-ruined ruin and settled in for the night.

We settled in for the night.

Oathday, Sarenith 26

With the sun now rising in the morning, the optimal attack direction was from the east (with the sun at our back, blinding any opponents trying to look in our direction.) We again used a combination of air walk and fly to get everybody quietly to the top while escaping notice.

Or so we thought. One giant actually on the stairs this morning (what, doing stair drills to wake up??) called us out and the battle was on.

Here at the top there was a small amount of ruined buildings to hide among or in so we took cover from the blind rain of boulders coming from the giant who spotted us. None of them were hitting us, but they were large enough to be distracting anyway. Derel pulled his trick of running out into melee again … once too often. He got smacked hard by two separate giants and fell in a heap. No healers were close enough to help in time and his injuries were too great.

One giant looked down at his body, then picked it up and took it inside. We redoubled our efforts to reach him – who knows what atrocities they were about to do to his body – when the “chief” giant came out and asked “What are you doing here?”

Takkad came up with some quick thinking and convinced them we were on a mission for Mokmurian. Apparently, the seven-pointed star necklace that Derel had been wearing identified him as one of the faithful, so Takkad’s soliloquy convinced them maybe they’d made a big mistake. When one of the “lesser” giants said that if were dead, nobody would know of the mistake, both Takkad and I feigned contacting Mokmurian to let him know his instructions were not being followed.

Terrified, the remaining giants ran down the stairs and abandoned their posts.

Without the ability to resurrect Derel, we were left to disposing of his body and dividing up his goods. (He would have wanted it that way.)

• Sabin took the +4 belt of strength
• Sabin gave his old +2 belt to Avia
• Nolin took the +2 ring of protection
• Noling gave his old +1 ring of protection to Kane
• I took the +2 bracers of defense. They won’t stack with my magic armor, but they’ll be of great use for those times when I don’t have a chance to get it up first.

Inside the “guard area” we found filthy mattresses and a small amount of change: 37 gp, 200 sp, and 300 cp.

I flew straight up again to scout ahead. I could see a fairly obvious pass through the mountain in the distance — that was our goal.

We made a good distance before stopping for the night.

We held a memorial for Derel. Some expressed sadness, some stoicness, and others indifference. Myself .. well I bemoan the loss of one of the party. But Derel consistently would refuse to hold to the plan and jump into danger, putting not just himself but all of us into danger. While I think some are thinking “but for this” or “but for that” he’d still be alive, I think the man had a death wish and was destined to die sooner than later. I hope others don’t feel too responsible; the man was his own worst enemy.

Fireday, Sarenith 27

During watch last night, I thought I saw not one, not two, but three dragon-like figures cross the light of the moon on their way east. Three dragons? I find that hard to believe. I wonder if they were some dragon-like creature instead.

We reached our goal near evening. We are at the pass and can see a tall tower on the valley floor. It is surrounded by six or seven distinct camps of giants or giant allies.

As we were taking all this in, we saw a red dragon — it looked to me like the same dragon we’d seen in Sandpoint, but it’s hard to be sure — fly in from over the river, fly up to the side of one of the mountains and enter an apparent cave. We must be at the right place if the Welcome Wagon looks like a red dragon.

We were trying to decide whether we should do something about the dragon when we heard large footsteps approaching. We quickly took cover and >From their conversation it was apparent this was another clan or team joining the cause. With a loud blast from the watch tower in front of us, a group of giants came up and escorted the newcomers down. We decided we needed more information before staging an attack.

Not too long after sunset, one obviously female giant left the watchtower, declaring that rank had it’s privileges and headed down to the encampments, obviously to, uh, mingle freely.

Starday, Sarenith 28

About 5am the female giant staggered back, obviously having partied hearty. Over breakfast, Nolin and I mentioned we’d seen three dragonish figures again. We are coming around to the idea that these may be wyverns, although wild or working for Mokmurian we didn’t know. They seem to come out of the ravine formed by the river. Removing them might be doable.

A little observation and recon reveals that there appear to be five stone giant camps, one ogre camp, and one hill giant camp. Our earlier observation that the recruits tend to be young continues to be true, in general. Could this just be a teenage rebellion? We wondered if the elders would intervene to restore the order, or were being prevented from doing so.

Around the middle of the afternoon, the stone giants from one of the camps dragged another screaming to the big tower on the valley floor. Apparently he was guilty of some transgression, and he was admitted and his sounds stopped once the door was closed.

He did not return.

We will attempt to attack the wyverns tonight.

Sunday, Sarenit 29

Well okay, not last night. We did a little exploring of the caves around the area to be better prepared for both the wyverns and the dragon should he appear. There are some caves in the side of the river canyon that may lead underneath the valley tower. They may also be home for the wyverns.

We will attempt to attack the wyverns tonight.

Sunday, Sarenith 29, later

Since we were fighting in the caves and most of the battle would not be seen, fire was again an option.

Yes we found the wyverns.

Yes, they are vulnerable to fireballs. Two, if needed.

Yes, they have poison sting in their tails.

Yes, this poison affects people named Nolin. But …

People named Takkad have an awesome Heal spell better than any laying of hands, potion, or channeling. He was able to completely counteract the poison AND fully heal him.

There is a large fire opal sitting in the sand here, but whether reward or trap we do not yet know.