Nothing ventured, nothing gained was the decision. So you headed further into the caves. The first room, on your left again, appeared a little used shrine. It looked empty and had no other exits so you left it. The next and last room was very long and open to the sky in places. A central path was lower than the rest of the room and two rows of columns on either side of the path held up the ceiling. You cautiously moved some 100' into the room before you could see the far wall and the room's inhabitant. A large stone giant sat on an even larger stone throne and watched you approach. You stopped and tool a look around to see if he was alone. No one saw any movement in the shadows.
“So, it is you who have entered my realm and disrupted operations.”
Wolfgar, feeling buoyed by the chance to confront a powerful giant spoke up. “Yeah, what’s it to ya?” Not the most formidable, but it was his first time.
“Not to worry, you are really too late to do any damage. Why don’t you just be off now.”
Feeling a little stronger, Wolfgar replied, “I don’t think so. Give us one good reason not to have us add you to our defeated?”
The giant, leaned forward, “How about your lives!”
Someone in the group quietly muttered, “That’s a good reason.”
Meanwhile, party members were positioning themselves to either have a line of sight or to be out of line of sight. D’Argo had muscled his way up to Henrik, Bach and Wolfgar. “I have a plan – say when.”
“Seems we’re at an impasse.” Henrik replied. “When, I guess.”
D’Argo muttered something and the four found themselves instantly transported to the far end of the room into a small alcove, not far from Barl himself. Golian and Pirozzi went opposite directions and climbed the small ledge to be able to approach from the sides. Malloric moved closer taking shaots along the way. Edwin looked for some good middle ground where he could keep an eye on everyone.
Unfortunately, neither Golian nor Pirozzi noticed the other stone giants hiding in the shadows behind them. At least not until the first of the rocks hit. Edwin had the first injured to cure already as Golian was trying to get out of one giant’s way and Pirozzi was frantically running from the other.
Barl responded to the ‘intrusion’, by singling Wolfgar out and creating an large hand of force directly in front of him that prevented him from moving any closer to the giant no matter how he zigged or zagged. Wolfgar spent the rest of the fight frustratingly pounding on the hand. Barl cast another spell with no effect. Bach moved up into melee range. Barl’s next move was a now too familiar green ray that struck Bach square in the chest. He was enfeebled, seriously diminishing his damage output.
Henrik moved up and was missed ad the giant tried to touch him to deliver a spell. D’Argo alternated between casting spells at the giant and helping Wolfgar destroy the hand. Malloric slowly moved to within 30’ so his arrows would have the most effect.
The rear of the group avoided the two giants, or rather they ignored the rear of the party and moved to Barl’s aid. They did not have weapons, but their smashing fists still packed a wallop. The party was taking a beating but slowly wearing down the two unarmed giants. Barl had yet to take up his weapon. Golian moved in to try to flank. Pirozzi, now out of harms way was unloading what spells he had left. Wolfgar was still pounding on the hand. Barl smiled the whole time.
One giant fell, then Bach, then another giant. Edwin waited for an opportune moment to approach Bach, but was blinded by one of Baqrl’s spells. With the other giants out of the way, Barl unleashed a fear spell, which caused Malloric to turn and run. With little remaining arcane support, Henrik and Golian swung away. Barl had hoisted his heavy war maul and was laying down the smack, landing one lucky blow, killing Henrik on the spot.
Pirozzi was able to get Bach back on his feet and with the last remaining spells the group had, Barl Breakbones fell.
Malloric ran out of the caves past Yap who asked if everything was alright. “They’re all dead.” Malloric panted as he kept running. Yap gasped,”You killed everyone?” Malloric was able to straighten things out when he returned.
After nearly a half an hour recovering, you found a large stone chest and looted it’s contents. With work here done, you asked Yap to lead you back to his Mistress’ glade. At the glade, you covered your eyes as Myrianna approached. You offered her the ashes, hoping that would qualify as ‘something of Lamatar.’ She seemed satisfied and took them from you. Back at her tree, she cast a spell and new life from the wood flowed into the ash pile. It blew into a small whirlwind and finally coalesced into a male half-orc. With Lamatar back among the living, Myrianna’s guilt was resolved and she faded away. It took a little while for Lamatar to gather his wits. With your help you filled him in as best you could, clothed him and took the now familiar trip back to Rothberry.
You decided to quickly tie up any loose ends in town before something else kept you here any longer and headed back to High Madreth where you reported to the Lord Mayor and others. Everyone had a few personal errands to run and agreed to get back together after a couple days to travel together to Radigast City to spend some of your coin.
0 comments:
Post a Comment