Against the Giants: Session Three, Part Two
August, 2009At that moment the DM asks for Tovena’ars group to roll for initiative… and only that group. Just for clarity, we all tell him what we are doing at that exact moment: Tovena’ar is fumbling around in his robes, Duorddon is right behind me, and Hwonalon and the shaman are arguing about something in the back row. Great. Two out of four PCs will be sitting out this fight. The doors burst open and three hill giants come running out. Tovena’ar has first initiative, and he casts a Color Spray. It goes off before anyone else can go, and all three giants fall to the floor, drooling. (depending on the caster's level of ability, and how strong the victims are, a Color Spray can blind, send to sleep, or knock unconscious a group of enemies) The orcs swarm them like rabid ants, and everyone else moves to the doorway.
Nothing else comes out, and we can barely see to the end of the hallway where torches abound and the feasting is heard. I don't remember how or why those giants came out when they did, and I'm pretty sure I didn't know then, either. We all shrug our shoulders and Tovena’ar casts Spectral Forces off the scroll.
The torches are extinguished, heated fog rolls in from our doorway, and a red dragon’s roar is heard through out the complex. The companies of orcs run down the corridor, howling war cries.
Hill giants meet them about halfway to the feasting room, and the battle is joined. Faerie fires light the way through the fog, leading to flying chromatic orbs and magic slingstones. The casters position darkness spells to cover the ceiling and far down enough so we short people can see the giants, but they can’t see us. Leia the cavalier leads a small wedge deep into the giants formation; as her orc companions are squished flat she hacks her way through the rolling mass of flesh to the very center of the giant’s feasting hall. She is surrounded on all sides, yet miraculously is untouched, holding her own against stone giants and one, very large, very ugly brute, one I guess to be the chieftain. From the northern halls lightning bolts and fireballs flash, and out of nowhere a horde of insects and small animals appear, causing disruption amongst the giants ranks. Spugnoir steps out of invisibility with nothing less than an air elemental, directing it against the hill giant chieftain.
Out of small things like chromatic orbs and darkness, Tovena’ar begins his larger illusions. As Leia makes her way through the giants ‘summoned’ swords and warriors accompany her, taking hits and startling giants enough to hit the illusions instead of her . Eventually Tovena’ar loses sight of her and simply continues the illusionary assault, having the giant's swords ‘fly’ out of their hands and start attacking them. It does distract them for a round or two, long enough for one to be hacked down, but as the swords attack with Tovena’ars THAC0, (method of attacking, very poor for an Illusionist) it doesn’t do a lot of good.
From behind us a small knot of hill giant young come charging; Tovena’ar turns and combines an Audible Glamour with his last Phantasmal Force to make a crude illusion of the ceiling collapsing, it distracts them long enough for the giants to be met with some orcs led by Great Scott, who managed to hack his way to our position.
Eventually all groups link up at the center of the room; a last knot of four hill giants, bloodied, battered, but still defiant, are seen standing over the body of their dead chieftain. I figure it will be over very soon…
Except behind Tovena’ar now there is a spinning air elemental. I ask Spugnoir's player: what the heck its doing behind him; he shrugs his shoulders and lets loose a magic missile against one of the giants. The elemental is still spinning, and Tovena’ar asks him how many spells he’s been throwing, and he replies “for a few rounds now, one of the lightning bolts was mine. He then adds that his last act before starting other spells was to tell the elemental to start spinning, apparently it’s some sort of charge up attack.”
It then proceeds to demonstrate what the spinning does, because right then the elemental does an impression of a hurricane being let loose. Tovena’ar and several orcs are smashed against a wall, you can almost hear the scraping sound as they slide to the floor. The orcs are dead and Tovena’ar somehow managed to survive at -8 HP.
Chaos reigns as the elemental goes after Spugnoir, the giants get a morale boost and knock Leia unconscious, the rest of the orcs start fleeing for their lives, everyone else is panicking, some trying to take down the last few Hill Giants, some scooping up treasure and fleeing, and one or two trying to hunt the elemental. Orcs fall like wheat as the table erupts into chaos, and Burl is enjoying himself immensely.
Just as the elemental reaches Spugnoir’s position he finishes another spell, and, in the words of Burl: “appears to step behind a curtain of shimmering air and vanishes.” Burl takes Spugnoir's player away to talk for a while. (I only later found out that Spugnoir used Dimension Door to try and escape the complex. He did end up outside, but the elemental merely followed him) The elemental has no target and sits for a few rounds, the party uses this time to heal Tovena’ar and Leia, and carry them out of the slaughter.
The Hill Giant’s screams are heard as apparently the elemental went for the next available targets.
The party catches it’s breath in the kitchen, where we count our losses. Tovena’ar and Leia are healed to consciousness, though they are extremely weak. Out of the two hundred or so orcs, nearly a hundred have been killed, another fifty fled for the mountains, the remainder with us, demanding part of the loot. Duorddon is sent to peek into the room, to figure out what’s going on. He comes back a few rounds later, reporting that the remaining giants are dead and the elemental has disappeared. We all wonder where Spugnoir is, and then move in to collect the spoils; a lot of jewelry and battered silver tableware is found, and about a third of it goes to the remaining orcs, who hightail it out of there
The party gathers up the treasure, loads their packs, and moves through the entire complex one last time. We encounter nothing save the occasional scavenger, for we have come unto this hall like a thunderbolt, leaving no survivors to raid the domains of men and elves.
It is just past dawn when we exit from the main gate, fanning out in a small search for Spugnoir. His corpse is found some fifty feet or so from the northern wall of the complex. His body is battered and broken, and our cleric confirms it to be consistent with damage from an air elemental. We mourn his loss, for he was indeed a mighty wizard, though, in the end, apparently a foolish one. We A short Eulogy is said, and then to my surprise, his corpse is stuffed into the portable hole.A mental note is made to find a replacement cleric and keep an eye out for another high-level wizard. In the meantime the player of Spugnoir takes Oaklock, the elven spellsword we rescued from the clutches of the hill giants, as his character. Mongo the dwarf also volunteers to stay with the company, as he is eager to gain wealth and recognition before returning to his clan.
It is with mixed apprehension and trepidation that the party slowly begins its journey to a small town just south of the Jotuns, about a weeks travel by foot, to take on supplies and hopefully hire on a cleric or two. We know now that Hill Giants were just the beginning of this mystery, and it will undoubtedly be a long journey to unravel this knot.
Thus Ends the Expedition to the Steading of the Hill Giant Chieftain