Against the Giants: Sessions four, five, and six

This game I've been playing in has had some really weird stuff going on. It's been about six weeks since the last session, however that will be rectified by this Friday. Here's the next chapter in this story, which I must admit, will come to an end by mid-august, which comes down to two or three more sessions. I will be heading to college, and since it is about a five hour trip I won't be coming back home to play. I believe it was in Loftwick, just south of the Jotun mountains, that the party rested and recuperated for about two weeks. This time was spent in various ways by various people; Spells were bought, traded, or haggled from the mages guilds, and Tovena’ar spent some time researching the various giant species. Some items were commissioned in the smiths quarter: A suit of magic full plate (AC 0 I believe) was crafted for Great Scott, and a new sword for Leia. A cleric of Pelor was hired, and Tovena’ar managed to research and copy Spectral Forces, Phantom Armor, and Wraithform into his spellbook.

However much of Tovena’ar’s time was spent in a minor inter-party conflict. For whatever reason the Gnoll shaman decides to have a bit of illusionary fun….

I remember various tricks; Tovena’ar waking up in a snow drift and attacked by giants, the Wild Hunt appearing when he opens the door to his room, attacked by the staff and the “bartender” giving gold as compensation (it ended up being rocks) I don’t remember why I didn’t suspect the gnoll at first, but I wised up eventually. My reaction may have been a bit overblown, but I was a little fed up. On the last night the party spent in Loftwick, Tovena’ar sprung a trap of spectral forces, hiding himself with invisibility. The gnoll entered his room, finding himself in a giant hedge-maze. The player mentioned he didn’t have dispel magic on him, so I upped the ante, causing treants to appear and attack him. Needless to say the character went into shock when he was “killed”, and Tovena’ar arranged for the body to be destroyed.

The player did take up another character that night, but as far as I know hasn’t played n this campaign since.

The next morning the party completed its preparations and, using the chain that we had stolen from the Hill Giant’s Lair, teleported to the northern frozen wastes.

The party finds an ice cave, some ways distant from what we find to be a giant glacier. Tovena’ar points out that such a natural landmark is a common home to Frost Giants. We spend about a day preparing ourselves against the cold in the cave, before we enter the Glacial Rift.

As I recall, we managed to clear several rooms of giants and ogres, managing somehow to not give the alarm, as we did with the Hill Giants. A room full of giant frogs was discovered, wherein Mongo the dwarf was sucked into an artifact that the thief held, some sort of mirror shield that sucks its targets into another dimension. I really only remember clearly the last few minutes of that session, where we decided to sneak back out to the ice cave and rest up, since all our casters were tapped out, and one fighter (I think Hwonalon) was down but stabilized at 0 HP. We managed to not trip the alarm, but we were ambushed outside by yetis. Tovena'ar went unconscious, and only barely managed to survive.

This ends my own recollections of the frost giants. I was only able to play for one session because the next week I was in Europe.... Good Lord it's almost been a year already!
Apparently after I left for Europe they did not do as much as they should or could have done.

Because Great Scott was not with the party when we had to pack up, we could not use the Rod of Security. So the party ended up hiking out of the rift, into a blizzard. Yetis almost tore Tovena'ar apart and Leia got frost-bitten. Not a fun ending as the party packed themselves in the cave with extra armor, blankets, and furs. When the party had rested and trooped back to the rift, I was in Europe and the alarm was sounded. Over the course of several sessions they smashed through several ice barriers that the giants had set up, eventually making straight for the Jarl. They killed him, and found a room with several chests and a movable rod hanging in the ceiling. With ogre mercenaries battering down the door they had barricaded, Oaklock stood on one of the Half-orc's shoulders and managed to pull the lever, thinking: “Hey, a secret door or something!”

Maybe not. They were teleported to a volcano, and spent the rest of that session loitering around, trying to find a cave they could hide and rest in. That was in October.

There was only one session in November, I believe, due to conflicting scheduling issues with the DM and other players. So not as much time went by as could have happened.

The session that was in November was the session that happened before I got back. They entered the Fire Giant's Hall, failing to notice the guard with the gong. He rang it, and this resulted in a massive battle in the main hall, which had several lesser characters being killed, whilst Leia, Valxian, and Coleth were near death. Overall, however, the battle resulted in victory for the party as King Snurre, the Fire Giant king, is dead, along with his guards and apparently much of the garrison. The half-orc Coleth who styles himself prince has claimed the king’s white dragon cloak. They also looted the armory, with Leia and Hwonalon coming the worse off, one with a -2 cursed sword that won’t go away, and Hwonalon suffering a curse, apparently now suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, eventually becoming Lawful Neutral instead of Chaotic Neutral.

(The casualties were anywhere from 2-5 level, some fighters, a MU, a thief, and two clerics, I believe. The players did not come often. Doubtless after this they will not come at all)

My first session back was in December. During this time the party spent more time clearing the upper halls, killing some women, one or two guards, and many, many hell hounds. In their kennel the party found a cloak (apparently fashioned from from hellhound hide) which apparently transforms the wearer into a hellhound. Rhonda has claimed this. After the kennels we moved through some other rooms and halls until we came to a large shaft, from which some steam and heat was coming. The party could not see the bottom, but nearby they also located a gently sloping passage, undoubtedly leading to the lower halls. There was great debate as to whether or not we should climb the shaft and supposedly surprise the giants below, or take the more direct, less surprising (for us and for the enemy) passageway. Hwonalon the gnome volunteered to take a rope and climb down the shaft, to see what was down it. He was given a ring of fire protection by Rhonda and Tovena’ar cast Invisibility on him. The DM took the player of Hwonalon away from the table, and the party waited. Eventually the DM came back, without the player, saying the rope was being tugged on very, very hard. Coleth and Cared, (who I believe were holding the rope), pulled it up. It was singed near the bottom, and Hwonalon was covered with soot. Apparently he narrowly avoided being dropped into lava which was powering a great forge. I mused quietly that it was a great shame that he did not go for a swim, whatever equipment he might have lost, as I believe that Hwonalon has been a great hindrance during this campaign. The party all heads down the passageway, coming to a large room with another set of stairs leading off to the right, and several other passageways infront and to the left. The party sends Hwonalon off to scout with another invisibility, making a plan to ambush whatever follows with me concealing the party with Phantasmal Force. It just goes up as Hwonalon runs around the corner with two Ettins after him. They are handily dealt with with no damage to the party. But apparently Hwonalon is near death (I recall about 6 HP out of 40) as he attempted to backstab one of the ettins instead of coming back to us. They were NOT surprised, and almost killed him with their clubs. Cared the cleric sighs and gives Hwonalon a Cure Serious Wounds.

Hwonalon is sent off on another scouting mission, with Tovena’ar as backup. Together they locate the Ettin’s guard room and notice a great commotion down the hallway. Tovena’ar sends Hwonalon off to go get the party, and wait. Just as the party comes up there is a great war cry from down the hallway, and the elves eyes see four fire giants charging us, with swords and axes. Tovena’ar uses Mirror Image for his action, and the rest of the party takes up positions just behind him.

The giants stop just a few feet short of Tovena'ar, and our fighters charge, the rangers loose arrows, and Hwonalon disappears into the shadows. More giants come up, these being young ones with hastily made clubs. Tovena’ar flings Chromatic Orbs of paralyzation, and the giants are pushed back with two dead. The fight steadily goes further down the hallway and apparently at the end there is a great room simply stuffed full of cowering female and young giants, their guards already fighting us. Some of the young ones, are, however, moving to get a shot at us with slings. Thinking quickly, Tovena’ar drops a darkness in the area immediately before the room. He attempts to aim it so it covers the area off the ground, so we can see but the giants, being taller, cannot. But it is centered too high, Tovena’ar believing the giants are a bit taller than they really are, so it does little good. Two more darkness spells follow the round after the first, however, these completely covering the entire area, and so we are able to separate the main body of giants; as well as Hwonalon, who simply charged into the middle of the room with four giants all about him, screaming for us to come and rescue him. The party rolls their eyes and we continue our steady pace.

We are flanked, however, as two doors which are to the side of our formation open up, and stone and hill giants pour out of them. Tovena’ar quickly cast color spray, and the druid prepares an insect swarm, whilst Don utters a prayer in our immediate vicinity and Oaklock moves back to support us. Between these spells and the rangers shifting their fire, these flanking giants are felled within another two rounds and the fighters are holding the line just before the darkness. Tovena'ar refocuses his efforts and uses Spectral Forces to generate a terrible, arctic chill emanating from the darkness, hopefully keeping the rest of the giants from coming through. One of the darkness spells falls and a corridor is formed between us and the rest of the fire giants, and a few starting running through to engage the fighters. I shift the Spectral Forces, so not only is cold coming from there, but huge, black tentacles formed of ice reach out and grab any that move through the corridor or stay too close to it. It is successful, as psychological damage is dealt to those grabbed and the rest stay put. The rest of the fight is not much to say, though it did take most of the night. Bit by bit we slaughtered each and every giant that was in the room, with Tovena'ar sifting his spells to fogs and illusionary lightning bolts to separate and keep down those that tried to move around the combat. Eventually we stood victorious atop a pile of bodies, and Tovena'ar is wrapping up his concentration in the back whilst the rest start to overturn bodies and search for treasure. I am the last one in the hallway when Burl passes me a note.

My grin of victory turns to horror, as my elven eyes saw a group of trolls and gnolls (four trolls and 10 gnolls, I believe) come down the very same corridor we came from, behind us. Shouting a warning, Tovena'ar silently blends into the wall as the rest of the party hastily runs pell mell down the corridor. I launch a last chromatic orb of flame towards one of the trolls as the party runs past me, but the orb misses, and almost hits Hwonalon instead, who moves around in shadows to the back of the trolls…

And the entire group of trolls, plus Hwonalon, is covered by a fireball from Oaklock. They are quickly taken down after that, with Tovena’ar simply blending in at the back, and the trolls are put to the torch.

This session ends as no other treasure is located and we decide to head back to the original room on this floor with the many passages leading away.