Episode 12: Rolling Stones

[EvilGenius]

With no fanfare and nary a look back, the PCs packed up all of their belongings, gathered all of their various members, including Jareth's djinn servant, and left the troubled town of Farweald last night.

It took several days for the band to make it out of the forest. The trip was uneventful, but Bannock, Jareth and Quarion all noticed that the atmosphere of the forest seemed changed, somehow. Perhaps a little more otherworldly than it had been. But since nothing presented itself as a threat, the PCs moved on, determined to find Quirinseyru in the Bluff Hills.

At the northern edge of the forest, the PCs turned East, heading toward the distant mountains. Skirting the Barrens, the PCs had the opportunity to reflect on the isolation of this part of the world. During the Greyhawk Wars, Iuz controlled all of this area, decimating the Rovers nearly ending their nomadic lifestyle forever. Now, some 70 years later, the Barrens are still unpopulated, by man and beast.

After a few days travel along the northern edge of the forest, the PCs found a decent sized campsite that they remember using when Lonz brought them to Farweald. Near the road lay the remains of an old, ruined tower of some sort. All that remained was a largish, nearly complete circle of foundation stones, none more than 2 feet high. It seems a natural place to hitch the horses and park the wagon.

However, in the middle of the night, something sinister showed up. Two colorless jets of fire appeared at different points in the circle and after a moment, they both erupted into furious demonic forms! Immediately alerted by Bannock's trusty Shortsword of Warning, the PCs sprang into combat against the otherworldly menace. Both of the demons were able to resist Quarion's best attempts to Banish them, but after a difficult battle, the PCs prevailed through magical and martial might.

Pressing on from their strange encounter, the PCs made their way to the Bluff Hills, following a nearly hidden track up into the mountains. Using the map markers that the Tieflings had provided, Bannock was able to lead the PCs almost directly to the ruins of what looks like it was a fortified tower of some sort. In the large radius of destruction, the PCs could hardly find two stones still together, and a thorough search of the area only turned up one thing of note. A set of stairs leading down into a richly appointed basement area.

The PCs investigated and were rewarded with a strange sense of deja' vu; they could all vaguely remember this place, but it didn't trigger strong memories or visions. Along with some ruined stores of food and wine, the PCs found a partially damaged teleportation circle and a bare stone room with a bare stone table in it. Though it seemed very similar to the PCs memories of waking up on their own stone tables, it didn't seem that this place corresponded to the memories of any of the PCs present. There was some speculation that this place may have been associated with one of your missing companions: Erk, Balisar or Naziah.

Seeing little of immediate value, the PCs decided to make their way to the next spot that the tieflings had marked on the map, hoping to find more information about the mysterious figure from their memories, Quirinseyru.

[erilar]

Hmm - "partially damaged teleportation circle." Brigga or others: do you think you might be able to repair that thing??

[EvilGenius]

After gleaning all they could from the ruined tower location, the PCs decided to set off to the next location the tieflings marked on their map. After about a week of difficult but uneventful travel through the mountains, the PCs stumbled into the fight of their lives.

Bannock was leading the PCs along a small gulch through a lightly wooded, hilly area when you found a small trail leading up over a ridge. Bannock moved to investigate and saw a largish campsite which had been completely shredded by something, something that was still in the bushes, noisily and messily devouring something or someone.

Just about that time, Brigga's new Wyvern's Talisman started to sound an alarm in her mind; wyverns were near!

The PCs moved up to engage the first wyvern that Bannock encountered, Jareth summoned lightning from the suddenly-cloudy sky, and Brigga let loose with her own lighting bolt against the creature. However, very quickly, two more of the terrifying beasts took off from where they had been devouring their prey, and the three beasts began circling and stinging the PCs with their wickedly poisonous tail spikes.

After a few seconds of that, the wyvern's masters revealed themselves as four hill giants lumbered into view on top of the ridge on the other side of the campsite. For a few rounds the giants hurled boulders at the PCs while the wyverns dove in and out of combat with the party. Jareth kept calling lightning, then shifted to bear form to better engage in melee combat. Brigga threw spell after spell at the giants and wyverns. Quarion alternated between healing the party from the horrendous damage being done to them, and throwing offensive spells at the giants. And Bannock's flaming blade rose and fell against the monsters to great effect. But it was not quite enough.

First Bannock fell to a frenzy of melee attacks from two of the enraged giants, who had closed with the party. Then Brigga suffered multiple critical wounds at the hands of the wyverns, eventually dropping her to unconsciousness. Quarion was able to get both back on their feet but that time spent healing instead of on offensive maneuvers left the giants free to continue to harass the weakened PCs and also gang up on Jareth and Quarion, the estranged brothers from a former life. After a series of incredibly accurate and damaging strikes from the giant's clubs, Jareth was forced to shift back into his human form, while Quarion was clubbed into unconsciousness.

Jareth quickly shifted back into a large mountain lion, pouncing on one of the giants, while Bannock and Cur, nearly at death's door, snuck around to the back of the combat. When Jareth's was also knocked out of mountain lion form, Bannock knew he had to act. With a quick prayer asking for forgiveness, Bannock withdrew Pelor's Orb and held it high. The brilliant orange orb caught the natural sunlight, causing a brief, golden glow, then Bannock hurled the Orb down onto the rock in front of him, shattering it into thousands of shards of glass! Immediately, burning, holy light filled the area, finally felling the remaining giants, leaving the PCs unconscious, but alive.

Limping as quick as he could, Bannock made his way to his unconscious companions, stabilizing their wounds.

[EvilGenius]

The PCs are now in the ruined campsite with four dead giants, three dead wyverns and several dead humans and gnomes. There is also one male, human survivor from the camp, who was being carried around by one of the giants in an iron cage. The human is currently unconscious.

In combat, the PCs have discovered more secret properties of their magical items. Brigga, you have discovered that the Wyvern's Talisman is cursed. It functions normally as detailed previously, but if you are hit by a physical attack from a creature with the Dragon type, you suffer maximum damage.

Quarion, when you used Corellon's Shroud on Brigga to stabilize her with the cantrip Spare the Dying, the Shroud gained 2 more charges, over and above the 3 it normally possesses. You speculate that this may be in order to be able to cast more a powerful healing spell on the creature covered by the Shroud.

[erilar]

Bump for this one, since I accidentally threadjacked the saga:

Hmm - "partially damaged teleportation circle." Brigga or others: do you think you might be able to repair that thing??

[erilar]

Assuming all party members are stable, Jareth will cast a lower-level heal on the wounded survivor. Once we (hopefully) gain some intel from this stranger, we obviously need a long rest!

[EvilGenius]

Bump for this one, since I accidentally threadjacked the saga:

Hmm - "partially damaged teleportation circle." Brigga or others: do you think you might be able to repair that thing??

Correction to my first response: This teleportation circle has been destroyed. You create a permanent teleportation circle by casting it in the same location every day for a year. That's probably the only way to 'fix' it.

[EvilGenius]

You all pick yourselves up off of the ground, looking around the ruined campsite and the huge forms of the dead giants. Brigga grunts and goes back down the trail to alert and bring up the rest of the party.

Quarion gathers Bannock and Jareth together and heals a few more of their wounds using the now empowered Corellon's Shroud. Together, you break the human prisoner out of the iron cage that the giant was carrying. This is a human man, dressed in the remains of a set of chain mail. Quarion lays the man out on the ground and utters a prayer to Rillifane, healing the man's wounds somewhat.

Brigga returns with the rest of the party at this point. "Eh, they weren't far off. Came when they saw all the lightning." Everyone takes in the grisly scene, then people start helping the djinn dig a large hole in which to bury all of the dead.

Still under Quarion's care, the prisoner slowly sits up. "Thank you, friends, for your intervention. My name is Aldin." Aldin looks around the camp. "I assume there were no other survivors? Did you by chance see a gnome running around?" Aldin sighs at the PCs shaking heads. "Ahh, I had thought Binderstone had escaped the frey, at least. I saw his other kinfolk fall, but I had hoped his illusions would help him. Well that's it then. Our mission is a failure. The Lord Mayor will not be pleased."

[EvilGenius]

Aldin slowly moves through camp, identifying the dead and collecting their affects before the remains are interred in the large grave that Alizar is preparing. While you work, Aldin explains more of this mission.

"I'm from a free city far to the south of here called Obsidian Bay. A few years ago, several prominent dwarven allies of the city undertook the long journey to this region, following up on rumors of some 'new' kind of dwarves in the region. The dwarves left behind in Obsidian Bay haven't heard back from their kin, though, and asked the Lord Mayor of the city for assistance."

Aldin removes a gore covered ring from a small hand and begins to clean it off. "The gnomes were from a family that lives near our city. They have ties to the missing dwarves and have some arcane skill of their own." Aldin frowns and does a quick count. "Wait, there are only 4 bodies here, not 5!! That HAS to mean that B'narl got away!" Aldin's excitement overreaches his current health, however, and he collapses into a coughing fit. Quarion rushes to his side and eases the man to the ground, wiping away the blood from his mouth.

Quarion looks around briefly, at the party. "We need to rest overnight here before doing anything else. Several of us are in no shape for further combat today." Quarion looks back to Aldin, "we'll look for this missing gnome tomorrow. If he survived he may come back to this area anyway, looking for other survivors. If he doesn't come back, Bannock there can track anyone through any forest or mountain, so we'll find him".

Aldin weakly nods his thanks.

[EvilGenius]

The PCs finish cleaning up the area as best they can. You find a small chest in the tatters of one of the tents. Aldin identifies it as his, and produces the key to open it. Inside there are a few scrolls and potions. Aldin says to the PCs, "I don't have much to reward you for saving my life, but what I have I offer you. I won't need the scrolls and potions anymore, I don't think."

Aldin sets the magical resources aside and reaches into the bottom of the chest to pull out two rolled bundles of cloth. "I need to get two spear hafts or poles." You provide Aldin with two poles and he unrolls the cloth bundles. They are largish, triangular flags, which Aldin proceeds to affix to the poles.

"The Lord Mayor gave me these. I'm supposed to put them out in specific patterns every few nights or in case of emergency." Aldin unfolds one of the scrolls, which contains several different diagrams of flags. "Honestly I can't tell what the heck this is for or if the Lord Mayor is having a laugh at my expense. But in case of catastrophic emergency I'm supposed to set them out like..." Aldin consults the instructional diagrams, "... so".

Aldin adjusts the height of the flags on the shaft and plants them near each other. To your surprise, the flags unfurl fully, even through there is very little wind, and the pointed ends of the flag point directly at each other. There are several runes on the flags. "Oh. They haven't done that before" Aldin says.

[Jonkga]

Bannock will tend to his wounds and Cur's, and make sure the rest of the party is ok. He will then search the campsite, making sure it is secure, and he will also check the ridge above the campsite to be sure there are no more giants or wyverns. He will search the bodies of the giants and wyverns for anything important or out of the ordinary. He will prepare the wyvern bodies for some harvesting, trying to possibly reclaim some wyvern poison, hide, scales, etc. which may come in handy in crafting in the future. He will also try to prepare some of the wyvern meats for smoking/drying to add to their provisions. He will work with others to try to move the giant bodies down to the dry streambed and away from the campsite to avoid predation overnight, possibly.

[EvilGenius]

From Aldin you get:

2 potions of Superior Healing
2 potions of Poison Resistance
2 potions of Clairvoyance

Scrolls:
Arcane Eye (4th)
Phantasmal Killer (4th)
Phantasmal Force (2nd)
Mirror Image (2nd)


From the Giants' bags, you recover the following:
a lot of dirty, moldy junk
a stylized but still very realistic looking statue of a dwarven maiden
several dented and rent dwarven helms
a dirty steel shield. The front is almost completely scorched, though if you rub away some of the soot you can just about make out the symbol of St. Cuthbert. The back is covered with the burnt remains of food. This was probably used as a combination pan and plate.
350gp
8 chrysoberyls, each worth 275gp
a 5' diameter iron cook pot

[EvilGenius]

While examining the giant's treasure, Brigga stares transfixed at the dwarven statue. "That's a statue of Berronar Truesilver, dwarven deity of safety and home, and it's in the style of MY people, from the Far West. And it seems ... familiar, somehow. Like I know this particular statue, but I can't remember why...." Brigga trails off, lost in thought.