SR44: Hunting Giants

This session happened Friday, April 22, 2011, and was the only session I ran this past weekend.

Adventuring Group:
Su Bel (human cleric)
– Dame Yasha of Bereste (Su Bel’s human cavalier cohort)
Mog the Doomed (half-orc barbarian)
Thorngrim (half-orc sorcerer)
 – Kainen (Thorngrim’s human fighter cohort)
Alys Kaah (gnome summoner/cavalier) [via Skype]
– Mr. Boodles (Alys’s owlbear-looking eidolon and mount)
Xin (human wizard) [via Skype]


Note: the list of player characters is in player sitting order, from my left and then clockwise around the table and then on my laptop via Skype.

In-game Starting Date: October 17, 23rd Year of King Nikola V

"Ya, mon!  I and I put da fires out no problem!" ~ summoned water elemental to Su Bel

Returning to the problem of the dragon in the mountains to the south, the adventurers decided to go find some giants.  They headed south on Three Peaks Road, went through the foot hills around the western side of Three Peaks, and then down into the Sea of Grass.  Pushing south, they were able to cross the large, unnamed river that flowed east into the great canyons between Three Peaks and the southern mountains.  There they made camp in a (barely acceptable) tower of stone created by Thorngrim using several wall of stone spells.

During first watch, Thorngrim and Kainen observed a herd of wild horses stampeding by the tower, heading east.  Thorngrim also spotted what had set the horses to running - a pride of dire lions on the hunt.  Thorngrim immediately cast an illusionary wall to make that side of the tower look taller and then started casting fireballs through it onto the dire lions.  Xin leaned down through the hatch in the roof of the tower and yelled to wake up the rest of the adventurers, who were sleeping in the extra-dimensional space of a rope trick.  This roused most of the adventures, who moved to defend the tower and kill off the dire lions when they moved to attack the tower…except the two cavaliers, who were found still asleep and snuggled next to each other after the fight.  After Su Bel summoned a water elemental to put out the fires Thorngrim had started, the adventurers went back to sleep or watch, as was appropriate.

The next morning, the group made their way into the foothills, looking for giants and wary of the dragon appearing.  Just as they were reaching the actual mountains, the adventurers realized they were about to walk into a stone giant ambush.  Reacting quickly, the adventurers attacked the stone giant first and before they were in the center of the ambush.  Kainen single-handedly held off three of the stone giants while the rest of the adventurers killed the other five.  By the time they were done with that and turned to help Kainen, he had killed one giant outright, forced another to flee, and accepted the surrender of the third.

Su Bel cast zone of truth and the group questioned the stone giant.  They learned that the giant's name was Hafgrim and his tribe was being blackmailed into working for the dragon.  The dragon had seized all their valuables and many hostages.  Hafgrim also shared the location of the dragon's lair.  Hafgrim agreed to follow Kainen if the adventurers worked towards killing the dragon and freeing the stone giant hostages.

Wanting to share this knowledge with those adventurers not present, the group decided to return to Drop-off Tower.  While crossing the Sea of Grass, the adventurers spotted a barrow mound.  Feeling they were on something more important, they made a note of it on their map and continued on, arriving at the Tower the following day.

*End of session*

[While this was a full session, the recap came out kind of short.  I GREATLY summed up the fight, skipping over the cavaliers charging around the hill-line the stone giants were concealed behind and Mog hurling insults at the stone giants, trying to provoke them into attacking him instead of the spellcasters.  This is because I feel blow-by-blow descriptions of combat are only interesting if you were there or something important happened.  Plus, my notes are minimal and I've slept since then.  Meh.]