The first was Girgym, the Frost Giant. Besides being a follower of Thrym, he was also a benefactor and patron of the K'Morat Warren that the group had been working on - the shaman within also a follower of Thrym. The party had the chance to encounter Girgym under brief and short circumstances where he beat one member into unconsciousness, tossed a second member 52' feet across a field, and then picked up a tree and slammed it repeatedly in the warren entrance stuffing it up before storming away.
The next was a wandering monster resolution which resulted in four...FOUR Vampires! Being it was historically an orcish land, the vampires are Orcish and the leader of them is a charming rogue named Lysil - who didn't want to kill the party, only wanted to feed from them for him and his hungry crrew - would have been 4 people losing a level. Instead, our half-orc took the hit and we now know of a 2nd dangerous enemy out here.
The last was Dunatis, a 12th level orcish druid and his tribe of similar making a circle. We know of only 3 so far, but the suspicion is there are more. Dunatis isn't against the Sorton-ites or the party as they have been respectful of the lands so far - but he and his circle aren't necessarily on the party's side either as evidenced by our conversation with him. We do know though that he is a source for "good" (neutrality?) out here that isn't necessarily out to hurt the group or screw them over.
Write up follows:
Barb found herself disarmed while she was struggling with the K’Morat who were snarling and spitting at the death of the shaman. One was on her ankle, the other on her arm, chewing on her wrist. Avulstein managed to dispatch the one he was fighting in a furious display of wolverine critical assault, ripping shreds of the kobold to pieces. Barb was getting pissed, and raging, slammed on of the kobolds into the other again and again until she was on her knees pounding one slab of reptilian meat into the other, red chunks all over the place.
The fight over we all reconvened, shared some healing, and then checked the place over while more bodies were stacked up to block the hall behind us. There were some boxes and two of them had squat brown cakes with what seemed to be hard brown icing. Odd, we took them though and then cast a new light spell, heading north.
The hall had a pit trap in it and between Barb and Negan; we didn’t think much of our chance to get through. So Connal and Barb dragged the cover off and then jammed it from floor to ceiling, blocking the hall for the time being. We then went BACK one room, moving the bodies we had stacked there out of the way and instead dragged them across the chamber and blocked another hall here.
We had seen some lights some time ago down the northern passage out of the kitchen but as of now, only a single steady candle flame was lit. We went down the hall slow until arrived at the chamber. There was a butchery table on the north wall with a single candle flame, opening on the west wall of the south east corner; floor had a serious gooey layer covering 85% of the chamber. Connal went first, staying out of the goo heading to the corridor to the west, Avulstein and Barb following, Negan and Darius holding back for now.
While crossing the corridor to some other room beyond, Connal fell through a pit here but managed to twist in such a way that instead of falling on the spikes within, he only happened to get scrapped by one – and didn’t contract Kobold-Aids! Once over to the other side, Avulstein waddled along and then Barb followed as well, staying on the edge of the pit. Negan and Darius headed to the pit but did not cross for now. Centius was still in the hall.
The room here was a seraglio, covered in pillows, cushions, and other drapery as well, an opening on the south wall led off towards the room we had fought the shaman in. There was an altar on the north wall with the same blue/black bearded face painted behind it that we had seen elsewhere. Avulstein detected magic, seeing 4 amorphous shapes in the pillow area. He headed to one and up sprung from cover and invisibility was a K’Morat soldier in tight armor and wielding a knife blade that stabbed into the wolverine.
Paralyzing our necromancer for the next 6 hours.
Three other kobolds emerged invisibly, also armed with knives and tried to assault Barb and Connal. At the same time, the corner of the butcher chamber on the north east side of the chamber slid open and flatbow wielding kobolds shot at the Half-Ogre and our slinger – one of them shooting the table with the candle – disturbing it, and dropping the candle to the ground. Where it ignited from whatever oily goo the kobolds had prepared across its surface earlier. Finally a four or five count charged down the hall and tried to get past Centius who finally animated and defended himself with his axe.
Barb and Connal were trying to fight the two kobolds on uneven ground and avoid getting scratched by the poisoned knives while Negan was struck by a bolt, slipped backwards…and fell into the spike lined pit. Unlike Connal though, the half-ogre hit the spikes hard, three of them puncturing his body, one of them actually tearing his left eye out! Darius let fly back at the flatbow wielders, his sling tearing open throats, knocking heads, and crushing chests as he sent back a hailstorm of half pound missiles. The Kobold’s did manage to inflict minimal wounds but Darius didn’t let anyone get to escape as he refused to let anything come out of the hole.
Negan healed himself, couldn’t fix his eye, but did use his shield to flatten every spike in the pit so he could stand. Centius was dispatching kobolds at pretty much one every 30 seconds, the warriors not doing any more than superficial damage to the zombie. After a few of them had been killed, the last few turned and fled and Centius once more grew still.
The flames had died down and Barb and Connal managed to kill off the last K’Morat here. They took the two knives that hadn’t struck anyone and put them aside for now. We shuffled Avulstein back across the pit to Darius who went to the hall and coaxed Centius out and into the butchery room where the undead orc then took Avulstein’s paralyzed form and held him in his arms while standing there.
Good enough for us.
Negan stayed in the pit, happy to actually be able to stand, and Darius went back to Barb and Connal who were looking over the room with a keen eye. Barb went to the north wall near the painted shrine area and began hitting it – and instantly discovered a blocked up concealed entrance. We chipped away at the opening revealing a plank of wood some 5’ tall, 3’ wide, and there was some noise behind it. We suspected kobolds, the clutch guards for the eggs.
The fastest pull, peer, and replace showed two of them, with lit Molotov and spears. Darius prepared his own and on the count of three Barb pulled the wood aside and Darius tossed his in. Dead on against the kobolds. They tried to return the favor but Barb managed to shut the opening in time and the oil splashed against the other side of the portal, again soaking the kobolds there.
We stayed until the screams had faded away and then a bit longer before finally moving it aside and looking. The opening was narrow – 4’ tall, 1 ½’ wide oval shaped, and the chamber beyond had some 80 odd leathery kobold eggs within in clutches and nests. We looted the bodies and then smashed MANY of the eggs, saving perhaps half a dozen that we then took with us and then closed the door and put the mud mixture back in front of it for now.
We made our way back to the opening, deciding to bring the shaman with us as proof that we had killed the next, and Barb was first out of the opening – where she was snatched up by an angry 15’ tall frost giant and shaken as it screamed in her face and she was unable to understand and answer. He grew furious with her and stuffed her into a large sack he tossed over his shoulder. Negan was trying to talk to the giant in Ogre and it was barely able to answer, wanting to talk to the Shaman.
We tried to say that we were also duped by the shaman and then the mistake was made to toss the shaman’s body up there. This had the giant go apoplectic. He snatched Connal who was closest and threw him 52’ where he slammed into the ground and rolled to a stop. Barb managed to escape the bag in time and ran into the weeds while the giant, Girgym, picked up the fallen Douglas fir, and slammed it again and again into the K’Morat warren hole, the group within running backwards for their lives as the tree was forced lower and lower into the ground.
Barb was face to face with a cloak wearing K’Morat and the two of them just made “shushing” motions to one another while Girgym had a tantrum and destroyed the area. He then left South and west in a huff, not realizing Barb was no longer in the bag.
The K’Morat warrior ran off to the north and Connal and Barb spent some time digging down into the earth while Darius was digging up from below. After a few hours we all were together again, tired, battered, filthy. We ran off to the north towards our cave and once there watched as the giant returned with a rocky shrine marker that he drove into the ground where the warren once was. He then looked all about and making up his mind, started walking north east with a purpose – the same direction as base camp.
Fuck.
We were shot, tired, low on everything, Avulstein was still paralyzed, and it was almost nightfall, we weren’t going to beat any giant back to Base Camp now. So we settled in and decided that we’d leave first thing in the morning.
The group slept, every two hours someone taking watch near the entrance of the cave between the space set up between the two tents strung across the opening. It was a quiet night, cold and silent. But while Barb was on her watch, only the unmoving Centius as companionship, a mist was wafting in under the tent’s edge and Barb felt…cold.
“What’s going on here, chere?” was the voice next to her. Barb looked and saw an orc in an older set of ornate breastplate and armor. He was paler of skin, his voice was like honeyed wine, and there were pin pricks of fangs under his lips besides the normal tusks that orcs possess. He identified himself as Lysil and he and his companions were out in the cold when they saw the party’s fires…and they want to warm themselves by the fires.
Barb could feel herself coming under Lysil’s sway, his gaze and voice wearing her resistance down. They chatted a bit longer but when it came time to “let me and my friends in, alright?” She got control of herself and wouldn’t give them permission to enter. This made Lysil sad and asked her, “Are you sure? My companions would then seek to warm themselves by your fire. Is that what you want?”
Barb nodded her head and wouldn’t let Lysil in. But his gaze grew larger to her, consuming her vision and then she felt hot breath on her skin and she passed out.
The group awoke on their own much later than expected and found Barb near the entrance, numerous bite marks on her neck and arms, pale and tired looking, Centius nowhere to be seen. We woke her up and she was dazed but shared what happened. Vampires. Orcish vampires out here. We spent a few hours restudying, commiserating with Barb, and talking about our trip back to Base Camp.
By 11 we were done and started our trek back. It took us three hours to come back to the stone house that was on the side of the mountain lake. However, it was shoved off its base even more, lying half submerged and at a 45 degree angle in the water; many giant sized foot prints were about. It seemed the giant Girgym had vented his aggression on the house and then continued on his way. According to Barb, it appeared the giant went south around the lake – so we went north. What would we find at Base Camp?
As we made our way around the lake and up the lower slopes of the ridge south of Furtham’s Peak, the hour approaching 4, we found the same dark furred wolves that had paced us on our trip of the Enderlyn River were ahead of us. We approached with care and the wolves went off to the south and then stopped to look at us. Through some back and forth we deduced they wanted us to follow them and we did so, travelling along the ridge to the next peak area, the forest tall about us.
Eventually there were a few other wolves nearby and we were led to Girgym the giant; held in place by bent over trees, limbs, vines, and other flora in the area while he struggled and twisted and tried to break free to no avail.
Then the dark furred wolf shifted and twisted, standing upright as a feral looking orc wearing animal skins and covered in whorls and tattoos. He spoke Orcish to Barb (Avulstein translating for the rest of us). Said he was Dunatis, and a warden of these areas. Has been watching the Base Camp and their actions and seemed happy that they are not despoiling the area too much. Doesn’t choose sides but the giant was far from his home and had come here to vent his anger on the Base Camp.
The wolves and wardens had stopped him for now and were going to educate him to leave the Base Camp for now. The thought was why not kill him, and Dunatis once again reminded the party that he doesn’t choose sides. Girgym has as much right to live as anyone and he is a part of the ecosystem out here. As for what happened to Barb and Lysil, that is a big no no. Lysil is an aberration, not part of the natural world, and Dunatis and his ilk have been searching for the vampiric orc for some time.
He was able to cast a restoration on Barb, bringing her lifeforce back to “pre-Lysil” levels in exchange for some of her permanent future health. After that, he did offer Barb a bit of help in the future, giving her a wooden whistle that if blown, once only, would alert Dunatis and his group so they could run as fast as possible to help out.
We left Dunatis and his wolves, Girgym and his seething angry glare, and went on our way back to Base Camp at 4:30 PM on Firemonth the 13th.
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