SOUTHSPIRE
Early in the morning we are awoken by a high Priest of Dumathoin, Thrinarv. In exchange for a favor owed in the future. Dumathoin will provide us with a measure of protection, keeping us from the sight of the Master until after we have faced down the Giants. The God will protect us from the Necromancer’s awareness and the awareness of Vecna until the King of Fire Giants is slain.
Dumathoin wants us to kill Xiammantoneldrym in exchange. He tells us that we will eventually need to do this… which suggests there is something in his hoard that we will need.
We ask for weapons to fight giants, and we are allowed to borrow weapons from the vault, but they must be brought back. We will be able to go to the vault later in the morning.
We then go to the Armory and are loaned potent magic weapons. Giant slayer Short Sword and Rapier, a Belt of Fire Giant Strength, and the Mace of Disruption. We must return these weapons when done.
We return to the Inn and prepare ourselves to Teleport to Deseragar. It is time.
When we get to Deseragar via teleportation circle, the area around the circle is magically protected from the snowfall. The rest of the city is covered in a thick layer of snow.
We can see that the snow fall is gentle, wet and constant, due to the geothermal vents further up the mountain causing a constant chinook of warm air turning cold.
The majority of Deseragar is in good condition, the whole area is in perpetual winter and as a result the wear and tear is minimal. The city is silent, and dead.
We see in the distance further up the mountain – there is a massive wooden structure, a huge steading for Hill Giants. It is nearby a set of cavern entrances – likely where the Orcs resided.
We head to the caverns and establish a rough base camp, then wait until dark. We then sneak into the steading to fight the Hill Giants.
There are three entrances, we take the most traversed entrance. Once inside, we see two sleeping drunk hill giants. A third sleeps in a short tower with an alarm. Codex silences the alarm, and we dispatch the Giants after a short but decisive fight.
We then sneak deeper into the steading. We defeat the Giantess subchief, and then further in we take out a barracks with two more hill giants. We find the Chieftain’s hall and kill his pet cave bear.
Then we enter another room with a Giantess berating three smaller hill giantesses, servants of some sort. Bale kills the giantess in one round, causing the smaller giants to surrender. They barter with us, and in exchange for their lives and a chest, they will show us a secret door to the Chieftain’s treasure chambers. We take it, and they leave the steading, after stealing a bunch of other stuff in the Chieftain’s hall.
We head down and find a secret treasure room, and then in the main treasure room we are attacked by a group of 4 manticores.
They are separated from us by a portcullis, so we make an agreement with them – we let them free, they won’t attack us.
So we let them go and then search the area. We find a secret door into another area, it looks like it is the slaver quarters. Within we fight a number of bugbears, and then speak to some of the prisoners. There’s a man, driven insane from captivity, another man in better shape, he is an engineer from Everlife, captured by the undead. An unconscious badly tortured elf, and a group of 5 orcs that have been enslaved.
We fight the Keeper and his pair of gorilla pets, defeating then.
We fool a quartet of Ogres looking to collect prisoners, convincing them that the Jailer is in a bad mood.
Then we fight a horde of Bugbear guards. We make a lot of noise, attracting those four ogres. We kill a total of 31 bugbears and the ogres, after a tense combat.
Then we head to the torture chambers and take out two Hill giants, and finally to the Forge and take on two Fire Giant Brothers. We free some dwarves at the forge and a number of orcs in the cells near the torture chambers. We return the orcs and dwarves to the resistance part of the tunnels.
Then we take a brief rest, just an hour to mend our wounds.
Meet with Flint and Shale, a pair of Stone Giants. They are not hostile, and tell us about the Foreman currently dining with the chieftain. We are not harm the Foreman, and he will not harm us. They have giant sized 3 dragon ante cards.
We head upstairs into a pantry. While discussing what to do, an orcish woman comes in to the pantry – we quickly tell her we are here to help. We work with her to warn the orcs in the next room, the kitchen, that we are coming.
We enter the kitchen, Simon and Berdyn disguise themselves as slaves to get into position. The Giants and Ogres don’t notice – the orc slaves all do and get themselves away from the eventual fight. There’s a fight!
We fight the Giants and Ogres, managing to take them down. We send the orc slaves down to the basement to join the resistance.
Then we face down the Giant Chieftain and his retinue. Within the feasthall, we face him down, as well as his wife, his subchief, a visiting storm giant, and an army of 8 hill giants, and another 10 Giant and ogre staff. The Stone Giant Foreman is there, but we tell him we have no quarrel with him and he stays seated. We face down and defeat the Chieftain and his retinue. Victory! The Chieftain’s wife flees.
Among the treasure we find Waythe, the sentient sword. He is identifies as male, and hates giants. He is brash and foolhardy, but wants to do the right thing. Berdyn and him become friends.
We then take down some ogres, and then another group of Giants, a large alpha male and a number of giantess groupies.
We head to a courtyard, and see a dozen dead dire wolves, all eviscerated. Written in their entrails is one word: CODEX. This is the work of the manticores, one last macabre gift before they flew away. We see that this is the route the Chieftain’s wife took as well, seeing her footprints leading out of the Courtyard.
We finally face down the giant youths, giving them a choice to leave peacefully. They attack us instead, and we lay waste to them.
We return to the Orcish enclave in the basement and take some time to rest.