HALLS OF THE FROST GIANTS
We use the teleportation device to get to the Fire Giant Stronghold. We appear outside in a caldera, very hot with toxic gases making breathing difficult. There’s a massive Obsidian door into the side of the granite mountain, the entrance to the fire giant lair.
We get Berdyn to scout the complex, using the oil of Etherealness to do so. He is able to scout the entire upper level of the complex, giving us complete information on where things are. Berdyn warned us that King Snurre is very close to the entrance in his throne room. He mentioned seeing a number of things, including a Rakshasa, hydra, and chimera. Some surprising creatures.
We ambush the giant at the entrance, and kill it almost immediately. We trick a pair of ettins towards the entrance using animals from the bag of tricks, and then beat them down as well.
The way to Snurre is clear. Seeing that the way is a straight path of almost 200 feet, we come up with a plan, initially a joke made by Codex, but then we expand on it. We use the pigments to paint a cart, attach Simon to the cart, and he drinks a potion of speed. We get in the cart and he blurs down the hallway, Codex holding one of the animals, a badger named Hamish.
Snurre and his two giant guards watch with some degree of astonishment at the madness racing towards them. We pile out of the cart and utterly destroy Snurre, his guards, and the two hellhound pets.
But now, the protection of Dumathoin is ended. The Master now has a chance to detect our presence and activities to foil his plans. We are running out of time.
We head down a secret passage behind the throne, hiding Snurre and his guard’s bodies in the passage. Berdyn explains this is the secret passage between the throne room, the treasure room, and Snurre’s bedroom. We leave the treasure room alone for now, and head into the bedroom.
There we fight 6 more hellhounds, and defeat them, then we head into the hallway and take out the two fire giant guards. From there, we take on Queen Frupy and her three handmaidens. Codex banishes two of the handmaidens, and we dispatch them after a tough combat. The Queen is hideously ugly. From there we take some time to loot the room.
We head to the kitchens and attack the Fire giant Cook and his gnoll attendants. Maude uses her staff of frost to use Cone of Cold, freezing the gnolls solid. We defeat the cook, and then Codex cooks a meal using all the hot peppers to keep up the noise. There’s a guard nearby. We ambush and quickly defeat the Fire Giant Guard.
We enter into a conference room. The room has a cabinet with some interesting writing. Among several receipts and meeting notes and copies of letters, there’s an order from the Master – it tasks Snurre with gathering other giants, including Ettins, Oni, the Frost and Hill giants, for an all-out attack on humanity. From the letters and receipts, it looks like the attack was to happen this season.
We also find a scrap of paper with instructions on it, referencing a specific statue to pull it’s arm.
We find a chest, and it contains a number of tokens for emissaries representing king Snurre. Anyone who has this token (a dwarf femur with Giant writing on it) are considered emissaries of Snurre. Codex can do a locate object for them in Kingston, during the Congressional vote. Whoever has one of those knows that the Giants are planning an attack.
We then continue to the guest quarters to find the Rakshasa. It is in the room, but hidden in a group of three children. Simon uses his divine sense to figure out who it is right away. It turns invisible, but Codex luckily breathes fire on where it hid, and it was distracted enough to stop being invisible. Simon then destroys it. The Children remaining explode soon afterwards.
We try to take out another Guard, but he tries to get away. Maude polymorphs him into a box turtle, we take the turtle back to the Rakshasa guest room and then attack it, dispatching it quickly.
We then take out the Gnolls, they almost get away, but we defeat them. Then we see the dwarf flee to a nearby door and secure himself in.
We smash our way in and manage to parley with the Dwarf. His name is Obni Bookkeeper. He tells us he was kidnapped and enslaved twelve years ago, but was of service as a bookkeeper that he was given somewhat free reign. After confirming Snurre’s plans, we find out he was an assassin and was captured after entering into the Halls of the Fire Giant King. They kept him from the Master, and it was very likely he was sent to kill the Master.
We ask him about the note in the conference room we found about the statue, and Obni tells us that he was told to write that down, it references a cache of treasure within the crypts in the third level of the Stronghold. The statue will open a secret door.
We agree to use a Teleportation Circle to send him to Kingston, and do so.
We then face down the hydra. As we attack it, it grows more heads, and gets more dangerous. Happily, Simon and Maude destroy it with Maude’s disintegrate spell and Simon smiting it.
We loot the treasure, there is a lot of it. We then decide to return to Bale’s summit, to drop off some items, and then to Southspire.
In Southspire, we get ourselves cleaned up, consolidate our treasure, identify items. We find out from Alissia Undercroft that the six figurines we found are items of devotion to the elder god known as That Which Lurks. They are magical, evil, and dangerous, so we deposit them on Bale’s Summit for safe keeping, along with the Mirror of Seeing owned by Frupy.
We then enjoy a meal of roast hydra at the Spice Barrel, and retire for the evening.