Chapter 37: The Den of the Hill Giants

General Summary

Date: 6th of Marpenoth to 7th of Marpenoth, 1491 DR

  After days of traveling with Moog the Hill Giant, the heroes finally arrived to the outskirts of Grudd Haug. Before entering they decided that it would be best to scout out the lair. So as the sun set on the horizon and night gathered, Bene Lugosi made his way stealthily towards the den.   Hugging the shadows, Bene circled towards the stronghold. He made note of their watchtower filled with hobgoblins as well as goblins that were preparing food in the kitchen. As he circled to the other side towards the stockyard, he was almost caught by the keen smell of a Hill Giant who was leaving the den. Luckily, he managed to take some distance and the danger soon passed.   The stockyard was filled with hundreds of sheep that were guarded by nearly dozen of orcs. Invisible, Bene rushed past them to the main entrance. He found a lone Hill Giant guarding the doorway and decided to try to walk past it. To his surprise, even while invisible, the Hill Giant was able to smell Bene and picked him up. With quick thinking, Bene tricked the Hill Giant into releasing him, claiming to be a ancestral spirit. Caught twice by the smelling of the Hill Giants, Bene decided to head back to camp.   When Bene was finished sharing all that he had witnessed to the rest of the party, they decided to sneak into the camp. Unfortunately, the hobgoblins in the watchtower spotted them and an alarm was rung. The group hid for an hour before continuing on. They continued through the kitchen, where the goblins were preparing a halfling roast and headed to the dock area. After ambushing the Watermaster, the group threw his body to the river but were once more caught by the hobgoblin watch tower and alarm rung again.   The group split up, Ranvas swam to the shore while the others hid underneath the dock. After an hour, Bene snuck to the dock to meet the two Ogres while Belros and Nomime tried to climb up the cliff that was next to the docks. Their escapades ultimately led them all to the kitchen where Bene was caught by another set of Ogres and Goblins.   Chaos unfolded, as Bene ran past all of them while Nomime unleashed a Fireball that vaporized all the goblins. The adventurers fought off the Ogres and eventually took them down. They freed the halfling and escaped to the lower level of the den.    The party found themselves in an abattoir, filled with animal carcasses and bones. They tried to sneak past the butcherer Hill Giant Slub, but the Earth Elemental summoned by Nomime was caught by Slub's pet Otyugh. A fight escalated, but was quickly ended as Belros' blade changed colors and he decapitated the Hill Giant with one swift cut. The otyugh was pummeled by Nomime's Earth Elemental, but instead of finishing it, the party knocked it unconscious.   They turned towards the frightened halfling, forced a dagger into his hands and dragged him against his will towards the sleeping monster. When the halflings nerves failed him and he passed away, Bene and Ranvas used his body to kill the otyugh. After the deed was done, they woke the halfling up so they could revel in his frightened reaction when Roderick realized what the two had done with him while he was unconscious. The halfling was in shock, when Bene and Ranvas justified that they forced this to happen to "make him stronger". After gaining their pleasure, they left the vomiting halfling and continued forward.   The next room was filled with pigs, herded by multiple bugbears and a two-headed Ogre. The party decided to rest before continuing forward, during which they came up with a plan to shoot down the monsters from above. This plan proved to be effective as when the adventurers continued to the pigpen, they started raining down on the bugbears. The ettin tried to rush against the party, but was gunned down before it had got to reach them.    They made their way to the prisoners and freed them up. Upon returning to the pigpen they realized that reinforcements were marching in and so they rushed to escape, diving into the flowing streams that led outside. After surfacing, they let the prisoners escape while they blew up the watch tower. Now the alarm couldn't be rung.   Dashing through the kitchen area, they braced themselves to face off against the massive Hill Giant Chief Guh and her minions to claim the Conch of Teleportation, which they could use to travel to the Maelstrom. Will the adventurers succeed on their endeavor? Or will they end up inside the belly of the gluttonous Hill Giant?

Rewards Granted

• Gavel of Venn rune
• Slub's Treasure (coins)