CM: C11E4 - Cloud Giant Keep Report

General Summary

They awoke as the sun tried to force its way through high and heavy clouds to the east of the mountains. As the tiny hut dissipated, they ate a cold breakfast and began their trek anew. The cold, wind, and thin air all conspired to force them to fight for every step, every breath. It had only been about an hour and a half since they broke camp but they already desperately needed a rest. As they sat catching their collective breath, the Planeswalkers heard a familiar sound of small, beating wings, and of rock against rock. Looking up it was easy to spot the winged kobolds descending on them once more. It was also equally as easy to dispatch them as the day before, as first one, and then another cluster of them were ravaged by ranged spells from the Planeswalkers.   After a couple of more hours of making their way up the mountain, the party came upon a steep cliff face that barred their path. It extended about 40 feet up, and they could find no way around it. As the rest of the group began rummaging for climbing gear and looking for the most likely path up the rock face, Toby De Term'nd began mutter arcane words and Bardak shapechanged into his hybrid form. Bardak flew up to the top of the cliff and then one by one the rest of the party felt the air around them begin to shiver and swirl before it, and they, contracted suddenly into a single point and disappeared, only to reappear once more at the top of the cliff. Exhausted from their trek, the group decided to rest for the remainder of the day and sleep through the night inside their tiny huts.   In the morning they set of once more. There was now a gently winding slope that seemd to lead to the summit somewhere above. Before long, the passage opened up into a bit of a sunken bowl, protecting the giant keep at the far end of it from some of the harshest aspects of the climate. The group approached and found that most of the upper levels had fallen centuries ago, now resting on the ground around them as rubble. The ground floor seemed intact, though hidden behind two 24 foot tall wooden doors with bronze fittings. The second floor was partially intact, but also partially exposed to the outside. The Planeswalkers resolved to make their way up to the second floor and begin their exploration there.   The only room they found intact up there appeared to have once been the bedroom to a noble giantess. Indeed, they came across her ghost sitting at the desk, miming the writing of a letter, seemingly oblivious to their presence at it repeated its final moments in life over and over again. Toby resolved to try to copy the ghost's motions and see if he could scribe whatever it was she was writing. When he finished he and Jayce realized that the writing was very similar to dwarvish and they were able to understand the majority of it. It seemed this giantess had been writing a letter to a distant lover, expressing her concerns about politics within the elemental plane of air spilling over and putting their clan of cloud giants, who were allied with a Wind Duke, at risk. Before leaving the bedroom, they party investigated the three large wardrobes in the room. Amongst many once fine, but now severely rotted, clothing they found a pair of magical boots. Upon identifying them and equipping them the giant-sized boots shrunk to fit perfectly and provided a great deal of protecton against the cold.   From the bedroom, they then ascertained that the only other way to go was down the stairs to the ground floor. These stairs left them in what appeared to be the entryhall based on the giant-sized double doors opposite the staircase. More giant ghosts wandered this hall, which contained three large, glass-doored cabinets and had two other exits off of it and another staircase heading downwards. The party decided to take a closer look at the cabinets and discovered they contained large scrolls written in giant, which Toby and Jayce could read since the written language of giant and dwarvish is so similar. They discerned that the scrolls told the history of this cloud giant clan, how it had attracted the attention of a benevolent Wind Duke from the elemental plane of air, how he had granted them greater control over elemental air, and how they had prospered and been a force for good. They also told of how rivals of the Wind Duke on his home plane plotted against him and eventually overthrew him, and how those forces then turned their gaze to his followers, the cloud giants, and wiped them out.   Moving on through one of the doors leading off from the entrance hall, the group found a dining hall of sorts, with three more ghosts playing cards at a table, and a giant, two-sided fireplace that blazed with a strange and magical light. Upon closer investigation they discovered that it was a fire elemental that had been bound to the fireplace. The Planeswalkers were able to free the elemental and continue on to quickly check the kitchen on the other side of the fireplace. They found another ghost there, going through the motions of preparing food.   Tracing their steps back to the entrance hall, they went through the last remaining door and found a sort of armory. Most of the contents had fallen into disrepair long ago, but there was a giant-sized chest that was partially encased in ice. Using magical fire they were able to melt the ice on the lock and Bardak successfully picked it. Opening the chest they found two potions and a strange metalic ball inside. Bardak used his identify ritual to determine what these items were and discovered they were healing potions and a magical ball that could be commanded to unravel and restrain an enemy when thrown at them. Unfortunately, no sooner did he reach in the chest to grab out the items, than the giant ghost that was in the room turned its now angry gaze upon these would-be looters...

Rewards Granted

Boots of the Winterlands

Missions/Quests Completed

The PCs found the Cloud Giant Keep and infiltrated it. They are now in the midst of exploring it.