Session notes 15-7-2020

4th day in the Feywild - continued
 
Just before we were starting our first watch, there was yet another flash of bright light. And with that, our friends had returned to us. Somewhat disoriented, they looked around and found us in the hut that I had created. They looked suspiciously well-rested, especially compared to us. They could not tell us what had happened, but they felt well, remembered everything and were still themselves, so they should be fine right? A little calmer and put to ease now that our group is complete once again, Liya, Oranje and I went to sleep while the other three stayed awake to keep watch. They will have a strange hiccup in their sleep schedule I suppose. But well, we all do here where the light does not seem to change at all. I at least feel like I have been awake for several days, so I will make my way to bed now.
 
 
5th day in the Feywild.
 
Sleeping a full night was blissful. No strange dreams today, but the thought of my previous dream still lingers, I wonder what I should do with the information I have gotten? I will have a good thought about it when we are not at risk of literally being eaten by some kind of living stalagmite. Also, I needed my concentration for casting Find Familiar again. I did really miss Mina. She now has the shape of a bat, it is a bit different but it works a bit better here. As soon as we are someplace with shops again, I will have to buy some new components though.
 
This morning had a surprise: Ferrum has returned to us! He was immediately reading the walls with beautiful engravings and stories. He muttered something about the small people (humans?) who brought useful animals for the giants, which was the main reason they were allowed to stay. Just happy he is back, I know the Feywild interests him, I just hope he does not mind waking up underground in these somewhat hostile corridors.
Next to this, we have gotten a few new names to remember. Cyan for Ferrum and now that Schoefbout has been rebuild into a new strange animal, which mostly jumps around, his name is now Springveer.
 
 
With our team returned and well-rested, we made our way to the next room. Using the familiar trick with our immovable rod and some ropes we climb up the giant steps, only to find ourselves in a relatively large room, with a stone giant sitting in the middle in front of a fire. On the sides, cages and bedrolls (?) I could not see clearly and I could not tell afterwards due to something that will become clear very soon.
As we were still slightly panting from the climb, and with Ferrum having cast a light spell, we were immediately noticed. Speaking in Giant, Ferrum treaded forward to explain our situation and that we meant no harm, but as I walked up to him to help, I heard that it did not come out quite as confident as he had hoped.
 
The people in the room thought the same and came charging in our direction. Well not quite our, but the direction of the cages on the right of us. I could not quite get a good look at the creatures but they seemed to be large insect-like creatures? Unsure tho. I hoped to stop their assault by hypnotising the lot with the spell I learned quite some time ago. Sadly, I only felt - and saw- it take effect on one of the men. The stone giant sitting in the room did not respond at all. At this point in time, I did not understand why. The thought process was interrupted by the roar created by the giant wall of fire that Thalmiir summoned. It burned hot and nearly white in the heart of the fire. This enormous wall stretched from the end of the room to us and killed every single one of the people and creatures that stood against us. All but one of the strange insect creatures, the sleeping man and the stone giant. But the latter two posed no threat. The former, after one attempted slash at Ferrum, this final creature was slain by the one who it had tried to attack. As Thalmiir dropped the wall of fire, Erky killed the man affected by my hypnotic pattern. Honestly, I was kind of dismayed at the display of power Thalmiir shown, and the sudden ease Erky showed of killing this man. However, there was not a lot of time to ponder at that moment, as Ferrum started to explain to us why the stone giant had not moved, as someone has muttered a question about it out loud. I picked up that the stone giants can go into mediation for +-8h, in order to get in tune with nature and get boons such as being able to move through the stone. I did not know, I learn something new every day with this group.
 
 
A bit of scouting, with and without Mina, we are presented with a choice. There were several crystals to be found, one could be found by following the river, tho the waterfall where it originated. There, a large statue of the All-Father, over which the waterfall flowed. In front of it sat two large stone giants, also meditating. In the statues eye, a large emerald. This was one of the crystals that popped up on Thalmiir's 'radar'. The other one, a room with lava as a floor and a pillar with a carved staircase in it in the middle, connected to the tunnels via two stone bridges. In this room, where I manoeuvred Mina while looking through her eyes - which was a strange experience by the by. The way a bat perceives the world is vastly different from the way humans, or elves, or something in between, does. It was a strange but very cool experience.- Returning to my point, in the room, a large lady of a stone giant, covered with intricate ink work, stood praying and looking up to a -seemingly- carved dragon in the wall and ceiling. Its body and head contained many smaller emeralds, softly glittering in the warm glow from below. Just above the pillar, in the tail of the dragon, an enormous emerald lay embedded in the rock.
 
That became our goal.
 
While we stood near the opening to the bridge, and I was looking through Mina's eyes at the scenes described earlier. Thalmiir's eye had caught something in the previous room. In the soot of the still smouldering bedrolls, something gave of a shimmer. Ferrum and he had walked up to it and found a small pile of copper and silver coins. They led to a small hole in the rock, where more seemed to lay hidden, only faintly visible in the now low light. Without thought, Thalmiir had grabbed it and he and Ferrum had returned with it when I came back to my own senses, in the literal sense. In his hand, he held a beautifully crafted longbow. An Identify spell later, and we learned that this bow is a Runebow, instilled with runes to give arrows fired magical effects. It was immediately clear who this bow would be given to, and Liya accepted it happily.
 
The time after that was mostly spend planning and creating a plan. None of us are particularly tactically inclined, but we felt like it would be wise to at least have a somewhat feasible plan. Finally, we came up with the idea that we would give fly to William and Ferrum, get them close quickly, and have the rest blast from afar. Before that, confusion would be used in the form of an arrow with darkness cast on it, by Liya. My task would mostly be to keep concentration and just use ranged magic. And with that, we snuck through the hallway to the room.
 
The battle was, interesting to say the least. The giant in the room was overtaken by the darkness that we had cast, and this surprise round proved to be very useful. With William and Ferrum on the frontlines, some hardy hits were dealt, while Liya, Erky and I hit from further away. Thalmiir used the rope and immovable rod to get up to the upper platform to support the others.
During these hits, one of the statues - there were four of them- was animated, and aimed for Ferrum. It was just as our metal friend started hovering above ground again, that a rock was hurled at me by the lady halfway melted into the rock on the top platform, causing me to lose concentration. Very lucky... Another stroke of luck was when Ferrum seemed to be affected by some kind of slowing spell, and I managed to hit the caster from all the way across the room, making them lose their concentration. I could not see the magic as I sometimes can, but I somehow felt the magic fade. To our advantage as Ferrum was free to move once again.
Other moments in the battle were the attempted throw of Liya by the giantess, who missed Liya as she skillfully slipped from her grasp. The wonderful display of Erky, as he levitated just above the ground using Springveer, while firing rounds at the animated statue. Thalmiir and William, who managed to hit and carve through the giantess while avoiding a lot of hits. And one of the blasts from me that ensured that she finally stopped moving, her weapon falling to the ground below.
At this same moment, Liya and Ferrum shot and hit the other giant to the ground. As silence fell in this dry and warm cavern, and the soft bubbling of the magma below us continued to blow even warmer air into the atmosphere, we heard footsteps and noises coming from the other entrance, but no one had entered yet. Somewhat hasted, Thalmiir gathered supplies to start carving and moulding the emerald into a staff, while I climbed my way up the large steps to the upper platform, to see if I could lend any aid.