Session 56 - Giant Planning

5 Ambyrmont 1010 - 8 Ambyrmont 1010

General Summary

Before heading back to the cave to rest, as the party is scouting out the Giant's encampment, Elincia decides to get an aerial view of the camp, and changes into an owl. She flits through the air over the camp, taking note of the entrances to the camp, and sees about a dozen dire wolves in the courtyard. She also peers into the tower at the south end of the structure, to see a lone guard on duty pacing. Due to the terrain, there are no really clear indications of "regular" paths taken by the Giants, except near the entrances themselves, so it seems they go in the direction of choice once they leave the fortress.
Elincia returns to the party and they discuss what they have learned as they return to the cave to camp for the night. They consider their options for dealing with the Giants, and boil it down to three major strategies, which can be mixed and matched. 1) They could observe the structure and see if they can isolate a small group of giants to get a feel for their strengths and weaknesses. 2) they could go out looking for allies that are in the area to prepare a frontal assault on the camp. 3) they could try to sneak into the camp to let the captives know they are planning to fight the Giants and hope for some internal support.
They decude to first observe the outpost from a safe distance to get a feel for the comings and goings of the Giants. As they leave the cave, Gorg looks to be about to relieve himself at the entrance. When they ask, he explains that they don't want bears to come to the cave. They consider this, and agree. His marking of the cave entrance is absurd in volume and smells quite foul, probably at least partially due to the high volume of "trubbles" in his diet. He waves goodbye and heads back into the lowlands to continue his hunt for "trubbles."
The party finds a reasonably well hidden location to observe the fortress from a distance. After most of the day with no activity, they see a group of three giants emerge from the structure weilding giant axes, headed for the nearest copse of woods. As they arrive at the edge of the treeline they begin chopping the trees down, two doing the vast majority of the work as the third "supervises." During this time, Stavos tries to assess their relative skills and strengths, and concludes they should be relatively easy to hit, but of course are very strong and tough to bring down. The giants make short work of several large trees, demonstrating their prowess with the axes, and Seraphina is steaming mad by the end, considering that this large clearing was likely a forest before the arrival of the Giants. The giants leave a pile of wood, and take a batch back to the compound.
The party decides to ambush the giants when they come back for another load of wood. They circle around to near the woodpile and attempt to hide. After several hours, the sun now setting, the two "worker" giants emerge from the structure, and begin lumbering toward the forest edge again. The plan is for Leo to try to Charm the two giants when they get within 30 feet, but apparently they did not hide themselves very well and the Giants laugh and start to attack the little "Humies."
This does allow for the party to gather a bit of information about the Giant's capabilities. Tork is hit pretty hard by the first giant with a big swing of the axe, but misses on the second attempt, as Tork dodges. Elincia uses Polymorph to turn one giant into a sheep, and it bleats at them. Finally Leo is able to act, and steps between the two giants, and casts Charm Monster, asking why they would be attacking us, when we are here to help them!
Both giants (one a sheep) fall under the effects of the spell and they follow the party as they beckon them deeper into the woods. They have a pleasant discussion on the nature of the hierarchy of the giants, as well as get a count of how many giants are in this clan (about 30), and apparently they don't have magic users. They also confirm that there are a dozen Dire Wolves, and that the giants have captured many Ogres from Gorg's tribe and Half-Orcs from Tork's tribe. It seems the slaves work in the kitchen, clean, and dig in the tunnels, where they get shiny rocks for the giants. They ask the giant about the "Supervisor", who they learn is Lagon. The two worker giants don't like him, calling him an a-hole, but he is bigger than them so they have to listen. They also learn that higher in the mountains there are more giants, and that they are even bigger. Ice Giants and Fire Giants, and some of them do use magic.
Once the party feels they have plumbed the useful depths of the Giant's knowledge, they challenge him. Tork says he can throw his spear further and more accurately than the Giant can throw his axe. He demonstrates this by spearing a tree at 60 ft. The Giant pulls out a large rock from his sack (maybe a foot across) and hurls it impressively 200 feet. They explain that this isn't the same thing, because throwing a real weapon is different than a rock. Eventually he demonstrates that he can in fact throw his axe extremely well, and splits the tree with it. As he turns to retrieve the Axe from the split tree, Tork spears him in the back (as his spear returns to his hand on command). The giant becomes enraged, but they are able to slay him without taking any injuries.
This leaves them with just the sheep to deal with. They decide the best approach would be for Elincia to transform into a Giant Eagle, carry the sheep high into the air, and drop it back into this clearing, and then finish off the Giant after it transforms back. Elinicia seems more than happy to execute this plan. She transforms, launches into the air, and swoops down to pick up the Sheep, which starts bleating in terror as she climbs further and further into the air. Once she is about 200 feet up she releases the sheep, which falls bleating terribly into the clearing, leaves a sheep shaped impression in the ground, and instantly transforms back into a severely injured giant, which the party pounces on and quickly slays before it can even stand up.
After some discussion, the party elects to head back to the woodpile area to see if any Giants come out to investigate the missing work party. Dusk falls, then full-on night, and then they see a torch emerge from the fortress. As it approaches it does seem to be the "supervisor" Lagon. As he gets closer to the wood pile he is shouting angrily in Giant, so the party isn't exactly sure what he is shouting, but they can guess the intent. As he gets closer, Leo drops Hex on the giant and, seeing that the giant is here on his own, decides to snuff out the torch with Control Flames. This is the trigger for the party to attack and they are able to pile on a surprisingly high amount of damage. The Giant seems severely hampered by the darkness, giving the party advantage on their attacks and disadvantage on the Giant's. In no time, they have slain him, Tork driving his spear upward from the ribs below the armpit up into the giant's heart, and he collapses.
Once again, the party considers what to do next. Inevitably a search party will be sent out. After some consideration, they decide to mask the attack by having Elincia summon some Dire Wolves to help drag the corpse of Lagon deeper into the woods to the bodies of the two worker giants, and have the wolves dismember the body as messily as they can to make it appear that the giants were assaulted by the Dire Wolves, perhaps even making them fear their own pets.
They head back to the wood pile in case a search party is sent, but as it approaches midnight they decide to return to the cave. To avoid leaving a trail, Elincia casts Pass Without Trace and they make their way to the cave, which still reeks of Gorg's urine. Leo spends some time prestidigitizing the entrance to at least minimize the smell so that they can sleep. The next morning the party considers their options. They could continue to try to pick off small numbers of Giants or they could go speak with the local Tribes. Tork, having heard from the giants that there were many of his clan within the giants' slave workers, decides he wants to find his clan and learn more of the situation. The party agrees and they head back west, skirting wide around the stronghold, into the lowlands. Tork seems to know the area well enough to recognize his way; on the first day, towards evening, they find a burned out camp. There are clear signs of combat, and the camp was abandoned without taking care of it, so any survivors were clearly in a hurry, but enough evidence remains to lead Tork to believe this camp was his tribe's. Following more signs leading further west, they continue tracking for a while, but as darkness approaches, they decide to make camp for the night. The combat was clearly not recent, so it is better to have good tracking conditions than to move quickly.
The next morning, they continue tracking, and Tork seems once again to have a solid feel for the territory. As sunset nears they can see a camp in the distance. They approach in the open, making their presence visible, and see a young Half-Orc take off from a hiding place and rush back to the encampment. A few people move from the camp to meet them, led by a tall Half-Orc, missing a leg and leaning on a makeshit crutch, his arm raised in greeting. While appearing more aged than the time passed since he last saw hi, Tork recognizes the man as his father, Targ'harach.

Report Date

06 Nov 2021

Primary Location

Cruth Lowlands