Session 72 - Hall of the Frost Giant King

6 Eirmont 1010

General Summary

The party quickly moves to take down the giant. Leo blasts the Frost Giant, trying to push him back and away from the horn hanging from the ceiling. Elincia surrounds him with a ring of fire using the Fire Wall spell - the intense heat in the icy chamber creates a dense fog in the narrow passage. On his turn, the giant manages to push through and blast the horn, but he is downed shortly after.
Leo sends Flametalon up and over the ring of fire (and the resulting fog) to see if there is any sign of help coming due to alert. He finds there are passages leading to this hall from the north, west, and south. After a few moments, a group of Ogres comes rushing from the southern passage. Leo brings Flametalon back to the party’s side of the Fire Wall. Finding a wall of fire, the ogres wait, not charging through the fog until the duration of the spell has run out.
The ogres start strong due to their numbers. The apparent leader declares “Bring their heads to Grugnur.” In a few rounds, the ogres begin to get killed, and the party is able to clean up. However, with all the bouts of combat they had recently, they are pretty tired and need a short rest to recover their stamina.
The party thinks they may be able to call off any alarm by using the horn themselves. Stavos uses his Eagle Whistle to carry Leo up to the hanging horn; he makes two toots on the horn, though pretty soft in comparison to the giant’s blast. They hope this may be an “all clear” sign and prevent further combatants from showing up.
They search the vicinity for other signs of danger. To the south seems to be just the ogres’ sleeping area, where they find some more money stashed in their belongings. To the North they find a nice bedchamber area, vacant of any occupants and having no obvious valuables to pillage. This looks like a good place to take a rest, but Stavos would like to search a bit more before resting, to ensure they aren’t surprised.
Leo sends Flametalon out again to explore another side branch to the north, and he sees a room with more ogres sitting around tables. One of them is a bit larger and has bluish skin. The party decides to walk in like they belong and introduce themselves but, after a short discussion the Blue Ogre knows the party are not guests of the giants and commands the rest of the ogres to attack. The blue one is apparently an Oni, like the Ogre they glimpsed in the upstairs of the Ancient Temple.
These ogres aren't any tougher than the ones the party just took down in their last battle, but the Oni reaches for his necklace and pulls off two orbs, which he throws at the party creating a major blast, like a double fireball. This hits everyone but Leo, who was the furthest away from the rest of the party. It kills Flametalon instantly, hits Elincia and Seraphina squarely, and singes Stavos reasonably badly as well, while the ever-alert Tork evades any effect from the blast. The normal Ogres fall quickly and the party moves quickly to surround the Oni, who recognizes the situation and wisely yields.
They converse with the Oni, to try to understand the situation in this Rift. It turns out the King of the Frost Giants, Jarl Grugnur, has decided to make war with mankind, and is recruiting an army. The Oni is a mercenary, who has come here from the Broken Lands with a troop of Ogres (now deceased) to potentially work for the Jarl. He has an audience with the Jarl for later this evening. There are presumably Hill Giants under his employment as well. Now that the Oni’s Ogres have been killed, he no longer has any reason to stay here. The party gets him to agree to return to the Broken Lands in exchange for his life. They confiscate his weapon (a glaive) and the Necklace of Fireballs (which Stavos takes) and escort him out. They take a short rest, to recover a bit from the half dozen or so encounters they recently had, and feel much refreshed. They decide it is time to have their audience with the Jarl.
They head down the passage that starts to the west, and works its way due south. In the distance they can see a staircase, and a room widening off to the southeast. As they near the stairs, they can see that this opens up to a very large room with tables (giant-sized of course) that seem to have been used recently for a meal. As they enter the room, they see a very large throne due south. Upon this throne is Jarl Grungnur. By his feet is a very large, pure white wolf, a Winter Wolf. Grugnur notices the party at once, possibly awaiting intruders, and asks who seeks an audience with him.
As they discuss (at quite a distance) with Grugnur why he plans to make war with mankind, two additional Frost Giants make their presence known, up on the platforms to the east and west. Leo and Tork seem to be thinking the same thing, that these need to be dealt with early if combat breaks out. Meanwhile Grugnur is explaining that “Mankind deserves to be crushed beneath my feet, as befits their stature” in typical Giant might-is-right logic. Leo, the smallest in “stature” replies that Grugnur’s boots are perhaps not quite so large as he might imagine. To which Grugnur asks if the party is challenging him. Leo replies “yes, I suppose we are” at which point things get crazy quickly.
Grugnur casually gets up from his Throne, equipping his shield, and calling out “Estia, it seems we get to have some fun tonight.” From behind the Throne another Winter Wolf emerges and, from behind the party, another Frost Giant emerges - Estia, Grugnur's wife. With the scale of this room, and the Guards on 20ft platforms, the situation doesn’t seem very favorable to the party. Stavos strides forward, at least giving the impression of confidence, slightly closing the gap to the Wolves and Grugnur, and braces to receive a charge. Tork bolts to the left to deal with the giant on the eastern platform. Leo on Deion (his Phantom Steed) similarly moves to engage the giant on the western platform. Elincia summons her Draconic Spirit, and mounts it, flying towards the western giant and hitting the giant with the spirit's breath weapn. Seraphina moves to keep up with Stavos in the center. The Giants to the east and west pelt the party with rocks and these rocks hit HARD, Elincia's dragon taking a severe strike in the chest. Meanwhile Grugnur screams and “You DARE fight me in my own throne room!” and the entire lair shakes as he continues striding toward Seraphina and Stavos. The wolves have closed the gap to Seraphina and Stavos and they both let out blasting cold breath attacks at Stavos and Seraphina, the former taking less damage due to his Ring of Warmth.
Meanwhile, Elincia decides the dragon may not be a safe place to be, and dismounts onto the western staircase, the dragon then charging the giant with another blast of fire, claws, and teeth. Leo tries to blast this giant off the platform, but missing an Eldritch Blast and isn’t quite able to push him back far enough. This is when the other shoe drops; the reverberations of the lair from Grugnur’s shout and stomp causes upheavals in the ground and ice and snow to fall from the ceiling in a great downpour, miring the smaller party members. The dragon and Leo's mount are large enough to be unaffected (saving Leo from it as well), but everyone else is restrained by this effect. To get out of this situation, they will need to burn an action attempting to pull themselves free, or escape by some other means.
Stavos, who is standing next to Seraphina, pushes her out of the avalanche and uses the Lunge ability of his Rapier to escape from the icy grasp. He moves to get some cover from the tables (after all, being pelted by the giants with rocks is no fun!) and braces for another blast from the Wolves. The western giant blasts the dragon from the sky with a boulder. Tork Has engaged the eastern giant, but Estia has followed him up the stairs, where is may be trapped between the two. Seraphina moves to be near Stavos again for mutual defense.
Leo, surveying the battlefield, is not getting a warm fuzzy feeling about the situation, and decides to abandon his original plan of attack. Elincia is still restrained by the ice, but with Stavos and Seraphina moving toward the western tables, a new plan forms. Leo (on Deion) jumps down from the platform to the giant table, and both Deion and Leo tumble to the ground, but it's worked well enough for his purposes. He stands up and casts the Scatter spell, which teleports Elincia, Stavos Seraphina, Leo, and Deion near the base of the throne, behind Grugnur, and a good distance from the other combatants. He places Seraphina and Stavos at Grugnur’s back, and Elincia, Deion, and himself a fair distance behind the pair. He is unable to support Tork, and hopes Tork will be able to hold his own. The wolves rush back to support Grugnur who sweeps his sword about him in a circle, creating icy patches all around him, but Stavos and Seraphina are already engaged, so this doesn’t affect them directly.
Stavos begins using the beads of the necklace to set off fireballs behind Grugnur, catching wolves in the blast as well - this has a secondary effect of creating big clouds of mist from the icy ground (which also becomes slippery), which make it impossible for the other Giants and wolves to see what is happening at this end of the combat, though the party's vision beyond the fog is likewise blocked. Tork’s fight for his life is now beyond sight for the rest of the party, who can only send him best wishes. Elincia gets one round of archery support in for Tork before the clouds obscure her view of that fight on the eastern front.
One Half-Orc against two Frost Giants seems overwhelming, but as Estia closes the distance between herself and Tork’s back, he slips around the outside of the other Frost Giant, putting him in the way of Estia being able to double-team Tork. This lets him focus on the first giant, who is now getting pretty beat up. Tork absorbs blow after blow, his rage carrying him on, while persistently driving his spear into the weak spots in the giant’s armor. Eventually the giant collapses, though Estia seems happy to rush up to Tork and engage. He quickly knocks her prone and stuns her, then taunts Grugnur that he is “unable to protect his woman!” He is able to use his speed and ability to knock her prone to keep her out of melee range at least once, gaining some extra attacks. Eventually she gets some attacks of her own in and he is feeling the danger of the combat; he jumps down from the platform and slips under a dining table. Estia follows, having to crouch to strike him under the table. Tork recognizes the advantage of this new position lands some brutal blows on Estia, until she is unable to fight on, collapsing. Tork could have only held out one or two more rounds, so this was a close one!
Meanwhile back at the main fight, the air is filled with the final beads from the necklace and more steam clouds the area. The wolves have re-engaged, but had to get through blasts from the fireballs and a casting of Leo’s Synaptic Static, somewhat dulling their attacks. Grugnur seems to have avoided the worst of the effects from the Synaptic Static, but between that and the constant attacks from the bulk of the party, he no longer seems quite so full of bluster. He doesn’t even respond to Tork’s taunt, as he seems more concerned about his own fight, than whatever fate has befallen Estia. The western giant initially tried throwing rocks from the elevated ground, but with the party so far away, and the mist in the air, he was forced to try to come to the fight. When he jumped down from the 20 ft platform, he hurt himself a bit, and fell down, slowing his progress. Meanwhile the party has successfully whittled down the wolves, without any more breath attacks thankfully. As the numerical situation starts to favor the party, the other Giant arrives, moving toward Elincia. Leo puts down Sickening Radiance on the giant, and uses his Chronolometer to get in an extra battle action, and blasts the last wolf back into the Sickening Radiance. Elincia shoots the wolf, killing it, and ricochets the shot into the western giant who dies moments later to another Eldritch Blast.
Meanwhile Stavos and Seraphina are managing to whittle down Grugnur, using a few Smites and maneuvers, until Stavos lands yet another devastating stab, this time through a critical artery in Grugnur’s knee, who staggers and collapses to the ground dead.

Report Date

26 Feb 2023