Frost Giants

Military action

Fenneck and Vyndius find the frost giants and are throne into an arena where they fight two mammoths to prove their worth and abilities to the frost giants to convince them to join the rebellion.

Fenneck crested a ridge and looked down into the large gaping ravine below he, Vyndius and Gwynsickle. "It's through there," he said, pointing between the two large mountain ridges. "See," he motioned into the ravine where they could see giant foot prints in the snow. Vyndius swallowed nervously as he saw the giant footprints. "Let's hope they don't step on us," he mused. Gwynsickle honked nervously. "Let's try and get them talking," Fenneck advised. "Fighting them would be a bad idea. Remember to play into the thing we both hate. Control, Lenisily and Staladin."   Fenneck gracefully slid down, into the ravine, hoping this plan wasn't going to get him and Vyndius killed. He had promised Catherine that he'd keep him out of danger but... perhaps that was a stupid promise. They walked down the ravine until they were between the two large cliffs. Only one way forward and one way back. It was a dark day as the sky was covered with dark grey clouds and snow was falling around them, making visibility difficult.   After a few moments Fenneck jumped in fear as a large arrow landed into the ground in front of them. Vyndius instinctively readied a ball of magic in his hand and Fenneck drew his own bow. Suddenly three large frost giants jumped down from the cliffs above them and circled them menacingly. They towered over Fenneck and Vyndius with their giant axes ready to fight. They had light blue skin and white hair with long beards. They wore hide armor, outfitted with bones and other trophies from their hunting expeditions. They garbled some thing in Giant but Fenneck wasn't quite able to make it out.   "Wait!" he told them. "We aren't here to fight you!" One of the giants leaned down toward him and glared at him menacingly. "You're the puny elf who almost killed Orlaf!" he exclaimed with recognition. "Uhhh..." Fenneck stuttered nervously. "You're coming with us!" the giant exclaimed before reaching down and picking up Fenneck into his large hand. "Ouch! Hey!" Fenneck complained. He watched one of the other giants produce a large bone that was about the size of a tree. "No! Wait! I can explain!" Fenneck shouted up at them. The ignored him though as they tied himself, Vyndius and Gwynsickle to the large stick like rabbits to roast over the fire. Two of the giants carried them on their shoulders so that Fenneck and Vyndius were dangling about twenty feet off the ground. "Well shit," Fenneck muttered under his breath to Vyndius who looked at him with a worried look. "Erik is gonna kill me," Fenneck said. "He might not get the chance," Vyndius pointed out. Fenneck sighed in frustration. "Hey!" he called out to the giants. "We came to find you!" The giant who recognized him grumbled. "Don't care!" he shouted back to Fenneck. "War-chief Vladbarg will decide what to do with you," he told them. Fenneck sighed. "Maybe we can convince this Vladbarg person?!" Vyndius suggested. "I guess we don't have much of a choice," Fenneck mused before laying back and accepting their fate.   After a few moments they heard the sound of drums and the bustle of a town. It was hard to see but Fenneck watched as the passed under a giant archway of what could only be mammoth or dragon bones from their giant size. They saw other giants appear from towering huts that were construed of bone, hide, and ice. They passed large bonfires spread out throughout the village where frost giants were huddled in groups, cooking large beasts on spits for their dinner. They had herds of giant goats, sabretooth tigers that acted like house cats to them and occasionally they would see a few giant wooly mammoths, decked out in tribal saddles that the giants could ride them on. The other frost giants glanced over as they passed but didn't seem to think that a captured elf, halfling and penguin was an odd sight.   "Have you been here before?" Vyndius whispered nervously to Fenneck. Fenneck shook his head. "No... I've only run into them a couple times," he admitted. "What?!" Vyndius exclaimed. "I thought you were like... best friends or something?!" "Well... I wish that were the case," he said nervously. The giants carried them over to a hut that was much bigger than the others with a huge mammoth skull over the entrance. From inside in walked out a huge giant who was even bigger than the other ones around him. He had a huge helmet on his head with ram horns on the side that were made of ice and he wielded a huge axe that also looked to be carved from ice. He was wearing ice blue hide armor and furs and he glared down at Fenneck and Vyndius suspiciously as they stopped moving in front of him.   The giants holding Fenneck and Vyndius muttered something to him before he leaned his large face down into Fenneck's and glared at him. Fenneck could smell the giants breath and it took everything in him not to turn away and gag in disgust. "You're the elf that attacked Orlaf?" he asked him. Fenneck nodded. "Well... technically he saved my life, went to-to attack me and then su-surrendered when I offered to heal his wound I gave him," he stuttered fearfully. The giant squinted at him. "Why are you trespassing on our land?" he asked Fenneck suspiciously. "Well... we actually were wondering if you would like to help us overthrow the Duke in Flottenheim and gain independence from Lenisily and Emperor Staladin," he told the giant bluntly. The giant squinted for a moment before tossing his head back and howling in laughter. He was quickly join by his companions and Fenneck felt himself start to turn red from embarrassment. "We have powerful sorcerers on our side!" Vyndius told them, trying to help Fenneck out. "Myself included!" This caused the giants to start laughing louder and Gwynsickle let out a helpless honk. "You think you can defeat Emperor Staladin?!" the giant asked them as if it were the punchline of a joke. "A puny elf and a tiny ankle-biter?! Oh that's hilarious!" he said. Vyndius was getting angry by their ridicule. "I'll have you know I have been to hell and back and survived!" the insulted halfling told them. "I've met Corellon Larethian in the flesh and I have defeated a hydra! We are nothing to laugh about!" The giant chuckled and leaned back down tauntingly into Fenneck's face. "And what about you? Huh? You've fought a couple giants and lived to tell the tale? You think you have what it takes to face an army?" Fenneck swallowed nervously. "I do," he said nervously. "Especially with all the help we have back in Flottenheim," he told the giant. "We'll see about that," the giant said before nodding to the giants holding them.   They started moving again as the giants chuckled excitedly. Fenneck heard them start mumbling excitedly and soon their was a train of giants following them and chanting excitedly. "Where- where are we going?" Vyndius asked Fenneck fearfully. Fenneck tried to look around but it was hard to tell from the giants who were now surrounding them. Eventually the giants started to break away as Fenneck and Vyndius were led into a giant arena, carved out of the icy mountains. The giants circled around above them as they chanted excitedly and waved their fists in the air. "I think were fighting something," Fenneck told Vyndius fearfully. They were led through a giant gate where they were finally lowered back down to earth and cut free from their bindings. The giants that were holding them left them in the center of the giant circle and ran back to the stands, closing the gate behind them and trapping Fenneck, Vyndius and Gwynsickle inside, facing a large hole in the mountain across from them. The stands roared with cheers and they saw the giant who'd laughed at them, who Fenneck was assuming was the war-chief Vladbarg, sitting in a large chair, carved from ice, looking down at the arena. He pulled out a horn and blew it causing the stands to roar with cheers and the drumming to intensify.   Fenneck drew his bow and Vyndius prepared a ball of magic in his hands, awaiting their foe. The heard a loud trumpeted response from inside the hole and out charged two giant wooly mammoths. Fenneck closed his eyes and held his hands out in front of him and summoned magic into the ground causing the ground in front of them to erupt in spikes and thorny vines. Vyndius seemed to like this idea and he shot his hand out creating a huge, thunderous lighting storm over Fenneck's plants causing the mammoths to barrel through the vines and storm with howls of pain and slowing them down significantly. Fenneck quickly notched an arrow as the Mammoths barreled toward them through the vines, trumpeting in pain as their fur and feet were torn by the thorns and lightning from Vyndius' storm struck them from above.   Fenneck aimed carefully and fired his arrows at them until one barreled toward him and carefully leapt onto the huge creatures trunk to avoid the large tusks that were aiming for his gut. "Woah!" he exclaimed as he tried to get his footing. He clutched the mammoths hair as he clung to it's face and tried to pull himself up onto it's head. The mammoth trumpeted loudly in annoyance as Fenneck managed to climb onto it's back. It started to reared up onto it's hind legs and Fenneck put his bow in his mouth before grabbing his shortswords and plunging them into the mammoths back to steady himself as he started to slide off the massive creature's back, prompting it to trumpet in pain. "Fuck!" Fenneck muttered through the wood of the bow in his mouth as he clutched his swords and tried to get his footing on the hairy back of the beast. Finally the beast fell back onto all fours with a thunderous shake and Fenneck hoped Vyndius wasn't beneath it's massive feet. Fenneck drew his swords and sheathed them as he gracefully balanced on the beasts massive back before taking his bow and notching another couple arrows. He saw the other mammoth had gotten stuck in the storm and Vyndius was giving it hell with blasts of magic. Fenneck shot his arrows into the back of the mammoths head causing it to shave vigorously, causing Fenneck to loose his balance and slid down the side of the massive beast. He yelled out in fear as he fell, trying to grab the fur of the mammoth on his way down to soft the blow as he rolled across the ground and tried to avoid the massive feet of the beast. It turned the face him and Fenneck notched another arrow and aimed it at the beasts face, hitting it just under the eye as it barreled toward him. Fenneck tried to dodge but the mammoth was faster and Fenneck was hit by it's massive tusk, throwing him a few feet in the process. Fenneck saw the other mammoth crumple to ground as a massive bolt from Vyndius' storm hit in the head, prompting the halfling to turn toward Fenneck's beast. Fenneck, still on the ground, notched three arrows and carefully aimed them at the mammoth that was already charging back toward him. He released them and landed them squarely in the mammoth's forehead just Vyndius shot a magical ball of fire into the creatures side. The mammoth stumbled and fell to the ground as it barreled toward Fenneck, who braced himself for the impact. The mammoth collapsed in front of him and Fenneck saw the pain in the beasts eyes as he closed them and died, inches from his own.   Fenneck sat in shock and fear for a moment before he registered the excited cheers coming from the stands and slowly got to his feet, sending a burst of healing magic into his bruised torso. He saw Vyndius and Gwynsickle posing for the cheering giants and realized they had won. The war-chief, Vladbarg, stood up and blew his horn again, prompting the giants to cheer even louder as he walked over to the gate and approached Fenneck and Vyndius.   He looked them over thoughtfully as the crowds quieted down. "Now will you listen to us?" Fenneck asked him, a bit more confident than before. The giant slowly smiled and nodded and and gestured to Fenneck and Vyndius as he shouted something in giant to the crowd who screamed and hollered with praise. "This way!" he told them, leading them back up to where they came from as the crowd of giants behind them followed with shouts of excitement.   They finally made it to the large hut and Vladbarg brought them inside. It was a large space with a giant throne made of bones and hide and Vladbarg sat down and waved a hand to one of the other giants who came back with a giant table and sat it down in front of the giant and gently picked up Fenneck, Vyndius and Gwynsickle and placed them on it so they could talk to Vladbarg.   "So," Vladbarg said, giving them his attention. "What's this battle you speak of?" Fenneck cleared his throat. "We plan on attacking Flottenheim and taking the palace from the Duke and Duchess there," Fenneck explained. "We want to ask that when Staladin inevitably sends an army down the Great Skyway that you... join us. In return, if we succeed, you will be free to live peacefully and we will leave you be. We know Staladin has been capturing and enslaving your people. We want the same things. Freedom." Vladbarg considered this for a moment. "How certain of this plan are you?" he asked Fenneck. Fenneck shrugged. "It's hard to say. We have a lot of ground support and many more powerful sorcerers like Vyndius here on our side. The princess is even in on it. We plan to attack soon though." Vladbarg exchanged a look with the other giants in the room before nodding. "We'll join you," he said, sending a wave of relief over Fenneck. "But we want to guarantee our freedom if we help you! We don't want you coming in to enslave us or take our land!" Fenneck nodded understandingly. "Of course. Would you prefer to write up a treaty?" he suggested. Vladbarg considered this and nodded. "If you break it, I'll hold you personally responsible," he told Fenneck threateningly. Fenneck nodded. "Very well," he agreed.   They wrote up the treaty and Fenneck signed his name on the giant piece of parchment before the frost giants led them out into the clearing with the bonfires to hold a celebration. Fenneck and Vyndius were led into another hut for the evening to rest before setting back out the next day. Fenneck settled down onto the giant mammoth furs stretched out across the ground and bundled himself under Erikur's blanket before pulling out Evelyn's ring and studying it for a moment.   "What's that?" Vyndius asked him as he settled down next to him. "It was Evelyn's," Fenneck explained. Vyndius nodded solemnly. "Erikur told us what happened," he said sadly. "Are you okay?" Fenneck shrugged as he looked into the pretty blue gem. "I'm okay as I can be," he told the halfling. Vyndius frowned thoughtfully for a moment before his eyes lit up excitedly. "Guess what?!" he told Fenneck. Fenneck looked up at him quizzically as Vyndius pulled something out of his hands. It looked like a block of ice and he turned away to hide it from Fenneck as he did something to it with magic before handing Fenneck a slice of apple pie he'd magically heated up with magic and created a plate of ice for it to sit on. Fenneck hesitantly took it and looked up at Vyndius in confusion as the wonderful smell of cinnamon and apples hit his nose. "You're mother made it for me," Vyndius explained. "Before Catherine and I... well." Fenneck looked down at the pie and felt tears well up in his eyes. "I..." he found himself at a loss for words as tears started to fall down his face from the beautiful gift. "Thank you," he muttered to Vyndius, trying to push away his emotions. "Apple pie is my favorite food," he explained. "She would make it for me for my birthday and special occasions." Vyndius smiled thoughtfully up at Fenneck. "She was always so sweet and nice to me," Vyndius said thoughtfully. "And your father. I miss them," he said sadly. Fenneck nodded. "Me too," he said. "Thank you for this," he told Vyndius again. "You have no idea what it means to me." Vyndius nodded thoughtfully and Gwynsickle honked sweetly at Fenneck before laying down with Vyndius as they turned away to sleep. Fenneck savored every bite of the last piece of his mother's pie that he would ever eat before curling up in Erikur's lavender blanket an crying softly as memories of Evelyn and his parents crept into his mind as he meditated.