Free the Prisoners: Game 21

General Summary

The Company of the Furies: Eumenides freed a number of Fire Giant prisoners, fought a battle with Fire Giant guards, discovered the Temple of the Eye, searched the Fire Giant lair (leaving many rooms and areas bypassed in an effort to find King Snurre Iron Belly), found the stairs to the next level, and ended the session outside of a guarded room, which may be the King's great hall. Rooms described below are in the rough order in which the Company discovered them with the room numbers those provided in the module.

Construction on Second and First Levels

This area of King Snare's lair is lit by torches, braziers, natural gas gets and even molten lava. This area is generally unlighted. Passages easy are valued and some 30' high. Halls, chambers and rooms are 40' to 60' high. The floors, walls and ceilings in the place are of black, reddish black, dark gray and dull brown rock. In some places it is hewn, but in others in appears to have been fused by heat. All doors are made of iron plates. Opening the doors often requires giant strength, or the combination of the force of lesser beings. Pillars in the passageways are of black stone.

Second Level

Prisoners

The Company discovered the Fire Giant prison, freeing a party of elves, an elven thief, and a Cloud Giant, which promptly was killed in a fight with Fire Giants. The Company did not free the gnolls, fire giants or the troll, and did not open or view into some of the cells. The party of elves are from The Rock Elves of Irnlenor. One of which, Makael Floshin, is only half rock elf, half grey elf, and related to the Floshin elf family of Eastpoint Castle, including Prince Darfin Floshin that saved the Company in Dragon Calastryx Revealed: Game 4, Kelson Darktreader Floshin the Ranger, Lady Shalendra “Dare-all” Floshin, and Prince Elorfindar Floshin. The Company equipped the elves as follows below:

Fighters (5)

Daron Selmer, male, given a +2 Mace and regular dagger. Duirsar, male, given a Scimiar +3. Makael Floshin, female, given arrows and +3 shortbow Elora Greenbow, female given a dagger +1, +2 vs. large. Jastra Lundalar, female, given a +2 dagger and 2 regular daggers.

Bard

Shalana the Bard, Dagger (2)

Rogue

In a separate cell, the Company freed the rock elf thief Adrhal Lia. She is given a +3 Short Sword.

Room 7 Torture Chamber

The steps lead down to this cluttered room with a 50' ceiling (which enables very tall victims to be hung with chains well above the floor). The King's Torturer and the Royal Headsman are playing knucklebones with stakes of merely and gems. The Company slew them both, and the elves plundered their treasure.

Room 5 Smithy

A metal hammering is heard in and beyond this area. The hall outside is tinged in bloody red with light from the lava bed and gas jets in the smithy. A knotty limbed, burly fire giant is working here, along with troll assistants. The Company elected not to bother the smith.

Rooms 9, 10 and 11: Temple of the Eye, Tharizdun

This place is illuminated by a storage swirling light which seems to be part of the air of the place. Eddies of luminosity drift and swirl here and there, causing the whole scene to be strange and uncertain. Distances and dimensions are trickly to determine in the shifting light of rusty purpose motes and lavender rays. The ceiling of the temple is out of visual range at first, but 50' at the lowest and well over 65' where if faults upward. The DM was very disappointed that the Company did not fully investigate this room.

Room 9: Giants Worship Area

Each pillar radiates a sense of unease and unsecurity. The wall to the west is mural showing giants bowing to cairn of black offering sacrifices, giving gifts, etc. The floor on this side of the column in the center is of porphyry, the pillars of serpentine, and their well posited surfaces clash with each other, and the strange light as well. The scenes on the west wall grow more horrific, showing human and giant sacrifices near the alter (north end of the room).

Room 10: Servants and Thralls Worship Area

The polished floor of red and black hornblende seems to flow between the obsidian pillars of this area. Each seems to radiate fear. The wall to the east shows a scene of various creatures crawling, then creeping up to a huge vaguely squid like creatures with 10 hairy tentacles. In the forefront of this mass of self-sacrifice are elves, dwarves, gnolls, trolls, giants, ogres, etc. Those near the monsters are being torn apart and bloody gobbets eaten as dainty morsels. There are three of these ghastly things in various shades of purple and violet.

Room 11: Priests Area

The north wall of cloudy purple stone shows an amber like inlay of a huge dark spiral or inverted ziggurat symbol that the Company has seen before. Beneath this, hanging on chains from the ceiling, is a black metal triangle and cylinder (the cartoon drawing shows a less clear symbol, i.e., I have changed the image). The first tier of the area is of black stone shot through with veins of violet. The second tier is of dark grey with specks of lilac with orange and purple. The third tier is of black stone with whorls of plum, lavender and splashes of red. There is a great drum of blackened skin and chitinous material on the western third of the first tier. On the eastern third of this tier stands a rock from which there are nine silver cylinders. On the second tier is a huge stone altar block of dull, somewhat rusty material. To either side are large bronze braziers whose green coloration is particularly nauseating in this setting. To the left and right are two sets of candelabra having three branches made with bronze holding a black fat candle with burns with a fallen of leaping lavender and deep glowing purple but never growing smaller.

Room 12: Drow

The Company did not enter this room, which was hidden by a secret door. The walls were made of a brown purple stone down about 40 feet. There is an antechamber with purple cloth and the floor is thickly carpeted in black. There are two low black couches, each inlaid with silver. To one side is a round table, two arm chair, other low tables and small stools. They could not be seen around the bend, but Drow were heard in the antechamber and there was an inner chamber as well.

Rooms 13 and 14: Living Quarters

These two rooms are empty, but were living quarters for the fire giants. It is possible these are some of the fire giants that left to attack Sentinel Fortress.

Rooms 15, 16 and 17: Trolls and Gnolls

Room 15 includes about 20 troll guards. Each has a heap to sticks, bones, hide and skin scraps along with other nauseous material. They are guarding dozens of gnolls in two thrall pens in Rooms 16 and 17 to the north and south of the trolls.

Room 1 Hall of the Dead Kings

The Company elected not to enter into the Hall of the Dead Kings, after the bard Grady Michel Fenimure de Villemain read the fire giant writing outside and along the doorway. While the exact meaning was unclear, Grady believes that the failure to open the door with the right key can turn the person into an undead (i.e., a magical trap).

Rooms 2, 3, 4 and 5

The Company did not fully explore these rooms, and stopped at Room 2, which was a store room.

Stairs

The Company discovered the stairs heading up to the next level. The stairs are giant sized, which made difficult climbing and went up at least a hundred feet.

First Level

Room 16

This is a storage chamber jammed full of barrels of ale and mead, boxes, sacks, hampers, smoked sides of meat (mostly gnoll, but some deer, human and bear), smoked fish, cheeses, sausages, etc. There are smaller boxes and containers, but the Company did not explore the room.

Room 17

The floors and walls here are covered with rich rugs and tapestries. The place is well lit by torches and a large brazier, and this makes it very hot indeed. Queen Frumpy lives up to her reputation as a veritable haradin, but the party did not enter the room to test whether she is as cunning and sly as she is known. However, she is, if anything, uglier than any fire giant the Company has seen, which according to your understanding means that she is a ravishing beauty among the fire giantesses. Her head is topped by a huge mass of yellow orange hair which looks like a fright wig. Queen Frumpy's face is mass of holes and wrinkles, set in the middle of a very large head which sits squarely upon her shoulders. Unlike the other fire giantesses that the Company has seen, her body is lumpy and not muscled. Her skin though, is even more covered with bristles than other giantesses, a sign of her beauty. Her bright little pig eyes flicker with intelligence. She wears garnets of black giant dragon hide, set with iron studs, and other jewelry. She has at least two ladies in waiting, fierce looking fire giantess with the look of hardened warriors. The Company elected to pass by Queen Frumpy's chambers.

Area 14

Two massive fire giant warriors guard large, ornate doors of what must be an important chamber. These guards have almost as many bristles as Queen Frumpy, and must be two of the most handsome fire giants among their kind. It is well known that King Snurre prefers to be surrounded by all forms of beauty, including gems, jewelry and handsome warriors.