Session 30: Rescue time

General Summary

The party, after arriving at the destroyed logger camp, took stock of the destruction and options. To the northwest, a clear path of toppled and torn trees; the same leading away to the southeast. Brother Les approached Dayana and told her to take Lunch and Dinner back to Tussoa and that they would track the giants path to the southeast, in order to hopefully rescue those that were taken.
Dayana took hold of the mules and cart and left to head back to Tussoa.
The party gathered their things and promptly rushed off to follow the giants. After several hours, they arrived at the Tyodan River rushing south from the Cyrios Mountains. Brother Les prayed to his god, Pelor, for assistance to cross the river and cast the spell Water Walk. The party ran over the rushing river water like it was packed, constantly shifting, sand. The river not being too wide, they got to the other side and moved into the forest again.
After a couple more hours, Atreena, keeping a lead and scouting ahead, caught the site of blood in some of the broken trees. Turning over some branches, she discovered a severed humanoid arm that, upon Brother Les' closer inspection, was probably torn off. Brother Les put it in his pack in hopes of reuniting it with the former owner.
The party rushed through passed darkness but stopped after they eventually fell from exhaustion. Zanthros propped up his tiny hut and the party took a rest.
The next day, not even enjoying a morning tea, the party set off again. After finding the torn and chewed carcass of a deer that did not look old, Atreena climbed up into the canopy of the trees to see if she could spot any movement. She spotted, about half a mile away, some shifting tree tops and reported her findings.
She rushed off to see if she could confirmed that it was them. The rest of the party moved slower, waiting to see what Atreena would find. Atreena did come to the spot and found five large, disgusting and barely clothed giants sitting in a small glade on a break. Two humanoids were laying on the ground in the middle of them, badly bruised and hurt, but looked alive. Atreena went back to report what she found.
The party moved up slowly and as quietly as possible and took position. Just as they arrived, Zanthros, with his hat of comprehend languages, overheard one of the giants claim he was hungry and it was time to eat another small creature. It stood and started to pick up one of the humanoids as they screamed in terror.
The party rushed into action in a surprise attack. Atreena called upon her new found powers granted by the Raven Queen to bane two of the giants. Eglantina hexed another. Pooka threw a pair of javelins but they flew too high.
Zanthros threw down a wall of fire, cutting a line 60ft long directly through three of the giants and burning the arm of the giant picking of the human, causing it to drop the figure.
Brother Les conjured a glowing stationary warrior to block the giants from approaching. It carried a very large radiant sword and stood defensively.
Then the battle was joined. Eglantina's eldritch blasts were thrown. Atreena rushed around, stabbing giant legs. Pooka lashed out with his 5 snake headed whip (the voice in it praising him time and time again for shedding blood and pain). Brother Les conjured his guardian field to attack those that got too close to him. Zanthros dropped acid and terrible pain on them.
The giants fought back the best they could, but the defensive position the party took made it very difficult for them to reach the party. As such, the party took very little damage, except for a couple rocks to the chest and arms.
Eventually the last two giants attempted to run away. One ran south but it was caught and killed. One ran to the north but Pooka ran it down, ripped more of it's skin off, then wrapped the whip around its neck, threw the lash over a branch, caught it and pulled hard to yank the giant off the ground for a brief moment before the branch broke and the dead body of the giant crashed to the ground.
The party made sure the rescued loggers were OK. Brother Les cast a prayer of healing to mend their bruises and other wounds. While that happened, Pooka broke out his harvesters book and assessed what he could take from the giants. Identifying the hair and nails of the giant, he cut several from some of the bodies and stuffed those in his pack.
The party then left to bring the loggers back to Tussoa. Along the way, the party interrogated Pooka about his whip, after being warned about it from the Xalicas. A few days later, they arrived.
They dropped the loggers off with Dayana and got Lunch and Dinner back. They went back to the smelly inn. The next day, Pooka looked for a hunters guild to find out if they knew where to sell the harvested parts of the giants, but they didn't know anyone in the area for such things. Brother Les got an audience with the Marquis of Tussoa (and, ugh, my brain is fuzzy on what happened here).
After a rest, the party gathered there things, left Lunch and Dinner with Dayana, and then traveled north again to track down why the giants are leaving the Cyrios Mountains.
What is causing the giants to leave their homes and cause chaos and destruction when they pass through the coast?

Report Date

05 Jun 2021