December 25-26, Evansville, IN

The Players:
Micah Johnson (host) as Ghotu Graver
Brian Durham as Bruce Tyrlan
Robert Rittel as Bronk Beareye
Patrick Holmes (DM) as Mog
and joining from Savannah via speakerphone,
Keith harper as Blade

[Note: This is a summary of the events of the gaming session. Anyone who wants to submit paragraphs detailing these events is encouraged to submit them, I will post whatever you give me.]

    The session starts in the room where the party slew Pryapus on turn 10. Mog put the female hill giants to sleep. See the battlemap for a diagram.
    From an adjacent room, some orc slaves open the door and look in. Bruce herds them back into the room and locks them in. Bruce's remaining war dog listens at an exit on the east wall and sniffs the bottom of the door. "Wargs," it says in its calm voice. It also sniffs a whip hanging by the door and says, "this too smells of the dire wolves." The party decides it is too dangerous to go downstairs yet, in case they are trapped by a large number of hill giants. Also not wanting to fight the wargs, they head back south along the hallway. In a side room they find Bronk Beareye held prisoner, tied up in what Bruce's dog describes as "the sleeping place of the ogres." Bruce lends him a short sword and Bronk joins the adventure. It has been long since he saw his companions, and he explains that he had been en route to the Gathering in Heklamar when he had been captured by giants on a raid. He retrieves his loin cloth, and Mog gives him his bracers of defense for protection.
    They head to the southern end of the steading and search, following the senses of Bruce's war dog who sniffs and listens at each door. One room appears to be an empty common sleeping room. They then encounter a sleeping stone giant in another room. Bruce and Blade slay the giant, and Ghotu Graver discovers (by chance?) that a torch on the east wall is actually an illusion hiding an intelligent sword of giant slaying. He gives the weapon to Bronk, who returns the loan of the short sword to Bruce. "Hate to owe a merchant anything, next thing you'll be want'n my loincloth as interest," he says in his Rasheman accent. They search and find 15 gems, each worth 1900 gp. All treasure goes into Bruce's portable hole.
    As they exit the room, they encounter two more stone giants. These are quickly dispatched, but a female hill giant sees the battle and flees, warning several others. The party gives chase but the females scatter and escape, some back to the north exit of the steading (in the room where they slew Pryapus) and into the courtyard. The adventurers follow. One female giant takes the whip from the wall beside the door and commands the dire wolves in the yard to attack the party. The adventurers exit the door after the giants, see the rows of snarling slavering dire wolves (each as big as a pony), and quickly retreat back inside, letting the females go.

    From a north exit, two carniverous apes enter and attack. Ghotu deals with them as a one-eyed giant also enters the room. More bugbears enter, then still more, and the party (led by Bruce) quickly slaughters them. They advance into the adjacent chambers and also slay the giant (the Keeper--who had a +3 great axe, which Ghotu takes) and bugbear captains, capturing an armory where Bronk arms and armors himself, returning the bracers to Mog. "Never owe an orc anything," he says.
    Bronk takes a halberd and gives the giant slaying sword to Mog. Among the bugbears they find 1000 gp. The bugbear captains have ten 1000 gp gems.
    In a nearby hall, Bruce finds several cells. In one cell are a few upstart orcs, and Krulek releases them. They arm themselves and loot the bugbear armory, then take what arms they can carry to the other slaves, whom they mean to free. Krulek thanks the party and leaves with the other orcs. A human engineer is in a cell. Ghotu questions him, asking him if he knew why the giants were attacking the human settlements. The engineer did not know, though he said he has seen many different kinds of giants in the lower levels, some appearing to be treated as guests and with great respect.
    Fonkin Hoddypeak, who claims he is an elvin fighter/mage, also joins the party after he is released from his cell. Hoddypeak arms himself from the bugbear store with chainmail, longbow (with two quivers) and a sword. The company leaves behind a single human who appears to be mad.
    The party explores an uninhabited part of the lower level to the northeast and finds a well in one part, and two rooms in another part which dead ends. The first room is a store room with mainly mining and digging tools. The exit from this room is barred by a padlock, which the party asks "the thief" to check for traps. Blade, indignant at being labeled the thief, checks the lock for traps and, finding none, he draws his sword and slashes the lock from the door.
    In the rearmost room the company finds 11 big barrels of wine, along with several gallon and keg sized containers of the same stuff. Each has a bung seal with a blob of black wax impressed with a death's head. The wine is black and has a slightly earthy smell, and tastes like no other drink. Hoddypeak says, "This reminds me of the elvish draught quailir, though that is a clear liquid and less potent than this dark stuff." [Any party member who wants to can click here to make a "lore" roll to know another relevant fact. Submit the roll to eternal_warriors@yahoogroups.com with subject heading "Lore Roll--NAME" with your character's name. Roll d20. Rolls accepted till the next post is out.]
    While they inspect the kegs, the giant slaying sword alerts Mog to approaching enemies. "Many enemies approach," says Mog quickly. They head to the entrance of the first chamber and see torches down the hall, and hear the stamp of many feet and loud voices calling. It is the hill giant reenforcements from upstairs, and the party is cornered. The party hides in ambush and attacks the giants. Bronk attacks now with halberd, Ghotu with the great axe of the Keeper, Bruce whith his vorpal axe, and Blade with the giant slaying sword which he takes from Mog, and his short sword. The four fighters butcher wave after wave of the oncoming giants, with Mog casting spells from behind and Fonkin Hoddypeak loosing his arrows with deadly accuracy. The engineer cowers in the corner.
    But the giants also get their blows in. Blade is rarely touched by their sweeping attacks, and Bruce's luck saves him from more than one blow. But first Bronk Beareye, then Ghotu Graver is wounded. They both fight on, but it is not long before Bronk is hammered by the eleven foot tall foes, knocked to the floor by a crushing blow to his head. Soon thereafter, Ghotu is taken down by two giants' concerted attacks. The two warriors lay unconscious, dying. Mog leaps to administer healing to them, snatching the healing muffins in Bruce's pack, dodging blows and even being knocked aside once by a giant in the melee.
    Giants flood into the room and pack the hall. As they are about to overrun the remaining company members, Blade uses his luck blade and whishes that every giant who looks upon the sword would experience his worst nightmare. The blade flashes brightly, and most of the combatants look toward it. The giants then begin fleeing before Blade, and he clears the room. Ghotu and Bronk are healed, though only to moderate health. The party is out of healing potions, or nearly so. In all, eighteen hill giants lay slain on the killing floor, surely no small part of Nosra's force.
    They decide they must make an escape through the giants, using Blade's sword to drive them back. Before they leave, Mog speaks with one of the dead hill giants, and learns that the well (down the other passage) might lead to an outside spring. The party follows Blade up the hall toward the giants, only to learn that they have brought the wargs and several cave bears to attack the party. The giants sound like they are building something. Quickly aborting their plan, the company puts their equipment into Bruce's portable hole and makes a break for the well. Dire wolves on their heels, they dive into the dark water, their torches snuffing as the enter.
    They come up in an underground stream only a short distance away. There they use Mog's ring of regeneration to heal themselves, and they rest.

    Party Status: Everyone is raised to maximum hit points by Mog's ring, this takes us a couple of hours. The party is entirely out of healing potions and muffins (according to your character sheets--if this is wrong let me know). Those who wish to sleep do so, for the hour is late--past 2 a.m. you calculate. Everyone dons their armor before taking rest, for you are on hostile ground still. Mog sits in meditation, trying to recover spells.
    Please post preparations you make, using the links below. Turn 11 will be out in a few days.

Kill List (this gaming session only)

1 sleeping stone giant
2 stone giants
2 carniverous apes
The Keeper (hill giant)
44 bugbears
9 bugbear lieutenants/captains (treat as ogres)
18 hill giant fighters
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Treasure List (this gaming session only)

+3 great axe
giant slaying sword, intelligent
15x1900 gp gems
1000 gp
10x1000 gp gems

         

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     By the way, check out the Trophy Room for running totals of all the creatures killed, experience points earned, and treasure gathered so far on the adventures of the Eternal Warriors.