Act II: The Hall of Snurre Ironbelly the Foul, Fire Giant King

Brief Recap: The company vanquished Snurre's guards, and explained the effects of the Geas. Blade and the others looted the dead giants, finding many gems (3x2000, 4x4000, 1x8000, 4x7000 gp value); Ghotu and Mog also pried several gems from Snurre's throne (25 rubies total, each worth 5000 gp). Bibi healed Ghotu (heal 14 hit points to 77/122), and Mog healed Bronk (heal 14 hit points to 81/100) and Blade (heal 10 hit points to 88/111). Each fighter also drinks a healing potion doled out from those that Mog carries (each fighter heals 21). See the table at the bottom of the page for current hit points. Also see the combat summary page for spells already used this adventure.

The King lead the party into a side passage at Humphrey's request, where they met six more fire giant guards for Snurre to enlist in the quest.

Getting Friendly with Snurre

Snurre sends one of his warriors, Thag, ahead. As Thag departs, Snurre says to him, in common so the humans will not think he is issuing secret orders, "and Thag, whatever betide, tell NOT my wife of this!"

Thag nods as if to say, "of course," and dashes off. The other 5 ready themselves, donning their blackened iron armor and securing their weapons. They do this with great seriousness, as though they enter their final battle.

Thag immediately returns, hissing to the King through the half open door. The King says, "It is Queen Frupy! She must not find us." Thag closes the door.

Moments later, the adventurers hear a voice outside, both shrill and deep. Queen Frupy speaks the fire giant tongue hatefully, probably inquiring where Snurre is. Thag speaks to her quickly, sounding ridiculously fearful for a fire giant warrior. The Queen questions him further, her voice rising in anger. Thag answers her quietly, and she screams at him for a full minute before stomping off.

"Thou doth NOT wish to meet the Queen," says Snurre.

The party waits several minutes before Snurre opens the door. The coast is clear. The Queen is long gone, as is Thag. Snurre marches in the lead, flanked by two warriors, followed by the party and three more giants. The group goes back out into the great hall the way the same way they came. They cross the great hall's obsidian floor and high ceiling to the north passage, which is lit by a series of hanging braziers high overhead.

The march takes them many hundred feet until they reach a "T" (area 24 on the map). Here stand two fire giant guards each with a spear, an iron sword, and a stack of boulders. Snurre barks orders at them and one joins the ranks behind the party while the other sprints off east down the passage. The warrior calls ahead as he disappears around a corner, jangling loudly in his armor and weapons. [I will email Keith what was spoken in fire giantish. Anyone who objects to Snurre doing this, or anything else for that matter, insert your characters words or actions where appropriate.]

King Snurre leads the group west, down the opposite hall. They pass a branch off to the right, then follow a bend left, passing two branches on their left and taking the third. It is a sloping passage down. As the party descends, they notice the heat increasing until they swelter. The fire giants seem unaffected.

After a long descent, the passage finally levels off. The walls of the second level are also cut from stone with great skill, with some sections of carved bas relief images of fire giants crushing dwarves and humans and dragons alike.

The group stands in an intersection. To their right, a flight of steps leads up, and straight ahead a short foyer leads to double doors. To their left stand two robed figures.

Snurre faces them and raises his hand, palm forward, and speaks a word that does not sound giantish. The two figures look at the adventurers from beneath their hoods. They speak to Snurre, who does not immediately answer. The King gestures at the party and back upstairs, speaking quickly, and without halting his speech he draws his two handed sword preparing to strike.

Being in the front rank of the party and directly behind Snurre, Ghotu springs forward with his axe to attack one of the robed figures. He hopes his target is not ready, realizing he himself could burst into flames at any moment if he faces a mage.

Blade rushes into attack the figures as well. It would be he first time that he had used the Dragon Slayer sword that he had borrowed from Bruce. He was anxious to see how it felt in combat.

Bronk looks these so called Githiyanki over real well this time. It is the first time that he has had a chance to get a good look at them. The last was in the fray of battle..hardly an opportune time to do so.

Suddenly...His head starts to hurt...bad!!! Like A bad headache. Suddenly flashes of his past go through his mind.

He see's his aunt and uncle taken by a robed figure in the middle of a winter's night when he was 5 years old. He see's his brother and sister taken too...but in the spring time...at night when he was ten. One of the robed figures turns and looks at him.....IT'S A GITHIYANKI!!!!!

Bronk stumbles to the floor...almost collapsing completely. He say's in a scratchy choked up voice.... Bardock...Nithilain...brother ...sister.(If the rest of the company turns to look at bronk....they will see a hint of a tear on his left cheek, as he rises up to his feet slowly again. All be it an extremely red infuriated, almost berserk red which is slowly covering his whole face!)

"WHERE IS MY FAMILY!!!!"

Humphrey takes in the scene before him. He activates his "Protection from Evil" on his staff (requiring no charges) and waits. He sees the two are in trouble, given the number of people who are attacking them.

"Mog, perhaps you should cast that Silence spell of yours, to insure this is not heard," he says.

Mog answers, "Mog only had one silence spell." As he says this, he grasps one of the many fetishes that hang from his belt and mutters briefly in a tongue strange to Humphrey. At the end of his prayer, he looks directly at one of the Githyanki and barks, "CHAK!"

Humphrey scans the area behind them, to see if they have a way of escape. If so, he will act accordingly As he scans, he notices Bronc acting very strangely, and he moves away from him.

Humphrey readies his staff, to cast lightning bolt, in the event one of the Gith comes too near him. He is also prepared to absorb spells cast at him, if it comes to that. He seems relatively unconcerned thus far, given the manner in which the two are so heavily outnumbered.

Bronk is stunned by his newly revealed memories. My Family!!!

Bronk strides slowly with rage that none of the party have ever seen!!

Not even blade has seen this from the Rasheman warrior.Bronk is trembling...almost uncontrolably. Both of his hands are so tight on the pole of his halberd that you can almost hear the wood crackle. If it weren't for it being a magical halberd....he'd probably squeeze it in two.

Bronk walks slowly to one of the Gith...Suddenly he has control over himself and says very politely to one of the gith in human..."Pardon me...do you know where the nearest Grave yard is?"

Then swings at that one for the head!!!!

(next round...twice at the head unless it is already removed. In that case...he swings at the other gith's head.)

Bibi watches in amazement. She has hardly heard Bronx speak and now this. She thinks it is very strange but touching. She knows what it's like to be seperated from your family at a young age.

[If all goes well]

After the company has defected the guards Bibi says to Bronx "If you are going to continue to fight with such fury you may want more protection. Before we enter the next battle I would be glad to cast a spell which will give you some (bark skin).

(The robed figures are the two red "G"s beneath the S (Snurre) and the blue letters (the party). The two large red "G"s are Snurre's Guards (above and left of the S).)

Posting Instructions: Please post what your character says as we proceed. Specifically please answer: What does Humphrey say to Snurre? Do you loot the corpses of the dead guards? If you have specific questions, please write them all down and post them as your character asks them, and I will insert answers where appropriate.

Cut Scene

“Something must be done master!”

“And why do you say that Kronus?”

“He stole your property! If word gets out that its ok to steal from you and get away with it then, well, no telling what will happen.”

“We’ll have to make sure that word does not get out.” Bruce says, emphasizing his words and waving the man away.

“Yes sire,” the frail, thin man replies humbly, bowing his bald head and turning to leave the merchant’s tent.

“And Kronus, relax. He will get his when the time comes.” Bruce Tyrlan smiles after his trusted advisor. As he watches his old friend leave, his smile fades. Even his surroundings, his giant residence tent, littered with treasures accumulated over the last several years, cannot ease the sting of the theft. Even the Golden Urn of Krion, a gift from the Governor of the Free City of Palos, Lord Micah, cannot raise his spirits. Thievery he understands. But arrogance in the act, as if no consequences were as certain as the rising sun—that he does not appreciate.

The short, aging man rises from his seat. His mustache flows down his face, adding to his ferocious presence. Only his girth removes danger from his look. His muscular frame looks awkward carrying such a round belly. It has been the cause of many underestimations, all which have ended poorly for those who sought to estimate.

“Thaddius!”

“Yes, my lord,” replies the young wizard.

“Can you find this Blade for me?”

“I believe I can sire. You say that they were seeking a stone. Much talk has occurred lately regarding a missing stone, amongst the wizardry. Many feel it should be returned to the hands of the Guild, where it can be guarded. I am sure if I consult some of my friends, they would be more than willing to help.”

“Yes, tell them that I want the thief. What they do with the stone is their own concern. I don’t want the girl harmed either. I want her too.”

“I will see to it my lord.”

Yes, I am sure the wizards are willing to help, Bruce thinks to himself. After I get this thief, I will deal with the stone, he thinks. But first, Blade.

Thaddius Relmlord, newest member of the Council of Sages sat around the table, waiting for his peers to answer. The Council chamber was covered in the trappings of ancient wizardry. Students of the Council, of which only one qualified in any given decade, were able to wander the chamber freely, testing his or her skills with the many available items. Thaddius had been one of those students only one year ago.

Students of the Council are sought only when a member of the council will be retiring or dies, or in the case of Sestus Greyhand, the wizard he’d replaced, disappears for over five seasons. The laws of the council are very clear—decisions made by the council regarding magic, had to be made with a fully seated council. Thus Thaddius had ascended early. Many had opposed his rise to prominence, if only intellectually, arguing he was inexperienced and too young. Others, such as Vulnec Totlegaben, the current Council chairman, had welcomed the outlook of a younger mage, arguing the council was becoming too venerable and irrelevant. He cited the decreasing respect the Guild gave them, and the ambivalence the Magicracy pointed their way. If the Magicracy thought them unimportant, then certainly they were becoming so, for they are the single most paranoid coven of wizards to ever walk the Wurld, he said.

The twelve men fared from a number of places throughout the realm, including the Free City of Palos, the Northern Realms, and Heklamar. Some spoke freely of their origins, others had never spoken to Thaddius at all, preferring to remain secretive with their origins, and conveying their opinions to the chair for council discussion.

Daviis Ichhammer, Dwarvern wizard, addressed the question first. “This Tyrlan you work for, he is morally corrupt?”

“In the deepest sense,” Thaddius replied.

“And you work for him for what reason?”

“For money. Some of us do not have the luxury of accumulated wealth,” Thaddius says.

“Yes, you are too young to have accumulated much. Perhaps I should employ you to guard our caravans of gold to the Free Cities, then you can experience wealth in all its glory.” The Dwarf lets out a hearty laugh with this statement.

Vulnec interrupts him, “Daviis, as you are well aware, employing another member of the Sages council is forbidden by Sage law, no matter how tempting the idea” He smiles. Vulnec continues. “The issue is this Thaddius. While your point is well taken, that this Blade is a mere thief, and that your master may be able to supply the waypoint to get to the stone, if we help him, or find him help, we cannot believe he will follow through with his end of the bargain. We do not trust him. Perhaps he will send us to the stone, and steal it from us when we return. Perhaps the stone is his only objective and he will use his rumored alliances with the magicrocy to defeat us after they have obtained it. Perhaps he wishes us some other evil and this is simply his way, or his allies way, to remove us from this Tower, into the open, where we can be defeated one-by-one. Together we are a force to be reckoned with. But to separate us, to send us too far from the source of our power, is to weaken us and strangle the power of the covenant.

Dyvm Thurgrool, half-elf, known for his fighting prowess as well as wizardly skills. “I believe you were correct when you admitted this young one to our council. We are becoming irrelevant. This Tyrlan is a merchant, known for his ruthless ways. Some argue he trades directly with the Magicrocry themselves, a practice forbidden for decades in the Northern Kingdom. But I must say, frankly, WHAT MERCHANT DOESN’T! Have you grown so accustomed to your soft chair, your down beds, and your “apprentice” women, that you are afraid to venture outside. If we do not seize this opportunity to get the stone, then we are irrelevant. If we take this chance, promise to deliver the thief in exchange for the waypoints location, then we can again become a force of magic in the realms. What more do you want! I say, what better reason is there for keeping this council alive at all, but the moral guidance of the Magics! If we do not control the stone, then we will be the one’s being guided, and it will not be down the path of morality."

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