The party had been in the tent for almost a
day at this point and the halflings and the magical beasts guarding them had
become antsy. Two adventurers came upon them and were hired to go and see what
was keeping the party within the strange tent. Buttercup the winged tiefling swashbuckler
and Drifting Cloud the tabaxi grave cleric of Anubis made their way into the
tent. They followed the trail of blood and came upon a dead gorgon with foot
print leading into a very nice library with a retracted circular staircase in the
ceiling. They pushed on a book that was leaning off the shelf and the stairs
came back down. Ascending the stairs, they found the rest of the party, Thelrum,
Syre, Dinak, Tamin, Orion, and Xanaphia standing over the mangled and dissolving
corpse of a glabrazu demon.
The party introduced themselves
to each other and a loud popping in the next chamber alerted them to the two
bone devils that just teleported into the next room. They claimed they were
searching for souls and the party said they would buy souls off of them,
confusing the devils. Thelrum pointed to the dead demon and told the devils
that was what would happen to them if they came back without souls for the
group. The devils bid them good day and teleported away. They noticed a click
on the eastern wall and turned to see a wooden door swing open, revealing a
large chamber with four huge statues of giants, one holding up each corner of
the room. One had lumpy skin, another looked dumb, another looked like his
beard was made of fire, and the last one had a horned viking helm. There were
three other doors in the chamber, each on the walls between the giant statues.
Tamin approached the northern door and failed
to pick the lock and the lumpy statue looked at him and used its evil eye,
wracking Tamin with psychic damage. The lumpy statue, a fomorian giant, which
it turned out each one was just a dust covered giant in hiding, swung out and clipped
Tamin with his club, rushing up to meet the rest of the party. Syre cast bane
on the fomorian and the dumb looking statue, which turned out to be a hill
giant. Drifting Cloud channeled the power of Anubis using spirit guardians in
the form of a swarm of jackals to vex the giants. Dinak launched a hail of
arrows into the fomorian, Thelrum used his go to dragons breath, Orion let loose
a swarm of hits against the fomorian, Buttercup rushed in and gut stabbed the
hill giant, and Xanaphia tossed elemental spells at her foes.
At this point the other two giants activated,
both the fire and frost. Syre suggested to the fire giant that the frost giant
was trying to kill him so the fire giant struck out against the frost giant,
who attacked back, breaking the spell. The group took out the giants, one after
another and finally the giants were dead. The party healed up and found each
had a stone keyed to the doors. The east door led them into a stable full of
skeletal horses and what looked like an exit. They closed that door and checked
the south door, finding a barracks full of ogres with strong armor and loaded
crossbows. They closed that door and went to check the north door, finding a
huge man sitting in a recliner in a study with a human size bottle of wine. Thelrum
sent in his spider familiar and the giant told it to be a good spider and kill
the fly the giant had caught under a glass. The spider went and bit it in the
face and the fly turned into an angry chimera which then came out and attacked
the party. The noise of the combat attracted the ogres, which kicked open the
barracks door.
Xanaphia dropped a sickening radiance into the
middle of the ogre pile and caused a few of them to fall back. The ogres
responded by shooting at the party with oversized crossbows, almost halving the
health of a few of the party members. After it soaked attacks from the entire
party, Orion killed the chimera and ran into the room with the giant, who had
stood to his almost twenty-foot height and was doing stretches. Thelrum
animated a few of the books in the study and had them attack the giant, Drifting
Cloud dropped a spiritual weapon, a large khopesh, into the room to attack the
giant, and everyone else was working on the ogres. The giant, not liking being
hit by his own books or the khopesh summoned a lightning strike onto Thelrum,
Orion, and Drifting Cloud, dealing massive damage (except Orion ignored it all
with monk evasion). Drifting Cloud called a time out and the giant offered them
their lives and a few skeletal horses if the group would just leave his magical
sanctum. Looking around at each other, all battered, bloodied, and broken, the
party took him up on the offer and left. They found themselves on the back side
of the tent and watched as it vanished behind them. They rested up, gathered
their halflings and wagons, and made ready to hit the road back to Thistlebottom
to deliver their charges back to their homes.
