Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for July 26, 2012, Priscus Venatus campaign, G1: The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief adventure; present PCs included Althion Whiteoak (fighter), Ardel Blueback (dwarf fighter), Crularin Gellantara (druid), Drake Spellking (human cleric/magic-user), and Emeran Galathar (elf fighter/magic-user).

The group advanced silently through a door and surprised a group of ogres playing knucklebones.  The team dispatched them quickly and quietly and then found the kitchen.  The team noticed orc slaves serving the giants in the main hall and lured one away with a trail of coins.  Talking to the captured orc, they learned there is a secret rebellion growing below, but he was unsure how to get to the orcs in the lower levels.

Crularin shifted into rodent form and scouted around searching for stairs.  He eventually found a set in the pantry, so the group assumed this must be the right direction.  The team slipped down the stairs and into a large open stone-floored room.  The team followed a path to a large water cistern.  Unimpressed, they backtracked and found a wine cellar.  Within they discovered a skull-marked keg and took it within a bag of holding.

The team backtracked again and found another doorway.  On the other side was a row of cells and two bugbears staring at the entryway!

Game summary for July 10, 2012, Priscus Venatus campaign, G1: The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief adventure; present PCs included Althion Whiteoak (fighter), Ardel Blueback (dwarf fighter), Crularin Gellantara (druid), Drake Spellking (human cleric/magic-user), and Emeran Galathar (elf fighter/magic-user).

The dozens of giants are hungry after the battle and kill Drake as well.  They stew up a pot of human, dwarf, and half-elf with potatoes and cabbage.  Crularin is left to linger in a cage for a later meal.  The crafty druid shapeshifts into a weasel to slip through the bars, steals some of the meaty stew (for reasons to come), snatches Blackrazor, turns into a condor and flies away.  He was unable to carry the stew, the sword, and Whelm, so the hammer is left behind.

Crularin meets up with Althion (who is still running for his life!) and takes him to a druid circle in Sterich (this is Crularin’s homeland, after all).  An old druid owes him a favor and repays him by reincarnating Rowena, Drake, and Ardel!  Rowena, sadly, comes back as a troll.  Mortified, and realizing she will never be accepted in normal society, she gives up her adventuring days and agrees to stay with the druids protecting their grove.

Drake is reincarnated as a human, losing all his half-elven heritage.  His experience with death drives him closer to his faith, and he forgoes the path of the magic-user to focus on his clerical studies.

Ardel is reincarnated as a centaur!  Although at the peak of combat training for a centaur, he finds himself in a strong powerful body well-suited for the use of the blade.  Of course, Blackrazor calls out for its companion and the two are reunited!

The group then traveled back to the steading.  Crularin scouted as an eagle overhead and then entered the building as a mole.  The team masked itself using invisibility, Drawmij’s scent mask, and silence 15’ radius to slip into the steading.  They moved through a room with half a dozen giantesses and into a wide hallway.  What else is lies beyond?

Game summary for July 5, 2012, Priscus Venatus campaign, G1: The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief adventure; present PCs included Althion Whiteoak (fighter), Ardel Blueback (dwarf fighter), Crularin Gellantara (druid), and Drake Spellking (half-elf cleric/magic-user) and present henchmen included Rowena Starblaze (magic-user).

Crularin hit the hill giant with his wand of wonder with no effect.  The giant then threw open the doors unleashing over a dozen dire wolves.  The party and the canines engaged.  Crularin fired another blast from his wand of wonder, and the team fighters waded into the brawl.  Drake used magic missile on the giant, drawing blood.  Soon, the giant and most of the wolves fell to blade and spell.  However, an enormous cloud giant and a dozen hill giants emerged from the steading!  Crularin used a wall of fire to try and hold them back, but a barrage of hurled rocks and the swings of the cloud giant proved devastating.  The giants cut down Ardel, and the rest of the team started to fall back.  Althion took off to safety, but Crularin, Rowena, and Drake were knocked out and captured by the wicked giants!