Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for September 13, 2012, Priscus Venatus campaign, G1: The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief adventure; present PCs included Crularin Gellantara (druid), Drake Spellking (human cleric/magic-user), Emeran Galathar (elf fighter/magic-user), Jorr Brainmangle (orc fighter) along with henchman Mara Woodstride (elf fighter/magic-user).

The team mustered the ragtag orc troops and gave them encouraging words and demonstrations of their mighty magic.  After whipping the creatures into a frenzy, they lead them up through the hidden stairway and into the steading!

A full day of horribly violent war followed with light losses on both sides.  The orcs had the upper hand and secured part of the halls despite losing over two dozen troops.  Overnight, the PCs tended the wounded and planned for the next day.

The second day of fighting was far more intense with over 40 orcs slain over the course of the day.  However, a dozen giants and a couple ogres paid their lives in defense of the halls!  At the end of two days, the giants were fatigued and badly outnumbered.

The third day, the party decided to push to take control of the pantry and kitchen and help starve the giants if this turned into a long term endeavor.  The team drove the orcs to great feats, but exhaustion won out, leaving most giants dead but the orcs nearly collapsed on the floor.

The final contingent of giants, two hill giants, a cloud giant, and Chief Nosnra himself went toe-to-toe with the Swords of Greyhawk in an epic final battle for control of the steading!  The giants charged but could not seem to land solid blows.  Crularin turned into a lion and tore into the chief.  Mara unleashed a barrage of magic missiles rivaled in effectiveness only by the twin lightning bolts of Drake Spellking!  Emeran used the wand of wonder several times, once sending a stream of bruising damaging gems bursting forth.  Mara was brought low by a giant club and then killed in the path of Emeran’s lightning bolt.  Drake was clubbed unconscious too.  Finally, Jorr, using the devastating Blackrazor, waded in and dropped the last of the giants and killed Chief Nosnra!

The Swords of Greyhawk turned over the steading to the orcs and had them agree not to raid in Sterich for some time.  Once back in Istivin, they collected their reward and made a temporary truce between the lands of men and the orcs of the mountain.

With the great foes vanquished, new adventures await.  Where shall the Swords next venture?  Only time will tell.

Game summary for September 6, 2012, Priscus Venatus campaign, G1: The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief adventure; present PCs included Crularin Gellantara (druid), Drake Spellking (human cleric/magic-user), Emeran Galathar (elf fighter/magic-user), Jorr Brainmangle (orc fighter) along with henchman Mara Woodstride (elf fighter/magic-user).

The team, joined by Jorr Brainmangle of the orcs, moved through the underhalls looking for more weapons.  They had armed Jorr with Blackrazor, and bloodlust had him rushing ahead looking for giants.  They discovered a secret stairwell and sent Crularin up too look around.  He found a map room, and they decided this would be the perfect entranceway to the upper level for their orc troops.

The team continued searching around and discovered three hostile stone giants!  One giant smashed a brazier of coals into the party’s faces while the others hurled rocks!  Crularin unleashed a wall of fire, Drake fired off spiritual hammer, and Mara used magic missile.  Brutal melee ensued with lightning bolts and magic going all over!  Crularin discovered he has a wand of wonder and quickly used it to blast himself and the giants with a fireball!  Soon, the fight was over with the Swords of Greyhawk victorious.

Satisfied they had found all the items and weapons they could, they returned to the caves to rally the orcs.

Game summary for August 30, 2012, Priscus Venatus campaign, G1: The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief adventure; present PCs included Althion Whiteoak (fighter), Ardel Blueback (centaur fighter), Crularin Gellantara (druid), Drake Spellking (human cleric/magic-user), and Emeran Galathar (elf fighter/magic-user) along with henchman Mara Woodstride (elf fighter/magic-user).

The Swords of Greyhawk moved into another cell and discovered a bugbear and hill giant guarding half a hundred orcs!  The group took out both guards quickly and freed the orcs, arming them with lengths of chain as makeshift weaponry.  They sent the orcs scurrying to the caves to await the uprising.

Next the team found a torture chamber filled with horrendous devices.  The team carefully searched the room only to turn up a sack filled with human and elf scalps.

The group returned to the main chamber of this floor and tried to open a door, disturbing the jailer and his pet carnivorous apes!  Crularin hit them with a wall of fire followed by Althion’s javelin of lightning!  Ardel began whittling away while Drake attacked with spiritual hammer.  Mara attempted Melf’s acid arrow but missed her target.  Emeran unleashed the wand of wonder promptly turning himself invisible.  In seconds the enemies were slain.

Back in the main chamber, Crularin and Drake noticed a secret passage leading to a short hallway ending in a trio of levers.  The team played with the levers a bit listening to the sound of scraping off in the distance.  Then, Emeran found another secret door leading to a room filled with manticores released from their cell by the levers!

The monstrous creatures hurled volleys of spikes, and Crularin shifted into a lion form to attack.  Emeran dropped a torrent of rain in the area with the wand of wonder.  Mara then filled the area with steam by unleashing a fireball as Drake fired a lightning bolt.  The area of effect spells did their work, and Althion and Ardel laid waste with sword and axe.

After defeating the manticores, the Swords discovered a room filled with seven chests.  Drake used find traps to determine two had traps on them.  The group opened and ransacked the treasure from the other five.  Unwilling to let potential wealth go, Ardel tried to bash a chest open.  Unsuccessful, he just flung it open triggering a poison needle trap.  The tiny dart pricked his hand, and within seconds the centaur curled up and died!  Emeran blasted his corpse with the wand of wonder to no visible effect.  Undaunted, Emeran opened the last chest just barely avoiding losing his hand to a scything blade!

Drake said a few not incredibly unkind words over the corpse of Ardel.  Then he looted him.

Game summary for August 16, 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 Emeran Galathar (elf fighter/magic-user) along with henchman Mara Woodstride (elf fighter/magic-user).

The group continued down the hallway and found several rooms of chained orc slaves.  The team recruited them to the cause and freed them to flee back to the caves and await the uprising.  During the escape, two hill giants attacked!  Crularin softened them up with a wall of fire, and the melee team took them down quickly.

The Swords of Greyhawk then advanced and found the forge.  Within, two fire giants moved to engage.  Althion found himself facing two of them alone momentarily and took a horrendous blow from one of their hammers!  Emeran used the wand of wonder to summon rain which caused dense smoke and steam from the forge, obscuring the battlefield for everyone.  He followed up by using the wand to summon a fearsome mouse who fled down a hole.  Crularin moved up to support Althion while Ardel cut down one of the giants.  Mara used Melf’s acid arrow to injure the other before Ardel, Althion, and Crularin were able to whittle it down.

The team then advanced north and found some bugbears guarding more orc prisoners.  The team fought the bugbears and prepared to free the orcs.

Game summary for August 9, 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) along with henchman Mara Woodstride (elf fighter/magic-user).

Crularin spoke with the orcs and agreed to find them weapons to use against the giants.  They learned of a nearby forge as well as armed bugbears.  The team opted to try and take the weapons of the bugbears first.  The group moved into the bugbear area and started a fight.

The team unleashed a barrage of spells from magic missile to lightning bolt to fireball as well as numerous charges from the wand of wonder, and the bugbears kept coming!  Wave after wave went down under spell and blade.  Eventually, the group had over a dozen bugbears in a narrow corridor when Crularin sent a wall of fire along one wall, sending waves of scorching heat over the goblinoids.  Emeran used his wand of wonder and dropped a stinking cloud on the enemies and the party.  Mara and Ardel went down in a helpless heap of spastic vomiting.  Fortunately, so did many of the bugbears, and the wall of fire finished them off.

With nearly 50 bugbears slain, the party can arm over half of the orc rebels!

Game summary for August 2, 2012, Priscus Venatus campaign, G1: The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief adventure; present PCs included Crularin Gellantara (druid), Drake Spellking (human cleric/magic-user), and Emeran Galathar (elf fighter/magic-user).

Crularin rushed into the room and wrapped the silenced scroll case and rope to the hanging gong to prevent an alarm.  The team then moved forward as the bugbears charged into the silence.  Drake hit one with a magic missile, Crularin hit the other with his spear, and Emeran activated his wand of wonder!  From the ether, a massive rhinoceros appeared and charged the bugbears!  Emeran continued using the wand which resulted in a field of darkness and an area of driving rain.  In the chaos, the team took down the bugbears.

The group then examined the cells and found Mara Woodstride, an elf warrior maiden eager to fight the giants.  They also rescued an engineer but left a crazed man locked away.  The fourth cell contained three skeletons that animated to attack Emeran as he entered.  Drake used his clerical might to destroy the undead in a moment, however.  The final cell contained five energetic but stupid orcs eager to reunite with the orc rebels and fight the giants.  The group finally worked out an arrangement for the orcs to lead them to their caves and unite with them.

The team moved down the hallway, led by the orcs, and used silence to creep forward.  They by-passed a group of bugbears using stealth and met up with the orcs in their cavern where they found nearly a hundred rebels with a handful of weapons.

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!

Game summary for June 28, 2012, Priscus Venatus campaign, G1: The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief adventure; present PCs included Ardel Blueback (dwarf fighter), Crularin Gellantara (druid), and Emeran Galathar (elf fighter/magic-user) and present henchmen included Rowena Starblaze (magic-user).

The party followed the trail left by the hill giants fought earlier until night.  Then, Ardel crafted a shelter for the evening to keep out the storm predicted by Crularin.  After the rains, a mixed group of orcs, ogrillons, and ogres attacked.  The group had little trouble defeating this rabble, but they lost a horse in the exchange.  The following morning, Crularin shifted into horse form and was saddled and mounted by Rowena.  Thus arrayed, the group moved on into the day.

Eventually, the team came across a rock clearing in the foothills where they were ambushed by half a dozen bugbears and a fire giant.  The giant hurled rocks while the bugbears charged in.  Emeran was badly wounded, and Rowena was knocked out after being thrown for Crularin’s back.  Ardel attacked the giant but was injured as well.  Emeran tried his wand of wonder twice, once launching a lightning bolt falling short of the giant.  Next, he conjured a shimmering sheet of light that blinded his horse and drove it off in a panic.  Despite their setbacks, the team brought down the marauders and found a scrimshaw map leading to a point in the Jotuns.

The group traveled for days into the mountains and finally discovered a massive log homestead.  The moved to the side door where they seemed to be detected by over a dozen dog-sounding creatures.  As the group prepared to try and knock down the doors, a giant looked over the wall and screamed out, “elves and dwarves!” alerting the keep!