Session 49

=February 27th, 2020 - Epilogue of the Evacuated=

Epilogue of the Evacuated
The session began with the party clearing out the remaining of the defending creatures from the mine levels above Ironslag, freeing the rest of the slaves. The vast majority were dwarves, and while uncomfortable with fleeing aboard a giant’s cloud castle, they did so when they saw the rest of their freed kin. There was also a single wood elf female, who even in her disheveled state was obviously of higher-status. It seemed like some of the dwarves had been protecting her. The party told how they were heading back to Khaz Thorum to return the dwarves and the plunder they are taking from the giants. The elf, Alleria, said she needed to return to the Deepwood, and would prefer to start walking the way immediately.

Rufus would have nothing of it. He convinced his fellow adventurers to agree to first fly the lady back to the Deepwood - once Alleria revealed she was the youngest daughter of the Wood Elf King. And so, throughout the rest of the day the ogres of Skyreach Castle helped carry loot from the conquered fire giant stronghold. They eventually got down the partial hanging Vonindod, and dragged it using two enormous chains and long lines of ogres. The dwarves made use of the large bunk room on the castle’s lower level that previously housed cultists.

Rufus continued to romantically pursue Princess Alleria’s affection over the course of the four day castle journey towards the Deepwood. Count Blagothkus didn’t want to go towards the elven city itself, nor did the princess say they would be able. The elves had erected a mighty magical dome around the city. Instead, in the middle of the fourth day the cloud castle landed at the edge of the great forest. The party would escort the princess on foot towards the city and ensure she reached it safely - for an assured reward - while the castle waited in the sky around the area with the dwarves.

The princess easily found a path and soon the group was swiftly moving through the beautiful woods. It wasn’t long until they ran into an elven patrol who were aghast at the group that had returned their princess. As much as the wood elves disliked half-orcs, or dragonborn, they despised high elves. Lachlan was probably the first high elf, or deserter to the wood elves, many had ever seen. And so, the four day trek on foot to the edge of the elven capital of Caranthya was tenuous. What really eased the tensions and passed the time was Cadmus finding fellow lovers of gambling among the elves.

Everyone in the party, with the exception of Lachlan, participated in their nightly poker game around their camp. All those lost to some degree except for Cadmus himself, who came out the big winner. The largest loser by far was Alburt, who once again demonstrated his talent at having terrible luck - cards, dice, it didn’t matter.

Once they finally reached the edge of the protected area surrounding the city, the elves stopped the group and they parted ways with the princess. It was only here, after Rufus’ consistent advances, did the elven royal show affection for the halfling swashbuckler. He watched as she walked away with her guards, as the party stayed behind at their campsite with the remaining elven guards for a few hours. Then, a smaller number of elves returned and gifted the party the thanks of the elven king - a chest full of about six and a half thousand gold worth of platinum and gold mixed coin. There was also a special gift for Rufus, a small box containing a star pendant. He put it on immediately.

The group hiked back the same four days with their escort to the edge of the Deepwood. After parting ways with the elves they left the forest and rejoined Count Blagothkus and the freed dwarves in Skyreach castle. Over that time, Rufus came to realize Princess Alleria’s pendant had granted him a boon of luck. For their last ask of the Count for some time, the castle traveled six more days back across the Storm Coast to the dwarven stronghold of Khaz Thorum. At the sight of the giant cloud castle descending towards the gates of the fortress, the dwarves had responded by pouring out dozens of soldiers.

Rachen used his ring of feather falling and descended down to tell them what was happening. Once the worry of attack had passed, the party was able to get all the freed dwarves into the safety of the stronghold. They marched through the streets of the Khaz with those they had liberated, and dragged with them the head of the fire giant Duke Zalto to the cheers of hundreds of spectating dwarves. At their audience with the dwarven Duke Harnoth]] and his duchess in the same chambers where they saved their lives previously, the party accepted the dwarves’ thanks. Rachen returned the iron flask containing the fire primordial Magaera the Dawn Titan, and the Duke announced they would hold true to their promise and begin construction of a fortified tower for the party.

The Duke went to a map of the Northern Worldspine Mountains and the dwarven holdings, with four locations identified for the tower's site. Each near a location of interest in low-lying mountain areas - usually just above the foothills. From north to south along the mountains: (1) just south of the capital of Khaz Uluhm, (2) just south of their current location Khaz Thorum, (3) in the valley at the base of the path to the giant’s Eye of the All-Father temple, or (4) just north of Khaz Haldor, near the human town of Parnast. After discussion, the party decided that since they want to leave the Vonindod here, that they would select location (2), just south of Khaz Thorum. It would take just over one hundred days to construct.

The Duke was pleased by that for sure, but also was intrigued by the group’s suggestion of having the dwarves help reforge the giant’s dragon-killing-adamantine colossus. With Magaera returned, they would be able to relight their ancient forge and smelt adamantine once again. However, the party would have to help the dwarves recover the remaining missing pieces - they currently were missing the lower torso below the belt, both legs, and one arm. Luckily, the group had foreseen needing to find the pieces by recovering three of the giant-sized Rod of the Vonindod from Ironslag. The same huge rods the fire giant’s were using to locate the pieces of the artifact, they could use, or arrange others to use.

Once their business was done in Khaz Thorum, and the group had celebrated with a dwarven feast, they said their goodbyes to Count Blagothkus. For now, he would go his own way reuniting the houses of the cloud giants under his leadership. However, he would keep in touch with the party through Rachen’s crystal ball, as he was curious what help the storm giants could actually bring. For now, he was not compelled to do as they said, but he was not like Sansuri - he believed they were once worthy of such positions of leadership. They could earn it again.

The Shield and the Conch
Before the party embarked on using their recovered conch of teleportation, they decided to have Alburt create a teleportation circle back to Ironbay to resupply. After warning Lady Silverhand by Rachen’s sending stone, they teleported back to her estate. The group spent the rest of the afternoon resupplying, gambling, and/or went looking for information. Cadmus learned about the current state of affairs with the various mercenary companies and Black Landing, and then went to find a poker game. Rachen recovered his now enchanted +1 plate armor set from Lady Silverhand, and then with the remaining party members, excluding Cadmus, went shopping.

At the unscrupulous ‘magic shop’ Kada’s Emporium, once Rufus conversed with the owner using some Black Brotherhood codes, the gruff shop keep led them to the secured back room. Surrounded by many bodyguards, Kada toured his current stock of black market magic items. There were only a few articles for sale, including a couple sets of wondrous figurines (Rufus was happy with his golden lions), two rings, and a magic wand. But there was one final item in particular that the owner knew Rachen would want. Kada knew that the battle master, beaming in his new magical suit of plate, was sure to want his new shield.

But when the shop owner touched the shield and it floated into the air, Rachen knew he needed it. Kada was insistent that the item was very hard to come by, one of a kind, and he couldn’t let this animated shield go for any less than fifty thousand golden griffons (50k gp). After previously wondering what they were going to do with all the treasure they had been accumulating, the party was in sticker shock. Individually, none had that much money, but together, they could just make it happen. After trying to haggle, and discussing a few payment options, the group instead agreed to pool most of their loot to Rachen to purchase the black market magic item immediately.

By the end of the afternoon, the group had moved a significant amount of their converted worth in platinum and gems to Kada. In exchange, Rachen obtained his new animated shield, which would float around him and protect him in combat while still allowing the battle master to use his two handed weapon. The group rested the night as guests once again in Lady Silverhand’s estate, updating their patron noble on what had happened on their journey since they last met.

In the morning, the group finished their preparations and decided it was time to use the conch of teleportation to visit the storm king’s court. They had been told by the giant’s Oracle that “tradition dictates a bearer of a Storm Giant conch must be granted an audience with the ruler of the Storm Giant’s.” They were ready, but prepared for dialogue. They knew that the ancient blue dragon, Iymrith, the Doom of the Desert, working in concert with the Cult of the Dragon was somehow involved in disrupting the giant’s Ordning, and they had to reveal this to them. According to a letter recovered from the leader of the Cult, the disruption of the Ordning was due to Blagothkus working for the cult, and due to the death of the Storm King and Queen. Both events the party had learned this dragon Iymrith was responsible for.

To pull off the actual feat of activating the conch, Alburt polymorphed Rachen into a cloud giant. The giant-sized fighter then blew the shell, while everyone in the party was in physical contact with him. Instantly, the party was just in a new location. No flash, no fancy effects. They were in a dimly lit (by magical blue flames) giant space, where the walls were hewn stone covered with moisture and undersea life - coral and similar growth. But they were in an air-filled space, standing upon an enormous glowing rune carved into the ground. There was a large pool of water in front of them, two hallways out of the room, and a giant-sized spiral staircase of stone next to the pool of the water against the far wall, going up into the fifty foot high ceiling. The sound of dripping water and a female giant singing filled the air, with what was surely a pipe organ accompanying the song.

Before proceeding, Alburt returned Rachen to his normal form. The group started climbing the staircase when a pair of storm giant guards came down and immediately reacted to them as possible intruders. The party surrendered, showing their conch and saying they were here to meet with the leader of the giants. The guards calmed, and escorted them back through the entry chamber and down one of the hallways, through a giant sized door into a huge room - filled with smallfolk furniture. They closed the door behind them, and the party heard the huge locking plate slide into place.

They didn’t wait long until the sound of the giantess singing stopped, and footsteps of multiple giants approached. When the lock and door were opened, six storm giants filed into the room. Two of them were females in elegant clothing, with the rest wearing some sort of armor. One of the two females, the elder of the two, clearly in charge of the giants in the room spoke in giant saying she, ‘couldn’t believe smallfolk could infiltrate our stronghold’.

She turned around and started to walk out the door, before stopping and turning back to say, “kill them.”

And that is where the session ended, at the end of the two hundred and twenty second day since the raid on Greenest.

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