Fanaxia: The Cave of the Cloud Giants

After defeating the dragon, we split into two new parties. 

Ruin, Tavros, Azrael, and Marshall are headed up to Tooth Island, to seek a True Elf and Titan who are said to be there. (Martini, Geddy, Leira, and Alexej will be going to find more information on Kroni, but that’s a later session.) Marshall goes around talking about killing the dragon and claims a 250 GP reward. So, to recap:

• Ruin: True Elf, Horizon Walker, can Dimension Door every 1d4 rounds, fights with either a falchion or a bow. 
• Tavros: half-dragon paladin, who also fights with a falchion. 
• Azrael: Goth elf wizard. 
• Marshall: human cleric of Artem-hiss.

So, we accept the good Lord Crowe’s (“the Goldenmaster”) offer to sail us up there. Tooth island is probably volcanic; there’s a single peak that dominates the island. The titan is supposed to live on the top of the mountain. 

Tavros has taken advantage of the opportunity to talk to the younger Lord Crowe, and Marshall tries to gather information but ends up talking to one of the sailors by accident. Lord Crowe seems to be a pretty decent guy; he lives this far north to avoid his father. He knows there are some giants around up there, but he has some doubts about the titan. 

Marshall makes us hugely popular by casting Heroes' Feast, and then proceeds to convert some of the sailors to the worship of Artem-hiss. His initiation rite involves letting them get bitten by snakes. Fortunately, both of the sailors are fine. (Heroes' Feast makes you immune to poison.) 

Lord Crowe drops us on the eastern shore (the north and west are too rocky) and Azrael and Ruin are irresistably drawn to the west side of the island. Something there is calling to them. Azrael thinks this through, and decides that it’s probably a very powerful spell called Sympathy, probably cast by someone really powerful. He's impressed.

Tavros: “It looks like a two-day walk.” 

Azrael: “It looks like a half-second teleport.” He brings us into the air about twenty feet above the peak of the mountain, and we fall into the snow. 

We’ve landed in a bunch of stone ruins, full of columns and giant buildings; it looks like it was built for beings that were maybe three times larger than us. We take a moment to look around after we dig ourselves back out of the snow. Marshall immediately notices that a lot of the destruction here isn’t just time; there was a battle here, and traces of it are still visible. Ruin looks at the amount of snow and ice and concludes that whatever battle happened here, it was decades ago; he also spots something that might be a path. There’s also a raised area under a section of snow nearby, perhaps a dais or altar or something. 

Azrael digs around on the dais, and finds some old clothes… and a crappy old Falchion, rusted and nicked and very large. It’s very much of a size with Tavros' falchion, which is curious. There is an altar to Amun, but it’s been defaced with the sigil of Asmodeus. Tavros immediately tries to wipe it off, but it’s… burned into the stone somehow. Tavros turns to Marshall, who consecrates the altar, and in the process learns that whoever did this was a substantially weaker spellcaster than him. Marshall, of course, is not surprised by this. 

The mark on the altar fades and vanishes. We look around a bit more, and Ruin points out the long-snowed-over path. Marshall, however, takes the sandal and attempts to scry on the titan. He sees a man in a toga sleeping on an altar in a relatively small room. He seems to be human-sized; he also looks sick. Marshall also faintly hears some kind of low speech on the far side of the door; he casts Comprehend Languages. There are two giants talking to each other. One is King Titanus, and the king is displeased because a hunting expedition came back without any food, and he sent them back out with tigers to try again. 

We follow the path -- not very quietly -- and find ourselves in a bit of a valley when we look up to see a cloud giant with a dire tiger on one side and two giants and a tiger on the other side. 

Tavros: “Ho! Fellows! We come bearing food! Perhaps we could parley?” 

The best-equipped of the cloud giants, the one with the nicest armor, chuckles. Then the tigers attack, and one pounces on Marshall and just tears into him. Another claws at Ruin. who turns around and lays into it with his falchion, just carving it up. (OOC: 156 damage.) The tiger dies. 

The cloud giants look at each other, and the leader just roars in anger at losing one of the tigers. Marshall, still pinned by the tiger, casts Sanctuary; Tavros steps in and cuts it in half. The lead giant roars again. 

Tavros: “I *did* offer to parley!”

Giant: “Fools! You are the food!” They charge. 

Azrael hits two of them with Waves of exhaustion; they hit the bottom of the ridge at half speed, and Ruin attacks one giant, definitely getting its attention; Tavros then attacks the leader, hitting once and getting its attention. Azrael tags the leader with a Ray of Enfeeblement, further penalizing its strength. The giants are equipped with gargantuan morning stars, and the giant next to Ruin tags him twice; this is going to hurt. Tavros attacks the leader again, injuring him but leaving his sword stuck in the giant's thigh; Tavros is now unarmed.

The exhausted follower-giant swings at Tavros but misses. The even-more-exhausted leader also tries to attack Tavros. He’s raging to counter the exhaustion, and hits Tavros once. 

Ruin attacks again, hitting twice. And doing more damage; Ruin has no sense of self-preservation. Marshall reaches over and Heals Ruin, bringing him back to full health. Azrael takes another step back from the giants, and hits the non-exhausted giant with an empowered Scorching Ray. The giant goes down, and the ground shakes as he lands. 

The remaining exhausted giant attacks Tavros again, but misses. The leader grabs Tavros and scoops him up: “I take you to King Titanus!” Ruin steps over and attacks him, but misses. Marshall also steps over and attacks, hitting all three times. Tavros exhales a cone of cold into the leader’s face (pro-tip: never grab a half-dragon), and Azrael uses another empowered Scorching Ray. Meanwhile, the giant we killed has collapsed down to human size. 

The captain wipes the frost from his face and throws Tavros straight up into the air. He comes plummeting back towards the ground… and Azrael casts Feather Fall just before he hits. The uninjured giant attacks Marshall, hitting him twice. Ruin hits the leader again, and he staggers. 

Tavros lands beside the leader, reaches out, and wrenches his sword free from the giant’s leg. Then he cuts him down, leaving one giant remaining. Azrael tags him with a scorching ray, and the giant turns and runs. Ruin teleports ahead of him and the giant comes to an abrupt halt. “Don’t kill me!”

Tavros comes running up behind him, yelling for him to surrender. He drops his weapon. 

Tavros: “Why did your friends turn into humans when they were killed?”

Giant: “Uh. Well. I… I’m not sure, but there’s a rumor that we used to be humans.”

Ruin: “And you can be again, only dead this time.”

Giant: “I don’t remember anything about it. King Titanus and the Special Ones won’t talk about it.” 

Tavros: “Who are the special ones?” 

“King Titanus and his wizard, and his spymasters. They’re the special ones. The warchiefs under them aren’t part of their council.”

Tavros: “If we let you go, you can’t go back to King Titanus.”

Giant: “I know! I bet if you took that special artifact from King Titanus you could turn us back to humans!”

Azrael: “Go on.” 

Giant: “King Titanus is a chosen of Asmodeus.”

Tavros: “Well, if you wake up in a day or two as a human, you can come back. Meantime, go somewhere where King Titanus won’t find you.” He’s pretty sure the giant won’t come back. 

Ruin and Azrael, on the other hand, are pretty sure that he’s going to betray us; they Dimension Door after him and finish him off. 

Marshall sighs and casts Speak With Dead. “How many if you are there in the keep?” 

There were 20. 

“Are there any passwords or traps that we have to deal with to get in?” 

No. 

“Is King Titanus actually a titan, or is he just a Cloud Giant?”

Cloud giant, and priest of Asmodeus. 

How many cloud giants would it take to kill Titanus? 

He can draw power from his god, so... all of them, maybe.

Titanus is master of the artifact!

Is there a secret passage leading inside? No. 

Do we get there by following this path? Yes. 

Where’s the sentry? Up ahead. 

Are there more tigers? Ohhh, yes. 

What does he fear most? He most fears being stabbed in the back by the spymasters. 

There’s a trapdoor in king Titanus’ room, he keeps his treasure there, 

There isn’t anything living besides the tigers and the cloud giants? No. 

...We spend a bit of time discussing strategy; then Azrael organizes us to make it look like a rockfall swept the giants off the side of the mountain. We go back and rest in Azrael’s Magical Mansion, then come back the next day to begin our assault. 

Our first obstacle is the door to the cave: the giants don't use traps because they just drag these  huge blocks of stone into place to block off the entrance. Second obstacle: a couple of dire tigers are sitting out front. Marshall summons a noble salamander and sends it over to engage the tigers; then we wait for the giants to open the door. The tigers and the salamander immediately dissolve into a massive fight. 

Warchief: “Bawlion, get out there and see what’s going on!” 

“Chief, there’s like a giant fire snake out here.” 

Marshall casts Earthquake into the cave. Rocks fall from the ceiling, striking the giants and dire tiger and pinning most of them. Azrael casts Haste, and Ruin Dimension Doors us into the cave. Tavros moves to intercept the giant who isn’t pinned, and Marshall drops a Mass Cause Serious Wounds. 

Tavros moves up and engages the giant in the doorway, hitting him and getting his attention. Azrael drops an empowered Fireball on the two giants and the warleader in the training pit. The giant in the opening attacks Tavros, but misses; another door back in the cave gets slid open, and King Titanus emerges. Ruin fires arrows at him, but they shatter on his armor. The wizard and one of the spymasters is standing in there with him. The wizard drops a fireball, but Marshall has cast spell resistance and Ruin has it as a True Elf; neither is scorched. Tavros hauls off with one of those full-on anime attacks and cuts the cloud giant in half (OOC: 254 damage). 

Azrael moves over and casts quickened Ennervation on the cloud giant wizard, and strips four levels of spellcasting off him. King Titanus casts Invisibility Purge and moves up beside Azrael. The spymaster moves up also, and tries to stab Azrael; the first attack triggers his Mirror Images. His second attack hits one of the images. 

Ruin moves in to flank him, taking a bit of damage on the way in, then lays into the guy with his falchion. Marshall… turns into a giant snake. A really huge, gargantuan snake. He slithers over to King Titanus, bites him, and then wraps around him. The Cloud Giant wizard moves up and casts glitterdust on Azrael and the Spymaster. Tavros charges across the room, and cuts into the spymaster. Azrael uses Dimension Door to get out of danger, then drops Acid Fog on the spymaster and the wizard. 

The Spymaster attacks Ruin, hitting once. Ruin moves five feet back, then cuts into him; the spymaster isn’t looking too good. Tavros attacks, but loses his sword -- it flies all the way to the far side of the acid fog. Marshall tries to pin King Titanus but fails; Titanus tries to escape but fails. Ruin uses Dimension Door again and takes Tavros over to the far side of acid fog, behind the wizard. The wizard tries to cast Blindness on Ruin, but doesn’t get past Ruin’s spell resistance. Tavros picks his sword back up. 

Azrael drops quickened, empowered Magic Missiles on King Titanus… twice. Titanus tries to break out of the grapple and finally succeeds. Ruin attacks the wizard, but misses and drops his sword. 

Marshall, still a snake, casts Slay Living. It doesn’t slay him, but it does do Titanus some damage. The wizard is almost out of spells; he attacks with his staff instead, hitting Ruin once. Tavros moves in on him, flanking him -- and takes some damage on the way. He swings at the wizard but misses. 

Azrael tags King Titanus with a weakening spell and follows up with an empowered scorching ray. The king casts Cure Critical Wounds spell on himself. Ruin picks his sword back up, but misses the wizard. Marshall attacks King Titanus, biting him but failing to grapple. Azrael finishes the king off with an empowered scorching ray. Ruin attacks the wizard, carefully aiming his cuts, and gets through this time. The wizard attacks Tavrios again, but misses. Tavros injures him some more, and Ruin finishes him. 

So much for the Cloud Giants. We'll loot the place and try to free the titan next week.