Against the Giants
All is quiet in the kingdoms, thanks to the party's efforts at exterminating external threats. The party looks over the job Earl Theodorick is doing and quickly becomes bored with accounting procedures. Handing off a couple magic swords for good behavior, they march south to answer Kek's call.
By the time they get to City of Twilight, they're second-guessing their efforts. How will they bring home enough bodies to make it worth their while? Because a hundred pounds of gold is just not what it used to be.
Kek tries to convince them by letting them know that this tribe have not paid tribute in some time, and may need to be reminded of his authority. The party is authorized to take whatever measures they deem necessary, and of course the spoils of battle are theirs to keep. When this does not prove convincing, he reminds them that 5,000 tael per corpse is certainly a worthy prize.
The Ranger quickly catches on that the currency has changed, and is now fully onboard with the plan. When they try to recruit some golems for transport, however, Kek demures; better they should arrange transport out of the local supplies.
As will soon become apparent, Kek has rather downplayed the size of the problem.
After days in the wilderness, the party enters mountainous terrain. Very quickly they stumble upon a herd of aurochs, cattle the size of elephants. While they debate whether or not to murder these poor livestock for the scraps of tael they would yield, a voice comes out of nowhere.
"What are you lot doing here?"
The party announces they are looking for the village of Aom, to extract a tribute for the mighty Kek.
Their interlocutor is unimpressed. "Seems unlikely, but what do I, a simple shepherd, know? If you would but wait a moment, I will fetch my betters."
The Druid thinks he sees some disturbance in the distance, but can't be sure. Nonetheless, invisible voices no longer frighten our heroes; they pass the time in small talk, waiting for the outcome of their negotiation.
This comes in the form of booming voices. "See, I told you!" says the original. "Astonishing that they are so foolish as to still remain," says another. "Indeed," adds another, "the furry one looks tasty, does it not?"
Accompanying the voices are a pair of dire bears. The aurochs do not panic; clearly they are as used to the bears as sheep to their dogs.
"We're not for eating," explains the Ranger. "Rather, you're to deliver us to the Chieftain so we may collect a tribute."
"Are you mad? Then we wouldn't even get a bite," exclaims a voice. "Instead, if the rest of you run away now, leaving behind only the greasy one in the bear hide, we'll have a bit of a feast and not tell anyone else what they're missing out on."
A piercing whistle, and the bears charge, clearly intent on bringing down one or more of the party. Instead, arrows and spiritual hammers make short work of them.
The voices respond by becoming visible, at least long enough to throw rocks. The shepherds, it seems, are on the same scale as the animals, which is to say: huge. Twelve feet of grubby peasants they are, but they bowl like cricket pitchers. The Ranger, the chief source of ranged damage, soon finds himself pelted by boulders and perilously close to death. Most disconcerting, the giants become invisible whenever they are not attacking; their affinity with stone disguises them from any distance greater than 100'.
While this is not enough to defeat the party, it does allow one giant to escape and flee when his companions are brought down. The party loots the corpses, such as they are, and decides that rather than pressing deeper into danger, they will wait and see what the next response is. The Ranger sets out a magical trip wire alarm and the party retreats a few hundred feet to hide and observe.
A veritable herd of aurochs, being driven by four bears, soon comes into view. Behind it follow nine invisible creatures, detected by the Ranger's trap.
The party realizes it has been spotted when the aurochs break into a stampede. The Druid lays down a field of spike stones; normally these are quite dangerous but for creatures with as much vitality as elephants, it merely slows them. However, this gives the party time to kill the bears; and once the guide dogs are disposed of, moving out of the way of the blind charge is simple.
The giants are not so easily disposed of. They seem to detect the trapped field, and rather than pass through the spikes, begin throwing stones. The Cleric responds with a wall of blades, to keep the giants at bay; while this offers some protection against stones passing through, the ranged battle still tilts for the giants as once again the Ranger is battered down to single digits. Frustrated, the Barbarian skirts the field of spikes and flanks the wall of blades to engage in melee combat, whereupon he discovers that three of the giants are not peasants, but soldiers. Dressed in bronze armor and wielding bronze hammers, they deliver crushing blows that never seem to miss.
The Bard and Ranger move to support him, and just in time, as soon the Barbarian find himself a mere triplet of hit-points from extinction. And then the giant's sorcerer starts dispelling the party's magical buffs.
Recognizing the situation is dire, the Dire-Bear-Druid charges from the other flank and murderizes the giant leader in a single glorious round of claws and fangs. Enraged, the remaining soldiers pounce on the bear, their powerful attacks dishing out earth-shattering damage, and now the bear is at three hit-points. Even one more blow will be a guaranteed death; but the Bard, Barbarian, and Ranger have made it into melee range. They distract the giants for another round while the Cleric's hammers finish them off.
Other than tael and bearskins, the giants carried no loot - save for the sicking fact that giant sorcerer skins are a valuable material component for belts of giant strength. Lumps of bloody flesh are not quite the same as piles of golden coins, but the party takes it anyway.
The party retreats and heals, returning the next day intent on finishing the giants. They press deeper into giant territory but only find an abandoned village. It appears half the village died in the previous battle, and the other half absconded with all moveable goods deeper into the mountains. The Ranger cannot track Stone Giants through mountainous terrain anymore than he can track a Druid, but the tracks of the aurochs give some clue. At least they found the leader's hidden treasure, a substantial pile of tael - but still not enough to mark the leader as the kind of antagonist Kek would worry about.
This fight has seen more of the party reduced to near-fatality than any before it. And it's just a village patrol - the leader they have been sent to subdue has not yet taken the field. They pause to consider their next move.
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