Aftermath

“Aftermath”
Rise of the Runelords episode
Episode no.	Episode 71
Date	2009
Game Master	Abbe
Characters	Honeypot Nathaniel Nell Velicia
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "The Giant Attack" "The Rescue"
Rise of the Runelords chapter list

In this chapter the heroes set out to follow the giants.

Aftermath

Very beat up from the fight with the three giants I rode back through town. When I rode along High Street I noted that something was stirring. I held up Creampuff and asked a passing woman. She told me that giants had been at Undercliff and almost where we were, but had retreated when the dragon died.

I continued on and met up with Nathaniel and Velicia along River Street. Nathaniel had just tried to tame one of Das Korvut's large dogs and Honeypot went after the bears into the woods. They told me that the smith had been taken by the giants. We went looking for some town guards. Nathaniel stopped them and told them what we had done and they told us a little about what they had heard, like that there had been a giant sneaking through the whole town. We followed the rumors and they led us to the ruins of the old lighthouse. We went to the few houses to ask those who lived there if they had seen it. I went up to Brodert Quink's house and knocked on the door, closely followed by the others. As he opened the door I asked him if he had seen any giant sneaking by and he said that he had, indeed. A giant holding a log with carved runes had appeared from nowhere and walked into the old ruins. It had read the runes inscribed all over the place and performed some kind of ritual. Then it had chosen an enormous rock and put in its sack and left. Then Velicia started talking magic so I left. Instead I went over to Gorvi's shack. I knocked on the door and he answered. I asked him if he had seen the giant. He said he hadn't as he had been working. I got the feeling he was hiding something so I asked if it was really true. He admitted to have been sleeping and was very sorry. I assured him that I didn't mind if he slept in the morning after goblin's day.

I slowly returned towards the garrison, while taking out something to eat from my bag of holding. Creampuff walked behind me looking over my shoulder to see if I had something he'd want, when Honeypot came walking hurriedly from the opposite direction. She had heard that we were talking about the giant on the telepathy. She had some ritual she wanted to perform where the stone had been. As I followed her back, she saw how bad shape I was in. She healed me and danced around. We all returned to the lighthouse, Brodert too. She cast her ritual for a whole hour, but I didn't mind as I had time to finish my leg of mutton. I have found that you should eat much when wounded. When she had finished she said she could ask two questions and the "place" would answer through the magic. The first question was why the giant had taken that stone. The answer was that it was an old and noble rock from the olden times. Brodert got all excited and wanted to ask a lot of questions about the original tower. I think that got to Honeypot as she asked what the tower was originally used for, but the "place" wasn't that old. It only had a feeling of it having been a border fort of some kind and then giants tore it down creating this place. All the expensive magic stuff she had put there had disappeared. I said:
"We should pay for that together." It felt really weird when I said it.
"I can decide that as since you left, I'm the new leader of this group." I added to Nathaniel.
"No, you're not." he said with a firm voice.
I thought "Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted." but then Nathaniel continued:
"On the other hand you need to learn how to lead, now that you're a baroness. Perhaps you should try."
I was surprised and couldn't suppress a "Yes!".

We discussed what to do and Velicia and Honeypot wanted to interrogate the giant who survived near the brewery. Nathaniel told us that the prisoner belonged to Sanpoint as it had attacked the town. We saw Mayor Deverin hurry past and asked her if we could take care of the prisoner. She said that without our help they would have suffered terrible and they wouldn't have had any prisoner. We headed over and found that some villagers had tied it to the ground. When we got there Honeypot started asking questions, while Nathaniel and Velicia looked menacing. I felt uncomfortable. There was a big forest nearby and the giants were very good at sneaking so I mostly kept watch.

They learned that the giants who attacked Sandpoint had been led by a Runecarver. Its mission had been to take a special stone from the lighthouse ruins. At first I thought it had said precious stone. The other giants were to plunder and try to get as many fat, greedy merchants as possible. I suggested that there might be at least one in Magnimar they ought to get their hands on. They had gotten their orders from a giant called Mokmurian, a smaller magic using giant. Mokmurian was gathering giants to rule and had two lion-lamias priestesses. Mokmurian was in Jorgenfist, an old, dark castle in the Iron Mountains overlooking the flood Mushikal, somewhere due west of Storval Stairs. It was being expanded by the giants. The giants all got tattooed in Jorgenfist. It had been a simple ritual putting a sihedron rune on them. I cursed as I regretted killing the giants. Now their deaths would benefit that hated runelord. We had to stop Mokmurian. We had to make sure the stone didn't get to Jorgenfist. I asked them to ask the giant where they had camped on the way to Sandpoint. I thought that the giants that got away might camp at the same places on the way back and that way we could take back the stone, precious or not.

As it was still early in the day we decided to go after them as soon as we had gotten our gear and food for the journey. Nathaniel brought the big dog that belonged to Das Korvut. If we needed to track him it might help. I told Kaven to bring plenty of food. You never know how long it would take, and traveling is hard work. As giants have long legs and travel fast we were in a hurry. I agreed to using Velicia's magical horses. We rode past farms in an awful speed. After a full day of riding and just trying to eat in the saddle, we finally stopped at dusk to make camp. Kaven set up camp using my magical instant campsite and cooked the first real meal since breakfast. At least I slept well.