Puppets

“Puppets”
Rise of the Runelords episode
Episode no.	Episode 78
Date	2009
Game Master	Abbe
Characters	Honeypot Nathaniel Nell Velicia
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "Undead Giants" "Mokmurian"
Rise of the Runelords chapter list

In this chapter trying to get home to recover, the heroes trick controlled rune slaves.

Puppets

Feeling battle weary we decided to pull back and get some rest. Velicia then told us that the thing the stupid giants were guarding in the previous room was a magical portal. We could use it to retire to wherever we wanted. Honeypot suggested that we should trick them somehow but sighed heavily when mentioning that she couldn't use her hat of disguise to impersonate a large creature. I looked at the empty armor I searched that was worn by the undead hillgiant.
"What if we hang the arms from the chest plate and I stand on Nathaniel's shoulders... We could imitate that undead hill giant." I suggested. "We just have to find a way to work the legs. Velicia can use her mage hand to hold the helmet hanging in mid air."
"I could help with the legs too." Velicia said, showing off her magic illusions by creating a little misty smoke twirling around her. It resembled an effect that the giant itself had had, that would help selling the walk.

I began to tie parts of the armor together with string so it would hold together when lifted. My tool kit helped a lot as did the ten foot pole Nathaniel had brought. With Nathaniel in one leg, the pole in the other holding up some of the weight, him lifting the rest and moving the pole, me on his shoulders, one arm in the shoulder of the armor allowing me to move the arm some and some sting to move the other, Velicia making her magical effects and Honeypot coordinating everything, we set out and came through as a surprisingly good version of a slightly limping version of the armored undead giant we had destroyed.

As we limped out into the room and discovered that our strange disguise worked Honeypot remarked that stone giants were usually peaceful. I suggested that the strange magical condition perhaps was a punishment for unruly giants to make them into mindless slaves. Velicia thought we should bring one with us to try out rituals to free them from the effect.

We had decided to open the gate to Honeypot's woods. As we closed in on the portal Velicia opened it. As we approached the open portal I tried to throw my dagger unnoticed at the feet of the strange giants to make them stumble through the portal, but not harm them. I tried on two of them and missed one completely. I didn't do any significant damage to the other but it stumbled through the portal. Velicia went through and Nathaniel took the opportunity to take some powerful steps and got us all through the open portal. I tried to trick the remaining giants that it's all right by gesturing with the arm I had best control over, but I could see they didn't fall for it. Then Velicia thought of that leaving the other giants to tell what happened might cause problems if we were to go back through the portal, so we decided to try to get them through as well.

The giant I got through the gate used some kind of magic to summon up a sword out of thin air and threw it at the gate, but Velicia protected it somehow. The two giants left behind stepped into the portal, but not through, one casting a spell at Velicia and the other summoning a sword, just like the other giant. It swung it at us in the armor. It hit both Honeypot and Nathaniel knocking them prone and making the whole armor fall apart. I tumbled down as well but landed on my feet. There was a lot of fighting. The giants put up some kind of eldridge zone that I sneaked out of, but it was hard finding any good hiding places. I got attacked by a sword wielding giant in close combat that in one attack almost cut me in half and followed up with another strike that left me hardly conscious. Luckily I knew some moves by heart and didn't have to think to make my flashy riposte, felling the giant. Soon after Nathaniel felled the last one. I fell to the grass and laid there on my back looking at the sky through tear filled eyes, bleeding, while Honeypot tended my wounds.

Honeypot and Velicia then used their magical knowledge to analyze and discussed how to remove the magical rune effect on the giants. They realize they can't easily do it at the moment and performed a ritual putting them in a deep hibernation.

While we were resting, Velicia, who doesn't need to sleep as much as us others, started creating magical items. I asked her to enhance my armor, something I had leaned I needed the hard way, and to create a ring for me. Before passing out I suggested to Honeypot to get a ring I had heard of. It's called a face stealing ring and helps you assume the appearance of anyone.