- The group looted the giants bodies they killed, finding a spiffy pearl necklace. They also found a note written by Ilkaris the giant cleric, telling them to maintain their harassment of the humans.

- They go back to tell the goblins the giants have been eliminated, and that they are traveling to eliminate Ilkaris. Kreecheck tells them what he knows about Ilkaris, that he is staying someplace called Greenmount, an old human fort which was abandoned, and which the giants have taken over.

- They spend a little more time in Beldoran identifying drow items and crafting some wands, before setting off for Istavin again.

- They stop in to see Algorthas the sage’s house again, to see if there was any change since last time, when his house was ransacked. They were surprised to see that the house was fine. A servant answered the door, and brought them in to see the sage. He seemed very spaced out though, and did not seem like his old self. He did not remember much, and seemed not to really remember them or why they were there. Keldon noticed something was very amiss and mentioned it to Smoth, who took it upon himself to distract the sage and cast a dispel magic spell on him. This seemed to break whatever enchantment was on him, and he seemed to wake up. He did not realize that any time had passed since the last time the party had talked to him, roughly two months ago.

- They tell him what happened, what they know at least, and he gets very agitated, and insists he has to leave right now, in case whoever did this to him has been keeping watch and knows that he is awake. They help him pack what they can, as he is too upset to listen to any other course of action. They also quiz his servant, who he apparently hired while he was under. They decided that the kid did not know anything about the condition he was in, so they let him leave while they got ready to go.

- They take him to a small village on the way to greenmount, and he says he will stay there in hiding, and they explain to him everything that’s happened in the last 2 months, including the discovery of Duke Killingsworth, his ailment, their attempt at healing him, hunting Ilkaris, etc. He says that he will stay there in seclusion until they manage to do something about Ilkaris, so he can be reasonably sure the threat to him is gone. He also finds them a reference to the fist symbol they found on the giant letter, as well as the name which was written in the cells where they found killingsworth. It was the symbol for a demon (whose name escapes me right now, look it up) and the cult that worshipped him. There had to be some kind of connection between the demon and Ilkaris. He answered any questions he could of theirs about Greenmount and the demon, and also warned them about a white dragon flying around the area. Apparently though the keep was fairly small, there was a rather large contingent of giants camping around the area, probably numbering in the hundreds. Once they were ready, the group set off to try to put a stop to the madness.

How about now?

NEED WRITE UP

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Experience

Defeated 4 hill giants and 1 frost giant – CR 11

11	3300
12	2400

More good RP w/ goblins – Story

300 xp each

XP / person:

11	1125
12	900

After securing the Drow tower, our heroes abandon it and head north. All that work, and nothing to show for it…

NEED WRITEUP

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Experience

Defeated 3 hill giants and 2 dire wolves – CR 10

11	2200
12	1800

Good roleplaying w/ goblins – Story 300xp each

Total xp:

11	2500
12	2100

XP / person:

11	625
12	525

It’s a beautiful bright day and Fin has just summoned an Ape to smash through a door. The Ape smashes the door but it triggers a defense mechanism that emits a blue gas. The Ape recoils and flails his arms about. Alarms sound and two giant umber-hulks appear. Finn casts a flame-strike and positions it between the two Umber-hulks. Screams are heard as a golden light foreshadows flames that rip around the umber-hulks that leave them tattered. One of them charges at Keldon and the other attacks Fin, both fail at connecting any blows. Shun swiftly slices through the umber-hulk that came at Keldon. Spell-casting is heard and it becomes apparent that dimension is being used. Harcourt then attacks the same Umberhulk with his bastard sword. Fin just swings at the umberhulk with his paws. The first swing rips off the beast’s arm while the next swing disembowels him, for an instant kill. Smoth precisely fires at an umberhulk with his bow and arrow and which causes the creature to vent at Shun. Keldon slams his maze into the Umberhulk and confuses it. Shun steps in and finishes him off. The alarm continues to clang.

The Ape leads the party through the hole. Smoth searches for traps as they descend down a spiral stair-case that leads to a familiar, opened, steel door. Finn recalls how the hallway used to be and warns the party. Smoth is able to decipher that the extended hallway is an allusion and finds a trap. Keldon reaches into his bag of tricks and pulls out a Wolverine. The Wolverine enters the trap, and is immediately blown away from the staircase…falling into oblivion. Smoth spell-crafts on a metallic door and realizes that it’s made of adamantium. They go through the tower and enter a shed full of tools. Smoth rests and memorizes some spells. The party props themselves against the door and rest, but Fin hears something soon after. Smoth casts invisibility on himself as the door swings open. Harcourt draws his bastard sword. A Mantecor is revealed and whips it’s tail shooting a number of spikes the party. Harcourt feels a spike but no one else does, while Shun charges and slashes. Fin tells everyone to move back, as Smoth shoots a magic missile at the beast. The Mantecor turns and jumps off the spiral staircase in the darkness. Finn places halleberry bombs by the door as Harcourt and Smoth keep watch. The party slowly descends down…Smoth then finds yet another trap and more glyphys. Keldon pulls a bear out of his bag of tricks and has him walk into the trap. Smoth searches again and notices that the glyph is gone. As the party continues down, suspended off a cavern ceiling is a figure about to fire an arrow. He fires it at the bear, which bull-rushes it of the stair-case. Finn jumps off the stair case and turns into dyer eagle form. Finn instructs the party to get on the opposite side of the pillar. Smoth casts fly and follows after Finn. The dark figure with the powerful bow and arrow fires off two arrows that miss Smoth and hit the tower. Smoth tosses off a scorching ray at the dark archer. Keldon, Shun, and Harcourt look onwards and the sky is illuminated by combat. Flamestrike is sent out by Keldon which creates a visible halo around the Archer. Shun shoots an arrow wide as the archer drops to the floor of the cavern. Finn flies down as the figure drops and the archer fires arrows on his way down. Smoth fires an arrow at his shoulder sending the archer spiraling out of control. Finn slashes at the figure as they both fly down at astronomical speeds and grabs the archer. Finn ascends back up with the archer, flying higher and higher to the top. Finn crushes the archer to death with his talons. Smoth test the archers bow to get a sense of it’s power. The party continues down the stairs at a faster pace. Shun uses Smoth’s cloak to jump down, while Finn carries Keldon and Harcourt down in his talons. A fireball is detonated; Keldon and Harcourt are injured. Finn flies them to a more obscure safe place, as Harcourt drinks a cure moderate potion. A Mantecor, mage, woman, and two drow are ready to destroy. The Mantecor flies around and penetrates Keldon’s armor. Shun comes emerges from the darkness into the view of the enemy but they fail to shoot him down. The woman screams at Shun. Smoth pops a scroll, touches the pillar, and illuminates everything around them, blinding the drow. Finn fairy fires on a drow casting expeditious retreat. Harcourt fires an arrow at the mantecor and hits. Keldon has flame engulf the mantecor, singing it’s wings. The woman(blinded) gets closer to Shun which gives the opportunity to hammer her with his halberd. Smoth fires another arrow at the Mantecor slamming him back. The mage tries to cast on Finn but Finn is not impressed and unleashes a full attack on the mage, followed by a grapple. The mantecor is annoyed by Harcourt and attacks him. One of the drow charges at Shun. Keldon confuses the Mantecor with his maze. The woman tries reach out to Shun to kill him, but she fails. Shuns attempts to retaliate but fails also. Finn crushes the mage to death and intimidates the oncoming drow. Harcourt pounds into the Mantecor with his bastard sword. Drows and the Umber-hulk surround Shun but fail to hit him. The woman tries to touch Shun once again, but she fails and he slashes at her once again. Finn rushes the drow witch and leaves her on the floor bleeding. Harcourt drinks another cure serious potion. Shun comes out unscathed against a flurry of attacks from the drow and also staves of the dangerous glances of the uber-hulk. Keldon finishes of the mantecor with searing light. Smoth moves to flank the umber-hulk and initiates a shock-and-grasp then sends lightening up the beast. The crew emerges victorious.

We descend to find the remaining drow…

We return to our group having taken out a drow mage and priestess, but allowing another mage to slip out while invisible. They ready themselves on the second floor, with Findale quickly dropping some readied holly on the doorway leading in. They back up, with commotion quickly approaching from below, and ready themselves. The door creaks open a crack, and magical darkness fills the entrance, and a looming form enters. Fin decided not to waste any time, activating the small natural bombs he had placed. The creature turned out to be an umber hulk, but it was ripped apart by the powerful cluster of explosives. More drow rushed in the room, and a melee ensued.

The party decides that they need to solidify Etine Tarris’s power and find a location for the school.

Our story begins back in the jail cells in Arness castle. We decide to keep Harcourt under wraps so that mob justice does not take him out. They decide to disguise him as a wounded soldier, take him to Etine, try to convince her to let him come with him. The troops around the castle cheer on the group as they head to Etine, and thank them. When asked why they are there, Smoth hints they were hired by a ‘lost son’ of Arness.

The party stands there for a moment soaking in the information, Harcourt kicked out of the capital, the wizards having turned against him. With a quick discussion the group decides now is the time to act.

The group flies into the city and decides to meet with Corwin’s contact. When they meet with him they tell him about their plans to enter into the castle. It is going to be enacted mostly by Smoth who will continuously set off the alarm and turn invisible. Smoth tell’s Leutenant Hevel to notify the Countess as to why the alarm is going off sporadically, and have her let the guards know that it’s a common occurance.

• Before Corwin will get the party past the Devereux guards, he asks for a favor. Countess Taris’ son, Derek (4 years old), has been taken hostage by Devereux henchmen and is being kept in a manor outside Arness. The party must rescue him before Corwin will help.

• Fin shapeshifts into a sparrow and flies to the manor to scout things out.

• Unable to find the boy outside or in any of the rooms with windows, Fin flies into an empty room and turns into a rat. He finds nothing but dire wolves and humans (probably werewolves) hanging around the house.

• Luckily, the wolves did not smell Fin and he was able to make it out. But not before he overheard some of the humans talking about what sounded like Derek (I think “little bastard” was the term used): ”...wonder if he’ll catch anything the first time out?”

• This made it seem like Derek was not at the manor anymore, so Fin shifted back into sparrow form and flew into the woods in search of Derek. Unable to locate the boy, he turned back to report to the party once it got dark.

• While Fin was scouting, Shun decided to get to know Corwin a little better. They mostly talk about politics and Shun discovers that Corwin actually thinks highly of Duke Harcourt. He doesn’t believe that Harcourt kmows what the Devereux’s have been up to. Corwin also talks about his hatred of Smoth’s father and how he’s the root of all Kensing’s problems. Since Smoth is not “Smoth”, he keeps his mouth shut, not wanting to start any trouble with an ally.

• Shun with help from the others finally convinces Corwin of Harcourt’s wickedness and Corwin pledges his men to our cause when we need them. Bonus!

• When Fin returned, the party decided to have Fin continue scouting in Eagle form and have the rest of the party wait on the fringes of the woods in case the boy came back.

• In a clearing in the woods, Fin sees 6 humans in loin-cloths eating a deer. One of the humans is a child.

• Assuming it must be Derik, Fin swoops in and grabs the child before any of his under-dressed companions can react.

• The child is reluctant to go. (The party thinks he’s already been turned into a werewolf by the Devereux’s) He struggles and causes Fin to lose his grip. The impact from the fall injured the child most severely, but Fin was able to heal him.

• After regrouping, Keldon teleported everyone back to Arness. Since they had a few extra people along this time, Smoth and Fin had to travel in the Bag of Holding.

• After the trip, both of them said it didn’t smell all that bad…