Session 16: "Under the Lamia's Paw."
(December 2)
The party, engrossed in looting the magical items within the Aanja Subscribers warehouse, don't realize that they've been surrounded. The warehouse is in the center of the city of Zanjamand, where the richest and most powerful of its citizens live, near the palace of the governor. It didn't take long for people to notice that something was wrong in the Aanja warehouse, and for the guards to swoop in on the intruders. The party is captured and put in the dungeons beneath the governor's palace.
Dara and Vaelin are brought before the governor, who is a lamia by the name of Jera. She reclines on a luxurious carpet in a vast colonnaded hall in the center of the palace. "You've made a powerful enemy. I would be rewarded if I were to present Trinilane with those who have thwarted his plans and looted his goods." She implies that the party can only escape if they do a significant service for her.
Vaelin stands before Jera and boasts that the rakshasa Trinilane shall fall soon, and Jera will be free of his influence. She is skeptical, but asks for a demonstration of their valor.
It turns out Jera has an immediate problem that Dara and Vaelin can solve: a large band of hill giants has gathered under the leadership of a certain Grognard, and have been raiding caravans into Zanjamand, vanishing into the deserts before the governor's guards can track them. Hill giants rarely cooperate in such large groups for long; only the leadership of Grognard keeps them together. Slay Grognard, the mightiest of hill giants, and the giants should disband and the caravans should be safe.
Dara and Vaelin are given back their weapons, armor, and arcane focuses, and they leave the palace and reunite with Lan, Monkey, Bear, and Gora aboard the airship.
Dara, Vaelin, and Gora discuss tactics. Gora has faced hill giants in the gladiator pits, and assures Dara and Vaelin that they're strong but stupid foes. Vaelin suggests loading up a decoy wagon with kegs of gunpowder, waiting for some hill giants to gather around them, and running like hell after the fuse is lit. Gora agrees it's a good plan, and reluctantly adds that they might sweeten the bait with some strategically placed coins, to make the wagon look like a more tempting target. Dara uses the speaking stone to contact Jera and ask for a wagon; Jera lets her have one at an exorbitant price. The airship sets down to pick up the wagon, and then they're on their way to the bridge where the ambushes have been taking place.
A vast canyon to the east is crossed by a slender stone bridge, made my magical means millennia ago and still as sturdy as ever. The road into Zanjamand crosses the bridge and passes through a natural choke-point of rocks, which is where the hill giants have been laying their ambushes.
The airship sets Dara and Vaelin down with Vaelin's magical horse and their decoy wagon. They cross the bridge and easily spot where three hill giants are waiting, none too stealthily, for them. "I sure hope no giants will come to steal the governor's payroll wagon," Vaelin calls out loudly.
The leader of this ambush, a large giant named Tabitha, keeps the other two in line, but barely. One of her underlings wants at the gold, the other wants to eat the little humanoids and their horse. Tabitha boasts that she'll crunch Vaelin's bones between her teeth, while the other two giants are growing more impatient and difficult for her to control. Finally all three make a rush for the wagon, squeezing between the rocks of the choke-point, and Dara lights the fuse and the two flee some distance away. Luckily the giants don't pursue, grabbing at the wagon and its contents before the kegs blow them to pieces.
Unluckily, this means they have no guide left alive to take them to the giants' steading. Vaelin manages to find a track worn into the ground that leads northwest, and the two of them follow it and find a vast hillside dotted with boulders, which here and there have clearly crushed humanoids beneath them in their fall. Vaelin spots a single guard on duty beside what appears to be a hidden cave entrance; the guard wears a lion skin over his shoulder. Dara hops onto the horse behind Vaelin and they charge at the guard. The guard giant throws a boulder, which Vaelin deflects with his shield. Vaelin skewers the guard with his lance, Dara slices at the giant with her sword before dismounting away from the giant, and the battle before the cave begins.
With the guard nearly defeated, Vaelin says he will spare his life if he yields, which just enrages the giant. Dara kills the guard at last with her eldritch blast. The commotion has agitated the giants inside the steading, so Vaelin calls out a challenge to Grognard, who sits on a crude lopsided throne at the head of the cave. Grognard wears a vast helmet adorned with aurochs horns, and crude armor fashioned from elephant hide across his chest and shoulders. Vaelin sits atop his horse in the entryway, and Dara stands beside him. Grognard contemptuously accepts this challenge from the two puny "elves," and promises that he will eat them up.
The ground shakes as Grognard lumbers to his feet and charges at them. Grognard manages to land some blows on Vaelin with his massive club, but the other giants don't intervene in this direct challenge combat, and at last Dara and Vaelin wear him down. Vaelin strikes the killing blow, nearly decapitating Grognard, who falls with a crash to the floor. Vaelin finishes cutting off his head and hoists it in the air, daring any challengers to face him.
The remaining hill giants flee, though a couple take swipes at Vaelin with their clubs on their way out the door. Lan swoops low on the airship just to harry the giants and make sure they keep running away. Dara and Vaelin loot what they can, and find small amounts of coins.
The party returns to Zanjamand with the head of Grognard, and Jera the lamia fulfills her end of the bargain and releases the captives, including the Starling, who has been quietly killed by Jera's guards just to ensure that it doesn't escape and tell the truth to Trinilane.
This isn't enough for Vaelin, however, who decides to test his luck and ask for an additional boon from the lamia who has every reason to kill him and send his body to Trinilane. His foolhardy request seems to both anger and amuse Jera, though Vaelin himself seems oblivious to this. She presses the tip of her dagger under Vaelin's holy symbol and touches Vaelin's throat; he still doesn't back down. At last Jera feels more amused than insulted, and calls for one of her guards to give Vaelin his shield.
On the way back to the airship, Ward is able to identify the shield, which is a +2 magic shield but carries a minor curse: Vaelin's weight will increase by 10 pounds as long as he's attuned to it.
The party, engrossed in looting the magical items within the Aanja Subscribers warehouse, don't realize that they've been surrounded. The warehouse is in the center of the city of Zanjamand, where the richest and most powerful of its citizens live, near the palace of the governor. It didn't take long for people to notice that something was wrong in the Aanja warehouse, and for the guards to swoop in on the intruders. The party is captured and put in the dungeons beneath the governor's palace.
Dara and Vaelin are brought before the governor, who is a lamia by the name of Jera. She reclines on a luxurious carpet in a vast colonnaded hall in the center of the palace. "You've made a powerful enemy. I would be rewarded if I were to present Trinilane with those who have thwarted his plans and looted his goods." She implies that the party can only escape if they do a significant service for her.
Vaelin stands before Jera and boasts that the rakshasa Trinilane shall fall soon, and Jera will be free of his influence. She is skeptical, but asks for a demonstration of their valor.
It turns out Jera has an immediate problem that Dara and Vaelin can solve: a large band of hill giants has gathered under the leadership of a certain Grognard, and have been raiding caravans into Zanjamand, vanishing into the deserts before the governor's guards can track them. Hill giants rarely cooperate in such large groups for long; only the leadership of Grognard keeps them together. Slay Grognard, the mightiest of hill giants, and the giants should disband and the caravans should be safe.
Dara and Vaelin are given back their weapons, armor, and arcane focuses, and they leave the palace and reunite with Lan, Monkey, Bear, and Gora aboard the airship.
Dara, Vaelin, and Gora discuss tactics. Gora has faced hill giants in the gladiator pits, and assures Dara and Vaelin that they're strong but stupid foes. Vaelin suggests loading up a decoy wagon with kegs of gunpowder, waiting for some hill giants to gather around them, and running like hell after the fuse is lit. Gora agrees it's a good plan, and reluctantly adds that they might sweeten the bait with some strategically placed coins, to make the wagon look like a more tempting target. Dara uses the speaking stone to contact Jera and ask for a wagon; Jera lets her have one at an exorbitant price. The airship sets down to pick up the wagon, and then they're on their way to the bridge where the ambushes have been taking place.
A vast canyon to the east is crossed by a slender stone bridge, made my magical means millennia ago and still as sturdy as ever. The road into Zanjamand crosses the bridge and passes through a natural choke-point of rocks, which is where the hill giants have been laying their ambushes.
The airship sets Dara and Vaelin down with Vaelin's magical horse and their decoy wagon. They cross the bridge and easily spot where three hill giants are waiting, none too stealthily, for them. "I sure hope no giants will come to steal the governor's payroll wagon," Vaelin calls out loudly.
The leader of this ambush, a large giant named Tabitha, keeps the other two in line, but barely. One of her underlings wants at the gold, the other wants to eat the little humanoids and their horse. Tabitha boasts that she'll crunch Vaelin's bones between her teeth, while the other two giants are growing more impatient and difficult for her to control. Finally all three make a rush for the wagon, squeezing between the rocks of the choke-point, and Dara lights the fuse and the two flee some distance away. Luckily the giants don't pursue, grabbing at the wagon and its contents before the kegs blow them to pieces.
Unluckily, this means they have no guide left alive to take them to the giants' steading. Vaelin manages to find a track worn into the ground that leads northwest, and the two of them follow it and find a vast hillside dotted with boulders, which here and there have clearly crushed humanoids beneath them in their fall. Vaelin spots a single guard on duty beside what appears to be a hidden cave entrance; the guard wears a lion skin over his shoulder. Dara hops onto the horse behind Vaelin and they charge at the guard. The guard giant throws a boulder, which Vaelin deflects with his shield. Vaelin skewers the guard with his lance, Dara slices at the giant with her sword before dismounting away from the giant, and the battle before the cave begins.
With the guard nearly defeated, Vaelin says he will spare his life if he yields, which just enrages the giant. Dara kills the guard at last with her eldritch blast. The commotion has agitated the giants inside the steading, so Vaelin calls out a challenge to Grognard, who sits on a crude lopsided throne at the head of the cave. Grognard wears a vast helmet adorned with aurochs horns, and crude armor fashioned from elephant hide across his chest and shoulders. Vaelin sits atop his horse in the entryway, and Dara stands beside him. Grognard contemptuously accepts this challenge from the two puny "elves," and promises that he will eat them up.
The ground shakes as Grognard lumbers to his feet and charges at them. Grognard manages to land some blows on Vaelin with his massive club, but the other giants don't intervene in this direct challenge combat, and at last Dara and Vaelin wear him down. Vaelin strikes the killing blow, nearly decapitating Grognard, who falls with a crash to the floor. Vaelin finishes cutting off his head and hoists it in the air, daring any challengers to face him.
The remaining hill giants flee, though a couple take swipes at Vaelin with their clubs on their way out the door. Lan swoops low on the airship just to harry the giants and make sure they keep running away. Dara and Vaelin loot what they can, and find small amounts of coins.
The party returns to Zanjamand with the head of Grognard, and Jera the lamia fulfills her end of the bargain and releases the captives, including the Starling, who has been quietly killed by Jera's guards just to ensure that it doesn't escape and tell the truth to Trinilane.
This isn't enough for Vaelin, however, who decides to test his luck and ask for an additional boon from the lamia who has every reason to kill him and send his body to Trinilane. His foolhardy request seems to both anger and amuse Jera, though Vaelin himself seems oblivious to this. She presses the tip of her dagger under Vaelin's holy symbol and touches Vaelin's throat; he still doesn't back down. At last Jera feels more amused than insulted, and calls for one of her guards to give Vaelin his shield.
On the way back to the airship, Ward is able to identify the shield, which is a +2 magic shield but carries a minor curse: Vaelin's weight will increase by 10 pounds as long as he's attuned to it.
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