After Ungrid bashes in the wall, the party find another vault with yet another bronze statue of the dwarf god, surrounded by six locked iron chests inscribed with runes; and in an alcove rests another warhammer, fancy but not as ornate and clunky as the one Ungrid picked up. Expecting the statue to animate if the chests are tampered with, Halmary attempts to tie the statues arms with rope, but that actually triggers the statue’s animation and it wades in to attack: everyone retaliates, getting scorched by spraying molten rock as the bronze is cut, but even with that hazard, the statue falls to the floor in a puddle of melting metal; all over in a matter of seconds really.

Corvin checks the warhammer and chests for traps, disarming those he finds, breaking open the locks on those he’s unsure about; one chest’s trap catches him: a choking grip that almost kills him before he manages to shake it off, aided by a timely cure light wounds from Halmary. He piles the loot in the now bulging Bag of Holding, and everyone filters out and makes their way back to the broken corridor, intending on checking out the cavern. They use the Flying Carpet to get down, with ropes spiked into the floor of the corridor as a back-up, and spread out to explore. They find a river, with a giant catfish, and a ‘wood’ of coloured mushrooms: and a chimera that charges Ungrid, but is again easy prey to the combined efforts of the party: the multi-headed beast falls to a series of blows from Corvin, Hurin, Mim and a final stab from Sidni.

They leave the temple, cavern and mushrooms and head back out into the snow-covered mountain valley. They decide to head back to Hochoch, before taking the king back to the Dim Forest and his elves. They pack their bags, and hike for 43 days, taking the safer and well-trodden paths, arriving at the city towards the end of the first month of Spring in the new year.

And before the next session, this is what I sent to the players, as an update as to what has been happening during the months they’ve been away:

23rd Readying, CY 592,

It has been nearly five months since you left the Dim Forest to seek the elven king and bring him back to his people. Hochoch is crowded with soldiers, mercenaries, adventuring parties, and refugees. You manage to find a dormitory that you can rent for a few weeks, mainly because you have gold to throw around. Your drinking and merry-making has not gone unnoticed and there is a bit of bad feeling towards you from the other adventuring parties, and they shun you.

 

Here is what has been going on with regard to the war-effort:

The gore-splattered, bloodied adventurers take a breather as the last body hits the floor.

They backtrack, looking for the cell where the elf king is imprisoned, opening the doors to the orc slave cells, freeing the orcs as they go– while the rebel orcs slowly make their way out of their caverns, hoping that the adventurers will do all the killing for them, allowing them to escape back into the mountains without being slaughtered by the giants and ogres they know live above. The adventurers– still a nameless company– start combing through the barracks where the bugbears came from, finding minor treasure as they do. Xellos leads the way to the entrance hall, but as he opens the door, he comes face-t0-knee with a club-swinging Hill Giant, which smacks him in the face. He backs off, allowing Ungrid, Halmary and Sidni to move into position, while Corvin lets loose with his Heartseeker bow to pepper the giant with arrows; and moving out of sight, no doubt planning on coming through the barracks, a Fire Giant is spotted.

Ungrid, giant-sized after quaffing another potion of growth, lands the killing blow, felling the Hill Giant, and he and Halmary form their now-standard shield wall when the Fire Giant comes back– after Xellos shuts the doors out of the barracks. This giant proves much more dangerous, cutting Halmary down with a couple of hits, but luckily only knocking him out. Xellos manages to use a scroll and successfully casts Hold Monster to freeze it, allowing Ungrid to clamber up and slit its throat. While this is going on, a dwarf approaches them, called Mim, who was chained up in the forge where the Fire Giants were tending to a forge. He freed himself, but the other dwarves there are too beaten down to join them. Corvin heads to the forge, finding gold, silver and gems that he deposits in the bag of holding he carries. Meanwhile, the others locate the cells, and as they deal with the couple of bugbear guards trying to keep quiet inside, and Xellos finds and rescues the elf king, Hurin, from down the stairs come several dire wolves, an ogre and a pair of hill giants: Halmary drinks a potion of animal control and Sidni uses his Ring of Animal Control, turning a few of the wolves on the ogre– who they kill– and the giants, who are whittled down and soon slain. Halmary is again knocked down, but divine intervention brings him back round*.

With the giants dead, the charmed dire wolves are locked up, and the orc rebels help block the stairs using the giant-sized tables and benches. They loot the room where the hunchback giant was using as a bedroom, arm Hurin and Mim, and lead them up the secret passage to the map room on the upper floor: only to open the secret door and find that several giants– including a Cloud, Stone and the Chief Hill Giant– are present. Halmary slams the door shut and everyone flees downstairs, quickly getting the orcs to unblock the stairs and block the secret passage instead… allowing a whole gang of ogres to freely march down the stairs, advancing on the party…

End of Session

Kills: 2 bugbears, 1 fire giant, 3 hill giants, 2 dire wolves.

KO’d: Halmary (technically twice; once merely knocked out and revived with a potion).

* for his birthday I gave my dad two ‘Get Out of Death Free’ cards, to use for his character or an ally. The first was used to prevent Halmary going down for a second time.