• Avuin - Stoneskin
• Jacob
• Josalyn
• Thorgard
• Tatrin
• Perrin
• Erasma

After three days of traveling back, we are headed back with what we have been able to retrieve. We are going to return to Solat Peak and our encampment of horses, then we will head back for training and treasure splitting.

As we continue on the Chariot…

Hovering on our way back, we hear the slow hum of the Chariot. Through the thick trees of the vast forest, we see some gray furred Wolves all napping and bathing in the sunlight.

We get past them and continue on our way without stopping.

It is Day 2 on our journey back when…

It is during the night when we are traveling by the light of a Continual Light…We are sitting ducks.

Suddenly many shapes burst into the light. Coming across the path of the Chariot are 7 Hell Hounds, flashing with fire! The Hell Hounds take their action first.

All 7 of them charge towards the Chariot. Since the encounter was outside, the distance was close enough that we would notice them. Erasma, Jacob and Josalyn plus our Sabertooth Tigers are all being attacked.

Jacob is missed but Josalyn is bit for 3 damage. The Hell Hounds have AC 5. Jacob hits for 11 damage but Josalyn, his companion, misses. There are two attacks on each of the Tigers. One of them hits for 4 damage and the other hits for 8 damage. The first Tiger retaliates and hits for 4 damage while the second hits for 2 and 6 damage.

The Chariot sinks to the ground with the weight of us plus all of the Hell Hounds. These are very big Hell Hounds…

Avuin attacks with a hand axe. Josalyn hits a Hell Hound for 6 damage and Erasma did 6 as well. Another 3 and 5 damage from Tatrin and Thorgard against the Hell Hounds and one of the Tigers did 10 damage. Perrin hits for 4 damage.

All of the Hell Hounds are struck but none are felled despite the massive damage. This next round, four of them breathe fire…

Jacob saves two times against two breath attacks and takes 8 damage. Thorgard has a Ring of Fire Protection, but as a Dwarf, it does not always work and this time it fails him. He takes 4 damage.

Tatrin is targeted by the fire breath one time and takes 7 damage. There are 3 Hell Hounds left who are not breathing but are biting us. Two of them are on Jacob, but they miss. One of them is on Avuin and bites him! He takes 6 damage.

Avuin attacks one that did not breathe fire. The Tiger has to save twice and fails. Tiger B takes 11 damage from the fire breath. Thorgard must also save again and he failed, takes 7 damage.

There is another bite on Avuin but this time it missed. There are two more bites on Thorgard and both hit for a total of 6 damage. Tiger A is hit for 4 damage.

Josalyn casts Cure Light Wounds and Jacob is healed for 6 hitpoints. Thorgard hits for 4 damage and Jacob did 8 damage. Tiger A does 7 damage and Tiger B does 9 damage.

It is now Round 4 and none of the Hell Hounds are killed yet, having a massive amount of health. One of them is breathing on Jacob who must save. HE SAVES AGAIN and only takes 4 damage. Another 6 bite attacks with 2 on Josalyn, but there are no hits. 4 bites on Erasma and 3 of them hit for a total of 12 damage, she still stands!

Tatrin strikes again and hits for 4 damage while Thorgard hits for 3 damage. Tiger A hits for 10 damage while Tiger B did 10 damage and we FINALLY KILLED ONE! The Hell Hound becomes a smoking pile…

Avuin hits this time and does 7 damage, which kills another Hell Hound! Another one takes 6 damage from Tiger B. Thorgard hits for 6 damage.

So far, just two Hell Hounds are dead and we have taken a number of heavy hits. This round, 4 of them are breathing fire and there is another required save for Jacob, and 2 for Tiger B. Thorgard must also save against 1 fire breath. 4 of the Hell Hounds also bite Jacob. Tiger B is struck by the fire breath and is burnt to a crisp as it is at -1 hp.

We now only have one Tiger. There is one bite attack on Tatrin who takes 3 damage, but this hits his STONESKIN!

Retcon, Avuin has Stoneskin NO LONGER as it blocked the damage from earlier. Despite a Morale Check, the Hell Hounds continue fighting.

2 of them are breathing fire again and Tiger A is getting hit, as is Josalyn. Josalyn takes 4 damage and Tiger A takes 7 damage. There are 3 bite attacks against Josalyn, Erasma and Tatrin. Josalyn is missed and Erasma is missed. Tatrin takes 6 damage.

Jacob attacks and does 13 damage which slays one! Tiger A hits for 2, 9, and 11 damage. Thorgard hits for 3 damage. There are STILL 4 left, Hell Hound Demigods.

Seeing the odds are stacked against us, Avuin does a fighting withdrawal. We are having simultaneous attacks due to a tied initiative. 2 of the Hell Hounds are breathing this time. One of them is on Tatrin. His save fails and he is burned, DEAD, DEAD, DEAD!

We check this…to make sure and NEVERMIND, HE IS STILL DEAD.

The Tiger takes 7 damage and it has 6 hp left. Perrin and Avuin leap off the vehicle and we are both now out of melee combat. Tiger A takes 2 and 3 damage and now has 1 hp left!

Jacob hits for 10 damage. This KILLS one! Thorgard also hits for 5 damage and the Tiger does 14 damage. 3 of these massive Hell Hounds still remain.

Avuin moves out of range with his bow and there is another Morale Check, but yet again THEY KEEP FIGHTING! The other Sabertooth Tiger dies!

There are 2 bite attacks against Thorgard and Erasma. A roll of a 16 hits Thorgard and he takes 9 damage. Luckily, Erasma is missed!

Thorgard hits for 3 damage and Josalyn hits for 6 damage. They kill another Hell Hound and there are only 2 left. Avuin moves quickly to get to max range with a longbow.

Thorgard does 5 damage with his Life Stealer sword and despite the high roll, he does not use a life draining charge. Jacob hits for 11 damage and Josalyn does 4 damage. This KILLS another one!

The last one is on Jacob and misses. In the next round, another attack is on Josalyn, but they all missed.

Eventually the last one is killed and we gather up our fallen…

The Chariot continues onward.

We approach the Pyramid atop our Chariot. The secret door grinds open and allows us to hover back inside.

The party moves back inside and then returns to the Chamber of the Sphinx. We take the Way-Sphinx statue back to Solat Peak.

On the other side, everyone is fully healed except for Tatrin who is dead.

As we get back to the place where we left our horses, outside of NOTOSOTOMO, we find three of Horses are gutted! The Hippogriff mount ate the Horses! The living Horses have pulled their weight and survived and now, the Horses are timid.

HIPPOGRIFFS EAT 4 RATIONS DAILY. If it flies its at least 4 for that period of flight.

Meanwhile, after some travels, Maervahr is back in High Dell now.

The rest of the party at Solat Peak are traveling back.

On Day 1 of our travels, there is nothing encountered.

On Day 2, nothing is encountered.

On Day 3, we arrive back in High Dell.

Thorgard brings Tatrin's body to the temple of Geos, where it will cost 4,125 gp to bring him back with a Raise Dead spell. Thorgard takes out a loan for 3,125 gp and Tatrin is raised! His CON goes down to 14.

The interest on Thorgard's loan is 9%.

On the 15th of Pilgrim Moon, TATRIN IS RAISED!

We see that Erasma's Manta Ray just hovers around her. She can recollect the Manta Ray as needed and she can take the Manta Ray out of the jar. When commanded, it shoots out of the jar at great speed, leaving a trail of blue sparkles. It travels through the training dummy and continues for 600' beyond, leaving a massive trail of blue sparkles behind it. It appears to be gone but Erasma follows the trail.

All that is left is the line of blue glow and inside the jar, it is now empty with only two extremely tiny sparkles floating around. It appears that the jar might be activated once a week or per day. The sparkle line lasts for 20 minutes and then fades half way after 10 minutes. It went in a perfectly straight line, even passing through objects.

The Jar weighs 100 coins.

Cure disease is cast on Jacob and he offers Erasma 5,000 gp for the jar. She declines.

We all only get 592 xp. Erasma gets 1592 xp.

Avuin takes out a 2,700 gp loan taken on the 15th with a 9% interest to train. 1,800 gp of his wealth is spent and Avuin will be ready to play on the 2nd of Frost Moon.

Avuin will become a Level 3 Ranger and will have 27 hp for MAX.

Galerian is introduced to the party and Maervahr joins.

We spend 7 days for Maervahr to cast spells on everyone. The entire party has Stoneskin and Invisibility.

Maervahr uses Clairaudience from HIGH DELL to listen inside of the cave that we had discovered previously, where Fandillas' Hawk had track the Giants back to. Maervahr picks up a couple different voices in the Giant language and there are a bunch of different voices. He can definitely hear several voices including a female voice and a couple that are higher pitched, perhaps younger.

At 16 miles per hour, Galerian flies off toward the cave. We determine that for every 3“ of speed, this equals to 1 mile per hour. Galerian had become a Giant Eagle and flew off to the east.

As he heads off, he flies over a contingent of 100 Dwarves that are marching to the north. They have a flag. He quickly gets to the area that Maervahr had described. There are some birds in the area that will help him, since he can communicate with them.

He asks the birds for information about the cave and they tell him that about 3 to 4 Giants go out from the cave once per day. They have also seen Bears in the cave, which is quite large…possibly a Cave Bear.

Galerian then flies to ground level to see with his Eagle Eyes. He easily finds the cave with the help from the birds and the giant sized opening. There is nothing outside of the cave right now but there are signs of activity. Galerian can smell moisture from a body of water inside the cave and he can see that the opening passage twists deeper into the cave.

Meanwhile, back in High Dell, we learn about the ancient Dwarven settlements of the area.

Dro-vur, the Underriver, is as Dwarven city. 
Kol-tel the Cold. Taller and lighter skinned. 
It is deeper in the mountains and is further to the north. South of the mountains is Neblin Hold, which is the home of the Gnomes.

We check out buying some pack animals before heading out. Mules are 20 gp each and Thorgard buys 3 mules. Perrin goes to buy an Ox as a mount.

The party heads out to meet up near the cave of the Giants.

During the day. Galerian is scouting along with Maervahr when we spot, off in the distance, a group of Giant Rats tearing apart a four legged animal. We bypass the Rats and avoid them.

We continue on and set up camp. During the night…

Jacob and Perrin are keeping watch when, on a nearby mountain peak, they spot humanoid forms peering down from over the peaks. Then, the humanoid forms duck down below the edge of the mountain. The forms look to be man-sized.

Everyone is invisible and the humanoid creatures do not make themselves known. Actually, Jacob is not invisible but he goes to investigate. We are unable to locate the humanoids now but there were 8 of them.

That night, Josalyn, Jacob and Thorgard all receive Invisibility.

Travel continues and we make camp.

Nothing comes for us on the second night and we can believe we can get to the Giant's Cave in the evening.

We get to the location of the Giant's Cave without any further encounters.

The SAME BIRD that talked to Galerian before about the cave is still here. It tells us this time, two Giants left the cave so we go looking for the two that are not in the cave.

Maervahr and Jacob go looking for them from our Hippogriffs.

The Hippogriff Riders are flying and finally we find them. They do not see us but we see the two Giants. We return to get the rest of the group to intercept the two Giants.

Maervahr casts Strength on Thorgard who now has an 18.

As the party approaches, the Giants move toward us and display sounds of alarm. They pick up their clubs and are pointing toward the party. However, they appear to be looking over our heads.

Maervahr lands within range and then casts Lightning Bolt to get both of the Giants. He casts the spell but it misses both Giants as it is easy for any creature to avoid being targeted by any spell when outdoors just by moving.

Galerian charged so they can make a back attack. He is now an ALLOSAURUS, a form he knows as a Druid somehow. He tears through the mountain side and attacks one of the Giants. One Giant is mauled as blood flies out. This type of dinosaur is taller than the Giants.

Maervahr cannot take the form of an Allosaurus.

As Galerian is in melee, the Giant retaliates and hits but Stoneskin protects the Dinosaur! Thorgard and Jacob also engage.

Maervahr casts Phantasmal Force on the Giants to encase them in blood globes. They are now blind to the party and cannot breathe, if they believe the illusion.

A bunch of people hit and do damage to the Giants. The newly created Sabertoothed Tigers attack and Tiger A hits for 7 damage while Tiger B hits for 17 damage. The first Giant is HACKED APART and the other one is wounded!

The Giant attacks and does 9 damage to the Tiger. We destroy the last Giant out here!

We check through the Giant's possessions and they each have a large sack with the following:

• 1000 gp
• 3000 pp

Maervahr re-casts Stoneskin on Galerian the Allosaurus.

We return to the cave and prepare for another fight with Giants.

Thorgard begins singing to his ancestors about the defeat of the Giants. Once he starts singing a Dwarven tune, Maervahr casts Mirror Image. Four Mirror Images of Maervahr are created.

We can hear the running of the Giants from inside the cave, as they are coming up that curve in the passage.

Maervahr prepares to cast Lightning Bolt once something emerges. In the next segment, the Giants begin charging forward. Maervahr unleashes the spell and they take 16 damage from a Lightning Bolt!

The Giants have long clubs and move into the front ranks of the party. They strike with their clubs on a charge and Jacob is hit, but Stoneskin is used to block the damage. There are 2 attacks on Tiger A and it takes takes 21 damage! The last attack is on Tiger B, which hits Stoneskin!

Two large Cave Bears also emerge out of the cave and both are charging on Jacob. One of the Cave Bears hits with both claws and hugs. Jacob takes 8 damage and the hug deals 6 damage. In total, this deals 9 points of absorbed damage to his Full Plate Armor. The Cave Bear bite misses as the other Bear misses!

Jacob hits one of the Cave Bears for 13 damage as Tiger A attacks and hits for 7 damage.

Maervahr begins to cast Polymorph Other on the healthiest looking Giant and Thorgard has AC -5 vs Giants. There are 3 Giants attacking Thorgard and 1 on Jacob. Thorgard dances around the Giants as they all miss! The male Giant hits Jacob and does 4 damage while his armor takes 6 damage from the attack.

There is one Cave Bear on Jacob and one attacking the Sabertooth Tiger. Jacob is missed but the Tiger is hit with both claws and a bite. It takes 15 damage.

Polymorph Other goes off and Maervahr transforms one of the Giants into a goldfish! The Allosaurus quickly rends it to pieces. The female Giants scream in fear and rage after this spell goes off.

There is an AC 4 on the female Giants and an AC 6 on the Cave Bears. Jacob hits for 13 damage and the Tiger hits for 14 damage.

Maervahr is now psionically invisible and moves to engage.

Two more creatures emerge out: an Ogre-sized Stone Giant and an Orc-sized Stone Giant. They Charge into the group. One of them is going for Thorgard and so is the other.

Thorgard defends himself against the Stone Giant children and one of the female Giants attacks Thorgard and missed. Another female Giant hits the Tiger for 13 damage and it DIES! Another Tiger has fallen.

The Bears continue to attack Jacob. One claw hits for 1 damage and also does 3 to his armor. The Stone Giant children have AC 6. The Allosaurus chomps down on the Orc sized child and severs it at the waist. Meanwhile, Jacob does 14 damage to the the Cave Bear and it is SLAIN!

There are two female Giants and one Ogre-sized Giant left along with one Cave Bear. Maervahr's Psionic Invisibility has used 6 Psionic Strength points so far. Jacob is missed by the Giant and the Allosaurus smacks away the other Giant.

Maervahr is now in melee range and Burning Hands is cast on the female Giant, dealing 8 damage. The Child has AC 5 but the females are all AC 4. The Cave Bear has an AC 6.

Thorgard hits and does 7 damage. The Allosaurus attacks and does 25 damage to one of the female Stone Giants. It rips its head off and the last of the Giants is dead.

Maervahr casts Burning Hands again and goes back to Psionic Invisibility. It does another 8 damage on a Cave Bear. Then, Jacob hits the Cave Bear and it takes 19 total damage. It is dead! The Stone Giant child hits for 4 damage.

Jacob is attacked next round but the Giant child misses. Maervahr attacks with his staff and deals 5 damage! This drops the last of them!

All the female Stone Giants have identical sized coin purses. We collect all the treasure which amounts to the following:

• 3000 gp
• 6000 gp
• 5000 gp
• 5000 gp
• 1000 gp
• 300 gp

• 8 Gems:
  • 2 x 9 gp gems
  • 2 x 1000 gp gems
  • 2 x 10 gp gems
  • 2 x 50 gp gems

We return to High Dell and are untroubled along the way.

Back in High Dell, we split treasure.

XP VALUE:

• 6406 gold xp
• 3203 gold xp for henchmen

Actual amounts:

• 500 pp
• 3906 gp

-2138 gp for Maervahr

Maervahr gets:

• 500 pp
• 1768 gp
• 8 gems:
  • 2 x 9 gp gems Banded Agate
  • 2 x 1000 gp gems Jacinth
  • 2 x 10 gp gems hematite
  • 2 x 50 gp gems sardonyx

Henchman get 2660 xp.

Players get 8523 xp.

We made it back to High Dell in 3 days

Frost Moon the 8th is when we can start for next session.