Post Discussion with Occulus
We ask
Mr. Wong about the wildlife. Opt to stay. Take him up on the cold weather gear.
He offers us a meal: fish and fruits.
Stormy offers to grow flowers outside as a nicety. They take some and set up some as a display.
They set up cots and a heater for us. They are very attentive, used to a high-maintenance master.
When we wake up, pastries and drinks. Stack of furs.
Landis WATCHED them when they brought them in. Cloaks with hoods. They would get in the way of defending ourselves. Might be good for camouflage.
Mr. Wong “guides” us past the traps.
Thalmos’ cabin should be the passes over the 3 ranges in that valley. The first one on this side.
On the Job
Up ahead there’s a mountain. There is snow above the pass.
Shimmer scouts since she can fly.
Shimmer says there’s a herd of elk. We want meat? (Distract the Giant?)
Hunting party:
Stormy Smoking Mountain, Shimmer,
Cita Sarez. (The rest watch.)
(Stormy offers forest sneak lessons. Cita takes her up on it.)
We see 1 elk with horns—BIG trophy size. The does are off somewhere else. He’s acting normal. He spooks and runs out of sight. We track him.
Over the rise, he’s in the next flat. We take him down in 1 attack.
Stormy will clean the kill. And we keep the antlers.
Top of the pass—cold and about to get dark. We go down the other side and gather wood. It snows tonight. We take turns on watch.
We are pretty certain nothing is happening, and it is quiet.
This next range is taller. Stormy scouts ahead with Shimmer. Cita takes up the rear.
We are able to pick out good routes. We get up the mountain, not quite at the top. We find on the rocky path that there’s an inlet in the rocks—a possible campsite. Evidence that others have stayed here. Nobody recently. Just an alcove.
Same watches as the night before.
Landis makes noise.
Cita Sarez wakes bolt upright, knowing there's danger.
FIGHT!
We see a mountain of muscle running at us with full speed. One of the most aggressive things we’ve ever seen.
Thing is 3x the height of Thoradin.
(17 is a miss.)
STRANGE creature. HUGE. 99 % muscle, multiple eyes, lots of teeth.
We keep the claws—a necklace for each of us. We drop the remains off the cliff.
We wash off the blood with the decanter of endless water.
Long rest and heal.
Next Day
We get down in the valley the next day. The next mountain isn’t as big. But the trees are much bigger on the other side. They are farther apart.
Stormy attempts to talk with them. No response. But she offers niceties.
Fast travel… spend the night.
Everything is BIGGER. End of 4th day. We rest. Stormy starts searching for the cabin. Shimmer finds it. “Cabin” is interesting for something HUGE. 100s of feet long and 40-50 feet tall. Approaching it now after lunch.
Smoke is rising from the chimney. We hear something like woodworking. A well off to the left. BIG tracks. No animals. Naturally built in a clearing. Guesstimate 1 big room or 2-3 rooms. A bachelor pad. The windows are 30 feet up in the air. We don’t see other prints, like a big dog's prints.
We case the house. Only the front door. It is possible but tough to get through the gap with no armor. Rashid and Cita could squeeze under the door.
Cita peeks under the door. It’s about dinnertime; something yummy is cooking. A LONG way away, she sees a very big guy, barefoot. He’s probably cooking dinner.
Rashid Fen Rey casts silence on the area by the window.
Thoradin son of Thorlum jumps. The hammering stopped a bit ago—from the right side. More smoke is coming out of the chimney. Stormy wants the bearskin rug.
Thoradin hanging on the ledge. It's hard to see through the windows. No good specifics on the orb. The giant is likely 35-40 feet tall. Taller than the previous giant we fought. He had the scrolling tattoo work in many places.
The door handle is 20 ft up.
Checking the stonework under the cabin. It’s well maintained.
Recon, then attempt talking to him if we have to.
We wait until it goes quiet. Rashid casts invisibility on himself and Cita. They take a chalkboard. They take an immovable rod (to maybe lock the giant in the room).
They crawl under the door. He is not in the room. They sneak around. Rashid braces the immovable rod against the door. Cita is suspicious of the mirror.
Rashid and Cita look at the stuff in the box on the floor. In the chest is a crystal ball—like
Occulus described. They haven’t touched it. There is nothing important in the other things in the box.
Bench for messing around with little people things. His collection of little people things. The barrel smells like terrific brandy. The pile—fancy things. The chest—another orb and 3 potions. The box has several yards of silk.
They grab each of them. Just focusing on the mission! They leave 50 for each orb.
They exit. Shimmer takes off with the things they hand her. We leave the area and go to the tree line. Rashid casts detect magic. No difference at all in the orbs. Divination magic. Identical.
Grasti’s sword, the black sword—we thought it was dead. It’s not. Weird magic.
Attempt #2
(While we go in, Rashid and Landis stay behind. Rashid attempts to attune to an orb.)
Shimmer flies up and opens the door. We sneak in.
1 barrel has a door. Another orb! **Stormy leaves 50 gold.**
Thoradin checks out the table and the worktable. And another orb. **Leaves 50 gp of gold** (took out of
Bag of Holding list).
Look under the bearskin.
Stormy casts silence on the hinges. Shimmer does the door latch—SUPER SNEAKY. He’s wearing a beholder skull.
Cita sneaks. Grabs the orb in the small chest and leaves gold again. Inside the big chest—HIS leather armor.
Cita leaves, and we close the door. And head out. And we leave safely.
Outside
Rashid says these are some sort of scoring marker. “I am scored for
Thalmos.” A game between Thalmos and Occulus.
We will vacate the area.
They are ALL scored to Thalmos.
We put 3 in the little alcove and more than 30 feet apart, at least. Will take 2 back to Occulus.
Next time
Fast travel back. Meet at Occulus’s place.
Stormy is curious to know how much trouble we started for Occulus. Everyone else says, “Not our problem.”
For size comparision!
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