Pregmere: A Giant Pursuit and a Blackrazor Offensive

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About the Saga

The Blackrazors fight off another band of giants, and a fire elemental, thereby blocking any pursuit and allowing the freed Geoffites to reach The Lea. After seeing them to safety, the adventurers launch a sneak attack against Pregmere itself.


Timeframe

Cast of Characters

Notable Quotes

"Based upon your reputation, the things I’ve heard about the Blackrazor guild, I didn’t think you could pull of such an … effective … rescue operation." -- Lord Gilead Olis, leader of the Grand Duke’s forces at The Lea

What Has Come Before

The Blackrazors have fought their way across the giant-riddled plains of Geoff, liberated the besieged town of The Lea, assaulted a giant stronghold at the former town of Pregmere, and freed the Geoffites the giants had enslaved there. Along the way, they’d learned a great deal about the giants and the ‘angel’ and 'sky gods' that are supposedly behind their current invasion. Currently the adventurers are protecting the humans they helped to escape as they make their way to the relative safety of The Lea’s wooden palisades. They fought off one pursuing patrol of giants and giant-kin, but more are on their way.

The Saga

Patchwall 25, CY 590

Mid-day found Kalib, Troll-Greggor, Erilar, K’Zograh, Aesop, D’Klar, and Gideon moving to catch up with the Geoffite contingent making for The Lea. Tanevir had teleported ahead to accompany them and provide support to the Grand Duke’s men guarding them. The rest of the party resumed its task of providing rear protection for the escaping freed slaves. K’Zograh, employing the party’s Hawk Golem, was keeping watch for advancing giant patrols. After only a short time, he gave a shout and indicated that he had seen more giants approaching. Concentrating for a moment, he then explained to rest of the group that he could see a warband consisting of one fire giant and six ogres heading due south along a path to meet up with the warband the Blackrazors had bested earlier. The party decided to meet the new threat head on. While closing with the warband, Erilar saw two hellhounds approaching them on their right flank. He sent up a warning to his mates, and then let fly a trio of arrows that found their mark, reducing the number of hellhounds to one. The group picked up the pace, hoping to make quick work of these foes, as Gideon called forth the power of his mind and attacked the fire giants' ogre companions with a Mass Concussion.

Kalib, wary at this warband's seeming smallish numbers, cast True Seeing. He saw a second fire giant who was traveling under an Invisibility spell. Before he could say anything, however, that fire giant noticed his reaction. With a scream of, “here’s a present from the sky gods!” the invisible fire giant threw a boulder into the midst of the adventuring party. Ready to scoff when the boulder completely missed everyone, Kalib was quickly surprised when its explosion yielded more than a simple Fireball. Suddenly there was a huge fire elemental standing among them!

The fire elemental immediately took advantage of the surprise it had caused, and unloaded a devestating attack on Kalib. Reeling from the damage, he tried to counter by casting Dismissal to return the elemental to its native plane, but the spell failed, allowing the elemental to hit Kalib again. K’Zograh flew away from the elemental and cast Lightning Bolt at the ogres, severely weakening them. Aesop cowered behind Erilar, and cast a Polymorph Other spell on the elemental that also failed. At this point the hellhounds joined the fight. One of them breathed on Erilar, toasting him slightly with his flame breath. Simultaneously two ogres jumped up from hiding and joined the hellhound in attacking the elf.

A displacer beast appeared and lashed out a Troll-Greggor with a tentacle, but its miss allowed the Troll to advance on the fire giants. One of the fire giants tossed a boulder at Troll-Greggor, but missed. The other fire giant tried to sneak up on Troll-Greggor, while his ogre and hellhound followers were trying to sneak up on the rest of the adventurers. K’Zograh spotted them, however, and let loose a Fireball that incinerated all of the ogres. Erilar used his bow to place an arrow in one of his attackers, and Gideon though a Greater Concussion at the elemental. The fire elemental smacked the cleric of Trithereon yet again, but Kalib withstood it, mustering his remaining energy to offer up a prayer to his god.

Kalib cast a Banishment spell that, through the favor of his deity, sent the flaming creature back to its otherworldly home. With the fire elemental gone, Aesop stood up and cast Ice Storm at the fire giants, pounding and freezing them. The party still had its work cut out for it, though, as more ogres moved in at Erilar, spilling some of the hearty elf’s blood. The combatants continued to move, bob, and weave, exchanging blows and partners in a violent melee.

The party seemed to have the battle well in hand, however, dealing much more damage with their attacks than the giant warband was managing. But things change in such fights without warning. A displacer beast lashed out at Kalib, but fumbled and smacked itself in the forehead with both its tentacles. Troll-Greggor then hit and rended a fire giant. D’Klar’s axe sliced giant flesh as well. While that fire giant was under attack, the invisible one materialized right next to Kalib, using his advantage to hit the cleric again. While Kalib cast a healing spell on himself to remain in the fight, Erilar and Gideon attacked the ogres and hellhounds flanking them. Aesop and K’Zograh added magical Ice Storms and Lightning Bolts towards the flank as well, and ogres and hellhounds began to drop. One of the ogres managed to close, however, and dropped the Erilar with a mighty club slam.

Another displacer beast appeared near Kalib, both such creatures lashing out at him. Only one hit, though, and Kalib shrugged, his attention still focused on the fire giant in front of him. That giant swung his greatsword and smote the cleric, starggering him greatly, but Kalib kept his feet. Gideon focused on the fire giant, and rocked him with more Concussive damage. Kalib took the opportunity to channel more healing magic from his god, bringing himself back to his top fighting strength. Troll-Greggor killed the fire giant he was engaging with a mighty claw, and he and D’Klar rushed to aid Kalib. K’Zograh unleashed a bolt from his Lightning wand at the remaining fire giant, and gideon added another mental blast of Concussion, while Aesop cast magic missles at the remaining flankers. From here the battle ended quickly, with Troll-Greggor dropping the last fire giant and a displacer beast, and the party’s mages finishing off the last standing ogres.

Kalib quickly moved to his elven friend’s side and healed Erilar. The rest of the party commenced looting, gathering some gold and silver pieces, as well as a silver goblet and an electrum belt buckle. Troll-Greggor took the opportunity to collect the pelts of the displacer beasts and hellhounds, as well as the eyes of the giants, imagining the pimp clothes he could make with the skins, and the drinks he’d get free in Hochoch. The adventurers also picked up two more unused rune-encrusted, fire giant boulders, which they added to their spoils.

Back on their feet, the Blackrazors quickly left the scene of carnage. Using the Hawk Golem yet again, they determined that no giants were in the vicinity. The quickly headed for The Lea, using the hawk to confirm that the freed Geoffites were making safe progress toward it. They continued uneventfully, arriving at The Lea early the next day, shortly after the escapees had reached their new haven.


Patchwall 26, CY 590

Upon their arrival, the Blackrazors immediately made sure that the folks they had liberated from Pregmere had arrived safely and were being housed, fed, and cared for in a manner that suited citizens of the Grand Duke’s land. Assured that everything possible, given the outpost's meager accoutrements, was being done, the adventurers made their way to report to Lord Gilead and his staff. The Lord’s pleasure at their success was only outshone by his utter surprize that such a chaotic group had indeed effected such an organized undertaking. He did not, however, forget his graciousness, and welcomed the guild back and offered them his hospitality once again. The party, tired and worn from their recent battles, quickly checked on their guildmates and redshirts present, and then commenced to rest for the remainder of the day.


Patchwall 27, CY 590

The next morning, the Blackrazors healed their wounds, rememorized their spells, and made all the necessary provisions for rejoining the fight. While a few members of the hearty band voiced a desire to rest longer, Tanevir and Kalib assured them that there was more fighting to be done. “The giants will not only be upset they’ve lost their slaves, but they will be looking to replace them,” noted the cleric ruefully. The party agreed that their skills and talents were much in demand this day to keep the giants controling Pregmere at bay. The decision was made to ensure the safety of The Lea. To that end, the Hawk Golem and scouting parties were used to investigate the land immediately surrounding the walled town. Satisfied that their current base of operations was not being threatened directly, the Blackrazors voted amongst themselves to venture back to Pregmere and assault the giants on their stolen turf. Near the end of the day, the party readied to attack. Using a Teleport spell, guildmaster Tanevir sent Kalib, Erilar, Troll-Greggor, K’Zograh, D’Klar, and Gideon back to the plains surrounding Pregmere. They advanced until they were about 5 miles from the end of the town, and set up camp. They established watches, and made ready to wait and watch for an opportunity to bring the giants a gift of their brand of steel, magic, and death.


Patchwall 28, CY 590

In the morning, the party rose, collected itself, and sent up the Hawk Golem for some new reconnaissance. They saw nothing in their immediate vicinity, and sent the hawk to scout out Pregmere. Through the Hawk, K’Zograh reported that he could see four fire giants and eight hill giants in the fields right outside of town. The fire giants were watching both the town’s border and the hill giant slaves, who were being forced to work in the fields. After two hours, the party figured they had learned all they could at the time. The decided to settle in until dusk, when they would begin their approach.

As the light faded from the sky, Troll-Greggor volunteered to sneak up to town to see if anything had changed. Comfortable flitting through the darkness, the shadowdancer snuck into the town, past the fire giant patrols. He found his way to the Dark House in the center of town. He noticed tracks leading into and out of the entrance. Mostly were small; he took those to be derro. Larger ones didn’t seem big enough to be giants; he took those to be human slaves. On his way back out of town, Troll-Greggor took note of the number and type of patrols the giants had established. He sees the fire giants brutally locking up the hill giants who had slaved in the fields all day. Then he witnessed the fire giants set up two patrols of six fire giants each. One group stayed in the center of town, patrolling the streets. The second group divided into three groups of two, all three groups circling the perimeter at intervals. Troll-Greggor cast See Invisibility, but could see nothing he hadn’t otherwise noticed. He covered his tracks and made his way through the shadows back to his waiting guildmates.

When Troll-Greggor returned to the Blackrazors, he told them about the Dark House and fire giant patrols he had seen. He also mentioned that, in total, he had seen in the neighborhood of twenty fire giants. After hearing about the patrols, the guild decided that there best option currently would be to hit one of the patrols.

The Blackrazors spelled up in preparation for their assault. Many of them cast Protection and Shield type spells. They decided that to achieve a quick strike, they would go in flying and invisible, at least as best they could. When they were ready, the group of six had themselves divided into three groups of two. Kalib would fly, carrying Gideon while they were both invisible. K’Zograh, invisible, would fly carrying Erilar. Troll-Greggor would shadowwalk, carrying D’Klar. Once everyone was ready, the party put into effect its secret weapon for this assault. They cast Silence on a few arrows and a few rocks. Hopefully, they could do some serious damage without alerting the entire townful of giants.

The party arrived at the edge of town. While sneaking up on the fire giant patrol they could see, they noticed four ogres pacing the patrol. Erilar began the attack by sending a silenced arrow at a fire giant. His second arrow wasn’t silenced, however, and the ogres in the patrol reacted to the twang of his bowstring. Troll-Greggor attacked before they could, however, brutally slashing on ogre and attacking the other fire giant. Thanks to the silenced rock D’Klar was carrying, that fire giant found he couldn’t shout a warning to raise reinforcements. Kalib moved into melee, dropping a silence rock near one ogre, and then attacking another. Gideon unleashed a Mass Concussion on the two fire giants, the sound of which was muffled, but not eliminated, but the Silence spells inside its area of effect.

At this point, two of the ogres were able to raise an alarm, K’Zograh cast Cone of Cold, hitting a fire giant and an ogre. Erilar slew an ogre and hit a fire giant with two of his deadly arrows. Troll-Greggor continued his assault on a fire giant, hitting it critically with his terrible claws, dropping him to the ground. Kalib killed an ogre, and D’Klar traded blows with the last fire giant.

The two remaining ogres sprinted for the cover of the closest buildings, yelling for help. K’Zograh sent a Melf’s Acid Arrow into one of them, while an arrow from Erilar’s speedy bowstring dropped the other. Troll-Greggor hit the fire giant, the only remaining member of the patrol, when a hail of bolts came flying into the party. Troll-Greggor was hit by one, and could feel the poison on its tip unsuccessfully try to enter his body. It seems a small contingent of derro saw the Blackrazors attack, and moved to come to the patrols aid. Kalib moved in behind Troll-Greggor and buried Justiceseeker in the fire giants, looting its body as it fell to the ground.

In response to their new opponents, D’Klar drew his own crossbow. K’Zograh ducked down to hide behind Erilar, while the elf drew a bead and killed three of the derro with arrows. Troll-Greggor charged the two remaining derro, noticing another one hiding off to the right. He attacked and killed one derro, and then moved to engage the hiding one. Kalib and D’Klar looted the fire giant bodies, letting the rest of the party dispatch the derro. Erilar dropped the last attacking derro. When Troll-Greggor moved to kill the hiding one, something strange happened. All of a sudden, Troll-Greggor stopped. The victim of a Charm spell, Troll-Greggor finished his approach and greeted the derro as a long-lost friend. The derro asked Troll-Greggor to defend him, and the shadowdancer turned to face his guildmates. Seeing his friend under foreign control, and enraged at the flagrant mind control, Kalib flew above and behind the mighty Troll and brought the steel of his sword to bear on the underdweller. Erilar followed Kalib's lead, and launched an arrow into the derro that finished Kalib’s blow. As the derro body inhaled its last breath, Troll-Greggor regained his consciousness. Gideon moved up, noticing a psionic aura coming from the mind-controlling derro. He picked up a Crystal Capacitor from the ground next to the corpse, and seeing that his companions had picked up all they could find, made ready to depart with them. Knowing that they weren’t ready to combat reinforcements, the party bugged out the way they came in, and quickly made it back to their hideout in the plains nearby. Content they were not followed, and wouldn’t be noticed where they were, they looked over their take from the raid. In addition to a number of gold coins, they had picked up a scroll with divine spells of Calm Animals, Cure Light Wounds, and Hold Person inscribed on it.

The party settled down to rest, planning on making tracks for The Lea in the morning.


Experience

Not available.

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