Pregmere: Illusions on the Plains of Geoff

About the Saga

Having freed the former citizens of Pregmere from slavery, the Blackrazors try to chaperone them to the relative safety of The Lea. Along the way they use their considerable magic and their fighting skills to waylay the pursuing giants.

Timeframe

• Greyhawk Date: Patchwall 24, CY 590
• Real World Date: December 7, 2001
• Read other Blackrazor Guild Sagas

Notable Quotes

“They’re giants. They must eat lots of food.”– K’Zograh

“Yes. That’s why they’re coming for us.” – Gideon

What Has Come Before

Having liberated The Lea, the Blackrazor guild of Obsidian Bay, the Pomarj, decided to take the fight to the Giants marauding Geoff in hopes of learning what malign forces were organizing the present wave of destruction. In the former town of Pregmere, the adventurers found slaves being forced to farm, and supply caravans being loaded for western destinations unknown. The Blackrazors, using the powerful magics of their party mages, tunneled under the town and liberated the humans enslaved there. While some of the party protected the gathering escapees, others harried giants patrols and the derro, evil and stunted underdwellers who seemed to have come to Pregmere to purchase slaves from the giants. All that remained was to see the 300 Geoffites back to the relative safety of The Lea.

The Saga

Patchwall 24, CY 590

The time came when all of the prisoners had reached the mouth of the tunnel, the underground passages had been collapsed, and the party had regrouped and was ready for its next move. The various members of The Lea’s forces, Kalib’s followers, and Dim Forest rangers who had been brought in to help with this mission were sent off, leading the 300 strong contingent of newly-freed Geoffites back to The Lea. The Blackrazors decided to split the party up, once again. Tanevir, Kalib, and Troll-Greggor headed back into Pregmere to create a diversion to stall a probable pursuit by the fire giants. The rest of the party, Erilar, K’Zograh, D’Klar, and Gideon, began back towards The Lea, acting as a rear guard for the escapees.

On their way into the town, Tanevir, Kalib, and Troll-Greggor heard a gong sound, followed by repeated shouts in Giantish. “Well, they’ve noticed the prisoners are gone,” muttered Kalib. Troll-Greggor suggested they set free some of the hill giants the fire giants have emprisoned, hoping they would attack the fire giants. Tanevir and Kalib agreed it would make for a good diversion. They snuck up on a pair of fire giants guarding the door to a hill giant prison-house. Tanevir shot a trusty Lance of Disruption spell at one of the guards. The guard yelled out in pain. However, the other guard saw Tanevir, and started yelling that they were under attack from an invisible foe. Meanwhile, Troll-Greggor had successfully snuck up and picked the large lock securing the door. With the sounds of approaching reinforcements in their ears, the small party wisely decided to head for another hill giant prison-house.

Away from their first target, the party decided on a second tactic for its second assault. Instead of distracting the guards, Tanevir snuck around the side of the house and cast Transmute Rock to Mud on the wall. As the wall collapsed into a puddle on the ground, the hill giants inside came shambling out, still shackled at the hands and feet. The fire giant guards came around the corner then, sending up a shout and attacking the confused hill giants. The party again moved on, figuring that this was also a succesful diversion.

At the third hill giant prison-house they encountered, the party decided on yet another tactic. This time, Tanevir cast Major Image, creating an image of hill giants escaping from the prison. This however, did not work as effectively as it was intended. When the first fire giant guard moved to follow the illusionary hill giants, his partner stopped him. Troll-Greggor was able to translate his comment as, “No, don’t go after them. He’ll kill us.” The party, puzzled by this comment, decided they had created sufficient deversions to give the fleeing Geoffites good lead time and headed back to rejoin their guildmembers in the rear guard.

On their way out of town, however, they passed the derro’s dark house. Kalib cast Flamestrike, and engulfed the house in a shower of divine fire. Kalib praised Trithereon, and then cursed his luck as he realized that with that casting his Invisibility spell expired. Troll-Greggor had the solution, however, as he threw Kalib into the Portable Hole and carried him out of town. Still invisible and flying, Tanevir followed, and they all rejoined the rest of the Blackrazors.

Using their various and considerable magics, Tanevir, Kalib, and Troll-Greggor were able to catch up with the rest of their guild. “Well, the good news is no one died. The bad news is we didn’t do too much damage during our distractions. Oh, and, they seem to be . . . organized,” Kalib reported back to his companions. The Blackrazor guild spent some time discussing what their next move should be as they followed the contingent of freed Geoffites away from Pregmere. One of the Grand Duke’s rangers fell back to the party and passed along the information that the giant patrols that harried The Lea previously were pretty well organized, and often employed flanking maneuvers. Also remembering the speed with which giants could travel, the guild decided they must take steps to further slow and discourage any attempts at pursuit.

While the main group continued on, the Blackrazors decided to stop and set a diversion to delay any followers. Using his wand, Tanevir raised an illusion of a camp, complete with tents, command tents, armed guards, and all the trappings of a large force having stopped on their journey. The guild then moved a ways off, and using their handy Hawk Golem, they spied on their illusion from above. Soon enough, they saw a few giantish scouts approach the town. Rather than attack, these giant-kin backed off. It was quite apparent, however, that they meant to return, and in greater numbers. The Blackrazors maintained their hawk-watch as they moved to catch-up with the main group, and sure enough, the scouts brought the main force of the pursuing giants right to the camp. The giants’ attack was mighty indeed, but futile, as they soon discovered that their prey had eluded and deceived them. At this point the Blackrazors were back with the fleeing Geoffites. They assumed that, based upon the travel time and the time taken up by their attack, that the giants were now a good six hours behind them. Not great, but a little breathing room.

Not feeling secure enough, the Blackrazors decide to push their group on through the night. Everyone was willing, but shortly a good third of the former slaves were exhausted. Kalib and D’Klar beseeched their respective gods for relief, and were rewarded with magical food and water to feed and sustain the entire contingent.

Patchwall 25, CY 590

When dawn broke the next day, the party figured that another diversion was necessary to ensure the Geoffites safely reach The Lea. Again Tanevir employed his wand, and a gain an illusory camp sprung to life. This time, however, the plan was different. With the Grand Duke’s men, and trusted others, leading the escapees back to The Lea, the Blakcrazors decided to wait in ambush for the giant forces. They figured the giants had behaved intelligently enough not to be fooled again by the same illusion, and the Geoffites needed as much of a head start as they could get. So, the Blackrazors all hid nearby. This allowed Tanevir to manipulate the illusion, making it react when seen and approached by the first of the giant forces. Then, according to the plan, the Blackrazors could attack and at least hold off the advancing giants. At least, that was the plan.

As the giantish scouts approached the new camp, they were at first suspicious, but then fell for Tanevir’s illusory enhancements. They shouted to others, and hurled boulders that exploded into fireballs in the midst of the camp. When they saw that Tanevir had changed the illusion to depict damage, they were fooled, and their entire party drew their weapons and rushed into battle.

The Blackrazors saw three fire giants, accompanied by four stealthy looking ogres and four barbaric looking ogres. Tanevir quickly cast invisibility on D’Klar. Troll-Greggor, calling him his “dwarven monkey,” picked up D’Klar and snuck towards the camp with him. Tanevir dispelled the illusion, and erilar took advantage of the giant warbnad’s confusion to sink two arrows into the closes ogre. By then Troll-Greggor had closed with a fire giant and lashed out with his powerful claws. Tanevir then employed the guild’s new tactical spell, Wall of Thorns, and isolated the other two fire giants from the fray and catching a few of the ogres in the wall. At this point, Gideon decided that he had talents that could be beneficial in ending this battle quickly, talents he hadn’t yet employed to aid his new companions. To this end he advanced towards the ogres and fire giants, but took no apparent action. While the other Blackrazors noted Gideon’s move questioningly, Kalib shrugged it off, and took the time to make his own attack, bringing a Flamestrike down on two of the ogres.

The confusion created by the illusion and the ambush quickly abated, and the giants and their ogre followers quickly set their sights on slaying their newly revealed foes. Two of the ogres try to attack troll-Greggor, but due to his dextrous nature, and the spells he was employing, they missed. Two ogres charged Gideon, followed by another, and the three of them surrounded the Steelstormer. One of them got in a swing with his large blade, and Gideon’s blood began to flow. Not waiting for all the giant-kin to attack his friends, K’Zograh unleashed an Ice Storm on the fir giants trapped within the Wall of Thorns.

As D’Klar swung his axe, as if from nowhere, and bit into the flesh of an ogre, Kalib lets up a shout. “Hey! Displacer beasts. We knew about those, but forgot.” Sure enough, A displacer beast had appeared behind Gideon, lashing out at him in an attempt to finish what the three ogres had successfully begun. The Blackrazors looked on as Gideon fell to the ground, bleeding out onto the field.

Their battle-fever blazing hotter on seeing their partner felled, the adventurers unleashed destruction upon the giant warband. Tanevir cast Chain Lightning, hiting a large poriton of the ogres and giants present. Erilar loosed a barrage of arrows and dropped one of the ogres that attacked Gideon. Kalib moved to the fallen Steelstormer’s side, praying to Trithereon to heal his friend. His prayers were interrupted, as he was buffeted by the onslaught of the displacer beast and ogres still standing over Gideon. Kalib noticed, however, that Gideon didn’t seem to be bleeding badly anymore, and while unconscious, looked alive enough to allow Kalib to focus on defeating his attackers first. While this was happening, K’Zograh cast a Cone of Cold that slays two ogres and injures two of the fire giants. D’Klar, still invisible, axed another ogre into the afterworld of its choice.

One of the fire giants busted through the Wall of Thorns, scratched and punctured but still quite spry, and moved to engage Troll-Greggor. The fire giant that was already fighting Troll-Greggor managed to land a shot while his attention was distracted by this new opponent. Troll-Greggor countered his attackers, but fumbled badly, missing both the fire giants. The displacer beast took this opportunity to lash out at Kalib, but misses the cleric with his barbed tentacle.

Erilar pulled back on his bowstring again, and arrows flew. One hit and dropped an ogre, and two others found their marks in another ogre. Tanevir swooped down from above, and struck an ogre with his sword, casting Shocking Grasp through his blade to kill the evil creature. Kalib swung Justiceseeker and hit the displacer beast that attacked him. K’Zograh conjured up another Cone of Cold and blasted the fire giants. At this point, the party notice that another displacer beast had appeared. This one lashed out at D’Klar, but missed. The dwarf proved better, splitting displacer beast flesh with his axe. While Kalib and D’Klar fend off the little blue beasts, Erilar and Troll-Greggor combined to finish off one of the fire giants. Wrapping up the fight, Tanevir cast Hold Monster on the last remaining fire giant, Kalib and Erilar killed the displacer beasts, and Erilar and K’Zograh slew the last two ogres with normal and Melf’s Acid arrows, respectively.

With all their foes down, Kalib moved over and cast a healing spell on Gideon. Gideon rose, and looked at his companions sheepishly as he assessed their work. The party tried to interrogate the giant Tanevir had held, but he resisted their every effort. Gown weary of hearing that “their doom” awaited them, Kalib slit the giants throat and then cast Speak With Dead to learn what he knew. The Blackrazors learned that the ‘angel’ that commanded and protected the giants and their marauding kin was named Valeragnarithon. The chief of the Pregmere fire giants was called Ulfron. The fire giants, even their chief, cannot summon the angel, he comes and goes as he pleases, although he is rarely pleased with his minions. The adventurers also confirmed that the giants have been dealing with the derro for slaves, learning that the derro paid handsomely for healthy specimens.

After learning all they could from the dead giant, the party turned to collecting the spoils of their martial efforts. They collected a considerable sum of gold and platinum from the giants, as well as a few gems. Additionally, they found amid one giant’s belongings a quiver with a number of magical arrows, which they quickly gave to their elven archer-in-residence, Erilar.

Their present task finished, the Blackrazors resumed their trailing of the escaping Geoffites, ever vigilant for more giants and their malevolent underlings.

Experience

Not available.