Session 19 Player Notes — Tracking the Giants to the Giant Gate Fort

These are the players’ own session notes, preserved from the party’s game document. They capture the table’s perspective — what the players saw, did, and said.

Key Events

Party pursued the fleeing giants from Dazzlebelt’s, tracking them across the landscape
Ambushed and killed two hill giants en route (Lyra shadow-stepped a crit, Guts decapitated one)
Discovered a primordial gate at the back of a fort, guarded by giants
Met [[Vordana]], a young horned elf ranger of the Stag, who had been tracking the giants alone
Found the [[Duergar]] refugees led by [[Aahrad]], who revealed their blacksmith [[Durakk Stoneforge]] was kidnapped
Lyra had a dream encounter with [[Kelemvor]] — her first day “on the job” judging dead souls
Assaulted the giant gate fort: Alora Amathur was killed by hill giants during the battle

Session Notes

Barnabus Dazzlebelt’s Observatory

Serril casts Calm Emotions — ambient green light settles everywhere and the screaming starts to subside. [[Barnabus Dazzlebelt]] takes Lux up to the room they were talking of turning into a detect-people-with-magic dome. Barnabus shows plans for an observatory with a telescopic lens and the ability to detect magic. It’s quite expensive to build and takes some time. “Please bring back some magical items. I may have taken some of the magical items from the paladins.” He pours out green magical dust from the bag. “Give me a week and I think something can work.”

Tracking the Giants

We run off after the giants, leaving Reaghl and Kaial behind. The giants are easy to track, but their stride is impressive. We notice two giants join the group — there are now four giants. Serril is exhausted. He climbs onto Vol and sees a scar of damage through the landscape as the giants race ahead.

Ambush — Two Hill Giants

Round 1. Arawn is caught in a net that erupts from the ground. As he is being pulled up in the net he sees a giant with an enormous boulder. The giant throws it at Arawn — 23 points of bludgeoning damage. Lyra climbs up a tree. The giant throws another rock at her. She dodges, but still takes 13 points of damage. Arawn hacks at the rope, carving a hole big enough to get out. He jumps, landing superman style, and hides behind the nearest tree.

Lyra jumps out of shadows, stabbing the giant in the neck with her Green Flame Blade. Auto-crit using shadow step! There is a beautiful stag that looks at Lyra as she does this, then runs off. We hear the sound of a giant screaming, and a crash.

Guts runs towards the direction of where the rock came from. Lux gives a command for Vol to pick him up. Vol swings in low and Lux jumps up on his back and soars to 20 feet in the air towards the giant where Guts is. Serril is along for the ride. Caladin double dashes towards Guts and calls out “Guts, do you see anything?” Alora Amathur dashes forwards towards Guts, casting Spiritual Weapon and causing 10 damage.

Round 2. Arawn dashes up to the tree beside Alora Amathur. Bonus action — Slayer’s Prey. The giant tries to pull out a tree and throw it at the group. He pulls a disc in his back and falls prone to the ground in pain.

Lyra hears the sound of a hill giant wailing “My back!” She dashes towards the sound (110 feet).

Guts attacks — brutal critical! One crit and one hit. (23, 28 = 51 + 12 bonus damage = 63) Guts cuts his head off and on the same sweep cuts some fingers off of the giant. He takes one finger from the giant.

Lyra’s head pops up from the other side of the giant. “Good job! Why did you need the finger? Do you need more? Also, don’t worry about the other one. I took care of it.”

The Primordial Gate

All of a sudden there is a battle in the distance between an airship and a green dragon. There is a symbol on the side of the airship. Lux and Serril can see a stone structure in the distance. Lux recognises it as a primordial gate. There has been an effort to hide the tracks and disguise the giants’ trail. The entire valley has a river running through it. It takes 45 minutes for us to pick up the trail of the giants.

As the sun crosses the sky, a new third moon (the one the Couatl threw into the sky) crosses the sky. As we travel towards the gate, Arawn takes one point of exhaustion. As we arrive, the primordial gate is situated at the back of a fort. There are many tracks that could be halfling or dwarvish.

Meeting Vordana

We follow the small tracks up the mountainside. Arawn sees in the distance there is a rock and a stag jumps on top of it, looks in our direction before leaping off and meandering away. As we continue up the path we hear a female voice from behind us. “Why do you keep following me?” We turn, but there are just rocks.

Serril — “We are looking for the children.”
Voice — “Children?”
Guts — “Did you do a deal with the giants?”
Voice — “I don’t deal with giants. I kill them.”
Alora Amathur — “We do too!”

A head pops up, the hood is pulled back and there are horns on top of a young elf’s head. “That sounded pretty convincing.” On the inside of her cloak is a huge stag symbol.

Lyra — “You saw me kill the hill giant!”
Elf — “I don’t know if I saw it, but it startled me. It was quite impressive. I haven’t seen anyone do that before.”
Guts — “I did! I did it again about 3 minutes later!”
Elf — “I’m sure you could, but you don’t need to boast about it.”
Guts — “I’m just verifying she knows that it’s one all. We have a bet going.”

The elf introduces herself: “My name is [[Vordana]].” She says to Arawn, “Impressive tracking.” She says to Lupin, “Now aren’t you a familiar sight?” and scratches behind his ears.

Serril — “It’s great to meet you, but we have to go.”
Arawn — “Did you see the giants enter the fort?”

Vordana tells us the giants had children with them, alive but looking quite exhausted. She says the fort is quite formidable. The region has had giants for many years, and the Duergar as well — they seem to have a treaty. She doesn’t see Duergar on the surface very often though. The elf seems young, and we get the impression that her information is learnt from books rather than her own experience.

The Duergar Camp

As we walk along the path we hear a booming voice: “We mean no harm! Get back! Get back!”

Lyra — “No need to stress. We are here to meet a friend.”
“What is your friend’s name?”
“Aahrad.”

There is a very long pause. A head pokes out in an opening in the rock, and there is a moment of strange recognition. There is a glimmer in the air and a doorway opens in the rock face. [[Aahrad]] beckons us inside. She is very confused.

“We meet again,” says Lyra. “Sad times,” says Aahrad. “We have had one of our kin taken, and our treaty is broken.” She waves us in and we follow. Vordana is confused, and wonders what she has been caught up in. The room is made from a fortified cave. Looking inside they see other Duergar.

Aahrad explains that they have been forced to the surface as a kidnapping attempt was made on one of their blacksmiths. Arawn brings out [[Reaghl]]’s sword, and the Duergar’s eyes light up with recognition.

[[Durakk Stoneforge]] the smith has been kidnapped. He was researching the work of [[Durgiddin the Black]] who forged the blade of Reaghl. This work was what had brought them to the Sunset Mountains. The stonecutters received a vicious attack from the giants and they have been searching to try and get Durakk back. Some of their strongest warriors were also taken, and the Belt of the Dwarven Kind was also stolen.

Alora Amathur walks around the room, softly laying hands on the shoulders of those who are injured and weak. Slowly the energy in the room rises. As she does this, Vordana asks about the appearance of strange meteors in the sky. While the group seems willing, they also seem like they lack the capacity to storm the fort. They have some potions of Flesh to Stone, some battleaxes, other weapons and smoke bombs (three). The group seems like refugees with a few strong people, but they have a strong sense of honour.

It was giants and weird amphibious, glowing frogs that took Durakk. The dwarves feel as though the hill giants aren’t very smart and that they are being manipulated to attack their colony.

Long Rest and Lyra’s Dream

We make plans to attack at night. We have a long rest and send out familiars to the fort to seek information about the fort and how we might attack.

While we rest, Lyra has an interesting dream. She sees herself in a dark expanse with a wide moat. There are bodies hanging from the ceiling of the landscape. [[Kelemvor]] is sitting at a large desk. “First day on the job. Exactly how we discussed it. I have faith in you. I believe in your abilities.” There is a small body — a misshapen soul shape — of [[Jesse Milspear]]. “As we discussed: three questions. Go.”

“Did you love Reeny?” — “Yes, I loved her. She was my only friend.” Lyra raises her eyebrows.
“That’s pretty sad. Why did you decide to implement banishment to the fire realm?” — “My dad owed debts. They came after me. I didn’t have a choice.”
“Who were these people?” — “I know about ‘the end’ and Prime Gerald would tell me what to do.”

Off to Kelemvor’s left was a small family that looks like Jesse. On the other side is a portal to the abyss. Kelemvor looks at her. “The choice is yours.” Lyra’s eyes flick to the family waiting for him. Go with him.

“If you ever see Reeny again, tell him I’m sorry.” Kelemvor looks at her. “Tough first day on the job.”

The blurry outline of the hill giant she killed stumbles into the room.

“Where are you hiding those children in the stronghold?” — “I ain’t hiding no kids, unless they’re in my belly.”
“Why did you break the treaty?” — “I’m not good with big words.”
“Why did you break the deal between you and the Duergar?” — “The only deal I had was when I play slobber card jacks.”

The only two options are nothing or the abyss. Lyra nods to the portal. Demons come out to chain the giant, and we hear the screaming of people. We hear the cackle of a young girl coming from the abyss.

The second giant comes forth.

“Where did you take the children?” — “We took them back to the fort.”
“Why did you take their children?” — “I like their taste, and their little bones help me get the gristle out of my teeth. Just following orders.”
“Who do you take orders from?” — “The next biggest giant.”

Lyra just nods towards the abyss. “It is lightening the mood, thanks.” The hill giant throws himself into the abyss, and is ripped apart by a giant pit fiend. She wakes up.

Intel and Preparation

Long rest is complete. Our familiars return, telling us that there are approximately 40 captives in total. One of the children was eaten. It is a one-level base with approximately 20 hill giants. There is a weird mist that rolls through occasionally. There was a hill giant who looked very full and exploded — it did not look natural. There were circular sacs (eggs?) present. A few of the giants also appear to be sick.

The main perimeter is wooden logs and there are smaller logs around the whole fort. It looks difficult to climb over the logs. The familiars find an area of stone. Lux reads the scroll we found earlier. They are instructions to bring the captives to the gate by this time (which is in an hour). It has a dummies guide to primordial gates, with the corresponding coordinates. Serril dons Mage Armour.

Assault on the Gate Fort

Project Feather Owl kicks off. Baby owl is activated. Lux takes Serril, Caladin and Alora Amathur. One of the giants sees them, but in his attempts to get the other giants he is distracted and no one sees them feather fall into the grounds. Lux comes back and flies in Guts and Arawn. Lyra uses the whistle to fly over the wall.

Caladin throws a smoke bomb. Alora Amathur casts Incite Greed on the large giant manning the gate. Lyra attacks the pink giant. She sneaks up behind the giant, grabbing it and stabbing it straight into the throat. A darkness envelops the giant, before it topples to the ground, blood spraying out over everyone. She then hides behind the tower. Lux casts Fireball — 53 points of damage. The entire tower collapses, and all four giants fall out of the tower and take bludgeoning damage as they hit the ground. One of them explodes, and frog eggs spray onto the ground, burning. All four giants are dead.

As the large hill giant approaches Alora Amathur, Guts launches at it with his sword (21 damage). Arawn loosens his arrow (16 + 14 = 30 damage).

Round 1. Lyra approaches the blue giant, slashing out at its stomach. 74 damage, 20 damage on the second strike. As she slices through the stomach, it explodes around her. Lyra takes 10 points of damage. She then climbs 30 feet up onto the storage shed.

Arawn strikes the big giant with his bow and arrow (26 damage) and then hides.

Serril casts Far Step, teleporting to the child in the midst of the crowd. He tries to pry open the manacles but is unable to.

Big giant picks up Alora Amathur and moves back to the portal. Guts rolls a nat 20. Well-timed. (56 damage) He slices down the back of the giant. Arawn uses his reaction (nat 20!!) Arawn puts an arrow into the giant’s chest (36 damage). The giant throws her on the ground and stomps on her. Prone and restrained under his foot. (33 damage)

Red giant comes over to body slam Alora Amathur. Another 28 points of damage.

Lux hits 51 damage on the big guy. Alora Amathur takes another 11 points of damage. She is now at 0 hit points. She takes another 3 hits from the last person and she is dead.

Items & Loot

Giant finger (taken by Guts as a trophy)
Three smoke bombs (from the Duergar)
Potions of Flesh to Stone (from the Duergar)
Scroll with primordial gate instructions and coordinates

NPCs Encountered

[[Barnabus Dazzlebelt]] — gnome inventor, showed plans for a magic-detecting observatory
[[Vordana]] — young horned elf ranger with a stag cloak symbol, tracks and kills giants
[[Aahrad]] — Duergar leader, treaty broken by the giants
[[Durakk Stoneforge]] — kidnapped Duergar blacksmith, was researching the work of [[Durgiddin the Black]]
[[Kelemvor]] — god of death, appeared to Lyra in a dream
[[Jesse Milspear]] — dead soul judged by Lyra in Kelemvor’s realm

Notable Quotes

Guts (after Lyra kills a giant): “I did! I did it again about 3 minutes later!”
Vordana: “I’m sure you could, but you don’t need to boast about it.”
Guts: “I’m just verifying she knows that it’s one all. We have a bet going.”
Hill giant (in Lyra’s dream): “I ain’t hiding no kids, unless they’re in my belly.”
Hill giant #2: “I like their taste, and their little bones help me get the gristle out of my teeth. Just following orders.”
Lyra (sending giants to the abyss): “It is lightening the mood, thanks.”