Session 20 Player Notes — Reviving Alora Amathur and the Hill Giant Stronghold

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

• Alora Amathur died and met [[Ilmater]] at a dying tree — received a divine gift upon revival
• Arawn revivified Alora Amathur; she returned at full health with a crystallising shield
• Guts went on an absolute tear — killed multiple giants and invisible frog creatures in one round
• Party rescued approximately 40 captives, though some were infested with frog parasites
• Travelled through the primordial gate to the Hill Giant Stronghold region
• Entered the stronghold using Lux’s Knock spell; direwolves turned on their hill giant master

Session Notes

Continuing the Gate Fort Battle

The green giant takes three swings at Lyra, but misses and falls over, prone. Another hill giant rushes at Caladin, but misses with his two swings. Grey hill giant runs at Serril and attempts to grapple him.

(Interruption in the conversation: Max — “At what point are you gay and not just good friends?”)

Lux takes 24 points of bludgeoning damage. Lyra takes lots of damage. Grappled.

Alora Amathur Meets Ilmater

Alora Amathur wakes up in a pool of water. The sounds of a waterfall. A giant tree growing out of the pool, with a forest canopy. She walks over towards the tree. She sees a man in front of the tree. It’s [[Ilmater]]. “I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”

“To be fair, I wasn’t expecting to be here either.”

“This tree is dying.”

Alora Amathur places her hand on the tree.

“What do you fear?” — “Leaving my friends unprotected.”

“Who’s there to protect you?” — “That was kind of their job.”

Touching the tree, Alora Amathur feels an immense number of beings. She feels the goodness, the evil, the energy through the tree is enormous and then it shrinks back into itself. It feels like it has lost its protection.

“I want you to channel that feeling that you have when you take that pain.”

As Alora Amathur tries to take on the pain, her arm starts to shrivel like petrified wood, before the stone breaks off (she still has her arms). The pain on the tree starts to condense and strengthen. It turns into an onyx, then gloves clear like crystal and diamond, pushing into the tree, seeing diamond lines pushing through the tree. In front of her, the diamond starts to open up and a little shoot grows with a little diamond leaf. A little diamond seed grows out of the leaf. Alora Amathur reaches out to take it.

The Battle Turns

White skull goes over to the controls at the gate. The runes light up and the ground starts to rumble. There is some noise and voices that come from the smoke.

Guts is hasted and his sword is grumbling. He slices through the hill giant that is bashing at Alora Amathur, killing him on the spot. He approaches the white giant at the gate. His sword smashes through the giant, killing him. Guts approaches the giant grappling Serril. “Kick that cunt.” He stabs through the gap in Serril’s legs, cutting into the giant. He slides the sword upwards, killing the giant.

Orange giant throws a rock at Serril. He takes some damage.

Caladin casts Darkness over Lyra, obscuring her from the vision of the hill giants. Lyra can see in shadows. Guts is unimpressed. “So you turned the lights off. Good one.” Lux — “We’ll call you Switch from now on.”

New round. Lyra stabs up at the giant sitting on her, killing it, dousing herself in its blood. She then takes a health potion.

Reviving Alora Amathur

Arawn casts Revivify on Alora Amathur. Her shield is crystallising, and a tree is forming on the front of it. Arawn heals her — glass and crystal explode out from Alora Amathur. She wakes up, just before she is able to grab the crystal seed. Ilmater’s voice echoes in her mind — “I told you your friends would come for you.” Alora Amathur looks up at Arawn, and sees him disappear. She is at full health.

Guts vs the Invisible Frogs

Serril attacks the giant in front of him. He yells out: the frog things are here! He is flailing, trying to hit something. The people who are chained frantically try to run, freaking out. There are points of the chain that look like they are squeezing on an invisible body.

Mottled giant tries to swing at prone Alora Amathur but misses. He swings his club at her — 11 damage. It tries to do its squash attack, but it fails.

Lux flies towards Guts and disappears in mid-air. He slices into a hill giant, before suddenly reappearing above the hill giant striking at Alora Amathur. 35 damage + 5 — he is dead! Moves to purple hill giant — 47 damage. He is dead! Moves to yellow giant (nat 20) — 51 damage. Moves to white hill giant — lots of damage.

The Duergar appear and look worse for wear. They have killed the red giant.

Alora Amathur uses Guiding Bolt. She kills the giant.

Guts swings at the invisible creature in front of Serril with his sword. As he swings, suddenly his sword embeds itself in a frog’s head. 34 damage! (Nat 20 — double 6s). Guts feels something on the end of his sword, but cannot see the creature. Guts clears the sword and swings in the other direction, but the weight comes off and it doesn’t swing true. Guts swings a third time, hitting, the sword sinking deep (15 points of damage). He hits again (18 damage, then 19 damage). On this swing, the invisibility slides off and a google-eyed frog with a buff kangaroo chest can be seen. Its head slides off its shoulders, bluish blood pooling on the ground. The chain it’s attached to slides off. Guts bonus action attacks the frog that slid off his sword the first time. He smashes into it with the sword — 22 damage! This head also slides off.

Caladin sends Lyra 40 HP of healing. She stabs at the remaining hill giant. 62 points of damage. Hill giant is dead.

Aftermath and Rescue

A little butterfly flies down and sits on Alora Amathur’s shoulder. Guts pulls at the mechanism of the gate. The Duergar come out. We start unchaining the prisoners. The little girl we tried to rescue runs up to Serril and hugs him. The Duergar is unlocking all of the prisoners. He is throwing Lyra shade. “Thieves,” he grumbles mockingly.

Alora Amathur does a medicine check. Five people have distended abdomens. Alora Amathur cures 3 of them, but two of them can’t be cured. Lux kills one and Arawn kills the other. The remaining people flee in a panic.

We rest in the Tiny Hut for a long rest. There is a red moon in the sky, and the elves see a meteorite through the night which crashes into the earth, rumbling the ground.

Lyra Goes Snooping

Lyra searches the fort and finds various items (see loot section below).

Alora Amathur’s New Gift

Alora Amathur’s halo gives advantage on Persuasion or Intimidation checks when her halo is on. If something doesn’t feel “good,” her halo goes away. She still feels the connection to the tree. She understands that Ilmater has done something for her, knowing she has come back to life with full hit points.

Through the Gate — The Hill Giant Stronghold

We walk through the gate. There is a mountain range and roads covered with broken rock. It seems like a travel point for people, with many roads. There is an enormous log fortress. There is a lot of humidity and fog, and everything seems waterlogged. To the right of the fortress is a crater, approximately 500 feet away. There is growth coming out of the crater, and a mushroom type growth. It comes up from the centre of the crater, and on the other side you can see the trajectory of the meteor. The fortress looks like the map of the hill giant’s fortress that Alora Amathur is carrying.

Alora Amathur can see there is a tower in the fortress and she can see movement. She encourages everyone to get out of sight. We move through the forest, some more stealthily than others. The mechanical Duergar trundles along behind us in silent mode. We get to the forest line. The Duergar build a door into the side of the mountain wall to create a safe house for us. AC 15 investigation check to find it (we have advantage). We work our way through the forest towards the fort. The roof of this fort is 40-60 feet, though the tower is about 100 feet high.

Vordana scopes out the fort and sees 18 direwolves. She thinks these guys are taking something to the cloud giants. She also saw ogres, hill giants and hill giant kids. “The kids are wee little cunts.”

Breaching the Stronghold

Arawn lays out some meat in a trail from the door out to the forest. Lyra goes to the door to pick the lock. There is no lock to pick. Lux casts Knock to unlock the door. A booming knock is heard from up to 300 feet away. The doors fly open.

Round 1. Serril runs through the pack then away trying to draw their attention, holding his action. Arawn holds his action. Guts is knocked prone, then moves away from the door.

Some of the direwolves head out of the door and to the meat trail. One moves towards Guts. He strikes it with his sword (19 damage). Lyra scaled a wall and held action while hiding above the door. Lux held action.

Alora Amathur casts Spirit Guardians. Lupin tries to draw the wolves off into the distance towards the meat. A direwolf jumps at Caladin. Spirit Guardians! 25 damage! Direwolf is dead.

The hill giant inside cracks his whip. One wolf cowers, but three wolves turn to attack him. We hear the sounds of mauling inside. Two other wolves cower, and two more approach the giant with the whip. The giant is knocked prone as the wolves attack him.

Lux uses his action to cast Fireball at the wolf who tried to attack Guts. 23 damage! The wolf is engulfed in flames and burnt to cinders.

Round 2. Serril holds his action again. Guts holds his action until they come near, but moves closer to Caladin. Vordana: “They don’t sound happy with the big guy in there. He’s sending for help. We need to get in there to stop him. I speak Giant. I forgot.”

Arawn moves into the doorway. Lyra moves into the other side of the door and unleashes an arrow at the giant. She hits — 36 damage! She kills it!

A hill giant walks in holding a cup of beer. He sees us and the dogs, kicks one of the dogs and turns to run. Lux moves forward and holds his action.

Vordana casts a weather spell to hide the Knock sound. The storm starts to swirl and the sound of thunder is heard in the background. Lupin calls to the remaining dogs. Three more follow. 10 in total. One of them thanks Lupin for doing him a great service that day.

The group walks into the main room. The giant runs down the corridor, but slips and runs into a wall.

Round 3. Guts moves towards the giant. He sees a large horn in the middle of the room. The storm outside is really starting to boom.

Arawn takes his arrow out and aims at the giant who can be seen through the swinging doors. He misses and hits Guts in the back of the head. He takes 11 points of piercing damage. Guts turns around and gives Arawn a dirty look. Arawn tries to hit the horn again. Hits — 14 points on the horn. It shatters across the table.

Lyra shadow-hits the giant — 53 points of damage. She takes one point of damage from the door. Lyra disengages and moves away.

Lux casts Fire Bolt. It hits: 24 fire damage. He falls forward on the table, smashing it in half. All of the mead falls out of his mug as he falls dead onto the ground.

Items & Loot

• A frog skull
• A haunch of smoked meat
• Giant pair of sandals
• A massive jock strap
• Roasting kit
• Silver plate worth 50 GP
• Flayed skin and innards of murdered child
• Clay tablet with poetry

NPCs Encountered

• [[Ilmater]] — god of suffering, appeared to Alora Amathur at the dying tree during her death
• [[Vordana]] — horned elf ranger, continued travelling with the party; speaks Giant
• Duergar refugees — emerged to help fight, killed the red giant
• Lupin — recruited 10 direwolves who turned on their hill giant masters

Notable Quotes

• Ilmater to Alora Amathur: “I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”
• Alora Amathur: “To be fair, I wasn’t expecting to be here either.”
• Ilmater (upon revival): “I told you your friends would come for you.”
• Guts (to Serril, grappled by a giant): “Kick that cunt.”
• Guts (after Caladin casts Darkness): “So you turned the lights off. Good one.”
• Lux: “We’ll call you Switch from now on.”
• Vordana (about the giant kids): “The kids are wee little cunts.”
• Vordana (Round 2): “They don’t sound happy with the big guy in there. He’s sending for help. We need to get in there to stop him. I speak Giant. I forgot.”
• Duergar to Lyra: “Thieves,” he grumbles mockingly.