Now that Selene is dressed we can continue our temple run[3]. We go up the stairs to the giant sleeping room. There are beds in every room so we start searching for something helpful. Between all the junk we find (as usual) there is an object standing out, some kind of icicle with a sparkly rune inside it. The rune is exactly the same as the ice rune on the portal.
Groin will attune with the rune but will tell Selene to get out of the room because her ugliness is disturbing (The DM is OK with it).[4]
After an hour of attuning we think that it is no coincidence that the rune is the same as the one on the portal, so we touch the portal rune with the newly found rune. This will result in a nice icy trap, no luck this time.
We inspect the giant dining room again and try to find something we didn’t find the first time. Indeed, we find some magical torches on the walls that we did not give any attention the first time. This time we give the full attention to the torches, with no result other than loosing some more time.
The sleeping room may feel neglected if we only inspect it once, and so, just so there will be no fighting between the two rooms about which one is loved more, we decide to inspect for the second time the sleeping room. The first time we only managed to see almost half of the bottom room because of the spider tunnels, so we decide to venture past the middle point. As soon as we go past that point a giant boulder materializes from the wall rolling in our direction. Fast thinking Ireth and Groin both jump in the side rooms while Selene and Szivem decide to stay and meet the rolling stone (who would not like to meet them?).[5]
The stone will knock both our mages unconscious. Finally we find out what was missing from the Giant Statue’s hands, you guessed it: it was this rock. The statue animates and starts rolling back the boulder with Szivem and Selene still lying on their backs. Ireth and Groin will drag them out of the way and get them back to their senses.[6]
While the statue is busy rolling the stone, we find it wise to explore once again the spider caverns. This time we meet “the father of all spiders” but he will be sent to meet his family in the same iconic way FIREEBAAALLLL!!!
No new clues are found this time so we go to the portal room again to summarize what we did and did not do. It seems that a Frost Giant encountered on the road, wielding a frost weapon found in the temple and touching the frost rune was not our first option. A child would have guessed this on the first try, as it will be proven another night[7]. So we manage to open the portal FINALLY.
On the other side there is a dead cloud giant and some kind of runes. While we walk towards the runes the ghost of the giant will rise and start speaking with us. He tells us his story about how his father betrayed him when they reached the oracle, and killed him in order to get all the power for himself. He also tells us to step into the rune and ask our question.
Rautza will pray in the runic circle and she will also ask the questions for us.
We ask: Why are the Giants fighting? How can we stop this fighting? Where can we find a magic shell? Who is the most benevolent giant? And who are the rest of the giants that have these magic shells?[8]
The questions are answered mostly in general terms that give us few tips on how to terminate this Giant problem, and we are also told that we must prove that we are worthy to have the shells before receiving more answers. It seems that we must find some treasures to prove ourselves worthy.
So we know more than we knew before, but still we don’t know how to solve this problem.[9]
We spend the night in the temple with the intention of starting the searching the next day. Rautza seems to be very helpful by drawing a map of known artifact places and shutting Szivem up :)[10]. She also decides that she will keep guard of the temple as there is no one else.
We get out of the temple and see a flying ship coming towards us. 4 lads are waving at us so we wave back.
The mystery is solved once the leader starts talking: it seems that Storm the Big Dragon of the North[11] wants to help us wandering these lands by putting this ship at our disposal, with the request to kill all the Giant Lords. Small price to pay for such a big ship :)
As we see on the map, the artifacts are scattered across the land, so a flying ship is exactly what we need to reach them. We accept the offering and to the first artifact we fly.[12]
[1] Downright freezing.
[2] Insult to injury.
[3] Huehuehue
[4] The item description starts with: "You touch yourself". And they say I take things out of context...
[5] Selene tried to teleport away with Dimension Door. I had to compute the time it takes for the boulder to reach them, given its speed and the length of the corridor. Turns out, less than 6 seconds.
[6] There was actually more time wasting to be done here. The party tried to interact with the statue, test when and where will the boulder trap activate, and so on.
[7] Wow... that's pretty mean. You'll see in the next post.
[8] In case it isn't clear what is up with the magic shell (due to this negligent story telling): the Oracle advised the adventurers to go directly to the court of Hekaton, King of the Storm Giants and de-facto ruler of all Giants. The best way to get there is to blow a magic seashell that will teleport them there.
[9] There was also a 6th question asked. The layout of the room made it clear that the Oracle will answer 6 questions. After asking the 5 questions above, the adventurers thought about what to ask next. Quote: "I am in search of my missing husband, but it's not that important." "I am also in search of my missing husband, but we are already saving money to pay that wizard to help us, so I'll not ask about it here." Very good, girls. Good to know that you have your priorities straight. In the end, Szivem went ahead to ask a question about her [CENSORED].
[10] #bitchslap
[11] Wait... what? Oh, you mean Klauth, the Great Dragon of the North.
[12] And if you're wondering about the lack of progress here... well, we started even later than usual, as the players ran a comparative analysis of TV series featuring medics, and the better known diets and their health benefits. Hence the title of this post.
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