Resting in the hands of 4 stone giants, our party (The Grease Fire) is carried over the last stretch of the mountains towards the stone giant’s home. The City of Kroatash.
As they crest a low rise, the party sees two towering halves of a mountain peak, that looks as if it were split in half. two thirds of the way down the nearly vertical walls is a massive stone bridge that gently arcs between the two walls. This bridge is easily the largest single structure created by intelligent creatures any of them have ever seen or heard of. On either side of the bridge terraced layers of a city are carved into the walls of the riven mountain. Even from this great distance the buildings of the city are visible as a mix of large and small, boxy and regular. At the base of the mountain, more of the city is visible, but most is hidden by a semi-circular wall that sweeps between the two mountain halves. One building in the very middle of the city stands out. Long and narrow it seems to point directly towards the split mountain, and rests beneath the bride. On its roof, two holes are visible; the first, long and narrow mirroring the shape of the building but centered, and only half the length of the building. The second a large diameter circle centered directly under the massive bridge hundreds of feet above.
The stone giants set the party on the ground on the edge of the narrow plain in front of the walls and refuse to go further. All except Garnok, their leader who still clutches tightly to the stone gifted from the fire giant leader Zenith. The party approaches the closed city gates, and after a brief wait are rudely greeted by two Vlazoth guards. After waiting for an authority, another Vlazoth in well maintained robes bearing a massive ledger greets the party. Ti’Kal the head steward of Kroatash accuses Garnok of being a traitor. Garnok and the party are able to enter the city after Garnok claims his right to witness The Steadfast. Ti’Kal leads the group through the mostly abandoned streets of the city. The party realizes that now that they are within the city, all of their emotions are amplified greatly. Passing whims become overwhelming urges, curiosity becomes ravening for knowledge, caution turns to panic. The party struggles, but understands they are under a magical effect and stay together for the most part. Occasional Vlazoth are seen rushing here or there, but all the giant’s homes and buildings have doors and windows shut. The streets are oddly quiet, until the sounds of a pitched battle erupt from around a corner. Ti’Kal completely ignores the sounds and continues walking straight backed, while Garnok the giant leaps over the party and rushes towards the sounds of combat. Kella follows nearly as quickly and is able to see 2 Vlazoth guards with spears facing off against a humanoid creature 3 or 4 feet tall with brown skin and wings, hovering in place with dust flying off its body. A wretched mouth cackles under it’s long barbed nose as it lets the body of a third guard drop dead to the ground. Enraged, Garnok lunges forward and slaps a hand directly on top of the horrid creature, and a muffled explosion sounds beneath his palm. As the hand is lifted, nothing is left but a cloud of expanding dust and bits of stone. The two surviving Vlazoth ignore the rescue, and simply gather their fallen comrade and drag the body off down a small alley. Garnok is horrified but hurries back to Ti’Kal the Steward, who hasn’t broken pace. Sneaky Kella is able to snatch up a fallen pouch from the killed Vlazoth and finds 4 uncut gems inside. Shortly after the encounter, Uhr tries to use Suggestion on Ti’
As the party has made it’s way deeper into the town they notice that there are intricate carvings on the stones of the buildings. Closest to the gate, the carvings are all contained on each building or vertical surface in narrow horizontal bands. The deeper they progress into the city the bands of carving seem to widen, until when they finally reach the central building the entire outer surface of the building can now be seen to be covered in intricate carvings and bas relief images of giants and Vlazoth, animals and the forces of nature. One wide band of carvings is painted in intricate detail.
Entering the building they find a narrow reflecting pool running up the middle of the building under the narrow slit in the ceiling of the building. Every vertical surface in this building is now covered in carvings of incredible detail.
The party splits up and walks along the edge of the reflecting pool towards a wall that reaches almost but not quite to the ceiling and leaves to passages on either side at the far end of the pool into the next space. Slumped against the wall, unmoving are two massive stone giants, still clutching their massive pikes. These are the first giants the party has seen since entering the city. Ti’Kal strides past without a look while Kella and Uhr slip to the guard at the right passage and while no one is looking attempt to cut the massive purse hanging from his belt. Uhr jumps up with his enhanced boots and easily cuts the front of the bag open, and out tumble four massive gems the size of a person’s head. The two thieves snatch up the gems with some difficulty and quickly stuff them into Hassellhoff’s bag of holding. All the while, Sashka starts an unnecessary but very distracting speech on the importance of gathering knowledge for The Witness. Luvon is unable to control himself and launches into an argument with Sashka, attempting to extoll the virtues and power of the Sun over any mere god. Ti’Kal and Garnok are long since passed into the massive space beyond the wall.
Theft and argument/distraction complete, the party reassembles and follows their oblivious guide to find a massive sunken amphitheater-like space 60 feet deep in the ground ringed by 6 tiers of simple carved seating. 4 sets of giant size stairs descend into the pit, with a much smaller set carved adjacent for the small folk. In the center of the pit on a dais sits a single massive stool. The stool is made up of 6 vertical planes of gemstone. Obsidian, Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire, Diamond, and Amethyst. The stool glows softly with an inner light. Upon it sits a stone giant with a simple cream colored robe hanging off one shoulder. Straight backed, hands on knees with a terrible grimace of pain locked onto his face. Here sits Grullen, The Steadfast.
Ti’kal stops at the top of one set of steps and begins a long and drawn out introductory speech, while Garnok rushes down the steps and touches the fire opal gift from Zenith to Grullen’s head. The mask of pain animates suddenly and Grullen lets out a gutteral scream that nearly deafens the party. Garnok apologizes, and together the two giants quickly run out of the pit holding hands with the magic gift stone clutched between their palms lest one of them lose themselves again.
The party tries to follow and Hasselhoff runs through the pit, but upon reaching the bottom suddenly falls to the ground, paralyzed.
Out of the pit the giants rush to a set of shelves beyond the pit with items of obvious import presented on them. Grullen grabs a massive two handed hammer some 12 feet long, steps back and take a might upswing into the shelves aiming for a stone idol the size of a halfling that depicts a stone giant holding up a brilliant amethyst circle over their head. The hammer impact shatters not just the idol, but the entire stone shelf, exploding it backwards and revealing a massive circular portal in the floor rimmed with glowing purple amethyst crystals.
The air seems to pop, and the party immediately feels their amplified emotions begin to fade. Sagging in relief, the two giants make their way back to the pit, where Ti’Kal was just wrapping up his speech introducing Garnok. Grullen rushes across the pit and leaning on the top ring of the pit gets face to face with Ti’Kal. With obvious distress, Grullen begins apologizing profusely to Ti’Kal who collapses in sobbing exhaustion.
After several minutes, Steadfast Grullen makes his way back to the gem throne and thanks the party and Garnok for their efforts. The party discovers that once again Dreavax seemed to be responsible for the gifting the idol to the Stone Giants, and had lured the Garnok and his 3 companions away to aid the Xerikath’s Blades in their efforts to “rid the Golden Coast of Landfall and it’s evil influence”. With the truth revealed, Garnok offers to help the party in their goal to find the keep at Elders Pass. Steadfast Grullen promises aid once Kroatash is restored.
The Beekepers have been traveling towards the Southern Mistwood Forest, specifically the Mistwood Monarch in search of Balphagore, Lord of Chains (AKA Balphy). The Sharp-Knife Gang has quested the party with bringing Balphy safely back to Landfall.
The Beekeepers find themselves running from red-robed cultists and a very cranky Displacer Beast. Heimer wakes up from his recent bout of somnolence and throws together a mish-mash of cogs, springs, and crystal-oscillators to create a tiny flamethrower. He tosses a glob of grease at the cultists and lights it with a bout of flame from his new toy. Screams and growls echo after the party, and it is only moments until they hear the syncopated patter of the six-legged feline monstrosity following them.
The black-coated cat is readying to pounce on Grizz when the ranger reaches all new levels of panic and sprouts wings! With his new-found source of flight, he grabs Heimer and Fen by their scruffs and leaps over the gorge of the river. At the same instant, Fen uses his minor-illusion abilities to make a false image of Grizz frozen with fear. The jaguar-from-hell pounces through the illusion and tumbles into the rocks and roaring water below.
The party finds a nice shallow cave to rest in, but they don’t rest for long before they are disturbed by a prowling owlbear. Thinking quickly on his feet (or maybe in his sleeping bag?), Fen uses an illusion of the displacer beast’s growl to keep the predator away from their cave and the party gets a good night of sleep. They set out the next day and briefly get turned around, but Grizz flies up into the sky to get a view of the surrounding landscape and gets them back on track. After another day of traveling, The Beekeepers reach The Southern Mistwood.
While trecking through the old growth and towering evergreen trees of the forest, the party stumbles upon a strange grove of mushrooms. They hear odd clicks and hisses coming from the grove, and Heimer sends a clockwork toy into the grove to try and suss out any creatures. The toy is swarmed by a squad of tiny fungal people, who stomp and scratch the apparent intruder to death. A three-foot tall fungus-figure struts out of the grove and raises his spear towards The Beekeepers while saying something in an unintelligible stream of clicks and hisses. Fen uses his minor illusion to mimic the introduction back to the creature, and the tiny fungal people let out a collective gasp. It appears as though Fen has somehow challenged their mushroom-monarch to a duel.
The fungal-folk circle up, and the mushroom-monarch (who the BKs nickname Squelch) indicates that Fen should either select a weapon or pick a champion. Fen picks Grizz as his champion and Grizz steps into the ring, sizing up his foe all the while. Grizz can tell that this creature has some special hardiness that makes it resistant to piercing attacks and a regenerative ability. After communicating this to his team, Heimer lends Grizz his Arcano-Resiliencer Impulso-Repeater, which produces Ethereal Penetrator Sigil-Bolts. Grizz doesn’t seem to understand the fancy tinkerer-jargon, but eagerly takes the fancy hand-crossbow.
Squelch dashes towards Grizz and releases a burst of toxic spores. His attempt to paralyze Grizz fails, and Grizz retorts with a blast from the Impulso-Repeater. Squelch quickly mends the hole left in his chest by the bolt, and unleashes a devastating combo of blows, bloodying Grizz and bringing him close to death. Grizz summons his celestial powers and springs into the air above Squelch to avoid his menacing attacks. Squelch tries to toss a spear at Grizz, but the spear goes wide. Grizz takes this opportunity to draw on the energy of the outer-planes and suffuses one of the Sigil-Bolts with radiant energies. The bolt strikes true, and the Squelch makes his eponymous sound as the bolt makes his body explode in a shower of fungal goop.
The fungal-folk hiss and click as they lift Fen into the air, carrying him back into the grove. They place Fen atop a myconal throne embedded in a giant’s skull, and a celebration begins. One of the fungal-folks shaman lights up a large bonfire in the ribcage of the giant, and starts casting salts and spores into the fire to create vivid images. The images relay the recent news of the fungal-folk, and the party learns a few intriguing things:
The Faroot siblings were gone, vanished through a portal with Tallyn, youngest daughter of the goddess Shar’eth, and the party now found themselves standing in an empty room at the top of the Hanging Tower. Andoryx made an attempt to reach out to Shar’eth to try and curry favor with her as this was said to be the place one was most likely to gain a line of contact with the Mistress of the Moon. For his efforts, Andoryx was rewarded with a troubling vision of a possible future: Green-cloaked Blades of Xeraketh, dragging a massive tree tumor, or burl, toward an enormous tree-like creature being administered to by a large group of fellow Blades. The vision shifted and Andoryx saw the huge tree being stomping through a small country village, smashing buildings underfoot while the malignant burl now implanted into its wooden hide spewed a miasma of rot that caused the skin of villagers caught in its cloud to boil and slough to the ground. As the tree-being continued onward, Andoryx’s POV turned and he saw that it was descending a hillside toward Landfall… Shaken by his visions, Andoryx told his friends what he’d seen and they opted to try and make it back to Landfall as fast as possible to stop Elune’s plans and warn the city of the approaching danger. The party got directions to the nearest exit from the Underdark, a converted mineral elevator at the old Nurnturm Mine, and hit the road. Along the way, they came across their old nemesis, Elune’ Faroot’s traveling companion Bromwell, staggering down the road with a bottle of wine in each hand. He was quite drunk. Bromwell explained that when Elune had convinced him to come meet an ally who could help return Landfall to the Kymarians to bring back the glory days of Batavian dominance, he had assumed she was talking about a great general or generous bankroller, not a pagan goddess of deception who would help Elune assassinate her own father. When he learned of her true plans he decided to leave her company and find his own way back to the surface, and to get rip-roaring drunk along the way. The party invited Bromwell to join them, and he accepted. They convinced a passing Sverfneblin merchant named Biddlec Dirtwarper to give them a ride to the Nirnturm lift on his rothe cart and soon made their way to the bustling elevator. In the throng of people waiting their turn to step on to one of the ascending lifts, the party noticed members of the Restless Dead sellswords as well as Xeraketh druids hauling the burl that Andoryx had seen in his vision. Donning their stolen Restless Dead armor, the party approached the sellswords in line and convinced them that they were old battlemates before persuading a hulking goliath sellsword that that the green-cloaked bastards up ahead had been talking shit about the Restless Dead. A confrontation ensued, but the Xeraketh’s Blades decided to stay on mission and pushed their way ahead, pulling the burl onto a lift and ascending to the surface. The party followed a safe distance behind, and emerged in bright daylight in time to see the Blades meet some of their compatriots, mount the burl on a wagon, and head into the nearby woods. Though they were outnumbered, the party knew that innocent lives were at stake, and they launched their attack. Artair used a Mold Earth spell to cause one of the wagon’s wheels to plunge into a pothole and become stuck. While the Blades tried to free it, Artair then cast Spike Growth around their group, trapping them in a thorny prison. The Blades snapped into action, as one of them wildshaped into a giant toad and two others tied the burl to her back. Another two turned into a mountain lion and giant spider, respectively, and scanned the battlefield for their attackers. Artair used all charges from his Wand of Magic Missiles (making pew pew noises the whole time) to blast the giant toad with so much damage that it reverted back into humanoid form and the druid was crushed beneath the huge burl strapped to her back. Toof fired a Banishing Arrow into another druid, expelling it from this plane, while Ta’ahsu conjured alchemically glowing fireflies to illuminate several enemies with Faerie Fire. Andoryx tossed a fire flask onto the burl and it began to blacken and smoke, as the magic-imbued wood fought to resist the fire spreading across it. And new friend Bromwell, absolutely obliterated on Underdark lichen wine, rushed the foes with a mighty cry, battleaxe held high, heedless of the spike growth that was about to make his gallant charge a bit stickier.