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In the Hall of the Other Mountain King

Last week, the party pressed onward in search of the long-awaited dragon's hoard. At the end of the valley, they found an immense wall of ice with a sixty-foot tall tunnel cut into the side. They entered the tunnel with some trepidation and found a frost giant guard waiting. He called out to them in Giant, but Cayosin understood him, and they had a conversation while the rest of the party waited tensely. Cayosin explained that the giants had established a civilization using the dragon's hoard, so a significant part of it was used up. However, the aboleth had apparently stolen some of the hoard from the giants, and they were willing to trade a portion of the stolen hoard for the party's help in dealing with the aboleth. Cayosin had objections to the terms of the deal, however, and the giant seemed taken aback, and had suggested that they come with him to meet the king of the giants. The party decided that he seemed pretty trustworthy, and continued onward into the giants' lair.

After a time winding through tunnels, they reached the throne room of the King of the Giants. He greeted them in a thundering voice, welcomed them to his kingdom, and explained the situation in more detail. He believed that the aboleth was responsible for the clues that led the party to the dragon's hoard, and expects the party to fight the giants. At the end of that fight, regardless of the victor, the aboleth would break in and mind-control the weakened survivors. However, he had a plan - stage a fight. If the party pretended to fight and defeat (or lose to) the giants, the aboleth would break in and attack the "weakened" participants, allowing them to gang up on it. The party was enthusiastically in favor of this plan, as long as they were appropriately compensated. They worked out a deal with the giant king: if they took part in the plan at all, they would be rewarded with 20,000 gp worth of items from the hoard. If the party specifically defeated the aboleth1, they would receive a further 30,000 gp bonus. With that worked out, the party began the battle.

The party and the giants generally fought nonlethally, though due to a disproportionate number of casters and people with general shenanigans, the party was significantly more lethal than the giants. They reaped the rewards with their fire attacks, including a stunning fire breath from Ione that dealt a combined 528 damage to the giants! After a few rounds, the giants began falling like dominoes. As the last giants remained barely standing, there was a thundering explosion and a wall of the throne room burst open, revealing a horde of skittering creatures that the party had fought last time they fought the aboleth. The real battle was joined...

Join us this week to become mind-slaves of an aboleth!

  1. The details of what this meant were worked out with some precision, thanks to the untrusting rules lawyers infesting the party.

Stupid Awards

Cayosin Ione Taito Craggles Azoreas Lester Shanky
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