Monz’tera 5

Duromar checked all directions before crossing the intersection that led deeper into the villa. There was another small room just past it, and it was that one that he entered next.

This room was clearly for a single occupant. A desk piled high with papers, a single long bed, a giant chest, a ballista hanging on the wall, and a giant wardrobe. No giants to be seen, though.

He was halfway through looting the room, having emptied the wardrobe of armor and helm and stuffed them into the bag, along with the ballista, when there was a snort that sounded from the bed. He looked up as a wobbly, and fully naked, giantess shoved her way out of the bedclothes and lurched to her feet. She appeared too drunk to completely process Duromar’s presence, and instead glanced at the chamber pot across the floor, then at some clothing haphazardly strewn on the desk chair.

She was much quicker to defend herself though when he went to attack. Regardless, he struck [-38] twice [-35] and ignored the wild punch that was closer to hitting herself than him. [+3150 E.P.]

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (19/65)

Thinking for a moment, he shoved the body back under the bedclothes to hide it, then finished looting the room, which was nothing more than emptying the chest of coinage and a few jewelry items.

Opening the door, he spotted movement and paused to see what it was. Just visible past the far corners of other rooms were a pair of doors out of which three ogres were walking. The sounds of a loud party followed them out the door and quieted as the doors shut. The ogres turned away from his direction though and headed down a hallway that he could barely see the opening of.

Duromar stopped to think. The other groups had been tasked with assaulting the great hall, but those ogres were not in any great hurry as they left. So, the fight must have been long since over, and the humans had lost. Or at the very least, retreated. Hopefully after taking their numbers down some.

He pressed on, walking boldly into the same hallway. On the other side of the hallway was another set of double doors, and upon seeing them, he hurried that way and pulled them open. The room was a bit larger than the others, with a half-dozen beds and chests, plus plenty of seating. He didn’t spot anyone, so stepped in and closed the door.

This time, he checked every bed for a hidden sleeper, but the room was as empty as it appeared. There didn’t seem to be much of anything of value except for a huge fishing pole, which of course he took. There was one thing that bothered him though. So far, every single torch had been lit, all throughout the villa. This room, however, had one that was unlit, and something about it kept bothering him. Pushing over a chair to reach high enough, Duromar climbed up and touched the torch.

To his surprise, doing so dispelled an illusion, and revealed a footman’s mace instead. Human-sized, not giant-sized. Puzzled, he pulled it out of the torch holder and stowed it away.

----

Duromar cracked open the door and checked the hallway. It was empty, so he slipped out. Skipping the entrance to the great hall, he went past the corner and paused. There was a third entrance to the great hall, on what was the back wall. There was a single door close to him, or he could head back further into the cluster of smaller rooms. Risk of discovery warred with risk of unchecked rooms, and the rooms won.

Luckily, it was vacant. It appeared to be a smoking, drinking, and gaming room. The kegs were empty, and everything was well used.

Satisfied, he headed back. Down the hallway, it opened on the left into a dining room. Oak table and chairs, with silver table settings. The walls had human-sized shields hanging on them, eight total, each a unique heraldry and all showing signs of use. There was also a set of full-plate armor, looking nearly new.

All of it went in the bag as fast as he could jam it in there.

While doing so, he also started checking the wall for a secret door. He couldn’t quite recall precisely where it had been hidden, but somewhere near the chief’s room was a set of stairs that led to his treasure room. He found nothing in this room.

Feeling somewhat exposed, as this room had no door, he went to the door at the far end of this dining room, expecting a supply room or the like. Instead, it was a bedroom. From the decorations in lace and drapery, it was obviously a giantess’s room. However, he had no time to appreciate it as a cave bear charged across the room at him.

Duromar struck first [-25] and second [-32], but failed to bring it down. It lashed out with both claws and tried to bite him, doing it a second time before he could hit again, but his last hit [-30] ended the fight. [+683 E.P., +1 honor]

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (19/65) Cave Bear (1/1)

Searching the room took longer than he would have liked, as both chests had nothing but clothing. Finally, he thought to check under the mattress and found a pouch of gems. He didn’t bother to count them and simply grabbed it all. No secret doors here either.

Across the dining room and into the next door. At this point, he’d been in the villa for over an hour and even giants eventually ran out of energy to party. Discovery was inevitable if he lingered too long.

The next room was, as most before it, vacant. It held more trophies from battles, mostly gnome armor and shields, too battered to be worth anything. Still no secret door. There was a regular door at the far side, so he moved on.

This was clearly the chief’s room. There was armor, a few weapons, a lantern, a bag of platinum, and most interesting, repeated scratches on the floor near the bed. Moving it aside, he found the secret door. Not quite where he’d recalled, but definitely a good result. He headed down, trying to recall all the traps below. There was a pit trap in front of the secret door to the true treasure room and if you went the wrong way, a room with bars that came down to trap you that connected to a room with manticores that blocked the room with decoy treasure. Real treasure, but only a fraction of the true treasure room.

Halfway down the stairs, he pulled out the lantern to open it and light it. But as soon as he opened the shutters, it was already lit up. Likely a continual light spell, which was convenient.

The layout wasn’t quite what he expected. There on the far wall were the decoy coffers with fake gems. He stayed away from those, but searched the rest of the room for another secret door, finding nothing. There was an obvious door, which he left alone for the moment. Down a short hallway, he could see a massive-built portcullis and could hear some kind of creature or creatures behind it. With nothing else to see, he tried the door, ready to face the creature if that triggered the release.

It didn’t, and the room simply contained seven chests. Assuming traps, Duromar took the chests entirely to open them later.

Stubbornly, he checked every wall again, trying to find that secret door. Finally, after spending far longer than he should have, he found it.

Duromar smirked to himself, and leapt over the first ten-foot square, into the treasure room proper. [Avoiding death trap: +2846 E.P.]

The room had a large chest, an iron box, two coffers, a few broken boxes with yellow mold on them, and in the corner, a broken oak barrel.

The chest, box, and coffers went in the bag immediately. The broken barrel, which was covered by an illusion made obvious when he picked it up, went in right behind them.

Quickly scanning the room for any other loot, he realized that the yellow mold had grown over a small collection of weapons hanging on the wall.

“Clever giant. Continual light to make yellow mold go dormant.” He stuffed the various weapons into his own bag, closing it to prevent the mold from getting on anything else, and shoved that into the bag of holding.

He jumped back over the pit trap and hurried back up the stairs, well aware that the chief’s bed was still out of place and it would be obvious. Tucking away the lantern, he eased past the still open secret door. Oddly, despite the late hour, the chief had not returned. He took the time to shove the bed back, just in case it helped.

Moving quickly, and as quietly as he knew how, he traced his way back to the young giant’s room to pick up Ulled. Coming around the corner, he nearly ran into a small pack of orcs coming out of the armory room, looking somewhat panicked.

Wasting no time, Duromar laid into them. He hit [-18] twice [-21], taking out only the second. Unarmed, they tried punching at him, which would have been laughable even if he was unarmored. Spreading the damage around wasn’t normally a good tactic, but orcs are weak enough that one hit should kill them. Striking a third [-18], it went down, as did [-17] the fourth, leaving just two, one injured. Two [-14] swings more [-13] was all it took. [+184 E.P.]

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (19/65) Orcs (5/255)

Glancing around for anyone else, he kicked the corpses aside and went into the room.

Just inside the door, one of the beds had been righted and stretched out on top of it, snoring, was Ulled.

----

Getting out was much easier than expected. Due to the excessively long time searching for the secret door into the true treasure room, the replaced guards at the front door had also fallen asleep.

With Ulled still massively injured, they let these two live. The door was barred shut now, but that was easily lifted away and they were gone.

----

When we got back to the cave, we found out what had happened with the other groups. The first attempted a head-on assault against the great hall, and at least two dozen giants, plus some ogres. It did not go well. Surprisingly, they all got out alive, but could not confirm with certainty even a single fatality on the other side.

The second group initially found themselves in a secondary hallway with barracks but they too ended up in the great hall. They joined the fight for a time but retreated quickly, rejoining with the first group in the entryway and leaving together.

We admitted to raiding the armory and taking out the teens. Ulled mentioned that I’d gone ahead to scout more. I didn’t want to share our treasure, so I claimed not to have learned anything useful, adding that I’d been hoping to pick off individual giants if I could, but had no luck, as they’d all been in the great hall.

The plan is to heal up for a day or two, then perhaps make a second attempt. While of course, everyone else involved must think this first attempt was a failure, I’m really looking forward to telling my brother just how hugely successful it actually was.

P.S. [Damage: +609 E.P.], [Treasure: +21104 E.P.] and [MVP: +3675 E.P.]

----

Monz’tera 6

They’ll be spending the next few days hiding. The giants are going out in large parties, and are absolutely furious.

I’m blaming it on the young giants getting killed. The chief may not have even checked his treasury yet… no, that’s absurd. He probably did that first thing. After all, he has to know someone went into his room to take his armor and money.

In any event, I’ve got a massive bag of loot to sell, so I volunteered to scout. Actually, I’m just going to circle around and head to the nearest city, Fraduir.

----

Monz’tera 7

The loot was better than I realized. Three intelligent weapons in the mix, two of them giant-slayers, one a flame-tongue. Where else would you go to use and therefore find a giant-slayer weapon? ‘Jack’, the bastard-sword (who prefers to be called a great sword) was rather eager to go kill giants. I made him an offer, to transfer him into a huge longsword, and thus no one would argue about him being called a great sword again and giving him to my brother, who lives for the fight and has gone after giants often.

It took some convincing, but eventually, he agreed, and I found a wizard who could cast Steal Enchantment. (I’m really liking that spell, never quite realized how useful it is.) I actually wasn’t sure if Jack would transfer, but he did. He bragged that he had some special abilities too, but wouldn’t tell me because I wasn’t his wielder.

Now, here was a surprise. Thrag was in the city. It’s been a while since I’ve seen my mentor. He said he had a feeling I’d need him soon. And, interestingly, I’m fairly close to leveling.

Of course, he was quite happy to take his treasure share a bit early.

Oh, one other amusing bit. One of the warhammers had a magic mouth on it that activated when touched by a dwarf. It started singing ‘Short People’. I wish Torendrock had been with me, just to see his face. I kept the lantern and the fishing pole and of course the map and the black chain to get to the frost giants. Sold everything else that could sell, destroyed all the giant equipment that I couldn’t sell.

Fraduir is a fair bit smaller than Fangaerie, though. Too small to have a dedicated magic shop. Instead, everything is run through an auction. My items sold for very reasonable prices, so I did something a bit crazy. A pair of weapons came up for sale called ‘Axe(s) of Rapid Whacks’. I overheard a fighter next to me make a comment about them, using the word ‘haste’. What good is gold if you just hang on to it? Anyhow, I got the first one for 5500, but then the bidding on the second went much higher, to 8200.

Yes of course I had to get the matched set.

That wasn’t the crazy bit. After settling up, I equipped them. They were insane. Four attacks per round, each! And, the damage dealt was double the normal handaxe damage. But the actual crazy bit was that I took them to the wizard, and had him move the enchantments to a pair of 2H swords. He probably overcharged me but I didn’t even consider haggling. It’s stupid as heck to be disrespectful of a high-level wizard.

I’m nearly broke now, at least until I get a chance to sell these giant-slayer swords. Because these new ones are way better in every way. Ok, technically, I’ve lost a single point of bonus damage to any true-giants but I’ve got four attacks per round (each!), so that’s a trade-off I’ll make any day.

Made it back without running into any giants, more’s the pity.

Ulled is over the moon about his new sword. I felt a little bit bad about it at first, at least until I found out that Jack was telling the truth about his special abilities. He has two. The first is flight, for up to an hour a day. The second is possibly even better. A boost to strength that could last several hours. Both have the limitation that Jack has to be held in hand while using the abilities. Which means, and I specifically asked about this, if Ulled drops Jack, by accident or on purpose, or sheathes him, the ability ends and cannot be used again until the next dawn. Still, extra strength is the perfect ability for him.

----

Monz’tera 8

Tonight we go back in, but the ‘we’ has been through a change. We, as in Ulled, myself, and our guides, woke up this morning to discover that all the others have bailed. Not without reason, to be fair. Ivar has been in a rage about his treasure room being emptied out, and the other adventurers didn’t take long to figure out that the reason I was gone was that I was off selling the treasure. Especially with Ulled’s new sword. Mine weren’t noticed, since magical 2H swords seem very much like other magical 2H swords. What I found interesting was no one fell victim to the sunk cost fallacy. There’s probably plenty of incidental treasure still in there, but with the bulk of it gone, they were too.

Funny thing is, I care far less about treasure than I do experience. And hill giants are worth a lot. Ulled cares far more about hacking than treasure, so he’s certainly still in.

Alajo will be staying, but Torwald is heading back to see if the duke can recruit another group.

We’re going to try going in the back entrance this time, through the large yard. Might be less well guarded.

----

The fence was at least ten feet tall, very solidly built from timbers that were lashed together. The double gates were twenty feet wide each and seemed to rely on simple massive weight as a deterrent against the smaller races from entering this way.

Unfortunately, while the gates were easy enough to pass through, the entry did not go unnoticed. There was a deep “Maaaa!” sound as two giant goats charged at the half-ogres.

Duromar stepped into the charge and swung at each as they reached him, hitting [-42] both times [-41] and both goats collapsed to the ground without even finishing the charge. [+567 E.P.]

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (19/65) Orcs (5/255) Giant Goat Bucks (2/2)

Past the limit of his infravision he could hear a herd of goats shifting around, but no more came charging.

In the corner of the large yard was an outbuilding with a barn-like structure. The doors opened as easily as any others, and they slipped into the stables.

There were six stalls on one wall, each housing a jumbo-sized pony. Parked in the middle of the large space were three huge wagons. Investigating, the wagons turned out to be packed full of clothing, furniture, and tools, all of them human-sized. Much of it was in poor shape.

Ulled snorted as he held up a fistful of stained and torn garments. “Why would they even bother?”

Duromar sighed, “Denial of resources. Just like all the weapons we took. Surprised they haven’t burned all this yet, but maybe this is recent.”

Beyond the stables was a barracks, but none of the beds were in use. The barn also had two other rooms, one a milking parlor and the final a storage room for hay. The milking parlor had an exit back into the yard, and they headed out that way towards the main villa.

As they approached that main structure, two more outbuildings became visible, built against the outside wall. Not expecting much, Duromar pulled open the door to the first one.

There wasn’t much. Hay was strewn everywhere, piled up into filthy pallets of bedding in the dozens. Only two spots were occupied, by orcs that barely bothered to notice them come in and were obviously injured. On top of that, it smelled like a latrine.

Duromar had to grab Ulled’s arm to stop him from attacking. “Hold on. I want to talk to them first.” He put away his own swords and held up his empty hands as he walked closer.

There was a dull, beaten look in the eyes of the orc that sat up as he neared. “What want?”

Duromar grinned. “To annihilate the giants. Anything you can tell me to help with that?”

The second orc grunted. “Orcs tried. Orcs died.”

“A few nights ago there was a raid on the villa. I heard Ivar was furious because someone got into his treasure room and stole everything.” Duromar paused, seeing the orcs begin to pay attention. “That was me. I did that. And now I’m back to finish the job.”

The orcs looked at each other and had a brief conversation in what was probably orcish. The first looked back at Duromar and then Ulled behind him. “Orcs underground rebel. If kill giants, orcs help. Say them ‘Bog say Krezzuhzek’, them help.”

“Bog say Krezzuhzek. Sure. Who is Bog?”

The orc jerked a thumb at himself, then at the other. “Me Bog. Him Slog.”

Duromar nodded, and turned to leave, then thought of something else. “What happened to you two, anyhow?”

The orc gestured at his head. “Angry cook. Fry pan. Got healing?”

Duromar pondered, then nodded. He pulled out two healing potions and handed one to each of them. “You’ve been helpful. Gather your loot and be ready to leave.” He turned to Ulled and grinned. “It’s time to kill some giants.”

It was Jack who responded cheerfully, “That’s my favorite time of all!”

----

The back door into the villa was as heavy as the front doors had been. The room beyond the door was part workroom and part storage room for the kitchen. The L-shaped room extended around a corner, and from that corner could be heard the clatter of a working kitchen. There were a fair number of doors leading out of this room as well, but clearing the kitchen had priority for now.

“Remember, don’t kill the orcs. Unless they try to attack us.”

Jack hissed in a voice above the whisper Duromar would have preferred, “Us first! Move it, I hear giants!” Ulled immediately charged around the corner with his brother on his heels.

The kitchen proper was crowded and busy, with a half-dozen hill giant cooks, a dozen ogre assistants, and at least two dozen orcs. The orcs scattered, and Ulled hit the shocked head cook so hard Duromar was certain he’d gotten a crit. With a roar of rage, Ulled swung Jack and cut through the head cook at the hips and then continued after that deep into a second cook, nearly cutting her in half as well. The other three giants grabbed rolling pins and iron pans and tried to attack Ulled. The injured cook, disoriented perhaps, fumbled her swing and hit one of the other cooks instead.

The ogres rushed at Duromar instead, leaving the raging berserker to the giants to deal with. Duromar ignored the feeble punches and swung a sword to hit as many as possible and was shocked by the result. [-34] [-42] [-38] [-45] [-36] [-42] Six ogres went down, with his blade sliding past and into a seventh. He swung again with the other blade, [-40] [-33] [-32] [-38] [-36] [Fumble!] and despite the blade trying to slip out of his hand, six more ogres went down by starting with the injured one. Before the ogres could recover, he stepped back, recognizing that Ulled had gone berserk and needed as many targets as possible to soak up his rage.

Even as he stepped back, Ulled finished the second cook and weathered blows from the giants. The ogres, having now decided the raging berserker was actually the safer choice, tried to punch him as well, but failed to land good blows.

Duromar noticed that the kitchen had no exits except the hallway he was currently blocking, so none of the orcs had left to get help. Looking at the closest, he tapped his chest and said, “Krezzuhzek,” loud enough to be heard over the combat. The orcs didn’t immediately react beyond a few curious glances.

While that was happening, one of the giants got a lucky blow on Ulled’s elbow, and Jack swung wildly as Ulled nearly dropped him. He managed to recover and retaliated by dropping another giant, but it was clear the elbow was hurt. Both ogres managed to land solid punches as well.

Then it got worse, as Ulled’s weakened grip slipped and Jack flew out of his hands, landing a fair distance away. He took quite a few blows as he snarled and ran to scoop the sword back up. Duromar groaned to himself, wanting to step in.

Finally, another giant went down. Then the last sank to her feet, not quite completely out. Ulled finished her off, but as he turned to face the ogres, the light of anger still seemed to be in his eyes. Perhaps unwisely, one of the ogres hit him again. Impossibly, he seemed to get angrier. He cut down both remaining ogres with a single blow. [+3402 E.P., +1 honor]

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (24/65) Orcs (5/5) Ogres (14/26)

Krezzuhzek

Orcs (31/250)

There was a moment of quiet as both the orcs and Duromar waited to see if the berserker rage had ended. Ulled groaned, and painfully sheathed Jack, then twisted his arm around to try and look at his elbow. “Ow.”

Duromar chuckled. “I’ll bet. Nicely done, though. You looked like you were having so much fun, I just let you have them all.”

Jack’s muffled voice was quicker to respond, “I had fun! Let’s do it again!”

One of the braver orcs crept forward still cowering, “Krezzuhzek?”

“Yes, Bog say Krezzuhzek. You can all leave through the yard, and take them with you.”

The orc shook his head. “Bucks attack.”

“How many goat bucks are there, two?”

There was a puzzled look and a nod.

“Then they’re dead too. Just stay away from the does and the kids and you’ll probably be safe.”

The crowd of orcs didn’t take long to work up the courage to leave and were soon filing out the door in a rush.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Name: Duromar

E.P.(+5%): 252526

Next Level: 275001

2H Sword of Rapid Whacks +2

Spd

Atk

M

L

H

G

BSL

4 attacks/round OR

6 opp/round

-2

+10

2d10+17

6d6+17

4d10+17

4d12+17

13

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Name: Ulled

E.P.(+15%): 220957

Next Level: 275001

Jack

Spd

Atk

M

L

H

G

BSL

vs. True Giant

-4

+7

4d8+11

4d12+11

8d6+11

8d8+11

11

vs. Giant-kin

-4

+7

2d8+11

2d12+11

4d6+11

4d8+11

11

vs. others

-4

+6

2d8+10

2d12+10

4d6+10

4d8+10

10

Berserk vs. True

-4

+8

4d8+13

4d12+13

8d6+13

8d8+13

12

Berserk vs. kin

-4

+8

2d8+13

2d12+13

4d6+13

4d8+13

12

Berserk vs. others

-4

+7

2d8+12

2d12+12

4d6+12

4d8+12

11