Monz’tera 8

With the orcs gone, there were the exits to consider. An alcove held two doors, there was another in the far wall, and one more near to the exit. With no better plan, they opened the leftmost door.

This door opened to a long hallway, at the end of which were double doors that led into the great hall. Those double doors were open, and a crowd of giants was just visible. They could hear a giant shouting, and the crowd seemed to be responding enthusiastically to whatever the shouting was about.

Duromar closed the door. “If we’re lucky, they’re about to go on a raid. We can clean house while they’re gone.”

Ulled’s expression twisted in confusion. “We’re going to clean?”

Jack groaned and said in his muffled voice, “No, we’re going to kill every giant that’s staying behind, then wait for this bunch to return and we kill them too.”

Duromar nodded. “Yes, basically what Jack said. Maybe not all tonight, though.” He ignored Jack’s disappointed noise and opened the door next to the first, and found a storeroom with hundreds of barrels. More importantly, there were stairs leading down.

“Opinions. Clear out the lower level first, to give the giants some time to leave, or try to clear out the upper level quietly with maybe them still here?”

“Quiet sucks. Let’s be noisy down below,” said Ulled.

“If it kills more giants, in the long run, I can vote for the lower level,” Jack added.

“Good. Lower level it is. Jack, have we told you that we’ve still got Frost Giants and Fire Giants to go after when we finish these guys?”

There was a moment of silence. “Really? If swords could cry, I’d be rusting myself right now with tears of joy.”

On the heels of that, Ulled added, “Didn’t know we knew where they are, but that sounds good to me.”

“Oh, sorry. Forgot to tell you I have a map to the Frost Giants. Not sure where to find the Fire Giants yet, but I’m working on it.” He paused, then pulled out a potion vial. “Here, healing potion.”

They headed down the stairs. At the foot was a fairly large square room, heavily trafficked and mostly clear. There were hallways heading off three sides and four different doors as well.

Duromar motioned for silence and waited to see what he could hear. There wasn’t much going on, some voices drifting in from a hallway, and what might have been the clanging of weapons practice. After listening, he decided to follow the adventurer’s rule of exploring; the same rule used in mazes and labyrinths, follow the left-hand wall.

That rule had them entering the closest hallway. This passage was completely silent, and it was soon evident why. It led to an empty storeroom, full of shelves with nothing on them. The second branch led to another storeroom, but this one was packed full of goods, nearly all of it weapons and armor. They shoveled it into the bag of holding as quickly as it could fit. Unlike the armory above, this was sized for humanoids, so could potentially be quite valuable.

Off to the side was an unfinished room, perhaps for a third storeroom. That boded poorly for the raids curtailing anytime soon.

They returned to the main staging room. The next left was a door, and Duromar casually opened it without actually thinking about what he was doing.

Leaping from the side of the door, almost like it had been lying in wait, was a large ape, who roared and tried to attack him. Reflexively, he struck with his sword [-43] before the ape could do anything, dropping it to the ground in agonized pain. As the ape dropped, Duromar could see a twisted and hunchbacked hill giant further in the room, who snarled at him and came at him with a huge battle axe. They struck at each other simultaneously, but Duromar felt certain he got the better [Crit! Severity 18, Right Elbow, -63, +1 honor] of the exchange [-27 dam] and had the notifications to confirm it. The giant’s right hand slipped off the weapon and dangled at his side. He couldn’t tell for sure, but it looked like his blow might have severed a vital tendon. He slipped in two more [-44] blows [-39] before the giant finally went down.

Even as he cut down the giant he heard an excited voice behind him, “Lemme at hi- aw, you killed him already!”

There was a scream of fury from above, and a second ape leapt at Duromar. The first slashing claw glanced off his armor, but the second and the attempted bite came nowhere near him. Before the ape could try again, Duromar struck once [-40] with each [-45] sword and it was dead before it hit the floor. [+3728 E.P., +1 honor]

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (25/65) Ogres (14/26)

Krezzuhzek

Orcs (31/250)

They searched the room, finding coins and gems and a jug of probable alcohol under a loose stone in the floor. It wasn’t much, but the giant’s axe looked magical, so all of it went into the bag. Jack whined about killing the giant until Duromar promised to let him kill the next one. Ulled looked healed enough to take on at least one.

From the main room, they took the next corridor. It branched and curved back into a tool storage room, which, unlike most other rooms, was unlit by torches. Sadly, every single tool had rusted into near worthlessness. A door at the far side of the room was locked with a fairly impressive lock. The rusty crowbar actually bent under the strain of Duromar’s effort to break the lock, but it did eventually break before the crowbar did. That let them into a short passage with a second locked door. This one yielded eventually too. The final room was a bit of a surprise.

It was Chief Ivar’s liquor cellar. Some smaller bottles, some in gallon jugs, but also eight large kegs of wine. Naturally, every pint of it went into the bag.

The other branch of the corridor led to a well of clean water. Poisoning it seemed pointless, as the water slowly swirled from an inlet to the side, and drained through a grate in the bottom.

The next door entered into a shorter corridor, one lined with five heavy barred doors. Just past the entrance was a metal gong on a stand and near the end of the hallway were two bugbears holding trays with bowls of mush, or oatmeal, or gruel of some sort. Alerted by the door, the trays spilled to the ground as both bugbears dropped them to pull out weapons.

One shook his weapon at the half-ogres and yelled angrily, “Hey, you’s not allowed here! We’s in charge down here now. Go back upstairs!”

Ulled didn’t even pause, chopping down the one speaking even as the last words echoed in the room. Duromar hit the second [-35] with a blow that should have put down the second one, except for the stubborn fire in his eyes. But the bugbear never saw the second sword coming, which utterly [-43] put the fire out. [+284 E.P.]

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (25/65) Ogres (14/26) Bugbears (2/58)

Peeking in the first few cells revealed three prisoners. One that had gone mad, a human that beat his chest and roar like a dying ape. The second was a terrified human. And the last was an elf with a horrible burn scar on his face. The final cell had three skeletons chained up, each with a gold ring on a finger bone. They left the obvious trap alone.

At the end of the hallway was a larger cell, filled with five orcs that looked a bit smarter than an average orc did. There was a fierce but quick discussion after the bugbears went down, then one spoke up. “Hey. What going on?”

Before either half-ogre could answer, Jack responded with, “We’re here to slaughter every giant we can! Wanna help?”

Duromar muttered a quiet, “Dammit Jack…”, but the orc response was five growls of agreement.

The lead orc nodded eagerly. “We lead you to rebel. They want help too.”

Getting a shrug from Ulled and taking the keys from the lead bugbear, Duromar released the orcs. He released the humans and the elf as well, despite the grumbling from the orcs. Those three he gave simple directions to head upstairs and get the heck out of here. They went without argument.

Krezzuhzek

Orcs (36/250)

Back in the large square room, then had only a single door and a hallway left to check. The orcs helpfully explained that the door led into the bugbear area, and the hallway led to more cells. Opting to wipe out the bugbears before freeing the orcs, Duromar went through the door.

On the other side was a mob of bugbears, fully armed and armored, clustered up in a group discussion. One turned and barked out some kind of command, gesturing at a wall. When both half-ogres charged at the group instead, followed by a handful of orcs, a cry went up and all the bugbears turned to attack.

Ulled led the charge again, swinging wildly. Somehow, he caught the tip of his blade on the ground and it rebounded, smacking into himself. Good luck was that it was the flat of the blade, so other than looking stupid, no harm was done.

Duromar didn’t have any better of a start, missing the first bugbear [Fumble!] when sweat dripped into his eyes. But it got better from there, cutting one in half [-55], cutting another in half [Crit! Severity 17, Chest, -65, +1 honor], somehow not downing the next [-32], downing another [-39], and cutting one more in half [-55], all with the swing of one blade. While he was shifting his weight to bring the other around, the bugbears recognized the greater threat and all eight remaining tried to attack him. All missed. Duromar swung and six bugbears perished [-45] [-51] [-42] [-37] [-51] [-41].

There was a shocked moment when the lone remaining uninjured bugbear realized that he was indeed the only one of a dozen not horribly wounded, and one of only two still standing.

A moment later Ulled cut down the injured one and Duromar finished [-38] the last. [+2113 E.P., +1 honor]

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (25/65) Ogres (14/26) Bugbears (14/58)

The orcs gathered up weapons, and without being asked, coin purses that were promptly handed to Ulled. Duromar would have called that uncharacteristic behavior for an orc, but these had a touch of military organization to them which could explain it. Or possibly just fear of a barbarian who could slaughter them with ease.

Even as they finished the simple task, a cry of alarm came from the hallway connected to this staging area. A bugbear wearing bronze plate mail, likely checking on the noises, was standing at the entrance.

Duromar managed to move just a bit faster than Ulled this time, and a single blow [-39] was all it took. [+184 E.P.]

Following up, he charged down the hallway, ignoring both closed doors as he could see where the officer had come from. Four more bugbears in matching bronze plate mail were standing near a large table covered in papers, all looking his way. One looked significantly larger than the others, and Duromar aimed at him first. Unexpectedly, his first hit [-33] made the captain sink to the floor in pain, but prudently, he struck again [-39] to finish him. The three remaining lieutenants took hard hits, but only two went down [-32] to [-42] the quick blows, the third [-37] staying up. Ulled, coming in right behind him, finished that one. [+2559 E.P., +1 honor]

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (25/65) Ogres (14/26) Bugbears (19/58)

The doors that led into the barracks did not suddenly pop open. It seemed the fights had been far too fast to awaken the sleeping bugbears. A quick looting followed, with the orcs gathering all the weapons they could carry.

The lead orc jerked a thumb at the barracks doors. “Hey, we do them, ok?” He seemed eager to take part in the rapid assault.

Duromar shrugged and nodded, muttering to his brother, “No reason not to share the experience with the en-pee-sees, right?”

Ulled gave him a puzzled look. “Is that a special type of orc?”

“Right, never mind.”

The orcs came out bloody and even more heavily loaded down with weapons.

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (25/65) Ogres (14/26) Bugbears (43/58)

The lead orc seemed nearly jubilant and slightly incoherent as he described the next room, which was the final guard area before reaching the orc rebels. Passing through a double door, almost like an airlock system, it became clear why these guards never heard the commotion. It seemed they were too busy psyching themselves up for an imminent assault, given the slapping and headbutting behavior in the final room.

What was visible in the second before Duromar threw himself into the middle to attack was that this group was heavily armed. Six took heavy blows [-48] [-37] [-37] [-40] [-35] [-40], five went down. Attacking with the second blade, six more took heavy blows [-47] [-54] [-35] [-35] [-40] [-39] and all six went down. Moving past and around the stack of bodies, Ulled went for the exit that led into another corridor. There at the threshold was the final bugbear. He had been standing apart, watching around a corner. While not caught unaware, Ulled swung first, hitting his lower side and leaving him in half. [+2021 E.P., +1 honor]

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (25/65) Ogres (14/26) Bugbears (55/58)

Just around the corner was a blockade filling the hallway. On the far wall were three doors. Duromar glanced in the closest and saw dozens of orcs sitting listlessly. The leading orc with him climbed partway up the blockade and started talking to someone beyond it in orcish. Duromar caught the attention of the next orc and gestured at the cell door.

The orc just shook his head. “Too late.” He pointed to his heart. “Mulva frum.”

The leading orc turned back, “Hey! Meet leaders!”, then climbed the rest of the way over the barrier. Following along, the small group went down a long passage, squeezing by regularly spaced orc guards, all of them poorly equipped. It led into a natural cavern at the end and clustered there was a group of orcs, listening to the ranting of three much larger orcs.

Their entrance led to the three breaking off the dressing down, and a spirited conversation took place with the five orcs who came in with them. It didn’t take long before the three dismissed the group and came to speak to Duromar and Ulled.

“You wants to join rebellion? Then bow down. We find room for you.” Interestingly, the offer wasn’t made aggressively, as he’d expected. Instead, it came across as a simple expectation of acknowledging they would follow these orc leaders.

Ulled snorted. “That’s not gonna happen.”

“I think you might misunderstand. We’re not here to join you. We’ve already wiped out most of the bugbears. We’re going to finish freeing the orcs down here, then go back up and utterly wipe out the giants. You’re welcome to join us if you want.” Duromar waited a moment to let them absorb his response, then finished with, “Also, what does Krezzuhzek mean?”

“Krezzuhzek, yes. Krezzuhzek mean ‘have mutual enemy’. What plan for giants?”

“Ambush. They’re all on a raid right now. I’d set up an ambush in the main hall, and just slaughter them when they return. Ulled here will want to lead the charge, so he’ll take the center.”

It took no more than five minutes to agree on a plan. If they freed the rest of the orcs, clearing the lower level of all bugbears, the orcs would set up a massive ambush in the great hall. With such a simple plan, how could it go wrong?

Krezzuhzek

Orcs (84/250)

Coming back down the long hallway with a small handful of orcs following, they paused beside each cell door to break off the lock and release the orcs. The three cells seemingly held another 78 orcs, according to his quest, but none looked like they had any spirit left. Despite this, they were herded back to join the rebel group waiting for the all-clear signal.

Krezzuhzek

Orcs (162/250)

It was barely thirty feet past the last cell door that they found an intersection. Down an especially wide hallway to the left were the ringing sounds of forge work being done. In front of them was a short distance to a poorly lit room. But there wasn’t a true opportunity to choose, as it was from the left hallway that a rough voice called out as a bugbear approached them.

“There you are! Haven’t you finished the TPS reports yet? There was a memo about putting the correct cover sheet on and I know you got it wrong last time so I need to make sure you get it right this time. I’m gonna need you to come in on Saturday and you might as well come on Sunday too…” Duromar babbled a stream of nonsense inspired by a movie he poorly remembered as he strode forward, getting within striking distance of the bugbear. At the moment he did, he cut off speaking and reached for his blades.

The first struck [-62] so hard that he couldn’t even get his second blade out in time before the bugbear was already down. Ulled, drawing his own blade, rushed past him and engaged with the next two. By the time he caught up, Ulled had dropped one. He hit the last [-36] and that fast, it was over. [+368 E.P.]

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (25/65) Ogres (14/26) Bugbears (58/58)

Through the bars of two doors were dozens of orcs. Most seemed fairly beaten down, if perhaps not quite as much as the other cells. But behind the third door was a smaller group of orcs that still seemed full of energy. One called out to the brothers in orcish, but they could only understand a single word. “ krezzuhzek.”

Duromar broke the lock off the door and pulled it open. “Krezzuhzek, yeah. Don’t suppose you speak common?” He broke the other locks just as easily, continuing, “We need to clear the forge room, you boys go join the rebellion.” With some encouragement from the small group, they got both other groups moving down the hallway.

Ulled muttered quietly to Duromar, “That’s a lot of orcs. How many do you think we’ve got following us now?”

Krezzuhzek

Orcs (250/250)

“Oh, couple hundred easy.”

They took the remaining smaller hallway, for now, hoping that the noise from the forge would drown out any potential fighting. It led to what could only be a torture chamber. Duromar failed to suppress a growl of fury as he found a hill giant bent over a hapless orc. The giant, alerted by the noise, grabbed a handy mace. However, it was Jack who spoke first, “MINE! HE’S MINE!”

The fight took no more than seconds. Ulled hit twice, taking a single blow in exchange, and the giant was done. He bent down to take off a gold necklace the giant was wearing while Duromar checked on the orc. Unfortunately, he was beyond even a healing potion.

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (26/65) Ogres (14/26)

They moved onto the smithy. It was a huge room and seemingly used as much for arms storage as production. On the far wall was a giant-sized forge, with two giants working at it. Curiously, there were also a bunch of dwarves working nearby.

Eying Ulled’s new wound, Duromar spoke just loudly enough to be heard, “One each Jack,” and then charged across the room.

The room was so packed with precariously balanced gear, it was no surprise that at some point one of them bumped a stack and it went crashing down. But this did alert the giants to the intrusion, and they reacted faster than the half-ogres would have liked, turning with massive hammers in hand to receive the attack.

Ulled, led by Jack’s incoherent yelling, struck down one of the two with a single blow. Duromar, trying to match that hit once [-44], made a terrible mistake on the backswing [Fumble!] and felt the blade bite into Ulled [-19], only then did his sword blade strike true [-37] and finish the giant. [+3150 E.P.]

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (28/65) Ogres (14/26)

“WATCH WHERE YOU SWING THAT THING DAMMIT!!”

Duromar winced. “Brother, truly, my apologies. It was an accident.”

Ulled snarled. “You’re such a jealous asshole sometimes. Just because I have the better weapon doesn’t mean you have to abuse me!” He stomped over to the dwarves, glaring at them too. “Hold out the chains, we’re breaking you out of here.” He barely waited for the dwarves to stretch the chains out before he was walking down the line, swinging down at them.

Duromar just stood awkwardly there as Ulled started shoving every weapon in the room into his bag, and snarled at Duromar the moment he moved to help.

The freed dwarves stayed out of the way, except for one that went up to Duromar to introduce himself. “I be Tarik. How many others have you brought?”

“Oh, it’s just the two of us.” He paused, then thoughtfully added, “And two hundred fifty orcs.”

“I see. Well, for a share of the trea-”

“Ah, let me cut you off right there. There’s no treasure left; that got stolen days ago. This is just the mop-up operation to kill off the remaining giants. If you go now, you should be able to escape out the back door before the raid returns.”

Disgruntled, the dwarf led his companions down the hallway.

A few minutes later, finished with tossing the room, Ulled stalked back to him. “Let’s go.”

It was only when they had marshaled the orc army and marched back into that central chamber that led upstairs that Ulled realized they’d missed the door sitting right next to the stairs. He pulled Ulled aside and had the orcs keep going.

“Last door. Could be a giant, so…”

Ulled held out a hand. “Thanks. But, I’m on my last legs, after some jerk hit me.”

Duromar sighed, fairly certain that if it got back to their mother he’d never hear the end of it. “Healing potion?”

Ulled took the offered potion, downed it, and threw open the door to stalk inside. The giant inside the room didn’t even look up at first, just said something, and kept working. When Ulled didn’t stop, he made an exclamation of dismay, pulling out a huge dagger to defend himself. Ulled struck first, and it looked like the giant might go down, but instead, he stabbed the dagger into Ulled’s hip, burying it. Ulled collapsed in a spray of blood.

“Oh, shit!” Duromar charged into the room, hitting the assassin first [-39] and finishing him off. [+1575 E.P.]

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (29/65) Ogres (14/26)

Checking on his brother, Ulled was still alive, if perhaps only thanks to the ring of regeneration. Needless to say, he was well out of this fight. He couldn’t even force-feed a potion right now, without risking potion miscibility issues. Reassuring Jack, who had dropped out of Ulled’s hand, he set about searching the room, finding a good-sized sack of coins. Also, the dagger used by the assassin looked very nice, so he took that too.

When he finally looked at the table, he found the very last thing needed. A map of the entire lower level.

Swearing, he left it there. Picking up Ulled and Jack, he went upstairs.

----

He arrived into chaos. Orcs were everywhere. Doors that led out of the kitchen, ones that they had ignored initially, were now open. A handful of dead ogres in one room, dead female giants in another. A quick check revealed the orcs had been busy.

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (40/65) Ogres (18/26)

That left twenty-five giants. That was still too many. Even with two hundred plus orcs, that was too many giants.

And Ulled was down, probably for at least a day.

There was just no choice. Between keeping his brother safe and finishing the giants, the giants would have to wait. Duromar slipped out the backdoor without a word to any orc, and just kept going.

----

Monz’tera 9

By the time I got back to the cave, the fight had apparently already started. Casualties were light for the giants, only losing six. The orcs lost about half before the readout vanished. I assume the remaining half fled. My best guess is the ogres got back first since they were wiped out.

That leaves nineteen giants to take out to finish the job. And that’s just a few too many for me to think I can take on by myself.

On top of that good news, Ulled was hurt worse than I knew. I’d sort of forgotten I’d taken the anatomy skill to complement my healing skill. In any event, the huge dagger–which is as long as a short sword–punctured an organ, and I’m not sure which one. He woke up after I’d cleaned and sewed up the wound, which was fortunate timing.

He’s going to have an amazing scar, though.

----

Monz’tera 10

We’ve decided to wait until Ulled is back to 100%. Alajo went out scouting and learned something very interesting.

Ivar is in mourning. Seems one of the female giants the orcs took out was his lady wife. I feel for him, truly.

But the good news didn’t stop there. The only giants left are warriors. We wiped out the cooks. And the maids. And the ogre servants. And turned the orc slaves against them. Why does this matter? A squad walked away back into the hills, leaving thirteen giants. Maybe more will leave?

----

Monz’tera 14

Ulled feels back to normal, finally. As soon as night falls, we go.

Nothing else has changed, still thirteen to go.

----

The villa looked like a battlefield, even days later. Orcs' bodies were scattered in the yard, left where they fell.

It wasn’t even a challenge getting in now. The backdoor, bashed down at some point, had simply been propped against the doorway. The kitchen lay silent, and a horrific mess. Not unlike what would be expected from a dozen hill giant bachelors, really.

Duromar checked his quest one last time before entering.

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (46/59)

He nodded, and they went in.

Things were even worse on the inside. Every door was smashed, furnishings in pieces. They could see into the great hall, and it was just a jumble of broken tables and chairs. Not one giant was in evidence.

Carefully, quietly, they moved into the hallway. Around the corner was a barracks, the door of which was missing again. More than half the beds were occupied with sleeping giants, accounting for eight of the thirteen. It was the chance they’d been hoping for, to reduce the numbers. Even if they woke some up, it was worth the risk.

With a silent nod, they cut down together. There were two sprays of blood, and regretfully, two cries of pain as the giants woke up. [-48] Unfortunate, but not unexpected. Giants were very hard to kill with a single strike, no matter how asleep they were. Duromar picked the closest targets and swung like a madman. He struck [-38] down his first target [-65] and got lucky with the second. His third took both [-37] blows [-44] to take out. The last in his reach was a bizarre combo of good [Crit! Severity 19, Top of Shoulder, -88, +1 honor] and bad [Fumble!] as one sword nearly took off an arm and the other tried to hurl itself across the room. Duromar once again thanked his foresight in getting the gauntlets.

Across the room, two giants scooped up clubs and smacked Ulled before he could reset to swing again. This did not have the expected outcome, as Ulled’s response was to roar in frenzy and attack back harder than before.

Moving up, Duromar engaged with three more. The first [-43] had a very bad day [Crit! Severity 24, Top of the head, brain goo, +1 honor], but as things do, it balanced out [Fumble!] when his next swing went strange and he hit himself. He stubbornly continued on, hitting [-34] with the other, then [-47] took out [-36] the third.

With Ulled still raging, Duromar ignored the target in front of Ulled and tried to finish off the one he’d fumbled on. Hitting first, the tough guy [-45] didn’t go down with one blow, needing [-51] a second. He glanced up to see the Ulled’s target go down as well. [+12600 E.P., +1 honor]

Precision Cutting: +735 E.P.

Reflexively, Duromar checked the count.

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (54/59)

But that wasn’t the only notification to check.

Name: Duromar

E.P.(+5%): 281843

Next Level: 275001

He needed to level.

“Five more. You know, I feel like I had more than my fair share here. Why don’t I let you take all of the rest?”

Jack was fine with that. “Hell yes, let’s go get them!”

They didn’t have far to go. As short as the fight had been, with the villa so quiet it had been heard by one of the others. Right around the corner was another giant, coming to check on the noise. Unlike the typical giants, armed with huge clubs, this one had a huge longsword.

“HOODY HOO!”

The giant’s cry echoed in the hall as he charged. The matched weapons whipped back and forth, hitting every time. Struck for the second time, Ulled bellowed in rage and cut the giant down with his third swing.

With hardly a breath to pause, yet another giant appeared! This one, while wearing the typical hide armor all hill giants wore, could only be Chief Ivar himself, judging from the fur lining that was a step above what any other giant had. His weapon was a huge battleaxe, one that only a fool wouldn’t assume to be enchanted.

Ulled struck first, hitting hard, but the chief was wickedly fast with his battleaxe, striking back twice and putting Ulled to the ground.

Duromar didn’t waste time and jumped in, having half-expected it. Ivar swung again but missed Duromar by a mile. He struck once [-50] with each blade [-42] and Chief Ivar was finished. [+0 E.P., +7 honor]

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (56/59)

No more giants showed up, not for a few minutes. He looted the bodies, finding not much worth taking except that huge battleaxe.

“Brother, when will you listen? Armor! You need to wear armor!”

He sighed and pulled out another potion, tipping it down Ulled’s throat. A few seconds later, his brother roused, groaning in pain. “Did I win?”

“Nearly, nearly. Rest a bit, then have another healing potion. We’ve still got to track down three more.” A conference room stood open nearby, and the two sat quietly for an hour to let the ring work, followed by Duromar’s last strong potion.

They searched the villa in silence, concluding that the last three must be the on-duty guards in the entry cloakroom. Coming through the still empty armory, which put a silly grin on Duromar’s face, they found the next door slightly open. Unlike the last time, with drunk and sleeping guards, these two were awake, and even somewhat alert.

Ulled rushed in and hit the first giant so hard, he went down with the first blow. Seeing this, Duromar hung back to let his brother try to do all the work. The second giant hit Ulled with a mostly glancing blow, and Ulled’s return stroke hit his right thigh and cut all the way through, severing his right leg. Duromar held back, recognizing the critical for what it was, but after a moment, he relaxed as neither HackFrenzy from being hit nor HackLust from the critical hit surfaced.

They could hear movement above them as the fight ended. A giant voice bellowed down the steps leading to the watchtower. “Last one?”

Duromar nodded. “Should be.”

The voice bellowed again, then the owner came stomping down the steps. At the bottom, he turned to face them and saw the brothers calmly standing next to the bodies of his fellows.

Ulled managed to hit first, but not nearly so well as before. The giant struck back and Ulled’s eyes blazed with a frenzy. He ended up striking twice more before the giant had a chance to, and finished the fight. [+14 honor]

Annihilate the Giants!

Hill Giants (59/59)

“I don’t suppose now is a good time to talk about armor?”

Duromar chuckled at the glare he got in response.

----

Always learning something new. I knew I’d stop gaining E.P. if I needed to level, but I’m fairly sure I’ve never seen it happen before. But I didn’t totally stop. Because these guys showed up when we got back to the cave again. [Damage: +924 E.P.], [Treasure: +8216 E.P.] and [MVP: +3675 E.P.] Also, one other. [Converting 32 honor to 8 Honor]

Alajo is glad to hear that we can leave now. He’ll report back to the Duke, and tell him the hill giants, and especially Chief Ivar, are finished. I decided not to make any promises about frost or fire giants. I could always have a copy made of the map, and send it to the Duke later, if I decide not to take them on myself.

One thing I swear though. Ulled is not going with me unless he wears some damn armor!

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

Name: Duromar

E.P.(+5%): 294658

Next Level: 275001

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

Name: Ulled

E.P.(+15%): 270943

Next Level: 275001