| Session Date | December 9, 2022 |
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| Base XP Gained | Carry Over |
| Player Notes | ZZ's Notes |
Back in the thieves’ safe house, the party spoke further with Paksis and the Thief With No Name. The latter reported that no one knew who had rescued Paksis, but Hobgoblins had put the entre city on lockdown and were searching for her. Her tower, the temple of Grimbold, had been taken by them and certainly was even now being searched. IN addition to the fight the party was part of, there had apparently been another, smaller one by the New Gate. Paksis added that this was an attempt on Alcibard, but it had also apparently been found out and stopped before it could even begin. The revolt had taken months to plan she said, with herself and Homfrith as the leaders of it. It had been a disaster and most, maybe all, of their forces had been slain or taken. Of note, the revolt and intentionally not used the city guards, as they were too closely watched. Although the insurrectionists had seen the danger signal, they were fireballed when they tried to disperse. Paksis speculated there were spies, perhaps many, throughout the city.
The party discussed escaping the city for their own safety, but in further discussion decided only Paksis was truly at risk since she was well-known. To that end, they placed her in a non-descript room in order to ensure any scrying against her would reveal nothing of use. Further information from the thief indicated that the enemy was searching all the temples as the insect plague (and the leadership of Paksis and Homfrith) had them focused on clerics at present. The party had a long discussion on possible actions to undermine the occupation involving deception and other approaches. However, the immediate decision was to pursue the Frost Giant that had apparently left the city with a small entourage of Hobgoblins, Trolls, and Bugbears earlier that morning.
Hans cast invisibility 10’ radius on the entire party and they set off flying along the Dwarf Road hoping to catch them. Some time later, they caught up with the enemy group and passed them in order to establish an ambush not too far from the Gray Haven Inn. The party prepped the battlefield, ZZ with a spike stone spell on the road and a minor globe of invulnerability on the carpet riders (Burt, Hans, Deaglan); everyone else landed and prepared for ground assault. When they came into the danger area, Burt and Hans blasted them all with fireballs while Sirius threw black tentacles to mire the trolls in place. The enemy was taken at complete surprise, but the Giant managed to throw a small ice ball at the carpet riders which exploded into an ice storm. The others rushed into melee or fired missile weapons at the enemy. ZZ then tried to use his wand of wonder, only to shrink to five inches tall. Deciding to try nothing or double, he invoked the powers of Chaos inherent in his jester suit and achieved a novel success – Jarl Vostok, emissary of the Giant King, was charmed! (that was a damn lucky series of rolls). At this point, Vostok ceased fighting and the survivors of his entourage broke and fled, some being cut down by Jarrik and others, with more being blown apart from additional spells.
With Jarl Vostok somewhat tamed (for now), mini-ZZ began to question him (and the party via him as the Giant clearly was seething at the rest of them). The enemy did indeed know of the planned revolt and had known for some time thanks to a number of human and wererat spies. They were ready for it and had let it proceed in order to catch all of the rebels at once. He had left to report what had happened to the Giant King, who remained at his citadel in the Kair-Acklin Highlands. Grumnir, a Fire Giant, remained in command at the city. The enemy was aware that, if the entire town were to rise up, they would be driven out or slain but the Giant King was not giving them more forces and trying to keep control with a relatively light hand, hence the status of Alcibard. But the occupiers had hired one Lammoch, a wizard, as well as another wizard named Vorna and a cleric of Magnus named Shem. They also had a halfling in their employ working the city as a spy. As it turned out, some of these were remnants of the band hired to assassinate the party months before, now hired as heavy firepower by the Giant King.
As for Alcibard, they viewed him as a tool and little more. He had no real power, though he was rather popular among the populace and thus of use as a figurehead, as well as for insights into Manston. They also learned that the Giant King was seeking to make an alliance or agreement of some sort with Wellidar down the Blueflood, but that had not been at successful as yet. The Giant King strongly desired to restore trade to begin profiting by it. He needed treasure to pay his armies and to buy supplies, especially with the terrible winter and poor harvest last year.
Vostok clearly had a very high opinion of the Giant King, and revealed when asked that Gulliveg was a powerful Mountain Giant, the greatest giant he’d ever known tell of. The Giant King had many powerful friends and a council of advisors that he kept quite close to him – Jarl Vostok was merely an emissary, albeit a trusted one. Some of those advisors were very intelligent and crafty. As for the three wizards, he knew of them but gave them little heed. They were semi-independent and seen mainly as useful in keeping Andorland too busy to aid Manston. Indeed, the Giant King was expected to order Far Andor be destroyed soon to remove it as a hotbed of insurrection. But it was Manston that was the jewel right now. Vostok intended to recommend the Giant King send more forces to ensure it remained in his hands, and remains intact, despite just destroying the revolt. It was the unexpected arrival of the party that had Vostok worried. Indeed, the party was a very well-known thorn, one that would appear, cause trouble, then vanish again for a time. Gulliveg wanted them dead, rather badly, but had only intermittently sought to achieve that as it was proving to be very difficult (the fact the composition of the party kept changing likely factors into this). However, Gulliveg was apparently intent on keeping most of his forces closer to himself in case the Dwarf King decided to intervene. When asked, he showed them a seal he carried for messages, depicting a stylized mountain. He used it to send messages to his king. In fact, he was Gulliveg’s first choice for many important missions (hence why the party had seen him in the Dwarf City some time past).
One other interesting tidbit he mentioned was that the Giant King was spending a vast fortune to carve a likeness of himself into the great cliff at the prow of the island that is the Kair-Acklin Highlands. It was to be over 100 feet tall and worked and proceeded all winter, despite the terrible conditions (many had died working on it, though neither Vostok nor Gulliveg cared). (Note: there’s a name for that location but I don’t recall it or have it in front of me)
The party learned somewhat of the ordering of the Kingdom. The Fire Giants were typically the military leaders of the main forces. Frost Giants, however, were treated very well by the Giant King and often chosen for special missions and purposes, like Vostok (who was a lord of his kind); the Giant King found them to be the most civilized and cultured, and the party got the impression that the Giant King cared about being perceived as a “civilized” sovereign, not some dirty barbaric conqueror.
As for the party’s Dwarf friends in the city, they were still there and alive. Grumnir really wanted to feed them to his Hellhounds, but he had orders to keep them safe and under lock and key. The Giant King did not want to provoke the Dwarf Kingdom and had hinted they might either be used as slave labor on the statue carving later, or possibly as a trap to catch the party.
Vostok told them he had no desire to be a garrison commander for the Giant King. The last of his kin that did so worked with the Wizard Silver and had been slain by the party. He preferred his more mobile existence, though it was dangerous enough. And so it proved to be, as the party then slew Jarl Vostok and took his head. After that, they forged a message using the seal, stating that Wellidar had attacked Vostok’s party and urging an immediate attack on the city. This was passed off at Durnbridge to the Giant King’s garrison there, and the party then slipped back to Manston and to their safe house.