Fiddler on the Matt

11-28-2020: Game Thirty-Seven: Fiddler on the Matt
 
There was magic in this world once, but they stole it all away.
 
The wager was resolved with expedience. A watermelon merchant offered concessions to those attending the event.
 
Bastard: (19,12, 09) | Thy’lek (11, 22, 05) : As it turned out; Bastard was able to make more ladies squeal, though they definitely needed to seek immediate medical attention for their imminent disease (Bastard being immune due to his Un-Divine nature was simply asymptomatic, the ladies had no such luck). Thy’lek thought he’d bedded more, but as it turned out several of them came back for his services numerous times with disguises. Those bedded by Thy’lek had no complaints: medical or professional. The most interesting lady was a living puppet which was controlled by the Gunslinger Android who was attempting to gain a better understanding of human sexuality.
 
The Alpha brothers were prepared for the expedition and Penelope expedited their travel due to her amusement at the situation. The brothers had a helpful phone with which to contact her when things got interesting, or the job was done: whichever happened first. The brothers gained some information about what had happened in the meantime. They were approaching about mid-day, and no-one seemed to be guarding the entrance to the mine.
 
The Pope offered a plan: an explosive distraction to draw some of the inhabitants out and cut them down as they inspected. She also offered some insights as to what had happened. Their own dwarven workers were being forced to work for someone else. Someone of large stature. Hill Giants.
 
There was no ‘back entrance’ to the mine unfortunately, so a frontal entry was needed. Fortunately, they did have previous knowledge of the floor plan, and so the element of surprise for defenders would be mediocre as best compared to most other ‘intruders’. They crept through the window in reality and found themselves once more in the biting winds and powerful desert sun of the Giovan Dunes.
 
A half dozen hill giants were standing outside of the mine ‘overseeing’ a half dozen dwarves manually loading gems into carts. A trio of more important dwarves were cowering in a huddle, muttering to each other in dwarven. They noticed on the outskirts of the mine the fellow they had left in charge was quietly observing the situation.
 
He mentioned he had been writing for months, and it turned out the delays were a result. He said the giants were looking to organize their own army, and so they were looking to retrieve, some thing out of this mine: he wasn’t sure exactly what they were taking out of the mine, but the brothers would soon investigate. Apparently their gargoyle friend had simply ‘let the Giants in’ to the mine. This would certainly need to be looked into.
 
The three huddled dwarves were apparently in charge of the captive dwarves, and had helped to smooth over the takeover process. Apparently at least 15 additional Giants were inside the mine, and Fire Giant dignitaries were expected ‘soon’.
 
Tage sipped a delicious tonic of tongues from John, and moved quietly among the giants to see what he could glean from their conversations. As it were Giants are rather dumb, and the Dwarf traitor overseers were attempting to apologize for mediocre production rates for ‘promised ore’.
 
Tage attempted to give ‘the signal’, and it was a moment before he realized the brothers could probably not see it due to his current invisibility. He suggested the brothers ‘wait for his signal’ and moved into position. He grunted in Giant: “I should be in charge, clearly you have been going too easy on the dwarves. It is time for a new regime!” and invisibly threw a shuriken of
shadow at the Giant who appeared to be in charge, hoping to start a bit of a fight among them.
 
His attempt at instigation was successful.
 
The offender was so mad he managed to punch himself in the face leaving a nasty bruise. Tage’s strike and his own had left him at death's door. John faded into the shadows, and literally hurled one of the currently uninvolved observing giants at another. They both took a serious knock on the head and were less than delighted with each other. Tage struck from the shadows at another of the giants and having him fall on top of the fellow who just hit himself: crushing the poor fellow to death.
 
The last uninvolved Giant was not sure what to do. Yuttosk fired a volley of arrows, but he was still confused about what was happening. The Pope ran in holding his sword aloft. Thy’lek rode in atop his steed: striking at one of the Giants entangled with each other with his mallet.
 
Tage danced in plunging his knife into the neck of the Giant who had landed on top of the other. Blood gushed forth, and he did not rise again. The lone standing Giant hurled a boulder at Yuttosk, but didn’t get a very good shot off and missed. One of the tangled Giants attempted to smash Yuttosk, but missed and a big cloud of sand got launched into the air. John stepped in, a vicious series of punches crushing the life out of one of the entangled Giants.
 
The Pope rushed in, dodging the clumsy strikes of the fallen Giant and sliding through the dust cloud. He cut at the Giant, and Thy’lek got in with a cut as well. Yuttosks charge laid his spear into the only Giant still standing, but not quite knocking him down.
 
John stepped up and threw the fallen Giant at the last one standing and neither survived the collision. The outside of the mine had been secured, and there had been zero casualties among the dwarves. The three cowering in the dust had some explaining to do, and the brothers were happy to ask some questions. .
 
Hill Giants Murdered: 10
Dwarves Saved: 12