Session 25 - Saved

General Summary

Saved by Sirenna after Brovar kills two Giants

The two Giants are right outside the door, and they are trying to get Sirenna to open it for them. She has a broken arm, presumably from refusing to help. We don’t seem to have any option but to go out and fight them, so we start gearing up. Sai Kyo prepares Adrenal Speed, while Baka and Digby cast Shield and Blur on themselves. Digby also casts Attack, and Aura on himself, as Lilrie heals him up to maximum just to be on the safe side. Sai Kyo and Brovar take herbs to haste them for three rounds, and Brovar also takes a herb to double his strength for eight rounds. We also each put three berries in our mouth to bite on and heal us for 30 hit points, if we get desperate, which is quite likely when facing Giants. Lastly Baka prepares Jolts 3 to try to stun one of them.
Opening the door, we rush out just in time to see one of the Giants club Sirenna sending her flying into the wall, where she slumps to ground, badly injured. We heard bones break, but have no time to worry for her as the Giants turn to face us.
Sai Kyo attacks in a blur, the Adrenal Speed and Haste giving him 8 attacks per round! His four sweep attacks result in two misses, and two hits with criticals, for a total of 10 damage. His four Quarterstaff attacks result in one miss and three hits, for a total of 17 damage. Not quite as impressive as he had hoped. His reward is to be attacked by one of the Giants, who wallops him with a club for 64 damage. He bites on the berries to gain 30 hits back but is still on -10 to attack, as he grits his teeth and stays in the fight. Lilrie is up next but fumbles, losing her grip and unable to attack this round. Tripp fires his first arrow hitting, but doing no damage, his second arrow doing 20 damage with 7 more from the critical. Brovar, hasted and dealing double damage, leaps into action, his first long sword attack doing 26 damage and a critical, his second long sword attack doing 12 damage. His first mace attack misses, but his second attack does 22 damage and a critical. The criticals give the giant 52 more damage. Baka continues her Jolts 3 spell which will take effect next round. Digby attacks with his battle-axe doing 10 damage and a critical, for 4 more damage. The other giant attacks Digby doing 20 damage. Thank goodness for all those spells!
Next round Sai Kyo’s two sweep attacks result in one miss, and one hit with a critical, for a paltry total of 4 damage. His two Quarterstaff attacks result in one miss and one hit, for a total of 7 damage. Brovar attacks again, his first long sword attack doing 8 damage, his second long sword attack doing 16 damage and a critical. His first mace attack does 24 damage and a critical, and his second attack does 4 damage. The criticals give the Giant 22 more damage. Baka fires off Jolt 3, but unfortunately the Giant shrugs it off. Digby attacks doing 25 damage and a critical, for 4 more hits. Nice! One of the Giants attacks Brovar, doing 48 damage and 5 more damage from the critical. Brovar chews his berries to regain 30 hits. Tripp fires his first arrow, doing 7 damage and a critical, his second arrow flying unerringly doing 26 damage and a critical. The criticals do 12 more hits. The other Giant targets Lilrie hitting her for 44 damage, and she also chews the berries to regain 30 hits. Lilrie attacks back doing 6 damage, but just missing out on a critical.
As the fight rages on, Tripp fires his first arrow doing 5 damage, while his second arrow misses. Sai Kyo’s two sweep attacks result in one miss, and one hit with a critical, for a total of 13 damage. His two Quarterstaff attacks result in one miss and one hit, for a total of 4 damage. Digby swings his battle axe landing a solid blow doing 29 damage and a critical, doing 10 more damage. Way to go Digby! Brovar’s first long sword attack does 30 damage and a critical, while his first mace attack does 16 damage and a critical, killing the foul beast. “Brovar, Giant-killer!”. Without wasting a second, he uses the last of his haste to move to attack the other Giant, which Baka and Lilrie attack, but miss.
Brovar attacks again next round, his long sword doing 12 damage, while his mace misses. Baka misses again, as the Giant attacks Digby, doing 48 damage. Ouch. Sai Kyo sweeps for no damage, but his trusty quarterstaff does 4 damage. Tripp fires his first arrow doing 14 damage and a critical, while his second arrow misses. The critical does 2 more damage. Digby hits with his battle axe doing 25 damage and a critical, for 10 more hits. Lilrie hits with her morning star for 9 damage.
Brovar attacks again with his long sword, missing, but his mace does 24 damage and a critical, which does 40 more damage. Well done Brovar. Sai Kyo sweeps doing 1 damage and a critical, which does 7 more. His quarterstaff hits for 24 damage and a critical, doing 10 more damage. That’s more like it. Tripp fires his first arrow which flies sweetly doing 18 damage and a critical, his second arrow missing. The critical does 7 more damage. Digby attacks next, but misses. Lilrie attacks again with her morning star, but misses, while the Giant attacks Baka doing 36 damage, so she bites the berries. In return, Baka misses badly. Hopefully no-one will remember that.
Up first again, Sai Kyo misses with his sweep and does 5 damage with the quarterstaff. Brovar attacks with his long sword, but fumbles losing his grip and juggles his weapon for two rounds. His mace does 8 damage. Digby misses with his battle axe, as the Giant targets Sai Kyo doing 48 damage knocking him to the ground and out. That is not good. Tripp fires his first arrow which misses, while his second arrow does 2 damage. Lilrie runs over to Sai Kyo with the Forever Flask, as Baka misses again.
Next round, the fumbling is contagious, as Digby loses his grip on his battle axe, and the opportunity to take an open swing. Brovar can only attack with his mace this round which does 26 damage and a critical which does 16 more damage, finally killing the last Giant. Brovar does it again! Lilrie sees that Sai Kyo will be okay, so runs across to Sirenna who is in really bad shape. Digby joins her to lay on hands, but finds that he has no Power Points left. Lilrie does First Aid to stabilize her and sees that she has a collapsed lung, broken leg and broken arm. She will be lucky to survive.
As we are catching our breath, Orcs burst out onto the open ground around us, behind them a Giant and a huge dragon, which lands on one of the pinnacles, a hooded figure astride it. The Orcs hold back as if awaiting orders. We turn around to take refuge in the dome, but we can see that the door behind us is shut. As if that is bad enough, the dragon starts to draw an enormous breath, obviously getting ready to breath fire. Our goose is cooked! Or will be soon. But just at the instant the dragon lets rip, Riele lands in front of us in giant form, her wings outstretched to protect us, and she is engulfed in flame. We can feel the heat as it surges around her wings, but they save us from getting hurt. We watch in horror only to see a few moments later that she is completely immune to fire! Undaunted, the dragon alights from her perch and moves forward, as do the Orcs. It looks like we have another huge fight on our hands.
As we prepare for the inevitable, we hear a weak voice behind us. “Tripp, I will wait for you in the next world, my time here is at an end” says Sirenna. With her last breath she says something in tasyo, and a fissure opens in front of us, a portal thru which we can see a clearing in a forest and a building. Wasting no time, we pour thru it, leaving Sirenna behind us. Thank you Sirenna. But what is going on between you and Tripp?!
The other side of the portal is a clearing surrounded by deep woodland, and 30 yards away we can just make out a wooden building thru the trees. Riele is not with us, as she couldn’t come thru the portal in her giant form, but Baka feels that she is okay. The building does not seem to be the one on the lake that we saw in one of the mosaics. In fact, it looks elven. While relieved to be alive, we are grateful to Sirenna, who Lilrie suspects is dead. On voicing this thought, Digby says “at least we didn’t waste the Forever Flask”, and Lilrie gives him a withering look. Sai Kyo is barely alive, and Lilrie heals him three times, giving him 20 hits back.
We make our way over to the wooden building and can see that it is made of a variety of woods. It is covered in carvings, of animals and plants, of a very high quality and is roughly circular, with windows at different angles, which would look odd if they weren’t so attractive. There is a gateway into a shaded courtyard in the centre of the building, and the doors that we can see are open. It is not like Petra’s house from all that time ago in Calatan.
As we approach, we can see the centrepiece which seems to be a large, round, wooden carved floor, which seems to depict something. Entering thru the gate we look more closely and see that it is 20-foot across, the outer 4 feet made of interleaved feathers, exquisitely carved, of the Ekar hawk. The inner circle is a carved, wooden representation of a map of Ellios. On the far side we can see a woman, weeding a flowerbed. Amazingly, Digby and Tripp recognize her as Petra, and she stands up and turns round looking at us, smiling.
“Welcome my friends, it is good to see that you are still alive. And welcome to the house of the Enduring”.
As we stand there, not knowing what to say, she continues. “Judging by the manner of your arrival, I suspect that Sirenna is dead.” When we tell her that Sirenna mentioned “the next world” Petra says that she probably meant after death.
“My thoughts about you when we first met were right. I didn’t share them with you at the start, but I did wonder. You must tell me your story. I am not one of the Enduring and neither are you.”
Petra then walks to a point of the floor. “Let me show you”, she says and points out one of the feathers, which is subtly different, and coloured blue. There are 5 other spaces where feathers could be inserted. Pointing at the map again, she says “Look here.” It is as if someone is shining a light down on the map and we can see a dot of light moving fast from towards Maertheryan, which is where she says we are. Apparently, this is Riele, on her way to join us.
Baka asks if that mean if we all have hawks, and Petra says that is correct. Awesome!
“I wasn’t sure if you were the six, but it seems you are. The legend says you would return again.” Petra says. “There are six hawks and you must find them. To find them you need to recover the missing 5 wooden, carved feathers. Only when all the feathers have been recovered will you be ready to face the Serpents of Amnos.”
We ask her who found the feather for Riele, but she doesn’t know as it has always been at the house of the Enduring. Riele is the Queen of the Ekar hawks and will arrive in less than 24 hours.
Petra goes on to tell us that she came 6 weeks ago and that the world that we know is falling apart. Sunom has been taken, Paleran overwhelmed by Orcish galleons, and the Giants and Orcs are marching eastward, inspired to fight together against humanity by the Serpents of Amnos. We tell her that we have killed three Giants and saw another with the dragon now. Petra says that she knows of 12 in total, so there may be 9 left.
Petra says she knows where the feathers are, but that recovering them will not be easy. One of the dragons of the Serpents is rumoured to sleep in a cave guarding the feathers. Unfortunately, since it is in a cave, Riele cannot enter and so we will have to rely on our own guile to overcome it.
Looking to solve some of the mysteries that we have found, we explain the mosaic of the stone building on the island in a forest. Petra tells us that the only building she can think of like that is in the Forest of Nylar, sacred to the Elves. It is uninhabited and the Elves will execute any trespassers.
We ask Petra about the Timestone, showing it to her, and she almost passes out with astonishment. “Where did you get it?” she asks and we tell her that we got it in the Tower of Three Wizards. “You have no idea how powerful this is, and how simple to use. I never believed that they really exist. It is volcanic, a pumice, and all you need to do is crush it and then you will go backwards in time, depending on the size of the stone, a few hours, days or months. The larger stones, perhaps needing a machine to crush, could send you back years. It doesn’t just send you back, it reverses time! If we were to crush this now, it would reverse time for everyone in Ellios, but those of us that are close to the stone will remember, giving a massive advantage since you can remember what has occurred. Had you have known this when Sirenna was dying, you might have been able to save her. This is small so it could be a few minutes, an hour, or slightly longer.”
Now we are talking with Petra, we think back over everything that has happened and wonder how much control we have over our destiny. We don’t often have time to reflect, but this puzzles us. Have all our adventures been predestined?
Next, we describe the mosaic with the two towers and seesaw on the pyramid and the number that Tripp heard, but she doesn’t recognize either. We describe the other mosaics, but she doesn’t recognize them also, but does say that they might be linked to the Oharith tablets.

Kitty

• Session start – minus 80 gold!
• Income – none
• Expenses – none
• Session end – minus 80 gold!

Report Date

01 Feb 2022