Session Report 30 - The Giant & The Spyglass

General Summary

"If this snow is really tasty, how do you guys not eat your houses?"
-Grov

Javlir Froglisner, Frost Giant

Having explored the basement, the crew exploring Wyntyr goes on to explore the first floor - first searching a decrepit kitchen and a storage room, and then the main dining hall. The hall has a very old, very faded, Timberwelk tapestry depicting an elf stepping onto bodari land. The group takes the tapestry, as it is probably valuable, and moves on. They then explore an office, where Laire finds a journal dating back roughly 300 years ago. It details the expedition and resettlement of this isle, not known as Wyntyr at the time, by a prominent and still-existent elvish family. The isle was once part of the Timber empire before the time of the First Great Curse but all but the keep fell into ruin. It then documents the unfortunate arrival of a frost giant and the misfortune of the family up until Yuel's death, at which point the keep was abandoned. The group also finds the servants' quarters, which have nothing of value.
As the group heads to the second floor, the giant outside notices their footprints and begins to make his way into the castle, crawling through the front entrance and making his way into the main dining hall. The group, being on the balcony overlooking the hall, begins to rain down fire and magic onto the giant. Chuck and Grov both jump down, the latter striking the giant from above with a burst of electricity. Taking a fair beating before even getting a chance to act, the giant stands up and lets out a bellow of rage. He first targets Grov, hitting him with a strong slice, but sees he isn't doing too much to the dragonborn. He turns his attention towards Gunther, who is much smaller and thus, the giant reasons, easier to kill. He does a solid spot of damage and manages to nearly kill the dwarf, but before that can happen Chuck & the rest of the crew finish him off. Laire then heals Gunther, who is at death's door.

The Castle & The Spyglass

With the giant dead, the party goes to explore the rest of the castle. They first find themselves confused and weary of a room which appears to have no gravity. Furniture floats there as though in water. There appears to be a valuable mirror there, which Gunther tries to fish out, but he finds a great amount of resistance. Finally, after detecting no magic and with no better options, Locke sticks his hand in there to find out that it is in fact filled with a cube of transparent jelly. Locke uses magic to dispatch the jelly and Gunther carefully wades through the acid to retrieve the mirror.
Now on the third floor, the group encounters one more notable room; a music room. It features a destringed standing harp, two wind instruments, and a grand piano. Laire approaches the grand piano and plays a note. The lid cracks open and a tiny almost flat creature vaguely humanoid-shaped but made of music notes pops out and runs into a mouse hole in the wall. It makes piano sounds as it runs. Laire mutters to himself that he must have one of these, though when he looks there are no more within the piano.
The group explores a few other rooms but finds nothing of interest except for the keys to the treasure room which they already broke into. They make their way to the roof, where the crystalline formation presumably generating the storm rests. After taking appropriate precautions, Gunther touches it and a female face is refracted a million times on each surface of the crystal. It speaks in giant, which nobody but Locke (with the assistance of magic) understands. However, when Laire & Ramone approach it switches to elvish. It thanks them for killing the giant - Javlir Frögliser - and ending his line. She hopes she can entrust the spyglass she has been guarding to the giant's slayers, and she explains that it is believed to have once belonged to Vishi The Explorer She asks if the group has any wishes and Laire requests that the group's wounds be healed and that they have safe passage back to their ship. She obliges and then begins to melt, revealing Spygleam, a magical spyglass that can turn into a sword, which Ramone takes possession of.

Frost Remount

After a night of recovery, the ship sails for the last major island in Yuel's Graveyard. It is called Frost Remount, and Ramone finds, using a property of his new spyglass, that there are roughly 60 people living here. The island is basically entirely made of snow and features a massive pile of snow at one edge. Heading onto the isle, the group is greeted by a gnome, who introduces himself as Noggins, the village chief. The village is having a festival right now and Noggins invites the party to join in the festivities. He explains that in a few days, the remount (the large pile of snow) will collapse and everybody in the village will die and that this is the celebration of the end of a cycle. Though the party - especially Grov & Laire - question this, he ensures them that this is a cultural tradition and they should not try to interfere. Speaking with the villagers confirms as much, as even the children seem to be well aware of what is going to happen and even enthusiastic about it. Laire befriends a child who calls herself Colonel Stockington. Some of the other party indulge in the snow delicacies which somehow taste like real food through the master workings of the head baker.
Meanwhile, Grov decides to climb the remount to see if he can do something to stop it from falling since he thinks it's morally wrong to do what these gnomes are doing. He succeeds in climbing pretty high, though does not manage to do anything. As he reaches the bottom again, he is approached by an elderly gnome named Monty, who asks Grov what he was doing. Grov, a bit sheepishly, makes up an excuse before admitting he was trying to prevent the collapse. Monty is happy to hear this and explains to Grov that he and a few others in the village also don't want the remount to fall. He has two plans; blow up a side of the remount and have it fall into the ocean, or build boats. His rebel group has a pipe fitting of a bomb and enough driftwood to maybe make a couple of boats, though it isn't looking too good. Monty wonders if Grov will help, which the dragonborn readily agrees to.
Meanwhile, the remount shakes. Time is ticking.

Report Date

21 Jan 2023