2017 06 07 Game Notes

Previous Session - May 31, 2017

## Game Night - June 7, 2017

On their way back to the ship, the party began to cross the mid-Antarctic ridge system. In an area not too far from where they had a strange sighting of a spontaneous avalanche on their way to the South Pole, they were very careful to keep watch around their route. Something was definitely there.

Mirja the arcane archer spotted something odd about the coloration of a nearby peak. Upon focused inspection, the top part of the peak definitely looked like like an enormous humanoid splayed out and covered with snow. The group moved closer for a better look. Suddenly realizing it had been made, the enormous creature began to rise.

With a loud crackling sound, hundreds of pounds of ice shattered and sloughed off of the form of a towering giant covered in ice-blue tattoos. The milk-white giant male was bald with huge tusks and a primitive, craggy face. It wore a huge torc of twisted black metal, and some sort of black circlet or headband. Bellowing a challenge at the humans and their elven allies, it stretched to its full height - at least twice that of Telmalch Rhydderch, the cloud giant Jarl of Llangelynin that the group had met several months earlier.

The creature stretched out a gigantic arm and seemed to gather icy energy to its hand. Quickly, the group spread out to find cover as the frost energy in the giant's hand coalesced into the shape of a jagged javelin! Mirja and Darius dove out of the way as the tree-sized projectile thundered past uncomfortably close to them and exploded into the snow behind, pelting them with a painful hail of sharp and frigid debris.

Moving quickly, Paul shadow-stepped onto the creature's back and drove an electrically charged blade into the monster's thick hide. A couple tattoo runes flared around the point of contact, but the giant didn't seem to register the injury. As Darius and Mirja launched a fusillade of arrows at the giant, Dave completed a complex series of gestures and arcane words before hurling a magnificent fireball into the monster's torso. The heat of the blast vaporized snow and ice all around the giant, and Paul was thankful that 10 feet of giant flesh stood between him and the lava-hot explosion, but after all the steam cleared, the giant was unhurt by the fire.

Maggey stepped out from behind cover, and with a shout and an outstretched hand, blasted the creature with a lance of divine energy. The great beast staggered back, its enormous chest badly scorched and cratered by the white-gold energy.

As the fight wore on, Dave and Paul tried to damage the creature with various types of energy attacks, but found it impervious to just about everything but blades. Darius and Mirja continued to pepper the monster with arrows, to no visible effect. Maggey's blasts of radiant energy, however, continued to tear into the very essence of the primal creature. Maggey put everything she had into a final holy explosion as the giant was gathering energy into the shape of a huge sword of ice. The golden light left a gaping crater where the monster's chest once was, and the giant sank to the ground, dead.

After recovering from the battle, the group tried to figure out what exactly it was that they had fought. Maggey's book held some cloudy references to rune giants that were created by powerful spell casters when the elves of Kotime were still in small kingdoms and fighting for territory with tribes of other creatures. Darius was able to recall some related lore about arch-wizards or godlings or some similarly powerful beings using rune-covered titans as guards.

From that information the group guessed that the giant had a lair somewhere nearby, or perhaps was protecting an artifact or something similar.

 Continue to the August 8, 2017 Update Notes