25/8/2020 - Bouncing Boulders, Serious stories and Alcohol Antics

## TL;DR

* Azurial summoned a horse and Narko enlarged himself so the entire party could be mounted for the trial.
* The strategy worked remarkably well and everyone crossed the line almost entirely unscathed, despite some extraneous wild magic shenanigans!
* The party were inducted as members of the Stone Giant clan and could therefore learn the truth about the island.
* There's a dragon down below.
* Narko learnt lots of new things relating to runes from Narrowbones and was very excited by the experience.
* Narko abandoned his principles and drank alcohol. Meanwhile Azurial challenged giants to drinking contests.
* Most of the party got very drunk, except Breena because drunk giants don't always notice a gnome and she prefers not to be squished.

## Behemoth Boulders

We join our party as one young giant has stepped up to the start line, ready to do her trial of strength.

Azurial casts Fine Steed to summon a horse as the group are waiting to start.

Girl goes first - faced by 3 giants, ducks and dives around first 3 boulders, second lot of boulders she grabs one and sends it back at the giants taking one out, third round of boulders barely graze her shoulder, final boulder is 15-16ft tall and is rolled towards her which she uses to scramble over in order to reach the finish line.

Next two rounds of giant-lings - chunky boy Og: slow and purposeful to start, hit on the head by one, then grabs a boulder from the air which he uses to knock last boulders away, finally using the last rolled boulder to roll back towards the giants. The Runic one uses frost armour and various other runic magics to help himself across the line.

Meanwhile Breena creates two extracts of Enlarge/Reduce whilst she waits, having been instructed by Rocky to do so. One of these is handed to Narko in preparations.

## Sizeable Steeds and Dangerous Dodgeball

At the start line, Azurial and Breena mount the horse and Leo joins Rocky on Narko’s back. Narko takes the Enlarge extract becoming Huge and Rocky makes himself and Narko invisible. Leo attempts to cast Santuary on Breena and is successful but his spell creates a swirl of wild magic which causes confusion to be cast on everyone within a 10ft radius, Azurial and Breena struggle to shake off the mental confusion this creates.

As the horn sounds for the start of their round Narko leaps forward (invisibly), but Leo’s visible presence on his back results in a round of boulders being launched their way. Narko knocks the approaching boulders out the air from next to him, and pushes on, but the second round of boulders hit, knocking Narko prone, and providing some considerable damage to him. Rocky manages to fall and roll to his feet, though Leo falls prone as well. Nonetheless they have crossed around half the arena in one turn.

Breena sits in confusion for a moment, before shaking off the feeling, but too late to act on any ideas.

Leo casts invisibility on himself and attempts to move forward, and successfully deflects the rock which heads his way, despite his surprise at the fact that the rock was ever heading his way when he seemed invisible.

Azurial also manages to avoid his confusion causing any damage to himself or anyone around him and shakes it, in time to watch Rocky leap back onto Narko’s back and prepare for more rocks coming his way. With Rocky now back on his back Narko returns to being upright and continues forward though their giant foes take quite a long time to spot him due to the invisibility. However, as he and Rocky approach the final section the giants produce the rolling boulder of doom, which Narko opts to strength check with his body and push on forwards, somehow surviving the potential for squashing which he faced down. They manage to reach (but not cross) the final line.

Breena remains on the horse with Azurial but prepares to roll off if necessary. Leo appears as he casts sanctuary on himself and begins to run forward, fending off a boulder with his shield as he runs, dashing forward as fast as he can and skilfully dodging the grapple of the giant as he crosses the final line.

At the back Azurial finally begins to get his horse moving, as he and Breena move forward a boulder flies towards them, but due to quick distraction by Narko the boulder in question passes harmlessly. On the second horse dash forward the giant stomps around to face Azurial down but to no avail as Azurial and Breena cross the line with no further difficulties.

Slightly sad not to be able to usefully put the rest of their plan into action Narko and Rocky cross the line with Narko shouting at the giants and Rocky casting fear as he had always planned to do. The point of the shouting and fear was somewhat questioned by Leo and Breena at the final line, but Rocky insisted that this was a great success for playbook number 1, and Narko arguing that the adrenaline rush made the shouting entirely necessary and anyway that the giants would enjoy it. Leo felt strongly that it showed poor sportsmanship and showed some disappointment in Narko and Rocky. Breena dropped concentration on Enlarge meaning that Narko shrank back to normal.

## Welcome (back) to F(j)ellberg

Azurial introduced the rest of the party to his horse, Artax, a long term companion whom he could summon at will.

Offered a chance to rest the party opted to chill and recover quickly, alongside the other successful candidates for the trial. Rocky played his triangle and sang a song of rest, ensuring that everyone healed successfully.

Following the rest the party were led back down towards the city, featuring another slide down. Azurial opted to bring Artax along down the slide despite being recommended not to by a wiser Narko. Breena opted to slide on her butt, and landed at the bottom in a stylish fashion with a 360 spin at the base and standing up smoothly.

Leo slid upright but in reasonable style, Rocky was less neat, but made it to the bottom (in a heap). Narko and Artax struggled as expected and the resulting heap of Artax, Azurial and Narko at the bottom raised a few giant eyebrows.

Back in the rounded hall of the Jarl the party were included in a ceremony with the young giants. Having shown Wisdom, Creativity and Physical Prowess (and Creativity) in overcoming the challenges the party were inducted as official members of the Stone Giant Clan and presented with a hammer and chisel. The perks of being members of the clan included residency if desired, and being allowed to add to the mighty stories and art works of the clan amongst the city, and being considered equals amongst the clan.

## Horrible Histories

Breena questioned the Jarl on the history of the island and artefact from her perspective.

Artefact is under the mountains, not in the realm of the giants. Deeper and in a realm occupied by “angry cousins” of the stone giants. When the artefact arrived it caused a great change, and the race of the realm beneath died fighting the change having refused to ask for help.

The ice now comes in to the stone giant clan, and is harder and harder to hold back and starting to cause troubles to the giants. The item appears to have become unstable and more problematic.

There was a dragon which arrived on the island.

A great white dragon which was lured in by someone. The change in the island was caused by this occurrence. The volcano died due to the presence of the white dragon which was trapped below. It is assumed by the giants that the dragon is still held trapped below.

The Jarl doesn’t know who lured the dragon in, or particularly why, as the issues caused above ground have only just started affecting the stone giants so it wasn’t something that they took much notice of other than the removal of their neighbours who were unpleasant anyway.

Azurial promised to slay the dragon in line with the wishes of Bahamat that all chromatic dragons be slayed.

Rocky asked about the green glow-y rooms - it is the farm rooms of the giants and the glow is created by the giant mushrooms which they grow.

On reflection the group decided that going right now might not be in their best interests. Rocky asked if there was a celebration that evening and they were told of a PARTAAYY in celebration of the completion of the trials. This would be held in the lower market district, where the party would also be given a house. Narko asked about smoking, but the Jarl said that she was only really familiar with the good times which could be had with the mushrooms.

Following the discussion Cob (short for Cobble and formerly a defender of the walls of the giant city) and one other giant volunteered to accompany the party when they travel down into the deeper realms. Azurial offered to purchase the accompanying giants some drinks in preparation for the battles ahead. Cob was keen but the other giant was a little wary and felt the need for more sensible preparation first.

Leo asked about the cousins down below and was told that they are “an unpleasant people prone to passion and violence”. Their forge fell silent several years ago so it must be assumed that they are no longer, along with the volcano which they used to worship.

Rocky suggested that perhaps the dragon should be befriended, an idea rejected thoroughly by Azurial who pointed out that the chromatic dragons are in fact evil in nature. Once Rocky was re-acquainted with the exact nature of a dragon he reconsidered briefly but still wanted to know if they could be befriended or at least turned to be an ally. Azurial attempted to persuade him that the chromatic dragons cannot be anything but an enemy, but gave up and went to assist Cayalith (sp?). She introduces herself as a captain of the guard and attempts to obtain information from the other giants who might know the nature of the challenges to be faced in the Depth.

## Narko and Narrowbones

As the rest of the group head off to the party, Narko remains in the chamber in order to have a conversation with Narrowbones. As the group head downwards Narrowbones leads Narko to the giant floating stone across a floating cloud staircase which appeared out of midair as he placed each step down. Somehow Narko makes it across the mile-high gap between the wall and the rock.

In the central room of the rock they take a levitation tunnel to a room of runes. Here Narrowbones asked Narko why he seeks the runic mastery. Narko responded with a question about the history of the giants in Ostaria. Narrowbones suggested that he knew something of them, but insisted on an answer about Narko’s desire to use the runic magics, stating that they were dangerous in the wrong hands. Narko answered that he sought to protect his family and his clan and those who lived around them from the growing evil of the races who live near his home lands.

Narrowbones wanted to be reassured of the ability of Narko and his clan to subdue the nastier elements of giant blood - from fire and ice giants in particular. Narko taught him of the clan techniques for controlling and reducing the behaviour of those who showed tendencies towards anger and rashness. On being asked if he was already on the path to understanding runic magics Narko showed Narrowbones his tattoos and demonstrated the storm rune.

Narrowbones then showed Narko a tablet which contained all of the necessary knowledge with regards to runes. He said that to unlock the knowledge of the tablet Narko simply had to find the knowledge within himself and from then on the tablet would show that information. Before leaving Narko was gifted with the Wind rune once again, choosing the wisdom of the wind as a necessary improvement for himself. He also obtained permission to bring other members of his clan, who would be welcomed in the presence of a stone giant clan member such as himself.

The rest of the party were led down to the market section in the deeper section to a simple stalagmite with its own unique bridge into it which was given to them as a home for their stay in the city. Inside the stalagmite was an 80ft wide cavern, 40ft high which they could use as desired.

Rocky and Narko headed down towards the party - the market area is centred around a big old pub in the middle, where the party seemed to be getting started. Rocky headed straight to the bar and ordered two drinks for himself. Not to be outdone Leo ordered three. The resulting serving of two barrel-sized stone tankards worried Leo a little, but Rocky was keen for the challenge. Together they manoeuvred the 4 very large beers to a point where they could “drink” from them. Rocky immediately stuck his entire head into the top of his tankard in order to drink from it, still on the floor. Leo favoured the scoop approach with his tankard placed on the bar and himself perched on the top.

Breena went on an explore, but found that everything took a very long time to pass. There were a lot of rock-based shops, a few clothing shops, and one selling potions and stuff, but nothing specifically alchemy based. The potion shop is run by a stooped over giant with a small wispy beard. But it seems to be the end of the day so most places are closing up and giants are mostly heading for the pub. Breena had to avoid the large footfalls of the giants several times in order not to get squished.

## Boozin' it Big Style

Gradually the group gathered together in the pub. Narko began to question strongly the lore of his clan which stated that drinking was forbidden because it was banned by the giants. Leo encouraged him to think carefully about what his tribe would think if they knew that he was drinking, but Narko was already fairly sure that his tribe had made an error and that his religious reasons for not drinking were now defunct and void, so headed towards to bar to order his first ever pint.

Rocky asked Narko if his runes were god-based magic, and on discovering that they weren’t strongly encouraged him to get started on the drinking. Narko’s first drink went down pretty easily - to cheers from Leo and Rocky.

Azurial meanwhile discovered Breena as she was almost stepped on by Cob as they both headed towards the celebrations. On arrival he made a bet with Cob that Azurial could drink more than Cob could. Leo questioned the morality of the decision to exploit Cob, but fell eventually on the side of a bit of fun rather than worrying too much about if it was okay. Breena was offered a drink from Narko’s waterskin rather than ordering her own pints.

Rocky had already finished one tankard (around 10 pints) and was starting on his second by now. Breena questioned Narko a little about his decision to drink but was soundly put down by everyone. The rest of the group encouraged Narko in his second tankard. Breena tried her hardest to remind Rocky that drinking wasn’t necessarily the cool thing he thought it was, but gave up when she realised he was 15 pints in and a serious state. Leo, was in a much better state and managing to balance his alcohol consumption perfectly to be just the right level of tipsy. Rocky however was not and projectile vomited enthusiastically - dragon wing actions and all - very much in the direction of Azurial, though not quite on him.

The lack of effect of the alcohol was bugging Azurial significantly, so when offered a pipe of weed by Narko he accepted willingly. Unfortunately 10 pints in and with a double hit of weed in the pipe Azurial fell unconscious as soon as he began to inhale. Rocky, ignoring this completely, started on his third tankard, but was horribly drunk and unable to cope with the alcohol, and entirely unaware of the fact.

Leo cast lesser restoration on Azurial, which brought him round. Azurial was pretty unimpressed with the weed and accused Narko of trying to poison him. When Rocky volunteered to demonstrate that the weed was not in fact poison Narko first tried to hand him an empty pipe (unsuccessfully) and when that failed handed him a pipe filled with a day’s rations. The resulting food smell made Rocky very aware that he was getting pretty hungry now, and because it smelled good he opted to eat it instead of smoking the pipe.

Cob piped up to point out to Azurial that he had now drunk a lot more than Azurial, so a game of catch up had to be begun. Cob began to look a little queasy at 4+ tankards in, whilst Azurial powered on through 3 more in order to catch up. LOTS of toilet breaks required but with no ability to get drunk Azurial had the advantage and a lot of luck on his side meaning that at 5 tankards he passed Cob successfully leaving Cob passed out in his tankard.

Rocky, having made it to the end of his third tankard showed strong signs of being completely gone and possibly poisoned. Azurial used lay on hands to remove the worst of the poison effects, in the form of a slap. The group headed for the stalagmite, where they found Breena who had already abandoned them for reasons of keeping herself safe from rogue tankards and giant feet.

## The Morning after the night before

In the stalagmite a full night’s rest was finally achieved, finally restoring Narko’s energy in full.

However an early morning awakening by Cayalith and Cob, with a metal hammer on the stone floor was not what the hungover group had hoped for. She informed them that they were instructed to leave now as a scout had returned from a distant cavern and informed her of some unknown disturbances in the caverns even further round.

The group gathered up their stuff in order to head towards whatever might be going on.