The Giant's Lair

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## Night Shift

Ven, being an elf, took the first extended watch as he only needed 4 hours of rest. He took the eye out of his bag and took a closer look at it as it stared back at him. He tried to attune to it and performed some other experiments with it, but nothing seemed to happen other than it following him with its gaze around the camp. Towards the end of his watch, he began to hear faint whispering from the eye, which he identified as being spoken in Sylvan, but he could not understand it. Carric and Ahsatan were woken for the next shift, and Carric could hear the eye repeating the phrases "Where are you? I can see you. I'm coming to find you." over and over again in Sylvan. Even more spooked, they put the eye back in the bag and Carric sat far away from it. He did not hear any other noises from it for the rest of his shift.

Towards the middle of their shift, they heard someone calling for help somewhere off in the darkness. The pair snuck away towards the direction of the sound, and eventually came across a hunched old lady wandering around carrying a small rucksack. Carric appeared to her, and she introduced herself as Agatha. She revealed that she was a traveller who was travelling with her family, but they were very recently snatched up by giants and taken somewhere into the mountains, leaving her all on her own. Ahsatan revealed herself at this point, and the pair shared their similar goal with Agatha. She asked if it is possible for her to stay the night at their camp and join them on whatever mission they're on in hopes of finding her family. After some deliberation, the pair agreed but secretly decided to keep a close eye on her. She thanked them graciously, and said that they could call her "Granny". They helped her with her stuff and led her back to camp.

Granny got set up near the campfire as Carric informed the other group members about their newest addition. The hobgoblins were a little confused, but accepted it and went back to sleep. Kiira and Mirik took the final watch, but nothing out of the ordinary happened.

## The Highlands

The next morning the group packed up their belongings and continued following the trail up into the base of the Rocksoll Highlands. After some tough climbing, the trail eventually ended at the mouth of a large cave. Garkuk decided that the best course of action was for the party to make their way inside whilst the hobgoblins waited outside with Granny, listening for any trouble that may arise. The group agreed and headed on inside. The mouth of the cave formed a large tunnel that split off to the left and the right. To the left, Ven found a crudely carved chair of stone in the middle of a chamber. Atop the chair sat a golden laurel wreath, shining slightly from sunlight pouring through gaps in the rock ceiling above. He put it in his bag.

The tunnel continued forward for a bit before turning completely dark, so the party made their way through the right-hand tunnel. Snaking round the corner, they found themselves in a giant chamber. Three large animal skins lay on the floor with a couple of giant bags and other tools lying around. Ahsatan identified the skins as wolpers; giant beasts of burden with 6 legs that live in the highlands. The bags appeared to be empty unfortunately, other than some random scraps of material and strange stains on the bottom. Ven heard some noise coming from round the corner, as well as a dim flickering light so went to investigate. Peering into the next chamber, the cave opened up into a massive open space. The noise appeared to be coming from two giants who were sat over by a bubbling cooking pot, above which were 4 hobgoblins tied together and bound. A giant ladder rose up to the top of the pot, which was easily over 10ft high, and looking across the ceiling it appeared that a rope connected to a lever on the other side of the chamber was what was holding the hobgoblins aloft. Acting quickly, Kiira rushed into the chamber and shouted "OI" at the giants. They immediately turned around and attacked.

With rocks getting yeeted at them, the party split up and took cover whilst flinging spells and arrows at the giants. Ven rushed forward to the hobgoblins, dashed up the ladder and grabbed a hold of it, swinging the hobgoblins out away from the pot. He slashed at the rope in an attempt to cut it, but it was a lot thicker than he expected. Mirik activated his microwave-guardian combo, and Carric cast entangle, trapping one of the giants in a mess of vines.

Ven tried the rope swing again and succeeded, causing the pile of hobgoblins to crash to the floor. Ven leapt off onto the side of the pot and jumped off to face the freed giant. The freed hobgoblins fled down a passageway nearby, hiding from the main scuffle. The others continued to wail on the entangled giant, slashing and burning them. As the fight raged on, Ahsatan could hear a voice coming from behind her in the tunnel. Granny's voice echoed off the stone walls as she asked "What's going on in there?", as she appeared to be making her way closer and closer. Garkuk was also heard from behind shouting "Quick, stop her!". Ahsatan felt a sinking feeling in her stomach.

Ven continued his 1v1 and managed to punch several pressure points on the giant, causing it to feel very nauseous and lethargic. Its swings were now not particularly effective, so it decided to unleash a special attack; a body slam. The giant jumped slightly and flopped forward, with Ven narrowly dodging out of the way as it crashed to the floor. Granny rushed into the chamber out of nowhere, and looked around at the two giants getting pummelled. With a strange tone in her voice, she screamed "leave my giants alone or I'll be having you all for dinner!". As the group turned around to stare at her, her frail form began to expand and crack as thick muscles began to bulge from her limbs, her skin turned a stony shade of grey and horrid warts boiled over. Now standing at 8ft tall, Granny's true form was revealed; an annis hag, and a very pissed off one at that...