Session 48

# February 13th, 2020 - Liberation from Flame

## Rufus’ Wild Ride

The session began right where it last left off, with the fire giant prince Zaltember pausing for a moment and appearing to surrender. However, he must have thought they still had a good chance as he quickly started to run to escape, and the remaining party members cut him off. The other remaining fire giant and hobgoblin did their best to help their young lord escape, but they were still outmatched. Once the fighting was finally done, the party was severely wounded, but victorious.

The constant sound of the large metal chain overhead clanking around continued unabated, and the group decided to take a short rest. Alburt conjured a *leomund’s tiny hut* in the open doorway that led to the outside. Even if the giants tried to close the fifty foot metal doors, the dome of force would stop it. During the hour, the group only saw a single hobgoblin peer from one of the second floor gantries into the scene of bodies and blood. When they had tended to their wounds and caught their breath, the group decided to scout down some of the other chambers before moving on.

Alburt’s familiar owl, *The Breeze 4*, flew through the open doors on the ground floor that the giant duchess had come in through. There was another closed set of giant doors, and a long tunnel that looped back around to the dining area the group first encountered goblins in. Rufus instead went up to the second floor gantry and Rachen hoisted him up into the tunnel that the iron bucket chain was going into. The halfling was small enough that he could hug the wall of the tunnel as the next bucket passed by, and it was empty.

When the second bucket came by, Rufus checked and saw it too was empty, and then climbed inside. He rode it into the next space, and peering over the edge he saw what was powering the bucket chain - a very large slave wheel being manned by exhausted dwarves, who were shackled to the wheel itself. There was a lazy fire giant in an adjacent room smoking a pipe, and not really paying too much attention. The halfling took note of what he could, but the bucket was quickly moving into the next chamber which was noticeably hotter than the previous one.

Bright yellow light glowed from below, and Rufus peered over the side and saw the main smeltery room. A huge trough of open molten metal was below, with multiple giant sized furnaces and bellows connected to it. The bucket chain was going over the trough below, with no way for Rufus to reach the gantry going around the second level. Seeing as there were no fire giants around to tip the bucket’s contents down below, he rode the bucket all the way through into the next chamber.

As the swashbuckler rode the bucket through the tunnel between chambers, he saw what lay ahead in the next room - dwarves shoveling rock and ore into the buckets at the behest of two fire salamanders. Not prepared to engage everything by himself, Rufus tried to hug the wall of the bucket, staying as low as he could. It helped some, but he was still hurt by the heavy rock as it tumbled in on him. Barely able to breath, Rufus noticed when he entered the next room, and keeping a mental map of the facility he thought he may be back in the main large chamber with his companions. He cried out the best he could, but found success in rocking the bucket back and forth.

Cadmus noticed the bucket after Rachen called out he heard something, and the cleric used a powerful *gust of wind* spell to knock the bottom of the bucket into the sky. The contents dumped to the ground, and in the few moments of freedom Rufus acrobatically leapt off the falling rock and grabbed the chain above. Using the parties magic he was able to get down to the ground without injury. The party explored more of the bottom level, and the only interesting thing they found was an enchanted giant sized chest that was keeping its contents magically cold.

## Liberation from Flame

The group then decided it was time to free the slaves powering the wheel, even if it would stop the chain and alert anyone else in the stronghold. With Rufus’ explanation of the single remaining guard overseeing the dwarves the group circled back to the main chamber and went up the gantry to the tunnel that led to the wheel chamber. They passed through a long chamber filled with empty metal cages. Before going into the wheel room itself, Alburt *polymorphed* Rachen into one of the slain fire giants. Rachen went to alert the guard, who was startled in surprise.

Rachen was able to get the giant to blurt out that the duke’s conch should still be safe in the royal chamber’s chest. Hearing of intruders, the guard stumbled up, grabbed his weapon and started to lead towards the main chamber - right into the waiting party. Rachen had wanted to take this one alive, but the group decided otherwise. Once the guard was dealt with, the party freed the dwarves attached to the wheel. With the sound of the bucket chain silenced, the fortress took on an eerie feeling. The freed slaves followed the party back into the main chamber with the open doors, and the dwarves went to the fresh air like they had never felt it in their lives.

The party went back to the first dining room they had attacked, which one of the freed slaves told them the royal chambers were attached to. Sure enough, the tunnel to the east of the chamber had two doorways down it - one for the duke and duchess, and the other for their children. Having only seen a single child - the now slain prince Zaltember - the party knew one leader of the giants remained. This child was literally a child, a young female fire giant who was huddled in fear with her two hobgoblin guards. She begged to be spared, saying she had wanted to leave the fortress for a long time, wanting to see the world but her parents never let her.

The party said she and her remaining kin could go free if she retrieved for them her father’s *conch of teleportation*. The fire giant child obliged, and took them into the opposite bedroom of her parents. It was dominated by the most massive giant-sized bed the party had ever seen, with a host of metal chains and manacles hanging from the ceiling above. Underneath a long table was an enormous chest, even for giants. After dragging out the chest, the fire giant child cycled a three wheeled combination lock until the massive lock mechanism clicked open.

Inside, the party found many thousands of gold coins, a very large adamantine crown, jewels, the duke’s *conch of teleportation*, and some nice magical items the giants must have recovered from captives. Lachlan identified all the items and they distributed them, with Rachen obtaining a nice pair of *Boots of Elvenkind*, Cadmus getting the powerful *Staff of Healing*. Finally, Lachaln himself got a new magical *+1 Rapier*. The shorter curved blade worked much better for his bladesinging skills than the longer swords he had used in the past.

The group then started to arrange for Count Blagothkus’ cloud castle to come down and land outside, such that his ogres could help them haul all the heavy loot into the castle. Lachlan also wanted them to recover all the pieces of the *Vonindod*, taking it back to the dwarves. That way, the giant’s could never use it to threaten the province again, and perhaps with their help the dwarves could re-assemble the colossus to use against the Cult of the Dragon…

And that is where the session ended, it was the afternoon of the two hundred and third day since the raid on Greenest.

*The players also reached level ten (10) at this milestone.*

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