== Wealday, Sarenith 11, 4708; Sandpoint; morning ==

We came to warn Sandpoint of an invasion of giants and help her prepare against such ill fortune, but instead we found ourselves actually defending Sandpoint against the said expected force of marauding giants, plus a red dragon.

As I pen this I sit on the steps of the Sandpoint Cathedral, with ashes still falling around me, and the smell of charred wood still strong in the air. The moans and cries of the wounded, the afraid, and the confused mingle with the gentle crackle of dying embers from the ruins of the surrounding buildings.

Although the day is clear, the streets of Sandpoint are a mushy mess of water, ash and mud from the morning’s efforts to extinguish the town’s fires. Both Kane and I made ample use of the Create Water spell to help in the fight against the fires, but still part of the Cathedral complex has been burned to the ground, the magnificent theater a jumble of blackened beams and crumbled wattle and daub, and the western end of the docks and warehouses a forest of naked piles, badly burned and broken off near the water line.

There are many dead, and many more wounded, but although Sandpoint has suffered much, the town could have fared far worse.

The morning began with Kane and I casting Glyphs of Warding on the southern bridge before walking up to the town garrison to meet with sheriff Hemlock, mayor Devlin, and Father Xanthus. We had formed a simple plan for early warning and defense, which we were ready to share with Sandpoint’s elders.

The sheriff was waiting for us, but before the others arrived a loud “BOOM” echoed down from the north gate. We looked at one another for a split second before shouting out to Hemlock, “The giants are here — raise the guard and see to the defense of the bridges while we counter the threat at the gate!”

And with that we raced north to the gate with Dereldon, who can run like the wind, arriving first. Three stone giants were approaching the gate from the road, picking up large rocks and boulders along the way and tossing them at the fortified wall. A single sentry stood atop the battlements, with a bow held limply in his hand as the horror of the onrushing giants filled him with dread.

A giant shouted out in common, “Puny humans, come play!” and Derel answered with an arrow to its neck. Trask had mounted the stairs by this time and taunted them with, “Your mother had some ugly babies!” as he launched a fireball that engulfed all three.

Meanwhile Nolin, Sabin, Avia and I ran around the northern edge of the wall and Rigel and Kane quickly climbed to the top of the wall.

While we were busy engaging this first set of giants, a tremendous explosion to the south warned us that more giants were crossing the center bridge, and had triggered the Glyph of Warding I had placed there the evening before.

The group up on the wall looked southward and saw a handful of giants with dire bears in tow making there way into the town from the bridge head. Derel raced down off the wall in their direction as Trask and Kane (audibly annoyed with having one of the party race off ahead without waiting) followed as best they could.

Meanwhile Nolin, Avia and Sabin plowed into the first giant, ferociously slashing at it and driving it back to hide behind its companions. We pressed our attack with ranged support from Rigel, and quickly killed one of the giants. With only one healthy giant remaining the morale of the two attacking giants faltered, and as our group advanced they both turned tail and ran into the forest.

Rigel called down that she would guard the gate while we swiftly and ran full out towards the district west of the central bridge.

Having watched as Derel out-paced him in his dash to intercept the giants, Trask took to the air with a fly spell, and made good use of his altitude to spy on what the invaders were doing. The giants and dire bears were shouting out and inciting panic in the townsfolk, many of whom left the relative safety of their homes to run about the streets, where they were attacked by the bears or picked up by the giants.

The giants carried large sacks and were plucking people out of second story windows or off the street and stuffing them into the sacks.

Derel arrived at on intersection where two bears and a giant loomed over passerby, and attacked the giant, who began to pummel him as a bear tore at him with its dagger like claws.

Trask used a fireball to scorch the northernmost giant and bear pair as Derel did his best to stand up toe to toe with another. Help was yet some distance off, and it began to look as if Derel’s hasty dash might lead to an untimely death.

Kane arrived on the scene only to be bitten by a dire bear, blocking his attempt to provide aid for a reeling Derel.

The rest of us were still running pell-mell toward the sound of battle when we heard Trask call out from above, “Red dragon coming in from the east!”

A red dragon, and working with giants and dire bears? This did not bode well, but it was all we could do to deal with the threat near at hand. I did take a moment to cast Airwalk on Avia as Nolin and Sabin sped past and slew the dire bear. This allowed Kane to move in and heal a nearly dead Derel.

Avia began to run up into the air as the dragon passed overhead, turning south in an arcing flight path over the harbor district.

The sound of another loud blast from the southern bridge told of more giants pushing their way into Sandpoint. A loud guttural voice boomed out, “More prisoners! People of town give us your fat and greedy or we will destroy your town.”

Derel, Kane, Nolin, Sabin and I were pressing attacks against the knot of dire bears and giants near us when Trask swooped in and cast a haste spell on most of us. One of the bears, seriously injured by our fighters, ran off south toward the other giants, but a parting volley of Magic Missiles from Trask finished it off.

Walking on the air Avia climbed up and over a block of houses to start hacking away at a giant and dire bear just we were finishing off the giants and bears nearest us. Kane closed the distance to offer support for Avia.

But as things were looking up for us in our current skirmish, the dragon, which had been soaring above Sandpoint and harmlessly swooping around, dove towards the Cathedral, belching forth a gout of liquidly flowing flame, which engulfed the wood buildings that made up the north half of the temple complex. The dragon then landed on the stone roof of the Cathedral itself and roared out a challenge.

Trask took up that challenge and flew over toward the dragon, baiting it with insults (I remember “rodent eater” and “weasel face”) and peppering it with Magic Missiles. The dragon did not take kindly to either the insults or the missiles (or both) and an eerie beam of light shot out from one of its claws, fully striking Trask, who a moment later vanished.

Realizing there was little we could do against the dragon (unless it flew down to confront us on the ground), Derel, Sabin, Nolin and I ran south to intercept the most recent influx of giants. As usual Derel sprang ahead while the rest of us used alleyways to create a short cut, managing to step out in front of an advancing giant as Derel tried to stop it.

Avia and Kane finished off their giant and bear, and so Avia walked up into the air again and headed south, leaving Kane to hot foot it through the streets in pursuit of the rest of us.

From the direction of the southern bridge we heard giants shouting out, “Give us all beer now!” Apparently the brewery district was by the bridge, and at least one set of giants decided refreshments were in order as they began to chant, “Beer or death!” over and over.

The giant we now confronted was much larger and more burly than the giants we had seen thus far, and it seemed hell bent on a mission. It pushed past and tried to ignore us as it marched northward. But we would not be brushed aside, and Nolin, Sabin and Derel slashed, hacked and pummeled it. This giant was exceptionally hardy, and even I stung it with an icicle once (the only damage I inflicted on our enemies for the entire battle), but I was kept busy keeping our fighters healed under the crushing onslaught of the chieftain’s punishing blows.

Avia was busy chasing the dragon, as it continued to flit above the buildings, eventually swooping down over the theater and sending it up in flames. At about this time a new threat appeared in the skies above Sandpoint: a white dragon, which was substantially larger than the red flew overhead and screamed at the other. I caught a glimpse of this second dragon and remembering Trask’s earlier images of dragons, hoped that this too was one of his (although more refined and complete with sound). My thoughts seemed confirmed as the white dragon set itself in opposition to the red, and kept it distracted and at bay for a while.

Kane and Rigel arrived to join the fray as the large burly giant was beginning to sway, and perhaps sensing its own mortality, called out to two giants that had just turned the corner and were stomping towards us, “You two, go get the rocks!”

The rocks? Now what?

We managed to hack down the big brute as the other two giants stormed past us — or one of them did. Derel performed some sort of monk move and a giant stumbled and stopped by him. Derel was rewarded with a heavy blow for his efforts.

Sabin, Rigel and Kane ran northward to catch the escaping giant while Nolin, Derel and I dealt with the little giant left behind. And soon our little giant’s behind was kicked and it lay dead in the street. We turned and ran north.

Sabin and company discovered that they could not keep up with a running giant, but managed to keep it in sight as it charged out to the Old Light (ancient ruins of debatable purpose and origin at the northwest corner of town) and began to chip away at the rock-work with its pick.

The trio managed to seriously injure the giant as it picked up a large chunk of stone it had chipped away and began to run towards the north gate. Kane stopped it in its tracks with Hold Person while Rigel ran up and killed it.

Avia had realized she could not catch either of the dragons at the speeds they were swooping about and so returned to the ground near a retreating giant and hacked it to pieces.

The red dragon had landed on the beach to the southwest of the town and was fanning its wings and screeching out a challenge to the white dragon, which also landed on the beach and did the same. Something like a dragon face off ensued for a short while. Eventually the red dragon ran at the white, leaping in the air before it and circling round to set a ship and part of the docks alight before flying away to the east, from whence it had come.

We did not know where the giant Sabin and company had run off to, and so Nolin Derel and I ran north, and soon came to an intersection where the town guard, using bows and arrows, was holding off a trio of giants. To be fair to the giants I do not believe they were trying to get past the guards, but only keep them distracted.

Quite honestly I was quite surprised by how ineffective the town guard had proved. Perhaps they were useful for holding off lesser creatures… such as rabbits — I had heard rumor of an infestation of fluffy bunnies at a place called Thistlestop to the north — but then I wouldn’t necessarily bet against the rabbits in such a conflict.

Our duty was clear, and so we charged over to assist the guard.

At this moment Trask too had spotted the trio of giants and had his white dragon image land behind them. One of the giants took up a horn and gave a great blast, calling out “Retreat!” Then then ran forward and plowed through the guards as they ran to the north gate.

Trask launched a fireball at the departing trio as he landed before his white dragon and made some sort of show of dismissing it—a little grandiose, and really, was this the time for it? We still had three escaping giants.

But one Hold Person spell later and the lead giant was held in his tracks, and Derel ran up to confront the other two, receiving much physical punishment as a reward. Nolin joined in, and another Hold Person later saw a single giant still able to move, and it ran past us to the gate. A few moments later and the two held giants were dead, but oddly enough a wall of flame sprang up behind the retreating giant, protecting its escape.

Alarmed I looked around for some new spell casting foe that had but recently joined the battle, but only saw Trask looking rather sheepish.

In looking south I noticed thick plumes of smoke rising up from across the small bay — this is where the wealthier Sandpoint families had built their estates. Trask had already noticed it and was back in the air, flying south to investigate and aid as he could. Avia too was running to the south above the buildings.

The escaping giant reached the northern gate just as Sabin, Kane and Rigel arrived, and a short while later the giant lay still on the ground, tied in ropes (at first) and later chains.

Nolin hastily made his way to the stables and found the horses had been left alone and the stables ignored in the attack, and mounting his war horse he galloped about town, looking for remaining pockets of giants, and trying to correlate all that had happened that morning into a single cohesive tale.

I too ran southward, using Create Water liberally as I ran past buildings on fire, but my ultimate goal was the giant leader. I thought perhaps he had written orders or something else on his person that might serve as a clue as to where they had come from and what they were trying to accomplish. I found several interesting items, but nothing to explain the attack.

[604] Giant hide shirt (magic)
[605] Pick (magic)
[606] Light pick (magic)
[607] ring (magic)
[608] war horn

If the giant was not carrying his orders, then he must have memorized them, and I planned to have a conversation with him the next day, and so I had the town guard heft the body onto a wagon and haul it up to the garrison. I insisted it be placed under guard to prevent the townsfolk from exacting their revenge upon it, and thus making my job of extracting information from it that much more difficult.

To the south Trask found the Scarnetti manor in flames, and three giants walking into the woods with large sacks over their backs. A fireball later and they had dropped the sacks and were running away. Another fireball ensured that they would probably not try to come back to retrieve the sacks.

Trask found dying members of the Scarnetti household in the sacks — possibly members of the family itself. Nearby was a wagon filled with plunder from the manor. Avia arrived and together they searched the house, finding one surviver (a servant).

We gathered again a short time later, and Nolin revealed that witnesses at the brewery watched the giants take more than just beer. The Knight’s Brewery was owned and operated by a retired paladin, a relative of mayor Devlin, and as the giants came up to the building they saw the paladin’s holy symbol, and crying “That’s it!” two giants snatched him up and marched off eastward into the woods.

Obviously the giant attack had a set of specific goals, possibly one or more of which we thwarted (seizing the “rock” and capturing lots of townsfolk — in particular the merchant class), but some of which they achieved (capturing the paladin, or his holy symbol, or both).

That they had the assistance of a red dragon is not surprising (although its arrival certainly was)—Mokmurian appears to have a wide range of beings at his disposal (one of the giants spoke of Mokmurian, although not in a complimentary fashion).

We know the invaders came from the east—but how far east? And where are those who made away with the paladin (and possibly others) heading?

There is a sense of urgency to chase down the giants, but their trail should not be difficult to follow, and perhaps by spending a day gathering information we will be better prepared to meet whatever or whoever is at their final destination.

We have one of the invading giants held in captivity, whom we will question later on today. I have an idea for how we might be able to get him to answer our questions voluntarily, and old Barl might still be of use to us.

And we have the body of the giant leader, with whom we can speak in the morning. We must plan our questioning for this one well, for we will only get four questions to ask him.

And mayor Devlin should be of use as well. Who was this paladin relative of hers? Which faith did he follow? And the more she can share with us about him (or the more his coworkers or household can tell), the better the chance for a successful Scrying.

Fireday, Sarenith 10

Most people have completed their training and today we will be speaking with the mayor and sheriff about how best to prepare the town against an invasion of giants. I expect

• incredulousness
• disbelief
• denial
• and lastly, acquiescence

How fast we move through the list will be an indicator of our credibility in the town. If they take us seriously, incredulous to acquiescence should take about 20 seconds. However, I will add that I also expect us to make very little difference. Having seen and battled ogres and giants, I fear, as I look around “my” little town, that the same town that barely survived a plague of goblins would not do well against ogres or giants. While there is a wall at the north gate, there are only bridges to the east. Even if they were to arrange for the destruction of them in defense of the town, I believe giants and maybe even ogres would be able to ford the river in their absence .. and it would leave the townspeople unable to escape.

The priests will set up some glyphs of warding near the bridges which should both warn us and injure, to some extent, any approaching enemies. We’ve outlined some training the town guard might undergo to better prepare them for the possible battle. But as I look around at the wood frame buildings, and wooden bridges, I have to admit that the town would be but a playground if giants actually appeared. We probably should also speak of how best to evacuate the town, and send word of any problems to other towns to warn them. If poor Sandpoint is put under siege by giants it doesn’t seem very defensible even with an intelligently placed town guard.

Wealday, Sarenith 11

“My” town lies in splinters. Parts of it, anyway. And charred timbers (most of which aren’t my fault this time.) I see Tekkad sitting down and scribbling furiously as well – this is the first break we’ve had all day and putting quill to pen gives us a legitimate reason to sit down and try to catch our breath.

Well, me, anyway. I won’t put words in Tekkad’s mouth.

They came. Even before we could execute any of the defensive strategies (save a few glyphs of warding), they came. And “they” wasn’t one. Or two. We thought we were pretty good taking out two giants up in the mountains. Three or four would fairly test us, even with the town guard backing us up.

Try seven? Eight?

Our first clue that we’d start to remember goblins fondly was during our meeting with the sheriff and mayor. The mayor had not yet arrived when we heard loud booms from the northern gate. Fortunately, as part of the recommended precautions it was closed already, but we looked in horror at each other even as we thanked our favorite god that at least they’d chosen the fortified gate to attack. Giants were generally stupid and that might count in our favor.

We rushed to the gate, Derel getting there first. There were three giants there tossing rocks at the wall and gate, and issuing weak taunts like “human insects come out to play”. I got there in time to catch that last taunt so I tossed back that their mama threw ugly babies and smacked ’em with a fireball. As the others arrived, we heard a different kind of boom, more like an explosion, off to the east. Tekkad called out “the glyphs!” and sure enough, from my vantage point at the top of the wall I could see the bridges. And more giants — several more — were crossing the bridges and approaching the town. They brought with them what looked to be dire bears. Not only would we be facing more than two giants at a time, but we’d have to split up the group to do it.

On the plus side, looking at those, it appeared those at the north gate might either be juveniles or growth-stunted giants. Still, this was Not. According. To. Plan.

Quickly, those of us who were not directly engaging the northern giants (Derel, myself, Kane) rushed over towards the bridges. I flew (I’m going to like knowing a Fly spell) and the rest ran. Derel, of course, ran much faster and ran into trouble (fighting giants and dire bears with no support and no healer). Although with flight I could go in a straight line, my flight speed is slower than running speed, so ultimately the rest of the group reached the dire bears and giants before I did.

The giants were calling out for people to bring out their merchants and they would leave, but as I watched them reach in through second story windows and grab people, it became apparent this was not being done simply to frighten them. People we really being grabbed. Some were really being eaten.

All I could think of was how attractive goblins appeared right now. And how woefully underprotected this town was for this sort of assault.

And then Derel running off ahead. Both a giant and a bear attacked him viciously and it looked grim without a healer nearby. I managed to drop a fireball very precisely to scorch the giant and the bear but not Derel (but also, unfortunately, a nearby building).

Just then I happened to glance to the east and up and on the horizon I saw something that did not bode well at all.

A red dragon was approaching the town. Flying. I mean, really. A dragon too? And a red one meant he’d be immune to all my fireballs and fire spells. As I quickly ran through my arsenal I realized there was not a lot I could do to a red dragon, while I’m sure there was plenty he could do to me. Me, the only aerial combatant, I suddenly realized. And if I could see him …

“Red dragon from the east!” I yelled. While not everybody in my party heard me, some of the townspeople did and you could tell they were wishing they’d just stayed in bed that day. (But not a second story bed. Good day to have a bed in the basement.)

I saw Kane get attacked as he tried to reach Derel. But I also saw the fighters from the north wall approaching at a run. The giants there must have been killed or driven off. Fighting the dragon would be no mean trick but with the rest of our band here, perhaps the two giants and the three dire bears would be too occupied to be gathering townfolk.

Avia started walking in the air, as if on steps. I did not know this magic. Meanwhile, the dragon came in and began circling the town, and as you might expect, townspeople panicked. Thinking for a moment that maybe I was right and that this dragon was too much and might be an illusion, I smacked it with magic missile as it came by. It did not, unfortunately, disappear.

Boom. Another explosion. The south bridge. More giants. No additional dire bears. But how much magic did we really have in us? What worked in the past? Remembering, I flew down and got as many as I could in a haste spell to give them additional attacks.

By this time the ground forces had wounded much but actually taken out little. There was the dragon, there were two giants (plus three more now) and all three dire bears. I fired magic missiles at one that looked a bit ragged and it fell. But all this and only one invader down. And we were using magical healing a LOT. I myself had fared okay but almost everybody on the ground had gotten carved up at some point. Not a happy party.

Then the tide turned a little. A giant and another bear fell. We’d been pounding on these creatures for dozens of minutes (it seemed; really it had happened so fast that it had only been one or two) and finally we were getting the upper hand.

Then the dragon, feeling he as not getting enough attention, flew over the cathedral and bathed it in flame. All the wooden parts immediately caught as it swooped down to sit on the stone portion of the cathedral and screamed, almost like a challenge.

I wasn’t sure what I could do, but certainly the rest of our group was in no condition to take on the dragon. So I approached it and (not knowing if it understood Common or not) started yelling insults at it. “What are you, some sort of freakish flying weasel? Why don’t you go somewhere else to hunt for mice? You’re not needed here!” And his response was to cast a spell — a ray reached from a talon to me and I suddenly felt a WHOLE lot weaker. Thank goodness for always being lightly loaded. This was not good. But I needed the dragon to be worried, not me. So I made a point of shrugging, yelled “Hah!” and quickly cast greater invisibility upon myself, hoping the dragon had no means with which to see invisible. Just to be safe, I also flew 20 feet up after doing that so if he breathed fire at my old position I’d be safe. (It wasn’t until later I realized how this looked to my companions: dragon shoots something at me and I wink out.)

The dragon took to flight almost straight up, and then came down in a strafing run.

Meanwhile, Kane had called up his small fire elementals again and they were helping singe a dire bear.

The dragon swooped out of his dive bomb having breathed fire on the venerable old theatre. What could I do to stop him? I felt helpless. Nobody was powerful enough to drive him off other than … other than … another dragon! I smiled.

From the north came a screech. A white dragon, almost twice the size of the red dragon, was arriving. Since this was a Major Image, it had both the appearance and sound of a white dragon, but it would be unable to actually injure anything with its cold breath. I was hoping the red dragon knew enough about its brethren to be frightened. For my part, I only knew what I’d read after my discussion with Berik, so I hoped my dragon was visually accurate enough to fool the red dragon.

By this time, all the bears were down, the three giants at the north gate had been either killed or discouraged, and the two who had originally arrived from the east were also down. This was beginning to look possible. Except for the other three giants that had arrived via the southernmost bridge. And the dragon.

The white dragon definitely had drawn the red dragon’s attention. It seemed apprehensive of it, and it landed near the beach where it could keep an easy eye on it. The rest of the party was trying to convince the last three giants to leave but the apparent leader seemed quite strong and sword resistant. He told the other two to get the rocks, which meant nothing to us but apparently did to them as they headed off to the old lighthouse. Some of our group tailed them, while some stayed occupied with the apparent leader.

As I played with the red dragon, giants continued to fall. And yet, three more appeared. Eyeing my new friend nervously, the red dragon quietly withdrew from the battlefield and flew off, affording me the capability to help out elsewhere.

Meanwhile the rest of the group had finally managed to finish off the leader, and they found the other giants easier to kill. So, looking around at the carnage and discussion, I realized the town had been through a lot that day. 13 giants. 3 dire bears. 1 dragon. No scratch that, I realized, 2 dragons. They probably can’t tell that one of them was helping them. But I could fix that. Nothing like a little thespian skill to complete the illusion.

I flew down in front of the town guards, making myself visible as I did so. I caused the white dragon to fly down before me and I said, “I release you from your service, and your service will be both appreciated and remembered.” Then with a flourish I dismissed the dragon, and he flew away, finally disappearing at a range of about a hundred yards just as I ran out of spell. There were ooos and ahhhs from the crowd, which leads me to feel nobody will be held liaable for the damage here and that the prestige of our group just improved again.

I had noticed, during the middle of the battle, that the Scarnetti mansion across the bay seemed to be on fire. Avia and I hurried to check that out while our aerial spells were still holding out. The rest of the townspeople and the rest of our group began the arduous task of putting out fires, assisting the injured, and assessing the damage?

We found that the place had been ransacked and set aflame. No sign of the Scarnettis, although we did eventually find a maid hiding. Apparently giants here, too. We caught them taking a wagonload of stuff and so I used my last fireball spell to discourage them from doing that. We brought the wagon and the lady back to Sandpoint.

All told, there was far more prestige at stake here than goods. We managed to get only a magic hide shirt [604], a magic pick [605], a light pick [606] ; a magic ring [607], and a warhorn [608] from all the bodies.

‘Twill be a day not soon to forget, for many days to come.