Session 48 - Let's Not Kill The Giants. Wait, What?!
In-game timeline: Nightal 15 - Nightal 16 DR1489
Our "Heroes" return to Mistloch Town after their eventful and informative visit to The Haunt. They decide not to tell the townsfolk about the presence of Gisten and Kai on the Mistloch, but do mention that The Haunt is indeed haunted and that the fisherfolk should avoid the island unless in dire need.
Drogan heads to Bronlen at the general store where she bandages his wounds and tends his cuts. He encounters Graine, a male dwarf, who is also getting some cuts and bruises tended. It turns out that Graine led a small group of townsfolk to the Mistloch Mine earlier that day in order to confront the giants who recently moved in there, and tell them to leave - thinking that the giants are the cause of the issue with the rising waters. After threatening the giants, it seems Graine was rewarded with a heavy cuff round the head and sent on his way.
Our "Heroes" decide to head to the mine, to see if they can get more information from the giants residing there.
For once deciding that discretion is the better part of valour, they approach the mine without weapons drawn, and in full view, hoping to talk rather than fight. I know, right? Is this the same group that drove a poor kobold to eternal vengeance with their beatings? That torched an innocent child in a torture-chair just because it moved? That shot a hobgoblin on their first ever outing, just for being a hobgoblin? Oh how they have changed…
The giants were cautious, having just been threatened by a small mob of villagers, but the party manage to talk them down, and gain an audience with Winir, their leader. Winir explains that the group have seen nothing strange since arriving, and that they only want to live here in peace. They were forced out of their original home, Hearth, when some frost giants arrived and took over the clan, displacing Winir who was the original leader.
Drogan asks to check out the lower levels of the mine and the giants reluctantly agree. They somewhat regret their decision when Drogan disappears down a narrow mineshaft and doesn't reappear for an hour, but he reports finding nothing but a long mineshaft which seems to join a natural, underground tunnel or gorge. He sees no evidence of water encroachment into the mine.
Having made friends with the giants - at least, no one has killed anyone else, which for this party is tantamount to making "friends" - the group head back to Settlestone, arriving in the evening. Dwarrow heads to his betrothed, Silvermoon, whilst the others go back to the Hearthstrains for another hearty meal and a warm bed. Drogan buys Dwarrow's mum, Bethian, a nice bottle of sherry, which she very much appreciates.
The following morning they once again meet up together and head to visit Paxton, the archivist. He has already been pre-warned that they may come looking for information on Azkael, as Alwaith sent Grizelda to visit Bethian the previous day, and she duly passed on the information to Paxton.
This was a good move, as The Archive was a complete mess of books, scrolls, papers and tablets. Paxton seemed to know where everything was, however, but it still took a while to find anything.
Unfortunately, the time saving they had gained by pre-asking about Azkael, allowing Paxton to already have that information to hand, was somewhat lost when they then asked about everything and anything at all that they had heard mention of on their travels - Hearth, myconids, the Black Sun, stone figures on mountaintops, Tandred the Bard, Necromicals… Suffice to say they spent a good few hours at The Archive, much of which was spent waiting for Paxton to fetch yet another book from somewhere or other in the building.
They did, however, find out a fair bit about Azkael - including the location of his tower, and the history of the gnomish inventor - and a little about Hearth. Paxton promised to spend some time looking up Tandred the Bard and Necromicals (though being given just a tattoo picture and the name "necromical" meant he didn't have a lot to go on!).
Alwaith wanted to check out the Settlestone Clocktower, which was built by Azkael some 300 years ago and still kept very good time with no maintenance. He was hoping to maybe find some information about Azkael and possibly even something about Angelica's bones. Dwarrow had to get the clocktower key from the Town Hall so they could enter it (of course they considered breaking in but, surprisingly, rejected that option) and, while Drogan and Devon twiddled their thumbs, Alwaith checked out the inside of the clocktower, eventually finding nothing of any obvious value in there.
Having not yet sorted out the problems at Mistloch Town, not helped the giants and not discovered Angelica's bones, they decide to start on a new quest - head to the myconids in the Sporerealm in order to hopefully get some bluecap mushrooms to help out Silvermoon. And so they head out of town to find the entrance to the New Shaft.
The New Shaft was closed up about 20 years ago when the shaft came upon the Sporerealm, and the dwarves of Settlestone came to an agreement with the myconids to not mine in that area and to respect the myconids' home. It was, however, an easy job to open up the mine shaft and to head down into the depths of the mine. After some hours walking down the abandoned mineshafts, and what with the time they spent at The Archive, and investigating the clocktower, it was evening by the time they finally reached the somewhat hot and humid area that they supposed was the entrance to the Sporerealm.
And so we leave our "Heroes" once again quite deep underground, and we wonder how far they will progress on this quest before abandoning it and starting another…