Day 26 – The Giant King

Day 26 – The Giant King

The dark's his bone.
Call him any name, he'll come to it.

A wind of such violence

Ha! Today we shall get something done. I led my companions back through the secret tunnel under the well by Hommlet. We surfaced by the temple and once again entered and journeyed back to the lower levels near where I slew the Lamir. We went down to the levels below via a staircase we had yet to traverse.  Down a dark corridor we entered a triangular room covered in images of the mighty elemental eye looking down upon my companions and I, like the inferior insects that we are. A large brass gong sat in the corner of this room. Suddenly a door burst open and we were set upon by five ogres. Sameson, Ugg and Joe moved forward to meet them in combat, whilst I called upon my powers to weaken the beasts.

The elf blasted them with his magic and I pulled the sanity from the minds of one of the ogres; sending him fleeing into the corner to babble incoherently to himself. With the odds turned against them Ugg and the others cut down the foul grunts and we entered the room true. Finding nothing of worth amongst the corpses we tried one of the doors only to unleash some bugbears into the room. One of them made for the gong and before we had a chance to stop it the goblinoid had struck it and sent a warning to others in the area. Before we knew what was happening the room was crawling with bugbears and gnolls. Ugg seemed to be taken off guard because he couldn't seem to hit anything.  Sameson on the other hand seemed to have the favour of his god because he smote many of things down with his mace and  conjured a spiritual weapon.

Amongst the creatures was an odd Gnoll that leapt around the room with the grace of an assassin. He greeted Fillian with the words, 'Nice to finally meet you'. It seems the temple is aware of us now and has hired assassins to counter our skills. Fillian tried to blast the gnoll with his magic, but his spells dissipated into nothing. Leaving the elf to fight his own battles I noticed Ugg about to be overrun by two giant bugbears. I had no choice but to call upon the darkest of my powers and I forced one of the creatures to look upon its worst nightmare! The bugbear turned as grey as the gallows and died instantly. Ugg managed to defeat the others with Sameson help. I turned from the battle to see Joe battling with the assassin gnoll upon the staircase. The thing was too swift for me to focus my powers against it and just as it seemed Joe was besting it in combat the thing disappeared.

The subtle approach now completely abandoned we explored this room and the ones the ogres and bugbears had come from. We found little of value and so turned to the last remaining door. We could hear scratching and barking come from within and of course our nature-loving friend Sameson could not resist barking back at whatever was behind the door. It didn't seem to pacify the beast though because as soon as we opened the door it leapt right for his throat. It was a giant wolflike creature called a Warg and it pinned Sameson to the ground; it was all he could do to hold its jaws back from his  windpipe.

But far worse was the owner of the beast that lived in the hexagonal room. A massive hill giant that awoke and demanded to know what was irritating his pet 'fluffy' so. Whilst Ugg and Joe tried to assist Sameson I tried to reason with the giant to see if I could prevent us from being crushed like in our dream the previous day. His name was Scorpp and he seemed to be under some crazy disillusion of being a king! I tried to pretend that we were here to serve him, but he wasn't having any of it. Fillian cast his magic at him, but only succeeded in covering the giant in glitter! Fool elf!

Backing out of the room we killed the warg and extricated Sameson from its corpse. Of course this angered Scorpp more and he burst into the room wielding a gigantic club. The giant pinned Sameson to the floor and threatened to crush him unless we all surrendered. We had no choice and so turned over our weapons. Fortunately, we talked him out of eating us all and offered to find him a new pet in exchange for our lives. He said he knew where one could be found and allowed us to go there down another unexplored tunnel on this level. Not being a complete fool though, he took a valuable magic item from each of us and allowed us only one weapon to capture the beast.

So we went down to near the ill-fated room with statues and found a room with a large pit in the middle. This was where there desired pet of Scorpp was said to dwell. We were forced to travel round the pit by small ledges to the other side and then clamber down a rocky staircase into it. Ugg and I climbed down whilst the others covered us from the top with ranged weapons. Cowards! Of course these men had no plan on how to capture the monster alive. It is most lucky for them that it is me who has control today or they would surely have perished, despite their cowardice. For the creature was an umber hulk; a large muscular beetle-like creature with a gaze that can drive even the sturdiest of minds insane.

It turned its gaze on those standing on the ledge and Ugg. Before I knew it Ugg was attacking me and Fillian was shooting me with his bow in their delusion state. How ironic that it is me that had to bring order to the insanity around me. I stepped forward and cast the spell which put the Umber Hulk into a deep slumber. My companions finally managed to shake off their confusion quickly enough to bind the monster and we picked it up and hauled it back to Scarpp. The giant was delighted with his new obscure, if less fluffy, pet. He agreed to let us go if we would complete one more mission for him. He told us that beyond a secret door nearby were some trolls that had been irritating him. If we could kill them and bring them back to feed the new 'fluffy' then he would be forever grateful to us.

So once again we left Scorpp and found the door he told us about. Joe scouted ahead and told us of a troll waited ahead in a room with four doors leading off from it. We knew this battle would be tough due to the fact that trolls can regenerate any wounds except those inflicted by fire or acid.  I gave my wand of burning hands to the elf both because it would be of use to him against trolls, well that and because it's guaranteed to enrage her. We took the first troll by surprise and hacked the thing to pieces quickly before it could regenerate, however three more the things burst from the adjacent rooms.

To my utter disgust Sameson called forth a Protection from Evil circle and I was forced to back out of the fight. I think I managed to hide this from the gullible tree-lover by working it into my battle strategy and fighting the troll that attacked Joe on the other side of the room to Sameson. I called forth the strongest necromantic spells I could against the thing in the hopes I could kill it before it regenerated.  However, the powerful thing responded by rending me with both its claws. I would surely have died if not for the intervention of Ugg who beheaded the thing before it could finish me. It seems I owe a debt of some sort to the half-orc. With the aid of the wand of burning hands we disposed of the last of the creatures and dragged their burnt corpses back to 'fluffy' to consume.

It seemed Scarpp hadn't finished with us yet though because he did not grant us the freedom we desired. Instead he demanded we get more food for Fluffy in the form of some 'dogs' that lived down another nearby passageway.  He did allow us to rest to recover our wounds however. I really hope it is I who surfaces tomorrow because I doubt she will accomplish as much.