Our latest session was cut short on account of my having some internet troubles, so this is only part one, the second part to come after we finish up on Sunday (which, it turns out, we are able to do). That being said, for a short session that was interrupted often by lost internet connections, it was a helluva day.
We started by discussing our options regarding Gruddhaug, wherein I laid out my cunning plan to kill Chief Guh right under the hill giants’ noses. The others eventually agreed to my plan, but we also sent word to Mr. Speaker to hire the Knights of Tyr and send them our way. Though it will take them about a week to reach us, we figured we could use the backup, especially once we saw the giants receive reinforcements in the form of a contingent of Mallakarthian troops.
Then we set my plan into action. I was given the Bag of Holding and then Leo, Kaly and I snuck forwards, to a safe distance from the camp, where Leo turned Kaly and I invisible. The two of us crept on, until we were below the window where Umbra had previously been able to spy Chief Guh. Kaly and I flew up, until we had her in our sights. That’s where the plan failed.
In theory, I was to Polymorph Chief Guh into a mouse (of course), and then Kaly would put her to Sleep. Then we would Thunder Step in, grab the mouse, shove it in the Bag, and Dimension Door out. The only hole in the plan (aside from teleporting into a hall full of giants and ogres and hobgoblins) was the range: Polymorph required me to be within 60’, but we were more than 100’ from Guh. We could have teleported in first and then hit her with our other spells, but that increased the risk significantly – too much, I decided – so we fell back to plan B.
Kaly and I, still invisible, made our way to the sleeping quarters that Leo and I had entered on our previous visit. Inside, we found two sleeping giants, and two waking ogres. While this made our plan risky, we decided it wasn’t too risky, so we proceeded.
I cast Polymorph on one of the sleeping giants, which woke the mouse it had suddenly become, but then Kaly hit it and one of the ogres with a Sleep spell, putting them both to sleep. The other ogre spotted us, now that we were visible, and prepared itself to attack, but Kaly reacted faster, shoving the mouse into the Bag of Holding and casting Dimension Door to teleport us out of there.
Safely away, Kaly turned herself invisible and headed back to the others. I, still with the Bag, flew 1000’ straight up, and slightly across, so I was lined up over Gruddhaug. Removing the mouse from the bag, I dropped it, and as it fell, I hit it with a firebolt, reverting it back into a giant. In hindsight, I simply could have stopped concentrating on my Polymorph spell, but I think this was more cinematic anyway. I’d like to imagine the giant was slightly aflame as he fell, like a falling star.
A thousand feet later, the giant hit the roof of Gruddhaug, and went right through it. Then he hit the floor and went through that as well. I couldn’t see any deeper, but I imagine wherever he eventually stopped could be described as nothing less than total carnage. I also saw that he didn’t hit Chief Guh, unfortunately, but it is possible he may have hit someone else on his way through. We can only hope.
At that point, feeling incredibly pleased with myself, I flew back to join the others, which is where we ended. Our plan is now to harry the giants until our backup arrives. The specifics of how we are going to do this are as yet undecided, but our next step definitely involves fireballs. Tune in Sunday/Monday for part two, where we will discover exactly what form that harrying takes, if we manage to hold out until our backup arrives, and whether or not we will be able to persuade Chief Guh’s mortal coil to shuffle off.