Session 0046 - Giant Hands

Roster

List of characters who's player was in attendance

Player characters who's player is attending the game start with 1 Hero Point, and can get more during the session.

Absent

List of characters who's player was absent

Player characters for missing players do not start the session with a hero point, and can not get any more during the session.

Session Log

After the combat with the sea creatures the party examine the body remaining on the deck of riverboat Marlow.
Alicia and Muroni recognize the creature as a Skum or Ulat-Kini, the most numerous of the alghollthus, a servitor race that serve as rank-and-file soldiers for alghollthus armies. Muroni believes they likely speak Sakvroth, or undercommon.
It turns out that Eriana speaks Sakvroth, and she does recall understanding a few words spoken when she fought with the creatures in that tongue.
The trident the creature was wielding fell overboard, and it has no valuables of any kind, so the party toss the body overboard and continue up the river Rachi.
Both Alicia and Harbek spend the next hour or so using their magic healing ability to make sure everyone returns for full health as they continue their journey. In the early afternoon, just as Kedran’s notes suggested, as the Marlow reaches a turn in the Rachi River, at a place where the land rises up from the vegetation-strewn banks, everyone sees giant hands of stone reaching out of the rocky soil toward the sky. These ancient monoliths suggest that they are nearing the site of the fourth schema’s resting place.
And, sure enough, on the bank of the river to the giant’s left hand, you see a small air-skiff floating about 20 feet in the air, a rope ladder hanging over the side and a line spiked into the ground.
They approach the shore and prepare to disembark. As they move to do so someone calls out from the air-skiff. "Hello! Who are you?"
In the air-skiff the party can make out three figures, two are crouched down looking at the ship from behind the air-skiff railings. The third figure stands up to get a clear view of the ship and appears to be a war forged (automation).
There is a brief exchange between the group. The people on the air-skiff claim to be from the Morgrave University from the city of Sharn. Harbek is quick to respond and calls out that he is from the university, and ask who they are. The warforged says its name is Rebar. The dwarf oracle does not recognize that name, and Rebar does not recognize the dwarfs name - it seems neither of them have met at the university.
The party claims to also be from the university. Meanwhile, the two other figures on the air-skiff remain hunkered down and whisper at each other. Rebar can't hear them and continues to try and talk with the party. He claims to have been here for a couple of days and that the leader of the expedition went west and has not returned yet. Rebar was told to wait here for her to get back.
One of the two other air-skiff riders calls out "how do we know for sure you are from the university?" Ferdinand calls out and suggests they come down and exchange information. The people on the skiff are clearly cautious and still don't show themselves. Both Hrovard and Ferdinand feel like their response is suspicious.
On the air-skiff Rebar is confused. He doesn't know why the guards on the ship are behaving so oddly. Suddenly, the guard he knows as Geroldt stands up and gives Rebar a powerful shove, causing him to flip backwards over the air-skiff railing and fall 20 feet to the ground below. He tumbles over the stone hands as he falls. The other guard, Rochus, releases the rope bridge from the air-skiff and the loss of its tether causes it to rise up slightly.
Onboard the Marlow, the party all see Rebar get shoved off the air-skiff and fall to the ground.
Before the characters can disembark the ship, the soldier named Geroldt quickly grabs controls on the air-skiff and moves it away from the stone hand, gaining altitude and distance from the ship.
Hrovard is the first to disembark, splashing into the water and hauling himself onto the shore. He runs up to Rebar and helps him get to his feet. Ferdinand, Alicia and Muroni all get out missile weapons and shoot at the pilot, hitting Geroldt but not downing him.
Eriana leaps off the ship and runs after the air-skiff with a rope and grappling hook in hand, but it is moving too fast and gaining to much altitude to catch up with it.
Once Rebar is on his feet and sees the party attacking the guards, he joins in by casting a Force Barrage spell at Geroldt and trying to hit him with a dagger propelled by his magic, but it misses. Geroldt is clearly injured but continues to pilot the air-skiff.
After a volley of missile weapons and spells the air-skiff moves too far to catch. Eriana runs after it briefly, but she runs into jungle vegetation and can't reach it. She then returns to the party.
When she gets back the rest of the party are on shore talking with Rebar. Alicia uses her magic to restore the warforged to full health while they talk. Captain Chinxero calls out to them and says if they are going ashore he will move down river a short distance and wait for up to 10 days for them to return before heading back to Stormreach.
Rebar tells them they arrived from Sharn to Stormreach a few days ago and were planning on an expedition into the jungle to a known historic site, being led by Provost Maisy Beckett. Harbek recognizes her and has met with her previously during his time at the University.
Apparently Rebar had been wandering around the city and happened upon a large number of soldiers and their air ship and started to chat them up. Shortly afterwards the Provost appeared and told him they had to leave immediately, so he jumped on board all exited for the journey. He thought it odd that the only other people on the ship seemed to be soldiers and one other warforged who was clearly a military construct. There was one other individual he only saw a couple of times who never spoke to him and work long robes.
They flew the large air ship until they reached the stone hands. A large number of soldiers, Provost Maisy Beckett and the robed figure disembarked and went west to scout out the ruins. He was told to wait in the air-skiff with the guards until they returned. A skeleton crew was left with the air ship and it was moved further into the jungle and away from the river.
He had been waiting for the last couple of days for the Provost to return when the party showed up.
At this point the party is convinced the "soldiers" Rebar refers to must be Emerald Claw cultists. The warforged has never heard of this cult, so the party explain who they are and that they are enemies of the party. Rebar is able to confirm that they seemed to have a green clothing aesthetic with some items bearing an odd five-pointed symbol he didn't recognize.
Once they share this information and Alicia refocuses, the party get organized and head west. From what they understand, they should find a very large structure less than an hours walk from the shore at the location of the giant hands.
Hrovard leads them through the thick vegetation. He does not notice any current trail, but there may have been one long ago. It does not look like there has been much, if any traffic here recently.
Eventually they walk out into a large opening and see a massive structure covered with thick jungle vegetation. The structure is over 300 feet tall, and composed of solid stone. There is a gallery level open to the elements, made of massive columns and blocks of stone that support the upper levels.
Five massive stone steps rise 50 feet to a colossal, open-air gallery capped by the oppressive weight of the ancient ruin. A series of 20-footwide, 50-foot-tall stone columns surrounds the gallery and supports the upper levels of the ruin. A 10-foot-wide channel cut into the stone next to the great stairs contains a far smaller staircase, providing a crumbling route for creatures more or less your own size.
The carnage of a great battle litters the smaller staircase. Dozens of bodies are scattered across the steps. A few bear the distinctive militaristic uniform worn by soldiers of the Emerald Claw, but many more are ebony-skinned elves wearing clothing made of carapaces and strange leather. Scavenger birds cover the bodies, feasting on the remains.
Upon closer examination, there are roughly a dozen Emerald Claw soldier bodies here and twice that number of ebony-skinned elves. Both Eriana and Muroni believe that these are drow - the ancient servants of the mythical giant race that once ruled over all of Xen'drik. They likely spoke the same language as the Skum they fought recently - Sakvroth (undercommon).
Upon approaching the site of the battle, Rebar scanned the area with a Detect Magic spell. He discovers that none of the corpses below the steps radiate magic, but the building itself (at least the stairs and attached walls) radiate magic.
There is nothing left of value at the site of the battle. With caution, and weapons out, the party form into their standard marching order and head up the human-sized set of stairs. The bodies and blood are a couple of days old. The blood is largely dried, but still a bit tacky as they walk up the stone steps.
When the group climb about half way up the steps they hear sounds up ahead and spot some movement just before a large boulder appears at the top of the steps, rapidly bouncing down the steps towards them!
It crashes into the party, badly injuring everyone save Alicia who manages to only get clipped by the boulder and it rolls down the stairs.
Bruised but alive, the party don't get time to recover as ebony-skinned elves appear at the top of the steps and attack.
There is one female elf wearing a chain shirt and wielding a longbow. There are four others wearing leather clothing, wielding hand crossbows and rapiers.

Combat lasts for a few rounds. The bolts from their crossbows have a poison on them that causes numbness and slows down the victim of its effects. Hrovard and Rebar were both hit and succumbed to the poison, but recovered quickly.
The elves initially attacked at range from the top of the steps. Hrovard and Ferdinand rush up the steps and engaged in melee. Rebar cast a spell on himself (Gecko Grip) that let him climb the wall and get onto the gallery, while Alicia manoeuvred herself as best she could to cover the party with her arbalest. She called out to Eriana to try diplomacy, but the party was already engaged in melee at this point.
Both Harbek and Eriana were slow to get into combat. Eriana used her speed and agility to run up the stairs, get onto the gallery and flank the lead elf in the chain shirt. Harbek used his magic to send a circle of magic healing to all allies, but could not reach Eriana.
During the fight Rebar unleashed a grease spell on the elves that caused two of them to fall. They struggled to stand and get back in the fight. One had to crawl out of the greased area before standing and resuming the fight.
This gave the party some space to get into position and be more effective in the fight. The first elf was run through by Ferdinand before he leapt onto the gallery to get into a better fighting position.
Hrovard was left pushing up the stairs while enraged, but his position helped to provide flanking with Eriana and Ferdinand.
During the fight Ferdinand tried repeatedly to get his magical buckler to dazzle the elves, but he struggled to make it work (generating quite a bit of frustration with the enchanted item).
Eriana was able to use her considerable athletics skill to reposition the leader into one of the other elves on a greased part of the floor. It caused the leader to fall and made itself an easy target. At this point the leader had sustained numerous hits from missile weapons and had been hit in melee by Hrovard, Ferdinand and Eriana, but she remained conscious and defiant.
Resigned to the fact the party was not going to parley, Alicia attacked with her arbalest to great effect.
Before the leader fell Eriana did call out in Sakvroth for them to surrender, but they all yelled back "Never! Die Interlopers!" They then fought until every one of them was defeated.
The leader was hit by Eriana with a non-lethal attack and lies unconscious. One of the elves was killed outright by Ferdinand, and the fate of the other three remain uncertain.
At the end of the fight the party plan on reviving the leader and are considering trying to revive the others.