The Frozen Lands

Dozens of adventures later (slightly exaggerated) my players are finally biting on the clues leading to the epic battle against the major evil force in my game world. I adapted Advanced Adventures 11 by Alphonso Warden for this plot. I kept the rough plot outline and the antagonist (the White Worm) and changed everything else. I rewrote the adventure three times while I waited for my players to tackle it. Hopefully, I can do the ending justice. It is a question of striking the right balance. I want it to be dangerous, and deadly but not impossible. The first session of this chapter is a search for knowledge.

Session 117: The Frozen Lands

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alrix (couatl sorcerer), Aldus (human cavalier), Joe Boxer (human monk), Fenris the Filch (human thief NPC), Domago (human cleric NPC).

The Company of the Black Dragon is in Wolford having recently stormed the Cloud castle of the giants which looks down on the town. In an effort to learn more about the White Worm, Lakima has signed a contract with a demon to remove the flying castle in exchange for the soul of the evil mage Sazor Stratus.

The adventurers follow the path of the demon outside and do not see it anywhere. The cloud supporting or blocking the cloud castle from view still rests above the town. They notice a cloud front approaching from the northwest. About an hour after the incident with the demon, the cloud above the town begins moving with the wind to the west. Once this is noticed in the town the locals begin to rejoice. Lakima requests another meeting with Master Glint (the town master) to discuss what has happened. He claims that Sazor Stratus was in league with a demon. They tried to capture it but it fled. A concerned Glint asks where the demon might have fled. Not having an answer Lakima changes the subject and warns Glint that Wolford, the Earldom, and the entire duchy is in danger. He claims that the cloud giant attack was the first softening-up attack of a creature known as the White Worm. He expects that an army of creatures of unspecified type and origin will descend on Wolford. Glint is skeptical but agrees to send a report to Earl Uther. Lakima insists that Glint also send a report to the duke – but Glint is not convinced of the urgency.

Lakima asks that Sazor Stratus be carefully imprisoned but when the cell is investigated, they find that he has vanished. The adventurers note the smell of brimstone in the cell and Lakima notices scorches on the stone floor. Master Glint agrees to provide rooms for the company in the Palace for a few days. The skyship is anchored in the courtyard and a few guards are placed around it. After a restful night, Domago goes to where Haddon has placed Boffin’s corpse. He tried to raise Boffin from the dead but he is unsuccessful. Boffin’s spirit has moved on. The rest of the company spends the day gathering supplies for a few weeks in cold weather. The next day they board the skyship early in the day and set out for Gundamark, the city of the dwarves. Haddon has requested that they help him return Boffin’s body to the dwarf realm for proper burial. Haddon also suggests that the dwarves might have information on the location of the White Worm.

After two days they arrive in Gundamark. On the journey, the only incident was a curious hippogriff which Lakima charms and sends on its way. Most of the dwarven city is buried under the mountains. They moor the skyship in an open field beside a mountain lake near the entrance to the city. Haddon introduces the adventurers to Elder Thagnam of the dwarven council. Thagnam listens to their story about the White Worm and agrees to try to get them an audience with the full council. After a few hours wait they are taken before the council and get a chance to tell their story about the White Worm and Wormbane. A dwarven weapon crafter on the council asks to see the sword and states that it is of giant make but that the enchantments on it were cast by humans. The council has only heard vague rumors about the White Worm and they ask for a few days to deliberate. In the meantime, they are invited into the city and given a suite of rooms.

The adventurers wait for 2 days to get another invite to the council chambers. On the second day, they attend Boffin’s funeral deep in the mountain. They also visit some of the weapon, armor, and jewel crafting shops of the dwarves. Lakima buys a case of enchanted throwing darts. Fenris buys a magic sword and a magic crossbow. Aldus sees a magic great sword he wants but he cannot afford the price. Alrix purchases a magic shield. Lakima gives the additional funds needed to Aldus to allow him to purchase the sword. Lakima also buys a gem-encrusted gold ring of historical significance for 8,000 gold.

Finally, they meet the council of elders again. The dwarves tell them what information they know and suggest the adventurers head north to the gnomes of Winterhaven. They reason that since the gnomes trade with the northern human barbarians they should have more information. They give the adventurers tokens of friendship and offer the group the services of their greatest fighter. The adventurers are introduced to the dwarven warrior Dusig Greatstone.

That evening Domago agrees to commune with his god and asks three questions. He asks what kind of creature the White Worm is? He gets a vision of a vast worm with pale skin living deep under the group in the land of ice. As he gazes upon the creature it turns toward him and he realizes it has a vast, otherworldly intelligence. Domago is visibly shaken by the vision and needs time to rest before asking the second question. Can Wormbane truly destroy the White Worm? He gets a vision that the sword can pierce the worm and destroy it but he sees that the worm’s destruction will unleash a new danger. In his vision, he finds he is drowning in a dark, thick liquid. For the third question, he asks about this danger and learns that the White Worm’s interior is filled with an enormous supply of black ichor. Domago asks that they give him an evening of rest to recover.

The next day the group sets out on the skyship for Winterhaven. The temperatures drop even colder as they cross the Rainbow Hills and arrive at Winterhaven. The city of the gnomes is built on the slope of a mountain. The skyship parks just inside the town walls near a clearing. A contingent of gnomes asks to board the ship and question the adventurers on their business in Winterhaven. The gnomes charge the adventurers for silver tokens to allow them entry to the city and even find a proper charge for the skyship. The gnome customs agent agrees to speak with the gnome leadership about allowing the adventurers an audience once learning about their quest. The gnome does suggest they go to the shop of a local sage and map maker named Hestra Darkstamp if they want more information on the Frozen Lands to the north.

The group takes the gnome’s advice and walks the winding road up the mountainside to the sage’s shop. On the way there they pass a strange three-story cottage that is badly leaning to one side. The sage is a wizened gnome female who unfortunately does not know the location of the White Worm. She does show them a map of the Frozen Lands. They agree to purchase it. She also suggests they meet with Erwin Truecase, a human historian who lives in the strange cottage they passed earlier.

The adventurers walk back down the mountain slope to the leaning cottage. Knocking on the door they are greeted by a gnome. This gnome repeatedly gets their message wrong but he does let them in to meet his master, Erwin. Erwin Truecase is suspicious of the adventurers at first after hearing their story about the White Worm. He asks to see Wormbane. Once seeing the blade, he excitedly checks the pommel and finds the maker’s mark which matches the mark he has on a sketch in an old tome. He then begins to tell the company what he knows. He does not know the location of the White Worm but he is aware of it and its agents. He tells of Frost Giants under the White Worm’s influence gathering an army in the Frozen Lands. He shows them charts showing that the temperature in the area has been getting colder year after year. He tells of an attempt to make him a slave of the White Worm by a human wizard who tried to cast charm person on him. In fact, this incident led to his having a ring of charm resistance enchanted. He does offer to give the ring to Lakima in concern for his safety but Lakima confidently tells Erwin that he is protected by Medamellara (the goddess of magic). Erwin suggests they travel north to the land of the barbarian tribes and seek out a wise woman named Elsi Whitedrift in the trading post of Phom Thult.

Clearing the Cloud Giant Castle

When you have the players in your campaign fly to a Castle in the clouds you have to expect that they are going to want to keep it as their home base. With that in mind, I made sure that it was possible but very difficult to gain control of the castle. The players found that the magic controlling the castle was connected to the Elemental Plane of Air and was cloud giant magic. As such an identify spell was not enough to understand how to make things work. There is a metal band that clearly should fit on a Cloud Giant's head but it is much too big for a human-sized head. The players spent an hour trying things but did not manage to land on a solution.

Session 116: Control of the Sky Castle

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alrix (couatl sorcerer), Aldus (human cavalier), Fenris (human thief NPC), Domago (human cleric NPC), Haddon (dwarf fighter).

The members of the adventuring party entered the cloud giant castle in the middle of the night. A battle with the cloud giants has ended in victory.

Joe Boxer, who recently was knocked unconscious by a cloud giant tells the rest of the group that he needs to meditate and rest. Haddon stays with Joe to protect him. The rest of the group heads down one level in the castle and walks across the courtyard in the direction of the gatehouse where they know more bugbears are on guard. Aldus and Eathwund lift down the enormous beam used to bar the castle doors. They look out onto the wooden bridge leading to the gatehouse and see the doors to the gatehouse are closed. Lakima sends the four bugbear zombies he animated across the bridge to draw fire. They get about halfway across before crossbow bolts are fired from barred windows in the doors.

Lakima casts a fireball and throws it across the bridge and into the gatehouse. There is an explosion and dark smoke pours out of the gatehouse windows. Under the cover of the smoke, Aldus, Eathwund, and Fenris quickly run across the bridge to the doors. Fenris shouts that the doors are locked from the inside. Lakima turns and asks Alrix to send Deost across the bridge to open the doors. Alrix instructs Deost who is still wearing the cursed Helm of Free Action. Deost runs across and uses knock to open the doors. The doors swing open and Eathwund and Aldus then rushes inside. At this point, only one of the zombies is still standing. Inside there are eight bugbears many of them badly burned. Domago steps onto the bridge and blows the Silver Horn of Valhalla summoning 4 berserkers. The berserkers from Valhalla immediately launch themselves at the bugbears. As Aldus and Eathwund join the fray they see two Hill giants emerge from the darkness. One strikes Aldus knocking him to one side. Alrix now flies into the gatehouse above everyone’s head and constricts around a hill giant and bites him.

Eathwund and Aldus bear the brunt of the fighting but Alrix holds off one hill giant and bites him a second time and this time is able to inject venom. The hill giant stumbles and falls dead. The rest of the badly injured bugbears are soon dispatched. The last hill giant, injured by Lakima and Eathwund asks to parlay. Lakima demands that he surrender and the hill giant stops fighting. The two remaining berserkers run up a flight of steps to the next level chasing an injured bugbear.

On the next level, they find 3 bugbears who are quickly killed by Eathwund and the berserkers. The remaining berserkers vanish when the fight ends. Eathwund and Lakima climb the ladder to the battlements atop the gatehouse and find them deserted. In the distance, they spot a cloud giant in a small flying boat headed away from the castle. Lakima guesses that this is the cloud giant female that they let escape.

Lakima interrogates the Hill giant who tells them his name is Brutus. Brutus tells them that he and his friend were staying in guest corridors on the third level of the castle. They were invited to work for the cloud giants but had not yet accepted. Brutus knows very little about the layout of the castle but he does tell them that there are quarters for little people on the third floor. Lakima asks Brutus to lead the way. Brutus proves helpful on the walk to the rooms as he has little difficulty opening the giant-sized doors.

On the way, they gather Joe and Haddon. On the third level, they find a large chamber in a tower with seven human-sized beds. The group decides to rest and tend to their wounds. Alrix is sent to the skyship to get the crew and the ship is maneuvered over the castle courtyard. The Hill giant who obviously is too big for the beds says he will go sleep in the room he was staying in just down the hallway. Lakima agrees he can go. Fenris leaves saying he wants to keep an eye on the giant.

Watches are set and the adventurers settle down. At this point, the sun is just starting to rise above the mountains.

Six hours later Eathwund and Domago are on watch. Eathwund hears Fenris yelling.

“Alarm!, Alarm, ambush, awake!”

Eathwund quickly wakes everyone. They check the hallway outside the door to their room and in the distance they see a troop of 8 bugbears ascending the stairs. Lakima casts a fireball into the midst of the bugbears. Several of them go down dead. Then Alrix uses his lightning breath and blasts the few remaining bugbears who are standing. One badly injured bugbear runs away. A few moments later Brutus and Fenris join them. Fenris says he heard the bugbears coming up the stairs and gave the alarm.

The group finishes off their rest and eats some cold rations. Lakima tries convincing Brutus to join the group. The hill giant says he will come along if they find some humans for him to eat. Alrix and Domago recoil in disgust. Lakima tells Brutus that he cannot eat any humans they find. He does promise to get Brutus back down to the ground.

Lakima questions Deost about where they can find the controls for the castle. He wants to learn to make it move. Deost tells them that Sazor did not speak to him much about it. He understands that the control area is in the tallest tower. He tells them that Sazor was not able to get entry to the room. Looking out a window they see the tallest tower across the open space. But they do not see any clear way to get to it.

The adventurers head down the stairs to the courtyard again and there they are surprised to find a company of six gnolls. The gnolls back away chattering to each other. Domago tells everyone that the gnolls are calling them giant killers and that they seem afraid. Lakima sends Domago to parlay with the band of gnolls. In return for their lives, the gnolls offer to free human prisoners. They take the adventurers down to a lower dungeon level where they find eight human prisoners working in a kitchen. The gnolls hand them over in return for a promise that they will be taken down to the ground.

Brutus leads the group up to the western battlements below the tower but they find only giant pigeons and giant hawk roosts. There does not appear to be an entry to the tower. From the battlements below the tower, Lakima can see that the large windows are open so he suggests they fly the skyship up to a window.

Alrix is sent to pilot the skyship. He comes back aboard the ship and settles it over their position on the battlements. Everyone boards the ship and then it is moved next to a window. Lakima, followed by Fenris, Eathwund, and Alrix leap down from the ship through an open window and land in the chamber in the tallest tower.

They find a stone throne facing an open window. Beside the throne is a glowing orb on an iron pedestal. On the other side is a metal lever. In the middle of the room is a giant table. They are unable to see on top of the table which is 10 feet high. Two enormous suits of plate mail armor stand in alcoves. Eathwund uses detect magic and tells everyone that the armor, the orb, and the lever are magical.

Lakima asks Brutus for a lift up onto the stone chair. Once he is dropped on the chair he finds a giant-sized gold circlet that also detects as magical.

Lakima casts identify on the circlet and orb and he is able to discern that the circlet controls the orb which is connected to the elemental plane of air somehow. The magic is strange to him, and he is unable to understand how to control the castle. From the stone seat, he can see the top of the table and he notes paper, lanterns, and a chest. Lakima asks Brutus to carry him over and place him on the table. Here he finds an open log book, a map of Valnwall showing the route of the castle, a locked chest covered in dwarven runes, an enormous battle axe, and several sheets of parchment. Fenris is lifted up onto the table by Brutus and he examines the chest. Fenris tries to unlock the chest and succeeds but a poison needle pierces his hand. Fenris is protected by the periapt of proof against poison and only curses the cut in his hand. In the chest, he discovers a fortune in diamonds.

The group spends an hour trying to figure out how to make the castle change direction. Lakima suggests smashing the orb, but Domago and Alrix point out that the castle is parked directly over a town below. In the end, Lakima tells Brutus to take the circlet. The gold circlet is too big even for Brutus and hangs about his neck like a necklace. Brutus tries smashing the orb at Lakima’s direction once everyone else is aboard the longship but he is unable to damage it. Lakima tells everyone that they should head down to Wolford. He is concerned that more cloud giants will arrive to claim the castle. They know from Deost that a wedding was planned to occur in a few days and a lot of cloud giant guests were expected. They take the ship over to the wizard’s tower and pick up the wizard Sazor Stratus who is still under the effects of Lakima’s feeblemind spell.

The skyship is crowded with freed humans and a hill giant descends down from the cloud castle spiraling down into the courtyard before the town hall. At first, the local militia is called out to greet them but they quickly put them at ease. Once Lakima shouts down to the crowd that the cloud giants are dead there is much cheering. The seneschal Glint asks them into the town hall. The strange group climbs down from the skyship. A few of the rescued humans are locals who greet family members. The hill giant Brutus scares the locals but they relax when everyone realizes he is currently not dangerous.

Inside the town hall, Lakima asks if they can go to an interrogation room. Sazor is tied to a chair in the room so he cannot use his hands. Lakima then removes his gag and dispels the feeblemind. Sazor immediately tries to cast a spell but finds he cannot without the use of his hands. Lakima asks Sazor many questions about the cloud giants, the castle, and the White Worm. Sazor does not offer much to the questions and seems unintimidated by Lakima’s threats. Lakima finally asks everyone to leave the room. Domago refuses to go until Lakima swears that he will not be the one to harm Sazor. Once everyone is gone, Lakima takes out his Book of Demon Summoning and draws a pentagram on the floor. Sazor watches in amusement. Lakima then tells Sazor that he needs to answer his questions or he will summon a demon to take his soul. Sazor laughs at this. Lakima then uses his Pendant of Demon summoning and summons a demon. A Vrock demon appears in the pentagram in a flash of fire and brimstone. The Vrock angrily tries to attack but finds it cannot. Eventually, it asks what Lakima wishes from it.

Lakima offers Sazor in return for the demon flying up to the Cloud Castle and moving it away from Wolford and crashing it. The demon suddenly produces a contract on a piece of parchment and asks Lakima to sign it. Lakima reviews the contract and sees that it does not meet his requirements. The demon then reluctantly makes the changes. Lakima then signs the contract and breaks the pentagram around the demon. The demon moves to attack but finds that the pendant is protecting Lakima. It then agrees to the bargain and flies out of the room. There is much screaming and confusion as the demon flies through the hall and out a window.

The rest of the company rushes to the room to find Lakima and Sazor both unharmed and still in a standoff.

“What did I expect, when we leave two wizards alone in a room,” Alrix says.

Dungeon 23

I saw the original tweet for the Dungeon 23 challenge over the holidays and decided I wanted to try my hand at it. The idea as spelled out by Sean McCoy is to create a megadungeon by writing 1 room of the dungeon every day for 365 days. I have never created a megadungeon before. When I first started designing dungeons in the 1980s they were common for amateur dungeons. My first dungeon, a continuation of the Haunted Keep in the back of the Basic Rules was in the neighborhood of 100 rooms.

I want to do this using the B/X Moldvay rules that I first used when I started playing and I have decided to do something other than a simple megadungeon. I needed a plot. So I picked 2 of the suggested plots from the Basic Rules (pp B51), Destroying an Ancient Evil and Rescuing Prisoners. The initial hook will be the rescue of prisoners but later the players discover that the fate of the prisoners is to be sacrificed to awaken an ancient evil. I do not have everything plotted in advance. I just have some rough ideas. I do not even have a dungeon name yet. But I have an entire year to figure it out.

For the past twenty years, I have been writing all of my adventures digitally. But to stay true to this challenge I am writing it on paper with a pencil. I have a Journal I bought a year ago on a whim which has lined pages, graph paper, and hexagonal paper. It would make a great DM journal except it is perfect bound. So I found it to be useless and tossed it on a shelf. It should work well for this.

I have been at this for a week. First I wrote up a page of adventure background. The adventurers are hired by the Mayor of the village of East Hollow to rescue some locals who have been kidnapped by goblins. This seems outside the everyday habits of the usually cowardly goblins. The trail leads to the Troll Hills. Clues in the goblin lair (or the interrogation of the goblin chief) will lead the adventurers to a nearby hobgoblin lair. The hobgoblins have been intimidating the goblins into capturing humans and trading them for supplies (mainly food). There is also a side quest where the adventurers can discover that an unscrupulous local merchant has been trading supplies to the hobgoblins for coins the goblins have stolen. Eventually, in the hobgoblin lair, they should learn that the hobgoblins are also being manipulated. This time by the forgotten and mysterious race of thouls.

A goblin lair is the first level of the dungeon followed by a hobgoblin lair. Then the megadungeon truly begins with the lair of the thouls.

The Goblin (left) and Hobgoblin Lairs

I have a map of the surrounding area and the village of East Hollow but I have not really developed it beyond what is shown on the map. I guess to be more properly true to an OSR adventure I could have just left out the regional background. But this kind of background was not uncommon in old 1980s adventure modules. I do not have a name for the region yet. But I named a local large town and seat of the local ruler Thetherytwen (23).

The Region

Big Fight

 For our last session of Swords & Wizardry, we had a big fight with the Cloud Giants in the castle. The battle lasted most of the session. Coincidently, before the session, I had been talking to my players about how I did not like d20 because of how long it took to resolve fights. There was a fair amount of motion in this fight so it felt like things kept moving.

How long is too long a fight? At higher levels, some of these fights are going to last longer because everyone has more hit points. One Player character was knocked unconscious and two NPCs were killed in the battle. Several other player characters were near zero.

Session 115: Battle with the Cloud Giants

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alrix (couatl sorcerer), Aldus (human cavalier), Joe Boxer (human monk), Fenris the Filch (human thief NPC), Domago (human cleric NPC), Boffin (dwarf fighter NPC), Haddon (dwarf fighter NPC), Fairfax (human fighter/werewolf NPC).

The heroes have entered the Cloud giant castle to put an end to the cloud giant's attack on the town of Wolford. After entering a tower, they captured the wizard Sazor Stratos and charmed his apprentice Deost.

The group decides to quickly and quietly cross the bridge to the platform on the side of the main castle. They all rush across. Joe and Fenris check the door to the castle which is unlocked. Lakima asks Deost whether the door is usually guarded.

“No. The lions are let out in the main hall at night so no one wanders there”

“Lions?”

Aldus tries to open the 26-foot high, 10-foot-wide door but finds he cannot budge it. Eathwund uses the power of his sword Wormbane to cast strength on himself. He grabs the edge of the door and swings it open. Inside they see a courtyard surrounded by a balcony. Moonlight shines down into the courtyard. Lakima spots movement and sees a lion slowly walking away from them.

Alrix volunteers to scout ahead while invisible. He turns invisible and has to assure Deost that he has not teleported away and left him. Alrix sneaks down a hallway and steps beneath the balconies. He sees three lions walking in his direction. One lion sniffs the air and growls menacingly. Then all three lions bound in his direction. Alrix retreats quickly down the corridor and yells that the lions have his scent and are right behind him.

Three lions spot Eathwund and Aldus on the platform and run forward to attack. Eathwund is able to block a lion’s attacks with his shield but Aldus is clawed and bitten before he can get his sword in the way to parry. Only Eathwund and Aldus are able to get at the lions but they are able to dispatch the beast with a few blows. Two more lions join the fight. As they are fighting them, they see three gnolls and two bugbears running across the courtyard to join the fight. The last, wounded lion flees the fight, and Eathwund and Aldus meet the gnolls and bugbears in the courtyard. Domago blows the silver horn of Valhalla and summons four berserkers to help them. The loud sound of the silver horn can be heard echoing throughout the castle alerting everyone in the area.

Fairfax enters the courtyard and tries to drop the fleeing lion with arrows but he misses. Aldus, Eathwund, and Alrix (who is using his Sword of dancing), down the gnolls but one bugbear escapes and flees across the courtyard to a pair of enormous double doors. Lakima shouts for them to stop him thinking he will alert others. Domago and Fairfax head to the left around a pool of water in the center of the courtyard. Everyone else heads right following the escaping bugbear. Lakima takes the time to raise 3 bugbears from the dead and then follows.

The bugbear opens a door and runs inside a protected area with everyone following Joe in the lead. As they pass through the door, they see the bugbear across a large chamber opening one door of another double door – this time to a bridge that is outside. Clearly the bridge to the gatehouse. Meanwhile, as they are running Domago and Fairfax come under fire from bugbears on the balcony above using crossbows. As they pass the wounded and bloody lion, Fairfax transforms into a werewolf and attacks. Domago keeps running.

Back in the chamber leading to the bridge, Lakima enters and sees the wounded bugbear rallying a large group of bugbears from the gatehouse. Lakima pulls out his wand of lightning bolts and casts a bolt of lightning that strikes and kills seven bugbears. Their blackened corpses litter the wooden bridge. Aldus runs out the door onto the bridge and kills a bugbear who was hiding behind the closed door. Then he comes back inside.

Lakima urges him to close the door to the outside. Aldus closes the door and he and Eathwund struggle to lift an enormous wooden bar onto the door to keep it closed. The door to the courtyard is still open and Eathwund hears pounding footsteps from across the courtyard. A pair of male cloud giants each more than 25 feet tall enter the courtyard from an entrance. One giant hurls a boulder that slams into the building near the doors.

Alrix and Lakima simultaneously cast fireball spells that blast into the two cloud giants. One giant is caught in the open and goes up like a torch collapsing to the stone floor. The bigger cloud giant, one they guess to be the leader because of his elaborate helmet ducks behind a stone pillar and avoids much of the blast. He retreats to the north through a passage.

There is a momentary pause in the fighting. Fairfax appears at the door covered in blood both his own and that of the lion he killed. Lakima tells Domago to heal him. Domago is reluctant to get close so he taps Fairfax with his staff of healing from a distance.

Lakima waves at Aldus, Eathwund, and Joe and tells them to check the doors to make sure the area is safe. Joe opens a door and finds a closet full of weapons. Aldus and Eathwund open two doors and find a weapons store and a sitting area with ogre-sized tables and chairs. They do not see any threats. Eathwund moves back to the door that leads out to the courtyard and scans the area. He sees more bugbears with crossbows taking up positions on the balcony above. Then he sees four cloud giants – two male and two female. They look down at him from the balcony.

Lakima tells everyone that they need to head for the next floor up and he will provide cover with a globe of darkness. Once the spell is cast, he tells them to use the cover and run for the exit that the cloud giant used. Lakima casts the spell and a globe of darkness provides some protection as everyone else runs across the open courtyard. Deost takes this opportunity to hide in the closet they found. Lakima stays behind protected by his three undead servants.

As they are running across the courtyard, they come under fire from the bugbears but none of the crossbow bolts hit them. Joe gets way out in the lead and enters the corridor which leads into a circular staircase heading up to the balcony. Once on the balcony, Joe hides in the shadows and sneaks into a nearby room as the cloud giants have their backs to them. Fairfax ascends next and charges directly into a male cloud giant from behind trying to claw and bite him without success. The giant turns around and crushes Fairfax to the ground with a single blow.

Down below Lakima uses the wand of fireballs and strikes all four giants on the balcony. Alrix transforms into his true couatl form and flies out into the courtyard. He uses his lightning breath to blast a female cloud giant. The rest of the company begins climbing the stairs. Lakima runs and hides in the globe of darkness. The cloud giant clan leader picks up a large stone and hurls it into the globe of darkness – it clips Lakima in the shoulder spinning him around and into the wall. Lakima hastily runs back into the shelter of the room behind his undead minions. He casts another fireball hitting a number of the bugbear crossbow wielders. He also tries to magic jar one of the female giants but he does not succeed.

Alrix flies up to the balcony and bites and constricts around the waist of a cloud-giant female. The woman bares her teeth at him and strikes him back. He injects poison but it does not seem to do anything to the giant. The leader of the giants a short distance away yells in anger as the female giant is bitten.

Aldus and Eathwund make it up the stair and see poor Fairfax lying crushed beneath the feet of a male giant. They both attack. Alrix is injured and decides to escape down to the lower level but first, he tries to pull the cloud giant over the railing. She is too strong for him and he is forced to let her go. Eathwund is punched with a huge fist by the cloud giant and he staggers back in pain. But Domago is there and casts cure serious wounds on him and he is back in the fight. Alrix flies into the circular staircase above the heads of his companions and flies out on the second level hovering above Eathwund and Aldus. He casts magic missiles at the giant who staggers backward and falls.

Joe fires arrows into the back of a young cloud giant woman out on the balcony. She turns and strides into the chamber but is unable to find Joe hiding under the bed. Joe fires again and hits her in the knee. She drops down to her knees and reaches under the bed looking for her attacker but Joe sneaks back into the darkness. With the cloud giant woman down at his level, Joe runs out from under the bed and tries to deliver a killing blow to her head. The cloud giant spots him and moves back and he only hits her arm. Then her other fist comes down on Joe’s head and he is knocked unconscious. 

The Cloud giant leader attacks Aldus and is kept at bay as Aldus expertly parries blows with his shield. Eathwund manages to stab the leader, then Alrix bites him and Aldus delivers the killing blow. At this time Eathwund sees a sixth cloud giant – a smaller male approaching to attack from the left leading a band of bugbears. The two dwarves enter the melee and Boffin is promptly crushed by the uninjured male cloud giant. Aldus and Lakima shout at Domago to blow the horn and Domago angrily curses at them telling them that he is busy fighting for his life. He does find a moment and blows the horn. Three berserkers appear behind the bugbears and attack.

Down below Lakima casts confusion on the bugbears. The spell works but the bugbears redouble their attacks on the company and even increase their ferocity overcome with madness. The two cloud-giant women attack Aldus and Eathwund. But Aldus kills one with his sword. The other runs into a nearby room where Joe lies on the floor. She slams the door shut behind her. Eathwund stabs and kills the last cloud giant on the balcony. Without their leader, the bugbears become disorganized but fight with a feral madness. They are all killed one by one. All of the summoned berserkers also fall. Lakima crosses the courtyard and joins everyone on the balcony.

Lakima goes over to the door and demands that the cloud giant female surrender. She asks to parlay telling them that she has their friend who is still alive. Lakima tells her that they are taking the castle for the white worm. She tells him that they must work for Sazor Stratos and that she never trusted him. She asks to speak to Sazor, not a mere underling. Lakima claims that they killed Sazor and are agents of the white worm. The cloud giant laughs and says that they are lying for the cloud giants were working at the white worms’ behest. Lakima congratulates her on telling them important information they did not know. The cloud giant eventually agrees to turn over Joe and depart. She opens the door holding Joe and demands that they keep their distance. She carefully sets Joe’s body down and then leaps over the balcony railing. Everyone rushes to the railing and sees her gently float down to land in the pool. The pool is only a wading pool for the giant and she strides through it to exit at the far end and walks out the doors in the direction of the gatehouse.

Domago runs to Joe and finds he is still breathing. He prays for healing and Joe is soon revived. Domago then moves to Fairfax and finds the werewolf is crushed and beyond healing. He finds the same for Boffin. Haddon cradles Boffin’s head in his lap and bemoans that he promised his sister he would look after her son. He says that his sister will be crushed when he breaks the news. Alrix tells him to cheer up, Domago can still bring Boffin back from the dead. Domago looks up from bandaging Eathwund and lets out a weary sigh.