Goblins Against the Giants. (IC)

[jakarta]

The Magistrate stands outside your cells.

"There is enough collective guilt held by your kind, that our gallows may stretch your necks at dawn, and by noon your heads will man pikes on the outer wall to frighten others of your ilk from approaching our town.

Yet.... our soothsayer says that, though not pure, your hearts are redeemable.
Yet... I hear honesty in your voices and words.

But...I do not trust you.
Fair or not, I don't know that your kind can be redeemed.

So I will give you a test, albeit a difficult one.

I have received word that my nephew has fallen in battle.
Giants have attacked the counties northwest of here. My nephew, Fredrick, volunteered to join the fight against them, and in that fight he gave his life.

I have 2 tasks for you to prove your worth, honesty, and value.

First, for the good of the civilized peoples, bring me the head of the Chieftain of the Hill Giants. We know that he is organizing them, and massing a force of giants that can only be for invasion. Some sinister force more intelligent than giants must be sponsoring them, but the most I can hope from you is to remove their tool, the chieftain, from the table. Whoever is behind getting the giants to work together would then need to reorganize the Hill Giant as the strongest of that tribe fight each other to become the new chief.

Second, my family's ancestral sword was carried by my nephew and is now treasure of some giant. We know that much of the treasure taken by the giants is accumulated at the Steading of the Hill Giant Chieftain. Find the Great Sword Ralphel. It is silvered and covered in gold filigree. It will speak to you if you touch it.

If you accept a ranger will lead you on the trek to the Giant's fort. If you refuse, the hangman will lead you to the gallows."

so...

The elf ranger only introduced himself as E.R. or Eare? Doesn't really matter to you.
He lead you on the fortnight journey, pacing you double time for most of it over rough foot hills.

He has become less sever towards you. At first he seemed angry to be leading you instead of a proper strikeforce, but now he dosesn't seem to hold that against you personally, though he would still much prefer a team of Elf Rangers, or Human paladins, or Dwarven warriors.... anything other than a hodgepodge of goblins. As though the treat of the giants isn't being taken seriously.... But he will work with what he has been given.

You arrive at a cave under the cover of night. The occupant, another elven ranger introduced only as L.G.S., seems to want to shoot all of you, but E.R. seems to have silently talked him down...somehow.

After allowing you to rest, E.R. shows you an assortment of equipment (occ) and a poster.

The poster seems to show a squat creature falling into a toothy reptilian maw.

R.L doesn't know what to make of it, but these posters are allover the forest, and have been found carried by giant that the rangers have picked off.

The rangers only attack lone giants who won't be missed, and when they are far enough from the others that there is a good chance the body can be concealed. The rangers are charged with tracking the giants and providing reports. The rangers will not risk their mission by being discovered, and will not participate in your attack.

The moon glyphs on the map indicate some thing on the full moon in 2 nights. Large numbers of giants have been gathering, including at least one fog giant. Another huge giant has been spotted, but they weren't close enough to make out the type.

The giants also ship out caravans of treasure regularly. These follow trails into the mountains.

so, the number of giants is increasing daily. Do you want to attack now before more arrive, or try to get them all at once?

The Steading is 5 miles from this concealed cave.

What do you want to do?

[Orsik Vondal]

Frenek - Hobgolin Monk

Frenek thanks the rangers for their assessment of the situation and turns to his brothers. "Me thinks we should be headin' out sooner rather than later. We don't wanna be sneakin' around with even more giants about."

[Lioslaith]

Berr's only response is to watch the rangers and snort in their direction like a bull warning people they are getting too close.

[Irish Musician]

Fingol the Hammer Level 10 War Cleric | AC:24 | HP: 83/83 | Bonus Attack: 5/5 | Slots 1: 4/4, 2: 3/3, 3: 3/3, 4: 3/3, 5: 2/2 | Fingol had never been one for speech and the like, and definitely doesn't like waiting to go into a battle. As she straps armor to her body, and weapons to her side, the nods along with Frenek. "Agreed Fren, and thank you for the supplies. Torm's powers will not be wasted on weak weapons. These are the weapons of a warrior."

[jakarta]

After a half day of rest, E.R. leads you towards the Steading.

"Another hundred yards that way. Good luck".

He fades into the woods...

[Whiskeyjack]

"Collective guilt for the 'sins' of our ancestors, huh? So much for 'human justice,' no matter the region," Adrak mutters in a heavily-accented Common, the features of his face quite different from the other hobgoblins even as the bright blue nose belies his status in any goblin culture. "Still this is better than having to try and break out." Once freed, he retrieves a large and foreign-looking owl from thin air, which glares at him for a moment before hopping to his outstretched arm, before the journey begins.

Once they arrive in the cave, Adrak quickly recognizes several of the offered items as wizardly spell books, and takes the offered rest-time to test and translate a couple of spells from one of the other tomes into his own, using delicate pieces of multicolored charcoal and feather quills with various oils to scribe pictographs into his own book. "Am ready whenever," he makes a point of noting. "As is Ar-Beka here. But we should have a plan. Especially if more keep arriving." He will keep working on the transcriptions given the allotted time, however.

He ponders for a moment. "Unlike humans, it should not be so hard for our kind to arrive in a giant encampment, if not as friends, then without immediate and open hostility," Adrak offers. "There has admittedly been cooperation between the goblinoids and the giantoids in the past, in various places. That is an advantage, so long as someone is able to convince the guards of such. I am more of an idea person than a smooth talker, admittedly," he adds.

[jakarta]

You hear the sounds of chopping and hammer ing through the trees.

[Irish Musician]

Fingol the Hammer Level 10 War Cleric | AC:24 | HP: 83/83 | Bonus Attack: 5/5 | Slots 1: 4/4, 2: 3/3, 3: 3/3, 4: 3/3, 5: 2/2 | Fingol smiles, "My weapons do much of my talking. Though having some eyes on what is going on wouldn't hurt. Ar-Beka mind going on a quick survey of the area?"

[Whiskeyjack]

"Yes, that's a good idea, I was actually just about to suggest it myself," Adrak replies. "Go see what's happening there, but stay high and don't get shot. Do a circuit then head back." He looks at the owl, then casts it into the air from his arm. His eyes glaze over with a white sheen and Ar-Beka flaps into the trees in the direction of the chopping and hammering noises, trying to spy on the giants below while Adrak rides her senses.

Spoiler

Show

Perception: (1d20+3)[15]
Advantage on roll: (1d20+3)[7]

[jakarta]

"Yes, that's a good idea, I was actually just about to suggest it myself," Adrak replies. "Go see what's happening there, but stay high and don't get shot. Do a circuit then head back." He looks at the owl, then casts it into the air from his arm. His eyes glaze over with a white sheen and Ar-Beka flaps into the trees in the direction of the chopping and hammering noises, trying to spy on the giants below while Adrak rides her senses.

Spoiler

Show

Perception: [roll0]
Advantage on roll: [roll1]

(Looks like I accidentally unsubscribed. Catching up)

The bird flies through the trees until the Forest sudden ends. Landing on the last tree the owl observes. 500 ft of land cleared of trees and shrubs ends at a Crude log fence 20 ft high stretching off into the distances from a fortesss gatehouse. The door is on the right wall instead of in the front. A primative road runs up to the door, but also seems to have a bypass that runs in front of the gate house to a larger gate in the wall. A tower rises above the left side of the gate house.

100 ft to the left of the gatehouse, a huge pair of is double doors with a tower on the left side.

In front of this fence and building a collection of varios sized humanoids are... Doing carpentry? Splitting logs into planks...

[Whiskeyjack]

The bird takes a long look then flies back to the party. Adrak's eyes come back into focus. "They're clearing quite a bit of land around a fenced-off area. Log fence. One road that I could see. Two doors, one of which is a larger gate. They have watchtowers. Work crews are out doing...something. Splitting logs into planks or something like that." He shrugs. "Going to be hard to get more information from this far away, but it's also going to be very difficult to approach stealthily given the cleared areas and guard towers."

[Lioslaith]

Berr nods at the report, "Sounds like we should just walk up to the front gate and see if they need any help." His speech patterns were night and day different when others, especially humans weren't around.

[Irish Musician]

Fingol the Hammer Level 10 War Cleric | AC:24 | HP: 83/83 | Bonus Attack: 5/5 | Slots 1: 4/4, 2: 3/3, 3: 3/3, 4: 3/3, 5: 2/2 | Fingol nods at Berr's suggestion, "Might not be a bad idea, all things considered. Though we do want to be careful if we do end up fighting them, to kill any of the farthest ones away so they can't go tell anyone. Keep our eyes open and wits about us."

[Orsik Vondal]

Frenek - Hobgoblin Monk

"I really hope they just let us in. If we have to battle them for entry, this whole mission'll go t!ts up pretty fast." Frenek shoulders his pack and signals that he's ready to go whenever.

[jakarta]

The owl does an over flight.

AROCS (Avian RecOn and Control Service) report:

Target structure is in a valley pass in foot hills approaching mountains. Palisade fence extents across valley, two miles or more in either direction from compound.

Target structure is large and composed of logs. Roof is a patchwork of split logs, thick thatch, and large wooden shingles. Most if it covered in moss, lichen, and other plant growth. Trees cleared for around one mile of structure. Structure seems single storey aside from one look out tower on gatehouse.


A primative road runs along fence to the compound and secondary gate. 20 member orc work crew working to improve road, escorted by 2 ogers and 5 armored bugbears larger than the orcs but smaller than ogres'.

Secondary gate has one tower and is 120 ft from main structure. Wide double door large enough for overside wagons. Spur road goes through gate and leads to large barn or warehouse behind main structure.

Attached to main stuctures is a fenced in court yard with detached building. Probable kennel for the large wolves in court yard.

Between main structure and barn/warehouse is fenced in area containing horse sized and horse like creatures.

Along side main structure are two detached long buildings, possible barracks.

Fields around building seem to be gardens, overwintering potatoes, and recently harvested grain.