Shattered Star: Valley Of The Jolly Hill Giant

Game Date: 11/28/2015
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 39
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Bjertha Brawlbaker (Matt) - Dwarf Fighter
Gustav Greycastle (Graham) - Human Necromancer
Maruca (Daniel) - Elf Ranger/Cleric/Rogue
Slancio Brioso (Thomas) - Human Bard

The Session:
During our downtime between adventures, Slancio received a request from the madam of the "Shucked Oyster" brothel.  She was jealous of the wyvern head on a competitor's wall, and wanted a more impressive decoration for her own business.  She offered Slancio a Sentinel Shield in exchange for the head of a dragon, any color.  Plus "lifetime services" for Slancio and a few of his friends.

We concluded all our business in town, and prepared for our next mission.  A blue dragon in Guiltspur has recruited some tribes of hill giants and fire giants in order to excavate some ruins.  The dragon is looking for a valuable treasure, presumably the Shard of Wrath.  Slancio learned a new teleportation spell, which he used to teleport us to Kaer Maga, a few hundred miles south of Guiltspur.  From there we traveled north, riding Gustav's zombie-horse-drawn carriage.

Halfway to Guiltspur we arrived at the town of Urglin and spent the night.  Urglin was a rough town, mostly populated by Orcs.  We looked for refuge in the "Pinkskin" area, sort of a ghetto for non-Orcs.  Slancio managed to earn a free bath and dinner by performing for some locals.  Bjertha attended a Bloodbowl game at the arena.  She rolled 107 on her carouse check, and got called in as a substitute player.  She returned to the party with a MVP badge.

We asked around for advice on our mission, and received such gems as "Watch out for Death Worms" and "Fire Giants are dicks."  Maruca and Gustave both rolled "romance" on their carouse checks, and woke up the next morning in bed together.  We packed up the carriage and left Urglin, continuing North.  We crossed a river, camped again, and eventually reached a valley.

Blocking the entrance into Guiltspur was a large gate guarded by hill giants.  We made several attempts to talk them into letting us enter, but they kept warning us to turn around.  Finally they started throwing rocks at us, damaging the carriage.  Some ballistas threw larger rocks at us from somewhere behind the walls.  The gate opened, and a few hill giants and mastodons came charging towards us.

Gustave opened the battle by hitting all the enemies with Circle of Death.  Then his zombie army formed a wall keeping the giants away from himself and Slancio.  Bjertha charged the gate, engaging a giant and a mastodon on the way.  Meruca flew around firing at various targets.  It finally came down to one hill giant on the roof of a guardhouse.  Bjertha climbed up top and fought him until Meruca finished him off.

From the top of the building we could see three more hill giants firing the ballistas, a fire giant, and three mastodons covered in tar.  As we made our way in their direction, the fire giant ignited the mastodons, which came charging down the winding hill towards our party.  It took Gustav several rounds to reach the party, because he was cleaning up the undead he lost earlier.  Once he finally caught up to the group, he was hit by a rock an went down.  It was up to Slancio to save him.

We took out the flaming mastodons first.  Then the fire giant reached us and engaged Bjertha and Meruca.  The hill giants finally left their ballistas and hopped down to join the fight.  Gustav brought out his zombie army again, Bjertha killed the fire giant, and Gustav blinded the remaining hill giants.  It had looked a little bleak before, but at this point we knew we'd won the battle.  Once the final hill giant was down, we ended the session.