Part 7: Clearing Nosnra's Stronghold

The noises of the fight were replaced with the moans of the injured and frightened chatter across the commoner Orcs. Silvius walked up to Grimfang and said, “We have much to discuss, but our team needs rest.”

Grimfang replied between orders to his Orcs “You and yours can take a break. We will gladly handle what’s left of any of these giants and bugbears. Go ahead and take the sleeping room at the end of the hall.” as he pointed down the hallway past the kitchen.

The team was curious as to if any of the items they picked up were magic. Silvius called upon Ilmater’s guidance to see the glows of any magic near him. None of what he had found had a glimpse of magic. However, as he walked to the other side of the room, he sensed a glow from the torch hanging on the wall.

Silvius cautiously approached torch and slightly tapped it with his spectral hand. As the hand made contact, reality would slightly bend out of the illusion showing the bottom of a sword scabbard. His magic hand wasn’t strong enough to free the illusory torch. Silvius approached and as he lifted the torch, he realized it was a stunning great sword and could feel it’s power beyond the magical glow.

“ADC what do you think of this?” Silvius called out as he approached the wizard preparing to rest. ADC at first was slightly annoyed from being disturbed from his preparations for the night. His eyes widened and seemed to glow as he realized what Silvius had found. “You say it’s magic, Silvius?” ADC questioned as he studied the details of the sword’s double cross-guard and its long detailed etched blade, “Give me some time with it.” ADC spent some time studying the blade while everyone prepared to rest and then told us of the swords power.

“This is Waythe. I introduce him since he is intelligent. Well, not ADC intelligent of course. However, he can think and communicate to the level of most of those here. He loves to strike down giants in the name of good. As in he will quite literally knock them to the ground… This is a special find for us and should be used by our most powerful warrior.”

All eyes turned to Czolg as he tucked in Panzerfaust for the night then he turned to the party with a confused “What?” ADC walking over to Czolg told him “I present to you Waythe, the legendary giant slaying weapon.”

Czolg picked up Waythe and gave some skilled and mighty practice swings. “Too short and does not stab” he said as he tossed it down.

Silvius picked up Waythe and handed it back to him saying “Czolg, this is a legendary giant dropping sword for our legendary giant dropping barbarian. You have to at least try it out.” Czolg staring back longingly and regretfully at Panzerfaust agreed to give Waythe a try. It was now late, and the entire team decided to rest. Silvius let Grimfang and Rock know they were free to wake the team if they encountered something they couldn’t handle, all but guaranteeing a full night’s rest.

In the morning the entire party was feeling wonderful after a long rest. They were all excited to see what else was to be found in the giant stronghold now that they could move freely without the giants. As they opened the door, they were caught up in the flow of Orcs hurriedly walking around in every direction carrying supplies found throughout the ground floor.

Walking north up the hallway the team decided to do some searching. Oscorn and Silvius both prayed to their gods to detect the presence of any magic as the team walked through the other bedrooms. In one of the bedrooms, they noticed a glow from inside one of the chests. Silvius popped the lid open and amongst the old clothes he found two vials. “Czolg catch!” as Silvius tossed the potion to Czolg he said, “it’ll make you strong as a storm giant.” “Kalinar!” as Silvius passed the second potion, he told him “Invisibility, you might get hit less if nobody can see you"
As they left the bedroom Grimfang approached. “We have an issue we should discuss. We know how we would handle it,” as he taps his bugbear mace, “but we thought you may have an opinion. Follow me.” Silvius put his hand on Oscorn’s shoulder and said “Oscorn and I are kind of in the finding treasure zone right now. How about Oscorn and I do a quick lap while we’ve got this vibe and meet you back at our room?” Everyone agreed and Fennuris, Kalinar, and Czolg followed Grimfang.
“Oscorn! We’re going downstairs” Silvius excitedly said to Oscorn.
Oscorn looked at Silvis confused “There is at least one Fire Giant down there. Why would only the two of us go?”
“Not that part of the basement. The one where I found this and this” Silvius said as he tapped his sword then showed him the map signed Eclavdra. “There were manticores down there. They were not standing in the way of this stuff, but probably something else.”
“Plus, now the manticores are all dead!”
“There must be something else good down there…”

Oscorn and Silvius agreed, and Silvius led them to the secret door from Nosnra’s planning room. As they walked Silvius told the tales of Kalinar and him the last time they were here. Oscorn grew more excited as they continued to walk down the stairs. Silvius then took him to the side only Kalinar had seen. Oscorn and Silvius checked out the fake treasure then noticed the doors further to the south. Walking inside the found several chests. Oscorn could feel the glow of magic inside one of the chests. Silvius started opening chest with his magic hand and Oscorn started piling the treasure inside his bag. Most of them popped right open but two appeared locked. Silvius got out his thieves’ tools and started working on the first chest.

Oscorn looking confused at Silvius asked, “How does a man dedicated to the Gods learn of such things”
Silvius laying on his back looking up into the lock continued to work with a pick and pliers and replied, “Many are given the grace of the gods along with life…” the lock clicked open “us broken ones were saved by it.”
Silvius then moved on to the second locked chest. As he clicked the lock open, he heard an unusual click. A bolt shot out of the wall and hit him in the shoulder. Silvius could feel the sting of poison and tried to fight it off, but it was too strong. Silvius could feel his mind dull, and his body become tired, but he was able to shake it off for the most part. Oscorn and Silvius gathered the remaining treasure and headed back upstairs.

Meanwhile Fennuris, Czolg, ADC, and Kalinar followed Grimfang through the maze of hustling Orcs to a room near the southern end of the stronghold.

“We found this room full of giant children and one matron. We killed all the adults, and they are refusing to leave. We may as well kill them now. Harder to deal with when they’re fully grown.” Grimfang said as he opened the door to a room full of giant children of all ages playing and fighting amongst themselves.
Waythe telepathically said to Czolg “You slayed all these children’s’ parents…”
Czolg replying out loud “Yes, but they deserved it…”
Grimfang “uh, great. So, we’ll kill them then…”
Czolg looking slightly confused “Well I guess if they won’t leave, we’ll have to kill them”
Waythe responded only to Czolg “We are not slaying unarmed captured children!”
“Fine! We won’t kill them” Czolg shot back.
Grimfang stared at Czolg in confused silence until Fennuris stepped in and told him “We will not be killing any children. We will make sure they are sent on there way. For now, give them food and water. Do NOT harm them”
“We thought you’d say something like that” said a slightly disappointed Grimfang as he closed the door and threw down the bar to hold it.
Kalinar, Fennuris, and Czolg headed back to the bedroom to meet the others. All the while Czolg was muttering both to himself and occasionally Waythe in frustration.

As they all met back in the bedroom, Czolg with one hand on his head in frustration the other dangling Waythe at his side shaking in frustration ran to Silvius and ADC and said “I want to stab and kill giants. This sword…. Love kill giants… Why you kill giants? Let’s go kill giants… but not those giants. Too many words…” as he tossed Waythe on one of the beds. “I want Panzerfaust!” as he grabbed his spear whispering apologies to it.

Silvius comforted Czolg and told him “You don’t need to use Waythe, Czolg. I could use it, but nobody wants to hear me talk any more than I already do. So that leaves…”
Everyone turned and stared at Oscorn until he filled the silence “I supposed I could try. I’m not much for fighting giants up front, but I could try with the power of Waythe”
Oscorn picked up Waythe and they both were glowing with excitement immediately. They talked about their glorious battles and the lives they’ve saved from certain doom. Oscorn told Waythe of the dangerous and spectacular battles they’ve had with the giants to save Greyhawk and free the Orcs imprisoned here. They were quickly best friends.

It quickly became time for the meeting to plan what to do with the hill giant stronghold and what should come next for the team and the Orcs. The team along with Rock, Grimfang, Kazzug, Erik, the mason, and Jimmy. Grimfang and Rock shared they must head back to their home as soon as preparations are made for the journey and the other prisoners would follow the Orcs. The team agreed to alert their allies to meet them on the way. Kazzug and Erik were up for continuing the fight starting with clearing out the lower level.

The team now including Kazzug and Erik went down to the lower level. First checking on the fire giant they spoke with earlier. Silvius tried to convince him that he could leave in peace, but the fire giant chose to fight.

Czolg charged at the giant stabbing with Panzerfaust as Silvius circled the giant’s back mocking and distracting him as Panzerfaust carved out holes in chest. Fennuris, ADC, and Kalinar stood back and blasted. Oscorn counted wounds until he heard the call of Waythe’s excitement for battle.

Oscorn then charged with Waythe and let out a mighty yell as Waythe squealed in delight. As Oscorn rose Waythe and brought him down towards the giant, he missed wildly. The fire giant then smashed Oscorn with this sword knocking him to the ground.

Czolg called out to Oscorn “Like this!” as he stabbed the fire giant in the throat, hooked the giant’s sword, and pulling it out of his hand and on to the ground. “Now you do it!”
“You got this Oscorn!” Silvius encouraged.

Oscorn stood up and took another swing at the fire giant and caught him between the plates in his armor. Waythe was beaming with excitement since this was the most action he had seen in years. The fire giant took a few more blasts and stabs before dropping the ground defeated.

Kalinar ran up to the fire giant and pulled out a flask of wine from the sack and proposed at toast. As they passed the wine around. ADC looking slightly shocked and disgusted with everyone asked “Are we doing this here? You don’t know what that is or where it came from? You don’t know what else is down here?”
Kalinar laughed and slapped ADC on the back saying “we’re lucky we’re not dead. Live a little ADC!”

ADC refused while the rest toasted and finished passing it around. The wine was strangely delicious and powerful enough for giants. Everyone but ADC enjoyed it. After the first round, Kalinar, Kazzug, and Silvius kept going. Silvius and Kazzug held their drink and stopped. Kalinar was hooked and only Czolg poking holes in the wine flask could get him to stop. Kalinar was only then ready to move on and started stumbling around and babbling incoherently.

The team then began searching the northern part of the lower level. They found rooms that were under construction and another room that appeared to be a giant’s sleeping quarters. They found 4,000 gold coins in one of the chests but nothing else of interest. They next found a room filled with wine barrels. It looked and smelled like the wine from the sack. Kalinar desperately tried to get one more drink, but Czolg and Oscorn pulled him away, while Silvius filled up his wine skin for later.

The final passage they checked led to what appeared to be a spring of water. The team cautiously approached while Kalinar ran ahead and dove straight into the water. He dove straight to the bottom and found a pipe with a cover that appeared loose. Kalinar pulled it off and it looked big enough to fit through. Kalinar came to the surface and told the rest of the team what he had found.

Silvius volunteered to join Kalinar to check out the pipe. He took off his armor, grabbed a potion of water breathing, and dove in. Kalinar and Silvius swam for a dozen yards or so before seeing the cave opened to a larger room. The large cave was filled with ancient bones, armor, weapons, and treasure littered all over the cave. Kalinar and Silvius slowly walked into the cave and Silvius began to prepare to feel if there was any magic in the piles of treasure.

Suddenly a huge white scaley insect-like monster emerged from the ground. Silvius and Kalinar figured this must be a scaleback the troglodyte tribe feared and warned them about. Kalinar blasted a few shots at the scaleback and ran. The scaleback attempted to bite Silvius but missed. Then another scaleback emerged from the far north end of the cave. Kalinar took off running back to get help from the party. Silvius, realizing he was doomed on his own, prayed and begged Ilmater for enough protection to survive. Instantly spirits of protection surrounded Silvius. Twice as many as helped him with the bugbears. The first scaleback was immediately killed. The second charged. It ran hungry and determined to devour the creature that killed his companion. It charged Silvius but the spirits sliced through his carapace and slowed him down. As the scaleback made it to Silvius, Silvius drew his sword, yelled “flamingo,” and thrust the flaming short sword between the beast’s eyes. Instantly pithing the creature and it fell in a heap of legs and antennae at Silvius’s feet.

Silvius called out to Kalinar that the scalebacks were dead and it was time to gather the treasure. They piled the gold and treasure inside Kalinar’s bag and brought the magic items back to the rest of the team waiting on the other side of the fountain. The rest of the team