Day 2: Deeper in the crack
Realizing there may be dangers coming, Silvius boldly strolled out of the cave entrance to check on the giants. What awaited was a flying boulder. A massive giant from across the valley slung a it at him, smashing him directly in the chest. The boulder struck with such force Silvius faked an avalanche with a permanent illusion made from light and shadows, blocking the mouth of the cave and the path from the north.
The avalanche bought us time so Oscorn healed the party while the rest of us released the fallen heroes’ gifts. ADC researched and revealed their true nature. Several of us received new items and treasure: Kazzug changed out his swords for a +1 Battleaxe Czolg is protected with a ring of fire resistance Oscorn holds a scroll of elemental protection ADC has the power of ice with a staff of frost Silvius is looking even better wearing a 1,000gp belt. It’s a stunning silver belt encrusted with smokey agate and 800gp worth of black, grey, and white diamonds in the buckle. A shadowy yet brilliant wardrobe addition for our worshiper of the twilight. Kalinar added 471 silver coins and 37 gems worth 10gp each to his treasure bag Czolg tried on a beautiful new set of plate armor, but left it behind since it was built to avoid slashing and piercing while being particularly weak against giants’ bludgeoning boulders and clubs. It was no armor to wear against the giants. ADC set up a tiny white hut for us to sleep in near the illusion. We settled in to rest and train with our new tools.
Feeling relatively safe in our hiding place, most of us decided to take a long rest. Kalinar still hadn’t been knocked unconscious today and wanted to find a path for us to take in the morning. He drank a potion of invisibility and left to explore deeper into the crack. He snuck up to the north east and found several frost giants and the wolf that got away. He slid between the giant’s legs leaving a white trail on the ground as he glided along. However, the giant was so massive he didn’t notice tiny Kalinar’s penetration of his space. But Kalinar wasn’t done. He then got between a wolf’s legs and made the wolf notice him. Kalinar ran and hid and hid and ran down the long tunnel on the far east until looping back to an edge overlooking the valley. Between him and his party was a 30 foot gap and the giants’ alarm began to sound. Stuck on the ledge, he teleported across and rested with us. Kalinar told us what he discovered about the enemies to the north and east.
Several hours later we saw two giants appear through the avalanche illusion. They walked up to our hut but didn’t seem to know what it was. After spending some time confused about what changed in the cave, they wandered back the way they came.
We woke up after our long rest and decided to head south. A giant was posted as a guard on the other side of the valley but couldn’t seem to see us through the illusion. The other challenge was the 30’ gap to continue along the cliff face remained in our way.
ADC, using the icy power from his new staff, created a wall of ice for us to walk on and a wall to our north west to block us from the giants. We crossed the ice wall bridge across the gap as boulders slammed in to ADC’s wall raining chunks of ice and snow upon us. Despite the elements and the giants best efforts we all made safe passage.
On the other side of the gap we found a dead end along the ledge and another cave entrance. Czolg led us through the entrance of the cave which turned to a three way fork. We took the middle path and we ran in to a giant blocking a large opening to a much larger space. We squared off against each other ready to start our battle.
Soon our fight will begin as we continue to push deeper in to the black ice crack on our hunt for the Jarl and glory.