Greek- Faces Trial

[Artec]

heheheheheehehehehe yup it sure would

[Admin]

Target: #3, * The palace of the frost giant rulers, the motivators and architects of this invasion. The palace is on top of a frozen mountain.

The team:

Xena 9/4 Cleric/fighter
Bronwyn age 1 Dragon (counts as 3 lvls)
Clara 9 Cleric
Rufus 9 Mariner
Tony 8 Ranger
Brand 9/7 Mage/Fighter
Mandar 8 Fighter
Vaughn 10 Ranger
Stephanos 9/? Cleric/Archer
Kephalonia 9 Witch
Thera 7 Cleric
Andorallen 6 Fighter

97 levels...

We're a little light on mages with no thief...so I'm thinking that Allyrion may be a better choice than Stephanos...but I think this party is fairly strong.

[Andy]

Hey Guys,

It doesn't look like this Saturday is going to work out - Jennifer won some tickets to a musical on Saturday night. Next weekend looks free, but I will have Jason since Stephanie will be in India. Would it make sense to try to make a run during the day Sunday?

[David]

On the 7th of July of 616, the Greek heroes -- Xena and Bronwyn, Rufus, Vaughn, Brand, Clara, Stephanos, Tony, Mandar, and Andorallan -- arrived on the top of a massive iceberg, some 5 miles long and 2 miles wide. The heroes had already had an interesting journey, having left from Themyscria after a brief nap. Prior to that, the Ruby Witch, Akbeth, had played a trick and given Arianna a magical helm and shield for the mission -- or at least the first day of it.

The heroes got right to work, scouting out a trail in the ice and snow. Tony and Vaughn tracked for a half hour before Xena used a scroll of find the path to ensure the heroes were headed in the right direction. Twenty minutes later they reached the edge of the iceberg, which was over 1000' tall on average!

Traveling ethereally, the group entered the glacial caverns, after doing battle with a massive earth elemental. Brand spied an unrecognizable "blob of something living" in the first colossal cavern. The heroes returned to the prime to investigate, soon finding themselves battling, one, then two, then three massive oozing masses of white goo. The heroes hacked the creatures to pieces, only to discover each piece was fully functional and capable of secreting devastating acid! Brand used Aganazzar's scorcher followed by several volleys of magic missiles to destroy the smaller blobs while Stephanos, Vaughn, and Clara invoked flameblades on the rest. Seriously hurt, the heroes got ready to move on, Tony needing much magical healing.

That's when the pack of winter wolves and vanguard of yeti arrived. Clara sundazzled them and Brand used a sunfire to finish them. Two wolves survived the hellish heat, but found themselves trapped at the bottom of a 20' deep bowl of smooth ice. Fog completely obscured the way the wolves and yeti came from, so the heroes hurried off in the other direction.

Soon, the group came upon a set of 6' tall ice-like portculli. Tony, Brand, and Bronwyn went to investigate, discovering six children and a ragged teen. The children were of the ice barbarians and spoke only Norsk. Before the group could do much more, they found themselves battling a pair of ice trolls, which they quickly vanquished. Meanwhile, the rest of the waiting party found themselves in battle with a dozen more ice trolls, the two previously-trapped winter wolves, and four more yeti. The heroes held the line well, with Xena's flame strike smiting many foes. Victorious, the two groups of heroes met back up and took stock of their situation.

Using a telepathy spell, Gwen spoke with the eldest barbarian youth, a teen by the name of Nardus. He explained these children were all that were left of his village, survivors of a frost giant raid. The heroes decided to send the children home with (ahm) Kephalonia while they continued on. Nardus, however, refused, insisting on avenging his family. Kephalonia tried to sleep him, but that failed, and Tony even tried to body-chuck the boy through the witch's dimensional fold but he manage to not only avoid it, but keep his feet!

Joined by the half-naked youth, the heroes traveled deeper into the iceberg. Soon, they came to a channel of seawater that Nardus explained was the method he and the children had been brought in. Brand again brought the heroes to the ethereal plane, where they crossed the watery passage and began exploring. Unfortunately, the vast scale of the iceberg made ethereal exploration unfeasible -- the caverns were over 100' wide at least and began at 40' tall!

On the other side of the water, the heroes found themselves in chambers so vast that, despite small amounts of light from above, they simply couldn't see from one side to the other clearly. That's when the frost giant shaman attacked, first with a hold person spell and then a boulder. He was joined by another frost giant and two winter wolves. The heroes battled these four threats very quickly, but still sustained fairly heavy injuries.

The next step...?

[David]

BTW -- I would like to wrap up the first day of the Greek assault on the frost giants this weekend (Sat the 6th). Elf, if you can make it, we should be able to work something out.

The Egyptians have chosen their target -- #6, the base near Eastfair (capitol of the North Province). Paul, what about the Oerdians?

[David]

The heroes continued their quest. Uncertain what to do next, several party members began searching the bodies of the two fallen giants while the rest tried to decide a course of action. After a few minutes, Bronwyn's enhanced dragon senses told her the heroes were no longer alone...over a dozen frost giants as well as a pair of white dragons were slowly surrounding the heroes' position! Brand immediately brought the group ethereal, where they tried to move into position to either escape or ambush the giant force.

Unfortunately, the two white dragons with the giants allowed them to constantly keep tabs on the Greeks. Forming a circle surrounding the heroes, the giants kept the group hedged in. Faced with a choice between risking fleeing through a way (and being trapped within via a dispel magic) or fighting, the party chose to attack.

Again, the Fates were not with the heroes and the giants were ready for the Greeks' assault. The heroes were immediately beset by multiple breath weapons -- from the white dragons as well as from a pair of winter wolves the group hadn't seen.

Nadrus collapsed immediately. Vaughn managed to dash forward and seriously wound the giant leader, an apparent rune-caster. Rufus and Tony, however were severely trashed, so much so Rufus was forced to drink his elixir of health just to survive. Clearly, these giants were more than a match for the Greeks. Brand launched a slow in order to buy time for Vaughn to fall back within range of the cubic gate. And just before he did, the ranger killed a particularly skill frost giantess in platemail, the daughter of the chief...!

Less than 20 seconds after they left the ethereal, the party was back, joined now by nearly half of the frost giants and a white dragon! Luckily, the giants' weapons proved of limited effectiveness on the ethereal, whereas the heroes magical weapons were only marginally less effective. That luck, however, didn't save Rufus or Andorallan. Before reaching the safety of the ethereal or Rufus' elixir could kick in, two frost giants badly mangled the mariner's body. And Andorallan's armor turned to ether goo, allowing a frost giant to smash his rib cage.

Using the advantage of their knowledge of the ethereal plane, the heroes managed to slowly take out one giant after another. It took the jotuns a moment before they dropped their weapons and attacked with their massive fists. That gave the group a chance to save Rufus and Andorallan as well as Tony. In less than a minute, the heroes had turned the tables on the giants, slaughtering all of them save one, although Xena did manage to stun herself. Just then, the frost giant cleric's dispel magic returned them to the Prime...

On the ethereal, the combat had spread out further. The cleric's spell, however, caught all of the Greeks save Vaughn (who was shapeshifting into a puma at the moment anyway). Suddenly, violently, returned to the Prime Material, the heroes found themselves being battered by the frost giants yet again as the survivors of the previous melee attacked!

Almost immediately, both Bronwyn and Rufus lay dead, their bodies fairly badly mangled. Brand lept forward and bought time for Clara to use her own elixir of health to save Rufus' life, but was ultimately knocked out himself. Miraculously, Tony held his feet against several giants and a dragon. While Gallows fed Brand a potion, Kephalonia used her oil of slipperiness to distract Tony's foes. Valiantly, Stephanos and Mandar held their ground and chopped down more frost giants.

Alerted by Rufus and Brand's sacred guardian spells, Allyrion teleported himself and Arianna to the rescue. The pair set about immediately tending to the wounded. For his part, Stephanos finally recalled his charmed, itemized grizzly bear and used it to attack. Now, with most of the heroes down or seriously wounded, Kephalonia found herself in melee, the first hit stunning her and the second shattering her body. Brand used a lightning bolt to clear away her foes while Clara used her scroll of heal to save the Red Witch. Arianna and Allyrion, meanwhile, were careful to avoid direct conflict with the giants, and instead did triage.

Stephanos had taken on the leader and his allies and soon found himself in dire straits. Mandar moved in to help him and with a bit of luck, the heroes were victorious. The remaining winter wolf let out a pain-filled call for help in canine as the heroes finished off most of the remaining enemies.

The moment the last giant fell, Brand called together the group -- rather than searching for loot and risking another battle, the heroes shifted ethereal, picked up Vaughn, and headed for the surface of the iceberg, where Kephalonia dimensionally folded the party back to their boat in the harbor of Themyscria.

Total Body count: 15 adult frost giants

[Admin]

All I have to say is that I now understand why Rhom and his buddies DIED so many freakin' times!!!! This is truly the first time I've fought Frost Giants...well, any giants besides Hill Giants. Sure, we've had encounters w/ Cloud, Stone & Fire Giants...but usually they were surrounded w/ the weaker ones.

I wish the other teams the best of luck and a hearty congratulations! lol You'll be CERTAIN to do better than this pawltry little group!

[David]

You know, I wouldn't be so certain about that. Think about the Egyptian Team -->

10th lvl cleric w/good AC (not very important against giants) but bad hit points (VERY important against giants) and minimal combat abilities (ouch! goes the Borlon)
7th lvl paladin (at least Nefra will be decent)
7th/7th cleric/werelion (I'm afraid for 'Pah...he always gets himself squished!)
7th/3rd fighter/psionist (Adama has CRAPPY hit points and no con! She's good for ONE hit)
two 6th lvl cleric (the twins are not really in this league)
5th/5th fighter/mage (ditto for Khefriseniset)

Honestly, that team needs to be ready for quick evacs and minimal combat. The only advantages they have are Borlon's teleportation and invisibility powers, Nefra's combat abilities, and Adama's inertial barrier (which won't necesarily help others). In short, I think they'll be lucky to score 15 giants in total, much less on their first day.

[Admin]

LOL...point taken! Again, just let me say..."Giants SUCK!" I used to be afraid of Drow...now I know better! hehe

[charbidge]

Go kill the babies!!

[David]

Hey, there's a reason the first mega-dungeon series features three giant lairs, followed by three drow lairs, followed by a romp in the Abyss...

[Artec]

ishmopah is 7th/8th werelord/cleric