Egyptian Faces Trial

[David]

On the 7th of July of 616, Borlon assembled Nefra, Ishmopah, Adama, Lucky, Sahara, Maatkaure and Spots to assault the frost giant lair outside of Eastfair, the capitol of the North Province. After two teleports from Heliopolis in Neregan, the group was within five miles of the giants' castle -- an arabian-style complex above the town of Pest's Crossing on the river. Using another teleport, Borlon appeared on the giant-complex's roof, out of sight of the four watch towers. The entire surface was sheeted in layers of frost -- quite a departure from the ambient summer temperatures outside!

After an augury, Sahara volunteered to jump down one of the steaming vents while Borlon joined the rest of the group in his bags of holding. Sahara, meanwhile, tumbled into a frying pan alongside two boar-halves. Although invisible and fire resisted, she began to cook and her oily footprints on the fire giantess' stone stove top gave away the clerics location. BONK! And the fire giantess smashed her over the head with the skillet, burnt pork and oil spilling all over.

Sahara, meanwhile, had dropped the two bags of holding over the edge of the stove and Ishmopah, Lucky, and Nefra hopped out. While Ishmopah changed, Lucky and Nefra made short work of the fire giantess. A second came the rescue of the first, but was only armed with kitchen tools -- no match for the heroes. After securing the galley, the heroes discovered the main feast -- cooked human teens!

The heroes began to explore the giants' keep, quickly encountering and vanquishing a pair of winter wolves. Once outside the kitchen, the heroes also noticed the temperature drop perilously low. Were it not for their resist cold spells...

The group found the main dining hall, but it was deserted. While searching, however, they encountered a frost giant male ready for battle. Although they slew him, the group quite quickly learned just how dangerous these monsters could be!

Next, the heroes found the main entry courtyard, where two more warriors were on watch. This fight proved quite a bit more difficult and Ishmopah was seriously wounded. Adama, Borlon, and Maatkaure, psionically kept one giant off-balance while the fighters slaughtered the other. Then, with the help of Maatkaure's spotted cave lion, Spots, and Sahara's psychic crush, the group finished the other giant.

While searching these giants, the heroes were discovered by three more frost giant fighters, these even larger and more powerful. Adama had been on watch at the door they came through and managed to psionic blast two of them. The third was intercepted by Lucky and Ishmopah, with Spots right behind them. At this point, the heroes began to pull out all the stops, hammering the giants with spells like eye of fire and exhausting their remaining psionic strength. One of the formerly stunned giants regained his feet, showing EXCEPTIONAL skill with his 14' long two-handed sword; one blow nearly split Nefra in two! And just as the heroes began to get the upper hand (despite Spots being near-death and Ishmopah forced to resume human shape), four more frost giants including King Mogthrasir came from one direction while another giant ran in from the other. The heroes were in SERIOUS trouble as boulders hammered them.

Borlon used a wall of fire to screen off the three giants with the King. Meanwhile, all the psis concentrated their efforts on bringing down the King who was fighting Nefra. That left a badly-hurt Ishmopah, alone with Spots and Lucky and three frost giants. Then Ishmopah's body was shattered, but before his spirit left his corpse, Borlon managed to use a heal to save the werelion's life. Unfortunately, only the naamar and cave lion were still in the fighting line and Borlon got smashed from behind. As Ishmopah got to his feet, pair held off the remaining two frost giants (and their incoming ally!); the lion died heroically. Borlon used a second wall of fire to screen off that hallway too, trapping the heroes in the entry hall of the giants, but preventing reinforcements from two directions. Unfortunately, the wall also incinerated Spots' remains.

Barely, the heroes managed to overcome King Mogthrasir and escape, cutting off the King's head, but not having time to search his body for loot before teleporting away.

From the village, Borlon cast stormvoice and warned the giants that Pest's Crossing's defenders would be back after they counted their loot and mounted the King's head as a trophy. The group then teleported back to Heliopolis for healing.

[David]

Two hours after the first assault, the heroes returned fully healed and napped. Borlon teleported the group directly behind the stove in the kitchen, avoiding any encounters. The galley was deserted and the heroes made their way back to the front gate, quickly slaughtering a lone winter wolf en route.

At the dinning hall, however, the heroes surprised a room full of 13 frost giants of various ages. There were four male warriors, one female warrior (sitting at the King's seat), four female giants, and four giant children of various ages. Ishmopah lead off with a fireball and Borlon used a wall of fire to limit the scope of the combat to a narrow path. The giants, meanwhile, scrambled for cover. Lucky charge one fleeing female, gutting her and Nefra took on another. Adama attempted to shield the party from boulder fire using her telekinesis, but failed, repeatedly!

Ishmopah did another fireball and Borlon used another wall of fire to prevent the giants from fleeing. Trapped between two walls of fire with only a narrow channel guarded by Lucky and Nefra, things looked bleak for the giants. The females not in combat herded the young giants into the watch tower while the badly-wounded males moved to attack the invaders.

That's when the female who had been sitting in the King's seat called down a djinni to clear the room of flames! "Yes, mistress, and I am so happy to be finally rid of you!" he said as he used a whirlwind to suck up Borlon's walls of fire. The heroes suddenly found themselves strung out in a line with all thirteen giants charging!

Lucky carved through several giants before being pinned down by a badly wounded male and a child. Borlon was in the same position, but lacking in the naamar's combat ability. Nefra held off two adult on his own. Adama, meanwhile, was getting pounded and only Sahara's intervention saved the young psionist. Ishmopah was again seriously wounded. Maatkaure manage to psionically distract one giant, but in the confusion, the female with the djinni ring just disappeared.

Borlon was forced to teleport away to safety and Lucky and Nefra each dropped one and Nefra messed up another. The wounded males fell relatively quickly, but the young were a match for ogres and hill giants themselves! That's when the female reappeared from under cloak of invisibility, backstabbing Lucky...

The heroes were now in serious trouble. Their fighting line was gone and they were overrun by frost giants. Their toughest fighter was down and Nefra cut off. Ishmopah invoked the last use of his bracers of blinding strike and seriously wounded the female, followed by Borlon's last eye or fire for the day and psionic distraction from Maatakaure. Nefra, meanwhile, dropped another giant and reconnected with the group. One by one, the heroes finished the giants, Sahara again saving Adama. Borlon reach Lucky's body and cured him enough to walk.

The heroes began to evacuate. And that's when they heard the pounding of giant footsteps...! As the party entered the bags of holding, Ishmopah casts a detect magic over the battlefield, locating the once-again invisible body of the female giantess. As the heroes made ready to leave, Ishmopah located one of the giantess' hands and cut it off, but she remained invisible. Borlon then used a faerie fire to find her other hand, and while Ishmopah got in the bag, slipped off the giantess' ring. Just as more giants ran into the dinning hall, Borlon teleported away...

...back into the town of Pest's Crossing where he cast a second stormvoice, this time (honestly) claiming credit for 22 dead giants (half of the keep's frost giant population, according to the previously-questioned spirit of Mogthrasir) and warning of the group's return in a half hour. He also told the townsfolk to flee until the heroes had a chance to fully destroy the keep...!

[Paul]

David,

I beleive at the end Nefra had to hold the door against 2 or 3 giants while people were getting in the bag, then Ishmopah jumped back out of the bag to defend Borlon against another giant coming in from another door. Maatkare was able to sundazzle two of the giants while the fighters jumped back in the bags in time to teleport away.

Paul
the funeral service for Spots will be held the following morning under the rising sun of Ra.

[David]

Howdy Hon,

Yup, you're right. I always have trouble summing up games after we've done more (this was a three session weekend -- I consider each of the Egyptian runs as separate). But, yes, Nefra held the door and Maatkaure's sundazzle gave him the opportunity to jet.

[David]

On the morning of the 8th of July, the Egyptian Panthiad group (Borlon, Nefra, Ishmopah, Adama, Lucky, Sahara, and Maatkaure) launched another assault on the frost giant castle at Pest's Crossing. After a quick augury spell, Borlon teleported himself and Adama back into the kitchen of the lair. There, a pair of ogresses were preparing a rude feast of fresh human remains! The heroes made very quick work of the pair and managed to rescue three still-living victims (they were being saved for dinner!).

The group traveled back to the dining hall, where they found no giants but did see that the giants had carried away their dead. Lucky quickly began to track. Following the trail, the heroes explored a good chunk of the upper level of the castle before heading into the lower level. There, almost immediately, the group was set upon by winter wolf cubs. Although the wolves were quickly slain and their attacks had little effect, it did raise an alarm. First a giantess and her child, then a priest and a wounded frost giant, then trolls, ogres, and other giants, attacked the party from each side. The group was strung out in the hallway, fighting a battle on two fronts, with Nefra, Ishmopah, and Lucky in one group and the rest of the heroes in the other.

At one point, things began to go quite badly for the heroes. Adama managed to psi blast the trolls, but a giant broke Ishmopah's leg and then beat him while he was down. Lucky was caught in melee with a giantess warrior while Nefra was slowly being whittled down by two more. Borlon put a wall of fire on the group, giving Ishmopah the cover he needed and forcing some of the giants to back off (the heroes were all under the protection of resist fire or protection from fire). From the "safety" of another room, Ishmopah tried to do a cure serious wounds on his leg, but the pain was too much and he couldn't complete the spell. That's when he realized that he was in the temple of the priest he had just slain...and the god was paying attention. A second spell, angered the being, who began chilling the region (putting Borlon's wall of fire out) and invoking the equivalent of a prayer. Meanwhile, on the other side of the combat, ogres and more frost giants had come to support the trolls. Maatkaure and Sahara were doing their best, but couldn't handle the foes, despite sundazzling them. Borlon used a flame strike to incinerate the trolls, but when Adama ran out of psi strength, she simply climbed into the bag of holding "in order to be ready to leave". Borlon's own psionic strength was quickly running out, but a psi blast from the priest took the heat off of his group's combat.

Which was just in time for Lucky to get into serious trouble. Nefra finished most of the rest of the foes near him, and Borlon cured Ishmopah's leg, but the naamar was being overwhelmed by a fresh frost giant. He fell, dead. Borlon moved to save him, but couldn't quite reach him. Adama used the last of her psionic strength to telekinetically feed him Borlon's elixir of health, saving the fighter, while Nefra, Ishmopah, and Borlon took out two more giants that Lucky had badly wounded. But in came two trolls. Clearly, the heroes needed to retreat or more would die!

Ishmopah invoked his boon of a hill giant warrior to aid him, saving Lucky (who was still recovering from his near-death experience) as well as Ishmopah and Borlon. The giant charged the surprised frost giantess warrior (since giants do NOT normally fight other giants!) and in the hesitation and confusion, the heroes were able to regroup...but not before Nefra was knocked out and seriously wounded. The group collapsed into a single fighting force, Sahara bravely taking on a fresh frost giant and two ogres. Borlon managed to pick up one of the ogres and psionically floor both of them, while Maatkaure relieved her sister. Nefra was healed to consciousness and Lucky charged to help Borlon as two more frost giants arrived. One blow nearly killed the naamar again and only Ishmopah's conjured hill giant gave the heroes enough time to retreat into one of the giants' living chambers, climb back into the bags of holding, and (at the very last moment) teleport away...

...but unfortunately, Borlon had expended too much of his psionic strength in the battle. With only enough strength for a single 'port and not wishing to risk a jump all the way back to Neregan, Borlon appeared instead at the Institute at Oakmont. There he tried to get Nanarch or another powerful psi to recharge his helmet so he could teleport back to Heliopolis, but the psionists claimed they could not interfer in the Panthiad at all, even in so minor a way. Angered, Borlon was required to rest at Oakmont for two hours before recovering enough strength to 'port all the way back to Neregan. Unfortunately, however, this meant that many of the priests the Egyptians were depending upon would already be at home and getting ready to sleep...

[David]

Joined by Mina, the Egyptians finally teleported back to Heliopolis, only to find that most of the clerics they were relying on had already gone to sleep. The party was left in the lurch, so Borlon improvised, teleporting the lot of them (Nefra, Adama, Ishmopah, Lucky, Sahara, Maataure, Khefriseniset, plus Mina) to Dragondale in Amberwood, where Tea was. Tea provided not only a nap spell for the group, but she and Mina also used a number of other spells such as stoneskin, fly, strength and resist cold. Finally, four hours after they left, Borlon, Nefra, Adama, Ishmopah, Lucky, Sahara, Maataure, and Khefriseniset returned to the frosts' castle...

...only to discover, after a long search, the entire place was deserted. A divination spell revealed nothing, but a commune with nature showed that the giants had not only left the castle, but the town below and were beyond the spell's five mile range!

Lucky set about tracking, but quickly lost the trail outside. The heroes gathered back in the bags of holding and Borlon teleported them 15 miles down river, but no sign of the giants. A second jump five miles from town showed the giants three miles farther downstream in an overladen, giant-sized drakkar, trying to escape with their allies. Borlon's fly spell still active and wearing the ring of invisibility, he surveyed them from the skies.

Borlon suggested using a wall of fire on the ship, with supporting fireballs, but Sahara suggested using a mirage of a wall of fire first, to lull the giants into a falls sense of security. The cleric of Hathor was right!

Borlon used the mirage and then later a wall of fire, while Ishmopah and Khefriseniset used a pair of fireballs on the bow and stern of the ship. The effects were devasting! Although thousands of gold, silver, and copper coins were slagged, nearly all the ogres, ogresses, and giant and ogre children died in the blazes, as did one of the trolls. Most of the giants were badly wounded, including their ersatz leader, who took a full impact from one fireball and lost his armor! Several others lost their pouch of boulders and had to scrounge for weapons!

Slowly the giants made their way to shore, where the heroes had set up a defensive perimeter. Adama used her inertial barrier to limit the damage of their boulders while the giants charged.

The battle was fierce, with nearly everyone (except Maatkaure) being nearly pasted. At one point Lucky dropped, Nefra was barely alive, and Ishmopah was facing two potent giants while he was stumbling. Working quite well together, however, the heroes saved one another. Borlon used several psionic blasts to stun foes, Maatkaure's ego whip sent several momentarily fleeing, Sahara used her body to defend badly beaten heroes, Khefriseniset battle an ogre and troll for the duration, and the fighters slashed their way through the monsters, leaving a blood swath.

With a bit of luck and many hard knocks, the heroes overcame the giants, even the fire giant warsmith, specialized in a giant-sized warhammer (he's the one who nearly pasted Nefra!). With the nine frost giant warriors, the fire giant, the giantesses, and their allies dead, the Egyptians gathered the treasure, returned to the giants lair, finished off a few incidental monsters, and totally completed their objective of wiping out the frost giant castle.

Tired, the heroes went into the town to aid the wounded and halp restore order...

For an EXCELLENT job, the Egyptian team gets credit for 45 giant kills, plus 20% for killing ALL the giants in the lair, +20% for killing ALL foes in the lair, for an effective score of 63 giants. Great work!

Unfortunately, this two day total is still less than the one day coup of the Oerdians, so it looks like they'll win the Second Trial...