Alert: May contain spoilers for the adventure “Against the Giants”

Later in the day, I spotted movement among the trees beside the path. Aliana and Agnar confirmed that (man-sized) warm bodies were moving back there (so, not undead) but we couldn’t tell more than that. Since Ezekiel said the angle of the sun would soon drop below the mountains anyway, we set up the fortress for the night. That way, if they want to contact us (like the wild men in the Pomarchj), they can find us…and if they want to attack us, we’ll have a defensible position.

I’ve swapped out for the ring of infravision, so I can help stand guard in the night (Ez took the light off the top of the fortress…it was a bit ostentatious for normal use).

**

Shortly before dawn, we heard a cacophony of yipping and howling, and right after Mikael came charging down from the top of the fortress, shouting and flapping his arms and calling to Donna. Raven and I dashed outside, but all we saw was the horses trying to break their bonds (and the new morning light really messes with infravision, by the way. I’m changing my mind about wanting to be an elf).
While Aliana calmed the horses, Mikael and I headed off in the direction the noises had come from (though not the direction Donna took off in), but all we found was Raven, who tried to flank the aggressors, whoever they were.

I took some time hunting for tracks, and found a veritable trampling of human-sized prints – shuffling behind bushes, creeping from cover to cover, that kind of thing. I think I spotted nearly a score of unique tracks, but there’s no sign of their owners now. (My current theory is they were were-hyenas, but that doesn’t tell us what they were doing. And I’m probably wrong anyway.)

Mikael flew off in bird form to find Donna, so that gave us plenty of time to make a plan. Ezekiel theorized there were two groups – one trying to contact us or steal our horses, and another group that scared them off. Raven thought they might be working with the giants – or at least might be like the pebble-planter in the Pomarchj, and could lead us to them.

Aliana agreed with me that our mission here is to fight giants, and our most direct lead is the ogre’s trail. Whether these interlopers are an oppressed neutral party, or third-party bandits preying on giants and adventurers alike, or something else, they seem to be a distraction from our main objective. If they’re really friendlies who want to meet us, they’ll figure it out.

In the meantime, the ogre’s trail isn’t getting fresher.

**

Mikael returned to us safe and sound, and he brought Donna. So all’s well.

**

Killed a band of orcs on the path. Apparently I need to practice fighting from horseback. They had a decent amount of electrum on them – were they also taking it back as tribute?\

****

Ezekiel and Mikael prepared spells for searching the surroundings. I guess they got tired of watching me crawl back and forth, scolding anyone who stepped in mud before I got there. Mikael says there’s no “civilization” within his radius of perception. Raven says Donna complained about always rushing past the nice, thick clumps of grass along our path.

****

Starday, 1 Reaping

Ezekiel says he has seen our path forward, and it leads due south. He scouted it in gaseous form this morning, and now we’ve been following it for a couple hours. He’s been telling Aliana mountaineering trivia, and she acts like she’s never heard such things from anyone before.

****

Today we reached the top of a pass, and found a stack of prepared boulders next to a small cave. Nobody was in the cave, but hill giants have left their mark, if you know what I mean. Must be some kind of guard post, though I don’t know why it’s not manned.

Mikael hadn’t prepared to melt rocks today, so Ezekiel put a “ward” on the top boulder that he says should deter anyone trying to use it as ammo.

Best news of all, there’s a heavily traveled path leading over the pass further south. Plenty of worn-down stones and giant impressions. We’ll see where it ends up.

****

The path descended until the mountains opened up to a long valley. The walls seem pock-marked with caves – the ones we’ve seen being small, without complications – while at the bottom of the path sits a wooden fortress. From here, we can’t see any windows…but we can definitely hear the booming voices and harsh laughter.

As night was falling, we found a cave that will just barely fit Donna. We’ll have a better chance of being small and unobserved if we leave the horses behind (and they and Donna won’t do so well inside a building, anyway). A mist is filling the valley, obscuring the fort and complicating the moonlight, so we won’t be able to scout until morning. The scouts will probably be Raven, and me (invisible).

Find the previous entry here.