The heroes encounter the fire giant lord Duke Zalto and the drow warriors from Gauntylgrym. A fearsome battle ensues, and the heroes are forced to retreat. But one of their own is captured by the fire giants, allowing Duke Zalto hold the hostage for ransom.
Player Characters: Adrik, Gregory, Kane, Sister Mary, Tarancha
1.
Duke Zalto, the fire giant lord of Ironslag, had learned from his drow agents of the failure of their mission to steal Maegera the elemental primordial from the forge of Gauntlgrym. He intended to use Maegera to power the adamantine forge in his citadel and rebuild the Vonindod, the legendary dragon slaying titan from the ancient wars between the giants and dragonkind. And now, standing before him, were the very adventurers who had foiled his carefully laid schemes.
Although their clever ruse had fooled his subordinate, Duke Zalto, formerly a war advisor in the court of the mighty storm giant King Hekaton himself, had just debriefed the elite drow warriors who had escaped from Gauntlgrym and would not be fooled so easily.
Zalto spoke in a heavy, commanding voice that sounded like the rumbling of a volcano.
“In the name of Surtur, I command these doors to close.”
The adamantine doors leading outside closed upon the duke’s command. It was the only exit from the lower level, save for the stairs leading up to the gantry, and now it was closed.
2.
“I will give you small folk a choice. Surrender now and you may live out the rest of your brief and miserable lives as my slaves. If you dare to challenge me, your lives will be that much shorter, and your burnt corpses will feed the great furnace of Ironslag.”
As Duke Zalto waved his maul, the heroes saw that the head of the fearsome weapon was hollow like a cage surrounded by iron bars. But it was not empty. To their horror, they saw that a prisoner was locked inside the cage. That prisoner was none other than the dwarf Gregory Fighcliff!
When the company had departed from the Uthgardt burial mound of Flint Rock, Gregory had returned to his hometown in the mountains to make sure the people he held most dear in the world were safe. He learned that the dwarves of the mountains were being enslaved by the fire giants of Ironslag and their minions, so he set out to liberate his people. But much to his dismay, he was apprehended by the giants instead.
The giants put Gregory to hard labor in the mines of Ironslag. After numerous attempts to foment a slave uprising, his captors took notice of Gregory and brought him before Duke Zalto to suffer for his insolence. The giants had stripped him of all his possessions save for a single hammer, daring him to strike out and laughing when he held his fury in check.
3.
“I have an offer for you, lord giant!”
Kane shouted. “I will trade my life for the life of that dwarf. Spare him, and I am yours to do with as you please.”
The others wanted to dissuade him, but Kane had already made his choice. Whether he felt guilty for his role in bringing the Albatross Company into this dangerous impasse, they could not say. Perhaps he was determined to set things right in his own way.
As Kane stepped forward, Duke Zalto opened the maul and shooked the dwarf out of the cage.
“I am impressed by your boldness, tiefling. You alone shall live as my personal jester, and now you may witness the death of your companions.”
In the corner of the vast assembly hall where the Vonindod was being rebuilt, there was a deactivated iron golem covered in ancient ruins with an ingot of iron ore set into its head. Suddenly, the golem began to rattle and shake, as if reacting to a powerful presence. In that moment, Duke Zalto realized that the fire elemental bound to the golem was responding to a force of tremendous power.
“Maegera the Dawn Titan is here! I sense that one if these foolish adventurers must have it. Perhaps they thought to barter it for the lives of the other slaves. No matter. Drow of House Xorlarrin, fulfill your oaths to me and bring me the– aaarghh!”
Zalto roared in pain as an eldritch blast from Kane’s outstretched finger struck him in the face.
The enraged fire giant lord swung his great maul, battering Kane and entrapping him in the maul’s cage. But the tiefling warlock called upon the fiendish power of Stygia, the fifth layer of the Nine Hells of Baator. Instantly, Kane’s body was encased in ice, like the archdevil Levistus who was entombed in an iceberg. The duke was forced to drop the ice cold maul, allowing Kane to escape and teleport himself beyond the adamantine doors.
The duke roared once more in pain and rage. Nearly as loudly, Tarancha stepped forward with her axe in hand and bellowed a command behind her.
“RUN!”
4.
Tarancha met the onslaught of drow warriors, hellhounds, and giants, like a true a captain of the Grey Hands, ready to hold them off for as long as she remained standing. But the others did not flee from the fight immediately. Instead, they stood together and gave ground while making a tactical retreat.
Adrik charmed their enemies with his powers of suggestion and convinced them that Tarancha was a foul smelling orc whom they would rather avoid. Yet this did not stay Duke Zalto’s advance. The fire giant lord picked up a large iron cauldron from the floor of the assembly hall and threw it onto Tarancha, momentarily trapping the orc within. But Tarancha quickly cast off the cauldron and greeted her foes with her axe.
Duke Zalto’s hellhounds leaped into the fray and tore at Kane, who had dared to attack their master, and Tarancha, for their keen sense of smell was not fooled by Adrik’s spell. The drow were more cautious in their tactics. They had faced the Albatross Company once before and knew what they were capable of. Keeping their distance, they drew their crossbows and rained poisoned darts upon the adventurers.
Sister Mary summoned the powers of tempest and blasted the drow with her divine magic, but they weathered her assault without ceasing their deadly advance. The heroes were pushed back by overwhelming odds and surrounded by their enemies. There was nowhere to go except for the adamantine doors leading outside, but the doors were closed. Standing between the company and the doors was the fire giant who had brought the heroes before the duke.
The giant looked around for the half orc who had claimed to be his kindred. But Strong Palm Ian was nowhere to be seen. It seemed that he had already fled from the scene. The giant felt betrayed and fought against the heroes with a fiery passion, but a word of command from Sister Mary caused the giant to flee across the assembly hall.
Now the way to the adamantine doors was clear, but the doors were still shut. Tarancha slayed one of the duke’s hellhounds ran to the doors. Summoning all her strength, she tried to open them. But the even the mighty Tarancha could not move these doors made of solid adamantine and sealed by the arcane spells of ancient Ostoria.
In that desperate moment, Adrik had an idea. Calling upon his powers of illusion, he conjured the figment of a fire giant in front of the adamantine doors and caused it to speak Duke Zalto’s own words save for the final utterance.
“In the name of Surtur, I command these doors to OPEN!”
The adamantine doors slowly opened at the illusory giant’s command. As the heroes passed through the doors, the illusion began to taunt the giants and the drow to distract them and cover party’s escape.
From beyond the doors, Kane saw that even Adrik’s clever illusion could not stay the advance of the furious giants and vengeful drow. Worse still, there was a distant rumbling in the depths of Ironslag that heralded the approach of another fearsome fire giant.
“Zalto! What is all that ruckus in the Assembly Hall?”
Duke Zalto rubbed his face in visible irritation.
“Nothing, my dove. Go back to your embroidery, sweet Brimskarda.”
It was Duke Zalto’s wife, the Duchess Brimskarda.
Now Kane knew that the party’s doom was nigh if he did not do something. In an effort to save his friends, he stepped into the assembly hall and threw himself at the approaching enemies with his fiery fists.
Soon, Kane was surrounded by the drow, and the fire giants were closing it. Before he was taken by his enemies, he threw the iron flask containing Maegera the Dawn Titan to his companions.
“Catch!”
But much to his surprise, one of the drow that had surrounded him caught the flask instead! Upon seeing the magical flask in the drow’s grasp, Duke Zalto’s eyes grew wide. For he sensed the powerful elemental entity that was bound within.
“Bring me that flask and fulfill your oath to me, dark elf,” said the duke.
Sister Mary could not allow the primordial to fall into the hands of the fire giants. Calling upon the spirits of a winter tempest, she conjured a sleet storm that covered the floor with ice. The drow and the fire giants slipped on the ice and fell prone.
The iron flask tumbled across the floor. Tarancha picked up the flask and ran toward the door, bounding with incredible speed. Such was the orc barbarian’s mighty stride that even the Duke’s hellhound could barely keep up with her. Only when Tarancha allowed it to draw close did the hellhound pounce upon her, but the orc barbarian and the dwarf fighter Gregory, standing side by side, smote the fiendish beast with their axe and hammer, clearing their path of escape.
5.
With Kane defending them in their rearguard, the Albatross Company escaped through the adamantine doors, only to find themselves at the edge of a snowy cliff. Despite Kane’s noble sacrifice, it seemed that there was nowhere to run since they had no means by which to scale the walls of the mountain.
It was then that Adrik remembered the bag of pixie dust given to them by Zephyros the cloud giant. He sprinkled some on each of his companions and himself last of all. Sister Mary and Tarancha took to the air as the magical powder granted them the power to fly. But Gregory vanished from sight, for the fickle nature of faerie magic turned him invisible rather than granting him flight. Adrik, too, was affected in an unexpected way. He began to babble incoherently and tried to throw himself off the northern edge of the cliff. Fortunately, Tarancha caught him and took the halfling in her grasp as she flew to safety.
While Tarancha rescued Adrik, Sister Mary looked for Gregory, but the invisible dwarf was nowhere to be seen. With the fire giants approaching the door, time was running out. Having no other choice, Sister Mary dropped the magic ring she had received from Arleosa in Amphail. The ring landed in the snow beside a boulder where Gregory had been hiding. With a brief prayer for Gregory and Kane, Sister Mary flew from the cliff.
“May the winds of Aedrie Faenya protect you, my friends.”
6.
Sister Mary, Tarancha and Adrik found a secluded cliffside on the mountain. They perched out of view but had a vantage point of the adamantine doors. They tended to their wounds and debated what to do next, for Kane had been captured and Gregory was missing. But before they arrived at a decision, the booming voice of the fire giant Duke Zalto rang through the mountains.
“Hear me, puny creatures! Your friend wished to trade his life for the dwarf in my keeping. His wish was granted. Now I hold his life forfeit unless you bring me Maegera the Dawn Titan. I know that the fire primordial is in your possession! Bring it to me, or I shall slay your friend and all the prisoners of Ironslag. If you do not hand over Maegera, every dwarf, man, elf and gnome in this great fortress will be put to the flames of the furnace, and the reek of their burning remains will blanket the Silver Marches. You have one hour to decide.”
From his hiding place, Gregory heard the words of Duke Zalto and trembled in fear. But the young dwarf steeled himself against terror. He knew that he had to do something, or the prisoners of Ironslag and Kane would be doomed.
Gregory donned the ring dropped by Sister Mary which he found in the snow. He remembered the story that he had heard about the ring and its supposedly magical property. He decided there was no harm in testing it since he had few other options. Quietly, he whispered to the ring the name of its original owner.
“Kendragon…”
As the ring glowed softly, the specter of a halfling appeared, clad in the clothes of a minstrel. Bearing a happy-go-lucky smile, he looked not unlike Oren Yogilvy, the halfling singer of Goldenfields. The specter pointed past the assembly hall in the direction of a hallway leading away to the north.
Cautiously, Gregory crept through the giant-sized halls until he arrived at a hallway with two chambers. When he entered the north chamber, the specter of Kendragon the halfling pointed to a large chest in the corner. It was kept closed by a strange metal device which appeared to be some kind of lock. However, there was no key hole. Instead, three metal rings were inscribed with the dwarven runes for numbers.
Gregory sensed that the right combination of numbers might open the lock. He tried several sets of numbers but to no avail. Then, he pressed his ear to the lock and turned the numbers slowly until he heard a soft click. After hearing three soft slicks, the lock fell open. As Gregory opened the chest and found the contents therein, the specter of Kendragon smiled one last time and vanished forever.
Inside, Gregory discovered his own adventuring gear along with the equipment of several other adventurers which he did not recognize. In their midst, he also found a large and beautiful conch. Gregory had heard stories about the ocean as a child and had even seen it briefly on his adventures, but he had seen such a splendid conch before.
Gregory pressed his ear to the conch and heard the waves upon the shore. When he closed his eyes, he had a most vivid vision and felt as though he was truly standing upon the ocean. It was then that he realized that this was a magical conch with the power to transport him and his companions to the sea, and perhaps deliver them from danger. But what new perils awaited them in the unknown destination upon the ocean, Gregory did not know.
Adventure Name
Storm King’s Thunder
Chapter 8. Forge of the Fire Giants
Session #7
Rewards
4 Achievement Points
4 Treasure Points
10 Downtime Days
1 Renown
Level-Up Gold
Level gained: 2nd-4th – 75 gp
Level gained: 5th-10th – 150 gp