As time resumed, our heroes decided to set up a watch for the night.. During Zesh’s turn, she noticed some trees disappearing and moving. She woke up Seraphina, who chose to go investigate. She turned into a bat and flew over, seeing three fire giants with a large bag amongst them. She focused her attention on the sounds around her and could hear four creatures breathing from the circle. Assuming there were people in the bag, she went back to the group. While Kurd and Tao either didn’t wake up or weren’t interested in assisting, Zesh, Kida, and Seraphina chose to try to free whoever was inside.
The three strategized, deciding that Zesh would try to distract them and make some noise, while Seraphina and Kida would try to sneak in and steal the bag. Zesh started with using Thaumaturgy to make some loud noises. The giants were alerted, and all got up to keep watch, although they weren’t overly concerned with the sounds they heard. Eventually, the Giants realized they were dealing with a spell caster, and one of them started to investigate, clearing out some of the trees. Using the opening, Seraphina cast Fog Cloud, and Kida snuck in to grab the bag. After running back out, Seraphina cast Pass Without a Trace and retreated back to camp with Zesh and Kida.
Once there, Kida started to open the bag, only to have a black, feathery fist come out and stun her. Out of the back came their old friend, Mitsui. Confused by what was going on, she tried to return to the giants. Her former travel companions tried to help her understand she was kidnapped, and they saved her. Mitsui insisted this wasn’t the case. She started explaining what had happened, how the temple had been destroyed by a dragon, and Harshnag was really a “bad bad giant.” The oracle told her to go to Duke Zalto and then to get the conch and go to some court and talk to some giant.
They decided to try and get some sleep and start in the morning. Kurd took this opportunity to charm and incapacitate Mitsui with Hypnotic Pattern. Trying to then tie her up, Kurd was being rather loud. Seraphina woke up, as did Zesh. Kurd used another Hypnotic Pattern, and while Seraphina and Mitsui were affected by it again, Zesh was not. Kurd managed to somewhat convince Zesh that everything was ok. Still a bit off though, the group ended up getting refocused and came between Mitsui and Kurd. They found out Kurd had a 20,000 gold bounty for Mitsui. They decided to tie Kurd up and go back to sleep.
In the morning, Mitsui once again explained what she wanted. The group came to an agreement. She would help them get the relic and in exchange the group would then go to Ironslag and Duke Zalto with her. She then headed off towards the cavern and jumped down. Having no clue where she was going, she rushed in and got attacked by a manticore.
Her former, and possibly once again, companions rushed in to help her, leaving a tied up Kurd at the top. They were, however,attacked by the tribals. Zesh had changed up some of her spells, having seen how the shamans fought, and used her own Spirit Guardians this time. The tribals and manticore fell, and our heroes found a large fossilized mammoth tusk with images of giants fighting dragons on it. This was the giant relic to this site.
Upon returning above, they noticed Kurd had disappeared. Thus time came to a stop, as the world itself wondered what would happen next.
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