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The entire company tenses, readying their weapons for as soon as a dire wolf attacks. "What makes them dire?" asks Zoya quietly. Her question is answered when the first wolf appears--looking like any ordinary wolf, except for the fact it was significantly bigger--ten feet from head to tail, at least. "Dear, sweet gods...the Abyss did we get ourselves into?" Zoya asks, her eyes wide.

However, the wolf immediately slips on Tulbas' grease puddle, causing it to slip and fall prone with a whimper. "Kalith karan, tobanis-kar!" Magnus chants, releasing four dark globes of energy that fly through the air and each strike the prone wolf in succession. This leaves substantial bruises all over its body. Jaymes, a moment later, looses his arrow over Raena's head, striking the wolf in the flank and causing it to cry out in pain.

Tulbas pulls out his sling, but realizes quickly he was not carrying any stones or bullets to load into the sling!

Just then, another dire wolf comes running out of the cave. It manages to leap over the grease, and goes right for Gregeddin, teeth bared. Acting quickly, Miriam strikes out with her long sword, slicing deep into the creature's hide and drawing blood. Gregeddin swings his own blade, but hits nothing but air.

Haahqae, unseen, sneaks behind the wolf attacking the front line and perfectly nails it in the back of the head with a bullet from his sling. The wolf never knew what hit it and dropped dead at the bard's feet.

By this point, Jaymes draws and nocks a second arrow and shoots the wolf trapped in the grease right in the neck, ending its life.

"Is...is that it? Is it over? Are we not dead?" asks Mateo, a little dazed.

"Shit, you didn't save any for me," Raena complains.

"Or me," adds Burzan with disappointment. "One point to the ranger, one point to the little gnome."

==========

Initiative
Haahqae (1d10+6): 10
Gregeddin (1d10+4): 10
Tulbas (1d10+6): 13
Mateo (1d10): 4
Zoya (1d10): 9
Raena (1d10+4): 10
Burzan (1d10+9): 12
Ismene (1d10): 10
Miriam (1d10+4): 5
Magnus (1d10+1): 3
Jaymes (1d10+8): 10
Dire Wolf 01 (1d10+6): 14
Dire Wolf 02 (1d10+6): 11

Round 1!

Magnus prepares a spell and holds.
Mateo goes into full defense (AC improves by 2).
Miriam readies an attack and holds.
Zoya goes into full defense (AC improves by 2).
Gregeddin readies an attack and holds.
Haahqae readies to sneak and holds.
Raena readies an attack and holds.
Jaymes nocks an arrow and holds.
Ismene goes into full defense (AC improves by 2).
Dire Wolf 02 moves 80 feet west. It saves vs. spell against the Grease (1d20): 11, fail. It slips and falls prone.
Magnus casts Magic Missile at Dire Wolf 02, dealing (4d4+4): 12 damage. Dire Wolf 02 is now seriously wounded.
Jaymes fires a sheaf arrow from his masterwork (+1) long bow at point-blank range (+2) at a prone (+4) Dire Wolf 02 (1d20+7): 12, hit for (1d8): 8 damage. Dire Wolf 02 is now critically wounded.
Burzan readies an attack.
Tulbas pulls out his sling but finds he has no ammo to attack.
Dire Wolf 01 moves 80 feet southwest. It saves vs. spell against the Grease (1d20): 16, pass (just barely). It moves 25 feet south.
Miriam attacks Dire Wolf 01 with her enchanted (+1) long sword with great skill (+1) and strength (+1) (1d20+3): 13, hit for (1d12+4): 13 damage. Dire Wolf 01 is now seriously wounded.
Gregeddin attacks Dire Wolf 01 with his enchanted (+1) broad sword (1d20+1): 9, miss.
Haahqae attempts to Move Silently (1d100): 12, pass. He sneaks north 30 feet then fires a sneak attack (+4) sling bullet with excellent aim (+2) at Dire Wolf 01 (1d20+6): 17, hit for (1d6+1): 7 (x2) = 14 damage. Dire Wolf 01 dies.
Jaymes fires a sheaf arrow from his masterwork (+1) long bow at point blank range (+2) at a prone (+4) Dire Wolf 02 (1d20+7): 16, hit for (1d8): 8 damage. Dire Wolf 02 dies.

(OOC: End Combat.)

"You better get in there quick with these lot around, nice work everyone."

"That's one fair way to score it, but I score it 1 for the heroes of valor, 0 for the oversize creatures of wanton destruction."

Haahqae checks the wolf body to see if he can recover his bullet, then gets back to his business of scouting ahead for the party.

Tulbas calls after Haaque, "Wait, take into account that the noise might have drawn the giant attention. Be as twice as careful" while waiting for Haaque Tulbas looks around for stones which will fit as bullets.

Tulbas throws one stone at the gnomes head. "Don't be stupid. Just careful. " he grins.

Haahqae retrieves his bullet and then steps into the cave again. Now that the dire wolves have been cleared out, he can take a longer look at the area. However, there isn't really anything worth noting. There are lots of gnawed on bones in the area. The place reeks of animals. Deeper in, there are two openings. One to the northeast and one to the southeast.

Tulbas looks around and finds three small stones that would be suitable for his sling. "You did well with that Grease spell," Magnus tells him approvingly. "It made all the difference."

Meanwhile, Mateo and Zoya chat. "Do you have the feeling we're seriously over our head here?" asks Mateo.

"Maybe. But then again, we're still getting paid and we haven't even done anything yet. Maybe we won't have to," Zoya replies.

Presented by this divide Haahqae mutters to himself while he sizes up both entrances to see if either looks more friendly or threatening. "What to do when presented with a choice? Choose both." However a moment's thought* tells him that choosing both was a bad choice in this case, so he settles for taking the southeast passage.

OoC:
Move Silently [70%]: Invisible Castle still down

*A moment's thought would have shown him. But a moment is a long time, and thought is a painful process. - A. E. Housman

Regarding Zoya and Mateo s conversation, Gregeddin quips, "A good offence can sometimes be the bbest defence, don't worry your times to shine will come soon enough. Until then, you'd better make sure there's a decent riposte to go with your parries. "

Haahqae (Inside the Giant's Cave)
Haahqae sneaks forward, heading for the southeastern passage. It's a short tunnel that opens up into a very large chamber, both in width and height. He can hear voices, among other noises.

The chamber reeks of sweat and blood and the gods know what else. Like with the wolves' chamber, a number of bones--mostly human sized--litter the ground. In the far, southeastern part of the chamber is a massive bonfire that illuminates and warms the entire room. By the south wall are three ogres, each around 9 or 10 feet tall when standing. They are not standing, but sitting, however. They are surrounded by treasure--mostly steel coins. Haahqae cannot get an accurate count from his vantage point, but it looks like hundreds. They appear to be counting it, but they are so pleased they keep playing around, tossing coins at each other and laughing boisterously, that they have to keep starting over.

In the northeastern corner of the chamber, an iron cage hangs from the ceiling, suspended by a rope on the north wall. In it, three humans--two men and a woman--sit and cower. They are dressed shabbily and are filthy and appear quite terrified.

Between the fire and the cage is the giant itself. It's massive, towering over even the ogres--at least 16 feet in size, if not more. Were Haahqae to walk up to him, he would only reach the giant's knees. The giant is carefully looking at the humans in the cage, rubbing his chin as if trying to come to a decision.

==========

Haahqae makes a Move Silently check (1d100): 52, pass.
Gregeddin and Tulbas (Outside the Giant's Cave)
Zoya and Mateo appear more disturbed by Gregeddin's comment than bolstered, and fall silent at the idea of riposting with a giant.

Ismene approaches Raena. "So which clan are you from?" she asks conversationally.

"Why do you want to know?" Raena asks back.

"Umm...I guess I don't? I'm just making conversation. But every dwarf has a clan, right?" the gnome admits.

"No...not every dwarf. Some are called 'fatherless.' Without a clan," Raena replies.

"How does that happen?" Ismene asks.

Raena shrugs. "Exile."

"Ohhhh. That must be terrible, to be forced to leave your home and family," Ismene says.

"It's pretty rare. You have to do something really bad to get exiled. Like murder a kinsman or something. Anyway, there are worse fates," Raena says.

Haahqae had read about giants, he had heard about giants and he had even braced himself for meeting a giant. When he finally sees the giant for the first time, all he could think is; Whelp, he sure wouldn't have trouble reaching that thing on the top shelf.

Despite a nagging voice in his head telling him to go back to the group and report his findings. Haahqae goes with his better judgement and proceeds further into the room, creeping along the northern wall. Once he gets to a better vantage point he hides in the most promising crevice he can find and takes a closer look at the giant and ogres.

(OoC: Move Silently [70%] 5 hexes east along the north wall, and Hide [60%].

He's looking for:
Weapons: Any giant clubs lying around? Where's the bag of boulders? What are the ogres using?
Entry into the cage: Where are the keys? How high off the ground is the cage? Is there a lowering mechanism, does he have to cut the rope? Can he slip through the bars?)

<Edit: Bonus post!>

From his vantage point Haahqae starts going over plans of attack.
I might be pretty strong, but that mechanism looks like I'd have to be able to carry the weight of three grown humans if I were to lower the cage. Perhaps I should trick the giant into doing it? Or maybe we can use his body as a ladder once he's dead? Or maybe Burzan can do it, he looks pretty strong too. The problem is I doubt I can get Burzan to sneak in here without the giant noticing. Hmm...

Maybe I should lure him into the fire and make him slip using grease. That sounds like a great plan! Except what if he just walks around the fire? And then there's 3 ogres I'd have to grease too, I don't have that much grease. Maybe I could convince them that they're getting cold and want to throw their clubs in the fire for more kindling? Right I'll just cast... oh right, I didn't memorize any fire-goes-dim and clubs-turn-to-twigs spells today. Maybe Ismene did, she's a much more powerful illusionist then I am. I should probably go back and fetch her.

And thus he made up his mind to go back and explain the situation to Ismene. "It looks like we're lucky cause the giant doesn't have any boulders with him. If we could trick him into thinking the club he has leaning up against the wall is actually firewood we might be able to fight him without any weapons at all. The cage looks pretty heavy, we'll probably have to sneak Burzan in to let it down without it crashing to the ground, or we can make a ladder up to it somehow. I don't think any of my disguises will be enough to get Burzan in there undetected, maybe you have one? But somehow I think it's more important to get the giant, or the ogres or both, to get rid of their weapons before we kill them. Do you have any suggestions or spells for us outsmart him with?"

Hearing Magnus approval, Tulbas can't help but feel flattered although he tries not to show any of it. After Haaque get inside Tulbas just waits near Jaynes with the rest, somewhat impatiently.

After Haahqae returns and explains the situation, the company all has their own ideas on what to do.

"I could make Burzan invisible!" offers Ismene. "But they could still hear and smell him, though.

"They sound close enough, I could just drop a fireball on them and end this quickly," Magnus states.

"No! Are you mad? You might harm the treasure!" Raena objects.

"Rescuing the prisoners is the top priority," Miriam insists.

"The fastest way to do that is eliminate the enemy," Magnus retorts. "We have the element of surprise, I say we move in and incinerate them before they can react."

"The giant is the priority," argues Jaymes. "If we slay it, the ogres will likely flee or at the least become disorganized."

"Well, didn't you plan to kill it in his sleep? If we try to slay it the ogres will crush us. Maybe we can lure them out one by one..." Tulbas suggests.

"Or Maybe we could lure them all out at the same time and have Magnus incinerate them all with a fireball. Then they'd all be away from the treasure, if that's so important to you. And they'd be away from the prisoners, which should be important to our mission. And we could lure the giant into the blast as well." Haahqae offers.

"They're all big and dumb, so they'll probably fall over each other on my gnomish greasy meat." Haahqae goes on to explain this gnomish masterwork of science, "It's extra greasy and gets over everything, and it also burns if you say, cast a fireball on it."