Hammer 21, 1489
Dre'zel my love,
Wearing the Hat of Disguise to appear as Chief Yarb-Gnock, Twig took to his new role quickly and began ruling over his newfound servants, mainly telling them to bring him more drink.
I continued to wait in the shadows, hanging from the underside of the ceiling where the Shield Guardian hung, studying the intricate system of ropes and pulleys that kept it in place, while allowing it to be animated like a marionette.
Eventually my companions emerged from the chamber where they had been led for a private audience with “the chief.” JoJo had the large egg chest strapped to his back.
Chief Twig, now obviously quite intoxicated, commanded the goblins to release the Shield Guardian before stumbling and nearly falling on his face.
All seemed to be going according to plan, but as they approached the main landing, the Bag of Holding exploded, expelling all its contents, including Spellix, who began screaming.
Talyth immediately cast Darkness, but Spellix’s screams were still briefly audible before being silenced.
The goblins grew restless, the largest of them suspiciously asking what was going on.
Taimen emerged from the Darkness carrying an undisguised Spellix and explaining that he was not their chief but merely a plaything of hers. It was hard to hear the back and forth between them, but with Taimen’s approval—whether it was reluctant, I could not tell—Spellix was impaled by the large goblin, who then apologized for slaying the dragonborn’s plaything.
Talyth then dropped the Darkness, revealing the expelled contents, which I gathered was left as a gift—possibly in exchange for the Shield Guardian.
Once it was clear that my companions were ready to take the Shield Guardian, I released it from its suspended prison, and it plummeted down to the landing with a loud crash. It did not seem much worse for the wear than it already had been.
Rowan transformed into a giant elk, and once the Shield Guardian was strapped to their back, we promptly exited Karkolohk.
Once we were out of sight, we made camp by the Redrun River, sheltered in Talyth’s Tiny Hut.
Talyth confronted JoJo about removing his curse, but he was reluctant, indicating that he would prefer to retain its power until the mission had been completed. Talyth shared, to JoJo’s surprise, that she might not be able to remove his affliction once he had transformed against his will. She pointed out that the full moon was not far away, and that if he transformed and lost control of himself, he could threaten many innocents and more importantly, us.
“Do you think I might hurt one of you?” JoJo asked, as if the thought were inconceivable.
“It is not us I fear for, my friend,” I replied. “I fear for you. For how would you live with yourself knowing that you had harmed an innocent.”
At this, JoJo turned sullen before eventually agreeing, “I’ll do it. I’ll do it before the next full moon.”
With that out of the way, Talyth cast Sending to Vellynne to inquire about how to activate the Shield Guardian, and received what seemed to be a cryptic response. After contemplating this for a while, she was ready. Rowan transformed into their Elven Goliath form and cast Enhance Ability on as she Talyth studied the Shield Guardian and the amulet that controlled the newly acquired construct. As Talyth concentrated on it, the Shield Guardian slowly began to hum and move, eventually asking, “How can I serve you, master?” from the depths of its mouthless face.
“What do you wish to be called?” Talyth asked.
“You may call me what you wish,” the construct replied. “I live to serve.”
This gave Talyth something to ponder, and while she sheltered in the Tiny Hut with Talyth, Rowan, and I, Taimen contemplated how to open the egg chest, seemingly compelled. As she focused on the large orb, her shiny armored limb seemed to flex and writhe toward, as if of its own volition. As she stared at it, her face contorted in distress.
Then JoJo was by her side and led the dragon back to the Tiny Hut.
Then Rowan emerged from the Tiny Hut, disturbed by the egg chest, saying they wanted it gone but wanted nothing to do with it, as if it presented some existential threat.
After some debate, we agreed to deal with whatever lay inside the egg chest. We all stood back as Taimen prepared to open the egg chest, with JoJo and Rowan by her side. Taimen touched the egg chest in a particular sequence and a gibbering mouther oozed from the container, babbling incoherently from its many amorphous fanged mouths, one of which lurched toward Taimen, dripping with foul spittle. But then it was Banished by Talyth, and the chest lay empty save for some remnant spittle and ooze.
Once Talyth was certain the aberration would not return, she recast Tiny Hut, and we prepared to rest for the night.
In the morning, we were awoken by Taimen, who was alerted by Princess Skullcrusher that we had company.
It seemed that the chief of Karkolohk had sent an honor guard of six worg riders, along with Manafek, their shaman, to escort us on our journey. As amicably as we had left Twig, this seemed unlikely, and I privately suspected that he has sent Manafek away so as to avoid being detection and the consequences that would follow.
Taimen refused their assistance and sent them away.
Once they were out of sight, Talyth dismissed the Tiny Hut and cast Remove Curse on JoJo, whose skin began to writhe briefly before he collapsed. Rising, he announced he could no longer transform.
As we prepared to set off, I chuckled inside at the ease with which Talyth seemed to wave away the obstacles in our path.
It quickly became apparent that the Shield Guardian could not maintain our pace, so we decided to continue on and have it follow us, knowing that it could sense Talyth’s direction. It gradually fell behind until it was out of sight.
After traveling for two hours, we were greeted by the sound of a woman singing in a language I did not understand. Then a thin Goliath woman appeared from over a rise and addressed Rowan in the Giant tongue. Her tone was friendly.
JoJo attempted to interject himself, also speaking in Giant, but was rebuffed.
The goliath offered Rowan a drink, which the druid accepted apprehensively. Offering JoJo a slug as well, she introduced herself as Kwan the Monolith Akannathi. JoJo downed the drink as Kwan seemed to explain her story in Giant. At one point, Kwan presented figurine of a silver raven, potentially as a reward for completing some unknown quest. Rowan’s expressions varied drastically as the tale progressed, until they halted Kwan to request a private consult with their companions.
Kwan seemed to respect Rowan’s request and maintained her distance as we huddled together. Rowan asked about going to Skytower Shelter, which we agreed we could consider after we retrieved the Codicil of White and were heading to the Reghed Glacier.
Rowan then spoke privately with Kwan before the latter waved with a smile and headed east.
Soon after, Sssusssannah reached us with a note from Cora. It read: “Wondered where you went off to! Glad you’re all in one piece. Don’s feel bad about skipping out on your rooms - as soon as you left some whalers from Waterdeep arrived and put them to good use. Those seadogs smalled terrible (as did the casks they brought with them), but business is business, I suppose!”
After traveling for two more hours, we reached Jarlmoot, a circle of seven inward facing ice-covered giant thrones standing atop a towering hill. Hundreds of black ravens circled over the thrones.
I maintained my distance as the others approached the circle. Talyth cast Protection from Evil on JoJo, and he entered the circle where he proceeded to climb onto the largest throne.
The ravens cawed as if in warning, and Rowan cast Speak with Animals to converse with them.
Rowan explained that we must defeat the champion of Reggaryarva, the deceased frost giant jarl, under the light of a full moon, and that we could all participate, but counted our number as 13.
It was clear that we had been tailed! Should I have taken measures to cover our tracks? We all assumed it must be the goblins, but why were they here?
Rowan asked Sssusssannah to scout behind us, and the snake soon confirmed it was indeed the goblins.
As we slowly retraced our steps, Manafek emerged with her worg riders. Sarcastically praising our attempt at deception, the shaman revealed that the ruse had been uncovered, and we could not be allowed to return to Targos. I felt foolish having been duped, as she opened a sack and spilled Twig’s severed head onto the snow, where it rolled toward us.
Acting fast, Rowan transformed into a giant elk and charged the farthest worg while JoJo took down two goblins with thrown javelins. Manafek called an Ice Storm over Taimen and me, and Misty Stepped onto Rowan’s back. Talyth tried to cast a spell but was countered by Manafek. I sank two arrows into Manafek as I repositioned to more advantageous ground. Taimen charged toward Rowan, impaling Manafek with her lance and dropping the dead shaman to the ground before skewering a prone, riderless goblin.
The remaining goblins tried to flee but Rowan dashed and engaged them. JoJo slew two more with thrown javelins. Advancing, I cast Spike Growth in front of three fleeing worgs as Taimen cut a rider down from one of them and the rest died trampling into the icy spikes. Rowan stomped the last rider. Dropping my shortbow and drawing my longbow, I struck down one fleeing worg and wounded the last before they were cut down by Taimen.
The ravens descended on the corpses and feasted as we took a short rest.
We waited for the Shield Guardian to catch up with us and it dark when it finally arrived.
As we prepared to engage with the circle of thrones, I cast Longstrider, and Talyth gave Taimen and JoJo Darkvision.
Once JoJo had entered the circle, Talyth cast Moonbeam in its center and spectral frost giants appeared on each of the seven thrones. A fierce blizzard swirled around the circle of thrones, and a frost giant skeleton appeared in front of JoJo.
Knowing that my arrows would never pierce the whirling blizzard, I felt helpless as JoJo faced the frost giant skeleton all alone. All hope of assisting him was melting away, but somehow, I found the resolve to abandon all caution and I plunged myself into the blizzard. Expecting to be flung wide, I dug in and pressed forward as a cold I had not felt for some time chilled me to the bone.
But then I was through! And I knew that on the other side of a throne, JoJo faced off against a foe many times his size. I cast a circle of Darkness where I knew the giant’s head to be, hoping to give my barbarian friend the advantage.
The Rowan charged into the circle carrying Talyth on their back! And Taimen was propelled into the circle, without Princess Skullcrusher, who must have perished in the blizzard.
As the spectral giants applauded from their thrones, something slammed me in the back, but I saw no enemy and my shortsword stabbed nothing but air.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Rowan charge into the frost giant skeleton, trampling it into splinters.
Then Taimen was by my side, thrusting her pike into whatever was attacking me.
To our horror, the frost giant skeleton reassembled and swung its axe, cutting deep into JoJo, who thrust Orenea up, impaling the frost giant skeleton with its radiant energy.
The skeleton seemed to disintegrate into the snow and no more enemies attacked us. The spectral giant faded as the ground groaned and shifted, revealing a wide stairway leading under the hill.
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