Watch us play! (link to the playlist, as this covers several sessions)

The dragon is about 5 minutes out when the party notices it. They immediately begin getting into positions, hiding, and casting spells to prepare for the fight. As the dragon approaches, Landis, Arianna, and Daeva set up close to the entryway. Dot and Theiáfi hide behind the table legs. Pyro and Mordai both get ready to launch attacks at the dragon once he lands. As soon as he does, Pyro looses a giant ball of fire right as Mordai creates a loud, explosive sound around the dragon. Together, they manage to wound the dragon and kill a few of the kobolds riding in their makeshift saddles.

The dragon lands, and chaos ensues. There’s a fierce battle, with great blows on both sides, but the dragon is finally defeated, mid-flight, with an aptly placed arrow to the eye socket by Theiáfi, but not before the dragon was able to kill off Landis. One kobold survived longer than the dragon, and though he was quite a tough fighter, he eventually was overwhelmed by the party.

However, luck was on the Landis’s side, as Helm saw fit to provide the means of his revival: Arianna was now able to cast a Revivify spell, but lacked the material components necessary. Luckily, Zephyros was able to accommodate them with enough diamonds to complete the spell, just barely finishing the magic needed before Landis’s body would no longer accept his soul from this particular means of revival. During the time it took to get the diamond and cast the spell, Pyro mentions his desire to put the paladin to rest in flames, but that doesn’t go over that well.

With a sense of humor, Helm grants Landis wings to fly around with, and then takes them away at the right time, causing Landis to land directly on Pyro.

Eventually, the group gets to a place where they can land, and make their way into Goldenfields. Some party members go off to do their own thing, but eventually the group winds up at Northfurrow’s End, the local inn, which just so happens to be run by Miros Xelbrin, who the party came to see. They deliver the bad news that his parents were unfortunately murdered as giants attacked Nightstone, but their tressym Rillix is alive and well. Terribly saddened at this news, but grateful for the party delivering the news about Nightstone, he gets the party a round of Goldengulp, and gets them rooms for the night.

The group is awakened in the middle of the night, as a screaming drunken halfing named Oren Yoglivy stumbles towards the inn, muttering something about monsters in the town. Everyone at the end can hear the distant sound of screaming, and see some fires where there definitely shouldn’t be fires. The party moves at once, heading in the direction Oren was coming from. Several citizens come with them, namely Oren, Miros, Naxene Drathkala, Zi Liang, and Shalvus Martholio. Once they get to the center of town, they manage to stop some goblins and bugbears that are looting the houses. Mordai takes some children that have been killed to the Abby in the hopes that Abbot Ellardin Darovick can help them some how. The rest of the party moves on into the fields, where they meet up with the awakened tree Lifferlas, and continue on to defend the city. They run into several bands of goblins, ogres and bug bears, with a few hill giants mixed in.

The various parties are no match for the party, but sadly Oren was struck by a critical blow from a giant, and lost his life in service of the city. The group, saddened by Oren’s loss, persevered and followed Theiafi as she guided them to where more goblins, ogres, bugbears and hill giants all waited. On the way there, the alarm bell is finally sounded, and the remaining enemies began to flee. As the group comes upon the remaining monsters, they are met by 30 of the town guard and Abbot Ellardin Darovick. Together, they form a plan to contend with the 30 goblins, 6 hill giants, and 15 ogres, some outfitted with contraptions designed to huck goblins where spiked helmets.

After a long, hard fought battle, the party and the Abbot were alive and well, but most of the town’s guard gave their lives as Oren had earlier that night, in defense of the city they loved so much.

After looting the bodies, finding much of the stolen goods from Goldenfields, they return to the inn for some much needed rest. In the morning, the town has decided to pay their respects, and bequeathed a number of gifts upon the might adventurers that have aided them so much. The party also returns as much of the loot as they can find the owners for. The Abbot gifts Landis with a Javelin of Lightning as a gift.

Mordai decides he can stay and be of some help to the hurting city, and bids the party farewell, and goes to help the Abbot as best he can (and perhaps gather a few skeletons and zombies that nobody will miss). Meanwhile, the adventurers receives several quests, so to speak.

Naxene Drathkala: she mentions a tale of a great treasure pile, guarded by a Fire Giant dreadnaught and lots of hobgoblins. She and a party of brave adventurers went to discover the truth of the tale, and Naxene was the only survivor of the trip.

Shalvus Martholio: Asks the party to escort him to Bargewright Inn.

Lifferlas: he mentions that the druid who made him, Aerglas (who was also skilled at slaying unruly giants), went to Shadowtop Cathedral to meet with an old treant named Turlang. He suggests the party should seek him out.

Zi Liang: She gives the party a rather valuable black peral pendant, and tells the party to take it to Cauldar Marskyl, who is the Head Butler for House Thann in Waterdeep. He will give them a gift in exchange for it, as Zi’s thanks to the adventurers for helping repel the assault on Goldenfields.

Miros Xelbrin: He tells the party he should go and give his “regards” to Arleosa Starhenge in Amphail.

The group decided to go ahead and escort Shalvus north to Bargewright Inn. They travel a few days through the wilderness, treated to some delicious wild game as Theiafi hunts for them. They make it to Bargewright Inn rather uneventfully, besides scaring off some would-be bandits based on the group composition and the, er, strange ways that certain party members present themselves.

Once in Bargewright Inn, most of the party is wary, but they press on, except Theiafi who hangs back to scout out some. The group gets Shalvus to his boss, Nalaskur Thaelond, who offers the party his thanks, and attempts to offer them a free room for the evening, with all but Pyro refusing his offer, due to the shady nature of the situation. Pyro, unphased by this, is presented with another quest, to see a beer delivery safely to the Troll in Flames tavern in Mornbryn’s Shield. Pryo says that he can convince the group, and does his best. The group, however, is convinced the whole town is run by the Zhentarim, the Black Network, and refuse the quest. Pyro delivers the news, and Nalaskur is disappointed, but still gives Pyro his free room.

The group leaves first thing in the morning, and they begin heading to Amphail, again through the wilderness. That evening, during the third watch, Pyro suddenly stops mid-conversation with Arianna, and attacks. This wakes the whole group, despite Landis’s distrust of Pyro, they realize he is being mind-controlled. Eventually, Pyro snaps out of it and resumes his conversation midbattle before he realizes what happened. He then joins the fight against the wolves and the bat. Soon, its revealed that the bat is in fact a vampire. As the party manages to hurt him, the vampire begins to flee, but eventually the taunting by Landis is enough to enrage him to attack one last time. That was all it took for the party to deal enough damage to the vampire to cause him to revert to his mist form. He began his slow return home, and unbeknownst to the party, dies en route to his coffin, as he could not get there before the sun came up.

The party makes their way to Amphail, and along the road they meet some fellow travelers: merchants on their way to Waterdeep. They are quickly recognized as the heroes of Goldenfields, and receive a gift from them. One of the merchants ask the party their destination, and an agreement to travel together is struck.

The group makes their way to Amphail from there, and stay the night there. The merchants mention that there is a party the next day, and asks if its alright to attend, as it will be a great time to make some sales.

The group meets Arleosa Starhenge at the Stag-horned Flagon. After getting to know each other, she mentions that she captivated a few adventurous admirers in her day. One of them gifted this ring to her, and mentioned that if she ever needed anything, to simply whisper his name (Keltar Dardragon) into it the ring, and he would appear and provide help. The ring is wooden and adorned with dancing nymphs.

Landis speaks the name into the ring later that night, and meets the ghost of Keltar. He’s a cheerful halfing, and mentions an old ‘lost tower’ where he left some treasure hidden. Keltar gives him directions to it, and bids Landis farewell.

The party is in fact Tylandar Roaringhorn’s 63rd birthday party. He’s one of 3 noble families from Amphail, and while they are not the ruling house here, most of the city realizes he’s just doing this to earn the citizen’s favor with free, delicious food. On the day of the party, the adventurers and city partake of some delicious imported goods from Waterdeep, and some wild boar from the surrounding area. Unfortunately, the delicious aroma brings on a few hill giants from the local hills, 4 in total. The adventurers manage to intervene, and it turns out the giants are just hungry. They make an agreement that the giants can have the remaining boar if they leave the village in peace, and they accept. Tylandar is furious with them later, asking if they realized how expensive that was. This is quickly turned back on him, with it being stated that he cared more for the expense going to waste than the civilians being safe from the giants.

The merchants gather up their belongings and the group heads south to Rassalantar. The party attempts to do some shopping, but anything that Landis and Arianna would order would take too long. The merchants pay for the inn for the evening, and they pack up and head south for Waterdeep the next day.

Along the road, the group is assaulted by a massive group of Uthgardt barbarians, 15 and 1 of their shaman. The adventurers tell the merchants to flee towards Waterdeep while they hold off the assault, and the group comes away unscathed, with a few nicely placed spells helping thin the enemy numbers quite a bit. As all but the shaman was left, he began casting a spell, and eventually transformed into a pegasus, the barbarians’ spirit animal, but even with his newfound strength he is quickly taken down by the party.

The group finally makes it to Waterdeep, where they part ways with the merchants. The group goes on a shopping spree! Lots of items purchased, including things like a flying broom, mithral splint armor for the frontliners, a fancy wand for Pyro, and a unique collar of protection for Daeva. They also take the pendant that Zi had given them and in return received a magic +1 longbow and gloves of theivery, which are both quickly assumed by Theiafi, as befitting her role in the party.

After a few days, the paladin and the cleric receive there armor, and later that morning, and ominous sign appears: yet another floating cloud giant castle. This one is parked about 1,000 feet above the city, just outside the city walls. Chaos erupts throughout the city, as civilians run around, scared for their lives, while the city guards and heralds from the open Lord of Waterdeep do their best to calm the city down.

Theiafi and Dot manage to scout out the castle, with Theiafi dodging around to get underneath and and determine their numbers, while Dot just tries to see if they seem hostile or not. Theiafi estimates about 15 giants total, some children, and some stone giants, while Dot finds that they do not appear to be hostile. Landis recruits some griffons to aid the other party members, and they tell the guards that they will try and see what’s going on. The group eventually flies up together to the castle, with Dot waving a white flag of peace.

The giants are amicable, and are simple cartographers, remapping the world after the gods have wrecked havoc yet again. They introduce themselves as Count Nimbolo and Countess Mulara. Dot introduces the party in giant, while Theiafi has an arrow knocked this whole time. Eventually Count Nimbolo realizes that everyone present may not speak Giant, and resumes the conversation in common. Countess Mulara, seeing that the party is friendly but distrusting of the smallfolk, Theiafi in particular, offers a challenge to the ranger, expecting her to back down. Theiafi accepts. Meanwhile, Dot is arranging a chess game for Landis, and meets with their eldest son, Kanye. They play a hell of a game of chess, with Landis winning. Kanye gives him a gift in exchange for the match.

Arianna helps the giants make a batch of Uncle Corrin’s cinammon rolls, and they turn out to be the best batch she’s ever made. She is likewise entrusted with a gift for her help. Theiafi and Countess Mulara have their sparring session, and though it pained her to do so, Theiafi has to yield. Doing so earned her some respect from the Countess, who recognizes that it took a lot of strength to break her pride enough to yield. She offers to heal Theiafi, which the ranger accepts, and is given a gift as well. Landis and Arianna both also challenge her to dual as well, both having to yield, Arianna through choice, and Landis through being knocked unconscious, but not before getting in a marvelous blow against the formidable Countess. She heals both of them as well. Meanwhile, Pyro has convinced one of the stone giant guards to accept the Phoenix as his own. The guard accepts the memoirs from Pyro, and in exchange, gives him a gift.

The Count and Dot went on a journey together with the best history experts Waterdeep has, as well with an honor guard. The giants believe that Waterdeep resides on a millennia old site from the ancient Giant civilization of Ostoria, and they acquired some Potions of Human size in order to visit the city. The Count takes the potion, and Dot leads him down to the city, after first having gotten permission from the leaders to do so. They venture deep into a set of crypts, and eventually come to an unusual door. Upon inspection, several ghosts appear and attack, but are quickly repelled, although one guardsmen loses his life in the process. Having appeased the trap, they enter the room and the Count is in awe of the relics he finds. While not of much value, it holds extreme sentimental value to him that they were correct that the city of Waterdeep lies on top of a relic from Ostoria. He learns what he can, and then the group heads back to the surface. Before Dot leaves to meet up with his group, he is given a gift by the city officials.

The Count and Countess eventually bid the group farewell, as they have other areas to map. They warn the group that there is a group of evil cloud giants preying upon the land of the smallfolk, lead by Countess Sansuri. They have no information about where she might be, but warns them to not take her lightly. The sparring matches the group had should be warning enough to not underestimate a cloud giant that is out to kill you.

The group spends some time planning their next course of action, and eventually use their contacts with the Lord’s Alliance and Landis’s old military contacts to secure a boat, and between that and the city of Waterdeep thanking them for their help with the giants, they manage to rent a sailbow at an incredibly low pirce to sail up the Dessarin River, towards Shadowtop Cathedral.

Along the way, they meet some travelers that are sailing south towards Waterdeep, and are warned to watch out for hill giants. The next day, they see the signs of hill giants in the area: everything east of the Dessarin has been stripped bare. It seems the party may have found where the hill giants that attacked Goldenfields came from.

On about the 5th day, the party make it to Yartar, making fantastic time. However, as they get there, they notice a group of four frost giants!