Back to Fritzholm's notes for sessions 16-20
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My left arm throbbed in pain and was extremely difficult to move, probably broken. My legs felt as though they would not support my weight without my armor to brace them. Where was my armor? I felt broken ribs puncturing my lungs. I think only one was still working. I tried to roll over to let the blood drain from my throat, but there were hands holding my arms - furry pawlike hands. It had to be the controll. "You are awake. He say not let you die." I heard. The controll told me that someone, it sounded like the Traveler, had brought me here and made them promise to keep me alive. So, I must not have imagined meeting the Traveler. They cast some sort of spell on me which patched up my life threatening wounds, but did little more. They told me in exchange for helping me I was to rescue some of their prisoners from the bad man's house. They had a terrible time trying to explain the notion of female controll to me with their poor broken Common, but evidently their women were all captured. I'll bet that's the real reason they work with the giants. I assured them that we would do that for them and that we would've done it anyhow. That's just the kind of great guys we are.

The controll led my to my equipment and forced me to wear a blindfold even though I told them I'd be able to find my way back anyhow. Who knows, maybe I will be able to. I questioned them about their tastes in colors, music, weather and food among other things and offered to cook them a meal. They brought me a deer (odd, I've seen no deer up in this area) and I cooked up spicy garlic and cinnamon venison. They could hardly believe their mouths.

After dinner the controll pointed me in the direction of my camp and beat a hasty retreat. I walked for about a mile before a spotted Dvym signalling me with his mirror. I met up with the group. The were happy to see me and set about healing me as I told them about my recent brush with death. It looked like our plan was to rush into the giants' cave relying on Ali's power to frighten the giants away. It didn't seem like much of a plan, but since I didn't have a better one I went along with it. As night fell I led the party up the side slope of the mountain to a clearing just above the cave mouth.

There was a female giant outside the cave and two males just inside the cave mouth. Our plan was to use Ali's devinely granted powers to frighten off the giants. In order to accomplish this we needed to lure the males outside. As Ali and Pip moved into position I readied a few stones and took aim on the anvil. My first toss was wide, but I followed it up with a direct hit which rang out loud enough to attract the giants' attention. Ali and Pip sprung down, cutting off their path back into the cave and Ali stood forebodingly. I'm not sure what he did, but it succeeded in frightening one giant. The rest of us charged the other two. For some reason Pip and Ali raced into the cave, followed by Rex, leaving only Dvym, Aayan, Sybil, and Myself to fight the giants. Luckily, we were up to the task.

After the fight Dvym hurried to catch up to the rest of the party. I waited for everyone else to enter the cave and took up guarding the rear. We headed along the left branch of the tunnel. According to the map this was the way to the prisoners. When we passed the first room, some sort of currently unused barracks, I stopped and hid in ambush of any creature who might wander along. The other party members went on ahead.

It wasn't long before someone did wander along. It was a smallish, self-assured elf dressed in grey garb. He took no notice of me. Dispite an uneasiness, I let him pass.

Less than half an hour passed as I stood silently guarding the corridor before Dvym and Ali returned looking for Rex and hoping also to stumble across me. I told them that Rex had not passed back this way and inquired as to whether they'd met the elf in grey who I'd seen earlier. They said the hadn't. They had found the prisioners, but they could not dispell the magical trap which held them. We needed to find Rex. By this time Sybil and Pip had arrived. We split up. In my search for Rex I found a mess hall of some sort, in which two giants were happily cooking away. How odd that in all this time they had not noticed us and sounded the alarm. Perhaps their cooks were deaf. I also noticed that the giant at the entrance who had originally been scared off had returned. The bodies of the two giants we had killed were gone. I was even more perplexed. They had to know we were somewhere about and yet they ignored our presence. The giants were acting in a very disorganized automaton fashion. It reminded me of a hive of insects who had lost their queen. I met back up with Dvym.

We wandered into the barracks room to plan, but instead a pit trap in the floor sprung open. Both of us swiftly bounded to the side to avoid the trap. Suddenly, we knew what had happened to Rex. We triggered the trap again and I lowered Dvym into the pit.

By this time everyone had grouped back up in the barracks. Pip and Sybil found rubies and a potion in some sacks of rotten meat. It had made some small amount of sense to me to place a trap in a fake barracks, but why put treasure there too? I checked the rubies and they appeared to be of slightly higher quality than those We took to Maston back while I was in charge of Shontino's caravan. No point in questioning treasure. We could use the funds.

This left us with three problems. First, these prisoners were certainly not controlls. They were three female elves. (Why are all elf women beautiful?) So we still had prisoners to rescue. Secondly, we were no closer to finding the Lavendar Root. This problem was even more pressing, since time was of the essence. Thirdly, we had made no progress towards wresting the star gem from the grasp of the 'Bad Man', which was the whole reason we were here in the first place. These problems aside, we chose to leave. I led the party back to our campsite.