8th January 2022 - Session 34 - Meeting Harshnag for the First Time - Sally

The group is on the road between Silvery Moon and Zymomen Hall on their way to meet Harshnag. Graupel and Dipple aren’t with the group. 

Group rolls perception. Kin & Bearnabus spot a giant’s castle floating in the distance. Dunbarr blows into his horn to attract the castle’s attention, giving a solidly beautiful performance that travels with ease across the marsh and fills the valley. 

The group continues stealthily up the road. The cloud starts and stops moving every 20 minutes or so, and hasn’t followed the horn. It seems they are looking for something in the marsh. 

Along the road, we see the ruins of a small cottage that seems like it was a functional building, not a home. Two big double doors, closed. High roofed. As we pass it, we see the back of a 20ft tall man around the back of it. We want to check if he’s Harshnag. He has the exact same symbol as Zephyros (Cloud Giant in Castle) on his cloak. 

[The symbol on the fire giants armour meant fire. This symbol on this giant’s armour means cloud]. 

Dunbarr talks to the giant. Who looks over his shoulder and shooshes us puny folk away. Dunbarr instantly starts short man beef. Kin and Bearnabus slowly disassociate from Dunbarr. He mentions Zephyros, this Giant is not a fan. We ask him about Harshnag, he has heard of Harshnag but has no respect for a giant that turned on his people. 

Bearnabus hears digging and scraping noises from inside the building. He can spot three people and a creepy stone face inside. We say we want to bring back Vonindod (dragon slayer weapon). The Giant is not into it and says dragons are not Giant’s only problem. Says that Cloud giants are rightful rulers and that is it foolish that the giants are in chaos. 

Dunbarr keeps trying to sell the idea of Vonindod but the Giant is not on board, the Cloud Giants prefer to learn from the past. He says that the past can teach them how to rule without the need for weapons. They plan on wiping out people once they are in power. He asks us to leave again. 

Bearnabus Spidernabusses (forgetting Dunbarr has a fear of spiders) into the house. There is a giant trying to get into the gap to the scary stone face but he’s too big, another giant is pacing around, looking at the ground. One of the walls has ancient worn down shapes on it, and a third Giant is trying to dust off and see symbols. The scary stone face is a very old stone statue of a giant, sitting on a plinth, fully clad in armour, with breastplates, holding a big sword. The intricate detail is worn away. 

The group walks on to Zymorven Hall, it is a Keep made of mortared stone with a high pitched roof, perched atop a cliff looking down on the road, with wooden carved wolves howling on the peaks. 

We walk up to the Keep and meet two guards. They look like knights, fully cloaked in plate mail. Dunbarr introduces himself. Bearnabus re-tielfings as part of a magic trick. We tell them that we are seeking Harshnag who they confirm is inside. We say he doesn’t know us, that his friend Drav directed us here to provide Harshnag with assistance. The potential heroes of Everlund (Dunbarr says). 

A guide takes us through the main double doors of the castle. There are people walking around the courtyard. The guide offers us seats in a big entrance hallway. In conversation we find out that Harshnag is here on his own business, there hasn’t been any trouble from Cloud Giants, just the usual protection of surrounding villages from orcs etc.

An old lady druid, Sandy, is stressed by us being there and we have wildly inconvenienced her. She walked ALL the way from her hut and is not a fan of the cold here. She hands all her stuff to Dunbarr and walks us to Harshnag. She gives out to Bearnabus for giving up his noble bed and she shuffles along. 

Kin notices all the rugs and interiors are cleaned regularly, not dusty, well maintained. We walk through a door to the right and inside the knight introduces us to Harshnag, Sandy asks why she was called here. Giant Harshnag asks her to fix his hurt leg, she is real sassy about it and drags Dunbarr along with her. We introduce ourselves to Harshnag and explain that Drav sent us.

Harshnag: I am here with the Lord, we have run into difficulties, I wasn’t expecting you so quickly. * Dunbarr shows off his fast boots. *

Harshnag is a very tall frost giant with tinged blue skin. He has the skull of a white dragon as his helmet. Has an enormous jagged axe suitable for his size. Lord Zymormon (knight) has shinier armour than the other knights. Dunbarr considers his own bone helmet options. 

Lord Zymomen lost his great (giant-slaying) axe that would have helped Harshnag in his quest. Lord Zymomen’s son, Zarthal, has taken the axe, to Yartar where he married a common thief. He hasn’t heard from him since and has disowned him for this marriage. Lord Zymomen thinks that Zarthal sold the axe, to fund himself after being disowned. Zarthal was meant to take Lord Zymomen’s place. He has other sons, but Zarthal was his choice for succession. 

The axe is as big as a normal axe, however, the blade is so sharp that it can cut through the thick bones of giants. The network of thieves he married into probably helped Zarthal to sell the axe. We commit to investigating this if we are passing through Yatar again. 

Harshnag: My people have turned the world into chaos and I want to protect the people of the Sword Coast against my people but I cannot defeat them alone. I think that I now need to speak to the Giant Oracle in the valley of Keldrun. The Valley is a place where giants can speak to the All Father (the Giant God) and this is done through the Oracle. The Oracle lives in the eye of the All Father. We must find out from them how to fix the ordaning. When the giants were ruled properly by the King of the Storm Giants. The giants are fighting among themselves causing chaos in the Sword Coast. The Cloud Giants seek knowledge to rule, the Hill Giants seek size to rule. The Storm King is missing, assumed dead. The Fire Giants believe if they murder everyone, the Allfather will give them the power to rule. The Frost Giants seek mythical weapons. I must take a journey deep into the spine of the world to visit the valley and speak to the Oracle. I believe the All Father wants the Ordening back. 

Upon learning that Harshnag doesn’t wish to be King himself, Dunbarr kindly offers to take up the mantle of King of the Giants. 

Harshnag wishes for the Return of King Hekaton (Storm King) and hopes that the Oracle will tell us who, if not Hekaton, should be King, and shed light on where Hekatonis or if he is dead. Harshnag just wishes to protect the towns and villages 

Harshnag says they will need to travel through the wilderness so there will be lots of wilderness checks. We will need to gather supplies as there won’t be towns on our journey. Dunbarr suggests travelling by cloud castle. Harshnag is somewhat anti that plan as he thinks the cloud giantess Countess Sansuri who is currently searching the land for relics, would torture and kill us. She doesn’t hate the people of the land, she thinks all beings should serve her and will do anything to people to bend their wills to her. Dunbarr sasses Sandy and she smacks him. 

Dunbarr asks what is in it for us? Harshnag offers the very reasonable non-death of everyone on the Sword Coast.

Although the group feel it would be good to find the axe in Yartar, Harshnag says there is no time to waste but that we should definitely look for the axe after the trip to the Valley.  

[Vonindod is a Dragonslayer weapon, the axe we’re after is a Giant slayer.] 

The Oracle gives people quests. Harshnag will need our help depending on what the quest is. Sometimes magic is needed, sometimes strength, sometimes a drunken dwarf! 

Dunbarr and Harshnag have a TOTALLY NORMAL handshake between two equally sized individuals. 

Dunbarr gives Sandy a bottle of Elven wine from Silverymoon. She gives him a chipped dented old single gold piece. Dunbarr checks arcana on it. Vibe of magic off it but could just be druid vibes. Keeps it separate from the rest of his gold. It's just for luck. She says that if he meets any powerful druids on our journey, to give it to them. Bearnabus takes the vibe coin. 

Harshnag asks Lord Zymomen to send word to the Harpers of our soon to be arrival in Everlund to use the teleportation circles to Mirabar to start our journey. Lord Zymomen asks us to stay the night before we leave so as to be rested for the journey. A scribe leaves immediately to send word to Everlund. 

A knight shows us to our accommodation and we all sleep. Dipple & Graupel reappear in the beds.