Timekeeping
This session began on May 8th, 2025, with the player characters adventuring until May 9th. Downtime for these characters begins the next day.
Player Characters Present
Sever the Wrathful (Level 8 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, wielder of Were'shbane and wearer of the Girdle of Cloud Giant Strength, rider of Mustang) with henchmen Paul (P1) & Poindexter (M3)Giuseppe (Level 7 Paladin of Rome, Brovenloft, wielder of the Dragonslayer and the Shield of Protection from Missiles, rider of Bonecrusher) with henchmen Bishoy and Tawadros (F5) and Rhoikos (M2)Sheamus (Level 7 Irish Fighter from Brovenloft, rider of the Rocket Cycle and wielder of the Drewblade) with henchman McScales (Lizardman F4)Bumblebore (Level 5 Magic User of Machodor, wielder of the Wand of Paralysation) and Firedrake Familiar O'Malfoy
Downtime
Session Report
Combat #1: Sever vs 2 Hill Giants
Rounds: 2 surprise segments
Result: Party Victory
Highlights: Sever swooping in like batman and taking out both giants in segments.
The Rocket Cycle group landed and then decided not to go in the front door, wary of traps and not being sure of what was waiting for them. I was dumbfounded as they instead they lifted off and passed right back over the top of the steading to come into the open area (22), where the wolves used to be, and where they now knew were alert hill giant sentries. This left Sever hanging inside, with no idea what they were doing. I kept my meddling thoughts to myself and it turned out there was indeed method to the madness.
Combat #2: Giuseppe vs 3 Hill Giants
Rounds: 2
Result: Party Victory
Highlights: Giuseppe quaffed his potion of Hill Giant control (a very fortunate find in the Orc loot from last session!) and snagged one of them under his control. The rest of the gang dropped out of the Invisible 10' Radius Rocket Cycle and quickly defeated the other two.
The charmed giant was heading into the out buildings (23) when Giuseepe stopped him and got him to understand that they wanted to see the boss. Slowly the big dummy considered the paladin's words, and then led them into the main steading and right into the Great Hall (11). He then proceeded to charge right up to the high table where Chief Frojef* looked up in surprise at his ally. The party now had the great fortune of 2 segments of surprise. Instead of charging in right then, the party wisely used their surprise segments to set themselves up to defend the entrance, though it was a bit of a stretch at 20' wide. Then it was Bumblebore's big chance to shine; he did not disappoint.
 |
| KABOOM! |
I consulted the spell description for the area of effect and compared that to the size of the room. Although famously too big for some dungeon locations, the great hall had plenty of room for a Fireball to expand into, and the spot Bumblebore had targeted caused all the occupants to be effected. Rather than let this go to his head, the magic user saw the resulting tide of giants coming his way and went Invisible.
Combat #3: Everyone vs All the Hill Giants
Rounds: 5 + 2 Surprise Segments
Result: Party Victory (Close!)
Highlights: For the first time in a Machodor session a magic user got to cast Fireball. All the giants, as indicated in the module, were in this room; minus 5 that had been killed by Sever in downtime, so they needed that AOE goodness which brought down most of the giants hit points by approximately 50%. This happened after party's archers fired in the second segment and most of their arrows had the name of Mrs Frojef on them, she was dead before the fight really started.
Meanwhile, Server had killed two sleeping giants at the bottom of the watch tower and had worked his way to the door right outside the south entrance to the great hall (11). Once he had heard the start of the fight I allowed him to burst through with his henchman right behind him.
There was a collective tightening of belts as the remaining fifteen or so giants charged the main group of the party. We had a brief discussion about how many should be able to attack each party member and then the discord dice bot had a workout. Back at the high table, a Cloud Giant and two of three stone giants kept out of the fray, while one stone giant had joined the attack on the party and went after Giuseppe. Chief Frojef, his sub-chief, and his cave bear killed the charmed hill giant and then rallied some surviving ogres to intercept Sever. The next rounds were a slug fest with giants and PC hit points dropping in rapid and in approximate unity. Bumblebore had O'Malfoy strafe the giants which helped significantly. The poor rocket cycle, used as an impromptu fortification, was nearly destroyed; but somehow the front ranks, with Giuseppe and Sheamus, prevailed. Sever eventually took down Chief Frojef--and was looking around for more--when he saw that the remaining enemies, the cloud and two stone giants, had grabbed furniture to use as a shield and were backing out of the room, heading west. Although very keen to pursue, the party's resources were tapped out; they gathered up the loot that was to hand (quite a bit!) and withdrew to the Ice Castle.
* Dorrinal pointed out to me later how it was canonical the Chief Nosnra was in Steadford, something I didn't know but fitted well my my naming of this tribal chief.
DM Notes
Session Statistics:
Wilderness travel: 36 Miles
Combats: 4
Combat rounds: 8
Grunt Hill Giant jewellery: some fireball damaged, value reduced by 50%, some burned by O'Malfoy's gross breath weapon, further 25% reduction to 9,318gp and some undamaged 10,350 gp
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