Thieves of Cloud and Fire

Thieves of Cloud and Fire is the 45th Chapter in the SKT Saga.

Short Summary
The wayfarers decide to infiltrate Ironslag in a last-ditch effort to acquire a conch. They fumble their way through their most important mission yet.

Long Summary
(to be added)

Characters

 * The Wayfarer's Guild
 * Almond
 * Benedikt
 * Lox
 * HD
 * Yenedril


 * Duke Zalto
 * Duchess Brimskada


 * The Phandalver Phive
 * Sildar
 * Mei
 * Arthas


 * Gon
 * Lil' Grindstone
 * Mythil
 * Alice
 * The driver

Timestamps from Recording
00:00:33 – Recap of the last session.

00:02:57 – Al informs TWG that Loki is on the other side of the gate. They sneak into a hut further away from the gate. HD volunteers to peek over the wall to get an idea of how many people there are. She sees 8 cloaked figures carrying weapons in the middle of a conversation. She also hears them wonder if they have been betrayed, and they decide to make contact with their allies via a sending stone.

00:10:53 – Ben polymorphs HD and Lox into giant vultures. The gang then flies down the side of the mountain unnoticed. They spot a small cave on the side of the mountain that is about 10ft deep. Its about 09:00 AM in the morning. They discuss the limitations of opening the box, what Loki and his friends were up to, the missing titan and the meeting taking place at the fire giant strong hold. They discuss how to urinate while in the cave. Al suggests making a sewage system using mold earth. Lox and HD talk about making pee icicles off the side of the mountain.

00:34:40 – Lox creates tiny hut that the gang can hideout in. Yen suggests going back up the mountain to infiltrate the meeting. They suggest HD use her magic boots to walk up the mountain and sneak into the meeting. They decide on resting in the cave until the next day so that their spell slots and health back.

00:53:58 – Sometime during their long rest, the gang feels the mountain shake and hear explosions from the top of the mountain. This goes on for 10 minutes and small rubble falls from the roof of the cave. Al theorizes that this is happening because Sansuri suspects that she has been betrayed by the fire giants. The party sleeps inside the cave, and wake up at dawn.

01:05:10 – Lox and Al polymorph into giant owls and try to carry the party to the cloud giant castle. When they get up to the Yakfolk village, they find that half the village had broken off, and the other half is covered in boulders and scorch marks, and there is a massive hole in the area behind the village. The party realizes that the cloud giant castle is no longer above them. The gang decides to go to Ironslag instead. They get to the hole behind the village and discover that it is the entrance to the fire giant stronghold.

01:13:37 – The gang spots large bodies of about four dead fire giants in the rubble near the hole. The gang decides to delve into the opening in the mountain which seems to go down very deep. They see small passages along the side of the hole with railways and ladders indicating it to be some sort of mining operation. After about 400 ft the gang sees some lava at the bottom, and they follow it to an elevator shaft which goes into a second level of the structure, surrounded by bodies of dead fire giants and orcs.

01:43:51 – The gang checks out the right side of the area and finds the bodies of a fire giant and three orcs under the rubble. They then head to the south and finds a door 20 ft high with a latch 10ft high. HD walks up the wall and pulls the latch open. They all go into the room, inside which is a massive table, several chairs around it, rusty manacles with dried up blood and giant barrels and crates. It is a torture room.

01:53:43 – They check the passageway on the other side of the area which leads to a much larger chamber. There are hobgoblins and dwarf slaves along with orcs cleaning the area from rubbles. They area contains metal cranes holding a giant bronze metal gauntlet and a sword, along with a massive torso and head in the middle of the chamber (looks like a giant bronze man). There is also a fire giant in the room yelling orders. The gang considers attacking, but ultimately settle on going to the second layer of the structure. They throw down a rope and head down.

02:11:04 – They go down and see a chamber to the north and west each. From the larger chamber they hear giants yelling near an armored colossus. One of them is male (Zalto) and the other is female. They talk about killing Sansuri for murdering their son, and killing the shadow thieves for betraying them. They discuss plans to finish the giant metal man (the Vonindod) and use it to crush Sansuri and the smallfolk. Zalto walks away to the north passage. The gang goes north warily. They pass through an empty feasting hall with a massive fireplace, and HD sneaks towards a corner and sees two large ornate doors with patterns and jewels on them. The gang decides to open the door that is more ornately decorated and use the same maneuver as earlier to open the door.

02:32:08 – They head inside and see that it’s a bedroom. There is a bed in the middle of the room with chains and manacles hanging on top of the bed. There is also a table, a large iron chest, barrels, a wardrobe and a full-length mirror. They use the wand of magic detection which picks up a small signature from the chest. The chest is locked with a combination lock. They take a window from Al’s robe of useful items and open the chest. Inside they find a pile of gold coins, a giant crown with six black opals, silver, jeweled circlet, a set of pipes (both magic), and a conch. They take the conch, circlet, pipe and each takes a handful of gold.

02:43:47 – They try to head out the way they came, but spot Zalto and his woman coming towards the room. Yen uses major illusion to create an image of Sansuri in the feasting hall opposite to the direction where the gang would sneak away from. Zalto and the duchess Brimskada are distracted by this. The illusion of Sansuri taunts the fire giants, calling them thieves and telling them to return her possession to her. Ben turns himself, Lox and Al invisible. Everyone rushes out of the hall.

03:09:29 – HD is the first one to make it to the rope they used to climb down. Al carrying Ben reaches the rope next, and he makes it to the top. Lox and Yen make it near the rope, but two fire giants follow the commotion to the hall and spot Yen and HD. Lox turns into a giant eagle, grabs Yen and flies out of there. The fire giants start screaming about intruders. HD casts sleet storm and blocks the giants from accessing elevator shaft. Ben turns himself and Al into an eagle. They grab HD and fly out. The gang flies out of the mountain and go away from the mountain. They are in possession of two conches.

45. pt2

00:01:01 – Yen and eagle Lox are proud of their well planned and executed mission. They land after polymorph runs out, and after they contact Sandyse, Lox uses his newly acquired teleportation spell to take the party to Neverwinter. When they teleport back and ask Sandyse about Cassian in order to collect their money from the bet, they are informed that Cassian went back to Waterdeep.

00:12:40 – Ben uses magic to clean the blood off himself, Al and HD. Yen and Lox pretend that they are gravely injured and limp their way to the hall of justice. They meet up with Sildar, Arthas and Mei. TWG informs them that they got the fire giant and cloud giant conches, and broke their alliance. Ben gives them the details of how the mission went down. They also tell them about the shadow thieves, and Al’s connection to Loki and that he is the one who trapped the titan. Sildar asks the party to open bank accounts so they can give them gold for the mission. Yen, Al, HD and Lox head off to Gon’s workshop.

00:37:44 – The door to the workshop is still broken, but nailed shut. HD kicks the door open. Half the door flies off and knocks Gon unconscious. He wakes up and asks the party about the mission. He almost dies from death by hug from Lox. Yen gets his magic wings and leaves. Al asks about an item to help him see in the dark, and is told to about a driftglobe, and Gon offers to make bombs for Al. HD asks Gon to infuse the ise rune to her helmet. Gon tells her he would need to borrow the helmet for a few days, and HD says she will give her answer later. Lox and Gon fumble their way through a conversation. Gon informs him that Daggerford was attacked by stone giants while TWG was gone. He also says Junior mentioned something about “lady running”.

01:03:17 – Meanwhile, Ben heads over to the Wingding camp to find that the tents there have been replaced by bumps from the ground with doors. He knocks on one of the doors and is greeted by Joey, and is shown to LG’s door. LG hugs Ben who awkwardly tells the lad that he has to leave again soon. LG says that the Wingdings teach him numbers, give him food and have him do work. Ben disappoints LG by telling him he didn’t want to come back so soon, but cheers him up by giving him an obsidian dagger. LG shows Ben his room which is a fully furnished house underground, and Ben tells him about the mission while LG falls asleep. Ben leaves him a note and leaves.

01:15:34 – After attuning to the wings, Yen goes to a store and buys sweets for himself. He goes out of Neverwinter and is struck with a memory that he can’t place. He summons his sword and draws a circle around himself, puts the treats in the circle and slams his sword into the ground. His sword glows and grows smaller until it becomes pin-sized, and a glowing sphere appears near it which turns into a small humanoid figure (2 feet). It takes the pin and bows. She says “I’m back, master”. Yen welcomes her back, hugs her and calls her Alice.

01:20:29 – Lox sends a message to Lorenzo, who responds back sounding weak and confirms that he is the dragon that has been captured. He asks Lox to tell his crew that he has been captured. Al goes to buy the driftglobe, and then goes to meet Mythil. They discuss about the children at the temple, and Mythil tells Al that he, along with the kids are sticking to the training Al taught them. They talk more about when Al would be leaving, and Mythil offers to feed him lunch.

01:30:24 – HD goes looking for ‘the driver’. She goes to the Orc Pub and asks the bartender if he has seen a nice-looking man who has trouble communicating and is very interested in his horse, but she has no luck. She goes back to her room and finds the driver sitting on the bed with a toothpick in his mouth. HD asks what he is there for and he says that he is here to deliver a message from someone, and kicks her out the window. He jumps out near her and tells her that her employers are growing impatient because she hasn’t been doing the work she is been paid to do, and that this is her last warning. HD tells him “Xantharl’s Keep, he’s there”. The driver acquires about her other mission of reporting on certain individuals and their actions, and HD gives him a brief summary of everything that happened on the mission. HD continues to lie on the ground and accepts a toothpick from the man.

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