Session 99 Aftermath
Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2017 3:22 pm
Conna walks in on the group as they are looting the shrine to Lamashtu. She is wearing layers of what must be very heavy bearskins, and carries a spear. She looks less the part of a quiet advisor, and much more like a warrior. She looks back at the red dragon corpses and notes the absence of the lamias. "It appears you have been busy. Come - we have much work to do." Conna leads the party to the large central pit - the one with all the bones and corpses in it - and proceeds up the ramp that circles it. The dire bears, in their caves around the ramp's edge, begin to stir, but settle down quickly with a glance from Conna.
This is the first, with the exception of a brief fly-over, that any of you have really seen of above-ground Jorgenfist. The entire compound is surrounded with a fifty-foot stone wall. To the south lies the gate inside, currently propped open, and as always flanked by two seventy-foot high towers. There are five other towers as part of the wall; four of these are slightly conical stone towers, seemingly made without seams, whereas the fifth, in the southeast portion of the wall, is twice as tall as the other towers, and made of black stone in a much more ancient style.
Within the walls, to the north of the pit, is a towering stone spire, covered in white streaks that extend from a hole about fifty-feet off the wall all the way to the ground. A long building in the northwest has wooden walls and no windows; smoke pours out of a large hole in the ceiling. To the northeast is a smaller stone building. A large wooden building in the southeast has odors emanating from it that suggest it is a stable of sorts. The southwest is a large area of hard-packed earth. A wooden podium has been constructed at the edge of the courtyard closest to the pit.
And then there's the giants. Oh, the giants. The exact numbers are hard to make out, but there must be close to 100 stone giants here, with almost as many hill giants and ogres (combined). There are also two other giants with frost-white skin and light blue hair, fully decked out in the chain mail/helmet combinations of warriors of the north. "You may watch, but it would probably be best if you did not follow me onto the stage," Conna advises you. There is much milling about and nervousness as Conna advances onto the podium, carrying her spear and a sack; murmurs of Mokmurian's absence are mostly treated with scoffing and derision.
Conna's entire speech is given in Giantish. She starts with a recitation of the history and ancestors of the Kavarvatti tribe. She builds up to her rule of the tribe with her husband Vandarrec. She speaks of the birth of her son Mokmurian, and how his diminutive stature filled his parents with pride as they knew he would be gifted with the powers of sorcery. She speaks lovingly and proudly of the day his arcane powers first manifested, and how successful they knew he would be. The speech takes a turn, however, when she speaks of how Mokmurian murdered his wife -- his wife, who had discovered Mokmurian's dark secret: Mokmurian was no sorcerer. She tells how the elders discovered what Mokmurian had tried to hide spellbooks from his wife, spellbooks that she discovered, spellbooks that reeked of magic from humanity, the unholy magical systems that once enslaved the ancestors of all giant-kind. She describes the burning of his books; Mokmurian's censure as a traitor; and how Mokmurian was exiled into the wild to fend for himself. She tells of Mokmurian's return to the Vale of the Black Tower with lamia allies from afar, his fortification of the land, and construction of Jorgenfist. She tells of Mokmurian's challenge of leadership to the Kavarvatti tribe and the underhanded slaying of Vandarrec with the forbidden magic. The crowd starts to become incited as she speaks of how the spirits of the Ancient Lords, particularly one named Karzoug, started to sway Karzoug and cause him to lie to his followers. Many of the crowd begin to boo at Conna at this point.
It is then that Conna drops here spear and jumps straight up into the air.... and stays there. Acid sprays out of her fingers, burning holes in the stage, quieting the crowd down. She reminds the crowd how Mokmurian had practically ceded entire control of the Kavarvatti's to a stone giant named Barl Breakbones; how Barl was supposed to provide a tribe of ogres and carts of weapons from Hook Mountain, but was slain by a group of adventurers; how Drogart - whom she publicly points out to the entire assembly - has done nothing to glorify his tribe or Mokmurian's army since that defeat; how the dragon Longtooth was the only survivor from a raid on a human village, flying back, licking his wounds, and hasn't been seen from since. This is when she pulls Mokmurian's head out from the bag, commanding all to look on the face of their so called leader, commanding all to look on the sins of their upstart leader who has been punished by the ancestors.
The crowd of giants is silent for a few minutes. The two light-skinned giants leave the crowd and tromp into the small stone building. Murmuring, the nervous kind, starts to erupt from the crowd. The mumbling dies down again when the two giants return, one carrying a large sack over his shoulder. They both very pointedly walk through the crowd, heading directly towards the open gate. The unladen giant yells out, "The frost giants of the Kodar Mountains rescind our allegiance."
Over the next several minutes, some fights break out between some of the giants - fist fights mostly - but the crowd disperses towards their separate camps. Over the next hour, some of the camps begin to dissemble; others have tents that are abandoned as giants simply walk away with their dire bear pets. It appears that the giant menace to Varisia has been dissolved.
This is the first, with the exception of a brief fly-over, that any of you have really seen of above-ground Jorgenfist. The entire compound is surrounded with a fifty-foot stone wall. To the south lies the gate inside, currently propped open, and as always flanked by two seventy-foot high towers. There are five other towers as part of the wall; four of these are slightly conical stone towers, seemingly made without seams, whereas the fifth, in the southeast portion of the wall, is twice as tall as the other towers, and made of black stone in a much more ancient style.
Within the walls, to the north of the pit, is a towering stone spire, covered in white streaks that extend from a hole about fifty-feet off the wall all the way to the ground. A long building in the northwest has wooden walls and no windows; smoke pours out of a large hole in the ceiling. To the northeast is a smaller stone building. A large wooden building in the southeast has odors emanating from it that suggest it is a stable of sorts. The southwest is a large area of hard-packed earth. A wooden podium has been constructed at the edge of the courtyard closest to the pit.
And then there's the giants. Oh, the giants. The exact numbers are hard to make out, but there must be close to 100 stone giants here, with almost as many hill giants and ogres (combined). There are also two other giants with frost-white skin and light blue hair, fully decked out in the chain mail/helmet combinations of warriors of the north. "You may watch, but it would probably be best if you did not follow me onto the stage," Conna advises you. There is much milling about and nervousness as Conna advances onto the podium, carrying her spear and a sack; murmurs of Mokmurian's absence are mostly treated with scoffing and derision.
Conna's entire speech is given in Giantish. She starts with a recitation of the history and ancestors of the Kavarvatti tribe. She builds up to her rule of the tribe with her husband Vandarrec. She speaks of the birth of her son Mokmurian, and how his diminutive stature filled his parents with pride as they knew he would be gifted with the powers of sorcery. She speaks lovingly and proudly of the day his arcane powers first manifested, and how successful they knew he would be. The speech takes a turn, however, when she speaks of how Mokmurian murdered his wife -- his wife, who had discovered Mokmurian's dark secret: Mokmurian was no sorcerer. She tells how the elders discovered what Mokmurian had tried to hide spellbooks from his wife, spellbooks that she discovered, spellbooks that reeked of magic from humanity, the unholy magical systems that once enslaved the ancestors of all giant-kind. She describes the burning of his books; Mokmurian's censure as a traitor; and how Mokmurian was exiled into the wild to fend for himself. She tells of Mokmurian's return to the Vale of the Black Tower with lamia allies from afar, his fortification of the land, and construction of Jorgenfist. She tells of Mokmurian's challenge of leadership to the Kavarvatti tribe and the underhanded slaying of Vandarrec with the forbidden magic. The crowd starts to become incited as she speaks of how the spirits of the Ancient Lords, particularly one named Karzoug, started to sway Karzoug and cause him to lie to his followers. Many of the crowd begin to boo at Conna at this point.
It is then that Conna drops here spear and jumps straight up into the air.... and stays there. Acid sprays out of her fingers, burning holes in the stage, quieting the crowd down. She reminds the crowd how Mokmurian had practically ceded entire control of the Kavarvatti's to a stone giant named Barl Breakbones; how Barl was supposed to provide a tribe of ogres and carts of weapons from Hook Mountain, but was slain by a group of adventurers; how Drogart - whom she publicly points out to the entire assembly - has done nothing to glorify his tribe or Mokmurian's army since that defeat; how the dragon Longtooth was the only survivor from a raid on a human village, flying back, licking his wounds, and hasn't been seen from since. This is when she pulls Mokmurian's head out from the bag, commanding all to look on the face of their so called leader, commanding all to look on the sins of their upstart leader who has been punished by the ancestors.
The crowd of giants is silent for a few minutes. The two light-skinned giants leave the crowd and tromp into the small stone building. Murmuring, the nervous kind, starts to erupt from the crowd. The mumbling dies down again when the two giants return, one carrying a large sack over his shoulder. They both very pointedly walk through the crowd, heading directly towards the open gate. The unladen giant yells out, "The frost giants of the Kodar Mountains rescind our allegiance."
Over the next several minutes, some fights break out between some of the giants - fist fights mostly - but the crowd disperses towards their separate camps. Over the next hour, some of the camps begin to dissemble; others have tents that are abandoned as giants simply walk away with their dire bear pets. It appears that the giant menace to Varisia has been dissolved.