Chapter 10: Hailstorm Tower
10.1 Arcturus Again
Upon returning to Arcturus, the party brought the book Balthazar needed to him and returned the rest of the books to the gnomish merchant guild. Their liaison at the guild gave them 15 thorium pieces each as a reward, and suggested that he might be able to arrange a more significant reward if the party were to assist in retrieving the rest of the stolen goods. The party relaxed and trained for several days while waiting to hear back from the gnome and from Balthazar. Magnus finished his wandmaker training, having crafted a healing wand for himself, and surprised Morgrim with the gift of a (less powerful) healing wand. He expressed his gratitude to Morgrim for being the first dwarf to treat him like a friend despite him being claness. Then they got drunk.
10.2 Some Troubling News
Towards the end of the week, Balthazar showed up at the inn with news. He now had a pretty firm idea of what Crane had in mind. As it turned out, Crane was planning on using the soul shards of Oglibyet for dual purposes: to raise a powerful white dragon from the dead, and as a phylactery - a container for the soul used by liches to grant them psuedo-immortality. It seemed that Crane was intending to become a lich, and to make his phylactery more difficult to destroy, he planned to implant it in a powerful undead dragon with the power of the avatars of Oglibyet. Balthazar was able to gather that Crane would have to perform the rites to raise the dragon during a specific astrological timeframe; he had missed his chance this year, and would have to wait until the upcoming winter.
10.3 Planning the Mission
The party also heard back from their gnomish liaison. He was on thin ice with his guild (being the one responsible for the airship that was downed by the orcish raiders), but had been able to convince them to offer the party a significant reward if they could successfully retrieve the stolen goods. However, the rest of the guild were very doubtful of the party's chances of success, so would not invest any money upfront. They did authorize their diviners to gather as much information as they could about the orcish fortifications and plans, and even authorized surveillance of the orcish lands via flying machine.
The diviners and pilots soon discovered that after the party's initial raid on the keep at the top of the volcano, the orcs had stepped up their defenses enough that an assault on that location would be much more difficult. Not only that, they learned that the volcano was riddled with caverns that were the home to a clan of fire giants. If the fire giant leading the orcs was aligned with the others, raiding the keep at the volcano's mouth would be folly. However, the diviners were able to uncover the fire giant's plans for the loot.
The magical goods were to be transported to a fortification called Hailstorm Tower on the northern edge of the mountains. There, the fire giant had set up a meet with one of the orcish warlords from the orcish lowlands to the north of the mountains. Half of the goods had already been transported and were being stored at Hailstorm Tower already; the fire giant was to bring the rest in a few days.
The party hatched a plan. They would be airdropped into the mountains near the tower by a gnomish flying machine. They would attack the tower before the fire giant's arrival with the second half of the loot, and ambush the fire giant's retinue when they arrived. They would then get away with the caravan goods as quickly as possible, before their actions could be discovered by the orcish warlord and his followers. They arranged for an escort from Windmere to meet them at the foot of the mountains and provide safe passage back to Windmere. Also, Hirum, a veteran of the orcish wars from Windmere, volunteered to accompany them on the mission.
The party finished their preparations in Arcturus, then ascended the tower of the gnomish merchant guild again for another trip on the flying machine.
10.4 The Air Drop
This time, Magnus had prepared enough flying spells for all, so everyone didn't have to hold onto Hork for dear life. When the flying machine neared Hailstorm Tower, everyone jumped and flew to the meeting spot that had been arranged with Hiram, the veteran warrior from Windmere.
The party carefully made their way through the mountains towards the orcish outpost. They stopped when Daergel spotted some sentinels, and waited long enough for him to circle around and take them by surprise. He took them out easily. The trek to Hailstorm Tower was otherwise uneventful.
10.5 Assault on Hailstorm Tower
The party arrived at Hailstorm Tower late in the day. Once again Magnus gave the party the power of flight (except Daergel, who sat in Hork's backpack with his crossbow at the ready.) With the sun behind them, the party was able to take the defenders by surprise. Daergel shot two of the goblins manning the rooftop ballistae before they had time to react, and then the party swarmed the other two. The battle was over within seconds... until Hork rushed for the trapdoor leading down to the next floor. The goblins there were similarly taken by surprise and taken out quickly. Of course Hork bolted for the trapdoor leading to the ground floor and discovered a pair of ogres waiting for her there. The party wasn't able to take out the ogres before they had raised an alarm, and more ogres and orc berserkers spilled out of the tunnels leading into the cliffs behind the tower.
The party split up; Hork and Hiram held the entrance to the tower while Daergel and Morgrim circled around to intercept some of the ogres. After healing Hork and Hiram through the initial onslaught, Magnus zipped around to heal Morgrim just in time, saving him from a squishy fate. Soon afterwards the party had slain or routed the remaining ogres and orcs, and had a few seconds to rest and heal. The reprieve was short, however. Soon, the sounds of an advancing mob echoed out of the tunnel leading into the cliff.
10.6 Death of a Dragonslayer
Daergel sneaked forward to get a better look. As he watched, the crowd of orcs quited, and from their midst emerged the largest orc any of the party had ever seen. The orcish champion, apparently the warlord of this outpost, stood around seven and a half feet tall, it's face and arms criss-crossed with hundreds of scars. The champion charged forward, swinging a mighty greatsword at the party members, rending armor and flesh with almost every stroke. Daergel attempted to tumble past him into a flanking position, but paid dearly as he was almost sliced in two in the process. He found himself now threatened by another orc warrior, and also discovered the orc champion was too fast and experienced to be flanked. As the rest of the party chopped and smashed at the champion, slowly wearing him down, Daergel attempted to tumble back to safety. Again, the champion intercepted him with a quick slash, and this one left Daergel unconscious at the feet of the other orc. While the champion, bleeding profusely but refusing to die, held off the rest of the party, the other orc warrior beheaded Daergel.
With half a dozen more powerful strikes, Hork, Morgrim, and Hiram finished off the orc champion. The fall of their leader sent the rest of the orcs and goblins fleeing. The party did their best to finish off those that fled into the mountains to the south (the direction the fire giant's caravan would be arriving from) before returning to mourn Daergel's death.
Hork was tasked with hustling down through the mountains to the camp of the support force from Windmere, where she would retrieve mules and wagons to transport the stolen goods back from Hailstorm Tower. She got lost along the way and stumbled upon an orcish camp, but avoided it without being seen. Eventually she made it to the human camp, retrieved the pack animals, and made her way back to Hailstorm Tower. While she was away the rest of the party cleaned up the piles of corpses and pools of frozen blood littering the area around Hailstorm Tower, so the fire giant and his retinue would not have warning of the ambush in store for them.
10.7 Arrival of the Giants
The next day the party saw the fire giant and his goons approaching. He was accompanied by two hill giants and three ogres. The party had propped up several of the goblin bodies near the ballistae. They waited in hiding for the giants to get within ballista range.
There was a tense moment when the fire giant blew on a giant horn, and halted the procession, apparently waiting for some reply. The party waved one of the goblin arms, and that seemed to be enough to convince the giants to continue their approach.
When the giants got within range, Hiram and Magnus began firing the ballistae as Magnus and Hork flew overhead to attack the giants with arrows and thrown boulders. By the time the giants had time to react, four giant ballista bolts protruded from the fire giant's chest, and he was taking cover around a rocky outcropping. Keeping out of the giants' reach, the party quickly decimated their ranks with arrows and boulders. Hork was struck by half a dozen boulders during the battle, but Magnus kept her alive with healing spells. Before long, the fire giant lay still on the ground and his minions were dead or fleeing.
After looting the bodies, the party loaded their wagons as quickly as possible, and picked their way down out of the mountains to meet up with the Windmere soldiers.
10.8 Return to Arcturus
The party returned to Windmere with their armed escort, and once again feasted with the king, who expressed his gratitude for their assistance in fighting the orcs. Before the feast, the party presented the fire giant's twelve foot long battlehammer to the king as a gift, and it was mounted above the fireplace in the feast hall before the evening meal. Once again the party were treated as honored guests. Their clothes were mended or replaced, and their armor repaired. The next morning the party bade farewell to Hiram and gave him his share of the loot from the assault (enough for him to retire on). He wished them well in their travels and told them to drop in and visit him the next time they passed through Windmere. Once again a boat was prepared to bring the party back to Kharanos, and after a night in an inn there, they returned to Arcturus.
The party returned the stolen goods to the merchants' guild. For his reward, Daergel was resurrected from the dead; the merchants' guild pulled in a favor from the temple of Garl Glittergold, and the party's liason to the merchant guild donated a year of his life. Hork received a wicked orcish greataxe named Blood Drinker (which replenishes it's wielder with the blood of his/her enemies) as her reward. Magnus received a dozen miscellaneous wands (which were either half-used or slightly faulty). Morgrim's reward would come courtesy of the world-renowned dwarven smiths of Stonehome, a dwarven city in the mountains near the gnomish homelands, a few hundred miles to the east. Fortunately for the party, one of the merchants' guild's airships was making the journey from Arcturus to the gnomish lands in a few days. They party rested and relaxed for a few days, then boarded the airship for a relaxing journey east.