AP (DW) - The Giant Magi and the Stag

Exactly one year ago, I ran the conclusion of a three-part Dungeon World adventure on G+ Hangouts called The Giant Magi and the Stag. Not long ago, I realized I had scattered the APs throughout the The Dungeon World Tavern and Google Drive, but I hadn't actually posted them to the blog yet, so this is a fitting, anniversary, AP post. 

To give you a little background, I had been running a Dungeon World PbP during that time called Sagas of Mahr-En and chose to use different locations in the same world for the Hangout game. I named the campaign The Saga of Time and Seasons and hoped it would continue after the third game session, but sadly, we couldn't find time to get together again. Too much time passed by, and ultimately, this game remained a three-part one-shot. 

What happens when a ragtag group of adventurers goes after a powerful, magical artifact, guarded by a giant and hidden in an abandoned fortress that was once home to the giant's ancient race?

We were curious ourselves, so we played to find out!

Setting

The World of En

Map by Misha Polonsky

While the World of En is quite extensive, and the central continent of Mahr-En is clearly the largest landform, The Giant Magi and the Stag actually took place in the far, northeastern, port city of Cragport and the island known as the Jagged Rock with the Sea of Klana in between them.

The Cast

Scarr the Human Fighter, played by +Eadwin Tomlinson (Parts I, II, and III)

Avon the Human Wizard, played by +Penda Tomlinson (Parts I, II, and III)

Herran the Human Druid, played by +Isa Wills (Parts I, II, and III)

Florian the Human Bard, played by +Simon Burdett (Parts II and III only)

Stretch Wolfchild the Halfling Ranger, played by +Matt Smith (Part II only)

Part I

In our first session, our three main heroes: Scarr the Human Fighter, Avon the Human Wizard, and Herran the Human Druid were approached by the Thieves Guild of Cragport, where one of the thieves told Avon that if he and his mates journeyed across the sea to Jagged Rock and found and brought back Bort the Nimble, dead or alive, the Thieve's Guild would forget the whole fiasco with the fairy gold Avon tried to fool them with and the whole ordeal with the Nine Serpents gang retaliating; furthermore, the Thieve's Guild would owe the heroes a favor. That's always nice, right?

Bort the Nimble, a halfling, was a high-ranking member of the Thieves Guild and a famous 'Robin Hood' type amongst the poor, starving citizens of Cragport. The nobles despised him, and had been quite content with his disappearance at Jagged Rock - the rocky island in the middle of the sea filled with the abandoned ruins of a great, stone fortress that was once home to an ancient race of giants. Bort the Nimble was allegedly seeking an ancient and powerful, magical artifact: a statue of a stag carved out of an ancient, mystical wood with the power to control time and the seasons themselves.

Avon, Scarr, and Herran accepted the job, and sought out a ship that would take them across to Jagged Rock. With hardly any gold amongst the three of them, the heroes sought out a desperate-looking crew and met Captain Burma who agreed to sail them across in exchange for a portion of the treasure the heroes promised him and his men.

Upon reaching Jagged Rock, Herran took the form of a hawk and scouted on ahead. He spotted the giant tentacle of a kraken and flew back to alert the others. The captain immediately turned the ship to circumnavigate it. As the ship approached the right side of the island, Herran continued to soar in the air above, scouting for danger, and danger found him first when an eagle lord came swooping in from out of the fog and snatched Herran's whole body in its talons. Scarr threw random barrels at it that he found on the ship, and Avon cast magic missiles at it, singeing its wings and forcing it to let go of Herran, which caused it to fall straight down onto the deck of the helm. Herran swooped over it, quickly transformed back into a human, and immediately morphed into a bear, executing what druidic scholars would, in later years, refer to as 'The Bearbomb' technique. 

With the eagle lord's body crushed and its skull cracked open, Avon took the skull and several talons for keepsake, and the heroes left Captain Burma and his crew as they stepped ashore onto Jagged Rock. 

Avon immediately sensed a strange, unnerving magical presence permeating throughout the island that even forced Scarr and Herran to feel uneasy. Up a pathway straight ahead and through the mountain, toward the left, was the mouth of a dark cave fit for giants. There were stone pillars of various sizes scattered around the entrance and along the path to the bottom of the mountain. Giant faces were carved into the stone - some cyclopean in nature. 

Heading up the path, the heroes reached the cave only to find themselves flanked on either side by fiery imps that suddenly emerged from behind the stone sculptures and rocks. A fierce battle ensued as the heroes pushed forward, picking off the imps ahead of them one by one: Avon slinging off magic missiles like a cowboy, Herran scaring off imps with his intimidating bear shout and rendering them to bits with his sharp claws, and Scarr cutting them down with his sheer strength and signature weapon, Tormentor - a huge, jagged sword he took after finally killing the orc leader that kept him prisoner for most of his life. 

Inside the dark cave, the light from Avon's staff revealed a crater with the crumbled, stone ruins of the fortress at the bottom of the steep, rocky sides of the crater. As the heroes made their way down, the hordes of imps still left behind began magically disappearing and reappearing in front of them as Mrs. Eagle Lord made her grand appearance and swooped down from the top of the cave - where a hole large enough for her to fly through opened up to the sky above.

Scarr leapt at the eagle lord as she swooped down to attack him and caught her by the neck, snapping it and tumbling down the steep hill to the bottom of the crater. Herran and Avon followed as they fought off more imps in the process; and, upon reaching the bottom, they saw a gigantic, mausoleum-like structure with a dark, open doorway large enough for a giant to pass through at the opposite side of the crater.

The heroes began making their way over to the entrance when they suddenly heard a loud, bellowing groan emanating from within. At the same time, the last third of the army of imps appeared and charged down the rocky hill - their tiny little bodies ablaze with magical flames. A gigantic creature emerged from the darkness of the mausoleum entrance; and, as it got a little closer, Avon's light revealed it to be a chimera getting ready to release a powerful, fiery breath. 

Chaos ensued; and, in all the chaos of fighting imps and avoiding the chimera's fiery blasts, the heroes eventually discovered that the chimera was actually targeting the imps - and it quickly lost interest in them when a group of imps entered the mausoleum, and the chimera chased after them. It eventually turned back and sent blasts of fiery breath in all directions in order to incinerate the imps. The heroes, of course, were caught in the crossfire, and Herran, stunned, broke his leg after one of the blasts caused a chunk of fallen building to collapse on him. Scarr helped him out by lifting it and freeing Herran, who turned into a bat and flew on ahead. Avon, meanwhile, found himself trapped in a tight corner as he fought off a small group of imps with his glowing staff. Scarr came to assist him, slaying the remaining imps but becoming separated from Avon in the process and forced to run right into the fray of the chimera's spitfire. Avon reached the mausoleum entrance without any further scrapes, while Scarr endured the flames, taking minimal direct damage but burning underneath his armor; nevertheless, he joined up with Avon and Herran, who utilized his supersonic capabilities to detect what lay past the giant entrance.

Inside, the heroes saw a chamber that was at least four times as big as the mausoleum was from the outside. Two, giant-sized treasure chests stood at opposite ends on the left and the right, respectively, surrounded by mounds of shimmering gold. Up ahead, the heroes spotted the dead, battered, and broken body of Bort the Nimble lying next to a giant, rectangular pool of water with wide and enormous, stone steps leading down into a hallway large enough for two giants to walk through side by side.

Upon examining Bort the Nimble's lifeless body, Avon discovered a scroll with a crudely drawn map/blueprint of the giant's fortress. The heroes learned that their adventure would continue downward, to the depths below Jagged Rock and the sea - that was where Bort the Nimble was headed and where they would find the magic stag.

Avon stuffed Bort the Nimble's body into a sac, and the heroes worked together to climb into one of the giant's treasure chests before making camp for the night - knowing the chimera was still out there as well as, perhaps, the imps.

Part II

Having recovered a portion of their health with the help of some healing potions and a few hours of sleep, Scarr the Fighter, Harren the Druid, and Avon the Wizard carefully lifted the top of the giant treasure chest and peeked out at the huge chimera that had nearly singed them hours ago. There were no sign of imps, and the chimera seemed strangely calm and non-threatening. Across the way, peeking out from the other giant treasure chest, they saw the familiar faces of three others they've adventured with in the past: Florian the Human Bard and a Halfling Ranger named Stretch Wolfchild with his animal companion hawk named Wisdom.

Stretch carefully studied the chimera, noticing its disinterest posed no threat, and he jumped down next to its paws as Florian followed. It looked down at them, sniffed, and looked away disinterested. Convinced that Stretch was magically manipulating the chimera by keeping it at bay, Avon, Herran, and Scarr stalled inside their chest when, suddenly, the chimera vanished, leaving a ripple in the air that quickly dissipated. 

After helping Herran down and joining Stretch, the Ranger told them that Florian and him had been traveling with Bort the Nimble to recover the magic stag that controlled the time and seasons, for it defied all laws of nature and the Stretch yearned to destroy it. As he spoke, Avon sensed a spike of magical energy emanating from within the sac containing Bort the Nimble's lifeless body. 

When he stepped away to inspect the body, it turned out to be someone completely different, and much younger, with a distinctive brooch featuring a round, polished piece of zinc embedded in the middle.

Since Avon was vain and sought only the clues to obtaining immortality and everlasting beauty, he knew about two, twin brothers, both mages and alchemists: the Iron Mage and the Zinc Mage. The Iron Mage was black of heart and only sought power for himself at the expense of others; while the Zinc Mage was white of heart and sought only to do good, including trying to help his twin brother change his ways. Both mages were known to have focused their spell craft around the nature of change in different ways, although both brothers had perfected the polymorph spell.

The brooch, and the fact that the dead lad had assumed a perfect form of Bort the Nimble prior to his death, suggested that he was probably the Zinc Mage's apprentice or maybe a servant transformed by the mage.

Looking at the map the dead lad left behind, Avon saw a long, spiraling staircase leading all the way down a giant tower. It seemed the whole, sunken tower was flooded with water. Avon decided to perform a ritual to grant the rest of the party the ability to breathe underwater. He asked the party members to hold hands and form a circle. Even Wisdom joined in with his little, hawk talons next to Stretch and Florian. Drawing the essences of the fish in the surrounding sea, Avon was forced to perform the ritual in sheer darkness, but it left everyone covered in a slimy substance that would enable them to breathe underwater and ease swimming and maneuvering due to the weight armor and weapons impose.

Herran stayed back. He transformed into a frog instead.

The rise in temperature inside the chamber was subtle at first, but by the end of the ritual, each one of the heroes (minus Herran) was sweating profusely, and they all felt as though the sun was directly over them and beating down with summer's heat.

Suspecting it had something to do with the magic stag, the heroes quickly plunged down into the depths of the giant, sunken, tower, and began their descent through the murky, passageway, guided only by the white light from Avon's staff.

First, a group of maggot squid that Stretch tried to swim past suddenly became spooked and swam past the rest of the party from where they came. Up ahead, with Wisdom's help, Stretch pointed out a faint, orange glow that drew closer and closer until Avon recognized them for what they were - fire eels burning ablaze underwater. He gesticulated a fire eel with his arms and hands to the rest of the party, and Stretch decided to grab some rope from his adventuring gear and tie it around one of the huge, chunks of stone debris from the tower in order to toss it through the middle of the spiraling staircase and simply sink toward the bottom where they needed to go. It was a solid plan, but the fire eels managed to get close and attack. Avon shot off magic missiles, but it was Scarr's fighting skills, even underwater, that cut one eel in half and send a wave through the water that forced the other eel backwards and giving Stretch and Florian just enough time to finish tying the ropes.

The plan was to tether everyone to the rock and sink to the bottom. Scarr helped push the rock off with his mighty strength and the heroes sunk to the bottom quickly, as a plethora of spears suddenly whizzed by them in all directions. One of the spears cut through Florian's tether, and he remained floating in the water. The rest of the party sunk further down, until the rock suddenly hit a hard, jagged surface that shook for a moment.

Meanwhile, Avon's light barely reached Florian, but the Bard saw flashes of eyes all around him as several, lizardmen suddenly came at him. Two launched their spears and missed Florian but hit a sahuagin lurking in the shadows instead. It went after Florian, but he swam toward the lizardmen, narrowly dodging their spears and losing a healing potion in the process. He then swam down toward the rest of the party, leaving the lizardmen to face the sahuagin themselves.

Scarr, Avon, Herran, and Stretch cut their ropes once they realized what the rock had landed on and why the ground appeared to be moving. It was the giant claw of an enormous chuul that seemed oblivious to the party as Stretch swam up around the back of its head, looking for weak spots. Avon cast an illusion of himself via his prestidigitation cantrip and distracted the chuul just long enough for Scarr, Avon, Stretch, and Wisdom to swim down past it.

Herran quickly transformed into a human and then into a large, pike fish that swam up to retrieve Florian. Upon grabbing hold of Herran's fin and looking up at an angry sahuagin swimming down toward them, Florian and Herran also noticed that the water above them started to freeze and was getting closer and closer to them. 

They quickly swam away, past the chuul, to join the others. Looking back, the sahuagin high above was frozen solid within the ice; and, though the chuul shifted and resisted, it too eventually froze over completely. For a split second, Avon saw three blink dogs floating in the water out of the corner of his eye. Herran was an incredibly fast swimmer, and Stretch and Florian took advantage by hanging on. They escaped through a large, open doorway into a large, rectangular, stone chamber with a short hallway leading into an enormous chasm with pillars of stone rising high with giant faces carved into the stone - some cyclopean in nature - just like on the surface, outside the ruins.

Scarr used all his strength to swim as hard as he could to escape the oncoming ice; but, as he swam past the open doorway, dozens of crisscrossing spears suddenly shot forward, forming a grate and cutting his arm in the process. Avon swam at his normal speed, enduring the ice as it crept up on him, but he found himself trapped behind the grate of spears. He cast a magic missile which shattered a hole through the wooden shafts of the spears and broke through with Scarr's help.

The water emptied out into a stream which continued down the chamber, through the small hallway, and into the next, enormous chamber, but froze over as the temperature grew cold like winter.

Far ahead, in the distance, a spiraling vortex suddenly appeared from the gaping mouth of the closet stone head carved into a pillar. A pair of hell hounds emerged along with four quasit. The hell hounds seemed fixated on only a single quarry at a time, and one targeted Stretch right off the top, after he fired an arrow under its fiery throat.  Pinning Stretch on the ground and taking a bite out of his shoulder, the hell hound yelped, as Scarr thrust Tormentor into its body and pinned it again the wall, shattering its bones and shredding the demonic flesh apart in an exploding inferno that quickly dissipated in the freezing chamber. As the other hell hound charged at Scarr, he took his best swing yet and decapitated the hell hound right as it lunged at him. Stretch fired off an arrow which went through the hell hound's flaming, red eyeball and into the stone wall. Both the eyeball and the arrow exploded and left more, disappearing embers.

Meanwhile, two quasit went after Florian who took too long performing intricate and wholly unnecessary pirouette moves with his rapier before lunging at the demons. They ended up stabbing him with their fiery weapons instead. With two other quasit on Herran and Avon, respectively, Herran quickly transformed into a human, dodging one of the quasit's blows, and then transformed into a bear, where he immediately unleashed a terrifying roar that spooked all the quasit, including the one that just stabbed Avon before retreating with the rest.

The chamber felt less cold all of a sudden, but the heroes all heard howling resonating in the distance. The hair on the giant's head suddenly swayed violently, and as when the quasit reached the edge of the pit containing the giant, an incredible gust of wind blew them off, sending them to their depths. Herran's eyes changed to matched the color of autumn as the winds continued to howl and circulate in the next chamber.


Approaching the small hallway between the two chambers, the heroes found a black cloak stuck under a large rock and blowing in the wind. They realized the black cloak belonged to Bort the Nimble, and Stretch found another brooch with a round, polished piece of zinc embedded in it. On top of that, Avon also found an archaic, but ordinary, iron key to some sort of locked box or treasure chest and emanating with incredible, magical energy - the likes of which he would never expect.

Looking ahead into the next chamber, the heroes saw a circular path that went all around a pit large enough to house twelve, full grown giants that all looked defeated as they stood bound with heavy chains at the wrists, legs, and throat. They smelled foul and disgusting. Far up toward the ceiling, the heroes saw stalactites with enormous, silk webs and shadows of giant spiders crawling about menacingly. Past the stone pillars, on the opposite side of the pit, was an insurmountable wall - through which the map described as the location of the magic stag.
Just when our heroes thought they could take a break, make camp, and heal their wounds, two more vortices suddenly appeared in the next chamber as the winds slowly died down.

Part III

With Bort the Nimble's black cloak and the brooch of the Zinc Mage in Avon's possession, our heroes stood still, staring at the poison green vortices forming in front and above them. A dozen, large rocks suddenly shot out of the portal ahead. One of the stones hit Stretch square in the forehead and he fell backwards as another vortex opened up on the ground, swallowing him whole. At the same time, his hawk, Wisdom, flew to the side to get away from the vortex opening up above it, but a green vine connecting to a heavy, iron chain suddenly lashed out and coiled itself around Wisdom, pulling him up into the vortex.

All the vortices closed up, but the winds of autumn still hadn't died down in the next chamber with the giant prisoners. The party decided to make camp in the previous, smaller chamber. Avon needed to meditate, Herran needed to commune with nature, Scarr needed some rest, so that left Florian keeping watch.

Scribbling away as he composed the tale of their adventure so far, Florian failed to notice that the winds had died down in the next chamber and that he and his party were suddenly surrounded by fresh, green vegetation, vines, moss, and flowers bursting with pollen.

Herran's eyes had turned green to match the color of spring, and the pollen permeated throughout the chamber. Florian's eyes turned red and began to sneeze as the rest of the party awoke to the same reaction.

Avon quickly wrapped a silk scar over his face, protecting him from the enchanted, allergenic pollen. Herran and Florian reacted a bit slower, and it didn't take too long for them to stop sneezing. Scarr, on the other hand, got the worst of it as a cloud of pollen exploded in his face from a large flower beneath him. His eyes burned red, and he couldn't stop sneezing as he suddenly felt very sick.

In the next chamber, the heroes weren't as surprised by the winds dying down as they were when they discovered a giant field of bright, green grass instead of a giant pit filled with twelve, giant prisoners and tall pillars of stone. What was even more surprising was the fact that they saw Stretch standing in the middle of the field, looking very confused.

The heroes all called out to him, but Stretch continued to look around, confused. Finally, Stretch looked at Avon, who gestured with his hand, "Come here." Stretch shook his head and gestured with his own hand toward the middle of the field, "Come here."

Florian suggested they take out some rope to lasso Stretch, so Herran took some out from his gear and had Florian attempt the lasso. Swinging the rope, Florian successfully lassoed Stretch, but the illusion quickly faded, and he found out he'd lassoed one of the pillars in the center of the pit instead. Three, chained giants surrounded it, forming an invisible triangle, while three more vortices appeared in the open mouths of the giant statue heads carved into the pillars, forming another triangle at the eye level of the giants.

Florian tied his end of the rope around the nearest pillar, while Herran shifted into a hawk and flew to the top of the lassoed pillar in the center. As he landed, two, heavy, iron chains lashed out of the vortices to his left and right, and he flew up to evade them, but found himself stuck in a giant, silk web with a spiderlord at the other end crawling toward him.

Down below, Avon launched a magic missile at the web, singeing a hole through it to free Herran, but as he cast his spell, another vortex appeared to the left end of the path, and a shadow slithered out onto the wall, taking the shape of a steed, before charging out in a solid, shadowy, fiery state.

Herran swooped down, avoiding another lashing chain from one of the central vortices, and clawed at the nightmare's burning eyes with his talons, but they passed right through the shadowy creature.

Scarr took his signature blade, Tormenter, and struck a powerful blow against the nightmare as it charged right past him, slicing through the creature's shadowy skin and hitting flesh as it tumbled forward and fell down on all fours. It blew a great, swirling stream of inferno at Avon, who managed to get out of the way just in time but lost his robes as they burned away completely, leaving the Wizard stark naked.

The nightmare's blazing mane burned out as it melted into a river of jet black shadow and trickled down into a new vortex that opened up below it. Herran's eyes turned red as the sweltering heat of summer filled the chamber, and the heroes began sweating profusely just like before - in the room with the giant treasure chests.

Herran offered Avon a spare set of clothes that he had, but Avon first asked him who the tailor was. Herran didn't have an answer for him, but Avon accepted the clothes anyway. He really just didn’t want to walk around naked.

While Scarr and Herran fought the nightmare, Florian studied the giant and realized he must have been under some sort of enchantment. As the vortices containing the whips of a chained devil slowly closed up, Florian pulled out his lute and began to play a song fused with arcane magic in order to lift the enchantment on the giant closest to him. When the magic-infused song reached the giant’s ears, he woke up from his daze and deliriously stared at Florian and the rest of the party.

The heroes all looked at each other, wondering who could converse in 'Giant' with this creature. Herran mentioned he spent some time with an Ettin once. Scarr, however, told them that the orcs who held him captive used to keep giants as slaves and that Scarr picked up some common words from them - enough to hold a basic conversation, anyway. Florian volunteered to speak to the giant and repeat what Scarr would tell him to say, but as Scarr started speaking the giant’s language, the giant completely ignored Florian and focused solely on Scarr.

Scarr told the giant they were friendly and that they were here to free it. Scarr said Herran needed to see the giant’s chains, and the giant showed Herran its mighty, iron chains: two connecting from a collar around his neck to two, separate pillars of stone - each on opposite side of him. The giant’s wrists were also shackled in heavy manacles that were chained to two more pillars - each flanking him.

Source: Unknown. :(
Image used without permission. I claim no credit for this artwork.

Now, remember when the party made camp? Perhaps it was the magical energy permeating throughout Jagged Rock, but Herran, while mediating earlier and communing with nature, met with the spirits of water, earth, fire, and air; and, where he was, time acted differently. Herran was able to form permanent pacts with the spirits of all four elements - thus mastering them. If the Druid ever needed the spirits’ assistance, he could always call on them; however, they warned Herran that they might not always respond.

Using the scorching heat of summer around them and calling on the elemental spirit of fire, Herran caused the giant's chains to turn red hot, losing control, as they singed the giant's neck. Oddly enough, the giant hardly seemed to feel it, but as the temperature plummeted rapidly, it quickly made sense.

Herran’s eyes turned from red to a frosty blue. The sweat on everyone’s skin nearly froze as an icy chill filled the air, and the walls and floor of the cave began freezing over.

The giant thrashed about; and, due to the sudden change in temperature, he was able to break his chains apart and move his arms freely for the first time in a long while.

The three vortices from before reappeared around the giant, and the chained devil's iron chains lashed out to grab it. The giant swung his arms and propelled the chains toward the walls of the caverns, which they hit, destroying several stone pillars in the process and sending two spiderlords crashing down from the ceiling to flank the heroes.

Avon suddenly saw three pairs of canine eyes blink at him before the blink dogs raced off toward the wall on the opposite side of the pit. Avon knew the Giant Magi was behind that wall, even the map pointed it out, so his obvious thought was that the wall was an illusion and that he had to follow the dogs, but he needed to get past the spiderlord first.

Using his staff, Avon gracefully pole vaulted high over the spider, making it over to the opposite side without a scratch. However, the spiderlord shot a cannonball of sticky, silk webbing out at the Wizard, catching his brightly lit staff mid-air and yanking it away from him, pulling it toward the ground below its head. The spiderlord then kicked its giant legs at both Scarr and Herran, and it shot another mess of silk webbing at Florian.

The Bard moved out of the way in time, but was surrounded by sticky webbing all over the ground around his feet. The other spiderlord that dropped down behind the party, the one closest to Florian, began scurrying toward him.

Herran dodged the spiderlord’s leg and shifted into a spiderlord himself, while Scarr flinched and was knocked aside rather hard as he slid over the icy ground, heading straight for the pit. He caught onto the edge, where the ice hadn’t quite formed yet, and Florian unleashed a crazed performance with his lute in an effort to pit the enemy spiderlords against each other.

Though Florian's intentions were good, his crazed performance was too crazy and caused his intentions to go incredibly awry. The enemy spiderlords were completely unaffected, but Herran, the spiderlord, suddenly had a violent urge to go after the first ally he saw - in this case, Scarr.

Herran crawled over to the edge and took a huge bite out of Scarr's shoulder; and, despite his screaming pain, the Fighter grabbed onto Herran's back and swung himself up as the effect of Florian's performance faded and Herran’s thoughts returned to normal.

The first spiderlord kicked Avon with his back leg, sending the Wizard’s face smack into the ice as he slid across, away from the party, in the direction he wanted to go. Herran, with Scarr riding on his back, crawled over to Florian to pick him up as the second spiderlord reached them. It suddenly stopped in its tracked and, after a short pause, began hopping from side to side, staring at Herran with crazed love in its eyes. As the first spiderlord moved to attack Herran, the second spiderlord came to Herran’s defense and attacked the first spiderlord which gave Herran and the rest of the party a chance to escape.

Herran was able to stick firmly to the ground, despite the ice, and as he caught up with Avon, he bent down for Avon to join the others on his back. Before reaching the wall, Avon saw that the giant they thought they freed before still had his feet bound in chains. Avon fired off a magic missile to try and break it, but his aim fell terribly short as he accidentally shot Florian point blank instead. The Bard nearly fell off, but Scarr caught him, and Florian wasn’t too happy with Avon from that point on.

Once the party reached the giant, impenetrable, stone wall filled with spikes jutting out of the crevices, the wintery season suddenly gave way to spring again, and Herran's eyes changed to green as flowers, plants, and mossy vines grew against the wall and along the cavern floor. Another burst of pollen exploded in the air around the heroes as the three vortices containing the chained devil suddenly reappeared over the pit, near and in front of them. The portals stemmed from the eyes of three, different cyclopean heads carved into three, separate pillars standing in a row.

Avon, once again, used his silk scarf to fend off the cursed pollen. Scarr was still suffering from red, watery eyes and constant, sickly sneezing this whole time, so nothing more actually happened to him. Florian sneezed really hard and dropped some of his adventuring gear as it went sliding away over the melting ice and into the pit. Herran found himself back in human form with all three of the other party members on top of him.  He yelled, “Get off!” rather loudly.

Avon took a moment to cast detect magic on the wall in front of them in order to find which part was an illusion. The spell worked and pointed out a spot directly in the center - which Avon went off to investigate.

Meanwhile, Florian recalled some facts he'd heard from some wizards during his travels. They said that the Iron Mage kept a magical construct as his personal guard: a gargantuan, stone giant. One of the Iron Mage's ambitions was to turn his incredible, magical, construct into pure iron; however, the wizards claimed the Iron Mage hadn't been able to do that yet, at least not according to their knowledge.

The spot Avon investigated was littered with rocks and several, small puddles of black, slimy ooze that burned into the stone ever so slightly. Avon pressed his hand to the wall and it cleanly went through. Suddenly, a stalactite, chained to the ceiling, shot down toward Avon. Scarr quickly rushed forward to defend the Wizard and took off half of the stalactite with Tormenter as he sent it flying back up to the ceiling.

Eight, luscious, green vines erupting from the chained devil inside the vortices suddenly slithered out into the air. As the chain devil’s arms continued to reveal themselves, the vines soon turned into huge, iron chains, and then into the gigantic tentacles of a kraken - similar to the one Herran saw as a hawk when the party first arrived at Jagged Rock. The arms slowly hovered in the air as though they were getting ready to attack, while another vortex appeared above Scarr and Avon.

Drips of black, acidic, ooze began drizzling down on them, and they quickly escaped through the central, illusionary, portion of the wall. Herran’s eyes changed to yellow and orange as he followed Avon and Scarr, dodging the dripping acid and escaping through the wall. Florian, however, caught the first great gust of the autumn winds.

The Bard grabbed hold of a rock and hung on for dear life as the chained devil took advantage of the opportunity to send its eight, mighty, vine/iron chain/kraken tentacle arms out at Florian.

All too quickly, the sweltering heat of summer quickly returned as the gust of wind died down, and the tentacles smashed into the stone that Florian let go of. The Bard backflipped over the remaining arms and quickly ran inside, through the wall, after the others.

The heroes all fell straight down into another pool of water. Without Avon’s glowing staff, the party lacked a source of light and were knee deep underwater in complete darkness. Avon, however, cast light on Scarr’s sword, Tormenter, and quickly forgot the spell.

Scarr, meanwhile, took the entire time to flush out every bit of pollen from his eyes and nose so that he could end his sickness.

The horizontal, underwater tunnel wasn't long, but as the heroes swam forward, they noticed both ends of the tunnel slowly freezing into ice as the temperature plummeted once again and Herran's eyes turned frosty blue.

Herran, once again, called on the spirit of fire to aid him and warm the water just enough to melt the ice. It was a brilliant plan, however it changed the season to sweltering summer as Herran’s eyes turned red again. Not only that, but the other seasons emerged with summer and were going haywire! Fresh vegetation and flowers bloomed under the water, and a strong current of wind blew the heroes in a few random directions before propelling them forward to where they needed to go. Herran’s eyes kept alternating from red to green to orange and yellow to red as the water turned boiling hot just as the heroes escaped into the next chamber and climbed out of the water.

Inside the next chamber, the heroes witnessed an epic struggle as the chimera from the entrance to the ruins above Jagged Rock lay wounded on the cavernous floor in front of them and on the brink of death. It used one of its last breaths to blow a raging, inferno spiral up at a gargantuan, stone giant - roughly the size of two, normal giants stacked together.

Looking ahead, the heroes saw an arched, iron door at the end of the chamber. It seemed large enough for a normal-sized giant to pass through but not the stone giant; he was enormous!

Florian quickly played a magic-infused song in attempt to heal the chimera. It felt a tiny bit of health restored, but it soon didn't matter. The stone giant lifted its giant foot and stepped on the chimera, smashing it into the ground and splattering blood everywhere, as the remains of the magical creature quickly faded away and disappeared.

Avon set about performing a rather hasty ritual to attempt to take control of the cursed power of the dungeon for a moment. He also attempted to summon a vortex or two at will to affect the stone giant. He used the brooch of the Zinc Mage as a focal point for his ritual, hoping it would help him hone into wherever the Zinc Mage was, for that was most likely where the source of the magic in this dungeon was coming from. Avon summoned two vortices - a large vortex way up high on the ceiling above the stone giant’s head and one much closer to the ground, near the giant’s right foot.

The good news is that it worked. The vortex near the ground even revealed Bort the Nimble, albeit in a confused state just like Stretch (or the illusion of Stretch) was in the prison chamber. Even more good news, perhaps, was the fact that drops of black, acidic ooze fell down in messy clumps over the stone giant, eating away at his skin ever so slowly. The bad news, however, was that the vortex on the ceiling continued to expand until it eventually covered the entire ceiling of the chamber. Black pudding drizzled from the ceiling.

Avon quickly ran toward the iron door, avoiding the corrosive ooze, and Herran followed, smacking clumps away with his shield fast enough before they could singe anything. Florian and Scarr followed as well, but the stone giant angrily stomped on the ground with extra fervor and caused the ground to tremble and split before them as a giant chasm soon separated the party.

Florian began playing another crazed performance with his lute, and actually succeeded in unleashing its mystical effect on the right target this time! The stone giant turned to look for an ally to attack, and only knew of one - his master. So the stone giant charged forward, stepping over the chasm and moving toward the iron door. It punched its right fist into the door, placing a deep dent into it while shattering his stone hand in the process. Giant, stone boulders suddenly rained down on Avon and Herran. Avon got out of the way just in time, and Herran leapt forward, dodging the boulders but landing in a spot surrounded entirely by the ooze of the black pudding that was burning into the floor and slowly rising up into the air in an amoebic, serpentine fashion.

The stone giant readied its other arm and threw a punch straight down at Avon, though the Wizard rolled away and dodged the bulk of the giant's hand, as it smashed a tiny crater into the floor. Rocks exploded and hit Avon in the ribs and face, as he fell over.

Meanwhile, Herran turned into a bat to get away from the black pudding, and Florian grabbed some more rope from his adventuring gear to tie around himself so that Scarr could throw him across the chasm.

The plan actually worked, but a huge clump of ooze fell onto the rope, burning through and splitting it in half instantly, leaving Scarr stranded from the rest of the party.

To make matters worse, another, large vortex opened up behind Scarr, as the black pudding on his side moved toward each other to coalesce and get closer to Scarr. Herran landed between Avon and Florian and turned back into a human so that he could aid Scarr.

Avon kept the stone giant's attention, hoping to lure it to throw another punch at the iron door and jump out of the way fast enough for it to smash into it. Avon’s amazing luck pressed on. The plan succeeded, and the Wizard leapt out of the way just in before the giant’s left fist came crashing into the iron door whilst smashing another huge dent into it. The door wasn’t fully broken through, but Avon could see light coming from the chamber on the opposite side.

A deep, metallic voice suddenly echoed all around the chamber. It was a voice Florian recognized when he and Stretch heard and saw the Giant Magi, with his crimson cloak, in the room, where he crushed the fake Bort the Nimble to death.

The Giant Magi told them their journey was about to meet its end - that his pet guardian would destroy them and that he would obtain the key and unlock the portal.

Herran called on the elemental spirit of air this time, just as his eyes turned yellow orange, and the winds of autumn began swirling about in the chamber. The huge vortex on Scarr's side of the cavern began pulling everything toward it like a vacuum. Several, small puddles of black pudding near the vortex were suddenly sucked in. As the vortex grew, it sucked more and more in.

Scarr knew he had to act fast, and Herran, with the help of the spirit of air, managed to control the winds just enough to let Scarr jump across the chasm. Scarr, however, missed the ledge and fell down into the chasm. He landed on something squishy, wobbly, black, and corrosive. The whole chasm was filled with black pudding.

Florian quickly drew another coil of rope and threw it down to Scarr, but it slipped out of his hands and was quickly eaten up by the ooze. The black pudding had practically eaten through all of Scarr’s armor and crept toward his flesh as Florian dropped another rope which Scarr caught and began climbing quickly. Florian helped pull him up, and Scarr discarded his ruined armor.

Avon made one more attempt to lure the stone giant into attacking the door. This time, however, he cast invisibility on himself to really confuse the creature. Avon's plan worked like a charm, and the Wizard was already out of the way when the giant kicked its enormous foot into the iron door and sent it flying into the next chamber with a loud, reverberating crash.

The heroes booked it toward the open doorway, escaping the stone giant who was too large to go through. Despite the black pudding still raining down from above and the stone rocks crashing down from a thrashing, rampaging stone giant, the heroes made it through without any more scratches. Avon and Herran made it through clean. Florian lost his lute, as a rock hit his hand, and the instrument went sliding off into the chasm. Scarr smashed several, falling rocks out of the way with Tormenter, but a clump of acidic ooze hit the signature weapon and dissolved a clean strip down the jagged portion of his blade, essentially stripping away its serrated edges.

The next chamber featured stone tables on the far left and right that were filled with scrolls, papers, tomes, flasks, potions, alchemical ingredients, crystals, and tons of iron ore. In the center of the chamber, opposite the entrance where the heroes stood, was a tiny, locked box - smaller than a regular-sized treasure chest and closer to the size of Scarr's head (literally, not figuratively, of course).

What stood next to the locked box drew even more attention as a normal-sized giant with skin made of iron stood looking at them, wearing a crimson cloak and holding a giant, iron staff with spikes protruding from the end of it.

The stone giant in the previous chamber stepped in front of the open doorway, blocking the heroes escape, and the Giant Magi, aka the Iron Mage, told them once again that he sought the key to the portal and knew the heroes had it in their possession. The Iron Mage pointed at Avon, even though the Wizard was still invisible. The Iron Mage’s staff, the locked box, and the key all began to glow the same, poison green color as all the vortices they’ve encountered.

Florian told the Iron Mage that he had come to become a follower and apprentice - to which the Iron Mage responded, “Grab the key from the Wizard!” and Florian walked up to Avon, asking him for the key. Avon, of course, replied “No!” and ran forward toward the locked box.

The Iron Mage morphed into a normal-sized human just as twelve vortices appeared all around the room - filling the walls, the ceiling, and the floor. The seasons cycled through much more rapidly, and the temperature kept fluctuating.

As the Iron Mage whirled his staff around, his eyes glowed the same color as the locked box and the key. He slammed the iron staff onto the ground, and time suddenly seemed to slow down drastically for the heroes. Gazing at the dented, broken down, iron door, the heroes suddenly saw it rise up and slowly fly backwards into the doorway, the dents restoring themselves as time moved backwards to undo what the stone giant had done to it.

Meanwhile, hordes of shape-changing quasit and fiery hell hounds poured out of the vortices as the chain devil returned, and Avon saw the blink dogs staring at him by the Iron Mage's side, before disappearing again. Worst of all, a barbed devil slowly poked the tips of its quills out from a gigantic vortex on the ground behind the heroes and in front of the iron door.

As Avon reached the locked box, the Iron Mage, growing scared, pointed his staff at the Wizard and unleashed a magical flurry of iron spikes at the Wizard.

Avon ducked in time but lost the key in the process, as it went sliding away. Florian, the closest one to it, ran to retrieve it, but was under attack by two hell hounds flanking him and spitting fire at him. Florian grabbed the key and heroically leapt over the fire and toward the locked box, as Scarr ran forward to deliver another brutal swing. He butchered one of the hell hounds in one, fell swoop with his ruined Tormenter!

Scarr immediately went after the other hell hound charging at Florian, who was getting ready to slide the key through the lock, when the Iron Mage slammed his staff into the ground again, and dozens of iron spears shot out from the walls and ceiling surrounding the Bard. Scarr quickly turned to defend Florian from the spears, taking some of the spears in the shoulder blade himself as the hell hound charged at him, about to land a fiery bite.

Herran called on the elemental spirit of water to encase his enemies in a sheet of ice. The season turned to winter and not only froze the fiery, planar creatures, but the entire chamber as well, with the exception of the Iron Mage and the heroes. Even the lock to the chest they were trying to open was frozen solid.

The Iron Mage was freezing very slowly, and he slammed his staff into the ground yet again, slowing down time and turning it backwards to reverse what winter and the spirit of water had done. The hell hound that Scarr butchered to death suddenly reformed from its fiery explosion, regained its limbs, and was living once more, along with all the fiery creatures that weren’t frozen any more.

The barbed devil finally revealed its terrifying face as all the vortices continued to spew forth more and more monsters. The seasons were changing at a wild pace. The chamber froze, melted into a scorching sauna, and bloomed with plants that were getting swept away in a stormy whirlwind.

Without any more distractions, magic spells, or hesitation, Florian finally slid the key through the lock, twisted it, and opened up the chest, revealing the same, green light from before. It filled the chamber, blinding everything around the Bard, and he found himself staring through a window into a planar dimension.

Time slowed to a crawl, and Florian saw several, unconnected, bubble-like prisons holding Stretch, Widsom, Bort the Nimble, and the bright, glowing statue of the magic stag.

In order to retrieve what he wanted, Florian had to concentrate hard and really steady his mind, or else he would get pulled into the planar dimension himself. The Bard was never one to have a strong, mental fortitude about him, and the portal sucked him in all too quickly, trapping him in a prison bubble of his own within the planar world. Realizing Florian wasn’t there any longer, Scarr turned to face the portal.

Scarr saw what Florian had seen, but now the Bard was thrown into the mix as well. The Fighter concentrated as hard as he could and knew he could help the others escape at the cost of sacrificing something important to him. The Fighter grabbed onto the material and planar dimensions, and expended the largest amount of strength he could possibly muster. It was the most strength he had ever used, but he bridged the gap between the two dimensions and allowed his friends to escape. Scarr was fully aware that his act of heroism was taking an immense toll on his strength.

Nevertheless, the prison bubbles merged together as Scarr willed his friends free. Stretch, Wisdom, Bort the Nimble, and Florian were all able to escape back to the material world; however, Florian crossed over last after grabbing the magic statue of the stag.

Inside the chamber, time slowed down until it was nearly still. The vortices in the room disappeared one by one, sucking the planar creatures back into them as time crept backwards. Holding the magic stag, Florian felt as though he was in complete control of both time and the seasons and that they were obeying his every will. The Bard looked at the walls behind the Iron Mage, and they froze instantly before melting away in a giant wave that crashed over the Iron Mage and sent him tumbling toward the open chest, where the portal sucked him in before the chest closed shut.

Both time and the seasons returned to normal, and Bort the Nimble immediately asked Florian to hand over the statue. The Bard initially refused, so Bort finally confessed who he really was.

Bort the Nimble wasn’t his real name. It was a scrambled version of the Zinc Mage’s real name, Thorem Nibblet. Harran knew that the Nibblets were an ancient, powerful clan of halfling druids not far from where he discovered his druidic powers. Thorem Nibblet, the Zinc Mage, and his twin brother, the Iron Mage, were much more gifted than the druids. They possessed something more - arcane powers far beyond anything anyone in the clan could comprehend, including the elders. There was a legend amongst the halfling druids that foretold the birth of two, twin brothers who were destined to guard the Nibblets’ most precious, ancient, treasure - the Magic Stag of Time and Seasons. The twin brothers, however, were polar opposites. The Iron Mage was black of heart and wanted to use the stag's power to go back in time and enslave the ancient race of giants on Jagged Rock in order to magically transform them into his own army of colossal, elemental abominations to impose tyranny on the world. The Zinc Mage, on the other hand, wanted nothing more than to help and fulfill his destiny by protecting the magic stag. Destroying it wasn’t an option, but the Zinc Mage needed some way to keep it from the Iron Mage, so he imprisoned it in the planar dimension where he knew the Iron Mage couldn’t get to without the key.

The Iron Mage nicknamed Thorem, The Betayer, for his alleged crime, but something happened that the Zinc Mage could not foresee. As years went by in the material world where the magic stag’s portal was hidden, its magical energies seeped through the planar dimension and into the material world, bridging both worlds with increasing amounts of vertices, swift-changing seasons, and warping time itself, especially in times of great distress. This meant that every few decades, the Zinc Mage had to unlock the portal, bring the stag into the material world, and re-imprison it somewhere else.

Thorem admitted that he posed as Bort the Nimble and joined the Thieves Guild so that he could was close enough to the stag to keep an eye on it while trying to do good and help the poor of the city as best as he could. He knew that his twin brother had finally caught onto him, but he didn’t know that he’d imprisoned the descendents of the ancient giants at Jagged Rock or that the Iron Mage could actually tap into some of the power leaking out from the stag - though he should have foreseen that to be honest.

It didn’t matter now, though. The Iron Mage was trapped in the planar dimension, and Florian handed the magic stag over to Thorem, so that he could find it a new prison.

The heroes spend the remainder of the time collecting as much loot as they possibly could, including some magical weapons/items (a dagger, a spear, and a lute), the iron staff which Avon picked up, and several healing potions.

The Zinc Mage, meanwhile, released all the imprisoned giants from their chains and cast a portal to send them all back to the top of Jagged Rock.

Later on, Thorem and the heroes met with Captain Burma and his crew and sailed back to Cragport. The giant that our heroes tried to save suddenly withdrew from the others and waved a heartfelt goodbye.

Epilogue

Back in Cragport, the heroes met with representatives of the Thieves Guild, and Thorem explained everything: who he really was, why he pretended to be Bort, and the whole reason he left for Jagged Rock. The guild thanked the heroes and promised to return the favor whenever they needed it. They were forced to kick Thorem out, of course, though there wasn't any animosity toward him, even though he did lie about who he was. For a druidic mage, he certainly posed as a highly skilled thief, and the guild had to at least respect that fact.

At The Sheepshead, a tavern run by a vivacious woman named Opsie, our heroes threw a grand feast for themselves, Thorem, the Cragport Thieves Guild, and anyone else present to celebrate. With all the coin they collected, even after giving Captain Burma his share and carousing, they still had plenty left over for themselves.

The next day was filled with farewells, as Thorem Nibblet parted ways with Scarr, Avon, Herran, Florian, Stretch, and Wisdom. Though goodbyes are never easy, a wave of excitement and newfound energy suddenly struck our heroes, as they received some useful information and a golden opportunity from a stranger at the Sheepshead.

What new adventures will be uncovered for our heroes? Is this the end of the Iron Mage? Will Scarr, Avon, Herran, Florian, Stretch, and Wisdom ever see Thorem Nibblet again? Only time will tell, as the seasons change and we play to find out in The Saga of Time and Seasons.