The Eye of the All-Father

Year: 1491, Month: Mirtul, Date:12th

Late on our second day of travel through the pass, Harshnag stops forcing his way through the snow.  In front of us is a 40' wide stone causeway.  On either side of the causeway, stretching as high as I can see, are sheer cliffs.  It's bitterly cold, there is snow up to our knees, and the last few hours have been tough going.   It has been made slightly easier as Harshnag has been leading at the front, cutting a trial in the snow for us to follow.  The cold, snow, and ice do not seem to slow him down much.  
 

On the opposite side of the causeway we can see a massive stone domed entrance.  There is no sign of any tracks, and the place does not look like it has been visited in a very long time.  Harshnag says that only a handful of Giants and Dragons even remember that this place exists, never mind where it can be found.  I ask what we might expect to find inside, but Harshnag replies that he doesn't know, this is the first time he has been here.

The domed entrance is surrounded by six 30' stone pillars.  Each pillar has a relief carved on to it, but the carvings are totally obscured by snow, ice, and frost.  Leo lights a torch and uses it to clear away the ice from one of the pillars.  Underneath is revealed a carving of a cloud giant flying with birds in the sky.  We spend some time revealing the carvings on each pillar.  The other carvings show a Hill Giant lifting rock above his head; a Frost Giant cutting down a pine tree; a Storm Giant flying through the air hurling lightening bolts at a ship; a Stone Giant climbing a mountain; and a Fire Giant with chained dwarf prisoners in a cavern.

It goes dark only a few feet inside the entrance.  Celerity prays to Lathandar to provide light, and my shield begins to glow spreading light all around.   The light from my shield reveals that under the dome is a 40' square hallway leading into the mountain.  The floor is made of worked stone stabs.  As I look around, I notice that at the entrance there are gaps in the ceiling, 40' wide and 20' deep, suggesting two hanging blocks of stone.  I point them out to Harshnag.  He thinks for a moment, and then provides us with his Giant wisdom, "Well this place will be trapped, but I don't know what the traps will be."

Leo immediately begins to check the ground and walls for pressure plates, triggers, trip wires, or any other trap mechanism he can think of, but can't find anything.  Leo begins a ritual, so we stand about in the cold for 10 minutes trying to keep warm waiting for him to finish.  He eventually finishes his ritual, shrugs his shoulders and says can't detect anything magical, "Let me go in and take a look".

Once more, Leo wiggles his fingers in a strange and elaborate pattern whilst simultaneously holding a feather.  As the incantation ends, he floats into the air, and flies down the hallway.  A few minutes later Leo nonchalantly walks back out of the hallway.  Harshnag immediately sets off walking down the corridor. The corridor extends for approximately 260', before a set of stairs that lead up to a pair of stone doors, tightly closed.  The doors are 30' wide and carved with Giant Gods battling Dragons.  Harshnag describes to us who each of the Giant Gods are who are battling with the Dragons.

With prompting from Leo, Harshnag pushes on the doors, and they slowly grind open, but stop after only a few inches.  Harshnag puts all hi might into moving them, but they won't budge.  I add my strength to Harshnag's, followed by Leo and Celery, but we are unable to open it much more than six inches.  There appears to be a build up of ice that is stopping it opening from the other side.  Leo conjures motes of fire, and hurls them through the narrow gap at the ice.  As Leo continues to melt the ice away, we push on the door and it slowly begins to give as the ice melts and we eventually open the door sufficiently to allow Harshnag and the rest of us through. 

Beyond the door is a large chamber with a very high roof.  There are sconces all around the chamber, and as we wander around exploring, they light up as we approach them.  There are some seven huge statues in the chamber.  Harshnag tells us the largest one in the centre is Annam the All-Father.  It is an 80' tall robed Giant, with his arms outstretched towards a glowing archway on the eastern wall, and face hidden behind a cowl. Kneeling in two rows between Annam and the archway are six smaller statues, about half the size of Annam.  Harshnag says they are his godly sons, and signify the deity of each of the six races of Giant kind.  All but the Frost Giant statue are armed.  Harshnag explained each of the Giant dieties: Grolantor, worshiped by Hill Giants holds a bone club; Skoraeus Stonebones, worshiped by Stone Giant grasps a huge stone boulder in his hands; Surtor the God of Fire wields an oversized Greatsword; Memnor, worshiped by Cloud Giants holds a Spear; and Stronmous, worshiped by Storm Giants, grips a Trident.  The statue of Thrym, who is worshiped by Frost Giants, clearly used to wield a weapon but it is no longer in his grasp. 

There is a motionless mist in the archway preventing us from seeing what if anything is beyond.  Around the archway are six runes equally spaced.  From what I remember of my lessons at the Temple, Leo enters the mist, but is hardly gone before he returns.  He says his vision is completely obscurred in the mist, but about two feet inside is a solid wall.

I recognise the Giant runes as Haug, Skye, Ild, Uvar, Stein, and Ise. In common they translate to Hill, Cloud, Fire, Storm, Stone, and Ice respectively. We deduce that each represents one of the Giant races.  Leo stands in front of the Ise rune and says ice in Giant, but nothing happens.

Celery takes the Bone Club from the statue of Grolantor and touches it to the Haug rune inscribed over the archway.  I feel a sense of stupidity trying to take over my mind when the club comes into contact with the rune but I shake it off. 

At a loss about what to do next, we explore each side of the chamber.

On the eastern wall there is only the archway. 

There are two doors on the western wall.  We go through one which leads into a corridor about 20 feet long that leads into a square room. In the middle of the room is a giant Lever.  Leo asks Harshnag if he can pull the lever.  He nods, and pulls the lever, which he moves with ease.  A few seconds later there is a whoosh as it sounds like something heavy is falls rapidly, and a whump as it lands with great force.  If I was to guess, I suspect we have just released huge stone blocks in the ceiling in the entrance way that we saw on our way in.  The second door on the western wall leads to another room identical to the one we just left, but we leave the lever alone.

On the north wall are two sets of double doors, about thirty feet high and made of stone.  They are stuck fast from ice that has formed around them in the freezing air.  Once again Leo conjures motes of fire to melt the ice and clear it from the doors.  With the aid of Harshnag, I force them open so we can go through.  Inside is a wide room that extends about 80 yards.  To the left is a broad set of stairs leading down.  We go down the stairs which turn through 180 degrees into another large chamber.  In an alcove in the centre of the chamber is a statue that Harshnag confirms is a Stone Giant which faces a 40ft wide corridor to our left.  On the opposite side is a second set of stairs leading upwards.  Celery says that there is something odd about the statue, but she can't put her finger on what it might be.  As we are exploring the chamber, Leo stands in front of the statue and performs an intricate ritual. At the end of his ritual he stares intently at the statue, and eventually says that there is an aura of conjuration magic in the area around the statue but he does not know what it does or is for.  

We walk along to the corridor, which slopes gently downwards.  As we go down, on each side there are large dormitories. We enter the first one on the left which opens into a 60' square chamber, big enough to house a Giant or maybe two.  Inside there are couches, beds, tattered furs, but its apparent the room has not been used for many years.  As we go down the corridor, we check each dormitory, but they are all similar to the first. As we reach the fourth dormitory on either side, the slope levels off and then begins to rise slowly.  As we near the last two exits, there is a loud crashing of stone.  The entrance to each dormitory is suddenly sealed with stone.

Leo continues to run in an effort to reach the end of the passageway, disappearing and reappearing thirty feet further on.  I follow his lead and also magically move myself towards what I hope is the exit. Harshnag however runs over to the nearest door and begins striking it with his Axe.  We hear another stone grinding noise, but this time much slower, although it appears to be gathering speed.  A few moments later a massive stone boulder appears in front of us and begins to roll down the corridor before us gathering speed.  I dodge and dive to the ground pushing myself as close to the join of the floor and wall as I can.  The boulder rolls past me, there being just enough room for me to fit between the boulder and the walls and floor.  Unfortunately, Leo and Celery are not so quick, and the boulder rolls right into them, mauling them as it rolls, before they manage to get to the side as it continues rolling past them.  I don't notice what happens to Harshnag but I see he is still with us.  Celery looks quite hurt, but Harshnag bounds across to her and picks her up.  I go to Leo and whisper a short prayer to Tyr and Lay my Hands on Leo, and I feel the power of Tyr channeled through me into Leo, healing the worst of his wounds.  

The sound of the boulder is dimishing as it rolls away up the corridor.  I realise that the shape of the corridor means the boulder is likely to begin rolling back towards us and we are not out of danger.  I shout, "Can you get us out of here Leo?"  He doesn't respond to me, but begins running towards Harshnag, shouting for him to come to him. As Harshnag gets to Leo with Celery in his arms, Leo touches Harshnag with a feather, whilst quietly reciting magic words and Harshnag begins to rise from the floor.  I catch up with Leo, who is now looking at me and still saying unintelligible words. The next second both Leo and I are transported into one of the dormitories.  I can hear the sound of the boulder getting louder again.  I start smashing my gauntleted fists on the door which suddenly disappears, and I nearly fall back into the corridor. I hear Harshnag swearing loudly in Giant, as the monotonous slow rumble of the boulder grows louder.  As I look out into the corridor the boulder is moving slowly back up being pushed by an animated Stone Giant staue looking identical to the one we saw in the chamber earlier.  As it passes, the Giant statue turns it head and looks at us before pushing the boulder back from whence it came.  The animated statue then does an about turn and walks slowly back up the corridor and back towards the chamber from where it came.  I wonder what happened to Celery and Harshnag.

Leo and I run past the animated statue which takes no notice of us, and back into the chamber.  Harshnag is there, looking with a worried expression on his face, at Celery.  She's unconscious, and for a second time I pray to Tyr, and he infuses my with his power.  I Lay my Hands on Celery and transfer the power of my God into Celery and heal the worst of her wounds.  Whilst Celery comes round, Harshnag explains that as the boulder came back towards him, he didn't know where to go until he realised he could fly, and so he flew with Celery over the boulder and back into this chamber.  We rest here a while and tend to our wounds, and I repair some of the scratches in my armor.

We haven't found anything down here other than the boulder trap, and so once we have regained our strength, we return to the main chamber housing the statues of the Giant Gods.  We go back to the main room. We discuss what to do next for some time.  Harshnag has no knowledge of how to access the Oracle.  Eventually we decide to take each weapon and touch it against the correct rune for each race of the Giants.  We suggest that Harshnag takes Mennor's spear and touches it to the Cloud rune above the archway.  Harshnag refuses, saying that He will not desecrate the Giant Deities by removing their weapons.  However, he says he will not stop us doing it.  The spear is huge, and so as the strongest amongst us, I gently lift the spear from Memnor's hands and touch it to the Cloud rune.  As I touch the spear to the rune, we all suddenly begin to 'fall' towards the ceiling.  I drop the spear, which 'falls' towards the ceiling and 'lands' on it with a clatter.  I manage to grab hold of the archway and try and hold on to the underside of the arch to prevent myself 'falling'.  I see Leo manages to grab hold of one of the statues to stop himself 'falling' to the ceiling.  Celery nor Harshnag react so quickly and they 'fall' to the ceiling.  About a minute later, my arms beginning to ache with the strain of holding myself against this strange phenomenon, we suddenly begin falling the right way and I let go of the archway and drop with a metallic thump to the ground.  Celery and Harshnag drop like stones from the ceiling to the floor.  I rush hoping they are still alive as its a long drop.  Celery is moving slowly and holding her Holy Symbol channeling her Gods power to heal her wounds.  Harshnag refuses any healing.  We stop again to discuss what our next action might be.  Our next idea, since Harshnag is a Frost Giant, is for him to touch his weapon against the Ice rune.  He looks at us dubiously but agrees to do it as he does not have a better idea.  Before he does, Leo summons his immobile dome of force which we normally use as a place to rest in, and we all go inside as protection should something untoward happen when Harshnag's Axe touches the rune.  

Harshnag waits until we are all inside, and then hesitantly raises his Axe to the Ice rune.  As Harshnag touches the rune, a hail of rock-hard ice shoots down from the ceiling covering the whole of the chamber, pounding into the ground.  A few hit Harshnag, but we are safe in the protection of the force dome.  Once the ice storm stops, we leave the hut and check on Harshnag, and ponder for a third time what we should do. 

It's then we remember, there are doors on teh south wall that we have not yet investigated.  Once again, Leo conjures motes of fire to melt the ice that has frozen the stone doors closed, enabling Harshnag and I to force them open.  Beyond the doors is a huge, rectangular room about 200' wide by 400' long.  On one side is an alcove running half the length of the wall.  The room is brightly lit and warmth is radiating from a massive bowl in the centre of the chamber in which a roaring fire is burning.  There's a feint smell of gas which is probably what is feeding the fire even though we have found no living things here.  Around the fire-bowl are six stone slabs, that look like they are used as tables, with stone benches either side.  Stacks of plates and goblets are scattered all over the room.  Against the southern most table rests a huge Axe.  I suggest to Harshnag he may want to pick it up, and place it in the hands of the Frost Giant statue in the main room.  Harshnag nods to me, and begins making his way to the Axe.  He doesn't get very far before we hear a loud scuttling noise coming from within the alcove.

Out scuttles a huge creature with leathery wing like fins stretching from its head down its back, an insect-like head, and a huge 40' long scaly body. It was ice-blue in colour, and had dozens of legs. It's back glowed red with an inner fire. Along its body were horns and dagger-like teeth filled its ugly mouth.

Leo immediately steps forward and points at the creature.  There is a smell of sulphur, as a bright streak flashes from his pointed finger behind the creature before exploding with a dull roar of fire and flame engulfing the creature.  The creature appears unscathed and continues to undulate slowly towards us.  I advance, closing the gap between us.  I hear Celery moving behind me, and whispering a prayer to Lathandar.  As she finishes her prayer, the spectral Mace of Lathandar materialises by the creature and strikes at it's body.  Harshnag races past me and engages the creature as it moves past him to attack me. The creature is huge and is easy to find places to strike.  I stab with my longsword at its body and pray to Tyr to infuse me with his power.  My sword glows brightly as it punctures the creatures body.  Hot liquid spews from it's wounds burning Harshnag and I.

A frigid beam of blue-white light streaks over my shoulder and hits the creature but again it seems unaffected by Leo's magic.  I strike out at the creature again, scoring twice with the blade of my sword, infusing each strike with Tyr's power.  The strikes rent the creatures skin and hot liquid burns me again.  As the creature concentrates on me, Harshnag's attacks are unimpeded and he continues to land blow after blow onto the creature.  Celery's spectral Mace is likewise free to strike freely.  Bright balls of light materialise in a sphere around Celery, wizzing to and fro, and a npise of sizzling each time one comes into contact with the monster.

As the creature begins to retreat, I take the opportunity to go on the attack, and follow it.  Unfortunately I over-reach and the creature manages to bite me successfully with its razor sharp teeth, trapping me in it's mouth, and I fall into unconsciousness.

I come round what must be only seconds later, still stuck in the monster's maw.  Five glowing darts of magical energy shoot from Leo's outstretched arm straight into the creature, and its mouth becomes slack, dropping me to the floor, as it slumps to the ground, immobile, dead.  I pick myself off the floor, as Harshnag retrieves the Axe and we return to the main chamber where Harshnag replaces the Axe into the Frost Giant statue's hands. But again nothing happens.

We sit down in disappointment, and once again debate what we should do.  It's getting late, and we decide to rest here overnight before resuming our quest to find the Oracle the next morning.  Maybe one of us will be inspired overnight.  Once again, Leo conjures his dome of force where inside, we eat a frugal meal of trail rations, tend our wounds, and care for our weapons before going to sleep.  We set no watch in the protection of the dome.