One Stone

Year: 1491, Month: Mirtul, Date:20th

Two days after Stone Stand we arrive above One Stone on a bright morning.  From above we see the shrine lies in a grove of oak trees surrounded by tall pines.  There are two tiers: the lower tier is covered in cairns, the upper tier is shaped like a Pegasus.  A huge boulder, 15' in diameter marks where the Pegasus' eye would be.  The whole mound is encircled by a shallow stream.  At the northeast and southwest edges are unpainted totem poles whose tops are carved like flying ponies.  

We climb down from the airship as close to the 'eye' as is possible for Captain Zook to place us.

As my feet touch the solid ground, the earth begins to shake and tremble.  Moments later it erupts in a geyser of earth as a huge scaled creature emerges from the vibrating ground.  

The creature has massive paws which end in three very long claws and a large gaping maw, roaring loudly at us.  Riding (or maybe hanging) on it's back is a human wearing what looks like stone armor! There is a strange symbol symbol engraved on his chest and painted in black that looks like a triangle with a totem sticking up its middle.  He points at the boulder, "That is ours!"
"We don't want the boulder, just whats beneath it", shouts Leo as he hurls a ball of fire towards the creature.  The rider atop shrieks a curse and jumps from his unusual stead,  just as the ball of fire explodes with a loud concussion, flames, and heat.    

I react first, and move quickly to the creature and attack it twice, empowering each thrust with the strength of Tyr.  My sword comes away dripping blood.  Gore and slime is dripping all over my armour.  The creature ripostes with its snarling maw, snapping and biting, but it is ineffectual against my gore covered armor.

The unhorsed rider angrily rushes past me, just beyond my reach, and swings wildly at Leo but misses.
Captain Zook walks calmly to the creature and punches it straight on a kneecap.  With a loud crash it keels over and falls to the floor.  The earth continues to tremble and shake, and a second of the creatures erupts in another shower of earth and stones.  

This one has a rider too. She starts to speak, "Where are ... ", before her eyes are drawn to the corpse of her friends' mount and her very injured companion.  

With a visage like thunder, she urges her mount forward.  

Celery is closest, with her back to the creature.  The creature attempts to bite her, but the riders haste and anger seems to confuse the beast and its attacks are ineffectual.

Celery turns round to face the danger.  A ball of fire streaks from her outstretched arm, exploding with a thunderous concussion behind them.  The fire engulfs the creature and its rider, and we feel a wall of heat eminate from the impact point which dissipates before reaching any of us.  The creature leaps to one side, throwing its surprised rider into the heart of the fiery explosion.  When the smoke clears she is looking a little frazzled. Her face is black and her skin is charred and bubbling. I'm surprised Leo doesn't bring his breakfast back up.

Leo disappears and then instantly reappears about three feet above the huge boulder and drops down onto the rock, somehow managing to keep his balance as he lands.  He points at the female aggressor.  There is a mournful peel of bells around her, blood begins to slowly dribble from her ears, and then her head explodes violently.  The sound of the bells cease.

I move to the remaining fighter and tap him lightly on the shoulder as he has my back to me.  It would not be honourable to run him through with my sword in his back, without giving him the opportunity to defend himself.  He turns round and I deliberately strike wide with my first attack, before striking with the second, infusing it with Divine strike.

Zook surveys the result of his and then glides serenely to the second creature, and punches it a couple of times.  The creature ignores Zooks blows, and makes a leap into the air clerly trying to land on me.  Zook swings a wild haymaker as the creature jumps away, but he fails to make contact.  However, Celery strikes a glancing blow with her mace as the creature goes by.  As it is coming down on me, I swing my shield quickly in an arc over my head and manage to deflect the creature harmlessly to the side.  Celery quickly closes the distance, but the swing with her mace lacks power, and it deflects harmlessly off the creature's hide.  The spiritual Mace of Lathander also appears but is equally ineffective.  I snigger quietly to myself behind my helm.

My next attack follows behind my shield, but my sword bounces off the tough hide, and the sharp edge doesn't appears to cause no harm.

From the top of the boulder, Leo takes out his wand, points it at the creature, and eight glowing darts strike it rapidly one after the other.  Once the last dart has left the wand, he slides down the reverse side of the boulder out of sight.

Zook calmly moves to the creature.  He punches it on a foot (being unable to reach much more of its body), misses with a second wild punch, before again jabbing at the knee.  This creature also suddenly drops to the ground dead.  I make a mental note that if I find myself in combat with these type of creatures again, their knees surely seem to be a weakness.  May be they struggle to carry the creature's mass.

After a few moments of silence, only broken by my heavy breathing, I see Leo's head gingerly poke around the side of the boulder.  Once he sees all our foes have been vanquished, Leo comes around and excitedly says that when he was on top of the boulder he noticed there were engraved lines around the edges of the boulder which fade as they come down the side.  He thinks they look as though are intended to channel magical energy.  We all go over to examine the boulder more closely and Leo is right, there are faint marks either side. I urge Leo to use his magic to see if the item is an arcane artefact.  His eyes briefly narrow, but then he urges us back to give him space and he begins some magic ritual.  For about ten minutes Leo chants gibberish and draws runes around the boulder.  He then takes a step back and tells us that the boulder can be used to cast the control weather spell, or divination spell once every 7 days.  Once every day, the boulder can be shrunk to a six-inch orb, weighing 25 pounds, or enlarged to its current size of 15 feet and weighing twelve tons with the right command words.  To demonstrate he utters a word, and the boulder shrinks to a fist sized ball.  Leo picks it up and drops it into his robes.

Intrigued, Leo then spends the next couple of hours gibbering and inscribing runes around the other Giant relics we have gathered. Intermittently he looks up and tells us about an artifact, before moving on to the next.  Spear...some aura of divination, Mask ... not magical, Torque ... not magical, Skull ... aura of necromancy, Dragon bone / giant club ... magical. 

We get back on the airship and set course for Beorunna's Well.  Zook says it is only sixty miles away, but again we take our time, so as to arrive on the morn of the next day.

Once more we see a Roc in the far distance, ridden by a giant, quartering the sky.  Either he doesn't see us, or we are of no interest, as it doesn't make to approach us.