With Sharn's arrival, the party's ability to escape seems clearer.

"Sharn, if you're up to it, I think you can carry Rigya.  If necessary we can get that armor off of her and carry her, but I'd rather we didn't; delay and noise are not good right now.

But be careful; she'll be alright, but she's just hangin' on!"

Sharn nods and takes the dwarf and carries her, let's get out of here!!

"Hold on a moment," Lowell said before Rigya was moved. "I may be able to wake her with Melora's wisdom."

He chanted a prayer to restore the health of the badly injured woman.

OOC:CLW 2+5=7 Heal to Rigya

Rigya regains consciousness as a result of Lowel's divine healing. The party are now about a half mile distant from the ettin's lair. It's been a few moments since the party last heard the ettin scream cut through the night air and the monster is likely already on the move.

"Let's get the hell outta here," Ullian encourages, as he grabs Arielle's hand to encourage that she do so and to get the whole momentum thing going.

"If everyone's here," Rigya said, catching her breath and steadying herself against a tree, "let's get as far away as we can."

She stumbled in whatever direction the elf was going in.

Lowel was more than happy to get as far away from the tower as they could.

"Let's just keep walking until the sun comes up," he suggested. "Then make camp."

Although he couldn't quite see her, he knew they had been able to save the girl.

"I'm Lowel, by the way," he said by way of introducing himself to her. "Your father hired us to come look for you."

Sharn continues to help the dwarven woman, lending her part of her strength and balance to help her move along.

The party rallies atop the saddle of two adjoining ridges with the ettin's lair about a half mile distant. As soon as Rigya regains consciousness, the party moves on, eager to put distance between themselves and the angry ettin. With over half the party unable to see in the dark, the party must choose between relying on those with infravision to guide the party or using light sources to speed their travel.

OOC: Just let me know how you plan to proceed and then I need all PCs to make a Constitution check. Thanks

"Just lead us through the dark," Rigya said to those that could see.  "I don't want to give that thing any ideas about following us."

OOC: Rigya rolled 5 using 1d20.  Constitution check.  Success

"As you wish," Ullian says as he does his best to lead the way.


17:44, Today: Ullian Greyheart rolled 2 using 1d20.  CON (15).

Lowel tried not to stumble in the darkness, but didn't argue with getting as far away as possible.

OOC: Lowel rolled 15 using 1d20.  Constitution (15).

Strong, and fit, pretty maybe not, but this is Sharn's element, she can see well enough in the dark and helps to both lead and carry anyone who grows tired.


18:40, Today: Sharn Thanatol rolled 11 using 1d20.  con check (17).

The party races down the wooded hill in the dark, any thought of tiredness driven away by the thought of the angry ettin catching up if they let up for even a moment. The only sound they hear for quite some time is the sound of their footfalls and their racing heartbeat.

They eventually make it back down the broad valley, where the going is much easier, the light reflecting off the shiny grass. They stick to the edge of the valley, just within the cover of the woods and continue their trek southwestward.

An hour passes and the party has yet to catch sight or sound of the ettin. Perhaps they have given the giant the slip?

Though covered in sweat and exhausted, the party continues on, though now at a much reduced pace and with more effort placed on remaining quiet. This continues for another hour and the party soon comes to the southward trail leading back to Fairhill. Still no ettin.

"I'm thinking that if he knew where we were it'd have caught up by now.  So the only way it'll find us is if it changes his direction, hits upon the direction we've gone, and follows it long enough to catch up.  The only way that'd happen is if he's a good tracker or we have bad luck.

But let's keep moving because I don't want to test any of this theory by stopping and waiting to see what happens."

"We can't go on like this forever," Rigya said, trying to gauge the smith's daughter's constitution.  "Let's keep an eye out for a place to camp off the road.  Far enough back that it won't be able to spot us even if it does come this way.

"Now that we're not in harm's immediate way, I'd rather not run into something else in this darkness."

Saying all this, she can barely see the trail in front of her.

Ullian keeps his eyes out for a spot where the party might camp.

"Could we just maybe keep going until we're too tired to go on?" Lowell suggested hopefully. He really didn't want to see those two heads again. Though had they been forced to slay it, he would have been interested to see the bone structure that supported them close up.

Lannet and Arialle readily agree to continuing to flee from the ettin's lair for as long as the party is capable. In the end, this is exactly what the party does. They march through the early hours of the morning, taking brief rests now and then, but always moving southward toward Fairhill.

At one point, a few hours from dawn, the party hears a terrible growl in the distance, but it never grows any closer. Finally, shortly after sunrise, the adventurers can push on no further and succumb to exhaustion. The party finds a secluded place to rest, does their best to hide their tracks, and drift off to sleep, one by one.

Their sleep is uneasy and fitful, but each manages to get a couple of hours of sleep and all awake mid morning, the sun's rays filtering through the canopy onto their makeshift camp. Though they remember establishing watch, nobody remembers who stood watch and in the end, it doesn't really matter. They were unharmed while sleeping and save for an irritated squirrel chittering away at the party, perhaps unhappy to have loiterers so close to its nest, the party has seemingly escaped detection!

The party is still sore and tired when they awake, but at least everyone survived. Arialle is quite thankful and appreciative of her rescuers and expresses her gratitude several times. They still have another solid day of travel ahead of them, but with a little luck, Fairhill awaits.

"I will feel better once we are in the town," Ullian declares.  He does what he can to quickly break camp and prepare for departure.

"I just want to get back to a soft bed," Rigya said as she hefted her pack.  "It was too bad that thing was as strong as it was.  I was really thinking it might have had something hidden away.

"As it is, I suppose we still came out ahead.  All of us above ground and our wayward bard in hand."

"I agree; it would have been really nice to get that chest of gold and whatnot," Ullian laments.

But at least we got out intact, or at least mendable."


Something suddenly occurs to the thief.  He turns to Arielle and asks:

"So what exactly happened to result in you being captured?  And what of those that you set out with?"

"Back up a second," Rigya said, turning incredulously back to the elf.  "There was a chest of gold!"

"Yes," Ullian says ruefully.  "At least some of it was gold.  But there was no way to get it out and also get Arielle out.  I had thoughts of dropping it on the ettin, to solve both issues, but none of us had the strength to lift it."

"You couldn't have just filled up your pockets with what you could carry?" the woman asked, dumbfounded.

"What were you doing up there all this time?" she said, turning on the young woman accusingly. "You couldn't have been sorting gold into a sack to reward any would be rescuers?  What kind of adventurer are you?"

She couldn't believe there'd been a chest of gold sitting there and everyone just kept walking right by.  It was obvious she'd been giving some of her companions too much credit and she'd have to keep a better eye on them.

She had been feeling a little bad that she was the only one getting a reward out of this with the armor, but not so much, anymore. They'd left their treasure behind!