Lowel seemed disappointed they wouldn't be able to use all of the fire wood he'd gathered, but consoled himself in the fact that other pilgrims would be happy to find it ready.

"It is a nice day today," the Meloran pointed out. "We would regret giving it up if another day were to rain."

Having accomplished what they set out to do, enlist the services of a cleric, the party departs the shrine and continues their journey northward. The trail follows the Coldfell's western banks and eventually veers northeastward. Toward the end of the first day the party finds a suitable camping site, establishes watch rotations, and settles in for the night. Save for the distant screech of an unknown beast to the southwest, the night passes uneventfully.

The group breaks camp early the next morning and continues their journey in hopes of reaching their destination before nightfall. After several hours of travel through wild country, the party follows a stony path into a grassy valley surrounded by wooded hills. The path continues through the valley and then climbs a wooded hill. A large tower in a state of disrepair stands atop the wooded hill. Moments after first seeing the tower, the party hears a beautiful female voice singing a song accompanied by a harp being played rather badly. The voice and harp shimmers through the grassy valley.


Butterfly mine, with pretty wings,
Red and brown and red and blue,
Can't you find any of your flowers?
Butterfly mine, with pretty wings,
Sit yourself down on the swaying straw,
Butterfly mine...

The party is on the stony path leading to the hill, about 500 feet from the tower.

"Well," said Clatsi, satisfied. "That was easy. Follow the tune to find the young woman, and we're done.We must plan now for the important venture. The wizard's ruined keep."

"Nothing's ever this easy," Rigya pointed out to the gnome.  "Let's get closer and see if it's really the one we're looking for."

She pushed forward toward the base of the tower.

"Isn't that the truth of it," Lannie says in response to Rigya's comment. The talkative halfling began their journey filling in space with idle chatter, but over the past day had limited his conversation to the occasional remark about a bird, tree, or plant he saw along the way.

Ullian withholds a look of distaste at Lannet's idle comments and follows with Rigya.

Lowel was content to tag along as he was the newcomer to the bunch and they only needed one person to lead the way.

The path switchbacks up the side of the hill. The cobblestone path is wide enough for a cart to pass, though brush ha grown up on either side and small saplings now sprout here or there, indicating it likely hasn't seen such use in some time.

The beautiful voice and discordant harp become more audible as the party makes their way up the hill:

Only want to reach you,
Only want to get you,
Only want to treasure you!
There, I almost had you,
And then you flew on your way.
Butterfly mine, with pretty wings,
Red and brown and red and blue,
I don't want to frighten you,
Only want to reach you,
Only want to get you,
Only want to treasure you!

Eventually, the party makes their way to the top of the hill. A ruined courtyard, now overgrown with bramble and briar, lies to the south of the tower. Only three sides of the courtyard's walls remain and there are numerous areas where the wall is little more than a pile of stones. Beyond the courtyard, the tower shell rises.

The party stops behind a stand of pine trees to take a closer look and notices a giant, no two giants!

The giants are sitting atop a pile of rubble in the center of the courtyard, their back to the stony path and the adventurers. One giant wears a helm and bobs in time with with the discordant harp. The other giant shakes its head left to right, though trying to clear some bothersome insect from its ears.

Moving position slightly, the group then notices it is not two giants, but one giant, with two heads! The creature is monstrous in appearance, with two misshapen, sloping heads, comically large ears, stringy hair, and a jumble of gray stones for teeth.

The hideous two-headed giant is playing a golden harp, badly. The woman's voice comes from a tower window. Looking up, the party sees a woman with a strong resemblance to the picture of Arialle the smith showed them in Fairhill. Though unlike her comely appearance in the portrait, the woman in the window is now filthy and her hair is a tangled mess.

She continues to sing from the window, while the two-headed giant accompanies her on harp.

One of the giant heads, the non-helmed one, bellows something out unintelligible and causes the playing to stop as the harp crashes to the ground. Moments later, a meaty fist crashes into the non-helmed head and a brief scuffle erupts.

That issue sorted, the two-headed giant picks up the harp and begins to pluck notes, badly, again.

OOC: The party is about 100 feet from the courtyard and two-headed giant and 150 feet from Arialle.

Rigya waved the others back far enough to get them all out of sight and earshot before she spoke quietly.

"I think we know why they haven't returned, now," she whispered the obvious.  "We can't take that thing head on without losing more than a few of us.

"Any clever ideas?"

Ullian smiles a little.

"I think that creature's in love with Arialle!"

After thinking a moment more, he studies the scene before him and tries to discern an answer to the question he asks aloud:

"I wonder if there's a way to circle around and get up to that tower to talk to Arialle.  I'm betting she has information that could be crucial in determining how to proceed.  I think, maybe, if I can get to it, I can climb up."

Regardless of what visual inspection reveals, Ullian then suggests:

"Maybe we should withdraw a little and circle around to the other side?"

"Scouting sounds like a good idea, but I'm sure some of us are better at it than others," she pointed out, looking pointedly at the halfling in their midst.

"We don't all need to go stomping through the brush."

Lannet stammers when Rigya fixes her gaze upon him. "Ullian was the one with the bright idea!" he interjects.

"Maybe we take a looksee together? Two sets of eyes better than one?" he suggests.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:04, Thu 30 Dec 2021.

"If you can contact her, have her sing what we need to know," Lowel suggested. "We can use her song to coordinate our efforts."

Ullian looks at Lannet with a furrowed brow.  He then turns back to Rigya.

"I agree; I was thinking exactly along those lines.  I'll go; if necessary . . . "

He turns back to Lannet.

". . . alone."

And he readies himself to sneak around and to the other side of the tower.

Lannie's jaw drops upon hearing Ullie's announcement. "It's no bother," he quickly responds in a cordial tone. "I don't mind at all. No offense meant. Oh bother..." he stammers as Ullie stalks away.

"What did I say?" he asks aloud, looking for any show of support. If none come, he chuckles and nervously wipes his brow with a handkerchief.

"We should be prepared to act if Ullie is noticed.  I don't think those two heads see eye to eye, if we need to distract them,  I'll approach and talk with them awhile.  Orc's and giants are sorta distant cousins, so they might not squash me right away.  Maybe I can get them arguing with themselves...".

Sharn will be ready to move quickly forward if they giant seems to notice Ullie.

"If you do need to run," Rigya said to the half-orc, "don't bring them right back to us."

She dropped her pack and untied her bow from it's side as she spoke.  "We'll take a few shots at it as it goes past.  Should maybe confuse it for a moment to get a few more shots it."

Leaning down, she flexed the short bow onto it's string and tested the pull.  "Just don't try to go toe to toe with it.  If it got a hold of one of us, I'm sure it would just rip us apart."

Clatsi's eyes were wider than usual behind his spectacles and his voice was more quiet than usual, as well. "I ... I don't think I can put that thing to sleep, even with two spells!" As Ullie moved away, the little gnome hissed, "Wait. I should come with you. If you were to fall ... well, I could soften the landing."

He waited for approval from Greyheart before tagging along.

Before he went -- if he went -- Clatsi said to Lowel, "Oh. That's a clever ruse, with the song." There was some surprise in his voice. "I for one am glad you joined us, Lowel."

[OOC: How tall is the tower? I have a 10 yard range with featherfall.]
 

Lowel dropped his own pack and set his large shield out to be ready. He took a drink of water from his water skin and waited for the situation to evolve.

Ullian smiles at Clatsi.

"I think the risk of me falling is smaller than the risk of you making noise and attracting attention, my friend.  But if you insist; just follow me so you can see where to step and what pace to maintain."

OOC: Despite the bravado, I'm also curious as to the tower's height.

The tower is about 60 feet tall, with the upper portion in a state of great disrepair. However, the window from which Arialle is presently singing is about 30 feet above the courtyard.

"Could somebody just go already?" Rigya said in exasperation as the elf and gnome dithered around.  They'd still have the halfling if the elf fell off the tower, anyway.

"Ullie can handle the scouting on his own and we'll see what's really going on here."

Clatsi hesitated at Rigya's rebuke and he almost held his position, but he said quietly to no one but himself, "Alone. There's a reason we came here together, and it's not to send folks off alone. No. Not acceptable."

The little gnome followed after Ullian Greyhart, trailing by several strides and carefully watching Ullie's feet, and his own, to stay safe and quiet.

Ullie and Clatsi stalk off toward the tower while keeping within the cover of piney woods as much as possible. Arialle continues to sing and the two-headed giant continue to pluck discordant notes in rough approximation of what might pass for a chord.

The pair get a clearer look at the monstrous giant as they draw closer to the courtyard's broken wall. The giant is seated atop a ruined fountain, its statuary long since broken off and discarded elsewhere within the courtyard. The giant would easily be 13 feet tall if he were standing, but at the moment their attention is directed to plucking a beautiful golden harp while admiring the woman in the window. The harp is human-sized and the image of the giant playing the tiny harp would be quite comical, if one could be reasonably certain the two-headed giant weren't aggressive.

The courtyard is overgrown with brush, sapling, and weeds. A ruined gatehouse, its rusted and twisted portcullis cast aside and lying on the ground, stands at the couryard's west end. A dilapidated stable and a few wooden small outbuildings occupy its south side. A row of squat stone barracks, doors and windows long since removed, are clustered just north of the courtyard. The tower rises from the courtyard's west side. A broad double door, presently flung open, allows a glimpse of an entrance hall within.

The elf and gnome continue stalk along the courtyard's north wall and make their way toward the tower. The tower is perched over a rocky precipice on its north, south, and east end. The west side of the tower is open to the courtyard. Arialle is singing from a window on the tower's west side.

Ullie examines the tower and judges it to have plenty of hand and footholds. The issue is the giant will likely be able to see a north, south or west ascent. An east ascent would be out of the giant's line of sight, but one false step and the climber will face certain death. Getting to the east side while remaining below the giant's line of sight will be tricky.

The giant's heads are visible above the broken wall from this vantage point. It is still plucking the harp and gazing at the woman in the window.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 14:14, Mon 03 Jan 2022.

"So," Ullian whispers to Clatsi. "If I should make a misstep on the east side, you can keep me from plummeting to my death?"