Under Jorgenfist, Part 2 (Thursday, Abadius (I) 16th, 4708 AR)

The heroes emerged from the small caverns into larger ones, and started exploring them.

The Pit. A pit served as the primary entrance into the underground portions of the stone giants' fortress. The ramp leading down into the pit wound down to the caverns below Jorgenfist.

The pit itself was 80 feet deep. The pit floor was a tangle of bones and broken bodies, a combination of humanoid, giant, and even four dragon corpses (three blues and a red, all Large). Flocks of crows, buzzards, and other scavenging birds swarmed over the bodies, picking at the flesh until only bones remained. An investigation of the uneaten carcasses revealed that they all had the Sihedron Rune carved crudely on their torsos in the case of the humanoids and dragons, or branded on the small of the back in the case of giants.

These caves were used primarily for barracks. The caves themselves had high ceilings, averaging 20 feet in height in the tunnels, while in the caverns they generally arched to heights of 40 feet.

Four stone giants served as guardians. These giants were ready to defend the caves from invaders and responded to the sounds of combat elsewhere in the complex. The heroes defeated these guardians.

The Stone Giant's Lair. This cavern opened out to the east onto the bony tangle of the pit floor; a hanging dire bear fur over this exit was drawn open but could be pulled shut to keep out the draft. The rest of the walls were lined with furs as well, including the floor - they were piled particularly high to form a mattress to the south.

The hanging furs concealed an exit to the west that lead deeper into the tunnels. The heroes noticed this exit.

The cavern was the home of a stone giant. The stone giant radiated darkness. He had stacked several rocks next to the pit entrance to his lair and used these against intruders. When confronted in close quarters, he used bull rushes to keep the heroes from surrounding him and to set himself up for tactical advantages. The stone giant realized when he had been beaten. When seriously injured, he drank a potion that turned him and all his gear insubstantial, misty, and translucent. The heroes managed to slay him before he escaped.

The stone giant's wealth was mostly invested in his gear, but he also had an impressive collection of scalps and war trophies, including the preserved head of a frost giant, the beards of 100 dwarves (each neatly bundled and secured with a silver ring worth 10 gp), part of a grossly elastic but impressively tattooed hide, and bits of broken and dented breastplates from the plate armor of a dozen different warriors (worth 20 gp each).

He also had a neatly sorted grouping of 33 shields, each marked with the name of a human, elf, or dwarf. Tsela recognized that one of the shields belonged to Anstan Jeggare, an exiled bastard from the affluent Jeggare family in Korvosa. This shield alone was magical - a +1 arrow catching heavy steel shield. If it's returned to the Jeggare family, the nobles would pay full price as a reward (rather than the standard half price if the shield was sold on the market).

The Great Cave of Jorgenfist. This huge cavern contained four large tables set up around a central platform on which sat an immense stone throne. From the ceiling above hung carved stalactites, some fashioned to look like dangling spears, others like dragon's teeth. The flickering light of a large fire burned behind a row of stalagmites to the south.

When a female stone giant spied trouble to the great cave in the north, she raced into the room, wielding a long iron ladle as a club. The heroes killed her.

Kobold's Cave. This cave was cluttered by tiny mounds of carefully sorted junk - bones, scraps of armor, broken weapons, stones, dead rats, and sections of chitin harvested from large vermin. A net hammock hung from a pair of stalagmites to the southwest, near a four-foot wide crack in the wall that wound deeper underground.

The arrival of the heroes in the cave puzzled the kobold, but she recovered quickly enough to fly into a frothing frenzy just before she attacked. She didn't stop to double-check whether the heroes should be there or not - the eager-to-fight-kobold attacked.

The kobold was brave and fearless, despite (or perhaps due to) her small stature. She raged on the beginning of combat. The kobold tried to flee when seriously injured, but the heroes killed her, inadvertently causing her necklace of fireballs to explode.

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