After some searching around the town asking refugees about Marduk’s location, they eventually found him. He had been using his own funds to put refugees up at the inn, buy temporary housing, find temporary jobs, etc. He was also, apparently, a Paladin who had trained together with Marshall Sunblaze! Marduk was not opposed to signing the Pact, but first he needed help securing his people’s safety. Something had made the Giants – previously relatively peaceful – start attacking caravans and raiding villages. He wanted to find the Giant chief and sort out what had changed. Roland readily agreed to this exchange, and they set off into the frozen wilderness.Their first destination was the remains of an old aqueduct, where a Caravan had been reportedly attacked recently. When they arrived they found bandits looting the remains. They fought them off, and then searched the area. Sure enough, they found Giant footprints – heading East. Marduk became quite concerned at this discovery, because he had a friend who lived not too far in that direction from here. He insisted they check in on Snorri Strongbow and his family.Unfortunately, when they arrived they found the house had already been attacked and ruined. Snorri lay dying inside, but told them that he had hidden his family in a nearby cave and come back to lead the giants away from her. Roland tried to help him, but he was already too far gone. They fought off scavenging wolves, and then found Helga and their son Kettil in the cave.But Helga was both quite ill… and pregnant! They were not sure she would survive the night, much less the trip back to White Rock City. But Roland was able to cure and heal her, and Marduk assigned his guards to escort her back. But first they needed to ensure the way out was clear.It was a good thing they checked, because no sooner had they exited the cave then another menace appeared. A huge Remorhaz – the largest they had ever seen – had apparently been disturbed by the Giant’s rampage and was bearing down upon them! The Remorhaz was a very difficult fight. It was so hot that flames burst from it with every hit. It could tunnel in the ground and pop up in unexpected locations. Neither fire nor frost appeared to harm it. Its Acid breath and huge claws were deadly. They still believed they had things under control… until Roland slipped. He fell and it leapt on top of him, slicing, biting and spitting. Roland wasn’t moving… and *Kat* *went* *berserk*. She flung herself on top of the beast and let rip with both magical daggers. She continued stabbing long after it was dead. It took a long time to pull her away. .Falcon attempted to settle her down so that Tess and Marduk could attend to Roland. If anybody understands giving in to rage, its him. .Tess was not the Healer Roland was. But she didn’t need to be. If she could bring him back from death’s door – just bring him back to consciousness – he could do the rest himself. .They were all relieved when he woke back up, but Kat had a very… complicated… reaction. .Once they recovered from the Remorhaz and saw the Strongbows off.. they continued tracking the Giant tracks East. They eventually came upon a large hunting camp – at which several Fire Giants were attacking a Storm Giant. Marduk said that the Storm Giants had always been peaceful with the Dwarves, and so they should help him. So they jumped in and helped defeat the Fire Giants.Afterwards, the Giant introduced himself as Hjalmar Vengeful-Heart son of Hjalmar. He recognized Marduk, and said his people had had a pact with the Dwarves. Marduk retorted that the Giants had broken that pact. But Hjalmar said that his father had been killed by a Fire Giant wielding a powerful artifact with strange new allies. A Fire Giant taking the name Björni Black-Cloud. He said if they defeated Björni and his allies, he would be able to claim his father’s title and end the war. He also told them where they could find Björni . At an old shrine on a frozen lake named Ice Henge.Arriving at Ice Henge, they found a very large Björni .. with Frost Giants, Fire Giants… and demons backing him up. Including a very large demon with huge crab-like claws.Roland and Kat took on the Demon (Glabrezou), with their new anti-planar weapons proving quite the boon.Falcon and Marduk faced down Björni ..Tess kept the other Giants indisposed and prevented the Demon from spellcasting until it and Björni had been dealt with. As it turns out, Giants are entirely unaccustomed to trying to fight while being shaken upside-down in the air… After the fight, they investigated the area. They found a bizarre crystalline memorial with strange writing… which Tess identified as Abyssal – though she could not read it. They also retrieved Björni’s Staff, which appeared Manacalon and not demonic. Marduk asked that they return the staff to Hjalmar as a token of good will to help restore the truce with the Giants. And then agreed to support a vote to elect a Speaker of Pact upon their return.When they returned to White Rock, they visited Gorm to see if he and Violet had learned anything new. And they had indeed made significant progress. Apparently before the Cataclysm Exonaïka had accidentally stumbled into the Demon Realm. While there she met a powerful being named “Sessroth the Archreaver”. When she fled back to Solasta, he followed her – with his own Gate! She called upon her sister – Adrasteia the Abjurer – to help her force him back and seal the Gate. They build a Palace of Ice over the site to keep it sealed. The Speaker of the Pact of the Claw was somehow integral to maintaining the seal on the Gate in the Place of Ice. Unfortunately, they had absolutely no idea where this Place of Ice might be… But he suspected the seal was deteriorating due to lack of… whatever it was the Speaker was supposed to do. And that was why lesser Demons were beginning to appear in Solasta.
They were now certain of the necessity of finishing their quest to get the other clans to agree to elect a new Speaker. And they determined that their next destination would be the Eastern Clans – who were currently fighting Gallivan. They had received a message from Marshall Sunblaze indicating that Masgarth had won some decisive battless against Gallivan…. with the result that the Soraks were sending stronger forces North rather than continuing to attempt invading Masgarth. As a rather darkly amusing side-note, the Marshal told them that Dean Faisech – the constant thorn in their side on the Legacy Council – had requested Diplomatic Immunity and Asylum. Apparently he had not, in fact, been a Sorak infiltrator and collaborator. Merely a weasly and obnoxious opportunistic politician.
11 responses to “Solasta: The Giants of the North”
atcDave
Looks like things are getting more intense for Roland and Kat?!
Very interesting take on the giants. You have an interesting and unique look on these guys. Is this in some way related to the setting? Or 5E? Or just your own idea? Whichever, they look great!
Yeah. That’s the first time I’ve ever had Roland go down. Everybody else has at least once. Particularly Kat in the beginning and Tess (since the AI knows enough to focus fire on the Mage when she’s concentrating on big spells). Roland is usually too tough to go down before I can react, but that Ancient Remorhaz hit *hard*. Fortunately Kat really did hit the sucker with a critical-hit backstab shortly after.
That’s kind of how Giants look in Solasta. I think the idea is that fire/frost/storm/etc giants are the same species, but different clans dedicated to different elements. Their glowing tattoos both represent their allegiance and give them their elemental-specific-powers.
Gotta say, Tess hitting L8 spells and getting access to things like wide-area anti-gravity has been loads of fun. Love being able to tell a shole squad of giants “hang out, I’ll get back to you”. Really sells the high-level-mage feeling of power.
That sounds like good game design too. So often, CRPGs are more limited on that sort of thing than an actual PnP game. So its awesome to see them coming of age in that way.
Just got what you meant about Roland and Kat. Yeah. Undecided. I think nearly losing him is clearly enough to make her re-consider how she feels and where everything stands. Not sure where that’s going. Just going with how the story seems to flow.
I always like a good romance, but you had seemed clear this wasn’t meant to be one! I think Co-Pilot has been pushing that all along! Its funny how often it does that.
It wasn’t originally meant to be that way. I hadn’t seen them that way before. But between the renders and the way the story has been going this time… Guess we’ll see!
And thanks again on the tip about OpenAI’s editor. That did some heavy lifting on this set – removing all the extra bugs the Remorhaz added, eliminating all the extras that keep wandering about, and enabling me to heavily edit the Glabrezou to look more like I wanted.
Used OpenAI to remove everybody’s elf ears who shouldn’t have them. Removed all the extra weapons they were all wearing. Removed an extra person, cropped where I had to, burned 100 attempts in CoPilot, and pulled every trick I know.
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