2025-09-27 - Session 7

Previous session: Session 6 Next session: Session 8

Where Were We?

After a grueling climb through a terrible blizzard, the party arrived at the verge of the Rime and was quickly confronted by two giants that emerged from the fog.

And Then What Happened?

One giant, Storr, is a stone giant. The other, a woman, is a frost giant.

Thalador tries to make nice with the giants. We are challenged to explain why we might enter. "I come under guest-right of stone and sky," says Thalador, and we're allowed in, through the pillars and further up the mountain.

The path is huge and wide, meant to accommodate giants. It leads to an open, flat area, with a circle of standing stones around a central stone platform. Many paths lead into the clearing, and various kinds of giants stride down them toward the clearing, shaking the earth with each step. One group looks like a council of elders. One is taller than the rest, his eyes gleaming storm-gray. Other giants: stone, hill, frost come and circle around the dais. Some are curious, some snort. None address us directly. Until one does... Kallr Stoneshaper, elder of the moot.

Thalador says we seek the Stone of Remembrance.

Kallr issues us three challenges... strength, wisdom, and voice

First, we must lift an enormous, rune-carved boulder. Eight feet in diameter? We do a combination of buffs on Cador... Bless, Rage, Help... and he DOES IT, lifting it up over his head!! The giants nod to one another, and some grin. They seem to enjoy Cador's enraged roar.

Next is the test of wisdom...

What walks without feet, speaks without tongue, and strikes without hand?

We think really hard... Aoife has a flash of inspiration! "Thunder!" Thalador translates back to giant -- and she's right!

Next is the test of the voice... Thalador explains as best he can. Kellr says we pass and may join the Thing.

Kellr lifts his hand and more giants emerge. The air thrums with power. We set down our weapons, mimicking the actions of the giants. The giants begin to bicker about our presence.

They suggest we take the blood oath and stand with them against the fomor. This triggers Cador. We discuss Cador's vision. The giants debate whether to prepare for war or whether the fomor are fairy stories.

Thalador volunteers to take the oath, and Cador joins him. Kellr opens his palm and lays blood upon the stone. Thalador and Cador join him.

Kellr says:

“By stone unbroken, by sky unclouded,
by root that drinks deep and star that burns high,
we bind our strength as one.
No hand shall rise in betrayal,
no word shall twist to falsehood,
until earth and heaven part,
and the last echo fades from the mountain.”

We feel something flow between us, a binding akin to a geas. "You are bound to us. Do not fail." The giants must debate yet, and then we will be taken to the Stone of Remembrance.

We're offered a place to rest. They take us to a guest home in a mountain cave and we take a long rest. Clodagh conjures a fresh set of Goodberries. After the rest, Laurence performs an Inspiring Song, providing Heroic Inspiration to himself and Thalador.

The guard returns to bring us to Kellr. He sits alone in the stone circle. He mutters a word, and a table with human-sized food appears before us. He greets us in Common. Kellr says the people are traditional, but he tries to learn more of the world.

We explain our backstory to Kellr. Kellr says the Vanha may be even worse than the Fomor. The stone will give us the information we need to take this seriously. He offers to take us to the stone, unless we need more rest first. We accept his hospitality and rest another day.

We negotiate with Olvir, our guard, to observe and learn of giant culture. We're led to a longhouse where a huge fire roars. People at tables, large dogs, a skald, musicians. There are games of skill and strength. This is a once-a-year celebration -- we came on the right day, and our coming is an omen. We're welcomed to join, but we should be careful.

Cador inquires about the making of tea, and explains what "tea" is. Helga, who speaks halting Common, is summoned to show Cador the kitchen spices. They begin to explore and prepare some tea.

Clodagh finds a back corner where a storm giant woman in black, wearing a black veil, with tattoos on her face, is throwing runes the size of small tablets. "Little one, perhaps you seek to know the ways of the gods." She beckons Clodagh to speak her name into the flame, and casts three runes:

Rune 1 – Past: Uruz (ᚢ)

• Meaning: Strength, untamed vitality, raw life-force.
• Reading: Clodagh’s past is shaped by her raw will and her body’s resilience. She has endured much by sheer vitality rather than careful wisdom. This rune suggests she has been tempered like iron through hardship, but also warns of stubbornness—her past strength can become rigidity.

Rune 2 – Present: Ansuz (ᚨ)

• Meaning: Wisdom, divine breath, inspired speech.
• Reading: Right now, her challenge is understanding and communication. She is standing before mysteries older than her people (the Vanha, the Soulfont, the whispers in the mountains). To act wisely, she must listen—to her companions, to omens, to the land itself. This rune speaks of guidance through signs, but also the danger of false counsel.

Rune 3 – Future: Hagalaz (ᚺ)

• Meaning: Disruption, hailstorm, trial by destruction.
• Reading: Clodagh’s path ahead will not be smooth—it will break patterns, scatter plans, and test her resilience. Hagalaz is the storm rune: it destroys, but in destruction it clears the way for renewal. The question is whether Clodagh will endure the storm and emerge sharpened—or be broken by it.

"Are you afraid, Clodagh?"

"No."

"Then you are very brave, or very foolish." She gathers up her runes. "Do you know of Seiðr? It's our word for the magic. Of stone, of storm. Perhaps you will come back and learn one day. It's not a thing your people know if. It would give you great strength." Clodagh would be curious to learn more, even if it wasn't something accessible. Talks about beginning her study of the arcane magic of the humans. "Your magic is of light and lightning, ours is of stone and thunder. One is not better than the other; just different." She pulls forth a rune and marks it with a sigil, and gives it to Clodagh. "Take it. Bring it when you return."

Aoife is journaling. A couple giants notice what she's wearing and take note of the staff. They make a gesture -- a druidic gesture of welcoming, which Aoife returns. They smile and pass on.

Laurence finds the hill giant who was talking about needing new songs. The giant pops a candle out of a candle-holder and claps it upside-down over Laurence -- protecting him from a drunken giant who might have otherwise stepped on the halfling. Thalador joins Laurence and translates the songs and tales for Laurence. He and Laurence join in the jam.

Cador's tea is a big hit! He names it "Freemen's Wood Tea".

Eventually, the party winds down, and we go to our rest.

In the morning, Olvir takes us to see Kellr. Olvir thanks Cador for the tea, which has apparently staved off his hangover. Instead of going to the Thing, we're taken on a different path, higher into the mountains. Kellr awaits us in front of a large stone door, 30 feet tall, carved with intricate art of giants going about their lives.

"Inside is the Stone of Remembrance. You must touch it, and the stone will speak to you. Give something of yourself to the stone -- a song, a word, sweat, tears -- and it will show you of the past." He opens the door. From within comes the smell of amber and sandalwood, heavy and smoky. It's dark inside, but we can see some flickering lights and a large shadow at the center of the chamber. Kellr shuts the door behind us. We are in the Chamber of the Stone.

Clodagh begins a ritual to decode meaning from runes carved around the room.

Thalador approaches the stone, offering a lullabye lyric about the friendship of the Orontinórë and the giants. He sees a vision of the dwarves, chained, and the vanha, standing over them. The dwarves strain, until shattering apart. Half grow, becoming the giants, and the other half shrivel, becoming goblins. In a second vision, we see a moot at the circle, voices rising, divided -- half standing with the elves and druids, the other with the vanha, and a fissure splits the circle.

Laurence approaches the stone, offering a song on the vanha lute that combines the musics he's heard. He has a vision of a mighty cavern city, walls carved by dwarven hands, veins of gold and silver. Dwarves labor at forges, proud and unbroken. The vanha arrive extending hands in command. Chains of pure language bind the dwarves to their masters. A king of stone beard and fire eyes hurls his hammer, starting the rebellion. Spells of the vanha against the steel of the dwarves. In a second vision, vanha scribes in a luminous hall, scrolls and crystals. One smashes a crystal at the floor, destroying the soul light inside. Horror on their faces.

Cador goes next, striding confidently up to the stone. He presses the vanha coin to the stone as he touches it. The stone flares with lightning that wraps around his arm. A vision of the soul font. Something older than words pushes through from a rift in the mountain -- the Fomor's gift of chaos. Giants and goblins break free. Calamity! What had once been forested land rises to become tall, jagged mountains. In a second vision, giants and dwarves outside a vanha stronghold. Their bonds shatter, and the dwarves collapse, twisting into goblinoid shapes.

We compare notes and reflect on our experiences at the Vanha keep beneath the sinkhole.

Aoife offers a lyric from a druidic lullaby. Her vision shows her vanha at the soul font, an elder weaving souls into empty children. The light flickers. The soul font gives nothing. Silence. A hollow child hardens into flesh like gray stone. They become like the little child creatures we encountered in the caves! A second vision. A great celebration -- vanha arriving, interrupting the elves and other species, reshaping the melody into something ordered and inhuman.

Clodagh offers the memory of her favorite childhood book. She sees a vision of standing in a hall of radiant crystal. The vanha shine with inner light. Wonders of vanha creation. But something isn't right... Darkness at the heart of their crafts. Order is mercy, to bind is to preserve, we shape to perfect. Hubris. We were not monsters, we were dreamers who flew too close to the sun. A second vision of elves in a hidden grove, placing food before starving human travelers. Hope blooms before the moment dissolves into ash.

The stone thrums and pulses, lightning running through the silver veins. Its energy seems heightened, the air electric. It falls silent, but then the thrumming begins in triple beat... Three figures step out of the stone in front of us! They take a position like it's a play. Two are vanha, seven feet tall, robed. The other is a dwarf. The dwarf is shouting at them. In a tense exchange, they argue about the hubris of the Vanha and the ignorance of the Dwarves, culminating in a mutual declaration of war.

Okay, that was heavy... Now what do we do with that?

Laurence considers whether what we saw fills in lore in the giants' history. The war is what raised the mountains between Críoch Fuinidh and Freemen's Wood. The runes of the giants match those of the runes of the dwarves.

We debate what to do. Will we get sidelined by the elders when we return to Freemen's Wood?

Cador sketches his memory of the mountain that subsumed the vanha city -- triple peaks?

We knock to be let out. Kellr says he's seen the visions himself. Kellr sits cross-legged at the fire with us. We tell him we've seen a soul font. From what he's gleaned, there was a war between the vanha and the dwarves. The dwarves were changed -- why there's no dwarves. The vanha cracked the world -- why there's no vanha. The vanha ruled above, the dwarves below -- until they crossed the line. Kellr says that our discovery of the soul font is a sign that change is coming. Only Kellr knows of the giants' origins. Kellr asks if we will seek out the vanha places; we say we are worried about other powers that would claim them for themselves. Kellr will prepare. Says that the Empire is worrying, but even more so the Conclave of Mages. Says this took place 20 generations ago for the giants. Says he doesn't recognize Cador's sketch of the mountains, but Laurence intuits that Kellr is not telling us everything. "I have never laid eyes upon those mountains, he claims. There's a rumor that deep in the mountains is a hermit who has deep lore. It's possible we will find him, or he will find us. He can tell us generally where the hermit might be found. Three days further northwest, beyond the boundaries of the giants. He also says the Empire has sent scouts into the mountains.

We accept Kellr's offer of hospitality and take a long rest. We all gain a level!

Plans for Next Time

• Thalador takes his oath
• We head out -- back to Freemen's Wood?