'Neath a Crimson Throne, Session XIV

 June 21st, 2022/Worms 10th, 749 - Worms 13th, 748

Adventurers present:

•Azaria, level 2 magic-user, played by B

•Beowulf, level 4 fighter, played by J

•Lady Joan, level 4 cleric, played by A

•Lord Pendor, level 4 fighter, played by R

Veriax the Elf went missing during the fight. The remaining adventurers turned down the brass mens' offer of parlay and slaught them all.

They continued up the mountains, whose forested slopes had been reduced to great piles of ash and scree. Coming over a ridge, they looked down upon a camp-site. There was a great tent and a wooden pen in which were tethered a half-dozen banshee-birds. Two brass men guarded the tent.

The adventurers attacked! One brass man went down, but the other freed several banshee-birds before taking shelter in the huge tent. The party killed most of the banshee-birds, but Azaria used her little medical knowledge to stabilize one and keep it from bleeding to death.

Meanwhile Beowulf charged into the tent. Inside, a 26' tall woman with ashen skin, glowing red eyes, and pointed ears was berating the brass man as a coward. Beowulf was stunned for a moment by this sight, but had the presence of mind to introduce himself rather than fighting or running.

He learned that the giantess was Princess Kefe of the Skullfyre Dominion, also known to some as “the Flame Princess.” She was the daughter of King Midbög of the Fire Giants. Her father's forces, she explained, intended to burn down the whole mortal world so that, like a phoenix, it could be reborn from ashes.

She was apparently unaware of the presence of humans in Omnikar and at first thought Beowulf to be “some kind of ugly elf.” Beowulf explained that he had been born of the human race, but that he had transcended humanity and was something more than that, now. He flirted with Princess Kefe and implied he would be open to some sort of an alliance.

Then Pendor, Joan, and Azaria cut through the sides of the tent with their swords, shouting war-cries. Princess Kefe commanded her sole remaining soldier to kill them, but Beowulf convinced everyone to wait for a moment.

Kefe gave the rest of the adventurers basically the same speech she had given Beowulf about purifying the world through fire. She believed that the destruction of all life was a mercy compared to letting the world collapse into entropy and disease. Azaria proposed that they could perhaps work together on some magical solution other than exterminating mortal-kind.

The Flame Princess said she had no authority to negotiate and offered to introduce the adventurers to her father. Just then, Joan splashed her waterskin on Kefe's leg.

It turned out that this was a deadly insult in Fire Giant culture, and so the discussion ended and Kefe attacked the party with a warhammer. It quickly became obvious that they could not beat the giantess in a melee.

Pendor distracted Princess Kefe while his companions escaped. The fleeing adventurers did not see him die, but they had little doubt about the outcome. Under a twilit gloom, they slunk back to Oroko.