Following the familiar tug of the rod, the party wends its way higher into the Giant Mountains. At one stage the pull is northwards, but a few hours later, the pull is eastwards. The group is puzzled, but adjusts course as necessary. Eventually they run across a high sheep pasture tended by a stone giant ‘lad’. The group avoids contact and skulks about for a bit. They move when it is prudent and traverse a long mountain valley used by the giants for raising livestock and farming.
They reach a crossroads, and the rod tugs them towards the mountain peaks located to the east. Deciding to ‘off-road’, the group unlimbers all manner of Fly, Air Walk, Levitate magic and starts moving in a more direct route, narrowly avoiding an encounter with some sort of Hill Giant official retinue. As they cross the convoluted terrain the pull of the rod becomes more and more vertical. They begin scaling the nearest peak, a process that takes the better part of a tenday- when one of the group spots a Roc returning from a hunt.
The rod pull is triangulated and it seems that the Roc’s nest is the likely repository for the missing segment – which might also explain the rapid motion of the piece…
A plan is hatched and the group waits until the creature departs to hunt, then moves to swiftly assault the nest. Daliance starts out by Fireballing the remaining Roc that is tending the young, then follows up with a flurry of Magic Missiles. Reiza and his boots of springing jump into action to rain blows upon the creature. Meanwhile Parker casts Sanctuary and Locate Object. While the battle rages, the second piece is recovered. Leaving the young unharmed, the group flees by the shortest and swiftest path possible to a spot below the treeline. There they hunker down and try to avoid being noticed, in case there is vengeance aloft.
When enough time has passed that it seems unlikely the remaining Roc would still be looking for them, the group now contends with the realization that the second piece indicates the presence of a third piece – far removed from where they now reside….
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