Small group this time, with only Raylan, Thorgil, and Pius showing up to Raylan's call to arms. He'd had this Blackblade crazy evil sword locked away in a lead lined box for ages now and finally had a lead on a volcano to throw it in.
Captain Fili, some swarthy foreigner at the helm of a Viking longship, agreed to ferry them out to the volcanic island east of Sland, but only within about 1000 yards. Wreathed in smoke and guarded by a giant sized castle, it was a formidable fortress that guarded the only approach from a black sand and rock studded beach.
They poked around, found a tough way to climb, and managed to dodge any detection from whoever might be home in the castle (it's fire giants). The way ended at a drop into a pit of refuse, discarded bones and gristle of humans deposited from a trash hatch that hung ajar in the volcano's wall. Pius was in the process of fashioning shields to his feet as "gore shoes" when Thorgil tossed a rock in and saw the whole mass quiver.
Pius was lowered down to investigate and nearly killed by an abominable monstrous segmented arm of gristle and sinew that rose out of the pit and thrashed about. The rangers reeled him in before he was clobbered and they shot arrows and threw oil at it until it submerged itself back in the gore. A massive boulder was pushed off their ledge to try and crush it but it missed. It did make a ton of noise no big deal.
The group spent some time discussing various options while I determined if the occupants had heard the noise. Eventually a fire giant poked his head out of the hatch, saw the rock, but didn't see any arrows and figured it was just a landslide. He closed, and latched, the heavy metal hatch behind him. One point of ingress was made more difficult but they had some good recon on the place and bounced.
Back to Sland and nervous about fire giants they opted to avoid the island for now. Temple of the Jotun time. The eastern buildings held a runed stone that gave of Thor vibes in tones of approval. They cleared the east wing and went upstairs, finding a patrol of goblins that had exploded into bone shrapnel. Wisely, Thorgil tossed a piece of bone into the room before entering, triggering the trap? Trick? Whatever that animated the bits and pieces with black lightning and sent another corpselike abomination at them. Despite their separation, it seemed to the group that the two monstrous beings encountered this session were linked.
The rangers held the line, Pius successfully turned undead, and the thing cowered as they beat it to death. Good thing, it was a nasty bugger. There was some black scale mail stowed nearby with Hel themed decoration, too. They finished the map of the 2nd floor and went down to the disgusting pus-lined rift in the central room. Thorgil tried to approach it and light it on fire but succumbed to the smell again and ran to the corner to puke. Raylan tossed oil and a fireball erupted for a minute or two from the gap. Good thing Thorgil failed his first time.
They dropped into the rift, poked around some narrow cavern hallways, and found a shrine to Hel, goddess of death, pestilence, and disease. Pius's Find Traps spell shone around the rune-rimmed iron bowl sitting atop the pedestal. Raylan threw a javelin, disturbed the bowl, triggered the spear trap, and they found some loot stashed. Off they fucked back to town with a bit of ruby and some intel about both locations.
Grading:
Raylan: Excellent. Called, bold
Thorgil: Excellent. Good teamwork w/ Raylan, bold
Pius: Excellent. Good use of spells. Turn undead clutch
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