Madurai's voice betrayed his frustration and annoyance; with good reason. Everything has started out so simply. They had decided, collectively, that they were experienced enough to complete a tougher task and so, they had gone to the Novalan temple in Nodnol city and requested that they were given a quest to complete in Her Holy name.
The Chief Priest knew them well. Zenta was a regular visitor to the temple in order to further her thieving career and naturally, the priests couldn't resist paying over hard-earned (and more often, hard-stolen) money to further their own abilities.
The Chief Priest had taken quite a long time to offer them a quest - they had thought that they were to be refused, again. But no. He merely had been trying to find a rewarding task (financially and spiritually) which would not cause them too much trouble.
As they read the deatails of the printed card, they gasped, "420 gold pieces ..."
"Hill Giant's aren't pushovers, you understand?"
"Yes, but 420 gold pieces for ONE monster!!" Zenta was almost salivating; it was the half-blood in her.
Obviously they had accepted the quest gratefully and had promised that they ould not let the farmers' livelihoods suffer for much longer. They would be back soon.
That was two weeks ago.
At first, everything seemed to be going so well. They had remained in Nodnol long enough to repay a debt, buy a few bows and rob a few shops. When they had left, they had felt confident that they were worthy of the trust of the Novalan Chief Priest.
The Hill Giant, stupid creature that it was, had not moved since its last known sighting, and was cheerfully pushing beer and food down its throat at high speed and in large quantities. It had paused when the group had appeared and ran, or more accurately, wobbled, its way to the group. Their newly-bought bowstrings sung, but the lack of experience with the weapons had showed and only one of the priests hit the creature. Melee was short - two of the fighters landed solid blows and even Zenta's dagger drew blood; its blade more accustomed to causing fatal wounds to locks. The Hill Giant limped back, decided that the group's plentiful rations were not worth the effort. Fortunately, its one successful blow was not poisonous and so the group's one casualty, a fighter by the name of Ettrick, suffered only a mild scratch.
They were encouraged; if three blows could seriously injure it, a few more attacks should destroy it. And then 420 gps, ahoy!! They attacked and fired their bows, but the Hill Giant had learnt and refused to enter into combat. It was content to retreat and live to eat another day. Ticino blasted it with Lightning Blast, but still it survived. Again the group attacked, again it ran.
They slept a few hundred yards away from it that night. Or at least slept as much asthey could, with its non-stop munching noises drifting across the hill.
By morning, it was still there, still eating, still drinking. After three more attacks, it had stopped eating and drinking was engaged in trying to retrain itself to RUN, after many years of wobbling. In its hurry, it dropped a small amount of gold. The group picked up the two-dozen gold pieces and wished that it was the creature's corpse which would have brought them each the 420 gold pieces. They had returned to the city, to plan their next assault.
And that is where we find them ...
"What we need is a way of getting it to keep still.", Shendoah was an apprentice to the group's other mage, Ticino.
"Thar could cast Manna/Replenish food at it!", only Zenta's half-blood reflexes saved her from Mort's flying axe blade.
"No, listen," Shendoah continued, "In the last three attacks we only hit it once, and that was when one of Ticino's arrows hit it. Every time we attack, it runs before we can get a blade into it. So, it's going to have to be war from a distance. Us mages and the priests will have to destroy it."
"But your reagents cost a fortune, we've already spent most of my finds on them!" Zenta protested; her "finds" being money which she had stolen from assorted shops across Kharne. Some towns now cancelled militia leave as soon as the group was sighted.
"Agreed," confirmed Madurai, "Money should be spent on armour."
"Well, at least your armour is cheap, it's only half-size!", this time Zenta dodged a long sword.
"Tonight we sleep, we'll go after it again tomorrow. Thar, Twoflower; work out whatever it is you two work out so you can blast it with miracles. We'll save Shendoah's and Ticino's spells for when it's clear that there's no other way."
The decisions made, the group slept ...
At first light, they all returned to the Novalan temple, to give donations. The Chief Priest enquired on their progress, they told him that it was near to death. They did not tell him that it had been that way for several weeks.
In the centre of Nodnol they made their final preparations. At the first sight of the Hill Giant they would attack. Twoflower readied Call Monster, Charm and Slumber. The first of these miracles had caused much controversy, but a desire to succeed over-rode hesitation. They prayed that Novala would look the other way, this once.
"NO!!!" Madurai was not pleased with Zenta's insistance of "a few more robs".
"But it's the perfect time ..."
"You'll use up two-thirds of Thar's power!"
"Twoflower can still cast and besides ..."
Listening to Zenta's explanation ended Madurai's opposition. "NEVER debate wih a 'blood" he mentally kicked himself.
One Luck of Novala, one Call Spirit, one Hiding and two jewellers later, they were back at the hill, but this time with 5000 more gold. The were astounded afresh at the beast's stupidity, which STILL had not moved and with a whisper of "Novala aid us", they attacked.
"Four ELVES?!" Mort had been DEEPLY surprised at the sort of monster Twoflower had summoned and the usually-silent (or at most, mono-syllabic) dwarf, expressed his surprise, in between attacks. At the time he had almost dropped his axe, but everyone was too polite to mention it.
Again the Hill Giant had ran, but now it seemed to have lost it's zest for eating. This encouraged the group, who attacked again. This time, Twoflower summonses were answered by two Gargoyles. The group had never seen Gargoyles before, but their demonic appearance and eerie screech as they joined the battle, was unmistakable. This time, the Hill Giant did not survive - the Gargoyles' weight was too much.
They spent the night on top of the hill. Some Rats came and ate what was left of the Hill Giant's food, and what was left of the Hill Giant for that matter, but the group did not attack. They were all a little shocked by the Hill Giant's death; they had always been attacked by their opponents before, they had never initiated a combat. They recovered during the night, especially Thar, who had never before cast all of the "stealing miracles" herself in one go.
The short walk back to Nodnol was pleasant, partly due to Thar's Strength miracle. They did not return immediately to the temple, wanting to conduct their business in private before becoming heroes who saved local agriculture. Zenta and Ticino went for a snack and returned with 39 gold pieces and a report that the Theives Guild was very well defended indeed. Madurai looked worried.
"Congratulations!! CONGRATULATIONS!! Farmers all over this region will be indebted to you!" The Chief Priest handed over 420 gold pieces to each member of the party, along with 210 experience points. Shendoah's share of the money was immediately dented when Madurai packed him off to a gym.
They spent the afternoon looking around a few shops. The amount of money they had was a novelty, and it was dying to be exchanged for something. Madurai yelled in delight when he saw +3 Armour (most undwarf-like) and almost fainted when he saw the price (most dwarf-like). Zenta obviously enjoyed her new popularity, with the usually irritable fighter. However, Madurai and the other fighters settled for Plate Mail (another find) until they were MUCH richer.
After a few hours at the Bloodbath, they were again wondering what to do with themselves. Delivering messages seem so BORING!
"We could call in on that 'newspaper'! sneered a now much more forthcoming Mort. The 'newspaper' in question had reported one of their battles with the Hill Giant, but not its death. Naturally, dwarfish honour was affronted.
"Why don't we go and get another Temple Quest?" This earnt Zenta another round of drinks, before the party stumbled and lurched up the road to the Temple.
"A Quest?" mused the Molwanhan Chief Priest who was finishing his sandwich. (The group had decided to avoid Novalan quests for a few months.) "Well, yes," smiling as he cut them off mid-battle report, "Your expoits are legendary, legendary." With a curious look he handed them a card, which in their fuzzed state, they accepted without even reading.
In the morning a rather crumpled party found a small card in one of their backpacks. At the top of the card, in very small writing, it had a note "This quest cannot be Zapped, it MUST be completed." They read on ...
"Due to it threatening the livlihood of local farmers, the city officials are offering a reward for the extermination of monster group 3617 which consists of a solitary Hill Giant. The reward of 280 gold pieces is payable upon completion to every character involved. The monster group was last seen ..."
And this time Zenta almost managed to dodge all of the assorted swords, axes, maces and daggers thrown at her.
But not quite.