5e: Crazy Old Giants...

From: Fulhoff of Clan Balderk
To: Helja and Adrik of Clan Balderk

Mother & Father,

Morok is unconvinced that the goblins need to be dealt with, and the tiefling Journey found out that there may yet be another giant lurking near the city. A "friendly" giant. You can imagine my skepticism, but Thorin was ready to ride... RIDE off to meet it. I kept my feet firmly on the ground where they belong. Also, the tree-hugging elf thought he saw a dragon.

Unfortunately Journey's information was correct. There was a giant nearby, in a tower on a cloud. He even lowered a cloud stair for us to climb up to him. Remember what I said about keeping my feet on the ground? The rest of the party ignored my repeated warnings about giants, and decided to meet with this friendly one. While I'm sure there would have been little I could have done to deal with him personally, I might have been able to save one or two of them if things turned ugly... so up I went.

The giant's tower was like something out of a human child's story, complete with a hat on it. The giant Zathros Zethras was... about as silly. Apparently studying the arcane arts broke his mind... Yes, yes, I know you warned me many times about meddling in realms of knowledge that we dwarves are unsuited for but I hope you will not use an addled giant as one of your arguments!



He spoke of... many things, only some of which was comprehensible. A prophecy, or two, one of which involves us. He knew Thorin's name... and called me the "other one." He also got the humans mixed up, and didn't expect the goblin. Yes, Persy the halfling is still insisting we drag along that goblin. Makes me question his oracular skills...

Zathros also showed us some runes, which I've copied down here.
 

I skipped giant, and focused on Draconic, so I'm relying on the translations from both the party and the giant.

He also spoke about the breaking of the ordering of giants, the death of their queen, and the loss of their king. How does one lose a giant? One faction is out to try to rebuild the old giant empire of old and is collecting old artifacts to legitimize their acts.

While all absolutely fascinating, half of us returned to the ground, passing the opportunity to ride to Waterdeep on that cloud tower. Once we arrived in the city, Bran (he's the sneaky human) went off to visit a friend, while Thorin and I went back to visit the Glove and Horn and see Halla Hild to deliver the letter from her brother. Only when we were talking to her did we realize that neither of us had the letter.

Later, when everyone else finally arrived, Percy handed over the letter, then we were... how to put this... introduced to an interesting opportunity to help support Waterdeep.

I'm skeptical, but Bran and some of the others seemed for it. Plus she talked of her friend... Big H. Another giant...

While still deciding what to do, we also bumped into another halfling who'd heard about what we'd done with the Zents. News travels quickly! I'd much rather be dealing with halflings than giants. No one else wants to even listen when I say getting involved is a bad idea...

As soon as I know where we're off to, I'll let you know. Let your sister know that Thorin continues to be a self-promoting... dwarf. And that he's well. I know he hasn't bothered to write to her.