Lets rescue the...gold

Back-tracking the trail of the bandits, the party work their way  towards the bandit's mine. Cresting a tree covered hill they hear the sounds of industry (punctuated with the occasional scream) and smell sulphuric smoke ahead.

Falandar climbs a tree and looks down into a valley to see a wooden walled camp surrounding a large pit. The camp sports several guard towers, a number of buildings and a large double-story barn like structure. Most surprising is the presence of a giant who is happily crushing the rock and ore getting hauled out of the pit by chained captives. Here is what he sees (each square is 5 yards):

After much deliberation the party decides that they could poison the well in the camp to take out the guards and perhaps burn down the wooden camp walls. So they head back to Sommeville to get supplies. In Sommeville, Alexa secures 3 casks of oil and Andreus uses his gossip skills to track down a herbalist. The herbalist (an old crone) reluctantly sells him some Belladonna but informs him that it will need to be administered to food not dumped into water.

The players head back and a couple days after first sighting the mine, the party are once again surveying the camp.

It appears that during the day the bandits leave the gates open but the towers on either side of the gate are manned by a guard each. Since it is late afternoon the party decide that they need to get into the camp asap to try poison the evening meal.

Alexa is convinced to sneak into the camp using her cloaking magic. Alexa nervously sneaks through the gates (the guards both fail to spot her), has a quick look around and races back to the woods before her spell wears out. Her quick look-see gives her two likely targets for the kitchen.

Next Alexa uses her doppelganger spell to make herself look like one of the guards and then cloaks herself again to sneak back into the camp. Once again the guards fail to spot her as she passes through the gates. Alexa runs behind her first target building and strolls out from behind it when her cloaking spell runs out.

Luck is with her and she quickly locates the kitchen. Unfortunately the kitchen is occupied by a grubby cook who attempts to engage Alexa in conversation. Since her doppleganger spell does not disguise her voice she decides to cast a sleep spell on the cook. Whilst the cook is knocked out Alexa dumps the Belladonna into the large pot cooking on the fire.

Cloaking herself again, she hurriedly makes her way out of the camp.

The party wait and hear what appears to be a dinner call and a while later the see a shift change of the guards in the towers. An hour or so after the gates are closed, the party sees one of the guards violently throw up from the top of the tower. The party hears the other guards laughing and mocking the ill guard. A half-hour later the other guard hurriedly leaves his post. The party hears then shouts of consternation and after another hour things go quite.

Alexa scales the gate with a rope and grappling hook (and a leg up from Andreus) and opens the gate. The rest of the party cautiously makes their way into the camp. They spot several bandits sprawled dead in the dirt.

They also spot the giant, leaning up against the barn, drinking from a beer keg. Unfortunately the giants spots the party too. He staggers to his feet, hefts a large chunk of wood and lopes across the compound to confront the heroes.

Urgim and Grim Gorgson charge the giant while Alexa, Alane, Andreus and Falandar hang back. Alexa peppers the giant with bolts from her repeater crossbow. Falandar uses his longbow and Alane fires off several magic darts.

Andreus fires off a devastating volley of shots from his pistols, drops them and pulls out a second set and fires them too.

The giant hammers on Urgim and Grim Gorgson, critically injuring them.

Then Urgim strikes a massive killing blow (23 points of damage), the giant staggers and collapses, falling on top of Urgim and Grim Gorgson, injuring them further.

The party regroups and Alexa uses her healing skills to heal the injured. Andreus shares out some healing drafts as well.

The party then proceeds to loot the camp. They recover over a 1000GC worth of gold and loot before heading off to free the captives...

GM Notes

• The map was created with AutoRealm a fantastic and free application for creating maps
• Poor Urgim had almost a 1000xp that he couldn't used as he need to kill a giant to progress his career of giant slayer. The mining camp seemed like a good way of working one in.