11/08/5-10

Having finished loading up the large geode, that they needed to deliver, the group continued their journey west towards the valley of giants. The roads became clearly less well-trodden compared to the main road that had lead them to Velimos. Even still their first day of travel was largely uneventful.

12/08/5-10

Sometime into the second day, Sapphira was leading the party, when her eyes noticed a pair of rabbit ears, poking up from a bush. This wouldn't normally be of interest to her, except for the fact that the ears were over 4ft tall. Not long after, a similarly large head, poked out and soon after, the rest of the body of what appeared to be a giant rabbit. She pointed it out to the group, but it soon burrowed away. While the group was discussing it, Otto recalled the story of the Tappakani, a carnivorous rabbit-like beast in the valley of giants. This changed to moon, putting the others on edge, but they continued onwards.

A few minutes later, the creature reappeared around 80ft ahead of the cart and began hopping towards them. Shiek suggested they prepare to fight, but before this, Valeyo cast Major Image. He created an illusion of a even bigger fox by the wagon, which sneered at the rabbit. It immediately became agitated and revealed its mouthful of sharp teeth. Its small soft looking paws, were hiding ferocious claws and it charged and leapt at the fox illusion, easily clearing 90ft.

The party used this distraction to go past it and Valeyo commented on how the rabbit was likely suffused by Feywild magic, to allow it to jump so far, despite its size. Shiek asked about what was the deal with the Feywild portals the Giant Yak Man had mentioned. Valeyo had heard of them, but had never seen one. Supposedly they came in all shapes and sizes - tree-like doorways, rainbow arches, mushroom circles.

Some hours later, they approached the walled town of Reknadurno. The gates were opened and a human guard came out, as well as a rat-shaped humanoid person. They asked their business and Valeyo said they were there to deliver something to Vespur. The guard told them to enter, and Valeyo asked about the rat person, wondering if they were a lycanthrope. Otto said these were Skaadir, a group of people who lived in the north, having a large community in Moratopp.

The Skaadir man lead them inside and said Vespur wasn't expecting visitors, but after being told it was a delivery from the giant yak man, he pointed them to a large tent and warned them not to cause trouble. On the way Valeyo asked Otto about the Skaadir. He explained it was a long story, but they had appeared around the same time a plague had happened and had been blamed for it. In recent times they have made an agreement to stay around Moratopp and not cause trouble, but they are still disliked by many. Valeyo asked if they were related to an elemental plane in the same way the aarakocra were, but Otto didn't know.

Moving through the town, it was largely light quick structures and tents, all designed to be easily rebuilt and relocated. For the first time in their travels, they were somewhere where humans were the minority, with dwarves, halflings, elves and skaadir being seen around. Soon they were in front of the large tent and they got off the wagon and entered.

Sitting near the far end was the form of a female stone giant in a meditating pose as the tent would be too low for her to stand fully. Her skin was the grey of granite and there was no hair on her face, the wheel of a wagon had been repurposed and redesigned to look like a dream catcher which she bore. A large feather covered leather hood was hanging behind her neck. A second later, she opened her eyes and said she had been wondering when she would see them. Shiek asked if she knew them, but she said she didn't expect they would visit her. Valeyo told her why they were there and asked more of what she knew of them. She explained that it was her gift, being a dreamer, and she could see events that happen near or far and the past and future and she had seen them fight a phoenix. They asked her if they win, but she chuckled, saying the gift wasn't so convenient.

She asked where the geode was and they lead her outside, where she cracked it open, revealing a pale blue crystal inside. She called it frosting jade, a gem from far north where it is much colder and it only formed in places with a particular magic field. It was quite rare and had some uses with her dream walking. After putting it aside, she grabbed a small bag and handed it to them, saying that it was intended for the Yak man, but since they were the ones who brought it, they could have it. It was a bag of dream seeds, which allowed you to manifest items from your dreams into reality, it is how they created bridges for crossing. This is when the group realized that there was no actual bridge that could be seen anywhere. Shiek asked how that worked and she said, there was a horn on the other side for travelers to blow, when they needed a bridge and on this side, they would just find her.

Shiek asked if there was anything off about the phoenix in her dream and she mentioned that to her knowledge, fire shouldn't burn purple without additives. When questioned about the Valley of Giants, she said that if you were strong, going down the middle and exuding strength would work. Otherwise, travelling at night would avoid the sight of most giants, but would make them target of some nocturnal predators. According to her the large rabbits were the result of a combination of fey and giant magic, but it was likely just the magically twisted offspring of a normal rabbit.

The party decided to rest for a couple of hours, before continuing to travel through the night, in order to get used to night time travel. Once they were ready, the found Vespur, who lead them to the river bank. She then took one of the dream seeds and swallowed it and soon after a bridge appeared over the 300ft river, its appearance semi-translucent and pearlescent. Sheik thanked her for her help and just before they left Vespur warned them that there would be a falling star coming that will hit the valley.

With darkvision spells prepared and Otto's eyes of night, the group began their night time travels.

13/08/5-10

A couple of hours in, Cassini felt his owl disappear. Everyone was on guard, as they continued onwards. Calling the thing they were walking on a "road" was a stretch, as it was more akin to a trampled narrow path through the long grass. Rocks could be seen sparsely near the path, but would become more common deeper into the valley. A few minutes later, there was the sound of something large landing to the side of the path. A 10ft tall form of a large goose was moving around a short distance off the path, not paying attention to them. They managed to get their hours of travel in and prepared to sleep though the early morning.

During Otto's watch, he heard a loud snap, followed by a few more. About 5-10 minutes later the culprit made itself known, as a stag came out from the forest with damage to its horns, making him realize it was likely a fight between two of them. What concerned him more, was to other stag stood right next to the dome looking down at them. It was about 17ft tall and had bright blue fur and wings. In his mind Otto heard it ask "Who are you?". Otto told it they were travelers and was asked why they were travelling at night. It warned them of traps that the giants were placing around, big snap traps. When Shiek asked Otto if it was aggressive, the creature turned to Shiek and spoke in his mind, telling him it didn't realize he had been awake. They conversed for a bit and it revealed itself to be the guardian of the forest and agreed to let them pass, if they were not going to cause trouble. It then took off, leaving a dusty residue from its wings on top of the dome.

In the morning the group were told of what happened and they continued onwards. Soon after, through his owl, Cassini spotted a trip of giants in a camp. A huge push-cart was by one of them, filled with large deer carcasses. He told the group and decided to use an Augury spell to see if trying to avoid them by going close to the forest in the north. The stars told him it was a mixed bag, which he interpreted to mean that the giants would be less likely to see them, but they could run into traps.

They decided to try their luck there and take it slow to avoid the traps. A few they spotted easily, bear traps, snares and the like. Further it, the traps became more bizarre. A large lump of rock was tied to a rope and suspended by a tree. When a snare is pulled it would swing and hit whatever was snared. The one after was a even larger bear trap in which one of these large rabbits had just been caught and was screaming. The group dashed away from it as quickly as possible and managed to get the rest of their days' worth of travel in.