Giant Stronghold

Ference can eventually be convinced to give up the information he knows. He will agree to lead the party to the location where he expects the artifact is being held.

Leading the party down out of the valley and back downriver for 2 miles, he then locates a barely recognizable trail running back up into the mountains, roughly toward the valley you just left. After a half mile run up into a canyon, the gap runs back north along the back ridge of the mountain until a point where a broad ledge jutted out overhead to your right. There you can see a rough stone building hugging the wall.

There appears to be a rough trail climbing up over the rocks that zig-zags up to the ledge. There are three switchbacks, each 50 feet long leading to the ledge. You can see that there are giant creatures at the top of the trail, each with two heads. Seeing you, one of the heads yells back at the stone building in giant that there are scrawny little humans in the valley. Another one starts arguing with its twin about how they should deal with them. After some discussion, one of the ettins starts lumbering down the trail toward you.

There are 4 stone giants inside the building as well as the two ettins. One of them fancies himself the king of this small domicile, and will remain inside bellowing out instructions to the others, asking what is happening, giving direction, berating anything that doesn't work out.

The wall can be climbed directly at half speed, with athletics checks each turn to be able to avoid sliding back down 10 feet. Otherwise, they can move up the ramp. The ettins will move down to engage the party on the ramp, as well as one of the stone giants. The other two giants will stand at the top and throw rocks down on anyone climbing the wall, or on the ramp. If the characters are on the last leg of the ramp, they will bowl the rocks down trying to knock the characters prone.

If they make the top of the ledge, one of the giants will engage the characters while the other moves back into the building. The king and the lone giants will begin gathering items into two large chests, then start down a back stairwell that opens two hundreds yards further along the canyon from the stronghold.

If overtaken and defeated, the chests contain a wealth of treasure, 2d6x100 sp, 1d8x100 gp, 8 gems worth 2d4x50 gp each. There are also several items of armor and weapons, mostly chain mail and long swords. Among these there is a pair of twin gilded war hammers, and a finely crafted battleaxe with etched blade and a faint bluish tint to it. It also seems to give off an unnatural cold.