Lani gets back with the money, and gives it to the mage.

We spend somme time scribing spells.

We ponder what to do next. Making money sounds good, considering our debts. Our options include: Trollheim, and the Hard Ranger Mountains. Thora shall investigate via magic the options, to see which is best.

Arrange with T'zaz magic item creations. [T'zaz needs 10 days between each item to do other stuff. Turia starts her item creation on the 26th, which will finish on the 6th of the 4th month. Turia has paid gold, but not XP yet.]

Safranna can now shapechange as per a druid.

Thora, having investigated, indicates that both the mountains and Trollheim represent good money-making opportunities.

We decide to go to the mountains (in the Jarldoms). Thora says there are no unnatural creatures here, but that doesn't mean anything regarding dragons, giants, etc.

The mountains have a large copper deposit. We expect to clear the area of bad things first, before beginning mining.

We encounter a deep yellow dragon, small, only 15 feet long. It's been badly wounded. Thora heals it, since her deity seems to think positively of it.

This dragon, Quin, a young gold dragon, was wounded by Regind, the youngest of a family of red dragons. Quin's family don't get along well with Regind's family.

Quil fetches his father, Trill, a 50' long adult gold dragon. Trill has no objections to our setting up a copper mine here, but there are other creatures nearby that can cause problems. Such as the red dragons, packs of wolves [not a problem for Thora], and some giants.

The gold dragons will help us keep away monsters from the copper mine for a period of ten twenty years, in return for our help dealing with the family of red dragons. There are three reds, a "teenager", and the two parents.

We agree to these terms. We will help them deal with the red dragons. Note that the dragons also have some giant allies [this makes Remus very happy].

We shall approach their lair, and draw them out. We will be assisted by two of the gold dragons [Trill and Vearosmal, the mother - the grandmother is looking after the youngsters].

The treasure shall be split 50/50.

Rest and rememorise.

We execute our very simple plan with precision. The two gold dragons drew out the three reds (one of which was enlarged). They were very tough, and the improved invisibilities sure didn't help.

However, we were prepared, and they weren't. In short order, the mother and the teen were dead. Alas, the father escaped with the aid of an expeditious retreat. We suffered no casualties. Upon arriving at the lair, it became apparent that the giants had fled.

On the plus side, we got the loot.

Treasure:
34000 gp.
25000 sp.
2 gems [1200 gp emerald, 1100 gp star ruby]. A small stone statuette of a horse [magical, trans, strong].
Bloody wizards robes with a book [magical - some sort of mental prowess, trans, strong].
A set of chain gauntlets, with hands inside (deliberate) [magical, trans, moderate].
Scroll case [magical, invisibility to animals, sanctuary]. A wand (probably of lightning) [magical, evocation, faint].

T'zaz is busy at the moment, so there won't be any identifying just yet.

We'll hunt down the hill giants first.

Start hunting giants. We defeat some small bands with relative ease. These giants are fairly smart. They're probably stone giants.

It would appear they're intending to congregate somewhere. Safranna makes a guess as to where, and we head there.

We encounter a number of stone giants. They're waiting in ambush.

Thora summons eight celestial dire wolves using some new fangled magic item, no pun intended.

These giants aren't very tough. We've just dealt with eight of them, and have suffered only minor damage. Well, there's probably more further in...