3 Wylden 1119

The Ettin's Riddle

The clerical mission of Aegir left a grateful village of Stearns and spent a few uneventful days tending to the needs of a hunting and trapping village in the Tumari woodlands before striking out on the road again.

Their next destination was Wiker's Keep, an agricultural community located at the only inland crossing of the Lochvale River. The missionaries explained that the village had relocated within the past two years and was now further east than it had originally been. The additional distance from the coast should keep them all safe from sahaugin attacks.

As the party sighted the village, however, they immediately noticed something amiss. A large, two-headed giant stood among the building bellowing and swinging a large piece of timber. The party heard the crash of a wooden structure and before they could reach the village the ettin had scooped up a cow and vanished into the western forest.

The missionaries and Seaman Bob (the surviving crewman of the Daybreak who had been stranded with the party) jumped in immediately to help tend the many wounded villagers left in the creature's wake. Appreciative villagers told the party that this creature was a frequent intruder in recent weeks and was slowly destroying the village.

It wasn't long before the town elders noted the timely arrival of adventurers and sought them out. The elders were Aranda, who lived at the new Keep; Malwick, captain of the militia; and Restick, the village's religious leader and keeper of the local shrine. They took the heroes aside and told them the town's story.

Two years before, a wizard named Stondylus and a band of followers -- mostly thugs and bandits -- had forcibly taken possession of the original Wiker's Keep, a modest stronghold within reasonable walking distance of the coast. At first the villagers resisted, but the wizard and his followers were too powerful for them. Finally in desperation the citizens abandoned their homes and ventured east to found the new village, which they called Newkeep. Stondylus and his thugs did not try to stop them, but the woods between the keeps quickly became hostile and dangerous to all but the most well-armed of explorers.

Then, about a year later, an adventuring party came to Newkeep and announced their intention of expelling Stondylus from Wiker's Keep. The party consisted of two fighters, a wizard, a cleric, and a rogue. Their plan was to kill or drive off the wizard and take the keep for themselves, to use as a base for their campaign against the sahaugin who had been terrorizing the coast. The villagers gave the party supplies and directions and prayed to Heironeous that they would be successful.

The party marched into the woods and was never seen again. Neither was Stondylus, and for a time the woods seemed to clear of hostile creatures. The people of Newkeep counted their blessings and stayed put, figuring that their distance from the coast was the best protection from the sahaugin that they would find. They built the bridge to encourage road traffic and the community thrived in a small way.

Then, a few months ago, the ettin -- a two-headed giant -- was spotted in the woods. At first the villagers were optimistic, figuring such a large predator would keep the lesser hostiles away. Then the creature was spotted sneaking through Newkeep itself under cover of night and optimism gave way to fear. A milita detachment led by Malwick the Elder, father of the watch captain, set an ambush for the creature. Their plan failed badly; not only did they fail to kill the ettin, but Malwick the Elder and all of his men died that night by the creature's hand.

In the weeks since that failed attack the ettin's intrusions had become more frequent and more violent. It came by day to smash buildings and grab up livestock for food, and it came by night to skulk into the town and spend hours studying the strange writing that had appeared on the wall of the local shrine to Heironeous.

The elders asked the party to help them by tracking down and destroying the ettin. Karu broached the subject of payment but was quickly hushed by his companions. This was not a time for mercenary thinking, especially since the party would need the bridge repaired in order to continue their mission and eventually reach the port city of Corsuhn, where they planned to get passage back to Marhaven. With the ettin on the prowl the villagers dared not expend energy or resources on the bridge.

Their first order of business was to examine the writings at the shrine. Restick explained that the words had appeared about a month ago. At first he'd thought they were some kind of graffiti and had the words scrubbed off, but when they reappeared soon after he let them be, thinking they may be related to the unwelcome visitor in some way.

The party reached the shrine and saw what appeared to be verses scrawled on the wall in Common:

Two heads have we, but born with one
We avenged, healed, and protected.

Our master was Invincible
But punished we all who objected.

Heeded we the six-armed king
And so by our god were rejected.

Thus came we unto our fate:
One head, twice bisected.

Key phrases in the writing struck a chord in Tika's mind. To 'avenge, heal, and protect' seemed to her like the basic job description of a good cleric. References to 'the Invincible' and 'the six-armed king' reminded her of Heironeous the Invincible, lawful good god of valor and justice, and his brother Hextor, a lawful evil god of tyranny who is generally depicted as having six arms.

The party recalled the older adventuring group that attacked the keep and speculated that the ettin may have somehow been magically created by Stondylus from two or more humanoid creatures, perhaps even the adventuring party. This would account for the monster's apparent dual personalities.

Since the monster appeared to be calmer at night, the party chose to seek out the old keep and enter it by night. They waited until dusk and set out to follow the monster's trail through the woods. Vondran found the huge trail easy to follow even by lantern light.

Deep into the woods, the party suddenly realized they were not alone. The bushes moved and two orcs stepped out onto the path. Tika came forward with her weapon down to open discussions and found the orcs inclined to talk.

The orc leader asked if the heroes were on the trail of the ettin and offered information about the creature. He related that the monster lives at the old keep and has been ranging further and further afield. The orcs accosted it one night to bargain for its assistance in fighting off the sahaugin who kept invading the western woods, abducting individuals and hauling them away. The ettin listened at first, then reacted violently and slew half the orc party before the rest escaped.

Armed with this intelligence, the party continued toward the keep. They were ambushed a short time later by a pair of ogres. Unlike the orcs, the ogres had no interest in discussing things. Vondran lunged forward to attack the lead ogre as Karu dove into the bushes to prepare for an attack and Ash protected herself with mage armor. The lead ogre smashed at Vondran with its greatclub while its partner attacked Tika. Loki plunged his mind blade into the rear ogre and opened a gaping wound in the creature. Vondran staggered the lead ogre by yanking his harpoon out of the creature's stomach and leaving an ugly gash behind. The ogre roared and slammed Vondran's head with his club, knocking the scout to the ground.

It ended quickly after that. Ash sent a magic missile at the rear ogre that, combined with the damage done by Loki before, was enough to fell it. Loki threw his mind blade at the lead ogre but missed and accidentally hit the prone form of Vondran. Karu also missed the target, leaving Tika to bring the ogre down with her crossbow.

The party had taken enough damage from the ogres to use all but one of Tika's available spells for healing. With their healing resources depleted, the party had to change their plans. Instead of facing the ettin immediately, they opted to camp near the Keep long enough to rest and recover spells first.

Another hour's travel brought them to the ruins of Wiker's Keep. Only the original keep was left standing in the midst of smashed houses and barns. There was one anomaly: a trio of recent graves, neatly dug and marked. The hand-carved headstones told the party that these graves were the final resting place of Zimmian, Gordell, and Thorvald Halfgranite, all of whom had died in 1118.

The party made camp on the west side of the Keep and set up watches. A few hours later, before dawn, Loki noticed the ettin creeping out of the Keep and heading east toward Newkeep. He woke Vondran and Karu but they decided to stay put. The ettin was faster than they were, and the spellcasters needed to rest.

The ettin had not returned by dawn, so the party opted to explore the keep. They found the inside devastated by fire and clogged with filth. The ceiling had collapsed and left he upstairs unusable. A storage room held remnants of adventuring gear, much of which had been rifled through and ruined.

Before long Ash spotted the ettin returning through the woods. The party hid in various places and waited while the creature entered the keep and flopped down on its makeshift bed. The right head appeared to be asleep already, but the left began speaking in hushed tones in a language Tika recognized as the lawful good alignment tongue -- the ettin was praying.

Tika stepped forward and addressed the monster as "cleric."

"My name is Kiernan," the ettin replied, "and this is my curse."

Tika listened as the ettin explained his situation. Kiernan had been a cleric of Heironeous, one of the party that set out to destroy Stondylus. They had succeeded in this, but in the process Kiernan found himself charmed by the wizard. Stondylus had then cast polymorph on Kiernan and turned him into an ettin, then instructed Kiernan to help defend the wizard. Kiernan obediently fought against his friends and killed three of them before Hammet, the rogue, managed to slay the wizard with a sneak attack.

The polymorph spell should have ended in due time, but days went by and Kiernan remained an ettin. He and Hammet buried the dead and then Hammet left to get help. When the rogue didn't return and the spell didn't end, Kiernan was forced to begin foraging for food in the woods near the Keep. As the food supply thinned Kiernan had to range further and further afield to feed his ravenous body.

All the while, Kiernan prayed to Heironeous for aide. A dispel magic spell would end his condition, he knew, and Kiernan was of high enough level to cast the spell if only Heironeous would grant it to him. Kiernan's prayers went unanswered, however; instead of granting him the dispel magic spell, Kiernan only received a vision of a riddle. Over time Kiernan realized that the riddle was a hint from his god, and that Kiernan must solve the puzzle to be freed of his curse.

Before he could do that, though, things got worse. The second head, which had been little more than an extra set of eyes and ears, developed a personality -- an ettin personality. Cruel, twisted, and evil, the head called itself Muck and became dominant over the ettin body. Soon Kiernan was reduced to watching in horror as the ettin punished the countryside, only able to control the body when Muck slept. So he had taken to writing the riddle down, hoping to learn its meaning through study. Muck destroyed the writing when he saw it, so Kiernan had taken to sneaking into Newkeep and praying at the shrine, where he wrote the verses down to keep them straight in his mind. But one day Muck was awakened when the militia attacked, and since then Muck had taken a liking to the village's cattle.

Kiernan begged Tika to help him solve the riddle, or failing that to simply kill him so that Muck could do no more damage. They went over the verses again together and were on the verge of an answer when Loki and Ash heard an ominous sound: a dozen leather-armored militiamen, led by Malwick, were approaching the Keep with weapons drawn and ready.

As the angry mob approached Tika realized that the riddle was an admonishment from Heironeous to his cleric -- that Kiernan, by his own admission, had been overly zealous in punishing those who did not subscribe to his own faith and had crossed the line from justice to tyranny. The ettin, with its evil side overshadowing the good, was a metaphor for Kiernan's own moral failures prior to the transformation. She asked Kiernan to consider this possibility, and the cleric agreed that this had to be the answer.

Just then the militia burst into the Keep with Malwick in the lead. The militia leader opened fire on the ettin with his crossbow immediately even as his men filed in and took offensive positions.

Tika cast enlarge person on herself and stood between Malwick and Kiernan, hoping to intimidate the men and buy Kiernan the time he would need to cast dispel magic on himself. Malwick was too incensed to listen to reason, and ordered his men to attack. Worse, the injury from his crossbow woke Muck, who took control of the ettin body and began to fight back, preventing Kiernan from casting his spell.

Tika tripped Muck to keep him from attacking. The militiamen opened fire with their crossbows but were not very effective combatants. They did little damage to the prone creature. Vondran tried attacking Malwick to break his focus on the ettin but missed. Malwick ignored the scout and continued to focus on the ettin.

The party decided their best bet was to bring the ettin down quickly with nonlethal force. Ash used a magic missile, figuring Kiernan would have plenty of ability to absorb the damage. Karu used his ki power to become invisible and looked for an opening.

Loki tried a different tack. He attacked one of the militiamen in the doorway and dropped the man to the floor, then ran off at full speed. He hoped to draw some of the soldiers out of the Keep, but they were not tempted away.

Tika gave Malwick a command to Flee and caused the commander to run from the Keep. That bought the group more time to work on bringing down the ettin with nonlethal attacks while Ash used her daze spell to disable and confuse the soldiers. Karu managed to trip up the ettin with a rope around the legs, giving Vondran more time to inflict subdual damage with his harpoon. For his trouble Karu found himself the unintended target of two misfired crossbow bolts, one from a militiaman and one from Tika.

Kiernan also fought the ettin, interfering with Muck's control as much as he could. The giant attacked Vondran but was slowed by Kiernan's resistance and landed only one blow before Vondran brought it down.

As the militia cheered the party bound the ettin and carefully awoke only Kiernan's head. The cleric completed his dispel magic and returned to human form.

Kiernan found himself back to normal and with his full complement of healing spells available. He and Tika cured the wounded while they explained to a still-angry Malwick what had happened. Grudgingly, the captain accepted Kiernan's acts of contrition and welcomed him into the community of Newkeep.

Kiernan offered the party the remaining equipment left behind by his party, including Kiernan's own suit of chain mail, a +1 short spear, a masterwork longsword, a wand of cure light wounds and a potion of heroism that Muck had managed to miss among the gear. The group returned to Newkeep to begin the process of rebuilding the town and the all-important bridge.

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Note: This adventure is an adapted form of 'The Ettin's Riddle' by JD Wiker, a Dungeons & Dragons module available for download from Wizards of the Coast.