The party rested peacefully that night, with only thoughts of the Jarl and a couple of Devils on their minds.
Rina had been ruminating half the night on Nicky's words, "as long as it'll take..." - they did not sit well with her. This was not the time for that, though. It was time to pack up their things and continue their trek up the Giant Hills.
The four of them, plus the goat, travelled across the mountainsides as they had done the day before. Alice had Wildshaped into one of the Golden-fleeced goats for Rina and Neely to ride on, and Blanke rode on his new goat friend.
After a morning of riding, they saw a group of soldiers gathered in a small camp area, with two of the blubbery giants sitting at the edge of the camp in shackles. Near them, a single soldier sat on a rock - far away from the main group of soldiers, who all seemed to be discussing what to do about the giants they had arrested.
"I don't have the time or energy to be dealing with this," said the General, "I'm not taking them back to their master, and I'm certainly not going to halt this mission just for them. Just tell the men to kill them and get it over with so we can get a move on!"
"Ye... Yes, General Gar," one of the soldiers said hesitantly as he turned back to the rest of the group.

Rina, Neely, Blanke, and Alice all watched this scene unfold from a short distance away.
"We can't just let them kill these giants," said Rina, "we should do something."
"What's the deal with that one soldier sitting by herself," Neely wondered out loud. "She doesn't seem to be in the general's good graces."
"These soldiers are all wearing the colors of The Queen," said Blanke. "I bet they're here on official business - we should just go talk to them!"
"No!" Rina and Neely exclaimed in unison, even Alice bleated "No!" in her goat form.
"I think we should try to get information from the Giants, themselves, before confronting any of the soldiers," Rina suggested. "We could probably sneak up there."

General Gar got tired of waiting, and approached the Giants with a sword, "If no one else will get this done with, then I'll just do it myself!"
Just then, the soldier sitting alone stood up and stomped over to him, "You are not serious right now."
"I'm as serious as a heart attack, and you - Phillipia - will not be getting in my way again."
It was evident that this woman had defended the giants prior to the arrest.
"She's carrying a baby for gods sake!" the woman yelled, "There's no reason to kill them, just let them go!"
"If I did that, I'd be committing a crime - they are slaves who escaped their master. The best thing for everyone here is to just end them already and get back to work."
Gar then turned away from her and raised is sword toward one of the giants, but Phillipia ran between them to block his sword with her halberd.
"Get out of the way, girl!"
She glared at him for a moment, then stood up on her tip-toes and spat in his face.
"Why you impudent, little-" Gar began to raise his sword at her this time, instead.

Back behind the brush that The Bound was hiding behind, Alice decided to take action. At full goat speed, she dashed out of the brush and headbutted general Gar to try and knock him over.
"What the- whose goat is this?"
She headbutted him again and screamed, "Baaahhh!"
The general then raised his sword to strike Alice, so Rina ran in - disguised as Anastasia - and whipped out the chain-sword to wrap it around his weapon to stop him.
"What! Who are you?! What's going on here?!" he yelled, now with both a chain-sword and a halberd blocking his strikes.
"You will not be harming my goat," said Rina.
"You have stopped a general of the queen's army from his duties! Arrest her!" he yelled, pointing at Rina.
The soldiers were barely listening to Commander Gar, and didn't exactly have a place in their small encampment to put someone they'd arrest.
Gar nearly growled in anger as be pulled back his sword and turned to head toward the giants, himself.

Suddenly, Alice could feel a strange crackling feeling within her - one that was all too familiar now. Her body was reacting to something, despite her being unharmed.
The same colorless crackle began to appear in the air near the group of soldiers. It became stronger and stronger, until the sky itself appeared to crack. Rina and the others saw it, too, and Blanke and Neely joined the group to see what was going on.
"Alice..." Rina said using Beast Speech, "what's going on...?"
"I... I don't know," Alice bleated back.
"Who are you talking to?" Phillipia asked Rina.
"Oh, I'm talking to..." Rina looked down at Alice who gently shook her head, saying "Hold" to Rina in her mind - indicating that she didn't want Rina to blow her cover just yet.
"I'm talking to my goat."
"Why do you keep talking to a goat like that?"
"She's... my best friend...?"
"Oh, well, that makes sense, I guess. I have an elephant who is my best friend. So, I get it."
"An elephant? I've been to a lot of places and have never seen an elephant!"

General Gar did not hesitate his tomfoolery for any of this, "Soldiers! Get these giants and let's get back to work!"
The two giants then got up to their feet. One of them was holding a bundle of blankets all wrapped up, and the other had his hands tied behind his back. The two of them had a chain connecting their feet together, as well, making it difficult for them to run, but they began moving away from the scene as much as they could.
Some of the soldiers began walking toward Gar, but one decided to get closer to the crack in the sky to examine it. The crack then got longer, and widened to show a dark void-like space on the other side.
"What do we do?" Phillipia asked, looking at Rina.
"Well, I'm assuming you are wanting to protect the Giants?"
"Yes, my oath is to protect the innocent, and I know they have done nothing wrong."
"Why did they get captured, anyway?" Neely asked her.
"They apparently escaped their master after he became violent - that's about all I know."
"We should protect them," said Blanke. "Let's break their chains and remove the shackles!"
"So, you're helping the giants, too?" Phillipia asked the group.
"Right now?" Started Rina, "Yes, I think we should get them to a safe place. I heard that some giant villages in the north had been taken over by the slaves - maybe that's where they are trying to go."
"Who even are you guys, anyway?"
"We are The Bound," Rina answered. "I'm... Anastasia. This is Blanke, Neely, and... Well, my goat."
"Would you please stop calling me your goat!" Alice bleated up at her.
"I mean... This is Alice."
"I'm Phillipia. I'm a Paladin and a soldier for Queen Loanna Staffon."
"Oh... so... have you heard of us?" Rina asked her hesitantly.
"Only that you're an experienced adventuring party. Not much else."
"Not much else?!" Blanke exclaimed, "We're the strongest! We won the Everbleed Bowl! I'm a Knight!"
"Well, I've been up on these mountains for like 6 weeks now, I forgot the Everbleed bowl was even happening."
"So... you don't know anything about us? That's a relief," said Rina.

Just then she was cut off by the sound of the crack shaking an vibrating, as if it might explode.
The man standing near the crack reached out to touch it, but Alice bleated loudly at him to try to get him to stop. He paused a moment, but before he could think twice, a large black hand swooped out from the crack and grabbed him. Before anyone could react, the hand pulled him into the crack - into the world on the other side.
For a moment, this hole in space time was still, but it quickly flipped around as if it was the opposite sides of a door. Out from it stepped a hulking Demon - tall and muscular, with red skin and fists like clubs.
He stood still a moment and scanned the area. The closest beings to him were 6 soldiers. Without warning, he bolted forward with his fists out, and smashed in the heads of all 6 soldiers without struggle.
He then scanned the rest of the area for his next kill.
On the other side of the crack, the soldier could be seen standing in a strange, rocky landscape. Its colors were nearly opposite that of this side, and everything looked barren. He tried to walk close to the crack again, but a strange squealing noise from behind a rock startled him and knocked him backward.

General Gar ran up to angrily begin slashing at the Giants, the larger giant with his hands tied tried to shield the other who was holding the baby. Gar slashed through his blubbery skin, which was so thick that it didn't even bleed when it was cut with a longsword.
"Oh, no you don't!" Phillipia yelled. She whistled loudly, which echoed off of the ridges of the mountains. Suddenly, a rumbling could be heard - one that began to shake the ground in a rhythmic pattern.
Over the ridge came running a snow white elephant at full speed toward Phillipia. It bent down just enough that its tusks could scoop her up, and she began riding on its back with her halberd facing forward at General Gar.
By this time, a few soldiers had come to Gar's side, but they trembled in fear seeing this small woman riding such a beast. Phillipia swung her halberd around like a lasso, and hit general Gar so hard that he fell backward onto the ground. The Elephant reared up on its hind legs, and began to dance as if it was circus-trained.

Blanke saw what the demon had done to the soldiers, and decided to take it on, himself. He ran up to the goliath demon and raised his sword, slicing into its chest twice and leaving deep cuts. With one motion, the demon hit Blanke right between the eyes, stunning him immediately. And the wounds that Blanke just inflicted began to close over.
Neely gave Bardic inspiration to Alice, who then decided to fall back into her halfling form for the fight. She used moonbeam right over the demon. The wound it left began to sizzle and burn, and the radiant damage lingered - unable to heal itself over. Rina saw this damage, and used sickening radiance over the creature.
The Demon saw Alice, and was angry that she had hurt him, so he tried to attack her.
Phillipia jumped from her elephant and ran toward Alice, using Devine Smite on the Demon, and swinging her Halberd with a unique precision through the air to do so.

Rina watched Phillipia use her weapon - her style and magic looked familiar. The final fight of the Everbleed Bowl flashed in her mind. She had teleported 120ft into the air with Far Step to get out from under Gewain's sword.
Gewain then swung his sword in the exact same manor to stop the tower from falling onto the crowd. Their techniques were the same, their movements were the same, the light that shown from their weapons was the same.
Neely used Shatter on the Demon as it approached Alice, harming it but not enough to stop it. It tried to slice into Alice with its long nails, one hand at a time. But both missed her small, Halfling body.

In the crack, the soldier could be seen panicking as screeches and squeals echoed from all sides of him. From behind a rock, a head appeared - a beautiful man, with curly hair and perfect teeth smiled down at the soldier. The man was dressed in fine, white robes, and he crawled on all fours with his limbs twisting in unnatural directions. The soldier yelled, "Stay back!" But the beautiful man only cocked his head to the side, and screeched again - even louder than before. Then, another beautiful person with long, perfect hair and white robes jumped out from another rock. Then another, and another - until the soldier was completely surrounded.
"Those... Look like Angels..." Rina said, "They look like the angels Therius showed us in his book."
"It looks like the Reaping... only darker than I expected," Alice noted.
Alice then wildshaped into a titanothere and Rina waved to her to pick her up.
The demon hunched over slightly at the sight of Alice, and groaned in pain - but not from any damage that the fight had caused him. The skin of his back began to rip and shred apart, and two leathery, bloody wings exploded from his body. He jumped into the air and began to fly away to escape.
"Oh, no you don't," Rina said under her breath. "Alice, toss me!"
Alice reared back and bucked Rina into the air as high as she could. Immediately, Rina activated Far Step and teleported into the air only a few feet away from the Demon.
"I may not have spell slots left," she thought to herself, "But I do have these!" She pulled out a radiant arrow from her quiver, and prepared to release it from her bow at the first chance she got.

Phillipia and her elephant focused on the soldiers and General Gar, who were still after the Giants. She ran at full speed up onto her elephant, and jumped down with the full force of her halberd shattering the chains that tied the two giants together. The elephant then began to stomp on General Gar, and trapped him under its feet.

The beautiful, yet creepy, people on all fours then dogpiled onto the soldier. Their pearly white teeth dug into him as they tore him limb from limb like a pack of wolves on a deer. Screaming could be heard from the man - but soon after, only silence.
Alice could see the the soul of the man was destroyed by these creatures, who then began to congregate around the crack - seemingly begging for more.

In the air time seemed to slow down for Rina and the Demon for a moment. Rina looked the him in the eye, and he stared back at her - studying her. She could see an intelligence in his eyes, unlike many of the mindless creatures she had fought before. His eyes looked as bright as the other devils she had seen - like Agronoch and Nicky. Her physical presence immediately below him surprised him, and his intelligent eyes surprised her.
He huffed in annoyance, then lifted his hand toward her. With a wave, he used Dispell Magic, dissipating her disguise, and - more importantly - breaking her Far Step spell. Rina began to fall. With very little time to react, Rina broke her Rod of the Pact keeper in hopes of having time to cast another spell, but it was too late. She hit the ground with a thud, disappearing beneath the snow.

Above the crack in the air, a scale appeared - the scale of the Pradhana. Alice's body reacted even more to it now, and the crackling of white and black energy came from both her and the scale. The scale then tipped to one side, their side. An extra soul was on this side now, and the angel's side was now missing one.
"The other side needs another soul," Alice yelled, "What do we do? We can't just expect someone to run in there to replace that demon!"
Phillipia, Blanke, and Neely all stood and watched the angry, crackling energy. The distorted angels continued to drool for another soul, clawing at the crack. Alice felt that it might break open entirely if something wasn't done to close it soon.
Rina sat up, barely able to breathe at this moment, and started to feel pulled into the crack.
"Alice..." she said as loud as she could muster, "the colors of the crack look just like the colors of the energy you emitted when you drank the Cylinder of Liquid."
Alice's eyes widened as she looked back as the scale, "I wonder if I can... close the crack."
Alice reached out to try and close it, and Gabrielle's point of view flashed in her mind. Somewhere else in the world, Gabrielle was experiencing the same thing. But, as it was, they could not close the gap - not without offering it another soul to balance the scale.

Blanke stood there in a daze, he had not done much of anything since the demon stunned him. "I must go..." he said quietly. "Maybe there is... some good food over there."
"Blanke, you can't be serious!" Neely yelled at him, "Those... those things just ate that guy alive!"
"He was weak, I'm strong."
"Blanke, you can't just live through that," said Alice, "No one is meant to live through it..."
Rina finally got to her feet, Blanke looked back at her for a moment.
"Good, the elf's fine. Well, guys, I gotta go find me some cheesecake!"
And with that Blanke pulled out his sword, stabbed it into the ground, and catapulted himself through the crack. The creatures all jumped on him, but he catapulted up and away, once again.
The crack then began to close up just a bit. The longer he was in there alive, the smaller the crack got.
"I... I think I can close it now!" Alice said once the crack got to about her size again. She walked up, and - with the help of Gabrielle across the world - closed the crack entirely. The scale balanced, then disappeared, and everything went back to normal.

Phillipia and her elephant had Commander Gar under control, and underfoot.
"Gaahh okay okay," he yelled, "I yield! I don't even want to lead this mission! I quit!"
The guards all looked at each other, unsure what to do. "Who do we follow now?"
"Us," Rina said as she finally began to walk straight again, "We're in charge here now."
"Who is 'we'?" one of the guards scoffed.
Alice walked up beside her, "We're The Bound. But... Rina, I think there's someone here more qualified to lead them than us."
"Who? Blanke's gone, he was the knight among us."
"Phillipia," Neely smiled, "She's their leader now."
"Right, yes. That's what I meant," said Rina.
Phillipia looked stunned, "Who, me? You want me to lead? They've never respected me even as their equal. Why would they follow me now?"
"Because you deserve it, you have the best heart among them," Neely smiled at her again.
Phillipia nodded confidently. "Okay, then, I'm in charge boys! First, we start by unshackling the giants and letting them go."
"But, not reporting escaped slaves is a crime," one of the guards protested.
"Are you disobeying orders from your new commander?" She looked at him sternly.
"No, no ser!"
"It's Ma'am," she corrected him.
"Forgive me, I just haven't ever had a female as a superior before, Ser."
"She said, 'Ma'am'," Rina repeated.
"Yes... Yes, Ma'am," he then got the keys to unlock the shackles.

"Wait, who are you?" Phillipia asked, just now seeing Rina out of her Druse disguise.
"Oh, sorry, I was in disguise. I'm Rina, not Anastasia. But, uh... it would be really great if you didn't tell anyone you saw an elf up here."
"Okay," Phillipia agreed. "So, what are you all doing on this mountain? We were all up here trying to get to the Jarl before we found these two giants."
"We are also looking for the Jarl," Rina answered.
"Good, do you suppose you could come with us, then? We've lost a lot of men... we could use some good fighters."
Rina and Alice looked at each other, Neely just longingly stared at Phillipia.
Alice nodded, "I think that would be helpful, as long as you promise that you wont betray us."
Phillipia nodded, then smiled back at Neely.

"You actually DO have an elephant, then..." Rina commented, "I didn't believe you. I thought you were just mocking the fact that a goat was my best friend."
"Yes, his name is BustAMoves."
"By the way," started Rina, "I saw the way you fought - it reminds me of someone I know, Gewain Lothian. Do you know him, by chance?"
"Yes, I know who he is. We were trained by the same person. How do you know him?"
"He was in the final battle of the Everbleed Bowl with us. I also saw his father be beheaded."
"What? His father - one of the Fingers of Luminus? Did you behead him?!"
"No, no... the Queen had all of the Fingers beheaded, I was just there. Later that day, Gewain asked me to dance at the Queen's ball. He asked me what I thought he should do with his life... I wasn't exactly sure how to answer, other than it was his decision. He seemed sad, and unsure about what he wanted his life to look like after that."
Tears welled up in Phillipia's eyes, "Excuse me, I need a moment." She walked over to the rock she was sitting on before, and clearly began to cry a little. But, before long, she came back to the group to continue the conversation.
"Do you want a hug?" Rina asked, "I've been told I give good hugs. I am a mom, after all."
Phillipia thought a moment, "Sure, I'll give it a shot."
They hugged a little longer than usual, then BustAMoves wrapped them both up in his trunk and lifted them from the ground, squeezing them tightly in the process.
"I think that's enough hugging between us for a while," Phillipia said after they were back on the ground.
"I think I agree," Rina replied.
They both laughed a little, and the four girls then faced the Giants.

Rina produced an Elixir with her rod's spell slot and handed it to the male giant.
"I saw you got hurt, I hope this helps... if not you, then maybe her or the baby."
The giant gently cupped the little sparkling bottle in his hand, and put it into a small bag on his side, "Thank you. We will use it for the babe."
"I wish you and your wife a safe journey," Phillipia said to him.
"Thank you, we are going to a place where others like us have a small colony. After our master killed his wife, we... we had to stop him before he killed the baby."
"He was trying to kill your baby?" Alice asked.
"No... their baby. Master had a temper... he killed her, then tried to kill the babe."
The female giant unwrapped just a small bit of the bundle she was holding to reveal a little blue giant baby - not built for the harsh cold like they were.
"The potion I gave you disappears after 24 hours, you will have to use it before then."
"One day of assurance is more than enough, thank you all."
They turned to leave, but then the female giant turned back, "There is a song in my language that tells of where one must go to be saved..."
Rina activated Comprehend Languages as the Giant woman sang:

~ Enter Giant song here ~

Just as the song ended, the prophesy that Mayoay had given Rina swirled with magic in her bag - one of the elements of the prophesy had been completed.
"The only thing we ask from you, though it is more than we probably should... is the goat with golden fleece, so that we may have some wool to make clothing to keep us warm."
"Rina, will you ask Blanke's sheep to go with them?" Alice asked.
Rina began talking to the goat with Beast Speech again, "Looks like those three giants could really use your help. Will you go with them?"
The goat did not answer or move.
"Blanke isn't here anymore, and he... well, he died defending them. He would want you to go with them, I think."
The goat, again, did not answer or move.
Rina looked a bit annoyed, "Your master would have wanted you to help them, I think."
"Heeeee was noooot my maaaaster," the goat bleated to her.
Rina rolled her eyes, "Will you just go? Please? For gods sake, how many times do I have to ask nicely."
"Geez Rina," said Alice, "He was just making a statement."
"You're the one who told me to be nice the first time. I was nice the first time, the second time, and the third time."
"I didn't know there was a finite amount of niceness," said Neely.
"Sometimes I genuinely don't know what you all want from me," Rina responded, clearly annoyed.
"I genuinely don't know where you thought you were being nice in that whole thing," said Neely.
"Yeah, none of that seemed all that nice to me," said Phillipia.
"What the hell, guys," Rina got frustrated. "The first three things I said were clearly very sweet and sentimenal! I am trying so hard to just do the right thing, and this is what I get? I get chastised by a bunch of short-lifers?"
"Rina, it's all okay, let's do some breathing exercises," Neely said as she displayed breathing in and out.
Rina followed suit and calmed down, "Alice, would you please convince the goat to go with them?"
"Sure!" Alice just gestured to the giants, and the goat left with them.

So, the giants then went on their way, baby in hand and goat in tow - and eventually disappeared over the mountainside.
"We need to get a fire going take a rest," Phillipia ordered the remaining guards, "We still need to make progress today, so a short rest will have to do."
They all did so, and the remaining members of The Bound all got to know Phillipia a bit better.
One of the soldiers on watch suddenly ran back to camp, huffing and out of breath, "Ma'am, there's a swarm of something headed our way."
"A swarm of what?"
"Something fishy."
With a look of confusion, Phillipia and The Bound all walked over to where the man had been looking down the mountain.
There they were, a school of what appeared to be giant sharks swimming up the snow, headed directly for them. Some of them jumping out of the snow to run instead of swim, with legs that looked like a human's.
They were chanting:
~ Something about becoming a big fish and protecting the Jarl ~
"Everybody, get ready!" Phillipia ordered.

End session.

"I think we should just book it out of here," said Rina, "We cannot take them all. There's more by the second."

"We were all on the way to the Jarl, let's go to the Jarl!" Allice suggested.

Phillipia looked around, and looked at all three of The Bound members.

"You're in charge, Phillipia," smiled Rina, "What do you want to do?"

"Oh, I... I've never done this. But... I feel like we should take care of him," Phillipia gestured to Gar.

"We could just leave him..." Rina whispered. The other girls all overheard and side-eyed her.

"Oh, sorry. That was probably a thought that could have stayed in my head. How about we tie him to a goat?"

They then nodded, tied Gar to a goat with his face hanging off the rear, and everyone got onto a goat - Phillipia began leading the group straight up the mountain.

As they rode straight up the mountain, 2 people per goat, and the top began to be visible. They could see a collection of pillars that had a bird's nest on top of each one. Though the nests seemed small, they were still very far away - it was likely that these nests were over 50ft across.

The wind began to pick up, and the snow got heavier as they went upward. The cold they were feeling was an unnatural cold, a cold meant to keep something out. It began to stick to the fur of the goats, and even it could not keep the riders warm anymore. The snow sharks were still following them, but were not gaining on them.

The cold began to hurt with the storm and the deep freezing temperatures. The goats and even some of the soldiers were not able to continue on, and the sharks only stopped for a moment to rip them to pieces.

As they ran, a sudden earthquake rumbled the ground, and a massive fissure appeared in the earth in front of them. 80ft wide and hundreds of feet across.

"Do we try to get over it or go around?" Phillipia asked the group.

"Going around would waste too much time," said Rina, "We can probably get at least the four of us across with the magic we have. I can dimension door one person."

"I could use Fly on two people," said Neely.

"Or... you could make the sheep fly!" Alice said excitedly.

Neely cast fly on the sheep and the four girls were able to cross the fissure.

"We will come back for you!" Phillipia yelled at the men who were left on the other side.

Just then, the sharks attacked them - many of them being thrown down the giant hole as the sharks ran into them.

As they made it to the other side, they saw a small cave where they could get out of the cold.

"The sharks are far enough away that I can't hear the chat anymore," said Neely, "I think we might be ok to rest here."

Rina noticed some markings on the walls of the cave, they were etched in deeply with some kind of softer tool.

"This isn't in a language I know but... if we're resting here, do you mind if I take the time to translate it?"

"No, go ahead, we all need to rest," Philipia answered, "More than you, it seems."

Rina smiled a little, "My patron's magic gives me a resistance to cold, and being an Elf means my rests are shorter."

Rina then began to use comprehend languages to read the etches in the stone, and made a note of it in her journal:

"Long ago, the Jarl - who was born of both a Pat Giant and a Master Giant - tried to break the cycle of slavery in the Giant Hills. He used his voice to try and sway the Master Giants to live with the Pat Giant as equals. His massive body, with thick skin and solid muscle, was thought to be the superior type of giant. The Pat Giants worshipped him, and the Master Giants hated him. The Jarl was unable to convince the residents mountain to live equally, and he was forced into the mountain to rot. However, the worship of the Pat Giants began to sustain him. He required more and more worshippers..."

"Huh, it cuts off..." Rina looked puzzled, "It looks like there was supposed to be more, but they just stopped writing. This seems to be an ancient Giant language - I would bet it hasn't been used for hundreds of years."

"Guys, I can hear the chant again!" Neely yelled.

"Looks like rest time is over," said Phillipia, "Alice, ride with me. Rina and Neely, you take the other goat."

"Yes ma'am..." Neely said, blushing a little.

They began bolting up the mountain again, they barely had enough time to warm up before getting frozen again. A large bird then came into view, larger than any creature they had seen. It spotted them, specifically the shine off of the silver of Alice's smoking vest. It did not move, but it kept watch as it flew around a pillar with a nest.

They rode until they broke free of the storm, and a little peace from the weather began. However, the large bird in the sky had now decided that they were close enough to try and capture its prey. It swooped down and grabbed Alice off of the goat, piercing her in the arm with its talons in the process. Rina and Phillipia guided their goats up to the nest to try and get closer to the bird.

Rina climbed up into the nest - it was made up of whole trees and pieces of boats and other man-made objects. to see 4 baby birds within it.