"Probably =not= a good idea Glork. Could trigger some sort of 'protection' response." He turned to take in the rest of the group. "What do the rest of you think", he asked.
Zindra's search for tracks indicates some uncountable number of small animals which has come and gone, likely feeding on fried poultry.
As for signs of giants? None. No footprints, or any other indications of any large creatures having been on the ground in this vicinity anytime recently. There are a few tracks on the far side of the road indicating travelers may have given the sword an extra-wide berth as they passed by.
But tracking, on the ground, at least, reveals no sign of the sword's origin.
What time of the day is it? or, how far are we off having to make camp for the night.
OOC: You're not too far away from your planned end of travel, which did include a few hours of daylight for setting up camp and foraging for dinner. You could probably camp right here or a short distance away.
Zindra "Hey, I've looked but found no tracks of giants. One of you might want to look too - just in case I missed anything," she says, glancing towards Bern.
"But let's say there are no giant tracks. How could a giant lightning sword just get here? Anyone have an idea? I mean, a giant had to be here. Do giants fly?"
"Perhaps it was dropped by a cloud giant? The barbarians mentioned them being around." Davroar knows hardly anything at all about cloud giants, but if they live in the clouds then it kind of makes sense to him that this giant sword could have come from one of them.
Listening to the others, he did not consider that perhaps dislodging the rune stone would stop the lightning damage. Moving a few steps closer to the sword, he will cast his thorn whip cantrip intentionally missing it a few below and to the side of the rune stone to see if there is any magical reaction from it.
Jaliera says she can cast Mage Hand as a cantrip, so it's no loss to try twisting the runestone out of its socket.
"Try thy Mage Hand, Jaliera. It may work and if not we can make camp hereabouts and prepare spells for the morn." Arus says.
Arus agrees with Davroar, that the sword might have been dropped from on high. Yes, one might expect such a gigantic blade to bury itself to the hilt if dropped from a cloud in the sky but it might have hit bedrock.
"The sword might be too much for the spell but I can certainly try the rune. However, I don't suggest we camp too close to this spot as it has been advertising it's presence far and wide."
She casts mage hand and then manipulates it to try to prise out the rune. If she can get it free, she intends to drop it on Bern's blanket.
She nods to the comment about Cloud Giants. "Yes. Cloud Giants will sometimes live in flying citadels. It is possible this fell from one, although it seems impressive enough of a weapon that I would think someone would have come down to reclaim it."
She looks again at the sword and the suggestions for moving it. "Unfortunately, my magic does not lend itself to those sorts of things. Presuming it is actually touching it that is dangerous, we could simply dig a hole around it until it toppled over."
Last edited by Zeim; Sat 08/04/202313:54 UTC. Reason: spelling
"Hmm. I'm thinking a fulcrum beneath the angled part of the blade, a rope thrown over the pommel, and use the horses in a hauling array to draw it out of the earth untouched," mused the scholar.
Davroar's cantrip draws no reaction from the sword. So far the only reaction observed has been actual contact with it.
Bern begins his own search to see if Zindra missed anything. But there is no sign of any large creature having been moving here in the recent past.
Jaliera's Mage Hand manipulation of the stone appears promising, however, as the stone does appear to move a bit in its socket. It seems to be a bit too heavy for the hand to manipulate it, but the bit of movement generated is tantalizingly close to solving the dilemma. Perhaps if there were some leverage.
Kriv talks about leverage toppling the whole sword, which also seems like a reasonable plan, if one were after more than just the stone...
Glork Remember something Miales rolled d20 and got 14
While they are playing with magic. Glork goes into the woods and finds two long stout limbs and drags them to the clearing. He then starts digging a trench to the blade side of the sword about 15ft away from it.
"Ugly post. Needed gone. Papa did this to get rid of."
Whilst Glork busies himself with some plan involving tree branches, Jaliera's second attempt to use mage hand -- this time with a crowbar -- proves successful!
The large runestone is effectively dislodged from its socket, plummeting 20 (or so) feet to the ground, with a small thud.
For those who have carried similar rocks or stones in the past, they might estimate (correctly) that it weighs about 20 pounds.
Neither the runestone, nor the sword, appears to give any indication on whether further contact will be a shocking experience, or whether the party can camp here with a built-in bug zapper.
The stone looks to Arus -- and Jaliera, for that matter -- like any ordinary stone, other than the clear chiseling marks to give it the rough shape it's in, and the rune shape meticulously carved on one side of it. Other than the rune shape, and the evidence of charred avian creatures, it's not obvious it's anything more than a rock.
Speaking of avian creatures, a bird does happen upon the party, completely unaware of the demise of many of its cousins, and perches on the crossbar, peering down at the adventurers, blissfully unaware of how its life was spared by their actions just minutes ago.
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