The Mothers discussed their options and decided to help the Cormyrians with the giant problem in the Stonelands. Fonesca, Jito and Levi studied and prayed to prepare what spells they thought might be effective in their mission. Two days later the Mothers returned to the palace in Arabel to meet with the Lord High Seneschal and his ranger. The ranger told them that a group of giants of various types had been raiding in the north east of Cormyr, along the border with the Stonelands area, unclaimed by any kingdom. A number of noble families whose lands abutted this region were appealing for action as they could not protect their own subjects. The caravans of trade goods to Tilverton had also been attacked. The ranger described a great timber fortress where the chief of these giants, a hill giant named Nosnra, lived. Nosnra was known to be a grossly fat and thoroughly despicable creature, who was sly and vicious, loving ambush and suffering. But it was not supposed that he had the influence alone to group the variety of giant-kin together for long. Another motivational power was suspected. The Mothers were given horses and directions to a cave that the ranger had been using as a hideout near the steading of the hill giant chief. They were also instructed to keep all loot found with the giants and to bring back any evidence that they found of a motivational force behind the alliance. It took the Mothers a few days travel north from Arabel, stopping at Castle Crag on the way, to reach the hideout that the ranger had mentioned. They left their horses there and went out to scout the great wooden hall. When they got within sight of the hall, Jito cast an Invisibility 10' radius on Gaspode so that he could scout out the area. Gaspode noticed that there were no guards outside the building. He could also hear some sounds of merriment from within. He went around the outside and discovered two other gates, besides the door underneath the main watch tower. No one seemed to be on sentry duty up there either. Gaspode crept up to the front door underneath the tower. He listened intently for any sound of a guard, but heard only snoring. He opened the door and stepped inside. Two snoring giants lay slumped against the wall under a row of cloaks and bags suspended from wooden pegs. An empty barrel of ale lay between them. Moving on, Gaspode spied a set of double doors behind which much merriment was being had. Stairs led up to the tower to his left and two other, smaller doors led off to the right. He crept lightly up the stairs and saw that the guard there had decided on mead as his soporific. This was lucky as there was a simple alarm system consisting of an iron bar and hoop overhead. Descending again, Gaspode found that one of the doors below lead into a series of corridors, one of which revealed some ogre serving staff bringing food through another set of double-doors. The other door also opened into a corridor. Here Gaspode entered a room and found a huge bed covered in furs. There was also a locked chest and a high shelf, which he left for the moment. He returned to the others and they decided that the fates were with them and it was time for an assault. The whole group gingerly gathered in the hall while Gaspode ascended the tower again to dispatch the giant there. This done, he and Guthranka dealt similarly with the two below while Levi laid a glyph of warding in front of the double-doors. Fonesca coated herself and Jito with dust of disappearance and stood opposite the doors. Gaspode called on Imp to give him strength. When he had finished the glyph, Levi prayed that the group would complement each other in battle. Then he and Guthranka pulled open the doors. A long gloomy passage extended from the doors for about eighty feet before it reached a feast-hall with a large central fire-pit, over which roasted sheep, pigs and calves. Trestle tables had been set up to seat about thirty giants and ogres. Jito and Fonesca did not wait to count them. Jito raised his wand and loosed a fireball just to the left of the fire-pit. Fonesca mirrored his actions, but her fireball was shot from her hands and was directed slightly to the right. As soon as they could, they repeated this action, but not before a spear had shot out of the haze and smoke and buried itself in one of the cloaks behind Fonesca. None of the creatures stumbled out of the smoke towards the Mothers, so the loosed a final volley of flame and then shut the doors again and considered what to do next. Gaspode directed them back to the bedroom that he thought might be used for a leader of the giants. There they found that the bed covers had been thrown back and someone had left recently. The bed was still warm. The chest held gold, silver and copper coinage and the shelf had a silver comb, a copper mirror and a golden hair-pin that were all giant-sized. The room was beginning to smell distinctly of smoke, so the Mothers were thinking quickly as to what their next move should be.
