Sorry for not posting anything for a few days. I'm away from home, so I don't have regular internet access.

Just to clarify for people who may not know: 'Reduce' is the reverse of 'Enlarge' (and can be used in either of its forms in 2e).

The problem with resting is that we may be misreading the situation slightly. We're assuming that whatever killed the giants (shadow wraiths and/or dragons), is waiting to ambush us outside but won't come in after us if we linger. We're assuming that whatever may be out there can't detect us (a simple detect good will see Ayron light up like a Christmas tree). And, finally there's a possibility that whatever is out there now is not at full strength (the giants may have hurt it, some of the dragons may have flown off after feasting etc.).

So, what I suggest is for more time to find out precisely what awaits us outside. Sirene can 'Commune' with her Goddess to find out more, which, I suspect, may be of help here.

The plan is to move back a bit, cast nap on just the mages. The rest of us will stand guard. One the mages have napped they can load up on reduce spells. Those who can polymorh will do so into a small creature and teh rest of us will get reduced. Maggot goes to the bridge and teleports us out.

What is needed is for the druid types to post what they will turn into and then for everyone to post where on Maggot they will hide.

Cor has claimed Maggots left shoulder.

I was trying see who were the Druids, but it didn't seem clear on the character sheets.

If i read them correctly Ulthok, Maggot(Bard) and Sirene are our Wizard types that Nap would help. Sirene being both Druid and Mage.

Cor, Valene and Rayne are Clerics

Althena, Lother, Kenji, Ayreon are fighter with no magic to change.

So if it makes sense Ulthok could redo his spells to get 7 Reduce to cover the group. Sirene keeps her Polymorph Self and checks in with her God to see if she find out stuff.

Then Ulthok does polymorph self. If anyone would prefer to be change into something we have that spell too.

I had thought we could change into a flock of vultures and fly out with the other birds, hopefully unnoticed. But this too require study time for enough spells.

Also if we are so close to the outer wall of the mountain there may be another exit near besides the giants cave.

Now doing a bit of reading on dragons, we never determined the color of the dragons to help figure type (or did I miss that?). If they are Green Dragons, they hate giants and hunt them as a normal thing anyway.

Actually we do know a bit more about the colour of the dragons. The information Sirene received from the vultures was:

‘Two flying lizards come, 1 blue, 1 green, along with some other strange looking flying creatures. kill all big uglies! Then the lizards eat all the big ugly babies, leave nothing of them for us!!, afterwards left leaving other flying creatures to eat on bodies adult big uglies. Then just a little while ago those creatures also leave, everything left to us and crows and rats and little bugs. Lots good meat... You want some??’

So we can speculate that there was a green and a blue dragon (and the way the bodies have been charred seems to back that up).

I think I would be more comfortable with the plan of transforming everyone into vultures, but I don't think any of our mages have Polymorph Other in their spellbooks (which is a shame).

The thing I dislike about this plan is how easy it would be to nuke all of us with dragons breath if we are all seated on Maggot and spotted.

But, if we are going to rest anyway, Sirene will take a turn to cast Commune first.

I was looking for the poly morph other too, thought I had, but I was wrong.

Well a TPK in one swell foop would put a real dent in the game, lol.

The other small flying lizards seems interesting.

Having a Green and a Blue dragon on the same attack says a lot too.

No Druids are now active in our group. Cynil was our only Druid.

If one ofthe mages can shape change perhaps a crow oor vulture form would allow them to go incestigate. What is one carrior bird amongst the many gather in here.

No being sure how small we will be shrunk it will bake a difference as to where we will ride.

Sirene is a druid as well as a mage.

Acknowledged

My thought of the Druid is that can take on an animal form so the spell would need to be used on them.

Here's the effect of "Reduce". Ulthok is an 11th level Mage.

The creature or object loses 10% of its original size for every level of the caster,
to a minimum of 10% of the original size. Thereafter, the size shrinks by 1-foot
increments to less than 1 foot, by 1-inch increments to 1 inch, and by 1/10-inch
increments to a minimum of 1/10 of an inch--the recipient cannot dwindle away to
nothingness.

So I think to figure this reduce in steps of 10% each step for 11 steps. If you hit where you are at 10% of your original height before you reach step 11 then do the addition instructions until you get to the 11th step.

Sirene can easily shift into a small, light creature, (mouse, sparrow etc.) so it wouldn't be necessary to have a spell cast on her as well.

Rayne Tomiko Cor Valene Lother AyreonAlthena
64 70 49 40 73 73 60
157.6 63.0 44.1 36.0 65.7 65.7 54.0
2 51.8 56.7 39.7 32.4 59.1 59.1 48.6
3 46.7 51.0 35.7 29.2 53.2 53.2 43.7
4 42.0 45.9 32.1 26.2 47.9 47.9 39.4
5 37.8 41.3 28.9 23.6 43.1 43.1 35.4
6 34.0 37.2 26.0 21.3 38.8 38.8 31.9
7 30.6 33.5 23.4 19.1 34.9 34.9 28.7
8 27.5 30.1 21.1 17.2 31.4 31.4 25.8
9 24.8 27.1 19.0 15.5 28.3 28.3 23.2
10 22.3 24.4 17.1 13.9 25.5 25.5 20.9
11 20.1 22.0 15.4 12.6 22.9 22.9 18.8

This table didn't fomat well for me but I think you can figure out the size. Everyone except Cor and Valene are near 2 foot tall.

Our druid can change shape and investigate; teh mages can rest and the DM has already stated that using the reduce spell will make it possible for us to ride on Maggot. Sometimes "house rules" come into play.

This is what I think I understand.

Ulthok and Cor will retreat back to the tunnel to take the hour for Nap. The fighter stand guard.

Sirene will commune with her goddess for information.

Ulthok will set 7 Reduce spell to drop the party members to about 10% (house rules)of the there normal size.

Ulthok and Sirene will polymorph into something small too.
Sirene will control the cat so it doesn't consider us lunch.

Ulthok will take Maggots other shoulder so he has a good view in case he needs to try attack spells or some thing.

The rest need to pick a riding spot.

Let me know if this agreeable and we can start posting.

You may want to wait until after Tann's update tomorrow.

He PM'ed me the answers to the questions I submitted, with some interesting results. But then asked me not to reveal them before his update.

PS. Ulthok would probably be small enough after the 'reduce', to ride Niamedris into battle!

Last week i was late posting, now i don't know what to post.

I hope Tann gets a the flavor of our thought through the Q&A.

We are working on limited information. But then we didn't really press it either.