Giant Meat And Wheat
Gary and Elmer are catching up Ovi on the last few weeks activities when a hill gnome siddles into the tavern and walks over to Elmer.
“Psst! Psssssst!” says the gnome.
“Yes?” Elmer replies.
“I heard you’ve been looking for…some wheat. Special wheat.”
“I have, where is it?”
“I’ll tell you for a price.”
“How much?”
“Twenty gold.”
“No.”
“Twenty five.”
“No”
“Thirty?”
“This is going the wrong way. How about five?”
“Definitely not! I almost died finding this out.”
“Seven.”
“No.”
At which point Gary leans over and says “Ten gold and you get to keep all your limbs.”
“Ten gold it is! It’s northwest of the mushroom cave, look for a hill that seems out of place.”
The party gets ready to leave town with Donweeeeeigh and the cart but first they stop in to pick up Gary’s gauntlet from the smith who’s been improving it. The smith is a huge minotaur with a heavy leather apron, he has Gary’s gauntlet which he’s partly reformed from mithril and made spikier so Gary can punch things with it more effectively. They head out of town and to the mushroom cave which they find without incident, then turn northwest. They find a tumbledown old farmer’s cottage or something, nothing but ruins now with a collapsed roof and some rusted farming implements. Continuing on they see a large hill rising from the surrounding grassland, conspicuous as the highest point for several miles around.
As they approach the hill they spot a scarecrow at the base of it and Ovi, with his usual caution, blasts it with an Eldritch Spear, revealing it as a Scarecrow construct. They fight briefly but win easily and discover a small gem worth a few hundred gold sewn into the coat of the Scarecrow, undoubtedly a valuable secreted there by whoever originally owned the coat.
The reach the summit of the hill which is perfectly flat except for a small sinkhole off to one side. They can see that a part of the far side of the hill has collapsed as if from a landslide of some sort. Past the hill they see an enormous square of trees planted right next to each other, surrounding a field of huuuuuuuuuge wheat, wheat the size of trees itself. Off to the side is a smaller square of trees planted right next to each other and occasionally there’s movement from within it but nothing visible.
Gary speaks with animals and finds a rabbit willing to go reconnoiter the field while he watches from its eyes. The rabbit runs down the hill and into the field of wheat, showing clearly that it’s an enormous tilled field and also that the front of the hill that appears to have collapsed from a landslide is an entrance to a cave, though the rabbit can’t see inside. Gary tries to ask the rabbit if the cave is dangerous but the rabbit doesn’t think it’s any more dangerous than anywhere else. Everywhere is dangerous to a rabbit.
The party decides the field is obviously cultivated, probably by something living in the cave, so Gary waits in ambush on the upper edge of the cave mouth while Elmer and Ovi walk down the hill and around to the entrance. They call a greeting and receive a reply in a language no one is familiar with but which sounds unhappy. There’s a noticeable tremor of the earth, a persistent kind of thudding and the reply sounds like it came from something big. A huge humanoid appears dimly visible in the entrance of the cave and waves a giant club at the them, obviously wanting them to leave. Elmer tries to persuade it to give them some wheat and Ovi tries to charm it using Fae Presence but fails and the giant attacks.
As the giant charges toward Elmer and Ovi, Gary leaps down from the lip of the cave entrance onto it, slashing wildly. Elmer runs up and hits it with a spell and summons their spiritual weapon, as Ovi casts Shatter on it. The giant takes a wild swing with his club at both Elmer and Gary and lands a crushing hit on Gary. Elmer casts Destroy Water on the giant, immediately removing a chunk of its blood and doing some substantial damage, as Gary punches it in the kneecap with his spiked gauntlet. Howling in pain the giant flings itself on Gary attempting to crush him but Gary manages to muscle free with a roar. Ovi hits the giant with another Eldritch Spear as Elmer runs up and smashes it in the head with their spiritual weapon, killing it.
The find some scattered gold pieces and gems in the cave, along with a Wand of Moderate Healing that Elmer takes. Gary butches the giant corpse and piles the cuts in the cart as Elmer harvests some wheat. They return to town with six thousand pounds of wheat and a thousand pounds of giant meat.