The Wildemount Irregulars (2020)

The giant is being taken apart piece by piece; it's looking pretty rough now. Silent, on the other hand, seems to be finding inner reserves of strength.  But as the giant seems to falter, Silent you notice something - in its brown eyes, a sudden flash of furious red as the giant looks back at you.

Balassar, you notice the same thing:  Giant 2's eyes flash red all of a sudden, and then back to brown.  The giant swings his branch at you:

Attack: 9 Damage: 20
Attack: 28 Damage: 39

It might look almost impossible to the casual onlooker, though Silent as a trained warrior himself would see the sheer expertise and muscle memory in Balassar's dodges.  The branch almost hits him... but doesn't. 

Alton is up.

Seeing that Balassar is doing alright with his giant, Alton turns his attention to the one Silent is fighting. With a grin he says to the giant, "They say scars improve your looks, but on you they just make it worse," as he casts Vicious Mockery. 

Action: Casts Vicious Mockery on Giant 1, DC 14 Wisdom save or take 1 psychic damage and have disadvantage on its next attack. 

Giant 1's WIS save:  18  The giant doesn't seem to hear, distracted as it is by the two half-orcs surrounding it.

Balassaur is going all in on his scimitar attacks:

Attack: 22 Damage: 9

Action surge:

Attack: 22 Damage: 8 plus 4

There's a definite hint of a smile of satisfaction on Balassar's face.

Giant 1 continues his attacks on Silent:

Attack: 11 Damage: 17
Attack: 16 Damage: 19

Smash across the right side, and the branch comes up for the killing blow, but Silent twists and deflects it.

Another volley of ranged attacks from the Crownsguard on Giant 2:

Attack: 21 Damage: 6
Attack: 14 Damage: 8
Attack: 20 Damage: 4
Attack: 19 Damage: 4
Attack: 14 Damage: 4
Attack: 11 Damage: 5

Not enough to finish the creature off, but it's looking close.  Now, as each bolt strikes, there's a flash of red in the giant's eyes, seemingly driving its fury on and on.

Round Four:
Silent
Giant 2
Alton
Balassar
Giant 1
Guards

Silent is up.

Oi, there's some devilry goin' on with these things' eyes! Silent isn't willing to back off and uses his final reserves of strength to Unleash Incarnation one last time. 

Silent's Attack 25 Damage: 15       
Echo's Attack 15 Damage: 13   

Silent, you see the same effect; the glowing red eyes with each hit, and then an almost jerking motion, as if the giant wishes to flee but it being held back by something.

Giant 2 takes two attacks on Balassar:

Attack: 17 Damage: 28
Attack: 19 Damage: 22

Finally, the giant manages to hit Balassar, thumping down onto his head, though he manages to twist to avoid the worst of it.  But immediately, you see him react with a swift strike of his scimitar (Vengeful Assault as a reaction):

Attack: 9 Damage: 9

The blade arcs left to right, and seemingly low, aiming for the giant's chest.  But Balassar flicks it up at the last moment, and it cuts a smooth, clean line across the giant's neck.  Giant 2 falls to the ground, dead, and Balassar runs towards Silent, leaping up as he goes.

Alton is up.

Alton runs up right behind Silent and places a hand on his back, "They say time heals all wounds, but I'm thinking yours need to heal a bit faster." He says while casting cure wounds.

Movement: Moves the 30 feet to get right behind Silent.
Action: Casts Cure Wounds at 2nd level on Silent, healing him for 12. 

As Alton comes in to help Silent, Balasaur moves around to flank, and starts swinging his scimitar:

Attack: 11 Damage: 5 (2)

That's 7 + 1 damage.

The giant takes what may be its last two swings, now at Balassar:

Attack: 14 Damage: 23
Attack: 19 Damage: 23

Missing again and again.

The guards are too far away to assist, and reluctant to leave the caravan they are guarding.

Round Five:
Silent
Alton
Balassar
Giant 1

Silent is up.

Silent grins at Alton as the healing washes over him and nods at Balassar's strikes. Let's finish this. 

Silent's Attack 21 Damage: 13 

(If possible, Silent would like to start landing non-lethal melee attacks - he wants to subdue the giant and knock it unconscious rather than disembowel or decapitate it)   

Silent can and Silent just did.  A well-aimed blow to the head with the flat of his blade knocks the giant to the ground, but the creature is still alive, albeit unconscious.

Combat is over, and silence comes over the area.

You saved my bacon there, says Silent to Alton and Balassar as he stabs his sword into the dirt. There was somethin' weird going on with these two, though... ain't never seen eyes flash red like that.

The two of you know more about magic and giants than me... figured I'd leave this one alive, see if we can figure out what riled 'em up. But if we don't wanna take no risks, we can kill him right now. Probably got a good few minutes to decide before he starts wakin' up with a nasty headache. 

Alton rubs the back of his head, "You're welcome. Those giants seemed tougher than I thought." He get closer to the unconscious giant and starts looking over it's body for anything odd.

Investigation: 4 

Alton, you don't find much of any interest.  Certainly no coin or other valuables.  The creature looks tired, and very beat up of course.

While Alton roots through the giant's body, Silent will cautiously back away and get closer to the rest of the caravan, aiming to speak with the guards. Anyone hurt? I ain't been round these parts in some time but I sure as hell ain't never seen no red-eyed giants before. This a new thing? 

No, no, we're all fine, Captain Fray responds as the caravan starts to make preparations to get underway again. Look, I don't know how much they're paying you for this escort mission.  But I reckon you should get double, at least, and for what it's worth I'll be telling my superiors as much.  Perytons, and now giants?  That's... a lot.  That's not normal in Felderwin.  It might be the war, or...  what do you mean, red eyes?  I don't know anything about giants, but I've never heard of that.  I think this is something to report when we reach Bladegarden.

Silent nod gravely and looks back at Alton and Balassar. What're we doing, lads? We leaving Big Ugly sleeping out here or is he gonna be food for the worms? 

Alton frowns looks at the unconscious giant. "I don't really know a whole lot about magic and what it can do. We would have to find a wizard or someone like that." He pulls at his topknot thinking, "This is a tough one. Why don't we wake it up and see if it is willing to talk or not. Balassar can talk try and talk with it."

Balassar just looks at all of them "What makes you think I'll talk any sense into him?" he asks as he walks over to one of the giants still enlarged as he raises his hand "Just be ready in case this thing decides to not be friendly." he says tapping the giants cheek as he begins to speak giant "Hey big guy...or girl...wake up and talk to us. Got some questions for ya."

Silent will rejoin Balassar and Alton and hold his greatsword at the ready in case the giant attacks.