After countless passageways, a few steep inclines and several more raggedy wooden lifts, the party finally reached their next destination. They stepped out of a crack and onto a polished marble surface that extended out from the wall and curved downwards after a few dozen feet. Similar curving shapes were present to either side and above, as well. It soon became clear -- based on the band of artwork encircling the walls of the chamber before them, that they were standing within the crevices of giant stone carvings. That, however, was the least impressive part.
The massive chamber was circular, with a thick central pillar of marble bricks, sharing a similar band of carved artwork as the outer walls. Lining the outer walls were what -- at first glance -- appeared to be jagged rock formations. Surrounding the central pillar were several flat slabs of marble, on one of those slabs was one of the jagged formations, and it looked almost like a kneeling giant. Distant sounds like chisels on stone echoed around the chamber.
Killup shushed them before whispering an explanation, "the carving is sacred, stay quiet."
After a few moments, a large chunk of jagged marble slid off of the kneeling formation, taking a long fall to the floor before shattering into several smaller pieces with a loud, echoing boom. With the loss of the chunk, the shape of a shoulder and neck was beginning to emerge from the formation.
"Giants grow from the mountain itself," Killup whispered, "then we carve them into shape."
Iris peered through her spyglass and spotted at least a dozen gargoyles crawling around the kneeling giant with pickaxes and chisels, picking away at the excess marble. After a moment she handed the spyglass to whoever was standing next to her, not bothering to take her eyes off the sight before her to see who it was.
"Whoa, you guys make the giants?" Autumn asked.
"No, no," Killup answered hurriedly, "the mountain makes them. We only shape them. It's a partnership millennia old."
Another large chunk of marble fell from the giant's back and crashed into the floor with a boom.
"How long does it take them to grow?" Eli asked as he brought the spyglass down from his eye and handed it to Titus.
"Decades for some, others centuries," Killup said, "quite lucky to visit during a carving."
They stayed and observed the carving in silence for quite some time, watching as the giant slowly took the shape they would expect. At the pace which the gargoyles worked, it seemed as if simply removing all the excess stone would take days, if not weeks. Based on the roughness of the defined areas, finely shaping and polishing the giant's body would take even longer.
Eventually, Killup motioned to the party that it was time to leave, and led them back through the passageway from which they had emerged. They retraced much of their steps, but diverted from their previous path somewhere between the growth chamber and the giant steps which housed the Keghold.
"Where are we headed now?" Autumn asked as they walking down a hallway between passages.
"Back to family," Killup answered, "promised to introduce you. Few more stops along the way, though."
This was news to the party. They were all quite tired and looking forward to the chance to crash into their bedrolls. The prospect of a meet and greet with Killup's family was less than appealing at the moment.
During the long journey back down through the innards of the mountain, Killup brought them to a large octagonal chamber where several rows of kneeling giants encircled a central pillar of glow stone. He explained that this chamber was directly above the Cardinal Council, and was where the giants came to commune with the mountain. He seemed unsure of exactly how their religion worked, but explained that nearly half of every giant's life with spent conducting this communion.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
After the communion chamber, he brought them through a long series of passages that emerged onto the outside of the mountain. The marble stacked marble pillars which made up the mountain were of various lengths and spaced with no discernible pattern, creating the illusion of a natural mountain from a distance but a strange maze of enormous square pillars up close.
Killup explained that the outside of the mountain was frequently traversed by gargoyles, but would prove much too difficult for the party to navigate. He did, however, lead them down an only somewhat difficult path to the top of one of the outermost pillars, providing a beautiful panoramic view of the grasslands and rolling hills which surrounded the mountain. Giants could be seen walking down paths in the distance, almost creating the illusion that they were not-so-distant regular sized people. Iris wasn't quite sure how to put it into words, but as she gazed out across the grasslands the bright blue and sparsely clouded sky seemed bigger than usual.
Next they reached another gargoyle living chamber, this one was built into the walls of a large crevasse that split down the middle of a particularly large marble block a hallway floor. Though the crevasse was lit by glow stone lanterns, much of the light came from the much larger glow stones which lit the hall way above, and the crevasse would occasionally be plunged into darkness as a giant passed by overhead. The crevasse was bustling with activity as gargoyles scurried across the walls and ground, and even took flight to glide between buildings on either side.
"Here we are!" Killup announced, "my home."
"It's incredible," Iris said.
"Thanks! Follow!" Killup bounded off down the crevasse.
The party followed, making their way through the crowd of gargoyles as politely as they could. They eventually caught up with Killup outside of one of the ground level buildings, a multistory shack built against the wall of the crevasse. Cheerful children playing outside greeted him with excitement, a few even jumped onto his shoulders and into his arms. He waved the party to follow as he carried the children through the door.
As they entered the shack, it became clear it was much larger than it appeared. The small wooden exterior was little more than a facade in front of much larger chambers carved into the marble. There was quite a lot of furniture inside, including various tables, large standing cabinets, an open kitchen and a several benches, all either built from wood or carved from marble. Rather than stairs leading to the upper floors, there was simply an opening in the ceiling in the back corner of the room, through which gargoyles freely climbed up and down.
"This is them!" a seemingly elderly gargoyle woman shouted as she spread her arms in excitement. She rushed towards the party and immediately wrapped Eli in a hug.
Eli was taken aback by the sudden hug, but awkwardly returned it. The woman soon let go and moved on to hug Titus. One by one, she hugged each of the party members, greeting them with a beaming smile.
"I'm so glad my boy found an adventuring party," she said sincerely as she released Autumn from a tight hug.
Eli shot Killup a critical glance, who responded with a sheepish and apologetic grin.
"Yeaahh," Eli said, "we're glad to have him."
"Come, have a seat," the woman said, "tell me all about my son's adventures."
"Mother," Killup groaned.
"Shush, go finish up dinner for the guests."
The party did their best to retell their limited adventures with Killup as if they had traveled together for quite some time. It didn't take long for a large crowd of nieces and nephews, and few adult cousins, brothers and sisters, to surround them and eagerly listen to the stories. Autumn, Iris and Victoria were particularly willing to embellish details to make him seem brave and strong, while Eli and Titus kept to basic, mostly true details to fill in the gaps.
When dinner was served, it consisted of pan-seared fillets of a strange mystery meat, a pile of what could only be describe as unidentifiable slop, and what appeared to be several small marbles. Killup popped one of the marbles into his mouth and crunched into with his teeth, demonstrating that the insides contained a sweet, gooey filling. No one but Autumn was brave enough to attempt to bite into the marbles, and even she discretely used her stone molding abilities to soften them to protect her teeth.
"What exactly is this?" Titus asked as he held up a cut of his fillet on the end of a fork.
"Cave centipede," Killup answered.
Iris, who was half way through chewing a mouthful of her fillet, nearly choked.