* OK, "abseiled" may be overstating the case. But it's quicker than writing "tentatively crept her way down in a state of terror while desperately hoping that the combination of the rope and the less-than-vertical slope of the mountain would compensate for her absolutely terrible climbing skill".
Tallis abseiled* down the side of the mountain on a rope made out of a dead giant (courtesy of more fairy magic) to find the comatose Vallana. She made sure she wasn't about to slide any further down, and then began removing her armour so that Pandora could get at her to bring her back to consciousness. After clambering back up on to the trail, the party settled down to get what rest they might for the remainder of the night; firtunately there was no further sign of the giant which had run away.
Shortly before dawn, just before moonset, Basil (on watch) spied a huge winged shape float across the face of the moon. It didn't seem to be concerned with them at all, but he let everybody know in the morning; regrettably he was unable to give a meaningful description, so all anyone knows is that it's big and it can fly. Admittedly, that does narrow it down a little.
Tallis went out looking for the last of the horses, the other two having been found with their necks wrung in two huge sacks further up the trail, and found it by mid-morning. They loaded the still-unconscious Barsh on to it, along with as much of their other gear as they could manage and carried on up the trail.
Their progress was uneventful until the late afternoon, when they came upon a point where the path passed through a narrow ravine formed where a massive part of the mountain had cracked and fallen away slightly from the main body. For some reason, probably to do with having fundamentally suspicious and distrustful natures, everyone went "Uh-oh! Ambush!". Pandora volunteered to fly on ahead to see if she could spy out the lay of the land, saw that the ravine had been blocked off with a sheer wall of stone, and very nearly got herself swatted in mid-air by a cunnningly camouflaged giant; she tore off back to warn the others just in time for them to be blocked in by an avalanche of rocks behind them.
The giants popped up on the edge of the ravine and began flinging boulders down at the party. The first one took Tallis' horse's head right off, while another missed Tallis by a gnat's whisker and showered her with gravel as it pulverized itself against the ravine wall. Basil jumped off Aloysius, who was running in circles and barking uncontrollably, and climbed into Tallis' belt pouch just before she put on her Invisible Ring and disappeared. That turned out to be fortunate for her, since it meant that the giants could devote their entire attention to Vallana.
Vallana had bravely returned to save the unconscious Barsh, while Invisible Tallis bravely did the same — but invisibly. Pandora flew over the wall and magicked a hole in it so that Our Heroes could escape, while Vallana ducked and dived and dodged the lethal rain of watermelon-sized rocks. Tallis decided that Vallana's need was greater than her own, and so took off her ring and handed it to Vallana just in time for Vallana to get a rock right in the head and another in the bread-basket; she went down unconscious (again) and the precious ring went rolling tinkling away somewhere, never to be found again.
Pandora used her Magic Fairy Banana-Skin Spell of Slipperiness to good effect, sending one of the giants sliding and swearing down the mountainside and another toppled straight into the ravine. Basil wasn't holding back either, firing off illusions of questionable effect and psychic headaches left and right, but regrettably the giant that had fallen into the ravine hadn't been particularly discomoded by his tumble and splatted Tallis (and Justin) with his great huge stony giant palms, crushing them into the ground. Dang.
Rumbling happily to itself and calling the others down, it began investigating its prey: it flicked Tallis a couple of times in the side of the head to keep her quiet, and then wrapped her up and stuffed her into its hunting bag. It did the same with Barsh, and then with Vallana, but on discovering that Vallana was a dwarf it let out a bellow of disgust and mashed her repeatedly into the floor of the ravine, leaving her lying in a dwarf-shaped crater and about as unconscious as it's possible to get. Thanks to her Armour of Amazingness she wasn't killed (again). Then the giants took their succulent, delicious booty and set off back to their lair further up into the mountains. Pandora snuck up behind and clung on to the giant's furs like a remarkably attractive tick, and was carried along with the giant completely unawares. Also unknown to the giant, Basil had regained consciousness (not having been smashed about the head like Tallis) and had crawled out of her pouch, clinging to the inside of the giant's foetid hunting bag and peering out through holes cut with his stilleto-arm.
The giants moved fast, and not long after nightfall they arrived at their mountainside castle. The giant carrying Our Heroes took them straight to the kitchens and began to prepare them for the pot; it peeled off Barsh's loincloth and popped him into a huge tin can with air-holes punched in the lid. It then did the same with Tallis, carefully cutting away her armour and clothing.
Since Vallana was effectively out of the picture at this point, we decided Kent might as well take over Barsh so that he need not sit around twiddling his thumbs while all the fun happened elsewhere.
At this point, Barsh finally woke up. When the giant reopened the can to pop Tallis in, he scampered up its arm and kicked it in the side of the head — doing no actual damage, but startling the giant no end. It dropped Tallis, and importantly, forgot to close the lid while it was bellowing and flailing about try to grab Barsh the Nimble. The attention of all of the kitchen staff was drawn by Barsh as he jumped and rolled on to the table and then to the floor, and dashed across the flagstones towards a huge open door.
Tallis came to groggily in the open can and Basil climbed out of the hunting bag while the giants' attention was elsewhere. Together they clambered down off the table and scuttled away to hide under a storage bin against a wall. Pandora had done similarly, though elsewhere, and was almost detected when a gigantic kitchen-boy noticed the flash of her fairy magic as she made herself a hidey-hole in the wall. Fortunately he was called away to go and get a watch-bear to smell out Barsh, who had run away into a darkened room.
Barsh had hoped that the dark was outside, but soon found that he had run into a cold-store. In the brief time he had to look around, he saw carcasses (some of them extremely large) hanging on hooks and barrels piled about the walls; then the door was slammed shut behind him plunging him into absolute stygian blackness. The giants stuffed massive cloths under the door to stop him getting out, and the cook and one of her helpers went back to work while the others waited for the arrival of the bear and nets.
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