Skip the Frost Giants?

During the last session, I was unsure if my Swords & Wizardry campaign players would find enough clues to skip past the Frost Giants. They already had an inkling that the fire giants were the true architects of the attack on human lands. They did not, and it was on to the Glacial Rift!

This module is laid out like the Hill Giant Steading. An upper level packed with giants and a mysterious lower level. So far, they have just moved through the upper level with a fair degree of stealth. Only one Frost Giant escaped an encounter. It led to an immediate ambush but to this point the Frost Giant Lair is not aware they are under attack.

Session 170: From Foothills to Glaciers

Lakima (human magic user), Eathwund (human fighter), Aldus (human cavalier), Ambro Feyvine (elven thief), Domago (human cleric NPC), Ian of Darkhollow (human cavalier NPC), Aelshara (half-elven magic user/fighter), Luna (charmed Human Fighter NPC).

The Company of the Black Dragon has descended into a dungeon below the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief Nosnra. They helped set off a revolt by orc slaves against their Hill Giant masters, but the Chief still eludes them and the information he holds.

“Why do we need to find the Hill Giant chief again?” Ian said.

“Because he is the one who is going to be able to tell us who put him up to attacking Caster’s Ford,” Lakima said patiently, “He certainly does not have the backbone to attack the human lands without someone backing him up.”

The party returned to the marshaling chamber at the bottom of the stairs from the upper level. Lakima noted a closed door they had not entered before. Eathwund and Ambro went over to check. Once Ambro nodded that it was safe, Eathwund shoved against the door to try to open it. The door opened a few inches, and Eathwund saw a hill giant holding the door on the other side. In a moment, the door slammed shut again. Eathwund found he could not get it to budge.

“There is a giant holding the door from the other side,” Eathwund said.

“Just a moment,” Lakima began walking toward the door.

“Hey, there are prison cells in here,” Aelshara shouted and pointed at an open door.

Lakima realized that the door she was pointing at had been closed earlier. Lakima waved at Aelshara to enter. She soon called out that there were prisoners inside the cells. Ambro joined her, followed by Domago and Lakima. Lakima looked at an elf sitting on the floor in the back of a cell. The prisoner looked ill-used.

“What’s your story?” Lakima asked.

“Help, let me out!” another prisoner, this one human, yelled out from a nearby cell.

“Are you in league with the giants?” the elf asked.

“No. We are killing all the giants we find,” Lakima boldly stated. The elf slowly got to his feet and asked to be released.

“Ambro, see if you can release them,” Lakima said.

“All of them?” Ambro looked at the five cells. Beside the human and the elf, another human lay curled up in a cell, four human skeletons lay in a cell, and the last held five orcs.

“Just the humans and the elf,” Lakima clarified.

“My name is Roth Pomer, I am from Edgerton,” the man introduced himself.

“What are you doing here, Roth,” Lakima asked.

Roth explained that the giants captured him near Caster’s Ford and thought, based on his clothes, that he was worth a rich ransom. Unfortunately, a recent turn of bad business left Roth with few funds. Lakima asked how much ransom they could expect from his family. Roth sputtered a little and offered 75 gold before Lakima laughed and told him he was joking.

The second human introduced himself as Gregor. He said that he was an engineer and the hill giants had been working with him for almost a year to expand their dungeons with the aid of stone giants. Lastly, Luthien Silverleaf is an elf from Kingswood.

“Gregor, you worked on this dungeon. Are there any secret areas,” Lakima asked.

“I worked on a secret passage to some chambers several months ago,” Gregor said. It is right over there,” pointing to the stone wall beside the stair.

“Show us, please,” Lakima said.

“It has been a while,” Gregor said.

Lakima aided Gregor with the Wand of Secret Door detection, which immediately illuminated the trigger for the secret door. The dwarves they had rescued earlier gathered around to watch as Gregor triggered the door in the wall open.

“Fighters to the front, Ambro leads the way,” Lakima said. Orin, you and your friends are welcome to leave. The way should be clear, or you can wait here.”

“We will wait for you,” Orin said. Luthien, Gregor, and Roth also said that they would wait with the dwarves for the party to return.

The secret passage ended in a dead end, but the wand quickly found another door. Ambro opened this secret door and scanned a dark chamber. Eathwund, looking over her shoulder, saw nothing, but Ambro released a low gasp.

“I see bags of treasure split open lying against the far wall.”

The party moved into the dark chamber, and Lakima raised the light on his staff high. The party could make out an archway to the south blocked by a portcullis and an open passage to the east. Ambro skipped over to the bags of treasure on the floor but soon came back empty-handed.

“Nothing but copper coins and glass beads,” she said with disappointment.

“Check that way,” Lakima pointed to the northeast.

“There is something moving about on the other side of the archway bars,” Ambro said. She took a few steps closer. Then ran over to the rest of the party. Ambro described several lion-shaped creatures with wings and spiked tails.

“Manticores,” Lakima said. He advised leaving them alone.

The passage to the east split, but both halls led to dead ends. With the wand, Lakima located a secret door at the end of one hallway. Ambro checked it and then opened it. Light from Lakima’s staff flooded a small chamber, and they immediately saw a fat female hill giant threatening them with a club.

“Get her!” Lakima yelled.

Eathwund, Aldus, Luna, and Ian rushed forward. The floor suddenly opened up, revealing a pit trap, and Eathwund and Luna tumbled into it. Then, the lid of the trap closed again. Ian barely kept his balance on the near side of the pit while Aldus found himself on the far side facing the hill giant. Hearing a growl, he turned and saw Nosnra, Chief of the Hill giants, hiding in the corner of the chamber out of sight from the doorway.

“The Chief is here!” Aldus shouted and turned to face him.

“Forget him. We need him alive. Kill the woman.” Lakima shouted back.

As Aldus faced off against the hill giant woman Lakima leaped over the area where he knew there was a pit trap. Landing on his feet he immediately cast a stunning spell on the Chief. The spell took effect and the giant stood dumbly. Aldus fought against the hill giant woman quickly gaining the advantage. She hurled curses at the chief as she fought Aldus but her words had no affect as he stood still. Soon Aldus found an opening and slew her. She slumped to the floor.

Death of Luna

Ambro flew into the chamber using her Ring of Flying.

“You should have heard her lay into her husband,” Ambro laughed, “I think she was the real leader of the hill giants.”

“Well, I hope he has something to tell us,” Lakima said. Then, he asked Ambro to open the lid of the pit trap. Ambro got to work, and soon, the trap sprung open. Looking down, they all saw Eathwund standing amongst several broken wooden spikes ten feet below. He waved. Near him, Luna lay at a crooked angle, impaled on several spikes.

“Is Luna okay?” Ian asked.

Eathwund shook his head. Ian tossed down a rope, and Eathwund looped it around Luna. Ian quickly pulled her up and out of the pit with help from Domago. The two carried her into the nearby larger chamber. Then, Eathwund used the rope to climb up. Lakima told Eathwund to tie up the Hill Giant Chief while they waited for the magic to wear off. Lakima also asked Ambro if she could jam the pit shut so they could cross it without jumping. Ambro went to work and soon had the pit lid jammed. Then, she started inspecting the chamber. Ambro found two metal coffers full of gold and jewelry.

“We are going to have to carry this out,” Lakima said, ‘the bag of holding is already full of treasure.”

“Maybe the dwarves could be convinced to carry it?” Eathwund offered.

After a considerable wait, Lakima grew impatient and walked over to examine the stunned giant. He noticed the giant’s eye twitch as he pointed his staff in its face.

“You’re not fooling me,” Lakima said, “I know you are awake.”

The giant did not flinch, so Lakima told Ambro to repeat this in giantish and add a few threats. Ambro shouted at the giant, who quickly opened his eyes and strained at his bindings.

“We will let you out unharmed if you tell us who is behind these attacks on the human lands,” Lakima said. Ambro then translated.

After much arguing in giantish, Ambro managed to get a story out of the giant chief.

“He says Jarl Grugnur of the Frost Giants is the one who came up with the plan. Grugnur provided chests of gold to hire hill giants from other clans, as well as ogres and bugbears. He claims to have no quarrel with humans. He says he had to do it, or another hill giant would have taken his place.”

“Not that I entirely believe him,” Ambro added.

“Where can we find Jarl Grugnur?” Lakima asked.

“I asked that as well. He says that the Frost Giants have a staging area in a huge rift in a glacier near the pass the humans use to get to dwarven lands.”

“He must mean Icefang Pass,” Lakima mused. There is a glacier near the pass, and we have encountered frost giants in that area before.

Lakima waved for everyone to leave. Aldus and Eathwund picked up the two heavy coffers full of treasure. Chief Nosnra struggled against his bounds, but they ignored him. In the chamber beyond, Domago and Ian knelt beside Luna, who lay still on the ground.

“She’s dead,” Domago said.

“Can’t you bring her back?” Aldus demanded of Domago.

“I do not think St. Aleena would grant the request,” Domago said, “She has done her penance, and she deserves to rest.” Lakima nodded.

“Bring the body,” Lakima said.

Domago took a blanket from his pack and wrapped up Luna’s corpse. He then picked her up himself. Ian offered to carry her, and Domago handed her to Ian.

“She’s not heavy,” Ian said quietly.

While the group was conversing, Ambro was peering through the iron bars blocking the archway.

“You had better get back from there in case they fire some of their tail spikes at you,” Lakima said. Ambro jumped back from the gate.

“I can see another door in the room,” Ambro said.

“We have enough treasure,” Lakima said.

The party returned to the prisoners they had released and made there way up above ground into the steading. The halls were quiet. Lakima led the way through the banquet hall. They saw signs that some of the bodies had been moved about. At the end of the hall the doors to the entry chamber were closed and a mound of piled corpses of Hill giants and ogres filled one side of the hall.

“It wasn’t like this when we went below,” Eathwund cautioned.

“Be wary,” Lakima said and asked Eathwund and Aldus to take the lead. Eathwund swung open one door while Aldus grabbed the other. In the entryway, a dozen hill giants waited for them. Mostly women and younger giants. The giants immediately attacked, shouting war cries. Lakima tried to parlay but was ignored. One large male giant seemed to be the leader of the group, urging them on even as Aldus and Eathwund chopped them down. Once most of them fell and the leader was killed, the few remaining giants ran out the doors into the countryside and fled.

“Let them go,” Aldus said, exhausted.

The party rested for a while and looked out of the steading. The sun had gone down, and it was dark outside. Not wanting to rest in the steading, Lakima asked Aelshara if she could lead them back to the flying ship. Late that evening, they came upon the campsite below the flying ship and were greeted by August, Cowan, and Dagmar. The dwarves said their goodbyes. Lakima explained that the party planned to fly to Larm for supplies. The dwarves were also headed to Larm but had no desire to board a flying ship. Luthien thanked them for the rescue and headed south on foot. Only Gregor and Roth joined the Company on the flying ship. Roth planning to head from Larm back to Edgerton. Gregor not sure what to do. Lakima suggested to Gregor that he might have use for a stonemason and engineer in Edgerton.

The next day, the ship set out for Larm and reached the village early in the afternoon. The flying came down and tied off to a dock on the river. Having visited Larm by flying ship in the past, their arrival caused a stir but no open panic. Lakima, Aldus, and Eathwund headed to the Borderlands Tavern to buy supplies. While there, they talked to the owner and a local scout about the presence of frost giants. As Lakima had expected, they were directed to Icefang Pass and the glacier.

The next day, Domago arranged for Luna’s burial in the local graveyard. Before the burial, Lakima discretely removed one of Luna’s fingers. Then, later in the day, Lakima brought the group out into the fields around Larm. He began building a crude representation of Luna from fresh, fallen snow. He shoved Luna’s finger into the snow and began casting ritual spells. At the end of the casting, Luna's simulacrum stood beside Lakima at his beck and call.

“How do you feel about this, Domago,” Aldus said.

“It is just an illusion or some type of magic. It is not her,” Domago said.

“I think it's creepy,” Aldus said.

The party headed back to the flying ship. The crew and August are somewhat taken aback by Luna’s apparent recovery. Lakima explained to his apprentice what he had created. August looked at Luna in wonder.

The flying ship rose into the sky again and headed for Icefang pass. The group were soon passing through the lowlands. They reached the mountain pass by late afternoon. In the valley before the glacier, they landed the ship. Ambro went off in search of clues, looking for any sign of the frost giants. She returned and told the group that she had found a cave.

The party set out and explored the cave. Inside they found several frozen chambers and some indication of occupancy a long time ago by human-sized occupants. They did not find an entrance to a frost giant lair.

“I think we are going to have to climb up on the glacier,” Lakima said. He then looked at Ambro and asked her to fly up onto the glacier and lower a rope. Ambro set off in the air and approached the glacier. But she immediately spotted a trail ascending the side of the glacier. Giant-sized steps had been cut into the ice. Ambro returned and let everyone know. The party followed Ambro to the giant stair. The stair rose 150 feet up the glacier’s face. It took an hour to ascend the steps. Once on the glacier, Ambro found a path beaten in the snow by frost giants. This pass led to a crevasse at the top of the glacier. They could see that the crevasse opened up and seemed bottomless. A stair of ice led down into the crevasse. Vision was limited by fog, snow, and wind.

“Lead the way,” Lakima told Ambro.

The party followed Ambro down the winding steps into the rift. After a few hundred feet, the crevasse opened up into a wide rift. One path led to the west side of the rift, and one led to the east side of the rift.

“Which way,” Ambro asked.

“One minute,” Lakima said and produced the Arrow of Direction from his Bag of Holding.

“Arrow, which way is safest?” The arrow did not move.

“Let’s go that way,” Lakima pointed to the east path.

They found the east path descended in giant-sized steps and had some flat areas. The crevasse grew windier the further they descended. The path was slippery in spots, but enough rough snow clung to it to give them traction. Ahead, Ambro held up her hand and warned. She had spotted an ice cave on the side of the rift wall. They decided to investigate. Ambro moved ahead quietly and disappeared out of sight. When she returned, she whispered that three blue-skinned, bearded giants were on guard in a chamber. The chamber was just off of an intersection of four tunnels through the ice.

The Glacial Rift

Lakima whispered a plan to the party. He called for Aldus, Eathwund, and Ian to rush the giants. He would stay just back and support them with spells. Aelshara, Domago, and Ambro would wait at the intersection to make sure they were not ambushed. The simulacrum of Luna would stay by Lakima. Aldus, Eathwund, and Ian rushed to the attack but not quite quickly enough. One Frost Giant was able to blow a horn in warning. While the three fighters were dealing with the giants, four giants attacked Aelshara, Domago, and Ambro. Aelshara used her borrowed Wand of Lightning bolts to drive them back. Lakima arrived to assist, and three giants were killed, and the last one fled. Ambro made to give chase, but Lakima asked for a moment. Picking out two dead frost giants, Lakima cast animate dead. The two giant zombies struggled to their feet and looked dumbly at Lakima.

“Give chase!” Lakima said.

The zombies slowly stumbled along the ice tunnel, following the retreating Frost giant. The party drudged along slowly in the wake of the two giant zombies. They came to an ice cave, where they found beds, tables, chairs, and clothing. Unable to pause, the party followed the zombies into an ice tunnel through the glacier. The tunnel extended for a few hundred feet. The adventurer began noticing that the dim blue light through the glacier was dimming.

“I think we are entering an area in the rock wall of the valley,” Aelshara said. They kept following the dead giants, moving as quickly as they could. Ahead, Ambro could hear the wind again.

“I think it exits back onto the wall of the crevasse up ahead,” she said.

“Be careful,” Lakima ordered.

The party found themselves exiting the tunnel out onto a ledge 200 feet above the floor of the rift. They walked right into an ambush. A Frost giant reached out from an area to the side of the exit and pulled one zombie forward until it stumbled over the edge of the ledge and plummeted below with a thump. Three more Frost giants emerged from hiding on the other side of the ledge to attack. Aldus, Eathwund, and Ian moved to fight them. The fight was hampered by the slippery ledge and the danger of falling hundreds of feet below, but the frost giants were soon killed. The second zombie giant also fell in the fighting.

“Ahh, that’s too bad we lost the zombies,” Aldus said.

“They served their purpose,” Lakima said.

At the far end of the ledge, another tunnel entered the ice wall. Ambro waved at the party and told them to wait while she scouted ahead. The group stood huddled near the ice wall to keep out of the cold wind as much as possible. Soon, Ambro returned.

“The tunnel splits into three. Down one, I could smell and hear a lot of ogres. Down the middle one, I saw some Frost Giants on guard. The last tunnel circles back out onto another ledge, and it gets us around this outcrop,” Ambro said, pointing at the outcrop of ice that blocked further progress along the side of the rift.

“I think we should take on the giants, but Ambro, do you still have that Wall of Ice scroll,” Lakima asked. Ambro nodded hesitantly. “Use it to block the tunnel leading to the ogres so they cannot ambush us from behind.” Ambro agreed and removed the scroll from her bag. She recited the words on the scroll, and a thick wall of ice formed instantly, blocking the tunnel that she said led to a cave full of ogres.

The party conversed and decided on a similar plan to the last fight. Eathwund, Aldus, and Ian would lead the fight, Lakima and Luna providing support. Domago, Ambro, and Aelshara would wait at the tunnel intersection to block any surprises.

Aldus and Eathwund led the way as quietly as they could manage. The howling wind covered most of the noise of their clanking armor. They peered into an ice cave lit by torches. They saw four frost giants. Two were alert and ready for intruders, and two talked with their backs to the tunnel entrance. Aldus drew his Horn of Valhalla and blew. That was the signal for everyone to attack. Four berserkers appeared summoned from Valhalla and flung themselves upon Frost giants. Things went well initially, but then four more frost giants joined the fray from an enjoining cave. Ian was gravely wounded, and Eathwund and Aldus were hard-pressed. Luna was struck once and nearly fell. Ambro, Aelshara, and Domago arrived on the scene. Domago began casting healing spells on the fighters.

“We grew worried,” Aelshara shouted to Lakima.

The fight turned again, and soon, all of the Frost giants had been vanquished. The sole remaining berserker vanished, returning to Valhalla.

“Which direction now?” Ambro asked.