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Against the Giants: Campaign Journal
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<blockquote data-quote="cthulhu42" data-source="post: 7333125" data-attributes="member: 6792361"><p>Session 5</p><p></p><p> Notes: Looking over my end notes for session 5, I see that they're not very detailed, so I might try to flesh them out a bit. But before I get to them, I'll backtrack just a little to fill in some gaps in the narrative. </p><p></p><p> In the hill giant dungeon, after the heroes set all the orcs free, the orcs leave the steading, intent on returning to their clans in the Lortmil mountains. But they take with them the stories that will become legend of Krote and his greataxe, Black Metal. Jok, the orc leader, swears his loyalty to Krote, and over a hundred orcish fists pump the air and their war cries of agreement follow. So Krote is becoming something of an orcish folk hero whether he likes it or not. Black Metal (at least it's orcish side) is only too happy about this turn of events. </p><p></p><p> Regarding Joshua Ironjaw, Selendra Rainfall had a difficult decision to make when she followed Thoradin through the portal to who knows where. On the one hand, Joshua is her long time friend and connection to her brother, and she is loath to leave him behind. On the other, she swore an oath to the party (and she sort of sees Thoradin as the party leader, although the dwarf might not agree with that). In the end, her knightly pride and sense of honor and duty won out and she followed Thoradin. But she is mightily troubled by that decision. </p><p></p><p> Fortunately for her, my plan is to have the pair of fire giants who are holding Ironjaw captive eventually realize that the hill giant steading and dungeon have been compromised. They will grab their dwarf prisoner and head through the chain portal, intent on getting back to the fire giant lair. This means that they will probably cross paths with the PC's again soon enough. </p><p></p><p> Chief Nosnra fled through the portal, headed for the safety of the frost giant lair, and hopefully the fire giant hold beyond. He sent his wife on through beforehand, so she is already in the frost giant Jarl's lair. The point being, the frost giants will have plenty of warning that intruders are probably on the way. </p><p></p><p> Given the hubris of most giants, I assume that the Jarl (Grugnur) doesn't take the threat too seriously. He beefs up his sentries on watch a bit, but beyond that, he assumes that Nosnra's failure is simply typical hill giant incompetence. So the PC's will not be met with terribly stiff resistance at first. But, should a giant escape to warn that Jarl that the interlopers are not a threat to be taken lightly, the frost giants will dig in and get a whole lot more dangerous. </p><p></p><p> Also, before going through the portal, the party finds the flame tongue short sword in chief Nosnra's secret treasure room. Edran is soon wearing it at his hip. It's called, Diamond Flame, and it balances nicely with the frost brand rapier called, Icicle, that hangs from his other hip. </p><p></p><p> Finally, before session 4, I decided to implement a few house rules. </p><p></p><p> We'd been playing strictly RAW up to this point, which was fine, but I'd recently read a good thread on these boards concerning a few house rules that addressed some issues I'd been having. From here on out, going to zero hit points will cause a level of exhaustion. These levels stack if a character goes to zero multiple times. I like that this offsets the Whack A Mole effect that we'd seen all too often. </p><p></p><p> Also, failed death saves don't just go away once a PC is healed from zero. This makes the whole business a little more dangerous, which is fine. </p><p></p><p> And, just to add some more tension, I will now be rolling all death saves. The party won't know where a downed PC is with regard to death saves, which ratchets up the tension and prevents meta gaming. </p><p></p><p> On the plus side, inspiration points now stack. In general I don't give out a lot of IP's, although at the end of each session all the players can roll a d20. A natural 20 gets you an inspiration point. And even though I resolve to be a little more generous with them in game, they'll still be pretty rare, so why not have them stack?</p><p></p><p> Also, PC's now get hero points, as optioned in the DMG.</p><p></p><p> PC's now gain another magic item attunement slot at levels 10, 15, and 20.</p><p></p><p> The session</p><p></p><p> Stepping through the chain portal, they are immediately caught off guard by the blast of freezing wind and driving snow. They find themselves on a vast glacier, in a shallow ravine. They can see giant footprints in the snow, heading away from where they are standing. They must belong to Nosnra!</p><p></p><p> But they are a bit wounded and low on resources. They think better of charging after the hill giant chief half cocked and decide to rest before pressing on. Finding a spot several hundred yards away from the ravine, Sai casts a Tiny Hut and they all settle in for a comfortable, if cramped, rest. Snow soon covers the hut, and it looks like nothing more than another mound of snow on an endless plain of white. </p><p></p><p>They cast their hut at 2<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite7" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue :p" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":p" />m for a long rest. They have to cast it twice to get in the rest. They head into the frost giant glacier at 6am, Harvester 6th. Taking the right fork through the tunnel and heading into the first cave they immediately have to deal with six normal yeti, an abominable yeti and two snow cats. The abominable yeti actually gives them a pretty good fight, but soon enough all of their foes lie dead. </p><p></p><p> Following the right hand wall, they press on, finding the snow cat lair, now empty, and an icy cavern slick with steam rising from cracks in the glacier. </p><p></p><p>In the next set of caverns they slay five frost giants. Krote takes a hell of a pounding, but they press on. </p><p></p><p> Soon after, they come upon a tunnel with a dire warning carved into the ice, telling all who care to listen that nothing but danger and death lie beyond. They decide to heed the warning and head down a different tunnel, quickly stumbling onto another set of giants. Selendra goes down a couple of times and both Krote and Edran take a few good hits, but in the end both giants go die. </p><p> </p><p> That's where we called it. </p><p></p><p> It is 9:00am, Harvester 6</p><p></p><p> Notes: I should mention that I completely forgot about the effects of fire based AOE spells in the frost giant upper lair. Sai tossed a couple fireballs during the aforementioned fights, and they should have caused a huge bank of steam to rise up off the icy floor, heavily obscuring that area. </p><p></p><p> I remember this detail later, and implement it. It makes a huge difference!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="cthulhu42, post: 7333125, member: 6792361"] Session 5 Notes: Looking over my end notes for session 5, I see that they're not very detailed, so I might try to flesh them out a bit. But before I get to them, I'll backtrack just a little to fill in some gaps in the narrative. In the hill giant dungeon, after the heroes set all the orcs free, the orcs leave the steading, intent on returning to their clans in the Lortmil mountains. But they take with them the stories that will become legend of Krote and his greataxe, Black Metal. Jok, the orc leader, swears his loyalty to Krote, and over a hundred orcish fists pump the air and their war cries of agreement follow. So Krote is becoming something of an orcish folk hero whether he likes it or not. Black Metal (at least it's orcish side) is only too happy about this turn of events. Regarding Joshua Ironjaw, Selendra Rainfall had a difficult decision to make when she followed Thoradin through the portal to who knows where. On the one hand, Joshua is her long time friend and connection to her brother, and she is loath to leave him behind. On the other, she swore an oath to the party (and she sort of sees Thoradin as the party leader, although the dwarf might not agree with that). In the end, her knightly pride and sense of honor and duty won out and she followed Thoradin. But she is mightily troubled by that decision. Fortunately for her, my plan is to have the pair of fire giants who are holding Ironjaw captive eventually realize that the hill giant steading and dungeon have been compromised. They will grab their dwarf prisoner and head through the chain portal, intent on getting back to the fire giant lair. This means that they will probably cross paths with the PC's again soon enough. Chief Nosnra fled through the portal, headed for the safety of the frost giant lair, and hopefully the fire giant hold beyond. He sent his wife on through beforehand, so she is already in the frost giant Jarl's lair. The point being, the frost giants will have plenty of warning that intruders are probably on the way. Given the hubris of most giants, I assume that the Jarl (Grugnur) doesn't take the threat too seriously. He beefs up his sentries on watch a bit, but beyond that, he assumes that Nosnra's failure is simply typical hill giant incompetence. So the PC's will not be met with terribly stiff resistance at first. But, should a giant escape to warn that Jarl that the interlopers are not a threat to be taken lightly, the frost giants will dig in and get a whole lot more dangerous. Also, before going through the portal, the party finds the flame tongue short sword in chief Nosnra's secret treasure room. Edran is soon wearing it at his hip. It's called, Diamond Flame, and it balances nicely with the frost brand rapier called, Icicle, that hangs from his other hip. Finally, before session 4, I decided to implement a few house rules. We'd been playing strictly RAW up to this point, which was fine, but I'd recently read a good thread on these boards concerning a few house rules that addressed some issues I'd been having. From here on out, going to zero hit points will cause a level of exhaustion. These levels stack if a character goes to zero multiple times. I like that this offsets the Whack A Mole effect that we'd seen all too often. Also, failed death saves don't just go away once a PC is healed from zero. This makes the whole business a little more dangerous, which is fine. And, just to add some more tension, I will now be rolling all death saves. The party won't know where a downed PC is with regard to death saves, which ratchets up the tension and prevents meta gaming. On the plus side, inspiration points now stack. In general I don't give out a lot of IP's, although at the end of each session all the players can roll a d20. A natural 20 gets you an inspiration point. And even though I resolve to be a little more generous with them in game, they'll still be pretty rare, so why not have them stack? Also, PC's now get hero points, as optioned in the DMG. PC's now gain another magic item attunement slot at levels 10, 15, and 20. The session Stepping through the chain portal, they are immediately caught off guard by the blast of freezing wind and driving snow. They find themselves on a vast glacier, in a shallow ravine. They can see giant footprints in the snow, heading away from where they are standing. They must belong to Nosnra! But they are a bit wounded and low on resources. They think better of charging after the hill giant chief half cocked and decide to rest before pressing on. Finding a spot several hundred yards away from the ravine, Sai casts a Tiny Hut and they all settle in for a comfortable, if cramped, rest. Snow soon covers the hut, and it looks like nothing more than another mound of snow on an endless plain of white. They cast their hut at 2:pm for a long rest. They have to cast it twice to get in the rest. They head into the frost giant glacier at 6am, Harvester 6th. Taking the right fork through the tunnel and heading into the first cave they immediately have to deal with six normal yeti, an abominable yeti and two snow cats. The abominable yeti actually gives them a pretty good fight, but soon enough all of their foes lie dead. Following the right hand wall, they press on, finding the snow cat lair, now empty, and an icy cavern slick with steam rising from cracks in the glacier. In the next set of caverns they slay five frost giants. Krote takes a hell of a pounding, but they press on. Soon after, they come upon a tunnel with a dire warning carved into the ice, telling all who care to listen that nothing but danger and death lie beyond. They decide to heed the warning and head down a different tunnel, quickly stumbling onto another set of giants. Selendra goes down a couple of times and both Krote and Edran take a few good hits, but in the end both giants go die. That's where we called it. It is 9:00am, Harvester 6 Notes: I should mention that I completely forgot about the effects of fire based AOE spells in the frost giant upper lair. Sai tossed a couple fireballs during the aforementioned fights, and they should have caused a huge bank of steam to rise up off the icy floor, heavily obscuring that area. I remember this detail later, and implement it. It makes a huge difference! [/QUOTE]
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