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Saturday evening we got together to resume an AD&D adventure that had been "on hold" for almost a year. I'm running one of the old classics, "G1 - Steading of the Hill Giant Chief" from the "Against the Giants" series.
Glasses were raised in honor of The Original Dungeon Master, Gary Gygax, who passed away this week. Much giant, ogre, and character blood was shed in sacrifice to him. ::G::
The party is actually quite powerful, as demonstrated by the ease with which they mopped up the dozen or so giants they lured out of the Steading. They have an "old-school" ranger (i.e. a giant-killing machine ::G::) who also has mage skills, an avariel (i.e. winged elf) cavalier, a mage/thief, a fighter/priest, and a special priest of one of the healing deities, which means he has access to more plentiful and more powerful healing spells than other priests of his level.
The giants managed to catch the characters in a hallway by blocking the doorway with a row of ogres crouching behind shields. The giants then stood back on the far side of the room and employed their favorite high-tech attack -- throwing rocks!
I honestly expected the players to try to attack the ogres in the shield wall, while the giants continued to pummel them from a distance. I have to give them credit, though -- they were smarter than that!
The winged elf managed to clear the shield wall and started laying into the giants with his sword. He took out the tribe's sub-chieftain, being the most obvious big threat since he had a ballista that he was using like a crossbow! I'd honestly expected the sub-chief to survive that encounter, and he gave a good accounting of himself, but Michael finally had him pushing up daisies.
The ranger/mage managed to do a running dive over the shield wall, thanks to her Boots of Speed, and proceeded to tear into my poor, defenseless giants. ;-) I think she probably accounted for the highest body count.
The two things that really turned the battle, however, belonged to the fighter/priest and the thief/mage. The ogre's shields were made of metal, so one of the first things the fighter/priest did was to cast a spell to make the metal turn searing hot. The ogres still managed to hang in there for a few rounds, but eventually their morale broke, and they turned and ran. The thief/mage then got off a spell that destroyed all of the rocks the giants had piled up for ammunition -- much to the consternation of the giants!
The "boss" giants got away, as did a few of the "flunkies," but once the party was able to remove the giants' tactical advantage, the outcome was almost a foregone conclusion. Still, I did manage to make them run through a LOT of their protective and healing magic, and the main bad guys are still out there somewhere!
To my players: you did well, guys. I know it got a little rocky there for a while (::g, d, rlh::), but you used your assets well, and played to your strengths. Considering how rusty we've all gotten, I'm proud of you, and you should be, too. 8-)
Glasses were raised in honor of The Original Dungeon Master, Gary Gygax, who passed away this week. Much giant, ogre, and character blood was shed in sacrifice to him. ::G::
The party is actually quite powerful, as demonstrated by the ease with which they mopped up the dozen or so giants they lured out of the Steading. They have an "old-school" ranger (i.e. a giant-killing machine ::G::) who also has mage skills, an avariel (i.e. winged elf) cavalier, a mage/thief, a fighter/priest, and a special priest of one of the healing deities, which means he has access to more plentiful and more powerful healing spells than other priests of his level.
The giants managed to catch the characters in a hallway by blocking the doorway with a row of ogres crouching behind shields. The giants then stood back on the far side of the room and employed their favorite high-tech attack -- throwing rocks!
I honestly expected the players to try to attack the ogres in the shield wall, while the giants continued to pummel them from a distance. I have to give them credit, though -- they were smarter than that!
The winged elf managed to clear the shield wall and started laying into the giants with his sword. He took out the tribe's sub-chieftain, being the most obvious big threat since he had a ballista that he was using like a crossbow! I'd honestly expected the sub-chief to survive that encounter, and he gave a good accounting of himself, but Michael finally had him pushing up daisies.
The ranger/mage managed to do a running dive over the shield wall, thanks to her Boots of Speed, and proceeded to tear into my poor, defenseless giants. ;-) I think she probably accounted for the highest body count.
The two things that really turned the battle, however, belonged to the fighter/priest and the thief/mage. The ogre's shields were made of metal, so one of the first things the fighter/priest did was to cast a spell to make the metal turn searing hot. The ogres still managed to hang in there for a few rounds, but eventually their morale broke, and they turned and ran. The thief/mage then got off a spell that destroyed all of the rocks the giants had piled up for ammunition -- much to the consternation of the giants!
The "boss" giants got away, as did a few of the "flunkies," but once the party was able to remove the giants' tactical advantage, the outcome was almost a foregone conclusion. Still, I did manage to make them run through a LOT of their protective and healing magic, and the main bad guys are still out there somewhere!
To my players: you did well, guys. I know it got a little rocky there for a while (::g, d, rlh::), but you used your assets well, and played to your strengths. Considering how rusty we've all gotten, I'm proud of you, and you should be, too. 8-)
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Glad you guys enjoyed it. Let me know when you want to get together again so you guys can deal with the rest of the Steading. 8-)
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