Grishnak the Merciless

The Plot

This encounter was designed for a group of 4-8 low-mid level characters of The encounter is intended to be challenging and to scare the pants off the PCs. If they feel too cocky, they may not complete the adventure, or may complete it too soon.

If the party includes a psionicist with the psionic blast power then the part will have a much easier time with the encounter than otherwise, so you may want to 1) disable the psionicist's power somehow, 2) beef up Grishnak's immunity to psionics, 3) cheat on the power rolls. If nothing else, impose the -7 penalty for trying to contact a monster, even though a hill giant may still qualify as a humanoid.

If this adventure is too easy for the party, change the giant type to a stone or fire giant. This will change the flavor of the encounter a bit. One way to toughen up the encounter without changing the flavor is to give the giant some helpers. A dozen goblins or orcs hanging around might slow the party enough for Grishnak to get in a few good blows. Give him a couple of ogres, too, and the party may have some difficulties. For a very high level party, you may want to beef up Grishnak as a specialized fighter with a high strength, high skills, and very high damage resistance.

It would work best if one of the party members is a dwarf; for a low level party, spell casters or psionicists are a must.

I. RUMORS

Before starting the first encounter, it is important to build up a little fear and respect in the PCs. Make them realize how tough this giant is by rumors of its atrocities. Here are some rumors which I used in my campaign:

• The town of Inglesham was attacked by The Giant on Middenmonth 8th. Death tolls vary depending on the teller, but at least two score of citizens found their way to Grishnak's belly. Inglesham is shaken by the event, to say the least, and is offering a huge bounty on Grishnak's head. Some say that the King himself will lead his forces to defeat the brute, others wonder why their protector has not stepped forth to protect them.
• A young rag-a-muffin boy has been asking in the city of Sherborne for an organization known as The Giant Killers. The boy says that his entire family was eaten by a Giant named Grishnak the Horrible. His desire for revenge is so strong that he will do anything for the organization if they help him.

[Note: The PCs had just recently decided to name themselves Unar's Hammer, but had mistakenly spread several earlier names about, like Unar's Giant Foes and such. The townspeople were a little confused as to exactly what this virtually unknown band's name was.]

II. TANK

"Around noon you stop at a stream for lunch and a short rest. You've only been there for a few minutes when you hear: " .... ... MEE MIE MO MORPH, Me thinks me smell a Dwarf! I'll grind his bones to make me bread, but first, let's go and bash 'is 'ead! . Twisting your heads in all directions you finally spot the source of the echoes as a tall humanoid shape on the top of a hillock several hundred yards away flings his fist forward to release a huge boulder. Looking around quickly for a place to hide you see a rocky hill on the south side of the stream. Across, on the north bank, is a thick and gnarled stand of trees and shrubbery. Upstream perhaps a hundred yards is a jumble of rocks the stream flows through."

Ask each player to write down what they do individually. Then have everyone reveal their plans and move their characters appropriately. The rock will come crashing down where the PCs were. Make a to hit roll against anyone still there.

If the players are stupid enough to attack, then they should suffer the consequences: Grishnak the Merciless.

Grishnak is really nothing more than a semi-tough hill giant. He's been ravishing the countryside and causing lots of local trouble.

Mediocre armour, (Many hides sewn together with chain mail, shields, and metal plates); Good damage resistance; Weapons are: Fist, Club, or Rocks - range 2-200 yards); Will also try to Grab.

Grishnak is selfish and cunning. He terrorises the local villagers (and eats them, that's especially annoying to the villagers). He is oddly simian and barbaric in appearance, with overly long arms, stooped shoulders, and a low forehead. He is about 16' tall and weighs in at 4500 lbs. His skin color is a dark tan; his hair and eyes are black as coal.

Grishnak carries a bag containing: 3 big rocks (2' dia boulders) 1 Metal truck with 6lb copper, 10lb silver, 23 crown and a dwarven gauntlet (copper, worth 100 gp) 3 Children's toys - toy horse, wooden soldier, and a wooden dragon, 1 short sword, blood stained, but not rusty at all

Ideally, the PCs will run for the rocks. Grishnak will close, saying, "Grishnak, now don't squish food with rocks." At the last minute, just before the giant gets to the characters, he will suddenly stand up straight and sniff: "Hmm, Grishnak smell pigs. Mmm, pork!" Grishnak will then stride off across rough terrain quickly outdistancing the PCs.

***

Wait a few sessions before throwing this next encounter at them. The PCs should hear a few of rumors about the monster's depredation's. Perhaps have some offers of rewards be offered to them for the creature's death. Here are some of the rumors I gave out:

• The giant killing specialists known as Unar's Giant Foes are offered a job to assassinate Grishnak the Merciless by a group of merchants in Caer Shert. Grishnak has destroyed several villages in the Caer Shert region. The organization is asked to report to The Benevolent Protectorate Order of Grain Merchants in the city of Caer Shert.
• A band of ex-soldiers known as the Troll's Nightmare were found dead in the fields near the base of the Castle Oncliff. They had apparently been stepped on by Grishnak.
• The town of Inglesham was attacked by The Giant on Middenmonth 8th. Death tolls vary depending on the teller, but at least two score of citizens found their way to Grishnak's belly. Inglesham is shaken by the event, to say the least, and is offering a huge bounty on Grishnak's head. Some say that the King himself will lead his forces to defeat the brute, others wonder why their protector has not stepped forth to protect them.

III. OOPTHS!

"There seems to be some kind of obstruction in the road ahead of you and you approach it with caution. Your stomach knots in horror at the gruesomeness of the scene: To one side of the road are the crushed remnants of a gypsy wagon. A horse still wearing its bridle and harness lays dead on the opposite side of the path, and by the way its ribs have been caved in and by the way the creature's intestines have exploded from its abdomen you figure that it must have been squeezed to death.

"Littering the whole area around the wagon are pools of blood and assorted human body parts, and the way the skin has been torn and lacerated from the bones, you realize that they had been physically wrenched from the bodies to which they once belonged.

"Huge, 3' long footprints have left indentations several inches deep in the seemingly hard packed soil of the path. Several nearby trees have been completely uprooted. A pile of boulders and a tree trunk, strangely stripped clean of bark and branches, and well rounded on one end, lays a ways off near the woods to the left. You make out the tracks of a single wagon leading off to that forest, multiple trails of blood revealing the wagon's horrid cargo. Between the ruts are a single set of 3' long foot prints. The prints do not look to be more than an hour or two old."

Grishnak, as the players should well be aware, has struck. A gypsy caravan has been raided and its members carried off. It is expected that the players will investigate. The path to Grishnak is 3 miles:

"You hesitantly enter the forest, but move fairly quickly, as a wide path has been cleared already. You wonder how the wagon could possibly have made it through the rough terrain.

"Proceeding through the forest you gradually come to an area where the ground raises into rocky hills and cliffs. You stop suddenly as the smell of burned hair and bone assaults your nose, followed by the pitiful sounds of sobbing humans. A deep voice booms out, "Grishnak say shut up! Food people giving Grishnak sore ears!" The screaming crescendos and then suddenly stops. You appraise the surrounding terrain. To the right of the trail is a 30' high raised hill, to your left the ground is more level. The sounds of a babbling brook come to you from your left. The path continues ahead of you and then turns to the right at a point where the rocky hill comes to an end. You think that Grishnak is right on the other side of the hill."

The players can climb the cliff and view Grishnak from above if they are quiet. They will be able to see that Grishnak has made a bonfire right below the hill. There is a cave in the hill at this point and Grishnak occasionally goes into it to get something. To one side of the fire, not far from the cave entrance, is the battered remains of the wagon, and inside of it are the limp (though living) bodies of 16 gypsies. A small pile of gypsy heads can be seen next to the wagon. The gypsies seem to be in a state of shock.

Grishnak is stupid, but not dumb. If attacked, he will defend himself fairly well, but unfortunately he has not left himself a cache of rocks nearby, and left his club at the scene of the crime to be able to pull the wagon back. Grishnak will try to flee if he takes over 1/2 his hit points in damage.

Here are some things for Grishnak to say:

"Where Grishnak club? Stoopid Grishnak lost club when took rolly box."

"Where Grishnak rocks? No rocks? Oh, yeah, Grishnak empty bag for food people."

IV. THE BATTLE

My PCs defeated the giant through a great plan, which took them 3-4 hours to put together (no kidding!) The cleric cast silence, light, and heat metal on the giant, in that order. As soon as the silence was on the giant, the metabolic psionicist snuck in to the giant's cave and attempted to use double pain. Unfortunately the giant woke up at that point and the fight was on. The light successfully blinded the giant, and with the silence as well, it was mighty difficult for him to hit anyone (I think the only damage came from the giant randomly backing into the fighter). Most of the damage came from the fighter's blows and the cleric's heat metal spell. The thief/psionicist kept failing to strike the giant with double pain, at least until the very end.

The giant finally fell and the party was, to say the least, very excited. They cut the giant's head off and proceeded to carry it through the towns Grishnak had terrorised.

V. EPILOGUE

There had been such a build up to the giant encounter that I felt there had to be some sort of major rewards. Rather than simply giving out treasure, I awarded fame. The party went around and collected bounties, and as they travelled they were accepted as heroes throughout the lands. Here are some of the rumors that the PCs received following their defeat of Grishnak:

- Word of the exploits of Unar's Hammer has reached the Humber coast and the cities of Yartshire and Sherborne. The tales of the defeat of Grishnak the merciless are second only to the stories of Gipin's defeat of Navagoras the Magnificent.

- A group calling themselves "Heros of the Dark Fist" has claimed responsibility for the defeat of Grishnak the Merciless. They say that Unar's Hammer had accosted them after their defeat of the giant, while they were still weak, and stole the giant's head. They proved their claims by showing they had possession of Grishnak's hands and feet.