AN ADVENTURER’S CHRONICLE: Against the Stone Giant Clans Sessions 11, 12, & 13
The continuing saga of the battle against marauding hordes of stone giants from an adventurer's journal.
By R. Nelson Bailey
Introduction
Welcome to the campaign journal chronicling the battle against the stone giant clans of Flóndisheim. This adventure became the DUNGEON DELVE module DDS5 Valley of the Stone Giant Clans. The journal features the main characters from my weekly Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) group, who began their careers a few years ago as 1st-level characters. This journal recounts their continuing saga.
After years of hard adventuring, the party retired to their homes to rest for a year. Their respite ended when a contingent of dwarves arrived, seeking help against stone giant raiders. This prompted the party's next adventure, detailed herein.
The campaign uses First Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules, naturally modified with a few house rules. Most of the characters have reached “name level”—roughly 9th or 10th level. The party consists of the following characters:
Thokk, 10th-level half-orc thief (player: Rob)
Azley, 9th-level human magic-user (player: Andrew)
Melkor, 9th-level human ranger (player: John)
Vrask, 8th-level half-elf druid (player: Stormie)
Fighto, 8th-level half-elf fighter (player: Tim)
Lucian, 9th-level human cleric (player: Greg)
Tinae, 9th-level half-elf bard (player: Dan)
(Editor’s Note: Bards in this campaign are more akin to those in Second Edition AD&D than to those in First Edition.)
The party’s exploits are chronicled in the journal of the bard Tinae. Her player, Dan, writes the journal during gameplay to recall the previous week’s events and to provide a reference for the players. He has kept a weekly journal for the game for over 10 years. Keep in mind that this is not a full accounting of the adventurer’s experience, merely their highlights. Much has been abridged or omitted.
So read on. Hear of the exploits—both triumphant and tragic. As the journal is written from the player’s perspective, I, the editor, will periodically interject to clarify the situation for you, the reader.
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TINAE’S JOURNAL—A NEW BEGINNING
Session 11 — 8 May 2026
After resting and relearning spells, we left our base camp for the chieftain’s cave, our path leading to the Wolverine Clan’s caves. (Editor’s Note: The base camp cave is about five miles from the giants’ valley.) As we followed a trail along the valley wall, we came across a pair of wyverns feasting on a goat’s remains. We prepared to charge and launch missile attacks. The wyverns took to the air and attacked Fighto and me, but both attacks missed. Thokk sneak-attacked one, wounding it badly. I shot the one that attacked me with an arrow. Azley followed up with a stream of magic missiles. Vrask swooped in and attacked with beak and talons. Fighto killed the first wyvern. We delivered several more blows, and the remaining wyvern flew away. Stone Giant Adventurer's Chronicle
We eventually made it to the Wolverine Clan cave, with its two stone giant statues outside. Thokk scouted ahead into the cave and found a guard cave with one sleeping giant, one awake giant, and a giant wolverine. Thokk made a noise when his sword hit the wall, and the wolverine turned and sprayed the thief, blinding him and making him nauseated with musk. The giants came out and got the jump on us, hurling boulders at Azley and Melkor, but they missed both. The wolverine then sprayed us, blinding Lucian and stinking the rest of us out. Melkor and Fighto charged the giants, and the wolverine attacked Azley. Eventually, the two warriors finished off the giants, and then Fighto killed the wolverine. We rested and recovered from the musk in the mushroom cave.
We then headed toward the crevasse and took the ledge to the right. (Editor’s Note: To the right of the rope bridge spanning the subterranean crevasse.) We entered a narrow tunnel with steps leading up. At the top, we followed a passage to a cave with a large pile of rubble at its far end. Another passage led to a second cave with numerous six-foot-wide burrows carved in the stone. As we discussed our next course of action, a huge pair of arms and an insectoid face burst through the tunnel wall, grabbed Azley, and bit him. Fighto grabbed one of the creature’s arms, and Melkor grabbed the other. Azley managed to cast ray of enfeeblement on it, weakening it enough for him to break free. (Editor’s Note: This was an umber hulk that burrowed through the stone.)
Another umber hulk rounded the corner ahead of us, and a third burrowed up from the floor. Several party members locked eyes with the creatures and became confused. (Editor’s Note: This is the umber hulk’s confusion gaze attack.) The chaotic fight continued until only one hulk remained. I finally dropped it with a volley of magic missiles.
After the battle, we found Azley lying amid a mass of yellow fungal spores in the nearby rubble cave. The spores had apparently poisoned him, and Melkor pulled him out. Lucian administered emergency healing and scraped the spores from Azley’s nose and mouth. (Editor’s Note: While confused by an umber hulk’s gaze, the magic-user wandered into a colony of yellow mold growing among the rubble. His course while wandering was determined randomly.)
We searched the apparent lair of the umber hulks and found 4,826 gold pieces, 3,063 platinum pieces, and a velvet-lined lacquered box containing a small carnelian die with cut pips on its faces. We also found a platinum scroll case holding two scrolls: one with protection from traps and another with five druid spells. We identified the die as a cube of force and spent quite a while experimenting with it, learning its functions.
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Session 12 — 15 May 2026
We left the umber hulk cave and headed toward the rope bridge. As we traversed the narrow ledge, five stone giants appeared on the opposite side of the crevasse and hurled boulders at us. Three missed the child-killer Azley, and one hit me, even though I had killed no children. (Editor’s Note: Indeed, these giants were specifically targeting the magic-user. Because he had done great damage to the giants and slain children, word had gotten around among them. Therefore, their tactic was to take him out first.) Azley cast an ice storm spell, catching all the giants in its area of effect. Several slipped and fell, but sadly none went over the edge of the crevasse. One giant reached Azley and Fighto, who both delivered mighty blows to the giant. As Fighto attacked, he became entangled with the giant. When the giant slid over the edge, he dragged Fighto with him into the 180-foot-deep crevasse. (Editor’s Note: We use a fumble system, and when Fighto rolled a natural 1, he became entangled with the giant. The fighter then failed a Dexterity check to extract himself, resulting in his being pulled off the ledge into the crevasse with the giant.)
With the winged boots, Melkor flew down and found Fighto broken at the bottom of the pit. After stabilizing Fighto, Melkor flew him back up, and Lucian cast a death’s door spell on the fighter, reviving him. (Editor’s Note: The fall left Fighto with ‒8 hit points. Because he had not yet reached ‒10, he still lived.)
Vrask summoned a swarm of insects around the lead giant’s head, while Azley hurled a lightning bolt at two giants, wounding them. Azley then finished off the crawling giant with magic missiles. I slew the remaining giant with an arrow. We slid the corpses into the crevasse. The giants were fairly wealthy, with a total of 1,600 gp. We rested and healed, getting Fighto back into fighting trim before heading back onto the path to the Cave Bear Clan cave system.
Once rested, we returned to the chieftain’s cave complex, where a galeb duhr stood guard. (Editor’s Note: This is the Cave Bear Clan’s cave system.) Using reduce, Azley shrank it, and then Melkor chucked it off the ledge down the valley’s slope. We entered the caves, where we were met by a trio of stone giant guards. While we were searching them for treasure, two more giants happened upon us. We dispatched them quickly and looted their bodies.
Knowing the location of the main common room, we headed there to battle the giants and find Chief Sköll. In the common room, we spotted roughly twenty giants—males, females, and young. Fortunately, the chief, his wife, and the subchief were among them. We decided to attack.
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Session 13 — 29 May 2026
Sensing that the time had come to do or die, we crept into the passage leading to the giants’ main common cave. Nearly two dozen giants gathered there. Azley and I cast mirror image, then Azley hit the fighters with a haste spell. Together we sprang forward into the cave proper, hoping to catch the giants by surprise. Alas, it was not so. However, we got the jump on our enemies and acted first. (Editor’s Note: That is, they didn’t achieve surprise, but they won initiative.) Lucian cast prayer while Azley hit the chief and his retinue with a slow spell. The fighters pressed forward to attack.
Most of the giants chose to pelt us with boulders. Many of them hit home, causing great damage. Melkor and Fighto led the attack. However, Fighto tripped, landing on the ground and stunning himself. (Editor’s Note: He rolled a 1 and fumbled.) His opponent then beat him unconscious with his club. (Editor’s Note: He was knocked to 0 hit points. In our game, 0 hit points only indicates that a character is unconscious rather than dying. A curative spell revives them with no lasting effects.)
Azley shot a lightning bolt at the chief and his friends, wounding the chief most severely. Slowed by Azley’s spell, the chief chose to seek safety in a side cave. More boulders began raining down on us, taking their toll. A volley of three boulders failed to strike the magic-user Azley. One female giant ran up to the wizard, striking him and spoiling his magic missile spell.
Lucian managed to reach the downed Fighto and revive him with a cure serious wounds spell. Fighto got up and swung clumsily, sending his sword flying from his hands. Fortunately, it only fell at his feet, though that was most embarrassing. Vrask had taken the form of a sabertooth tiger and was shredding giants from the fifteen-foot-high ledge overlooking the main chamber. Meanwhile, a hill giantess and five ogres arrived to join the battle. (Editor’s Note: A giant who had fled a couple of rounds earlier had fetched these servants to assist in the battle.) Azley cast a monster summoning III spell.
Chief Sköll finally stepped out to fight us. Fighto and Melkor charged the chief and the subchief. The chief whacked Melkor with his massive two-handed hammer, but the ranger took the powerful blow with ease. Just then, the summoned monsters appeared. They were not what we expected—three leprechauns. The diminutive cads used their powers of illusion to hem in the onrushing giants and ogres with an illusory wall of fire. Azley hit the giants and ogres trapped in it with a cone of cold, killing them all.
Fighto and Melkor traded blows with the chief, his wife, and the subchief. Soon, only Sköll’s wife remained alive. Seeing the utter carnage in the chamber, she offered to negotiate a truce with the party. The terms were soon set: she promised that the stone giants would cease their war with the dwarves and humans; in return, we agreed to leave the valley. As we sensed the giants’ fighting power had been crippled, we knew she was in no position to break her word. We demanded that she hand over the loot the giants had taken from the dwarves, which she promptly did. We recovered much gold and many gems, along with a horn of blasting and a magical hammer.
We left the valley and returned to our base camp. After a day’s rest, we set out to meet the elders of the dwarf clans to announce the end of hostilities between the dwarves and the giants. We stayed with the dwarves for a few weeks before embarking on the long journey back to Thokk’s keep. The battle against the giants of Flóndisheim was over.
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