Against the Giants
Against the Giants is an adventure module written by Gary Gygax and published by TSR in 1981 for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It combines the G series of modules previously published in 1978: Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, and Hall of the Fire Giant King. All three were produced for use with the 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. In 1999, to recognize the 25th anniversary of TSR, the company released an updated version, Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff. Later in 1999, Wizards of the Coast published a novelization of Against the Giants by Ru Emerson.
The plot of each of the three original modules focuses on a different type of evil giant. Each can be played as a standalone adventure, or as a series. In Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, a tribe of hill giants have been raiding lands occupied by humans, and the humans hire the player characters to defeat them. Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl pits the player characters against the evil Jarl of the frost giants. Hall of the Fire Giant King concludes the series, this time against a group of fire giants. The first two modules disclose the existence of a secret force behind the giants, which in the third module is revealed to be evil drow elves. The plot involving the drow continues in four additional modules printed between 1978 and 1980.
The modules were well received by contemporary critics. In 1978, they earned a 9/10 overall rating from a White Dwarf magazine reviewer, who was impressed that Gygax found time to write them while also working on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks. White Dwarf also reviewed the re-released G module series in 1982, giving it a 10 out of 10. The Queen of the Spiders supermodule, which consisted of the three modules combined with the subsequent modules in the "D" series and Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits, was voted the single greatest adventure of all time by Dungeon magazine in 2004, on the 30th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game.
Plot summary
Each of the original three modules is a dungeon crawl. The player characters focus on battling first hill giants, then frost giants, and finally fire giants, three of the original evil giant types used in Dungeons & Dragons.G1 ''Steading of the Hill Giant Chief''
The module begins with a prologue explaining that giants of different types have been raiding lands occupied by humans. Angered by this, the human rulers hire a group of adventurers to "punish the miscreant giants." The players' party is informed that they must defeat the giants, or have their heads placed on the chopping block. The human nobles equip the party with weapons and horses, along with a guide and a map that shows the location of the hill giants. The players are informed that the hill giants are led by Nosnra, a sly hill giant chieftain who loves to set up ambushes; there is an unknown force binding together different giant groups. The player characters are informed that they may keep any spoils they find, but must return at once if they determine what "sinister hand" is behind the alliance.The bulk of the adventure takes place in two locations: the upper level fortress of the hill giants' lair, and the dungeon level beneath it. In the upper level there are halls, barracks and common rooms. These rooms house Chief Nosnra and other hill giants, ogres, and servants. The dungeon level consists of slave quarters, torture chambers, and caverns. These house troglodytes, bugbears, and carrion crawlers. The majority of the treasure can be found by searching the dungeons. The chief's treasure room contains a map of the glacial rift from Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, and a magic chain that automatically transports the party there.
G2 ''Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl''
This module starts in one of two ways. If the players have finished Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, they have been transported to the glacial rift via the magic chain. They will know that they are searching for some force behind the giant alliance. If the players are starting with Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, then they have been hired by nobles to destroy the frost giants. Either way, a safe, hidden cave is easily found for a base of operations.As in Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, the bulk of this adventure takes place in two locations: an upper area consisting of caves and the rift floor, and a lower area consisting of natural caverns. In the upper area there are ice caves, barracks, and a dome of ice. These are inhabited by yeti, frost giants, ogres, and winter wolves. The dome of ice houses a remorhaz. In the lower area there are caverns that house the servants, serve as a prison, and contain the Jarl Grugnur and emissaries who have come to meet with him. The main inhabitants are frost giants and ogres. The prison contains an attractive storm giantess. There are also polar bears; pets of the jarl. After defeating the jarl, the adventurers have a chance to pull an iron lever which will transport them near to Snurre's hall from Hall of the Fire Giant King.
G3 ''Hall of the Fire Giant King''
If this module is played as a continuation of the first two modules, the players know that they are searching for the force behind the giants' alliance; otherwise, they have been hired by nobles to destroy the fire giants. This module is twice as long as the previous two: sixteen pages instead of eight. Unlike the two previous modules where the giant's complex consists of two levels, the fire giant hall contains three levels. The giants live in a hot, smoky barren area made of rock; as in the previous module, the party is able to find a safe location for forays against the giants. The leader of the fire giants is King Snurre Iron Belly, and his hall is made of obsidian and natural caverns.The first level includes the queen's rooms, barracks, and kennels. Creatures encountered here include fire giants, gnolls, and in the kennels, hell hounds. The second level is also made of obsidian rocks and natural caverns. It houses chambers of spiritual interest to the fire giants. There is a hall that houses the dead fire giant kings, and rooms for worship. There are also rooms that contain drow clerics. This is where the party learns that the drow are behind the giant alliance, led by Eclavdra, a high level drow fighter/cleric. The third level consists of natural caverns and contains a great treasure guarded by a red dragon. There are also more fire giants and drow; to exterminate the fire giants, the adventurers must penetrate deep into the active volcano where they live. If the DM wishes, there is a tunnel that leads deep into the earth; to the home of the drow. This allows the adventure to be continued in Descent into the Depths of the Earth.
Publication history
Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, and Hall of the Fire Giant King were written by Gary Gygax. In 1978, Steading of the Hill Giant Chief became the first adventure module published by TSR. Gygax wrote them to take a break between writing the original Monster Manual and Player's Handbook. The covers for Steading and Hall featured drawings by David C. Sutherland III. David A. Trampier drew the Glacial Rift cover. The cover of Against the Giants features a painting by Bill Willingham. Interior art was provided by David A. Trampier, Jeff Dee, David S. LaForce and Erol Otus.The "Giant" modules were set in the Greyhawk campaign setting, and formed the lead-in to an overall campaign that then continued on an odyssey into the Underdark. These adventures included the "Drow" series of modules, Descent into the Depths of the Earth, Shrine of the Kuo-Toa, and Vault of the Drow. The campaign finally culminated with module Queen of the Demonweb Pits. Steading and Glacial Rift were eight pages long, while Hall was 16 pages in length, and each featured an outer folder. The omnibus collection combination module Against the Giants was 32 pages long, and featured two outer folders. Against the Giants was revised and reprinted in the 128-page supermodule Queen of the Spiders in 1986 in combination with the three "Drow" series modules, and Queen of the Demonweb Pits. Hall of the Fire Giant King marked the first time that Dungeons & Dragons players encountered the drow; game statistics for the drow first appear in the module, although drow are mentioned in the 1977 edition of the Monster Manual. At the time these modules were released, each Dungeons & Dragons module was marked with an alphanumeric code indicating the series to which it belonged. The earlier modules have module codes G1, G2, and G3 respectively, and the combined module's code is G1-3. The "G" in the module code represents the first letter in the word "giant". The Original TSR Product Codes for these 3 modules are 9016, 9017, and 9018 respectively. Released in 1999 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of TSR, Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff provided a set of adventuring materials that expanded on the original three modules. 1999 also featured a reprinting of the three modules made available in the Dungeons & Dragons Silver Anniversary Collector's Edition boxed set, with slight modifications to make it distinguishable from the original.
The concepts and characters from Against the Giants have made appearances in other media. It was made into a novel of the same name by Ru Emerson for the Greyhawk Classics series. In May 2006, Wizards of the Coast's website released new versions of the maps for the Hill Giant Stronghold. In July 2006, they released new maps for the Fire Giant Hall. In 2004, Wizards of the Coast released a miniature figure of King Snurre from Hall of the Fire Giant King, and in 2007, they released a large Frost Giant Jarl miniature inspired by Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl. In 2009, Wizards released the boxed super-adventure Revenge of the Giants, intended as an Against the Giants homage, for the game's fourth edition. In 2012, Wizards re-released each module in Dungeon issues 197–200, updated for Fourth Edition by Chris Perkins, including a new fourth adventure, Warrens of the Stone Giant Thane. In 2017, Wizards re-released Against the Giants updated to Fifth Edition rules as part of the Tales from the Yawning Portal collection.