The Lonely Giant Encounter

[Michebugio]

The Lonely Giant is described as a plot hint in the Heart of the Wild sourcebook, and I developed that description to create a "micro-adventure" for my players. Enjoy!


THE LONELY GIANT

When a Hazard episode is triggered while the characters are travelling in the Sceadudene (the Western Upper Marches, see the Heart of the Wild sourcebook), if both the roll of the Feat die to determine the consequences of the Hazard episode AND the roll to select the Target of the episode produce an Eye icon, the characters stumble upon the legendary Lonely Giant’s lair! (No skill roll can be made to avoid this).

Despite his enormous size, the Giant catches the Fellowship completely unaware coming out apparently from nowhere, and sits on a rock in front of them. He then asks them to stop by and play a “game”.

Treat this as an Encounter. A Lore roll (TN 16), or a Scholar character invoking the Rhymes of Lore, reveals that this is the mythic Lonely Giant and it can give hints on how to handle the Encounter (thus allowing also an Insight preliminary roll to gain advantage dices).
The Tolerance is set at 2, and cannot be modified by Standing or any other factor.
The characters can introduce themselves using Riddle (TN 12), Courtesy (TN 14) or Awe (TN 18). After introductions are made, the Giant explains the rules of the “game”: the Companions must solve a diabolical riddle, or he will crush them with his colossal fist!

The only skill allowed for this interaction is Riddle (TN 20). Any other skill roll is considered a failure and lowers the Tolerance by 1. If, on a failure of a Riddle roll, an Eye icon is produced on the Feat die, the Tolerance is lowered by 2.

Narrow success (one successful roll): the Giant is irritated, as the riddle has been barely solved. He yells at the characters to go away quickly, or he will squish them under his foot. After they have gotten away, the characters won't remember anything about the encounter, but if the conditions described above are met again while they are travelling in the Sceadudene they will find the Giant, only that this time he will attack them outright!
Normal success (2-4 successful rolls): the characters have solved the riddle, albeit in an unremarkable way: they are allowed to pass, but the Giant grunts in disappointment. After the encounter they also forget where the lair is and what has happened there, keeping only a vague memory of it as if they got drunk (any time they travel in the Sceadudene, if the conditions described above are met they will face the Giant once again, and he will pose another riddle).
Great success (5-6 successful rolls): the characters have solved the riddle in a clever way: the Giant looks satisfied and nods in acknowledgement to the Companions, letting them pass. The players are awarded with 1 Experience point each, and they won't see the Giant again, even if they return to this place afterwards.
Extraordinary success (7+ successful rolls): the characters have solved the riddle in a brilliant way! The Lonely Giant heartly laughs clapping his hands with thunderous vivacity, and tells the characters that they are now welcome in his house. The players gain 2 Experience points each and can now elect the house of the Lonely Giant as a Sanctuary in the Sceadudene.

If the Company fails a number of rolls in excess of the Tolerance rating, the Encounter is over, as the Giant angrily stands up from the big rock and with a powerful roar attacks the Fellowship!

These are the statistics of the Lonely Giant:

ATTRIBUTE LEVEL: 9
ENDURANCE: 110
HATE: 11
PARRY: 8
ARMOR: 5D
SKILLS: Personality 4, Movement 2, Perception 2, Survival 3, Custom 2, Vocation 3
WEAPON SKILLS: Crush 4 (Damage: Attribute Level, Edge: Eye, Injury: 12, Called Shot: Knock-down)
SPECIAL ABILITIES: Great Size, Hideous Toughness, Horrible Strength, Thing of Terror, Great Might (Rivendell sourcebook)

In the (very unlikely) case the characters defeat the Lonely Giant, they are awarded 3 Experience points each and they find his hoard (essentially, the possessions of those unlucky heroes that got smashed by the Giant in the previous years). The hoard is a T* (see Magical Treasure rules in Rivendell sourcebook).

[Vuriche]

Very nice and well written out. I'm adding this to my list of encounters. Thanks!

[Falenthal]

Good work! A brilliant flesh out of a plot hook.

[zindagi]

means that the characters have solved the riddle in a clever way: the Giant looks satisfied and nods in acknowledgement to the Companions, letting them pass. The players are awarded with 1 Experience point each, and they won't see the Giant again, even if they return to this place afterwards.

[zedturtle]

Michebugio,

Would you mind if this appeared in Dead of Winter in pretty much whole cloth form?

I'd give you credit, of course.

[qwercus]

A normal success means that the characters have solved the riddle, albeit in an unremarkable way: they are allowed to pass, but the Giant grunts in disappointment. After the encounter they also forget where the lair is and what has happened there, keeping only a vague memory of it as if they got drunk (any time they travel in the Sceadudene, if the conditions described above are met they will face the Giant once again).
A great success means that the characters have solved the riddle in a clever way: the Giant looks satisfied and nods in acknowledgement to the Companions, letting them pass. The players are awarded with 1 Experience point each, and they won't see the Giant again, even if they return to this place afterwards.
An extraordinary success means that the characters have solved the riddle in a brilliant way! The Lonely Giant heartly laughs clapping his hands with thunderous vivacity, and tells the characters that they are now welcome in his house. The players gain 2 Experience points each and can now elect the house of the Lonely Giant as a Sanctuary in the Sceadudene.

Does that mean that only one of the company is alloweed to roll for riddle?
If so, then what about a combined action:
One person makes the critical roll, and the others contribute bonus-dice to him according to their own riddle-rolls: +1 per great, +2 per extraordninary success, +0 per normal sucess, but also: -1 upon failure and -2 upon an eye.
Greetings
q.

[Michebugio]

Michebugio,

Would you mind if this appeared in Dead of Winter in pretty much whole cloth form?

I'd give you credit, of course.

Of course, thank you. I'm eager to see this in adventure format like your brilliant Theft of the Moon

Does that mean that only one of the company is alloweed to roll for riddle?

It follows the normal rules for an Encounter, so any character who got introduced can make the Riddle roll... until they surpass the Tolerance, of course. You just need one roll to succeed, after which the Encounter is considered immediately concluded and the characters are safe (and free to go).


Thanks everybody for the nice comments, by the way.

[qwercus]

It follows the normal rules for an Encounter, so any character who got introduced can make the Riddle roll... until they surpass the Tolerance, of course. You just need one roll to succeed, after which the Encounter is considered immediately concluded and the characters are safe (and free to go).

Excuse me, just to get it clear: As far as I understand the rules, encounter-results are depending the total numer of successes (where a great success counts as 2 and so on...), not on the level of (one) roll alone. What if three characters make a roll (= give an answer) at the same time, does only the best result count? The way I suggested to calculate the outcome was ment to represent the groups interaction/discussion regarding the riddle, so that good and bad advice they provide for their spokesman may influence his roll - and possible level of success.

But I am also fine with "the best result counts".
Thanks for the idea!
greetings q.

[Michebugio]

Excuse me, just to get it clear: As far as I understand the rules, encounter-results are depending the total numer of successes (where a great success counts as 2 and so on...), not on the level of (one) roll alone. What if three characters make a roll (= give an answer) at the same time, does only the best result count? The way I suggested to calculate the outcome was ment to represent the groups interaction/discussion regarding the riddle, so that good and bad advice they provide for their spokesman may influence his roll - and possible level of success.

That's a fair point. Well, you can read the 3 outcomes of the Encounter as the number of successes obtained, where a normal success counts as 1, a great success counts as 2 and an extraordinary success counts as 3. Then, after the players obtained a success, they can attempt other rolls to improve the results, at the risk of lowering the Tolerance with a failure.

Example: after a first failed Riddle attempt, the remaining Tolerance is 1. One player rolls then a normal success. The encounter should be over, but he (and/or other participants) wants to improve the result adding successes to the outcome, so he attempts another roll. This is risky: if he rolls an Eye and fails (-2 to Tolerance), the Tolerance drops below 0 and the Giant attacks...

[qwercus]

I think it was my mistake: I didn't recognize that the table "Evaluating the Outcome of an Encounter" on p. 189 of the core-rules uses the same terms for evaluating the degree of success as the ones that are used to describe the outcome of a single dice roll:
"narrow success" - one successful roll
"success" - 2-4 successful rolls
"great success" - 5-6 successful rolls
"extraordinary success" - 7+ successful rolls.
There is also mentioned: At the end of an encounter, count the number of successful rolls (a great success counts for 2 successes and an extraordinary result for 3). Here you can see why I was irritated!

Thanks for the help!
q.