Against the Giants: session One, Part One

Journals of the Greyhawk Adventures...
The first rumblings of what may come begin with the party heading north to Istivan, a city in Greyhawk. Having just lost our prime cleric and a few other minor party members in Castle Amber and the Temple of the Slime Gawds, (Both fairly tough adventure modules for AD&D) the party is in sore need of a re-fit.

Along the road we meet up with a cavalier single-handedly fighting a fairly large group of ogres. Out-of-character this is just an old player introducing his new character (his monk got turned to stone in the temple), in-character we all rush heroically to her aid. The ogres are slain and we have a new meat-shield. While we travel the cavalier introduces herself and tells us that this group of humanoids is but one of many that has been raiding the area for the past few months. The party discusses what's been happening as we travel, but nothing conclusive is decided.

As we near Istivan we are stopped by a herald of one of the local dukes (I forget which one). he announces that the duke has proclaimed that all veterans, squires, wizards, warlocks, adventurers, and heroes of all types and calibers, are hereby royally summoned to the aid of the kingdom. Giants and other humanoids have been raiding the area and demolishing towns, and the soldiers are too scattered and hard-pressed to bring the fight to them. So it is up to the heroes to take up arms and find the lairs of the marauders.

We note this and head to Istivan.

All is not well. A gigantic black cloud of some sort is slowly encompassing the city; anyplace that is inside is unreachable. Unfortunately for the magic-slingers this includes the mages guild. we head to the town hall, and pick up a few new characters and gather info. After about two days we feel we are ready and head to the suspected lair of the giants somewhere in the Jotuns.

We spend nearly a week in the Jotuns dealing with bands of ogres, orcs, and goblins, taking shelter in caves and occasionally stumbling across a dwarf stronghold. However the dwarves do poimnt us in the right direction, and s we eventually come to what we suspect is the Steading of the Hill Giants. A ver large wooden hall carved from a forested valley. We locate a cave on the north east side of the valley; there is a minor debate about what to do,s about whether to charge in guns blazing, wait for other players with their characters, or just rest for the night. It is quickly agreed that we should head to the cave.

So, we rest up, prepare our spells, and pray to the gawds. Round about mid-night the thief sneaks off down to the fort. I notice him and wake-up the rest of the party. We decide that this is as good as a time to strike as any, and so we march off down to the steading.