The Bigger They Are
Team Building Era
This story took place after the Overdue Fines adventure.
The group was relaxing during a well deserved rest and finishing minor training. They were approached by some clerics from the land of Semphar who were having problems with a fire worshiping cult nearby in the Godswatch Mountains. When Fire Giants from the Firepeaks the became involved with the cult (and perhaps took it over) the local Seljuk ruler hired the Dragonslayers to make a hit and run style attack on the temple. The goal was to launch a quick raid that would take out the evil giants before they could retaliate.
The group fought valiantly upon arriving at the temple. They slew Fifteen Fire Giants, six Hell Hounds, six Fire Elementals and vanquished seven Fire Priests. They cleared the area around the temple and inside the main sacristy all accomplished without any deaths in their own party.
They took more time to clear out the upper and lower levels of the temple, finally finding the Head Priest being held a prisoner in the lower levels.
After this time the group moved on to the Trade Wars era.
I tried something new with this story arc and created Story Formats of each night. These are designated with the S after the date (Mar 28 08S). A map of the positions at each point is available also on the story form pages as well as in the Image Sharing section.
Feed Back & Recollections
Quote from the middle of a chaotic combat:
[Percy] Did anybody here take trigonometry? I wish I could draw a picture of a hemisphere at ground level. I submit Christy was *never* in the area of effect for darkness based on where she was and how high she was...
[Lorie] :: shudders :: I was a language major. Boats sink and trains crash... I don't care when they meet
[Percy] This will be important when the guy walking towards us brings the effect with him...
[Lorie] I'm healing this fight... I'll watch you all burn mostly...
Notes from Giantcraft for Giants Combat Tactics
Like hurling boulders, grabbing man-sized opponents and lifting them off the ground is another favorite giant tactic. Any giant with two free hands can grab a size M or S opponent with a single successful attack roll. Once grabbed the target can be flung, subjecting it to damage equal to the flinger's thrown boulder damage {Fire Giants do 2d12}. Grabbed targets can even be used as boulders themselves (that is flung at other enemies) tough they inflict only half damage upon the targets they strike (though the "flingee" still suffers full boulder damage). Any character held by a giant(in either one or two hands) suffers a -4 penalty to all attack rolls and break free in one of two ways: inflicting at least 15 points of damage in a single blow or passing a bend bars/lift gates roll. Particularly nasty giants grasp a target in one hand and then skewer it with a sword held in the other hand. Because the target is held fast such attacks automatically hit.
NOTE: this is different than what we were doing in the first three rounds of combat. I was giving the giants a minus to hit, and saying they could not pick and throw in the same round unlike what is stated here in these rules. This does mean that both Arilyn and Kit should have been tossed into the lava. We will continue the fight with these rules here now that everyone can access them. Percy does get this benefit also to try and hurl the human priests around in the same way.
ACTUALLY: This does not say it is one action. The simple fact the grabie gets a chance to attack implies it takes two actions. If it is one action, how does the charater "held" get a chance to attack. John
Hans says We need SPC, while I'm making comments. About the "once grabbed, the target can be flung", I can't argue that the target can't be flung. But I submit that the giant has *already* used up his attack in scooping up the target and would have to wait 'til the next round to do the flinging. This is similar to a PC using up their attack action to attack an opponent. Any other actions would have to wait until the next round. About how far they can fling their opponents, I don't think it should be very far. Compare throwing a flat piece of paper versus a crumpled up piece of paper versus a baseball. Very different objects have very different trajectories...
I've got some more to add, but I've got to work! I'll try to remember to add the rest of my comments later. (I might need help remembering, folks!) end of Hans says
Swinging Door - <-question answered here
It is one action, just as a Giant can pick up a boulder and throw it in one round. There is no "re-load" time for boulders, daggers, bottles, etc. The point this rule makes is to bring out the fact that Giants are so much bigger than human sized creatures that people can be used objects and once grabbed there is little that the grabbee can do about it. BOB
Your point is a good one Bob except you are missing one fact. Boulders, daggers, bottles aren't attempting to dodge attacks. They just sit there waiting to be grabbed and flung by the giant. Remember that combat although determined by a single roll is actually multiple events happening in a given round. Dodging, blocking, parrying, swinging, feinting all in an attempt to get a successful hit that can inflict damage. One might even consider the single attack roll and damage roll to be a culmination of several successful hits that do a total amount of damage within a round. So when the giants attack the character that is the attempts of many failed grabs as well as the successful one, as well as the character slipping out of his fingers but getting caught again. Therefore the "flinging" would be another attack that according to game mechanics would occur in the following round, unless of course the giant had multiple attacks then he would be able to grab and fling in the same round.
Fritz the Rule Lawyer
Point: How many farmers would it take to support a giant? It seems by the rules we live by, there must be miles and mile of farms somewhere nearby to support this many priests and giants. Sure the giants eat people, but they take even longer to grow. john
yes there are farms and such down at the base of the mountain for the human priests, as part of the normal infrastructure of Semphar. The Giants are an anomaly that is not explained by that. BOB
Chat Logs
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