the adventure of 2 giants

[Tizun Thane]

back in the days, I wrote some little adventures, to be used "en route" during any travel. I thought I could share this one with the community.  As I am not a native english speaker, feel free to correct any mistake.

***

The Adventure of the Two Giants

(from Erec and Enide, circa 4300 to 4581)

Situation :

A road, skirting a forest, preferably adventurous.

Problem :

As the PKs walk past a forest, [awareness] they hear a woman's crying coming from inside the woods.

[Faerie Lore] successful: It could be a washerwoman fairy, whose tears are an omen of death. You had better not go and see.

Those who decide to go their way win a cross as coward if they want to avoid a bad omen or lazy if not.

If they go to the origin of the noises, the PK discover a sweet maiden displaying all the marks of a deep sorrow: crying, begging God to tear her soul away from her body, scratching her face with her fingernails and tearing herself off the hair.

A roll of courtesy (or romance) will be needed to calm her down.

"Lord, there is no wonder that I am full of sorrow : I would like to be dead, I have lost the pleasure and the taste for life, since my lover was taken prisoner by two giants and cruel felons, his mortal enemies. I'm afraid they'll kill him in the most despicable way. "

Deciding to save this stranger is worth a check at the player's choice in Reckless, Merciful or Just.

Solutions :

Defeat the two giants, who will fight to the death.

Tracking their trail is easy (hunting roll at +5). The two giants, whips in their hands and club on their belts, amuse themselves by whipping a naked man tied hand and foot to a nag. The man cries out in pitiful pain, and his blood flows to the stomach of the horse.

If challenged, the Giants will be surprisingly courteous. If asked, they could explain that his father killed their father. Therefore, they have the right and the duty to avenge their father. They want to keep their prisonner alive and torture him for years, you know, for fun.

Characters :

-        Aimée, profile of Lady with Amor (Cadoc) 18.

-        Cadoc de Tabriol, notable knight with Honor 16, Amor (Aimée) at 17.

-        Castor and Pollux, two little giants (with club and whip at 15), surprisingly courteous.

Glory:

-        normal for combat (100 per Giant).

-        100 glory points to share for saving Cadoc.

[Tizun Thane]

Thank you all 😀

Is the text easy to read?

I love to throw a little adventure during journeys, like in the canonical sources. If someone plays it, I would be glad to hear the prowess of your players !

[vegas]

Very fun, simple idea. Thank you for sharing.

[SaxBasilisk]

If I might suggest one or two adjustments...

Typically, scenarios that start with a skill roll run the risk of everyone failing the roll. I would have the group gain additional information about the coming encounter with such a roll.

Also, it would be good to specify the type of giant (small, huge, etc.).

[Tizun Thane]

Quote

Castor and Pollux, two little giants (with club and whip at 15),

Small, not little  ^^ My bad.

34 minutes ago, SaxBasilisk said:

Typically, scenarios that start with a skill roll run the risk of everyone failing the roll. I would have the group gain additional information about the coming encounter with such a roll.

I agree, of course. But for the [awareness] roll, it is often a way to initiate an encounter, to create artificially a tension.

But your post is "thought provoking". Maybe the [awareness -5] roll give the PK a clue the woman seems real and not a fairy? 

[SirUkpyr]

How would folks suggest I handle it if my PKs want to negotiate or talk?

They have this odd habit of talking to the bad guys - and I can see this being one such circumstance.

[Morien]

9 minutes ago, SirUkpyr said:

How would folks suggest I handle it if my PKs want to negotiate or talk?

They have this odd habit of talking to the bad guys - and I can see this being one such circumstance.

Easiest to make it a Merciful or Forgiving vs. the Giants' Love Family, I'd think.

[SirUkpyr]

19 hours ago, Morien said:

Easiest to make it a Merciful or Forgiving vs. the Giants' Love Family, I'd think.

Thanks Morien!! That will be perfect.

[Tizun Thane]

In the original story, Erec tried to talk to them, but the giants were too boastful and cruel, as Giants usually are. Maybe Erec failed his roll ^^

If the PKs manage to rescue the knight without any violence, in my game, they would check Prudent and Arbitrary.

The whipping of the knight, as if he was some kind of criminal, is a shameful thing to do, and should not be remain unpunished.

[SirUkpyr]

6 hours ago, Tizun Thane said:

In the original story, Erec tried to talk to them, but the giants were too boastful and cruel, as Giants usually are. Maybe Erec failed his roll ^^

If the PKs manage to rescue the knight without any violence, in my game, they would check Prudent and Arbitrary.

The whipping of the knight, as if he was some kind of criminal, is a shameful thing to do, and should not be remain unpunished.

So they hear the giants taking turns whipping the knight, and after one yelled "my turn" - one of my PKs yelled "NO - OUR TURN!!"

The giant responded "Who interupts our familial honor!?"

Now at this point - some of the players took dice in hand and rolled their vs their Honor. Note that I did not tell them too - they just did it. One PK fumbled while another critted. One of the players didn't even roll, but just went along with it.

SO - they come out of the forest and find the giants and the knight as described above - and the one who critted his Honor stopped the others from attacking - and then talked with the giants. He said it was dishonorable to whip the knight - and they responded they he had killed their father. The PK learned that the Giants had not ganged up on the knight but had fought him 1-on-1 - and captured him after he was clocked upside the head.

The PK spoke about why the Giants did not buy the sheep - and the Giant responded "who will sell to us - they attack on sight" - and all the players looked at me blinking - as they realized that it's true.

The PK who critted his Honor pretty much was running everything at this point, with those who had higher Honor openly stating that they were not going to take over and would back his play.

The PK acknowledged that the Giants had a valid reason to want revenge (as the PKs have been dealing with the Orkneys and thus truly grock "you killed my father - prepare to die"). The PK then talked with the Giants about honor - which the giants understood - and then about other options outside of torturing the knight - such as a ransom with wergild.

The PK had some amazingly well timed crits - like critting both Oratory AND Merciful while also making his Just - as he discussed with the Giants the release of the knight. The Giants made their Love Family - but their number wasn't as high as the PK's.

Now I was having fun - doing things like having the Giants count things as "1-2-few-some-many" - and the Giants going "we want 5 many sheep for his killing our father". The PK said that that was a fair number (being 500 sheep) - but that the sheep they had been stealing would make the number lower. After some discussion it was agreed that the ransom + weregild would be 3 many (300) sheep - and that the Giants would release the knight if they were given 3 some (30) sheep as a sign of good faith. The Giants also agreed - after some discussion - to return the knight's armor if they were given another 3 some sheep.

TRULY AMAZING adventure with some absolutely wild roleplay.

Thank you Tizune Thane for posting the adventure - my group and I had a blast with hit - and now I must reread Erec and Enide.

 

Oh - for figuring out how many "5 many sheep" and "3 some sheep" meant - I gave a check to Gaming - as I could not think of anything better.

[Tizun Thane]

Love it! 

28 minutes ago, SirUkpyr said:

Thank you Tizune Thane for posting the adventure - my group and I had a blast with hit - and now I must reread Erec and Enide.

You're quite welcome. Everything is going according to the plan...

30 minutes ago, SirUkpyr said:

Oh - for figuring out how many "5 many sheep" and "3 some sheep" meant - I gave a check to Gaming - as I could not think of anything better.

Hilarious !

[SirUkpyr]

11 hours ago, Tizun Thane said:

In the original story, Erec tried to talk to them, but the giants were too boastful and cruel, as Giants usually are. Maybe Erec failed his roll ^^

If the PKs manage to rescue the knight without any violence, in my game, they would check Prudent and Arbitrary.

The whipping of the knight, as if he was some kind of criminal, is a shameful thing to do, and should not be remain unpunished.

Definitely failed his roll.

As for Arbitrary - I would disagree. If the giants were knights - then it would be a shameful thing to do - but they are not knights - they are giants punishing the man who killed their father. Thus - to *them* - it is not shameful - it is simply a valid form of punishment.

[Tizun Thane]

On 2/14/2022 at 11:39 PM, SirUkpyr said:

As for Arbitrary - I would disagree. If the giants were knights - then it would be a shameful thing to do - but they are not knights - they are giants punishing the man who killed their father. Thus - to *them* - it is not shameful - it is simply a valid form of punishment.

You handled it differently in your game, and it works beautifully, but I disagree. If they were eating people, because the Giant code of honor allows it, the knights how let them go still gain their arbitrary check. The Just thing to do is to punish them for their bad deeds.

[SirUkpyr]

8 hours ago, Tizun Thane said:

You handled it differently in your game, and it works beautifully, but I disagree. If they were eating people, because the Giant code of honor allows it, the knights how let them go still gain their arbitrary check. The Just thing to do is to punish them for their bad deeds.

If they were eating people - they are being evil - as that is never a punishment - and thus would have been attacked immediately.

Being whipped - on the other hand - is something done to criminals and commoners. Now - the Giants consider this knight that killed their father to be a criminal - and is treating him as such with the whipping. I think a lot of the "arbitrary" aspect would revolve around how the two codes are being judged - does the knight ONLY accept his code as being the "right/correct" code or not.

My PKs have had to deal with Faerie a number of times, as well as travelling into the lands of the Zazamancs - so they are used to having to learn what the "right/correct" code is for the people they are dealing with is. Now I would agree with you Tizun if they were only judging based on the Knight's code - but as they are taking into account the Giant's code - I didn't give them an Arbitrary.

[Tizun Thane]

Thank you for your explanation. We have a different way to handle Just/Arbitrary, but both are valid in my eyes.

19 hours ago, SirUkpyr said:

I think a lot of the "arbitrary" aspect would revolve around how the two codes are being judged - does the knight ONLY accept his code as being the "right/correct" code or not.

Exactly. My Just/Arbitrary is always from a knightly point of view. 

19 hours ago, SirUkpyr said:

Now I would agree with you Tizun if they were only judging based on the Knight's code - but as they are taking into account the Giant's code - I didn't give them an Arbitrary.

Indeed. Your game, your rules.