53 - the Giant

A hill giant passes by, the earth shaking under his thunderous steps. As he walks past you, he drops something. Roll a die: 1) A purse containing 2d6 gp. 2) A boulder. Giants carry these as weapons, or as bowling balls to play with their friends. A random character must save versus Level 5 (elves and rogues add +L, halflings add +1) or be crushed and lose 2 Life. 3) A large chunk of dried meat. You may use this to bribe wolves. 4) A huge watermelon. You may eat it if you wish or keep it for later. 5) A large club that can be used as a two handed crushing weapon only by barbarians of level 5. The club is smeared with a poison that gives the user a +1 to hit giants until two successful attacks have been performed. 6) The corpse of one of the orc reavers! Roll on the orc reavers table to determine who was killed by the giant. The orc has 3d6 gp and has a 1 in 6 chance of having one of Davanzu’s rings. However, if you stop to pick up any of the above items, there is a chance that the giant will see you with the corner of his eye and attack you. Choose one character to pick up the treasure and save versus the giant’s eyesight at level 4. Rogues add +L to this roll. Halflings and Swashbucklers (from the Dark Waters adventure) add +1. If the roll fails, the giant turns and attacks the party. Hill Giant, level 7 boss, 8 life, 2 attacks, +2 morale, 3 treasure rolls at +1. Shields do not count against the giant’s attacks, which inflict 2 Life points on a successful hit. Any character hit by the giant will be knocked back and will have to forfeit his next attack, using his action to rejoin the fray. The knocked back character may also opt to remain at a distance and pelt the giant with missiles. Ranged attacks hit giants at +1. However, if any character performs a ranged attack at the giant, there is a 2 in 6 chance that the giant will throw a boulder at the party (see result 2, above, for the effect of a thrown boulder). The giant throws boulders as a free action, but he will not throw more than one boulder per turn. You may roll this encounter multiple times, but there is only one giant in the forest. Once he has been slain, it will not be encountered again. Also, the giant is carrying a total of 3 watermelons, so if you get that result more than three times, reroll.