The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl is the second part of the “Against the Giants Series” and the sequel to Steading of the Hill Giant Chief. This part continues the punitive expedition against the giants who have been making war on mankind. After finishing the attack on the hill giant steading the adventurers are led by clues to the glacial rift in which the frost giants have made their home.
Again, this adventure, is for higher level characters. Presumably characters of equal level to those of the previous adventure would be required. This adventure is written by Gary Gygax and is 12 pages long from cover to cover. This includes covers and maps. The actual text of the adventure is 7 pages. It seems amazing, looking back, how short these adventures were. Little space is wasted.
This adventure is written for 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.
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What I liked about The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl
This is an old school adventure. It is short. The set up is short. The maps are old school blue tiles. There is nothing fancy about it. It is just presented and the DM can go with little preparation. There is not a ten page history lesson presented. There is little need to tell the players much of anything at all.
This is but one step in a series of escalating adventures leading up to the Demon Web Pits module later on. Something is wrong in this adventure scenario. In addition to punishing the giants the players need to explore this mystery and follow it to it’s natural conclusion.
This is a snow adventure. There are so few of these in the history of the game. I like adventures that take us to new places where adventurers rarely explore. Icy creatures are presented and would logically be found in such a place.
Like the preceding adventure this one sets up a similar scenario in which the giants might very well set up some nasty ambushes after the first expedition. Once alerted to the danger of adventurers being present the giants will certainly react accordingly. This plays so much differently than many later adventures (even those from TSR).
What I did not like about this adventure
Like the Hill Giant adventure this one does tend to give away a bit too much magic and treasure. Despite the many admonitions by Gary Gygax in the Dungeon Master Guide and in many articles he does not always follow his own advice in regards to treasure and magic. Many of his adventures are more free with both than I would be. Granted, sometimes the amounts of treasure found, could not easily be removed by the players. But the magic items almost certainly would be. And this is a bit much in my opinion.
Would I recommend The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl?
Absolutely. It is a great old school adventure that would play well in most campaigns. It would play well particularly in a Greyhawk campaign but can easily be placed in virtually any other. It is fairly high level. And the Dungeon Master would be well advised to read it and remove any excessive or duplicate treasures or magic items.
Would I run this adventure with my own players?
Yes. I played this adventure with the first group I ever played Dungeons and Dragons with in ’79 or ’80 and would not hesitate to introduce it to my own players…..if they had not already played. But I suspect some of them have played it. This reason alone might prevent me from doing so. My players are very familiar with many of the classic old school adventures so I am careful to use things that they are not so familiar with to keep them engaged.
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