JG 93 Under the Storm Giant's Castle Review

Under the Storm Giant’s Castle is a Judges Guild adventure written for original Dungeons and Dragons. It was designed by Thomas McCloud. Under the Storm Giant’s Castle was published in 1979. The module is 32 pages long.

Although no specific level requirements are set for this adventure it is clear that this is intended for higher level characters. While some of the creatures met will be low hit point creatures others will be far more challenging.

This adventure offers six dungeon levels under a castle in the sky. This castle is on a cloud and is owned by two powerful storm giants. Their baby has been snatched by an evil worm and they want it back! But this worm has gone into a hole in the clouds too small for these giants and they need smaller people to go find their baby. These little people can keep the treasure that they find along the way and the giants will reward them further with some valuable gems.

Under the Storm Giant’s Castle Link

What I like about Under the Storm Giant’s Castle

It has storm giants! And it has a castle on a cloud in the sky. This is the stuff that fantasy is made of. That alone is worth the price of admission.

This adventure provides some new creatures and new magic items. There are two new dragons. A new race of people is also provided.

There are many opportunities for combat and role play in this setting. Not everything the adventurers meet will want to kill them. Killing everything that the adventurers meet will likely deplete their resources before they can succeed in rescuing the baby storm giant.

There is some interesting artwork in this adventure. It is Judges Guild after all. So the art is rather simple. And it is early in the development of Dungeons and Dragons materials. It is not the high gloss professional art that you will see much later from Wizards of the Coast but it is interesting.

This adventure is a very open setup. Here is the mission. Go do whatever you need to in order to get it done. We will come help you if we can. That is it in a nutshell.

There is one really bad dude in this one. And there is no real requirement to ever fight him. Satan himself makes an appearance in this adventure but just like the biblical version of him this one is more interested in deceiving others than in killing anyone himself. He wants others to do evil. And that is his real purpose in this adventure.

What I do not like about Under the Storm Giant’s Castle

The motivations of the villains are not clearly set up here. Why does Satan want to have the baby murdered? What is his reason for hating these giants and their child so much? It is not really answered anywhere in this adventure.

The cloud maps are decent enough but rather primitive by later adventure writing standards. Even some of the later Judges Guild adventures have better looking maps than these. Granted….these maps are of a cloud.

This adventure has some pit traps in the cloud. And that is ok. I guess. But I prefer cloud islands that have pit traps where stepping in the wrong place lets you drop to the earth below. I found this in Everquest and have used it in my own adventures involving cloud islands. It makes more sense for someone to fall all the way through then to fall only a level or two and take physical damage from it. A fall to the earth could be fatal of course. But with flying magic, feather falling rings and other such things it is likely that a character would survive anyway.

There are a lot of repetitive encounters in this adventure. A lot of the encounters are with the “Balloon people” who are apparently evil and live in the clouds. But these creatures have only one hit point (mostly) and are basically instant kills. A few do have one hit dice. And a few have some magical ability. But most would be totally unable to hit a higher level character. A few do have magical plus one icicles which they use as clubs. This might give them a slight chance to hit.

Would I recommend this adventure to others?

I think this adventure would be fine for a higher level group. It could easily be run with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons as well as original D&D. So if one was in need of an adventure for such level ranges it could work. But it is not my favorite Judges Guild product by any means.

Would I run Under the Storm Giant’s Castle with my own players?

Probably not. There are many better adventures for higher level characters out there. I would probably not choose to run this one myself.

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