Chapter 5 - Introduction

In this chapter, adventurers match wits with Guh, a monstrously fat hill giant chief whose den lies on a branch of the Dessarin River in the hills northeast of Goldenfields. If the characters defeat Guh and obtain her conch of teleportation, they can use it to teleport to Maelstrom, King Hekaton’s undersea citadel (see chapter 10, “Hold of the Storm Giants”). Obtaining the conch is their main goal here. They must be careful not to put the den on alert before eliminating key threats, lest they become overwhelmed by all of Grudd Haug’s denizens.

Hill Giants

Before running this part of the adventure, review the information on hill giants in the Monster Manual. It will help you roleplay the giants in this chapter.

Guh’s Gluttony

Chief Guh would like hill giants elevated above their traditional betters. But she’s no brighter than a typical hill giant, so her plan is anything but inspired. She plans to eat until she grows so enormous that the gods take notice and show her favor. To her, the biggest giant rules.

Guh’s gluttony knows no bounds. She has been feasting for several months and has grown to such a size that she can no longer walk on her own. She spends her time slumped in a wagon with broken axles, surrounded by heaps of stolen loot and crying out for more food.

The Hunt for Food

Chief Guh has driven away all the other female hill giants in her tribe and taken their husbands as her own. She tasks her many husbands with bringing her food, and she doesn’t care how they go about it. Some of her mates form marauding gangs. Others set out on their own, pillaging the countryside for anything edible.

Farmers who live downriver from Grudd Haug have suffered the most from the giants' depredations. The first inkling of trouble was a sudden drop in the river’s water level, caused by the dam-like structure of the hill giant den. Not long thereafter, Guh’s husbands and their followers began plundering livestock from riverside farms, stealing trees from orchards, knocking down cottages, and snatching up folk who didn’t run fast enough.

So far, most of the hill giants' activities have been confined to the region of the Dessarin Valley closest to their den, but as food becomes scarce, Guh’s husbands are forced to expand their efforts outward. The villages of Beliard, Womford, and Uluvin, as well as caravans traveling the Iron Road between Womford and Uluvin, are all within the hill giants' threat radius. Meanwhile, the female hill giants exiled by Guh have taken to the hills. They crave the return of their husbands, but they are neither strong enough nor shrewd enough to unseat Guh. They might be convinced to help adventurers overthrow her if it means they get to beat their husbands into submission once more. See the “Old Tower” section in chapter 3 for an example of a female hill giant outcast.

Grudd Haug

The hill giants' den is called Grudd Haug, which means “river mound” in Giant. Resembling a beaver dam, it straddles a river. The lower level of the den is lodged between two rocky outcroppings and made of piled timber packed with clay and mud, with hollow cavities that resemble caves. Above this piled timber foundation is a mud steading (a house made to giant scale) with a log roof. The structure is an impressive feat of engineering, well beyond the ability of hill giants to fabricate on their own. In fact, Grudd Haug’s design is the work of hobgoblin and goblin engineers, assembled with the might of hill giant and ogre laborers. East of the steading is a yard enclosed by a 20-foot-high palisade wall made of logs lashed together with thick twine.

Reaching Grudd Haug

The characters can travel to Grudd Haug (shown on map 5.1) on foot or horseback. They can also guide a raft upstream or downriver to the hill giant den. In either case, you can make the journey more interesting by adding one or more wilderness encounters appropriate for hill terrain (see the Random Wilderness Encounters table in chapter 3). If Moog the hill giant is with the party, see the “Old Tower” section in chapter 3 for tips on how to roleplay her once she arrives at Grudd Haug.

If the characters have an airship (see the “Airship of a Cult” section in chapter 4), they can land it pretty much anywhere outside Grudd Haug. The hobgoblins in the gong tower (see “Approaching the Den”) spot the airship if it approaches within 1 mile of the stronghold and sound the alarm, putting the entire den on alert (see “Denizens”). If the characters use the airship’s weaponry to attack Grudd Haug, the den’s defenders are smart enough to take cover behind walls. Defenders armed with weapons that deal piercing damage target the balloon; those that hurl rocks and use weapons that deal bludgeoning damage target the crew.

The characters might instead approach on a flying mount. They can obtain griffon mounts in Fireshear or hippogriff mounts in Hawk’s Nest. Neither settlement is close to Grudd Haug, requiring the characters and their mounts to rest between flights. Characters mounted on hippogriffs can travel 54 miles per day (three 3-hour flights with 1-hour rests in between). Those mounted on griffons can travel 72 miles in the same amount of time. The hobgoblins in the gong tower (see “Approaching the Den”) spot flying mounts that approach within a quarter mile of the stronghold and sound the alarm, putting the entire den on alert (see “Denizens”).

Approaching the Den

Adventurers can approach Grudd Haug from any direction. Those who come near the den without taking efforts to conceal themselves are spotted by the hobgoblins in the gong tower (area 8), who ring the gong to sound the alarm. Characters stand a better chance of infiltrating the den if they approach cautiously, taking advantage of the terrain and using darkness, fog, camouflage, or magic to conceal their movement. Regardless of how the characters approach the den, have them make a group Dexterity (Stealth) check contested by the hobgoblins' Wisdom (Perception) check. (Roll once for all the hobgoblins in the tower.) If the characters take precautions, give them advantage on their checks. If they take none, impose disadvantage on their checks.

Denizens

The Grudd Haug Roster table summarizes the locations of the den’s inhabitants and indicates how those creatures react when intruders are detected.

Grudd Haug Roster

Grudd Haug Roster

As soon as trespassers are spotted or combat erupts, the entire den goes on alert. As a consequence, adventurers might find themselves fighting several encounters' worth of creatures at once. Grudd Haug’s defenders lack a cohesive defense strategy, but they are many.

If Guh dies, the morale of Grudd Haug’s other denizens breaks, and they flee into the wilderness.

All the hill giants in Grudd Haug, with the exception of Guh, are enslaved males. The ogres serve Guh because they are impressed by her size and her determination to rise to the top of the ordning (and, they hope, bring them along with her). The goblinoids have been promised shares of the spoils. The Iceshield orcs haunt the hills and grasslands north of Grudd Haug, near the western edge of the High Forest, and have forged a tenuous alliance with Guh. They are the least loyal of her supporters and don’t get along with the goblinoids.

Reinforcements

Adventurers can use hit-and-run tactics to weaken Grudd Haug’s defenses. Depending on how much time passes between the adventurers' forays, the hill giant den might gain reinforcements from the nearby hills.

At the end of each hour, roll percentile dice and consult the Grudd Haug Reinforcements table to determine what creatures, if any, appear. Unless otherwise noted, such creatures enter through the stockyard (area 9) and go to the feasting hall (area 2), to pay homage or deliver food to Chief Guh. There is a 25 percent chance that the creatures have 1d4 prisoners (unarmed commoner) in tow. If Guh commands the reinforcements to stay, they take up defensive positions in and around the stockyard after confining their prisoners in area 13. Otherwise, they leave by the route they came after 20 minutes or so.

Grudd Haug Reinforcements

Grudd Haug: General Features

The following features are common throughout the hill giant den, which reeks of filth.

Ceilings

Unless otherwise noted, interior chambers have 30-foot-high ceilings, with 20-foot-high passages and doorways connecting them.

Climbing

Walls of piled timber have many handholds and footholds and can be climbed with a successful DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check. Other sloped and vertical surfaces in Grudd Haug, including mud walls and log roofs, require a successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check to climb.

Curtains

Hanging in several doorways are curtains of stitched animal hides, held in place with iron spikes. The curtains are thick enough to intercept arrows and crossbow bolts fired through them. A curtain can be pulled down with a successful DC 13 Strength (Athletics) check.

Illumination

The gong tower (area 8) and the stockyard (area 9) get plenty of natural light. Oil lamps dimly illuminate rooms and caves that have no windows.

Oversized Furnishings and Objects

Most of the furnishings and other items in Grudd Haug are sized for hill giants. Exceptions are noted in the text. Tables, benches, and other room fixtures are typically twice as high, long, and wide as their human-sized equivalents and roughly eight times the weight. Small and Medium creatures can scuttle under and clamber over giant-sized furniture, treating the spaces they occupy as difficult terrain.

1. Main Entrance

A muddy trail leads up to a 40-foot-wide open doorway, parked outside of which is a 30-foot-diameter boulder. North of the boulder is a 60-foot-tall outcropping of rock with a flat, lopped-off peak. This outcropping can be climbed with a successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check. Standing in the shadows inside the doorway is Hruk, a male hill giant who reeks of dung. A swarm of flies buzzes around him. Hruk carries a sack that contains 1d4+1 mundane items, determined by rolling on the Items in a Giant’s Bag table in the introduction.

When Guh feels threatened, she yells at Hruk to move the boulder to block the doorway. The boulder, however, is smaller than the doorway. Small and Medium creatures can move around it unimpeded, while a Large creature can squeeze past the boulder with a successful DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. A character can push the boulder 10 feet on flat ground by using an action and succeeding on a DC 22 Strength (Athletics) check. A hill giant can do it without the check.

Development

Hruk is Moog’s mate (see the “Old Tower” section in chapter 3). He longs to be reunited with Moog, but dares not defy the mighty Guh. The orcs in area 4 investigate any disturbance here if they aren’t elsewhere.

2. Feasting Hall

Chief Guh is found here, along with five male hill giant, four ogre, and six goblin. Oil lamps in iron sconces are mounted to thick wooden pillars that support rafters 30 feet from the floor and the roof, which peaks 65 feet overhead. Protruding from the north, west, and south walls is a 10-foot-wide, 20-foot-high wooden ledge that the goblins use to get around the room. (The ledge was added after several goblins were crushed underfoot by careless hill giants and ogres.) A wooden ladder climbs up to the ledge, and windows a couple of feet above the ledge let shafts of natural light into the hall.

Eight sturdy but battered wooden tables covered with globs of grease, gnawed bones, empty casks, and scraps of food stand near the north and south walls, while empty ale barrels lie around and underneath them. Refuse covers the dried mud floor, in the middle of which are two 20-foot-diameter circular holes topped with crisscrossing wooden beams held in place by mud cement. The beams are far enough apart that a Medium or smaller creature can slip between them without having to squeeze. A horrible stench rises from the holes, accompanied by the squealing of pigs (see area 12).

Chief Guh lies at the west end of the hall, slumped atop a four-wheeled, flatbed wagon that bends and creaks under her great bulk. The wagon’s axles are cracked and bowed, its wheels canted inward. Piled around the wagon are bones and other refuse from Guh’s recent meals, as well as the treasures she has amassed (see “Treasure”). Guh weighs more than 20,000 pounds. She can’t move, so she keeps her greatclub close by so that she can bop creatures on the noggin. She is a hill giant with the following changes:

• She has 160 hit points and a speed of 0 feet.
• Her Dexterity is 1 (-5), giving her AC 9.
• She speaks Common, Giant, and Goblin, though her vocabulary is limited to monosyllabic words.

An unarmed goblin, Snert, is stuck in the folds of Guh’s flesh. While stuck, the goblin is restrained and unable to speak, and it has total cover. When Guh drops to 0 hit points, Snerk is no longer restrained and tumbles into an unoccupied space next to her, gasping for air. He isn’t one of the six goblins guarding the room.

If the characters get this far without raising the alarm and present themselves to Guh, she initially doesn’t know what to make of them. Are they servants sent by one of her allies? Are they food? Unless the characters convince Guh that they are more valuable alive than dead, she assumes the latter and orders her mates and minions to beat them to death so that she can feast on their flesh and gnaw on their bones.

If the characters tell Guh a story that explains why they need her conch of teleportation, she wiggles uncomfortably but refuses to give up the item, instead ordering her servants to attack. If her underlings are defeated, she trades the conch for her life.

The male hill giants are slumped against the tables and walls, tired from having scoured the countryside for food to bring to Guh. The ogres stand ready to serve meals to Guh as they are brought before her. While the ogres and the giants engage in melee combat, the goblins spread out atop the wooden ledge and pepper intruders with arrows. Meanwhile, the wolves in area 3 begin barking and howling, which puts the rest of the den on alert. If the characters flee, Guh orders her hill giant mates to stay and protect her while any surviving ogres chase after the fleeing characters.

Guh’s Wagon-Throne

Any character who studies Guh’s “throne” can, with a successful DC 10 Intelligence check, figure out how to sever a wagon axle with a single hit, causing the wagon bed to fall and spilling Guh onto the floor. Hitting the axle just right requires a successful melee or ranged attack against AC 15 that deals 7 or more damage. Not only does this send Guh tumbling to the floor, but on her next turn she tries to stand up and instead rolls into the nearest pit, breaking through the wooden crossbeams. She falls 30 feet to the floor of area 12, taking 10 (3d6) bludgeoning damage. She also lands prone and can’t get up without assistance. Any creature unfortunate enough to be underneath Guh when she falls must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or take 21 (6d6) bludgeoning damage; the creature is also knocked prone, trapped underneath her, and restrained while trapped in this way. A creature can use an action to attempt a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check on its turn, pulling itself or another creature out from under Guh on a success.

Once Guh is toppled from her “throne,” characters can spot the valuables hidden therein (see “Treasure”).

Treasure

Guh’s conch of teleportation is in the wagon, hidden under her bulk, along with 1d4+1 magic items. Roll on Magic Item Table F in chapter 7 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide to determine the first item, and on Table B for any other items. Characters can’t see or reach these items until Guh is toppled from her throne.

The rest of Guh’s treasure lies amid the refuse of her past meals and consists of 5,600 cp, 2,200 sp, 630 ep, and 150 gp; a wooden rocking horse with silver inlay and blue quartz eyes (worth 25 gp); a small wooden chest containing a disguise kit (worth 25 gp); a wooden coffer containing six vials of holy water (worth 25 gp each); a life-size wooden statue of a grinning halfling smoking a golden pipe (worth 25 gp); a battered hat with five carnelians sewn into it (worth 50 gp each); a gold flute (worth 250 gp); a flowerpot carved from jade with images of green dragons (worth 750 gp); and a wooden puppet theater with gold trim, along with gold-stringed puppets wearing bejeweled costumes (worth 2,500 gp).

Development

Combat and other loud disturbances in this room can be heard throughout Grudd Haug, putting the entire den on alert; see the Grudd Haug Roster table for notes on how the den’s occupants react.

With the conch, the characters might try to escape the den. The surviving denizens of Grudd Haug pursue fleeing characters until they’re out of sight.

A character must attune to the conch before its property can be used, and doing so requires a short rest. Instead of fleeing, the characters can barricade themselves inside the den, using heavy furniture or magic to seal off entrances until a character attunes to the conch.

3. Wolf Pen

A wooden portcullis bars this room. The portcullis can be lifted with a successful DC 16 Strength (Athletics) check. Small creatures can squeeze between its bars with a successful DC 10 Dexterity (Athletics) check.

The room is empty except for a pair of latched wooden gates in the north wall. Beyond the gates are two wolf pens strewn with gnawed bones. Opening or closing a gate requires an action. Two vicious, hungry wolf are locked in each pen. The goblins use them as mounts.

4. Guard Room

This room is tucked behind a mud-splattered curtain. Five orc of the Iceshield tribe sleep on filthy pallets strewn around a large hole in the floor. They awaken to sounds of combat and calls of alarm, and they head to area 9 if there are no hostile creatures in sight. The hole in the floor is 20 feet in diameter and is topped with crisscrossing wooden beams held in place by mud cement, forming a grate of sorts. The beams are far enough apart that a Medium or smaller creature can slip between them without having to squeeze. A horrible stench rises from the holes, accompanied by the squealing of pigs (see area 12).

The orcs have no treasure.

5. Kitchen

The floor of this filthy kitchen is covered with mud, dirty pots, and leftover food crawling with maggots. In the center of the room, a crackling fire rages in a dome shaped fireplace. Six goblin are tying a halfling to a wooden spit and stoking the fire. They plan to roast the halfling alive and serve it up to Chief Guh. The goblins panic at the sight of interlopers, drop the halfling, and flee to area 14 by way of the larder (area 6).

More dirty pots are piled atop two wooden tables, one of which has a handaxe embedded in one of its legs. Shelves packed with clay dishes and wooden utensils line the walls. A curtained doorway at the end of the north passage leads to the docks. To its left, another curtained doorway leads outside, to the area east area 8.

Development

If the characters attack the goblins or otherwise make a lot of noise in this area, the hobgoblin in area 7 investigates. The hobgoblin is accustomed to ignoring the squeals, shouts and arguments of the goblins, so only out-of-place noises draw its attention.

The tied-up entrée is Roderik Hilltopple (LG male strongheart halfling commoner), an unarmed shepherd who was captured by a hill giant. Though he’s grateful to be rescued, he refuses to leave without taking some sheep for his trouble. He asks his liberators to help him free the sheep in the pens (area 9). If they oblige, Roderik leads the sheep back to his farm thirty miles away.

6. Larder

Hooks protrude from the walls of this room, the floor of which is stained with pools of blood-some dry, others still moist. Hungry flies buzz about.

Beast and humanoid carcasses are often hung here to dry, though the larder is currently empty. A wooden ladder descends through a 20-foot-diameter hole in the floor, leading down 30 feet to area 14. The rungs of the ladder are spaced 3 feet apart. Small and Medium creatures find the ladder a bit awkward to climb, such that every 3 feet traveled costs an extra 1 foot of movement.

7. Watermaster

This room faces the docks and contains a bedroll, a barrel of fish, and two crates of rations. A fishing pole leans in the corner near the bedroll.

A male hobgoblin calling himself the Watermaster lives here. His job is to catch fish from the river, guard and repair the dam, and guard the den’s supply of rations (and keep it out of Guh’s hungry hands). He has an inflated sense of his own might and authority, and isn’t afraid of facing off against multiple enemies.

Treasure

The Watermaster hides his treasure in an unlocked wooden coffer at the bottom of the fish barrel. The coffer contains 80 sp, 45 gp, and a nonmagical platinum ring of elven design worth 100 gp.

8. Gong Tower

Central to the den’s defense is this 60-foot-tall log tower perched atop an 80-foot-high bluff overlooking the river. A wooden ladder sized for Medium humanoids is lashed to the south side of the tower. Hanging from the tower’s rafters is a brass gong with a wooden mallet.

Four hobgoblin stand guard in the tower, facing north, south, east, and west. They have a fairly unobstructed view of the countryside out to a range of 1 mile, though there are hillocks and trees behind which creatures can hide. If the guards spot any unusual creatures approaching the den, or if they come under attack, one of the hobgoblins strikes the gong. The ringing of the gong is loud enough to put the entire den on alert (see the Grudd Haug Roster table for notes on how the den inhabitants react). The ringing of the gong also causes Chief Guh to bellow, “Lunch time! Me want food!”

Treasure

Each hobgoblin carries 1d10 gp in a pouch.

9. Stockyard

Five crude tents stand in the middle of this muddy yard, surrounding a campfire. Ten orc of the Iceshield tribe are gathered here, five around the fire and another five resting in the tents. The orcs have no treasure. Their job is to watch over the one hundred sheep that are penned in the yard, and they remain here when an alarm sounds. The 4-foot-tall wooden fences that enclose the sheep pens have simple gates built into them. Each pen contains one or more wooden food troughs.

Use the goat for the sheep, with the following changes:

• It is a Small beast with 3 (1d6) hit points.
• Its speed is 30 feet.
• It lacks the Charge feature and any effective attacks.
• Its challenge rating is 0 (0 XP).

A palisade of 20-foot-tall sharpened logs encloses the stockyard, except for an opening to the southeast with a giant boulder outside. The boulder, if rolled into place, is just big enough to fill the opening. A character can push the boulder 10 feet across flat ground by using an action and succeeding on a DC 22 Strength (Athletics) check. A hill giant can do it without needing to make the check.

North of the stockyard, a mud trail climbs a ramp and curves back toward area 1. At the bottom of the ramp, at the base of a 60-foot-tall stone bluff, is the entrance of a tunnel that leads north to areas 10 and 11. To the west, a wide opening in the log dam leads to area 12.

10. Giants' Caves

Guh’s hill giant mates are housed in two adjoining underground chambers on filthy, flea-ridden pallets. The only other furnishings are two empty ale barrels and a half-smashed crate that once contained foodstuffs.

Two hill giant sleep here at any given time, snoring loudly. One sleeps in the westernmost chamber, the other in the easternmost chamber. They awaken to the booming thunder of Guh’s voice or the ringing of the gong in area 8. They also awaken if attacked. They don’t wake up to the sound of other creatures talking in the room or moving about. If awakened by the gong, both hill giants head to area 9. One takes up a position among the orcs while the other seals off the stockyard using the boulder outside the palisade. Enemies who get between the giants and their destinations are attacked.

Treasure

The caves hold a total of ten sleeping pallets. Each hill giant pallet has a stuffed sack that doubles as a pillow. Each sack contains 3d6 × 100 cp, 2d6 × 100 sp, and 1d6 × 100 gp plus 1d3 mundane items, determined by rolling on the Items in a Giant’s Bag table in the introduction.

11. Pigkeeper’s Den

This cave belongs to the ettin in area 12. It contains a bloodstained wooden table of giant size, two crates of pig entrails, a barrel of filth, and two iron cages, each containing a boar with a hankering for pig entrails. Each cage has a door on one side with a simple bolt latch.

12. Pigpen

The walls of this filthy room are made of packed mud with logs jutting out of them. The river seeps through a gash in the north wall and forms a stream that cuts across the eastern half of the area before spilling out through a hole in the south wall, tumbling down logs as it goes. A creaky wooden bridge spans the stream at one point. Smaller rivulets also seep into the room and connect to the wider stream, but they are narrow enough to step over. Timber pillars caked in mud support the 30-foot-high ceiling, which has three circular holes cut into it (leading up to areas 2 and 4). Crisscrossing wooden beams cover these holes, though the beams are far enough apart that a Small or Medium creature can fit through them without having to squeeze.

Two 10-foot-high earthen ramps lead down to the chamber’s sunken floor, with fences erected around lower tunnels that lead to areas 11 and 14. Scores of fat pigs snort, waddle about, wallow in the mud, and gorge themselves at wooden troughs overflowing with slop. A pig has the statistics of a boar, with the following changes:

• A pig has AC 10 and 5 (1d8+1) hit points.
• Its speed is 30 feet.
• It lacks the Charge and Relentless features, and it has no effective attacks.
• Its challenge rating is 0 (0 XP).

Tending the pigs are seven mud-covered bugbear and an ettin named Oinker-Boinker. The bugbears push the pigs around to make sure the stronger ones don’t hoard all the food for themselves. They also shovel pig waste into the stream. Oinker-Boinker fills the food troughs and fattens up the pigs before they’re served to Guh. The ettin chooses which pigs get slaughtered. Doomed pigs are picked up and taken to area 14 to die.

Oinker-Boinker and the bugbears prefer melee combat to ranged combat. If the bugbears are subjected to ranged attacks, they use the pigs as cover. If the ettin is taking damage and has no enemies to attack, it retreats to its den (area 11) and releases the boars there.

13. Prison

In the area north of the pigpen, rivulets of water trickle down the north wall and carve shallow ruts in the floor as they snake their way across the room and through openings in the opposite wall. Five wooden cages are arranged about the room. Their doors are situated on top, with heavy rocks placed on them. A creature can use an action to attempt a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check to knock off a rock or open a cage door that has a rock pressing down on it. The sound of a rock hitting the cave floor alerts the guards in this area. Three of the five cages contain prisoners destined for Guh’s gullet. Two bugbear guard the prisoners. These bugbears can’t be surprised once the alarm sounds or if they hear combat in area 12.

Prisoners

Unless otherwise noted, all the adult prisoners are commoner. Child prisoners are unarmed noncombatants with AC 10 and 2 hit points each.

One cage contains human farmers: a father, a mother, and their three children (a teenage girl and two boys).

A second cage holds an unarmed tribal warrior of the Elk tribe, Gryhark (CN male Uthgardt human). He fights alongside his liberators. If he makes it out of Grudd Haug, he bites into the palm of his hand and tries to smear his blood on the faces of those who freed him. Anyone who succeeds on a DC 13 Intelligence (Religion) check realizes that this gesture is a sign of gratitude. Gryhark leaves to return to his tribe whether the characters accept his gratitude or not.

A third cage holds an unarmed prisoner: Emerald Enclave member Ghalvin Dragonmoor (CG male half-elf scout). If freed, he asks the characters to escort him to Goldenfields, so that he can report to the Abbot what he has seen.

14. Abattoir

Pigs are slaughtered here, as are unwanted trespassers. The river has punched a hole in the north wall, creating a stream that runs through the place. A crude log bridge spans the waterway, which flows out of a gash in the south wall and tumbles down a wall of logs outside. Flies buzz around three blood-spattered wooden tables spaced about the room. A 30-foot-long wooden ladder climbs to a 20-foot-wide hole in the ceiling (leading up to area 6). The rungs of the ladder are spaced 3 feet apart. For Medium and smaller creatures, every 3 feet climbed on it costs 1 extra foot of movement.

Lying atop the easternmost table is the carcass of a slaughtered pig, and looming behind it is Slub, a male hill giant covered head to toe in pig’s blood and clutching a handaxe. Before fighting, Slub embeds his axe in the tabletop and picks up his greatclub from the floor.

Slub has a pet otyugh that follows him around like a faithful dog, eating bones and carrion. The otyugh fights to the death to protect the hill giant.

A tunnel in the north wall leads to area 15.

Treasure

Slub wears a gavel of the venn rune on a cord around his neck, like a pendant.

15. Slub’s Den

This damp cave belongs to Slub the hill giant (see area 14). It contains a sleeping pallet, a half-empty barrel of pig snouts, a half-empty barrel of vinegar, an old wooden crate, and two empty iron cages with rusty iron doors. Flies buzz around the crate, which contains the half-eaten corpse of an orc as well as Slub’s treasure.

Treasure

Lying next to the half-eaten orc is a bloodstained sack containing 3d6 × 100 cp, 2d6 × 100 sp, and 1d6 × 100 gp plus 1d4 mundane items, determined by rolling on the Items in a Giant’s Bag table in the introduction.

16. Smithy

This freestanding building has mud walls and a 50-foot high ceiling beneath an arching straw roof that is sturdy enough for a Medium or smaller creature to stand on without falling through. The warm interior contains a crude fire pit heaped with hot coals, with red-hot pieces of metal sticking out of it. Leaning against the walls are blacksmithing tools, including tongs and hammers. A barrel of water stands in one corner by the open doorway, and a sleeping pallet rests in the northwest corner.

Grudd Haug’s blacksmith is a female hobgoblin who doesn’t mind fighting enemies one at a time but retreats or surrenders when faced with overwhelming opposition. When the gong is rung (see area 8), she leaves her smithy and heads to the Watermaster’s quarters (area 7). Assisting the hobgoblin are two goblin, who hide behind the barrel when an alarm sounds. If intruders enter the smithy, the hidden goblins make Dexterity (Stealth) checks to slip out through the open doorway. Their checks are contested by the Wisdom (Perception) scores of creatures within sight of the doorway. If they are cornered, the goblins surrender in the hope that their lives will be spared. They know the layout and defenses of Grudd Haug, and they share that information if they think it will improve their chances of survival.

Treasure

The hobgoblin carries a pouch containing 1d10 gp. Each goblin carries a pouch containing 1d10 cp.

Character Advancement

If Guh has the conch of teleportation and the characters obtain it, they can use it to teleport to Maelstrom once a character attunes to the item. The characters might have a few issues to resolve before using the conch, such as escorting Ghalvin Dragonmoor to Goldenfields. The characters should advance to 9th level before moving on to chapter 10, “Hold of the Storm Giants.”