D&D Flashback: The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

D&D Flashback takes a look at old Dungeons & Dragons adventure modules from a modern perspective, pulling them apart to see what lessons modern DMs and players can learn from them.

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The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl is the second part of the Against the Giants campaign, the first-ever Dungeons & Dragons campaign published by TSR, Games., D&D's original publisher. As with the other parts of the campaign, it was originally made for D&D tournament play, with players scoring points based on the number of monsters killed, the number of rooms cleared, and the number of clues found. Unlike The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl is built around exploring a dangerous icy canyon filled with caves and other surprises. This module does an excellent job of throwing distractions and hindrances at players, which both reward and punish players who stray from their main goal.

Like its predecessor, The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl gives a player a relatively straightforward mission - investigating the strange alliance of giants that have terrorized the kingdoms of man. The adventure assumes that players had found either a map pointing to the glacial rift in the hill giant's lair, or had discovered a magical chain that instantly teleported them to the land of the frost giants. Outside of that, there's no clear direction of where to go - players will have to choose their own route and hope to find the caverns where the frost giant Grugnur lives.

Unlike the hill giants, who were busy feasting in the last module, The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl quickly establishes that the frost giants are pretty evil creatures. One cave is filled with dead adventurers, all posed in frozen blocks of ice as warnings for would-be intruders. The giants also have multiple "bone caves" filled with more dead adventurers and possibly meals. There's no real moral quandaries in this adventure - every monster the players will face is a foe.

Although the players won't need to make any tough decisions in terms of combat, there are a ton of temptations for greedy players. For instance, those frozen corpses all have valuable items on their person. But, for each corpse that the players thaw out, there's a 10% chance that they'll cause a cave-in, causing tons of damage. It's a classic risk/reward dilemma, and there's several of these in the module. A party of adventurers could go through each cavern and come away with a ton of loot, but they also risk alerting the Frost Giant Jarl of their presence and making their mission a lot more difficult. Players trying to explore every nook and cranny may also run into some incredibly dangerous enemies - such as a pair of ancient white dragons who lurk just inside the entrance to the lower caverns.

Another aspect I enjoy about The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl is that the players will likely find signs that the giant alliance is growing. In addition to Fire Giants and Cloud Giants lurking about in the cavern that tease the next part of the adventure, there are also several Ogre-Magi about to make a treaty with the Frost Giants. If the players don't intervene, the Giants will add some powerful allies in their war against mankind. If The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl were part of a campaign, the Ogre-Magi encounter could provide the DM with a chance to show how the player's actions affect the rest of the storyline.

Eventually, the players will make their way into the Frost Giant's inner sanctum, fighting their way through the Jarl's allies and henchmen as they search for Jarl Grugnur in his keep. Grugnur, his wife, and pet wolves can be found in their private chambers, although the party will have to sneak or battle their way past Grugnur's minions to confront the boss. Grugnur has plenty of treasure in his lair, along with a way to quickly teleport to the next part of the adventure - which takes place at the Hall of the Fire Giant King Snurre.

Although The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl was designed for tournament play, it does provide some fun lessons in how to design a region. The glacial rift contains a mix of easy, hard, and suicidal encounters, and the players will have to balance their desire for treasure and glory with common sense and their primary mission. A white dragon's hoard might be nice, but is it worth possible death and not discovering who is behind the giant alliance? After all, dead adventurers can't spend gold.

Like Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, Dungeons & Dragons has released several versions of The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, including a Fifth Edition version that can be found in Tales From the Yawning Portal. You can also pick up the original version of the module on the DMs Guild.