Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Retrospective: The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

In the early days of this blog, I wrote a Retrospective post about Against the Giants, the 1981 compilation module that first introduced me to Gary Gygax’s famed G-series. That post focused less on the individual modules themselves than on my memories of discovering, playing, and refereeing them. There’s nothing wrong with that – Grognardia has always been as much about reminiscence as analysis – but it did mean that the constituent adventures never quite received the attention I think they deserve.

That’s why, in February 2023, I set out to remedy this oversight by writing a series of posts dedicated to each module in turn. I managed to complete only the first installment before the effort fell by the wayside, for reasons I can no longer recall. With this post, I hope to resume that series and finally give The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl an individual consideration it merits, followed by Hall of the Fire Giant King next week.

First published in 1978, module G2, Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, occupies the middle position in Gygax's Giants Trilogy, itself the lead-in to the even more celebrated D-series. Consequently, G2 has long been overshadowed by both its position within its own series and the looming presence of what follows. Taken on its own terms as a discrete module rather than simply as a bridge between modules G1 and G3, G2 deserves more recognition than it typically receives. It is, if nothing else, a terrific expression of Gygaxian adventure design, offering a tightly focused, environmentally distinctive, and surprisingly open-ended scenario for high-level (9th–10th) play.

The module’s premise is simple: following the defeat of the hill giants in the previous scenario, the player characters are tasked with continuing the investigation into the source of recent giant-led raids. Their next destination is the icy domain of the frost giants, located high in a forbidding mountain range. What they find there is an immense rift in a glacial plateau, honeycombed with caves and tunnels, and populated by the violent and hierarchical society of the frost giants.

From the outset, Glacial Rift sets itself apart with its setting. The rift is not merely another dungeon, but a semi-natural, hostile environment that actively contributes to the module’s sense of danger. The cold is not just flavor text; it informs the monsters encountered (remorhaz, winter wolves, yetis), the terrain, and the general tone of the place. There’s a starkness to the rift that evokes the unforgiving nature of the mythic North, a realm of elemental cruelty, barbaric strength, and ancient, unknowable powers. There's also something almost mythic in the Jarl’s domain: a vision of primitive kingship, drawn more from Norse sagas than from the usual pulp fantasy tropes, where authority is measured by might and the feasting hall rings with the howls of dire wolves.

Structurally, G2 is more interesting than it first appears. The rift is split into two levels: the upper level consisting of cave-like lairs and animal dens and the lower level home to the giants’ halls, guard posts, and meeting places. Unlike many early modules, G2 is decidedly not linear. Its design encourages infiltration, observation, and guerrilla tactics as much as direct confrontation. A cautious party could spend several sessions simply gathering intelligence, probing defenses, and slowly unraveling the nature of the giants’ organization. Conversely, a reckless party might find itself quickly overwhelmed. It’s a sandbox in miniature, where the players’ tactics genuinely matter. 

Like its predecessor, Gygax naturalism is on full display here. The frost giants are not simply bags of hit points awaiting extermination. They're part of a brutal but functioning society, with guards, servants, prisoners, and even non-combatants. Gygax includes giantesses, young giants, and slaves, all of which contribute to the sense of this being a "real" place that operates according to a certain logic. This forces players (and referees) to make choices. Do the characters kill everything they encounter? Do they parley? Do they seek allies among the captives? For a module that, when it's remembered at all, is remembered simply as “the one where you fight frost giants,” G2 contains a surprising amount of nuance.

Gygax’s authorial idiosyncrasies are on full display throughout the module. His monster choices, like the remorhaz or the white pudding, show a willingness to embrace the weird and unexpected. His treasure hoards are filled with oddities, while his trap placement is often arbitrary but memorable. His prose, full of abrupt capitalizations and florid phrasing, imparts even the most banal descriptions with contagious energy. Glacial Rift is thus unmistakably his work: unapologetically high-level, at times unfair, even cruel, but always imaginative.

That said, the module is not without its flaws. The maps, presumably drawn by Dave Sutherland (there are no credits), can be difficult to read, especially given the three-dimensionality implied by the rift’s vertical layout. Navigation can become a chore unless the referee is particularly adept at spatial description, which I must confess I struggle with. Some encounters do feel a bit like filler – yet another cave, yet another pair of frost giants – and the rationale for the party’s presence here (to follow up on the events of G1) does feel thinner than that of either of its brother modules.

Even so, The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl more than stands on its own as an effective and engaging high-level adventure. Its strength lies in its atmosphere, its open structure, and its presentation of a society of intelligent monsters bound by codes of strength and tradition. While Steading of the Hill Giant Chief is more immediately accessible and Hall of the Fire Giant King arguably more refined, I think Glacial Rift does something unique in presenting a wilderness-like dungeon. I think it's understandable that it's not often celebrated, but I nevertheless think it would be a mistake to overlook it, as it's a fine example of Gygaxian adventure design that rewards careful and clever play.

24 comments:

  1. I ran a fairly long AD&D campaign many moons ago, which ended in a TPK in the rift. I even remember the last stand of the last character, a Paladin, as he was swarmed by frost giants.
    Great time!

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  2. Thanks James. I always enjoy retrospectives on golden age D&D modules.

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    1. Me too, but, sadly, there aren't many left I haven't already discussed.

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    2. Jim Hodges---
      You could discuss how your outlook on the modules has evolved.

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    3. Perhaps. But perhaps that also implies that it's time to start covering non-D&D golden age modules ?

      PS: I have to admit I first came here for the D&D related content, but then stayed for everything else.

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    4. Are there are any I haven't yet done, I would welcome suggestions!

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    5. Is there an efficient way to see which titles you've done?

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    6. You can try the search bar on the right side of the blog. It's not completely accurate, but it's decent enougth.

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    7. Thanks James. I don't believe you've done retrospectives on:

      G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King (as I'm sure you know)
      UK2 The Sentinel
      The Rogue's Gallery (not a module, but still)

      And while I see retrospectives on the Fiend Folio, Deities and Demigods, and Monster Manual II, I don't see them for the PHB, DMG or Monster Manual!

      Thanks.

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    8. G3 is coming next week. I have done The Rogues Gallery, though. UK2 is another option, along with the subsequent UK modules. The three core books haven't been specifically covered, but I've talked about them in other contexts. Maybe it'd be worth changing that, since there are definitely topics of discussion to be had about them.

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    9. >
      > Are there are any I haven't yet done, I would welcome suggestions!
      >
      @James Maliszewski :

      I honestly do not know, but I have to admit I really (also) like posts about any non-D&D related TTRPG's, if only to broaden my horizon.

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    10. UK2-3 remain two of my favorite modules from the old days. We got a lot of mileage out of both of them in our old gaming group. I have both of them more or less memorized and still to this day enjoy reading them. I even managed a Greyhawk mini-campaign around Perrenland/Vesve Forest with Adlerweg Keep from UK3 as the node linking the two areas; I say "mini" but the thing lasted about a year, so it had legs and great fun was had etc.

      It's funny, since to be 100% fair both UK2-3 are very plot heavy and verge upon railroad narrative - UK2 even ends with an NPC that finds the Sentinel and manages to do what your PCs were supposed to do if they were playing the module correctly (!) UK3 has a very firm narrative structure but there are lots of ways to play around within it; do we storm the castle or infiltrate? How do we manage the Fire Giant and his armies? Can we just run for it? We never felt inhibited by the plot in these modules. Maybe it was the writing, Graeme Morris is/was an underappreciated master.

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    11. When I read “non-D&D golden age modules” I thought the discussion would turn to golden age modules for other games, like Traveller, not all of whose adventures you’ve covered. And there are other games like V&V, EPT, etc. (I know I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.)

      As to D&D, while you’ve devoted a couple of paragraphs several times to it, you’ve never gone into depth as to how the original “Temple of the Frog” actually plays.

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  3. Played the G series as an interstitial between the H1-4 series, as part of my continuing "play everything on the shelf" attempt.

    The hill and frost giant lairs were Zengyhi's sub-chiefs; dispersed after the heros had cleared the Temple of Orcus, but opted not to plane hop or play the Battle of Damaran provinces. Yet.

    Repurposed the fire giant lair as an efreeti trading post on the plane of fire. This solves some "fast travel" problems.

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  4. I always felt it odd that there was only one stronghold for each set of giants. Are we meant to feel that ONLY this one stronghold was being influenced and attacking humans? Because the feeling is a bit more genocidal, that these are basically all the giants and the adventurers are pretty much wiping them out. I got the same vibe out of Storm King's Thunder.

    It would have been nice to have had other factions of Frost Giants in the Frost Giant lair, perhaps prisoners or something. Or have two or three smaller Frost Giant Lairs so players could perhaps ally with one faction or start a conflict. Same with Hill and Fire Giants...

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    1. Genocidal…. Ha!
      This is Old School D&D: you’re allowed to commit genocides, so long as the target has an ‘E’ attached to their alignment.

      LE, NE, CE? Put ‘em to the sword, I always say!

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    2. Definitely a weakness in the scenario design is that these giants are organized so monolithically. Compare with the Caves of Chaos from B2 or the more nuanced handling of lizardpeople in U2 Danger At Dunwater.

      It was early days, and the monster concept was still in development, but Gygaxian naturalism could have been more skillfully deployed here. Like you could have two or three sets of frost giants, allowing adventurers to work at identifying the true threat from those with less antagonistic objectives. What you got instead was very thin and combat-heavy.

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    3. Nah, no nuance is necessary. The giants, and adventure, are wonderful as they are.

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    4. In the World of Greyhawk there were thousands of other giants scattered throughout the world. The point of Against the Giants was to find out who was behind the organization of specific groups of giants that were being used to conquer.

      Wiping out these giants wasn't the best way to go about this, as it led to high probability of a total party kill, as my character found out early on versus the Hill Giants.

      Ultimately I believe some crazed God of Chaos named Tharizadun was behind it all.

      Each module held clues as to the location of who was higher up on the hierarchy and roughly where to find them. In searching for the Frost Giant Rift our party did dead-end twice, raiding Frost Giant tribes that weren't directly related to the main plot.

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    5. I think this series of adventures has more nuance then often given credit for, though the details likely varied from table to table.

      Drow Priestess Eclavdra, later seen in the Hall of the Fire Giant King, is the one orchestrating everything, playing everything, including the characters, like puppets.

      Eclavdra and the House of Eilservs have departed from the worship of Lolth in secret. Lolth, being too prideful to deal with or pay attention to the petty, insignificant mortals, has left this unnoticed.

      They turned away from Lolth because climbing the hierarchy of the House of Drow and becoming more powerful is chaotic and often deadly. So Eclavdra is looking to circumvent that hierarchy by turning to the worship of the Elder Elemental God, Tharizadun who has a rivalry with the Queen of Spiders. There are very few, even in the city of Drow, who know of these events.

      Eclavdra, led by Tharizadun, traveled through the Underdark to the lower parts of the Hall of the Fire Giants and used manipulation, cunning, and a promise of power through the worship of Tharizadun that would allow the giants to destroy the Ordning and let King Snurre rule over all giants, even though he is just a fire giant.

      Eventually, Snurre wants to rule over all small folk and take back the lands that rightfully belong to giantkind, which leads to the parties involvement as the giants begin overrunning the Kingdom of Keolan.

      Snurre agrees and lets Eclavdra advise him, and they recruit giants and start to build temples to Tharizadun in the various giants' lairs.

      Eclavdra starts reaping the benefits of the resources from the surface and claims that she has enslaved all the giants. This starts to draw the eyes of both enemies of the Drow and enemies of her house in the courts of the Drow.

      Eclavdra is clever and knows that the activities of the giants will both draw the attention of powerful warriors on the surface and her enemies. Which she uses to orchestrate the idea that Lolth is behind the organization of the giants by gathering both parties at the focal point, which is the giants. The characters find artifacts of Lolth (red herrings) and Tharizadun worship along the way.

      Her main goal is to manipulate the characters into heading to the city of the Drow and kill the Spider Queen in her domain. This will cause chaos for all spellcasters who worship Lolth as they will not be able to access their spells, making it easy for the House of Eilservs to take control and unite all Drow under Eclavdra's rule. She is happy to leave the surface alone once she has rule over all Drow.

      There a differing goals and ideologies and many factions involved. For example, the stone giants don't necessarily want to be there or fight. The cloud giant in the Steading might not be very impressed by the hill giants and is simply observing while they try to recruit him. Cloud giants are much higher in the Ordning and might not be willing to join the frost or fire giants, instead opting to help the players.

      Just wiping out a group of giants and their chief doesn't solve much, it is but a setback as there are plenty of other giant chiefs to be corrupted given time.

      When I first played this adventure the Wilderness Survival Guide had just been published, so our DM incorporated a good deal of outdoor travel and it required some investigation to find the giant chiefs and their tribes that were directly involved with Snurre and the Drow.

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    6. That sounds pretty awesome. Is that all in the original GDQ series? Because I don’t remember all that framing (though it’s been decades since I’ve looked at them, so I could easily be forgetting). Makes me want to unearth my old copies.

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    8. I believe that was all in the GDQ originals, we played the Queen of the Spiders(1986)which put them all in one module.

      Vault of the Drow is essentially a big sandbox based around the Drow city. It's one of the hardest modules I've ever run as it gives sparse information and leaves it up to the DM to flesh out. The basic plot structure is there, but it is up to the party to decide whether they go after Lolth or Eclavdra and her House (or both). It leaves it up to the DM to determine the ramifications.

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  5. I remember a pleasant day running this back in 1980 or so as part of my MIT AD&D campaign. I've owned various versions over the years, currently owning the 25th Anniversary Silver version of Against the Giants (I bought the original modules as they came out, later Against the Giants, and later GDQ, getting rid of each of those as various purges happened).

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