Ravenloft Encounter: Tears of the Giant
This encounter is designed with characters from 3rd-4th level in mind, but is not designed with meaningful combat in mind. It is very roleplay-heavy.
The encounter
The very ground beneath you begins to tremble in a rhythmic booming. As if some massive creature, easily ten times the size of any man, were wandering down the path, in the opposite direction as you. You hear a deep voice in the distance, moaning and grunting in anguish.
The party has 1 round to make a stealth check to hide from the oncoming creature before it lumbers its way through. Regardless of if the party hides or not, read the next boxed text.
If the party is successfully hidden, read the following.
The towering creature finally stubles into view, revealing its true form. It's a towering, lumbering humanoid creature with a singular eye on its forehead. It sobs, its eye bloodshot, but no tears come out. It seems to have been crying for quite some time, and its miserable expression is proof of it. It carries a bundle of some kind in his left arm, and has a large sack, one so large it could reasonably fit the entire party inside, slung over its shoulder.
The cyclops is named Vidfur, and he weeps for his fallen son Zekfur. If the party is successfully hidden from the cyclops, he takes 2 steps more and collapses to the ground, crying out in misery and hysterically sobbing.
Roleplaying Vidfur
Vidfur is a slow, rather dumb creature, with low intelligence and wisdom. He speaks only in giant, and like other giants of his kind, he doesn't like to speak and primarily uses grunts to communicate. He becomes frustrated when he cannot communicate properly, and pounds his chest or the ground nearby to express this, but only fights in self-defense.
Vidfur was herding his cattle with his son, when one day, he realized he was short one cow. He and a trail left by it, so he took this as an opportunity to show Zekfur how to get a lost cow back to the rest of the herd.
After an hour of following the trail the cow left, they wandered into fog. When he found his cow, it had been sucked dry by vampire spawn, and killed. Suddenly, the 2 creatures were attacked from behind. Strahd Von Zarovich, interested in this potential new ally, bit the Zekfur and drained him of his life. Then, he charmed the cyclops for long enough to explain exactly what he'd done.
All Vidfur knows now is that his son is very sick and cannot be cured. If he does not fix him, he will become a monster who would kill his own father. In order to stop the transformation, he must drive a stake into his son's heart and kill him. However, Vidfur lacks any sort of wooden weapon, and crafting one is too difficult a task for him: he can only make greatclubs, not piercing weapons.
He does not know he cannot leave Ravenloft at all, and is limited.
For 2 days now, Vidfur has wandered the Old Svalich Road, looking for any people who would listen to him or could understand him.
If the party approaches Vidfur, he is threatening at first. But if they approach with no weapon drawn or offer him a gift of something shiny, he sets the bundle on the ground. Now that it's in full view, it's revealed this is a young cyclops, still twice as tall as any of the non-giantkin players at an astounding twelve feet tall.
Zekfur refers to Strahd as the maud kvit krigga, or 'evil white warrior' in his tongue. He refers to himself and his son by name. He mimics coughing to try and communicate that his son is sick, and he pantomimes stabbing to try and show what he believes needs to be done.
The party's choices
A successful DC 10 Arcana or Medicine check reveals the son's pale skin to be vampiric in origin. 15 or higher reveals that there is no known cure for vampirism when it takes hold. However, casting Lesser Restoration on the body will remove the curse and allow the body to die in peace. Otherwise, a piercing weapon made of wood is used on the chest, the curse is banished and the child would be laid to rest.
Should the party drive a wooden piercing weapon into Zekfur's chest, he immediately reanimates and dies screaming, typical of any vampire spawn with a piercing weapon in its resting place. Zekfur screams something in Giant, bringing his father to tears again.
If the party takes too long to take action, Zekfur awakens, hungry. Use the statistics of a vampire spawn for Zekfur, with the following changes:
- He is Large instead of medium
- He has the cyclops Poor Depth Perception trait.
If the party somehow manages to stop the vampirism curse, or if they destroy the vampire spawn that Zedfur becomes, Zedfur appears as a ghost. He wanders to his father, and hugs him one last time before vanishing to join the lost souls wandering Ravenloft. Vidfur does not fully understand the afterlife, but he knows his son is not hurting anymore.
If the party stops the curse, Zedfur is satisfied and starts digging a hole with his hands. He digs a grave for his son and buries him, making a few statements in giant. He reaches into his bag, and pulls out the dried, dead cow he'd wandered into the demiplane to find. He bites down and eats half the cow in just two bites, and then offers the rest to the party. If the party takes it, there are 10 days of rations to be salvaged from the body of the cow, as it is already been made into jerky. Should they refuse, Zedfur consumes the rest of the cow. Regardless of they accept the cow, Zedfur also reaches into his bag and pulls out the body of some humanoid, smashed to be unrecognizable. He pulls the backpack off the adventurer. Inside is a dagger, 5 gp per party member, and 2 healing potions. He gives the backpack to the party, and leaves, wandering into the woods to look for a way home.
The next time the party is in dire straits against an enemy who is not Strahd and is outdoors, the party hears a familiar rhythmic booming on the ground at the start of the round. At the end of the round, Vidfur charges into the fight scene. He fights alongside the party until their opponents are dead, he drops to half-HP, or views Strahd. In the first case he stays with the party for a bit but leaves if there isn't another combat within a minute. In the latter cases, he flees instantly, as he greatly fears his own death, especially at the hands of Strahd.
Strahd's Fury
If the party is not sufficiently scared of this, Strahd may charm the cyclops and send him away so he can fight the party and knock each into death saves, just to sate his own diabolical, ancient ego.