Session 7: Fee Fi Fo Fum
Sleepy Hollow → The Clouds → Jack’s Home
TONE: Fairy tale moral weight. Grendlyn is
sympathetic; Jack is a thief who doesn’t understand what he
took.
The Beanstalk
Near Sleepy Hollow, the party finds a beanstalk of impossible height
— trunk wide as a house, climbing into cloud cover. At the base is a
cottage where a nervous woman named Edith explains that her son Jack
traded her best cow for five beans from a stranger, planted them in a
fit of optimism, and the stalk grew overnight. Jack has already climbed
it twice. Each time he came back with something. The second time,
whatever he brought back — Edith won’t say what — caused a sound like
weeping from the clouds that lasted three days.
The beanstalk is warm to the touch. As you
climb, the air grows colder and the world below becomes a patchwork of
brown and green. Above you, through the mist, you can see something
enormous — a castle, built on a shelf of cloud, its towers disappearing
into haze. From somewhere inside, very faint, comes a sound like a woman
crying.
Grendlyn
Grendlyn is a cloud giantess — fifteen feet tall, wrapped in layers
of storm-grey wool, with braided white hair and eyes the pale blue of
winter sky. Her husband, Brandur, was killed three months ago when Jack
stole the Golden Harp — a magical instrument that also happened to be
the anchor of Brandur’s lifeforce. Without it, he faded and died.
Grendlyn does not hate humans; she doesn’t understand them well enough
to hate them. She is just grieving.
She does not roar. She looks down at you with those pale eyes and
says, quietly, ‘Did you bring it back? The music? He used to play it in
the morning. I haven’t slept since it stopped.’
DM NOTE: Grendlyn is not a villain. She is not the danger. She asks
the party to do two things: bring Jack to her (she wants an explanation,
not revenge) and cut down the beanstalk so no one else can climb up and
take things. She will give the party the remaining giant’s hoard in
exchange — substantial gold and one magic item of your choice.
Grendlyn — Combat Block (If
Attacked)
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Creature | Cloud Giant (MM p.154) — grief-weakened, 70 HP instead of 200 |
| AC | 14 (natural armor) |
| Key Attack | Morningstar (3d8+8) or Rock (4d10+8, range 60/240) |
| Special | Fog Cloud 3/day — she uses this to escape, not to fight. She does not want to hurt anyone. |
| Note | If the party attacks rather than talks, Grendlyn defends herself without lethal intent. She pulls punches — in game terms, she targets objects and structures rather than the party directly. |
Jack
Jack is sixteen, charming, completely unable to grasp the weight of
what he did. He did not think of Brandur as a person — he thought of the
harp as an object. The confrontation between Jack and Grendlyn, brokered
by the party, is the emotional core of the session. Jack does not
apologize well. Grendlyn does not need a good apology — she needs to be
seen.
After the confrontation, the party cuts down the beanstalk. Jack’s
home is destroyed in the fall. He takes it badly. This is
appropriate.
-
Brokering the Jack/Grendlyn confrontation: 500 XP
-
Cutting down the beanstalk: 200 XP
-
Grendlyn’s hoard: 800 gp + one magic item
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