Ancient burial ground or battle site, with the spirits of the dead giants possessing rock and earth, manifesting physically like elementals.

@Handy - thanks, likewise - just spitballing/brainstorming. My real life job requires me to accept "good idea, workable idea, stupid idea" feedback, so I am fairly thick-skinned on stuff like this.

The forge - some sort of large broken-down metals and weapons and armor forging area, perhaps with remnant/hints of attempts to harness alien technology that went awry. Perhaps some otherworldly visitors (scientists, engineers) are even still imprisoned nearby or may have recently returned (space adventurers) to retrieve the tech (they could be battling some giants). There could also be some sort of (insane, malfunctioning?) mechanized guardian(s) in addition (or instead) creating problems for the giants, any otherworlders and your adventurers.

Variant could substitute ancient evil magic and related priests/magicians, but I prefer tech personally... seems a little more unexpected and interestig in the forge area. Plus, it's Hyperborea!

I like the ideas in both those posts! The aliens make for a nice factional aspect--something to play off against the giants and their twisted ancestor spirits. Possibly a trapped mi-go with oon servants lurking about and seeking a way to free it from the giants, who are using the mi-go to further their plans in some way? Helping the oon could get the party allies and disrupt the giants.

So, you know the gorgon and maybe the rarer greater gorgon, but what about the legendary superior gorgon? This wretched creature's evil power is so strong that her stare not only petrifies opponents, but also animates them like stone golems to do her bidding. In this case, she may have several petrified giants furthering her evil ends. She and her contingent could serve as another faction vying for control in Das Rheingold. Perhaps she even played a key role in the city's original fall.

I have yet to stat out the superior gorgon or use her in an adventure, mostly because my group's too weak, but I am eager to do it. Maybe I could present her, along with a short adventure, for AFS sometime.

This adventure is looking pretty high level

Been swamped on my end but hope to have time to contribute more soon

o

Ghul wrote:

That would be awesome, Chainsaw! Do it!

D'oh! Called my bluff! Maybe this can be a holiday project. Scaley, what's the deadline for AFS submissions?

Scalydemon wrote:

This adventure is looking pretty high level.

I suppose if the city's large enough, we could have a variety of offerings there, ranging from low to mid to high (not necessarily the same proportion of course). What sort of scope did you originally have in mind, Scaley?

Scalydemon wrote:

One of the next steps would need to construct a crude map to start working on/fleshing out.

Good idea - maybe you should take first stab at this map, since the city is your idea? We can then tack on bits and pieces with your blessing, where they seem appropriate.

As to locating the city, probably somewhere off the beaten path, but not totally inaccessible makes sense. Perhaps some lost valley toward the middle of the Spiral Array, maybe near one of those volcanos on the southern side of Mount Vhuurmithadon? Also, depending on how large it is, we might need to plant a small village within a week's march or something so that the PCs can make multiple excursions.

Ok, some cool ideas here.

After some thought - I think it might be much easier and in a way better to stick as close as possible to the story. I put up a link in the initial post in this thread. It is only a page or 2 long but reading that you can see a lot of cool ideas for magic items etc that can be retained.
Also - I think it makes more sense to stick to the story in the point that the main adventure would be detailing the Castle they speak of with (built by the Giants under slave labour).
*Everyone basically thinks the existance of the Castle is steeped in myth. It only shows up on ancient maps etc. The party has come here to see if it exists following some vague worn manuscript. When they arrive the Castle exists but is in a state of ruin and is now inhabited by mytchical beasts and the forlorn Giants who once were enslaved to build the Castle*

It is much easier to design a somewhat ruined Castle versus an entire City or region.

Some of you may be thinking sarcastically  - "Gee Scaly a ruined Castle - what a novel idea"
- but I think there are enough cool things in the story and with making these Giants forlorn and haggard and spiteful of humankind and add in some mythical beasts and ancient treasures and such that it could turn out cool and different.

Anyways - next step I think would be to maybe research to see if any cool old drawings or info exist of the Castle in this story. And then get a rough dungeon map together to start fleshing out.
And then fleshing out the surrounding area and backstory a bit. etc. And working on placement(Chainsaw seems to already have some good ideas on this), etc

thanks!

 

Last edited by Scalydemon (12/09/2014 7:00 pm)