Purple Dragon
2008-06-09, 09:18 PM
I've had great success running my high-level group through the Stormbringer Castle and Stormbringer Juggernaut adventures (Dungeon Crawl modules from Goodman Games); there's a great setup at the finale of the latter for a homebrew followup adventure, and I'm almost salivating at the possibilities. For those not familiar with those adventures, let me try to briefly elaborate:
Adventure #1:
The Stormbringers are a clan of evil storm giants who have been terrorizing the coastal cities, particularly the city of Argalis. Stormbringer Castle sits high on a mountain peak above the city, and the PCs were brought in to defeat the evil storm giant druid mistress of said castle. They succeeded, killed the giantess, and claimed Stormbringer Castle for themselves.
During this first adventure, we learn that there are magical jewels called "spirit gems" which can hold the soul of a deceased person indefinitely, allowing that person to manifest as a ghostly figure for attacks and such. Defeating this ghost does not destroy the spirit; it will re-form within 2d8 hours at full strength. The spirit could also possess an inanimate object, causing it to animate. (Suits of clockwork armor housed the spirit gems of some minions, and they put up quite a nasty fight.) The creation of spirit gems and the ritual necessary to tie your soul to the gem are well-kept secrets of the Stormbringer clan.
Adventure #2: When the PCs killed off the storm giant druid, her soul was transferred into one of these spirit gems. They eventually tracked her down, and found that further down the coast another member of the storm giant clan had almost completed construction of a massive ship. This giant-sized juggernaut pirate ship would further aid the giants' control of the region, and the nearby populace has pretty much been wiped out or taken as slaves to help in the building of the juggernaut. At the heart of the ship was the spirit gem of the storm giant druid; essentially she was the ship! She could manifest anywhere within the juggernaut, and the PCs had a great fight getting to the gem so they could destroy it.
They thought they succeeded, but in fact they failed.
They destroyed a fake spirit gem (which also destroyed the ship), leaving the giantess and her spirit gem on the bottom of the ocean, fully willing and able to wreak her revenge on the PCs and the city that hired them.
And now? The PCs are off on an unrelated adventure while the Bad Guys plot their vengeance. Here's where I get to start creating: The spirit gem of the giantess has been housed in a 100-foot-tall humanoid colossus that her son has constructed on the ocean floor. She is about to use this colossus to unleash her wrath on the unsuspecting city of Argalis, and the PCs will have to stop her quickly before she levels the entire city. I've got a few ideas on how to make this really challenging, but I could certainly use a few suggestions. (The party is approximately 18-19th level.)
The juggernaut (see above) had a lightning cannon as part of its arsenal; it's basically a 20-foot-long maximized wand of lightning bolt(!) I plan on having a bunch of these cannons mounted on various defensive points on the colossus' exterior, manned by scrags (sea trolls).
I'm mentally picturing this looking kinda like a guy standing behind a tripod-mounted .50 caliber machine gun, except it's a troll standing in a water-filled, cup-shaped hollow on the exterior of the colossus. As the colossus rises up out of the sea, the cup-shaped hollow remains filled with water so the troll is standing in water up to his shoulders and can regenerate while firing his cannon in battle. I may even give the trolls some sort of glassteel protective shield if I'm feeling particularly evil.
So... the first challenge will be for the group to somehow gain access to the interior of this monstrosity. The only entry will be located in the head, and the PCs will have to work their way down into the torso to find the giant's spirit gem to stop the colossus and destroy their enemy once and for all.
My problem? I'm somewhat stumped on how to actually stock the interior of this big bad beastie. I know there'll be a great grand finale battle in the last room, and it's going to involve the spirits of both of the storm giants they've already defeated. There'll also be a beatdown of the Stormbringer scion (the one who built the colossus) somewhere in there.
Ideas? Clarifications? Am I insane for trying this? :smalltongue:
Adventure #1:
The Stormbringers are a clan of evil storm giants who have been terrorizing the coastal cities, particularly the city of Argalis. Stormbringer Castle sits high on a mountain peak above the city, and the PCs were brought in to defeat the evil storm giant druid mistress of said castle. They succeeded, killed the giantess, and claimed Stormbringer Castle for themselves.
During this first adventure, we learn that there are magical jewels called "spirit gems" which can hold the soul of a deceased person indefinitely, allowing that person to manifest as a ghostly figure for attacks and such. Defeating this ghost does not destroy the spirit; it will re-form within 2d8 hours at full strength. The spirit could also possess an inanimate object, causing it to animate. (Suits of clockwork armor housed the spirit gems of some minions, and they put up quite a nasty fight.) The creation of spirit gems and the ritual necessary to tie your soul to the gem are well-kept secrets of the Stormbringer clan.
Adventure #2: When the PCs killed off the storm giant druid, her soul was transferred into one of these spirit gems. They eventually tracked her down, and found that further down the coast another member of the storm giant clan had almost completed construction of a massive ship. This giant-sized juggernaut pirate ship would further aid the giants' control of the region, and the nearby populace has pretty much been wiped out or taken as slaves to help in the building of the juggernaut. At the heart of the ship was the spirit gem of the storm giant druid; essentially she was the ship! She could manifest anywhere within the juggernaut, and the PCs had a great fight getting to the gem so they could destroy it.
They thought they succeeded, but in fact they failed.
They destroyed a fake spirit gem (which also destroyed the ship), leaving the giantess and her spirit gem on the bottom of the ocean, fully willing and able to wreak her revenge on the PCs and the city that hired them.
And now? The PCs are off on an unrelated adventure while the Bad Guys plot their vengeance. Here's where I get to start creating: The spirit gem of the giantess has been housed in a 100-foot-tall humanoid colossus that her son has constructed on the ocean floor. She is about to use this colossus to unleash her wrath on the unsuspecting city of Argalis, and the PCs will have to stop her quickly before she levels the entire city. I've got a few ideas on how to make this really challenging, but I could certainly use a few suggestions. (The party is approximately 18-19th level.)
The juggernaut (see above) had a lightning cannon as part of its arsenal; it's basically a 20-foot-long maximized wand of lightning bolt(!) I plan on having a bunch of these cannons mounted on various defensive points on the colossus' exterior, manned by scrags (sea trolls).
I'm mentally picturing this looking kinda like a guy standing behind a tripod-mounted .50 caliber machine gun, except it's a troll standing in a water-filled, cup-shaped hollow on the exterior of the colossus. As the colossus rises up out of the sea, the cup-shaped hollow remains filled with water so the troll is standing in water up to his shoulders and can regenerate while firing his cannon in battle. I may even give the trolls some sort of glassteel protective shield if I'm feeling particularly evil.
So... the first challenge will be for the group to somehow gain access to the interior of this monstrosity. The only entry will be located in the head, and the PCs will have to work their way down into the torso to find the giant's spirit gem to stop the colossus and destroy their enemy once and for all.
My problem? I'm somewhat stumped on how to actually stock the interior of this big bad beastie. I know there'll be a great grand finale battle in the last room, and it's going to involve the spirits of both of the storm giants they've already defeated. There'll also be a beatdown of the Stormbringer scion (the one who built the colossus) somewhere in there.
Ideas? Clarifications? Am I insane for trying this? :smalltongue: