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Stormguard Citadel#

Giants' home at the Spine of the World.
3 paths in! Behir + Basilisk cave, quintessent mountain scaling (crazy), or through hill giant hotel.
(alternate path got shut down by mentioning the dragon)

Motivation#

Irae has taken control of umnos via koth's mind control powers. She is using the energy in the portals to control the demon lords.
Mind control can be shut down orb by orb (one in gilgrin, one in rimehaze, one in halos).
If giants are ever mind controlled to override they will simply reveal that: "she will kill us all",.

Due to the magic being used harnessed / that metal production has taken a toll. The beam of energy is new.. Not everyone knows. Suri will want to Stop the mad Zoltan (controlled by Irae).

Layout#

General features#

Smart combat aware giants.
Guards by important chambers (reliquary, vault).
A mix of infantry, glass cannons, brutes, artillery, bosses.

Hotel#

Lax pre-intro. They don't expect intruders. Wolves + eating hill giants is a nice intro..

One Torn Open Cage with broken shackles#

Large size. Vomit on floor. Deus Ex Machina Mouth of Grolantor?
If they kill him though, they get the some gross food with a temporary STR bonus, then poisoned.

Main passage#

Have some Hill Giants dumbly commandeering a legion of Ogres?
Have an actual tactical setup if they fail to go undetected..
...that said. These guys have 5int so tactical setup is not going to be great.
..reveal a lot if they listen in, bad tactical speak..

However, if they are stealthy, these guys are just around from barracks and northward..
They might try to awaken the Mouth in case of panic.
By default. 1HG + HD + Cbrutes are kept in last room.

Prison#

People taken prisoners by hill giants. For food variety.
Vincent / Bill will tell that two frost giants have been forcing the hill giants to fetch them.
"They sounded weird. Their voices. Hollow, vowels lost."

Outcome#

Fight everything. Even the Mouth of Grolantor (badly).
Main protectorate escape down the spire hallway (where they later backstab with Irae).
Free prisoners, return them to Mirabar and stay the night. Hanz becomes the mayor of the town. They ignore the night cat.

Main Hall#

Actual entrance where the Citadel Begins.
Balrog style moria path mid mountain. Feels abandoned. Huge pillars everywhere. Can't even see the edges of the room. In the distance, you see a faint flicker of blue crackling energy.

Spine leads to Gilgrin when going down, and Rimehaze going up.

Big encounter#

Was meant to be if they were silently attacking, but they just left with village members, so these guys moved back.

Initiated battle with ominous whispers from Irae, then:

  • 2 main blast doors behind which there's a stone wall.
  • 4 Ogre Bolt Launchers at the back on an elevated position. Somewhat split across main hallway.
  • 2 Chain Brutes
  • 1 Ogre Howdah (with 3 goblins perched atop – 1 archer + 2 swordsmen)
  • 2 Hill Giants
  • Hill Giants are going to plow through Howdah's goblin support.
  • Maybe put a zombie frost giant there. Converted one. Blood Giant. CC180. CR8.

Surprise twinned dominate person here from Irae on party during Blood Giant encounter.

Outcome#

pendle got sniped by domination and sunburst.
sansuri enters. Gives Improved Alter Self Heist Quest in Gilgrin.

Gilgrin (underground)#

Contains relics in vault, good armors and weapons, plus Duke Zoltan and his double shielded lackey. Portal on roof of it.

Perhaps also a tamed Ancient Brass Dragon who powers the forge, Felgolos. In a crazy lair.
It could potentially have helped to overthrow the king, but they would've have to overcome the anti-magic field therein to help free him first.

Rimehaze (above)#

Leads up along mountain paths. They can choose to go in towards the fire giants vault if they so prefer. Maybe they can see the flying Hrasvelger in Roc form.
They can meet the Smiling One warning them of the situation above.

Protectorate#

Conclave of immune cloud giants. Suri will want to get there to discuss.

Halos#

Literally uses the entire spine of the world to channel the weave. Need some of the highest level Storm Giants to power it. They stand there funnelling lightning energy into it constantly.

Elevator#

Runs from Rimehaze (default), to Gilgrin (low), and Halos (high).
Initial condition, Halos path hard limited by Storm Giants, and need operating gem to even start it from Rimehaze:

Peridot of Power - radioactive green octagonally cut gem (elevator gem).

Underdark#

Can dig deeper into the easier ones. (Follow hierarchy – fire giants go to underdark)

EBA: Quintescent BL2 wizard pool fight#

The feywild place where the teleport circle is could be a good place for a Storm of Vengeance trap. If triggered, call guards. Otherwise, can sneak by.

EBA: Steam Room with lightning#

https://old.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/erdhmd/oc_water_treatment_facility_map_w_fog/
Perhaps a scary elemental mix idea to cause hazards / vision impairment.

EBA: Cloud giant patrol with wolves#

Because going that far up this early has to be a stealth mission.
Patrol is slow and defeatable. Hill giants with a hell hound for perception?
They don't necessarily want to fight. They just want to alert the people.
Terrible rolls => alert base.