The Giants' Hills - GM Overview
Overview
The Giant's Hills was once home to a race of Formorian giants that inhabited this area. They were working on an enormous life-reviving ritual connected to lightning. They failed, and the threads of their magic now runs through the region with the reverberating power of a ceaseless storm. You can find traces of the giants and other undead creatures, still guarding the place.
This region is heavily inspired by Celtic mythology. Formorians who once lived here were trying to harness the magic of the storms to create a ritual that they hoped would save their dying world. The ritual however was designed to capture the storm essence and funnel it through the mountain to the mountains heart. With no one to end it, it continues to bring about deadly storms, impacting the wildlife and fuelling the unfinished ritual. What's more this ritual was designed to bring things back to life and in its now broken state it continues to try do that, resulting in the great Formorians rising from their graves, caught between life and death in an undead state. wherever a ritual hub is all things that die will be struck with unnatural lightning magic bringing them back at 1d6 hit points.
The players of the region must work to destroy or complete the various ritual sites so that it will finally come to an end. They will spelunk into caverns as they find broken segments of the ritual all while fending off the many defences and precautions the giants left behind to defend their ritual.
Other Information
There are no living sentient species within the Giant's Hills. Everything here that was once sentient is now awakened undead (Draugr, ghosts, and giants.) As the players explore here they will begin to discover that the traces of magic were connected to lightning and overcoming death. They will also find signs of a great calamity and undoing coming upon this place. Eventually it can become clear that this world was dying. the ritual the Formorians undertook here was in efforts to prevent their world from coming to an end.
What remains of their ritual continues to animate the dead of this place as well as cause havoc to the area in the forms of terrible storms that wrack this region.
Adventurers that come here may find themselves tangling with the deadly wildlife, spelunking into deep caverns or forgotten burial sites filled with animated undead. They may be sent by the university to investigate the remnants of the Giant's ritual, or take on a contract with the Bastion to deal with some of the huge monsters spotted.
Descriptions for Giants hills Sessions:
GM Resources:
Helpful adjectives and descriptive phrases
- Black basalt columns
- rolling green hills with thick patches of heather and gorse
- Huge cliffs and sheer drops.
- Geometric patterns. the hexagon shape of the stone changes the shape of the hills altogether.
- Pillars of hexagonal rock
- Dripping caverns
- Echoing silences reverberating with the trickle of underground rivers. The rivers run deep through the mountain and seem to have no exit point where they would normally become a surface river.
- Even from Keystone, claps of thunder can be heard
- Sizzling static feeling to the air
- Ancient feeling, like this place has stood a thousand years, weathered and worn down yes but with an oak like endurance that suggests eternity. This is not just in the stones but in the very ambience and feeling of the place. It feels like a long abandoned place of much importance.
- Pillars rising like jutting steps of stone -- but steps made for much larger creatures than anything most people have ever seen ...
- arcane lightning that strikes a bight blue leaving fragments of burnt blue embers drifting with the wind.
- threads of ancient arcane ritual that run through parts of the stone in glowing blue lines of energy.
Lighting, music and sound effects
- Cold blue light
- Bright electric blue light
- Storm sound effects https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDq6TstdEi8
- Thunder effect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK_m77VZYnc
- Rain sound effects https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzJTZgGtAVU
- Gentle nordic music https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=wjTe0R2bREY
- Creepy nordic music
- Epic viking battle music
- Epic celtic battle music
- Gentle celtic music (on the peaks)
- Specific boss tracks
- The Thumptress - Cunning over courage Assassins Creed wrath of the druids
- The Titan- Berserkir- Danheim
- Czar Cavern Creeper- Blood starved beast- SIE sound team OR Krigsgaldr- Heilung
Fauna and Flora
Fauna
Flora
Points of Interest
The Cavern of Souls
The Buried Barrow
Hawthorn Peak
Abandoned battlefield
Forest of Pillars
Tall Pines
The Whiteflow
The Restless Bridge
The High Road
Region effects and rules
Storm
Storms can roll in at any moment during a session in the Giant's Hills. It is up to you how to employ these. you can bring one to bear if you need to stretch out the time of a session or make a fight a little more interesting. Some rumours mention that they take place during a storm and as such will have these effects automatically. If you choose to you can make a storm occur randomly by rolling a d100 at the start of the session 0-60 means there is no storm 60-70 the storm will occur immediately and last till the break. 70-80 the storm will start at the break and last till the final encounter, 80-90 the storm will only occur in the final encounter, 90-100 the storm will be present the entirety of the session. should you choose to roll for it we encourage you to be adaptable and keep an eye on the clock.
Lightning strikes
Occasionally lightning may strike. This can only happen in combat encounters that take place on the peaks (not within them). The lightning also seems strangely drawn to conflict coalescing in static energy where fighting is strongest. To do this GM will place a lightning token on the map where the static electricity is brewing this will always happen where conflict is fiercest. if there is equal fighting everywhere then make an open roll. make sure you make your players aware of this and that it may be dangerous. NPCs and enemies will also attempt to get away from the zone. If the players do not move out of that zone by turn reset the lightning will hit dealing 4d10 to everything within 5ft cube of the strike that fails a DC 15 Dex or (spellcasting stat) check. if the player succeeds they take half damage. Note! this should never kill a player. If it takes them to 0 instead have it take them to 1hit point. once lightning has begun roll a d6 as the start of every turn order on a roll of 4-6 a new static token can be placed, on a 1-3 the storm does not strike this turn. the lightning strikes end the moment the conflict ends. you may use lightning as a threat outside of combat if you are initiating a storm environmental effect) see below.
it can help if you have new players to demonstrate the lightning hitting nearby terrain and utterly destroying it to demonstrate the effect
Fall areas
There are many gaps and fissures between the rocks into which someone may fall or be pushed. These fall areas may be displayed openly on maps or may be made as hidden patches on a map DC 11 perception check to spot. They can also be used as environmental hazards. The objective here is to create a feeling of danger without actually killing players with fall damage. You don’t want to let any players actually fall. If they do, automatically have them fall 20 feet and hit a ledge taking 2d6 damage; if they remembered to use climbing lines they will fall till the line catches them and swings them against the wall only taking 1d4 dmg. Players should always have a check to save themselves (dex to jump to the side, strength to catch and hold on etc). Should someone fall a second time they will hit a ledge and take 3d6 damage depending on GM discretion. They may then attempt to climb up. If someone fails a fall check you can also delay this by saying they are in the process of 'slipping' or 'going over the edge' giving players an opportunity to save them on their turn, should they be in combat, or using a reaction ,should they be in exploration. If someone falls at the later half of the game they may take more damage but as always they can use their key to save themselves should this prove fatal.
Objective
Objective - Calm the Storm
- Something is causing storms in this region.
- look into the ritual the giants were conducting
- the ritual was a ritual to undo the death of their dying world but it failed and their populace was wiped out. this small segment of their world has teleported here to Arcadia but as it is incomplete it is harnessing natural arcane energy and causing terrible storms, what's more the life giving nature of the ritual is failing due to it being unfinished and rather bringing things back to life it is capturing them at a point of undeath, in between life and the path. Ending the ritual will bring about the end of this cycle and allow the souls of the region to rest as the storms come to an end.
Rewards -- items and crafting
common rewards
After the Region is calmed, the following can be added to the crafting system:
- Giant strength potion
- Lightning resistance potion
- Lightning and thunder weapon crafting
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