D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Boulder-Choked Monolith

# Beast# Dungeon# Wilderness

The ancient Monolith Pillars, once a sacred ley-line nexus, now lie choked under an avalanche of cyclopean boulders. A lone Stone Giant, Thalgrim, sits motionless at the summit, a living statue, with a griffon colony nesting in the stony folds of his hair and shoulders. Two desperate factions seek to control the fate of this site: the Geode Wardens, who believe the Giant is a dormant guardian whose reawakening will heal the land, and the Dustbound Sappers, miners whose ancestral home was destroyed by the Giant's previous 'awakening' and who see him as a ticking cataclysm. The party is drawn here by the promise of untold ancient riches rumored to be sealed within the Giant's stony form.

Chronicle Prelude

The Verdant Outskirts of the Monolith Foothills. The air is thick with the scent of pine and crushed granite. Before you, the trail ends at a sheer cliff of tumbled, house-sized boulders, blocking the path to the distant silhouette of the Monolith Pillars. A crude camp of tents and mining equipment is set up here, flying a banner of a pickaxe crossed with a broken chain—the Dustbound Sappers.

Environmental Traits

A catastrophic reawakening of the Stone Giant Thalgrim threatens to collapse the entire mountain range, burying the surrounding valleys and the Sapper homeland in an unstoppable rockslide. The Geode Wardens believe his reawakening will instead restore the land's vitality. The truth is locked within the Giant's petrified mind.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (8)

Elder Morwen
An elderly human woman with skin like weathered sandstone and hair the color of granite dust. She wears layered robes of earthy tones, adorned with polished geode slices and living moss. Her eyes hold a deep, patient sorrow.
Foreman Korag
A massive, scarred dwarf missing his left ear and several fingers. His armor is practical, patched leather and steel plates. He smells of sweat, rock dust, and ozone from the arcane charges. His expression is one of grim, unyielding resolve.
Skycleave, the Griffon Patriarch
A majestic, enormous griffon with the body of a lion and the head and wings of a golden eagle. His feathers are weathered and scarred, his talons like curved swords. He guards a massive nest woven from stone-shavings and metal scraps atop a high ledge.
Talia the Unspoken
A young, wiry woman in patched Sapper gear, her face smudged with dirt. She moves with a nervous, quick silence, constantly checking over her shoulder. She carries no visible weapons, only a coil of rope and climbing picks.
The Ear-Canal Grick Alpha
A horrifying, worm-like abomination twelve feet long, with slick, stone-gray hide and a radial maw of grinding, crystalline teeth. It pulses with a sickly purple psychic energy, and its body is fused with pulsating, amethyst-like crystals that grow from the cavern walls around it.
Thalgrim's Dreaming Echo
A faint, translucent shimmer in the air, or a face that seems to form in the patterns of stone and crystal. It has no fixed form, only the impression of immense, ancient weariness and a profound, silent plea. It communicates through psychic impressions that feel like sudden memories or emotions.
Brixia
A gnome with sharp, curious eyes and nimble fingers stained with mineral dust. She wears a leather apron over practical clothes and carries a large, multi-pocketed satchel. Her stall is a simple blanket spread on the ground, covered in small vials, ropes, and interesting rocks.
Drenn the Doubtful
A young, human Sapper with wide, scared eyes and grease-stained hands. He nervously fiddles with a wrench. He wears the same patchwork gear as the others, but it looks ill-fitting and new.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

✦ Related Cases ✦

The Reckoning of the Blood-Soaked Bracers

The Frost Worm Tunnel Collapse of Pale Cliff