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Version datée du 30 mai 2024 à 13:31 par Errius (discussion | contributions) (Page créée avec « Born of Stone “Once, in the ancient days, the stone and spirits spoke to the giants of the plateau, and the giants of every hill and valley knew what the earth brought forth. The elves brought bronze to the giants, and it made good knives, shining, but not as sharp as stone. The elves spoke to wood, and the giants to stone. All was as it should be. Then came the rune giants, and their little masters full of wrath, pride, and greed, and the stone days were over... »)
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Born of Stone

“Once, in the ancient days, the stone and spirits spoke to the giants of the plateau, and the giants of every hill and valley knew what the earth brought forth. The elves brought bronze to the giants, and it made good knives, shining, but not as sharp as stone. The elves spoke to wood, and the giants to stone. All was as it should be. Then came the rune giants, and their little masters full of wrath, pride, and greed, and the stone days were over. From them we learned iron and steel, and the gods changed, and the earth was no longer enough.”

—Conna the Wise, stone giant elder

The history of the stone giants is almost entirely a history of tribal rivalries, followed by the rise of the many other giant races. The taiga giants, hill giants, and stone giants remain tightly bound by what is largely a shared history, faith, and culture. Of these three races, though, in ancient times the stone giants were the ones who allied themselves most closely with the empire of Thassilon, learning the use of iron, rune magic, and advanced weapons. These changes brought the stone giants out of their simple existence as hunters and gatherers, but with the empire’s fall they were driven from civilized lands. Now, the stone giants are split into two antagonistic groups: those who side with their ancient cousins—the taiga giants—and long for the past; and those who hope to recapture the days of empire and seek to find the magic of the rune giants, to become the new masters of a restored empire.[1]

History of the Stone Giant

The stone giants of Varisia tell that, in the days of glory, stone giants were the first and only giants, and they lived in the hills and in the wide glacial valleys—anywhere there was game to hunt. In time, evil gods seduced them, birthing the first giants of fire and frost. Still others abandoned the early hunting and gathering to become cloud giants and storm giants, lifted to the heavens by beneficent gods to oppose fire and frost. The stone giants were sad to see their cousins wander in so many directions, so far from the simple truths of stone. Then, wizards with powers over runes—the runelords of Thassilon, or, as the giant legend remember them, the Ancient Lords—came and marked many giants as their slaves, creating the first rune giants. Heeding the commands of their tiny masters, these corrupt giants enslaved all of giantkind, including the stone giants themselves. Although slaves, the stone giants were kept by many races, and learned and shared much. At the will of the rune giants and their human overlords, they crafted great monuments and vast cities, adopted new tools, and learned new magic. Their old customs of riding mammoths for the hunt changed to include making war from mammothback against any realm that opposed their imperial masters. All the while, though, they stayed true to the old ways: hunting, raiding, and building their villages and temples—blatant acts of rebelliousness against the mandates of the Ancient Lords. In time, their beliefs spread among the other slave races working under the direction of their master masons, and the other servants of Thassilon came to praise Minderhal, god of justice and all giants.

Yet with the passage of a fleeting few stone giant generations, the Ancient Lords were cast down in a cataclysm of starfire and rebellion. The Ancient Lords vanished along with their rune giant taskmasters, and with them too died the giants’ concern for the society of humans. The stone giants retreated to the plateaus, hills, and mountains, but their cousins who had stayed behind and fled the rule of Thassilon barely recognized their “imperial” relations. The Thassilonian stone giants worked stone differently; the rune giants’ magic had changed their skin and shape, and they could no longer speak to the ancestor spirits as the taiga giants did. Intermarriages brought only deformed children, and soon the cousins drifted apart.

And so these once kindred people became two races: the taiga giants who kept to the old customs and the stone giants who were forever changed by the rule of man. So stone giants have remained, caught between two worlds: the old ways they romanticize and long for, and the new ways half-abandoned with the fall of Thassilon.[1]

Anatomy of the Stone Giant

Stone giants stand about 12 feet tall and are recognizable by their chiseled countenances, with many appearing similar to living statues. Their gray, pebbled skin roughens and hardens over time, so that stone giant elders often resemble chipped and craggy rock. While not actually stone, this hardened skin is as tough as boiled leather, but much thicker; in the oldest giants, their gray skin can be up to two inches thick. It’s not true that moss and lichens grow on stone giants, although some hunters do wear clothes sewn with bits of moss as camouflage.

Stone giants have an affinity for hiding in natural stone surroundings. More than just a function of their skin tone, they can sit motionless for hours and use their slow, patient movement to get within rock-throwing distance of large prey. Despite their large size, they are surprisingly stealthy.

Stone giant bones are strong but partly hollow, allowing them to move more quickly than their size might indicate. A series of reinforcing chambers, like the cells of a honeycomb, help the hollow bones retain their strength even at a lighter weight. Stone giant lungs are enormous for their size, and when they are moving quickly or engaged in strenuous activity, their breath rushes from hugely flared nostrils. They seem largely unaffected by altitude, and can climb high peaks without the loss of breath or vigor.[1]

Society of the Stone Giant

Stone giants possess an ancient and multi-faceted culture with many clans relating histories that measure in millennia. While many outsiders take them for simple brutes, the stone giant decision not to build cities or form unified nations is one born of a history of slavery and victimization under an empire of vice. In modern times, stone giant society is an amalgam of two walks: the high culture, numerous taboo skills learned during the days of ancient Thassilon, and the low culture, glorified by the craggiest elders.

The stone giant high culture, often called the Rune Road, is fading, but it is still remembered by those giants who have lived for centuries and heard the tales from their own ancestors. Many of the runic songs and legends refer back to the time when they built cities for other races and raised their own vast settlements. These elders tell stories of how their ancestors built towers reaching into the heavens, cored to the heart of the earth, and worked the world’s tallest mountains into the faces of gods. While storytellers use these tales to remind their people of the feats they’re capable of, they are bittersweet legends that go hand in hand with warnings against the cruelty of the smaller races, their petty tyrants, and the black-armored ungiants that would do their will. It is this high culture that leads stone giants to build structures, work in iron, and mistrust those not of their tribe.

In contrast, the ancient stone giant low culture is based on the hunting of large prey, from mammoth and dire elk to wyverns and rocs. They live in simple caves (worked as little as possible), survive by the strength of their herds, and seek a simple balance in peace with the strength of their mountain. It is this aspect of their culture that hearkens back to the simple ways of their ancestors and the traditions the taiga giants still embrace. Many stone giant communities say they embrace these ancient ways wholeheartedly, but in action find the worked stone and iron of the high culture too useful to abandon.

Government

Stone giant society is largely clannish, with a number of interrelated families (usually a dozen or fewer) occupying the same region and working together for a common good. While stone giants rarely war, their clans are insular in nature, with little cooperation occurring between unrelated groups. Stone giants typically claim a specific mountain—or, for larger groups, an entire mountain chain—as their ancestral holding.

A society largely uninterested in power over their kin, stone giants live in a relatively peaceful zygarchy, wherein power is held by the eldest couple of the clan. The ruling couple takes no special title and their extended family gains no special influence or power among their clansmen (though in practice, the children of a clan’s rulers have been known to exert great influence over their parents). The duality of such leadership is thought to balance the passions of a single ruler and remind leaders that the clan is family first and servants second. Although the eldest couple technically rules the clan, the position is rarely a coveted one. The responsibilities of rulers—settling disagreements, guarding clan heirlooms, and dealing with other clans—far outweigh the few benefits of respect and choicest living space. These duties fall to the eldest couple, as their age supposedly grants them the patience and wisdom to deal with such decisions evenly (and, as some young warriors and hunters would joke, because they have little better to do in their dotage). Should a member of the ruling couple die, the next most senior couple of the clan ascends, with the surviving leader retaining a place as a respected advisor for the remainder of his or her days. Considering the length of a stone giant lifetime, it is not uncommon for a ruling couple to have a small council of former-ruler widows and widowers as advisors.

Daily Life

Aside from hunting, wrestling, and rock throwing—largely the pastimes of clan members of both sexes younger than 300 years old—stone giants are skilled herdsmen and weavers. They often tend herds of giant rams, mountain aurochs, avalanche llamas, dire elephants, and similar gigantic, sturdy mammals, leading them up and down steep mountainsides in pursuit of water and shelter as the season dictates. Sometimes even more deadly than the stone giants themselves, herds of these gigantic beasts spook easily or might trample small mountain climbers with neither their herders nor themselves even noticing. From the thick fur of their herds, stone giant craftsmen create giant weavings of enormous size but of only moderate quality. The largest are 20 feet high and 50 feet long, depicting hunting scenes, masonry works, and raids between clans or tribes. They weigh from 200 to 500 pounds and can be worth hundreds of gold pieces depending on quality, size, condition, and materials. These tapestries divide caverns and giant longhalls into smaller, usable spaces. Aside from the these hangings, stone giants also weave heavy clothing to keep them warm in the frigid climes and howling winter storms they so often wander through. The youngest giants often perform this weaving, as their fingers are more flexible and are able to weave tighter fabric.

Communities

While simple people, stone giants are not savages. Although many clans incorporate caves into their living spaces, few natural fissures can hope to accommodate a stone giant’s size. As such, the hollows they dig into solid mountainsides are typically wide, open spaces that hardly feel like chambers of confining rock. Their intuition when working with stone and masterful knowledge of engineering allow them to create completely stable artificial cave complexes capable of housing several families. These subterranean levels are supplemented by sturdy stone structures built against the mountainside. A stone giant community often consists of several small functional buildings used as stables, storage sheds, and workhouses and longhalls used to house warriors and hunters. These structures are surrounded by a sturdy wall set with hulking watchtowers, from which stone giant guards command a view of their surrounding lands and can bombard invaders with rocks from a great distance.

The center of stone giant society is always in a tribe’s Great Cavern. This is usually the first cave the tribe settled around, which over time becomes the largest. Raiding parties boast of their successes there (or lick their wounds and bemoan failure), and all the major clan ceremonies of naming, marriage, funerals, and taking tribal titles, such as war leader or clan elder, are held there. The Great Cavern is typically decorated with wall painting done over stone.

Art and Architecture

On any given evening, the great cave of a stone giant community is filled with the grinding thrum of stone giant voices recounting the legends and histories of their people. In their gravelly voices, elders and skilled scops recount these lengthy tales verbatim as they have through the centuries, imparting their own artistic flair and voice to each retelling. Stone giant bards and elders take great pride in performing before their clan, while nearly every community member delights in a flawlessly repeated, eloquently performed retelling of their people’s familiar stories.

Aside from the work of their weavers, the majority of stone giants’ artistic endeavors turn to sculpting and stone crafting. Stone giant masons and quarrymen achieve astounding results with simple tools, partly due to their great strength, but also due to their deep understanding of what stone can do. Their tools are simple ones: rope and string, squares and levels, and powerful stone hammers. In addition, stone giants use temperature to splinter large blocks of stone, heating with fire, then cooling with water, snow, and ice until a stone cracks along the lines they have already scratched along its surface. In this way, they frequently generate stone blocks up to 20 tons in weight. These are too heavy for even a giant to lift (they carry blocks up to about 1 ton), so they use log rollers or pebble slurries to move the largest stones over distances.

As the master masons of the Thassilonian Empire, they designed and directed the construction of great temples, monuments, dams, towers, and more mysterious works in the service of the runelords. The giants retain an oral history of these monuments, but they no longer build in this imperial style, seeing no reason for such needless opulence. To the stone giants, these monuments are dead places, reminders of an empire that failed and an alliance with humans in which they were ultimately betrayed.

Death

Stone giants are long-lived, often reaching the age of 800 years or even older. Clan members are not considered elders until they reach their sixth century, and the very oldest live to nearly a millennia. Juveniles are acknowledged as adults at age 90 for women and 120 for males.

Stone giant funerals take a number of forms, but burial is rarely one of them. Caves and the earth are a birthplace, but not a proper resting place for stone giant bones. Instead, chieftains and elders are usually mummified by exposure upon great mountaintops or high plateaus. There they are watched over by a shaman or sometimes by an exile, who must make sure animals do not disturb the body. The eyes of a mummy are the only portion that typically decays, creating hollow sockets. Once dried and withered, the mummy is dressed in rich furs, jewelry, and armor or bright woven wrappings and set in a place of honor in the tribe’s ancestral vault, an ancient catacomb often near the stone giant community, but in some cases hundreds of miles away.

The funerals of less prominent giants are often fiery pyres, the smoke of which can sometimes be seen for 30 miles or more. In areas of little wood, stone giants are buried under a cairn of stones piled up by the surviving members of the tribe. The size of this cairn indicates the respect accorded to the giant. “He’ll leave a mountain” is a statement of respect, showing that a particular giant is well-loved by his people.[1]

Stone Giant Religion

Stone giants worship many gods and goddesses, just as other sentient races do, but several are common to almost all tribes. Domains marked with an “*” can be found in the system reference document (d20srd.org).

Ancestral Ghosts

The Ancestors, Father, Mother, The Spirits of the Earth N divine spirits of stone giants, earth, and mountains Like taiga giants, stone giants place great value on the proper regard for spirits, ghosts, and ancestors. The two races of giants both speak with ancestors frequently through magic, using these conversations to set plans to determine the right time to hunt, move their great herds, and watch for omens of things to come. Some elders have been haunted by their predecessors when they pursued goals or strategies that risked the destruction of the entire tribe. In many cases, an elder who is haunted by the tribe’s ghosts loses his influence—this is much more common among the taiga giants than among the stone giants, but it happens in both races. The ancestral ghosts usually have a painted shrine where their descendants burn candles and offer up sacrifices of marrow, burnt fur, and amber.

Domains: Death, Divination, Knowledge, Luck, Protection.

Favored Weapon: Club.

Erastil

Father Strongbow, the Hunter, Old Deadeye LG god of farming, family, hunting, and trade Although he is widely worshipped among humans, in giant depictions, the hunter’s god is always shown as a rugged old giant with a spear, stone, or greatclub in hand, wearing the furs of his prey. His followers often smear his statues with blood from their kills, giving the idols a warm reddish-brown patina. Giants always leave a stone for Erastil at his shrine before going out to hunt. Family members neatly pile new stones upon the shrine every day until the hunters’ return. The stones of hunters who die in the field are always left where they were dropped, and eventually used to expand or improve the shrine.

Domains: Animal, Community*, Good, Law, Plant.

Favored Weapon: Longbow.

Fandarra

Blood Mother, the Bleeding Stone, the Earth Seer N goddess of birth, death, earth, and knowledge While her worship is not limited to stone giants, Fandarra’s aspect as an earth goddess, source of wisdom, and devourer of the weak is appealing to many stone giant elders. She is known for her gifts of magical bears and mammoths, given to her favored champions. In even the best of times she asks for great sacrifices, mass bloodlettings, butchered livestock, mammoth pelts, the skulls of enemies, and the like. In times of calamity or suffering her demands grow more severe and only worshipers’ lives will appease.

Fandarra is usually depicted as a bald, gray-skinned giant wearing a crown of leaves, a dress of rich red mammoth fur, and holding a haunch of meat in one hand and a stone tablet in the other. In her vengeful aspect, she wears a necklace of knives or arrowheads, and in her fertile aspect she is shown either pregnant or lifting up twin giants in her two hands.

Domains: Community*, Death, Earth, Knowledge, Plant.

Favored Weapon: Stone dagger.

Minderhal

He Who Makes and Unmakes, Lawgiver, Lord of Giants LE god of creation, justice, giants, and strength At the height of the Thassilonian Empire, the worship of Minderhal expanded beyond the giants who first prayed to him and drew in thousands of worshipers from across the empire. With the empire’s collapse, stone giants are among his few remaining followers. The many races that once praised him have all been destroyed or have abandoned him. In the time of the empire, Minderhal was depicted both as a powerful smith and a raging stone monstrosity. His worship was concerned with matters of law, justice, and architecture, as well as stonework and metalwork.

While Minderhal is still worshiped among a few scattered giant tribes on the Storval Plateau and in the Kodar Mountains, his scattered faith has been entirely forgotten by the smaller races. With the collapse of the broader religion, most carvings of Minderhal are simple works made of softer stone, wherein he’s often shown bearded and wise, although still strong. Still, despite centuries of waning influence, many stone giants—especially stone giant elders—embrace the teachings of the Lord of Giants.

Domains: Artifice*, Earth, Glory*, Law, Strength.

Favored Weapon: Hammer.

Urazra and the Bear Cult

Breaker of Bones, Gore Pelt, the Red Bear CE god of battle, brutality, and strength This new faith (only a few hundred years old) has grown quickly in popularity among more brutal stone giants. Urkav promises his followers great strength, fortitude, and immunity to pain for their acts of savagery and sacrifices of flesh. In addition, many of his followers are powerful barbarians, able to rage as their totem does, gaining strength and power from that fury. The cult is somewhat contentious among stone giants. Many elders oppose it, claiming it plays to the worst, most bestial aspects of giant nature, and that it rejects both wisdom and civilization. The cult spreads through charismatic preachers who claim that will and strength are more important than faith, works, knowledge, or history. The bear cultists are largely young male giants, eager to raid and to rend and torture prisoners.

Domains: Animal, Chaos, Destruction, Strength, War.

Favored Weapon: Claw or spiked gauntlet.[1]

Stone Giant Magic

The most common magic among stone giants is that of the elders, which runs toward divinations and transmutations. Elders are simply the oldest of any given clan, and they keep the secrets of stone magic. Typically, they teach these secrets to one or two trusted members of the tribe, who gain their powers when an elder dies or when they unlock forgotten ways granted by communing with their ancestral mountain and the spirits of their forefathers. Occasionally, a stone giant manifests sorcerous ability before he reaches old age. These young sorcerers are often marked by strangely colored flesh, crystalline formations on their skin, or abnormally short stature. Both revered and shunned, these magic-users are thought to have been possessed by the ancestors and are familiar with their ways. As such, they are afforded higher standing within a tribe, gain the ear of the clan’s ruling couple, and often take a role similar to a tribal shaman or holy man.

For all their influence, though, stone giant sorcerers—especially those marked by strange physical traits—find themselves socially outcast, rarely find mates and thus almost never rise to rule. Wizards are unknown in stone giant society, the art of studying arcane magic being forbidden, a taboo held in remembrance of ancient Thassilon. Regardless of when a stone giant gains his magical ability, the channels of magic flow in similar ways. Such spellcasters typically gain power over the earth, with stone shape, stone tell, transmute rock to mud, and transmute mud to rock being the most common manifestations, but others are known (see the Stone Magic feat on page 57). Giants who nurture their magical abilities and become true sorcerers typically gain spells that deal with stone such as stoneskin or wall of stone, or that might aid warriors in battle or speed travel through the mountains—as a variety of transmutation spells do.[1]

Stone Giants in Battle

Stone giants know little of war. While their storytellers weave tales of a time when the armies of the earth marched in great legions under the command of rune-etched generals, those times are long past. Today, most stone giants have replaced the spear and shield of the raider with the bow and boulder of the hunter. Both stone and taiga giants domesticate and rely upon animals in their hunts. These animals help hunters find prey, serve as transportation, and help harry dangerous animals In the rare times disputes do erupt between stone giant clans, the elders of both communities meet and seek to resolve their disagreements. If these negotiations end in insult or otherwise prove fruitless, a war of sabotage might erupt. During such fracases, young warriors from both sides steal each other’s livestock, sabotage structures, and abduct female stone giants—the theft of an enemy’s wife is a mark of honor for any young stone giant.

Only rarely do such feuds break into actual warfare. When they do, though, mountains shake with the force of stampeding war mammoths and the stone magic of powerful elders can call down avalanches a mile wide. Although stone giant elders are slow to participate in such battles—seeing them as shortsighted and wasteful—many younger clan members relish the bloodhaze of battle. In the face of deadly warfare, the weaker tribe is swiftly determined and typically concedes to the demands of the stronger. Pride and stubbornness, however, have led to more than one clan being buried under the rage and rocks of their cousins.[1]

Stone Giant Equipment

The traditional weapons of a stone giant hunter or warrior are the thrown boulder and a powerful club made from a tree trunk, often banded with iron. Taiga giants still use these weapons exclusively, but stone giant clans have seen other weapons and other ways. They often use sharp picks, mammoth lances, huge hammers, and spears—along with the trick of carving shatter boulders. Some clans also rely upon their shamans to cast spells over their boulders, enhancing them with flame arrow, silence, or similar spells.

Armor for stone giants usually consists of thick leathers and furs. Some stone giant clans still bear the breastplates, rune-marked helmets, and shields of the Thassilonian Age, but in most cases these have rusted away and are lost to time. Aside from such tools of war, stone giants are well versed in crafting the tools and equipment necessary to travel and survive in rugged mountains. Great thick ropes of tightly woven vines, roots, and animal hair; massive hammers; pitons of stone and iron; and massive harnesses for dire elephants and other creatures capable of supporting a giant all allow stone giant hunters to make their way over even the most treacherous slopes with ease.[1]

Adventures With Stone Giants

Stone giants are not always foes, although they certainly consider humans something like small but dangerous vermin. If you’re interested in creating your own plots involving stone giants, consider the following adventure hooks.

Bridge to the Past: The elders of a stone giant clan all receive visions of a massive bridge built from the banks of Lake Skotha to the mysterious island known as Chorak’s Tomb. Believing this to be the will of their ancestral spirits, all of the clan’s resources turn to this new project. But one sensitive stone giant hunter fears the voices speaking to his family’s elders are not those of the ancestors, but something darker, welling from the death-shrouded isle.

Exile: An ancient stone giant is sighted wandering through Korvosa’s holdings near Abken, stealing livestock and trampling fields into strange patterns. While the giant avoids humans and has an uncanny knack for hiding himself, his presence is causing a panic around the small community. The community leaders want the giant gone—by force if necessary—and are willing to pay anyone who can convince the elusive giant to leave, whether his intentions be for good or ill.

Rise of the Ruinlord: A young firebrand has wrested control of the Spirehall stone giants deep in the Red Mountains. A fanatic of Urazra, this new stone giant chieftain seeks to bring his people into an age of dominance over the weaker and smaller races. He demands the reconstruction of a Thassilonian tower high in the mountains to serve as his throne, but first, he sends his minions to kidnap several “small folk” to search the ruin for magic of the ancient age.[1]

Knowledge of the Stone Giant

While elusive and wary of the smaller “civilized” races, stone giants are an ancient people and much might be learned from them. Characters with ranks in Knowledge (nature) can learn more about stone giants. When a character makes a successful skill check, reveal the following lore, including the information from lower DCs.

Knowledge (nature)

DC Result

18 Stone giants are reclusive, stony-skinned giants who live high in mountains.

23 Impassive and aloof, stone giants hunt large prey and live in hills, caves, and mountains. They are difficult to see among stones and are capable of crushing foes by throwing massive boulders.

28 Stone giants worship Minderhal, a god of strength and law. They revere their elders and frequently ally themselves with other giants and lesser giantkin. Numerous stone giant clans tame dire bears.

33 Many stone giant elders can speak to stones and command the earth to do their will. Stone giants believe they are the purest form of giants, from which all other species of giants are descended.[1]

Stone Magic

Many stone giant elders gain a measure of control over the earth, but those few who nurture this innate magic unlock even greater abilities.

Prerequisite: Stone giant elder (700 years or older), Cha 17.

Benefit: In addition to the usual spell-like abilities of a stone giant elder, the giant gains the ability to use passwall, statue, spike stones, stone skin, and wall of stone once per day. These spells are cast as if by a 10th-level sorcerer. The save DC for each is Charisma-based.[1]

Beasts of Battle

Whether as aid on the hunt or as support in battle, beasts kept by stone giants are often as massive as they are deadly.

Dire Bears: Dire bears and stone giants have a long history together; bears are to stone giants what dogs are to humans. Hunting together and using the dire bear’s excellent sense of smell, stone giants bring down greater prey than they ever could alone. The dire bears’ speed, intelligence, size, and territorial nature also makes them intimidating guardians. One legend tells that dire bears and stone giants were both born to the goddess Fandarra—from her tryst with Estig the Hunter—and that they are brothers. Certainly, bears and stone giants get along well, and many tribes have one or several “Bear Fathers,” the hunters whose skill at handling bears earns them special respect among their fellows.

Dire Wolves: The least common animal to hunt alongside stone giants are dire wolves. These are found primarily among tribes where the prevalence of the bear cult discourages the use of bears as working animals. Many northerly tribes call dire wolves “doggiants” and hold them as embodiments of natural wisdom, whose howls are songs of forgotten lore. Stone giant bards often adopt dire wolves as companions.

Mammoths: In ancient days, the warrior-priests of Minderhal’s temples owned hundreds of mammoths trained in mounted combat. Over time, the use of war mammoths has faded among Storval stone giants, although each major tribe does seek to capture and train a handful of mammoths as mounts. A fully trained and blooded war mammoth is worth a great deal to a stone giant tribe. These animals are always treated well, often to the point that bear-cultists resent the food and attention given to mammoths rather than to their totems.[1]

The Stone Giant Armory

Although not typically a warlike people, when stone giants march into battle they do so with specially designed tools employing the ancient knowledge of their people.

Shatter Boulder: A shatter boulder is a 60-pound rock specially carved to break into thousands of sharp fragments when it strikes a hard surface (such as a cliff side or an armored foe). These iron-braced weapons function as splash weapons (see Throw Splash Weapon on page 158 of the PH). Treat this attack as a ranged touch attack with a range increment equal to that listed in the giant’s rock throwing ability (180 feet for a stone giant) or 10 feet if the user does not have rock throwing. A direct hit from a shatter boulder deals 2d8 points of damage (plus one and a half times the user’s Strength modifier; 2d8+12 for the typical stone giant). Every creature within 15 feet of the point where the boulder hits takes 1d4 points of damage from rocky shrapnel. Due to their rarity and the precision with which they are crafted, shatter boulders typically cost 180 gp and are sized for Large creatures (Medium or smaller creatures take the normal penalties for using inappropriately sized weapons).

Mammoth Lance: These lances are carved from single fir trees, usually lance pine, cliff fir, or ashwood oak. They are 20 feet long, and even after being carved and hollowed in places still weigh nearly 200 pounds (150 for Medium versions). A mammoth lance is always tipped with an enormous iron or stone spike up to 3 feet long, and the better ones have carved grips for a rider to hold. They provide a 20-foot reach and threaten spaces 15 to 20 feet away from the wielder. Foes 10 feet or closer are not threatened. The typical mammoth lance is size Large, deals 3d8 points of piercing damage (2d8 as a Medium weapon), and has a ×2 critical multiplier.[1]

Références

  1. 1,00 1,01 1,02 1,03 1,04 1,05 1,06 1,07 1,08 1,09 1,10 1,11 et 1,12 Rise of the Runelords 4 - Fortress of the Stone Giants(PZO9004] -