Chapter 3: Giant Adventures

Encounter Context

Each table entry presents a short description of the creatures in an encounter and what they're doing. Use these ideas as inspiration to fit the encounter into the location you're populating. If that context doesn't make sense for the situation you're building, consider using the context to inspire the creature's general motivation. For example, if you roll a 12 on the 3, it might not make sense for a cloud giant to be searching for the 4 (an enclave described in 4) in that particular location. You might decide there is a clue to the vale's location in this place, or you can simply treat the giant's search for the Misty Vale as an overarching goal, regardless of what the giant is doing when the encounter occurs. That choice can influence how you roleplay the giant if the characters engage in conversation.

Initial Attitude

Each creature on these tables includes a suggested attitude roll in parentheses after its name. To randomly determine the initial attitude of creatures in an encounter, roll the dice specified in the parentheses, then refer to the appropriate line of the Initial Attitudes table.

If an attitude doesn't fit what the creature is doing, you can either ignore the attitude or shape the encounter to match it. For example, if you roll an indifferent or friendly attitude for a creature that is hunting prey, you might decide the hunter simply doesn't find the characters to be a tasty treat. If the creature is sapient, it could ask the characters if they've seen which way its quarry has gone.

Cloud Giant Encounters

Cloud giants and related creatures thrive where there is fantastic wealth to be earned, plundered, or swindled; where there are secrets to be uncovered; and where diplomacy or guile can carry the day.

Death Giant Encounters

The Death Giant Encounters table is appropriate for places steeped in gloom, whether within the Shadowfell or touched by that plane's sorrowful influence. The creatures on this table might populate places where giants fell into despair, sites where giants delved too deeply into necromantic magic, or areas where the Negative Plane's life-consuming influence seeps into the world.

Fire Giant Encounters

Fire giants and their minions strive to create the strongest and finest crafts and fortresses. These giants can be found in any area rich in workable resources, particularly metal, as well as places where they can test their creations in battle.

Fomorian Encounters

The Fomorian Encounters table presents encounters that can occur in underground regions or at surface locations suffering an invasion from the depths. These encounters also fit well for places warped by the strange corruption of the Far Realm. Using these encounters to supplement another table can hint at deeper threats that are just beginning to burst through the fabric of the multiverse.

Frost Giant Encounters

The Frost Giant Encounters table includes encounters suitable for arctic regions or regions where the activity of frost giants has magically cooled the climate.

Hill Giant Encounters

The Hill Giant Encounters table presents hill giants alongside other creatures driven by hunger. These encounters are good for straightforward adventures that don't focus on twists and guile. These creatures simply seek to indulge their endless hunger.

Stone Giant Encounters

The Stone Giant Encounters table presents stone giants and creatures that might appear in areas they inhabit, either by choice or because of geography. Sapient creatures might be drawn to stone giant artwork and stone shaping, or they might be caught in the giants' passion for seeking truth and insight from their dreams.

These creatures can appear on the surface rather than in typical stone giant tunnels. Perhaps they're following the giants on a quest to the "dream world" that is the surface, or maybe they're trading and conferring with such giants when they emerge.

Storm Giant Encounters

The Storm Giant Encounters table includes storm giants as well as creatures that relate to or resonate with storm giant themes. Storm giants usually remain solitary, but they can get tangled in events that relate to prophecies and omens. These encounters might happen anywhere, at any time, and can be a sign on their own of momentous events to come.

Dinosaur World Encounters

Use the Dinosaur World Encounters table to populate "lost worlds" sequestered from the Material Plane during a long-forgotten era when dinosaurs ruled the world (with or without the presence of giants), or bustling settlements where giants use domesticated dinosaurs as companions and beasts of burden—perhaps using deinonychus as hunting hounds or herding triceratops like cattle.

Domesticated dinosaurs might have a variety of trappings—markings, brands, harnesses, collars, or saddles—that reflect the culture and nature of the giants who care for them. Hill giants might use crude twisted rope or rough leather cords, while storm giants could use bridles of spun copper that spark when touched or masterfully woven seaweed saddles.

A place where giants and dinosaurs live in peaceable harmony sounds like some kind of paradise. I'd very much like to visit such a place.

Elemental Encounters

Use the four Elemental Encounters tables to populate areas suffused with the elemental and magical nature of giants or places where the Elemental Planes break into the Material Plane. The creatures on these tables might be connected to the cults of Elemental Evil (described in 2). Magical conduits might draw creatures from the Elemental Planes and disgorge them within powerful storms, deep chasms, tumultuous wildfires, or ocean maelstroms. Elemental forces might also come to the world to oppose their elemental rivals from opposite planes: air versus earth or fire versus water.

The elemental forces of air are most commonly connected with cloud and storm giants. Those of earth are typically associated with hill and stone giants. Elemental fire is closely tied to fire giants, and elemental water is typically connected to cloud and frost giants.

The Elemental Water Encounters table can be useful in any aquatic environment, not just one where the Plane of Water extends its reach. An ancient giant enclave sunken in some great catastrophe or a storm giant retreat beneath the sea is an appropriate locale for these encounters.

Fiendish Incursion Encounters

Use the Fiendish Incursion Encounters table for situations where giants have turned from the gods of the Ordning to serve fiends (as described in 2), where the ancient magic of long-fallen realms of giants opened portals to the Lower Planes (either intentionally or by accident), where magic runes have gone horribly awry and unleashed fiendish corruption into the world, or where fiends seek powerful allies to aid their schemes among mortals.

Listen. I have glimpsed the pages of Iggwilv's Demonomicon. I've felt the soul-chilling touch of an incubus. I've even ventured to more than one of the Lower Planes. Somehow none of these things compares to the sheer horror of a giant transformed into something much, much worse by the corruption of a demon lord.

Giant Construct Encounters

Use the Giant Construct Encounters table to populate ancient giants' ruins that have been sealed from the outside world for millennia or hostile environments without breathable air. The creatures in these encounters might also act as servitors to magically powerful giants or serve as a reminder of the forgotten magic of ancient giants.

You can alter the appearance of any Construct on this table to reflect the nature of its creators. An iron golem built by fire giants might spew embers and sooty smoke between its iron plates, while one built by cloud giants might leak wisps of mist and raindrops. Any of these Constructs might have Giant runes engraved somewhere on them as part of the magic that animates them. You can alter any Construct's size without changing any of the creature's other statistics.

Giant Kin Encounters

The Giant Kin Encounters table presents a range of creatures of the Giant type that are not encompassed by the ordning, along with related creatures that might be pursuing their own schemes or working as part of a giant's machinations. These giant kin might be drawn to runes and sites of giant power, even long after the creators of those sites are gone.

My brothers will scoff and tell you that these giant kin don't matter, that they don't count in the ranking of the ordning, that they're irrelevant to the world. But they DO matter, and you overlook them at your peril—not just the danger they pose as foes, but the value they can bring as allies.

Giant Necropolis Encounters

Use the Giant Necropolis Encounters table to populate places where giants once thrived that have been destroyed, fallen into decline, or succumbed to necromantic magic. The meddling of death giants or the planar influence of the Shadowfell might cause a giant enclave to decay quickly into a necropolis where creatures such as the ones on this table flourish.

Even without a theme of undeath, you can use these encounters to add a flavor of despair or to suggest Undead giants are interested in a location for mysterious reasons.

Too much of the legacy of my people is death and decay. Too many of us brood on the past or haunt our dusty ruins. Can we not focus on the glories that lie ahead, instead of dwelling on the glory we have lost?

Perhaps the sad truth is that memory, however distant and distorted it might be, is more powerful than imagination.

Megafauna World Encounters

The Megafauna World Encounters table suggests encounters with gigantic animals that might appear in a "lost world" where long-forgotten versions of modern animals still thrive. It could also reflect a world where not only giants but everything—from domestic animals to plant life—is vastly oversized (see "3" in the "3" section later in this chapter).

As with the dinosaurs on the 3, you can add a variety of trappings to the animals encountered here to reflect the nature of the giants who care for them.

Against the Giants

Three of D&D's earliest published adventures featured giants as the primary opponents: Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, and Hall of the Fire Giant King. (They were originally published in 1978, compiled together as Against the Giants in 1981, and reprinted multiple times in the decades since, most recently in 2017's Tales from the Yawning Portal.) The premise of these adventures is simple: "giants have been raiding civilized lands," so adventurers are assembled "to punish the miscreant giants." The adventurers fight their way up the ordning until their final confrontation with the fire giant king—and the revelation that the giants are merely pawns in the schemes of some sinister drow.

An adventure focused on giants as adversaries could involve a sustained battle against giants of a single kind (as each of the individual adventures in Against the Giants did), or it could involve progression through groups of different kinds of giants (as Against the Giants pitted characters against hill, frost, and fire giants in sequence). Alternatively, an adventure could involve giants of different kinds working together, perhaps united as members of a religious order or some other kind of organization that crosses the divide of giant kinds (see "2" and "2," both in 2).

The Against the Giants table offers suggestions for adventure hooks you can use to build an adventure following this theme.

On the world I call home, three linked mountain ranges—the Crystalmist Mountains, the Jotens, and the Hellfurnaces—are inhabited by fierce giants who launch all-too-frequent raids into the nearby lands of the Yeomanry, Sterich, and Geoff.

Clash of Titans

Sometimes giants are background elements to an adventure that has more to do with the impact of the giants' actions on the world than it does with the giants themselves. These adventures might be disaster stories, where characters might help bystanders escape. The source of the disaster might be a conflict between two giants (or two groups of giants), a clash between a giant and another powerful monster (such as a dragon, a dinosaur, a purple worm, or the tarrasque), or the stirring of a truly colossal giant (such as the 6 described in 6). An adventure might also challenge characters to drive the giants (and other forces of destruction) away from settled lands.

The giant in a scenario like this need not be the villain. A storm giant wrestling a kraken to keep the creature from destroying a coastal city might still cause accidental devastation. A giant might look for heroes to take care of bystanders while the giant deals with (or holds back) the greater threat.

The Clash of Titans table provides a sampling of adventure hooks you can use to build an adventure along these lines.

Delve into the Past

The best reason for delving into the past is to discover a path to a better future.

In the world of Eberron, the continent of Xen'drik is the ancestral home of giants and the location of their ancient empire. The continent is littered with the cyclopean ruins of this forgotten civilization, and now scholars and treasure hunters mount expeditions to plunder the ruins and unearth the secrets of the giants. On other worlds, the ruins of ancient giants' civilizations might not be as numerous or well known, but you can still build adventures that lead characters to explore the realms of past giants.

An expedition into giants' ruins might involve a confrontation with giants, or it might mean facing whatever monsters have taken up residence in the ruins in the centuries since the giants abandoned them. In Xen'drik, living giants still inhabit some of their ancient ruins, though they have fallen far from the height of their civilization. Ruins might be inhabited by the once-giant hulks or Undead giants that appear in 6, by Constructs crafted by giants, or by any kind of creature that has taken shelter in the ruins—potentially including enormous creatures, such as dragons, that appreciate the roomy chambers crafted by ancient giants.

You can use the Delve into the Past table to inspire adventures leading characters into ancient giant ruins. You can also use the locations in 4 as destinations for these adventures; each of those locations includes its own suggested adventure hooks that you can use instead, or combine with the ones here, as inspiration strikes you.

Giant-Sized Schemes

Giants are mythical creatures, descended from a god and imbued with the raw energy of the Elemental Planes. But they're also people whose relationships, ambitions, emotions, and subterfuge are literally larger than life. The intrigue among storm giant King Hekaton's daughters in Storm King's Thunder is an example of how interpersonal dramas can shake the whole world when they play out on the stage of a giant's realm.

The Giant-Sized Schemes table offers suggestions, including several inspired by the plots of famous dramas.

Into the Giant Realms

In Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels, the protagonist is swept off course on a sea voyage and finds himself in the land of Brobdingnag, where everything is twelve times its usual size, from people to rats. In Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, explorers discover a subterranean world where giant-sized people tend herds of mastodons and where reptiles from Earth's ancient past still roam the sea and sky. The English fairy tale of Jack climbing a beanstalk to a giant's cloud castle is a similar example of an adventurer passing into a world of giants. In Norse myth, giants inhabit the realm of Jotunheim, where brave gods and heroes occasionally venture on dangerous quests.

An adventure inspired by these tales might see characters discovering a secret valley hidden in a remote mountain range where storm giants tend flocks of sheep the size of horses, delving deep into the Underdark where stone giants ride mammoths across vast subterranean plains, washing up on an uncharted island whose giant inhabitants hunt dinosaurs, or entering a demiplane where a portion of the ancient world of the giants is perfectly preserved. The characters might be lost travelers or bold explorers, or they might journey to these wondrous locations in search of some treasure or powerful magic used by the giants.

The Into the Giant Realms table offers more suggestions for how to bring characters to these realms.

Boss

A giant boss wields size and strength as tools to extract wealth and power from communities of smaller folk. The boss might threaten to harm adventurers or those they care about if they refuse to do the giant's bidding. Or the boss might recruit adventurers to share in the profits of a morally and legally questionable enterprise.

The archetypal giant boss is a hill giant, perhaps cleverer than most, who enjoys demonstrating just how superior a giant's strength is compared to smaller creatures. Such a boss might run a protection racket, a group of highway robbers, or a kidnapping ring. A giant boss might even take to a life of piracy, following in the enormous footsteps of Huzza, a hill giant in the world of the Forgotten Realms.

The Boss Assignments table suggests the kinds of missions a giant boss might send adventurers on.

Financier

Armed with tremendous wealth, a giant financier pursues personal goals and interests that usually involve the acquisition of even greater wealth. Such a giant's appeal to adventurers is simply the promise of a steady salary and a luxurious lifestyle.

The archetypal giant financier is a cloud giant who constantly seeks to improve their standing in the ordning by amassing more wealth. The financier might back treasure-hunting expeditions into ancient ruins, prospecting missions to find valuable resources, or exploratory missions to map new lands or sea routes.

The Financier Assignments table suggests appropriate expeditions a giant might finance.

Seer

A giant seer is guided by visions—glimpses of possible futures, messages from a god, or whisperings of some alien consciousness—and sends adventurers into the world to fulfill whatever those visions demand. The adventurers might share the giant's faith in whatever higher power is sending the visions, or they might be skeptical of the visions but enjoy the benefits of the giant's patronage.

The archetypal giant seer is a storm giant driven by the search for signs of Annam's activity. The seer might seek out omens written in natural phenomena, manipulate world events to bring about the fulfillment of prophecies, or work to prepare the world and its peoples for an impending catastrophe of apocalyptic scale.

The Seer Assignments table suggests quests a giant seer might lay on adventurers.

Sovereign

A giant who rules over a settlement of other giants often needs Humanoid agents to act as emissaries to smaller peoples—and perhaps to enter locations where giants can't. Adventurers who fill such a role might do so out of loyalty to the giant sovereign, or they might be forced or bribed to serve the giant.

The archetypal giant sovereign is a fire giant who commands significant numbers of smaller folk, often including armies of Humanoids, as well as a community of giants. Adventurers in the sovereign's service might advance the giant's military, diplomatic, or clandestine goals on missions ranging from tactical assault to sabotage.

The Sovereign Assignments table lists some missions a giant sovereign might send adventurers on.

Tutor

I have learned a great deal from several important tutors in my life. My advice is to heed those whose minds are as expansive as their deeds.

A giant who serves as a tutor to adventurers is often an exile from giant society, dwelling by necessity or choice among smaller folk and sharing the ancient wisdom of giants with them. Often, these giants are interested in pursuing esoteric studies of their own even as they share what they have learned with their eager students.

The archetypal giant tutor is a stone giant who is convinced the surface world—the world of dreams—has important wisdom to impart, just as the gods sometimes speak through dreams. The tutor might teach stone carving, runic magic, or the histories of the giants to eager students, while sending them on missions to gather wisdom from the dreaming world.

The Tutor Assignments table presents assignments a giant tutor might give to adventurous students.

Warleader

A giant warleader commands a military force, typically comprising many Humanoids, some number of lesser creatures of the Giant type (such as ogres, cyclopes, and ettins), and a few giants of the ordning. Adventurers might serve such a giant as skilled mercenaries or as part of this force.

The archetypal giant warleader is a frost giant commanding a horde of fierce soldiers. Adventurers in the warleader's service might participate in mass battles or more surgical strikes.

The Warleader Assignments table provides suggested missions the giant might assign.

Flourishing Giants

You might set your campaign in a world where giants still rule over smaller peoples—as Annam intended, the giants might say. This world could be the ancient past of a setting such as the Forgotten Realms or Eberron, where empires of giants thrived thousands of years ago. Or it could be a world of your own creation, perhaps one where giants have maintained an unbroken line of rule for countless generations. As you build such a world, consider these four key questions:

How do different kinds of giants live together? The world might have a single empire of giants where giants hold ranks based on their position in the ordning. Or several smaller realms might coexist in varying degrees of mutual hostility. Maybe storm giants have their own realm or realms, cloud giants their domains, fire giants theirs, and so on. Or there might be different realms that all include multiple kinds of giants.

What's the place of Humanoids? Perhaps the giants view themselves as stewards of the world, whose divinely appointed role is to protect and uplift the smaller peoples, and Humanoids live in the realms of giants as valued citizens. Or maybe Humanoids are new arrivals on the world, and the first intrepid adventurers are trying to carve out a place for their peoples in a hostile world. Humanoids might enjoy comfortable positions in some realms (particularly those ruled by cloud or storm giants) and be subjugated or hunted in other realms. Humanoids might align themselves (voluntarily or otherwise) with different giant kinds, allowing the giants of the ordning to serve as patrons or adversaries.

What's the role of dragons? In the Forgotten Realms and Eberron, ancient giants warred with dragons for control over the young world. Maybe in your setting, giants won a similar war, driving dragons into obscurity or even extinction. Perhaps such a war is still raging. Dragons might have their own realms alongside the nations of giants, coexisting in peace or in rising tension punctuated by occasional skirmishes. Alternatively, giants and dragons might have worked together to quash any opposition to their dominance over the world.

What's the role of the giants' gods? With the giants ruling the world as Annam intended, perhaps the All-Father hasn't turned his back on his children. He might be a much more active deity here, and giants might be more engaged in his worship and service. Or perhaps the giants rebuilt their ancient empire with the help of other powers, such as Elemental Evils, demon lords, or the dragon gods.

Shaped by Giants

You can also build a campaign that puts the focus on the world inhabited by the giants of old, which might or might not include a significant number of living giants. The core idea of such a campaign might be that giants dominate the history of the world, so they are responsible for all the ancient sites, magic, and treasures that populate your adventures.

A campaign built on this idea might have a post-apocalyptic feel, as Humanoids spread and begin to explore the ruins of a world destroyed by giants. Or the giants' empires might be an ancient mystery, totally forgotten in the modern world until an ancient site and its treasures are discovered and history is rewritten.

The dungeons and ruins adventurers explore might all be places built by giants. Some might instead be strongholds built by giants' enemies, such as underground fortresses where dwarves sheltered against giants' attacks. If exploring giant-sized dungeons is the norm, characters are likely prepared for climbing huge stairs and navigating other challenges of giant-sized locations (see 4).

D&D worlds often assume some magic items (especially artifacts) were created in ancient times using long-forgotten techniques. You might decide such items in your campaign were made either by giants or by those who warred against giants. Magic items made by giants might magically adjust to fit smaller peoples, or skilled artisans might have learned techniques to alter these items. 5 offers more information and suggestions concerning magic items and other treasures crafted by giants.

Ancient History

The history of the giants and these other ancient peoples doesn't need to be important in your world, but it might have long-lasting implications. In the Forgotten Realms, giants and dragons sometimes nurse grudges against each other stemming from the Thousand-Year War that devastated their ancient empires millennia ago. Even for such long-lived creatures, twenty-five thousand years is a long time to hold a grudge. In your world, there might never have been conflict between giants and dragons, or they might have long ago set aside any lingering resentment. Perhaps giants and dragons banded together in ages past in a desperate effort to survive the rise of younger peoples. Or evil giants might have sided with chromatic dragons while good giants took up arms alongside metallic dragons in the long-running conflict between the children of Bahamut and the children of Tiamat.

Similarly, many D&D worlds feature an ancient history of conflict between dwarves and giants. This enmity is visible most clearly in certain magic items originally made by dwarves to be highly effective against giants (and other creatures of the Giant type): the dwarven thrower, Whelm, and the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords. Often this history of conflict is assumed to be simply a matter of fighting over territory, since both dwarves and giants often prefer to live in mountainous regions. But the myths told by both giants and dwarves on some worlds describe the conflict extending into the divine realms as well. The god Moradin, who is revered by many dwarves, is said to loathe the evil giant gods. But you might decide the dwarves and giants of your world have a long history of friendly relations, or that dwarves often side with good giants in opposition to the schemes and depredations of evil giants. Perhaps dwarves are frequently the subjects of giant-ruled realms in the mountains, living peaceful and prosperous lives under beneficent storm giant rulers or toiling in poverty under fire giant tyrants.

Most D&D worlds' histories don't include any particular animosity between elves and giants. Perhaps in your world, elves and giants have coexisted peacefully in separate regions of the world. Or maybe they warred fiercely: an elven thrower (a spear that is otherwise identical to a dwarven thrower warhammer) might be a magic relic of those ancient battles. Perhaps elves and giants worked together to bring an end to evil dragons' dominion over the young world, and the two peoples maintain a sense of mutual respect.

War of the Ancients

You might also decide to create a campaign where the conflicts among the ancients, like the Thousand-Year War between giants and dragons in the Forgotten Realms, are not a matter of ancient history but a present reality. You could build an entire campaign in the shadow of such a conflict, which is basically taking the ideas described under "3" earlier in this chapter and extending them through many adventures.

The war might not be a simple two-sided conflict between giants and dragons. Perhaps elves, dwarves, good giants, and metallic dragons joined forces against a two-pronged assault from evil giants and chromatic dragons. Or war might be raging between dragons and elves while giants strive to protect smaller peoples from the fallout.

Other peoples and monsters might be involved. The war might be a largely subterranean clash between stone giants and mind flayers while dwarves and drow seek to escape the earth-shaking and cavern-collapsing aftershocks of battles. Or storm giants might combat krakens and other nightmares of the deep while coastal cities and merchant ships struggle to endure devastating storms and tidal waves.

The Thousand-Year War in the Forgotten Realms lasted a thousand years for good reason: neither giants nor dragons were ever particularly numerous, and actual skirmishes between giants and dragons were rare. For this reason, you could run a campaign where battles between the warring parties are isolated events along the lines of the world-shaking events described in "3." You might begin the campaign with one such battle, have the adventurers spend months or even years dealing with the aftereffects of the cataclysmic battle, then send your campaign in a new direction with a second battle. Maybe a third, truly cataclysmic battle—in which the adventurers are now high enough level to participate in the combat and turn it in favor of one side or the other—brings the campaign to a close.

Ancient Advocates

Giants stole secrets of knowledge and magic from the gods and shared them with Humanoids, thus helping the smaller folk build their first civilizations. For that crime, the giants have endured millennia of punishment at the hands of petty and vengeful gods. Some giants blame Humanoids for causing this punishment, but others still view helping and teaching smaller peoples as their responsibility. (Alternatively, maybe the giants were responsible for teaching Humanoids the evil use of magic and were justly punished for that sin.)

Earth Shapers

Whether it's recorded in revered myth, passed on as casual folklore, or simply fact, giants shaped the landscape in the earliest days of the world. Gigantic boulders scattered across a rolling moor weren't deposited by receding glaciers—they were dropped (or intentionally placed) by giants. A great canyon wasn't worn away by eons of erosion; it was formed when a tired giant dragged her axe behind her after a long day of hewing trees (or dragons). The basalt columns visible at low tide connecting an island to the mainland aren't the result of volcanic activity but rather the craft of ancient giants. A crater or lake might be the place where an ancient giant stepped, slept, or fell after trying to climb the stars to reach Annam's palace. Elemental magic might linger in these places, making them likely locations for dungeons or monster lairs. Carefully sifting through these tales and plotting the locations on a map might reveal the path some ancient giant walked across the land, pointing to the location of a great mystery at the beginning or end of that journey.

Gardens of Delight

In a world that is fundamentally inhospitable to life, giants are responsible for maintaining small areas where Humanoids can flourish. Perhaps storm and cloud giants control the weather to maintain small gardens of comfortable temperatures amid a world-spanning desert or frozen wasteland. The campaign might explore what happens to the inhabitants of one of these gardens when its giant caretaker falls ill or dies. Or the gardens might be the stuff of legend in a harsh world where the bravest explorers dare to search for them.

Giants Hold Up the World

Six scions of giants' gods literally hold the world together. Perhaps they're responsible for holding the continents above the ocean surface or supporting the dome of the sky, or they might keep the world together through magical means. In any case, if these titans were killed, the world would dissolve into the Elemental Chaos. (2, described in 2, might be responsible for protecting these scions.)

The Never-Ending Saga

Though Annam granted her wish for divinity, Diancastra still roams the worlds of the Material Plane, continuing the whimsical adventures told in numerous sagas. She is a trickster figure whose curiosity, acquisitiveness, and wanderlust constantly get her into sticky situations—and whose cleverness and occasional exertion of giant strength always get her out of those situations. Though she often appears disguised as a young storm giant, she can just as easily appear as a human, elf, or gnome, making her true identity almost impossible to discern. She enjoys a variety of worldly pleasures and delights in the company of mortal creatures of all kinds. She loves to learn more spells, preferring spells of the enchantment and illusion schools.

Though her exploits seem to serve only her own desires, Diancastra does have a greater agenda: to convince Annam to emerge from his seclusion and restore the giants to their rightful place at the pinnacle of the created order. Adventurers who get caught up in her schemes might eventually have a hand in bringing about Annam's return—or preventing it!

The Six Sleepers

The world has six scions of giants' gods, near-divine titans who are sleeping until Annam awakens them. Their slumbering forms define the terrain features of a certain region of the world (or perhaps up to six regions if they are dispersed around the world). A prophecy suggests a means by which they might be awakened early, leading to the destruction of the world.

The Six-Story Mountain

At the center of the world is an enormous mountain that is the ancestral home of this world's giants. The mountain vertically embodies the ordning, from the foothills to the churning storm that perpetually roils above its sky-high peak. The giants were banished from this mountain in ancient times, and scions of giants' gods, angels, devils, or some other supernatural guardians watch over the place to make sure the giants don't return before Annam gives them leave. What secrets of the world's creation and ancient history are hidden in this mythic place?