MINE OF THE MOUNTAIN GIANT

 



Hook: The Ironmount is the home of the mountain giant, Godoniŵ. He lives in the cave complex beneath the mountain. You stand, now, at the feet of the famed mountain... You have not seen anything like it. A lonely edifice in the middle of rolling plains. Why the mountain exists alone is not known to you. The air is cool and the autumn sun warms your faces as you wait on the eerily-quiet stair leading up the spur to the entrance carved from the very granite of the peak. The great stone doors, soaring above you, carved with reliefs of forge scenes showing Godoniŵ making in the forge, hammer in hand, and the gods Urä and Beä... One door, the left, is open only a small amount, but, at the size of the portal, the opening is easily ten feet. Easily enough for all of you to slip through into the darkness... The elf queen wanted you to seek Godoniŵ, to have him make for her a gift for her spouse, a gold sparrow, to delight him in his idle hours... But, Godoniŵ had not been heard from in years, and the elves do not travel abroad, unless there is great need...

Details: The problem with Ironmount is that its resident, Godoniŵ Ironbrow, has been ensorcelled. Put under a great spell of slumber that has placed him in a state of dormancy. The wizard Mydron cast the spell in order to steal something from the giant so that he might continue his research. He left the smith like that, sitting on his throne, asleep... And in the intervening years, seeing that Godoniŵ was no longer active, other beings slowly crept into his lair and took up residence. A man-eating mushroom forest cropped up in the western complex after Mydron the Alchemist used some of his magic spores to change Godoniŵ's mountain gnome servants into carnivorous, large mushrooms. They have since multiplied into a small forest. Skulkers moved into the northern region. A group of frog-men, once the servants of Mydron, left behind to deal with the forces of the mountain giant, have survived on the skulkers and set up a small community inside the Ironmount. They used to travel outside, but, the appearance of the fish men of Apskylla have driven them into the southwestern corner of the complex. The fish men happened upon the complex via an underground river entry in one of the pools. They found the skulkers and the frog men and decided to stay and feed. The mountain giant's servants, a small group of mountain gnomes, still live in the area defending their king. There aren't many of them and their forges are in another part of the complex, so defense is difficult. But, they refuse to leave Godoniŵ, until they can figure out how to break the spell. Undead gnomes, neutral frog-man patrols, carnivorous mushrooms, evil fish-men, desperate mountain gnomes, and a large tribe of cowardly skulkers wander and fight in this dungeon, vying for supremacy or simple survival. The skulkers and frog-men care little for politics or power. They are simply surviving, though, the skulkers will jump at power and tyranny, if given the option.

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