Part of the celebrated Rise of the Runelords adventure path for Pathfinder, Fortress of the Stone Lords is aimed at tenth-level characters and is an homage to Against the Giants. Let’s read!
SPOILERS FOLLOW
EXPOSITION WITHOUT END. We learn about the bad stone giant wizard motivating all of this (because otherwise stone giants are neutral and cool, man), and how it all ties into the Runelord nonsense.
The whole shebang starts when the PCs arrive at a town under siege by giants. The initial combat has some timed events where more baddies arrive on certain rounds, including a red dragon, who roasts certain parts of town in a prescribed pattern. There is a LOT potentially going on here. This would make a decent minis scenario.
Ogre and giant encounters while traveling to the attacking group’s origin.
This typeface is SO SMALL, it’s infuriating.
Then it’s all about the Jorgenfist fortress and its environs. Lots of giant tribes, more ogres. Ooh, a wyvern! And the red dragon’s lair.
These harpies have monk levels, because… well because the tower is very old, and contains a mummy monk. A monk mummy. A monkmy. Yes, the monk’s unarmed strike carries the mummy rot - a very nice F.U. that the players are going to remember (and rue).
Lots of stone giants, as you might imagine - many with class levels to keep them distinct and interesting. As you get deeper, there’s more variation - undead, some lamias. You’re getting closer to Le Big Boss, who of course has Runelord stuff going on, and some of these critters are magical guardians who came with the fortress.
Sometimes the module has the monster’s stats there on the page where it appears, and sometimes it doesn’t. That’s annoying.
The lead stone giant, a 14th-level wizard, has a few tricks up his sleeve.
Like many of the other Giant Homage adventures we’re looking at this month, Fortress risks feeling samey, but is sprinkled with enough variation that your players probably won’t be sick of stone giants too early. I'll have to look back at the end of the month and think about which "stone giant adventure" I like the best.
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