Stone Lords

In the time of the Makers, the Stone Lords ruled the Steplands, the southern stretch of the Huffel Peaks, and the South Manmarch. They carved cities out of the hills. They raised towering monuments. They sang stone, crystal, and glass into impossible shapes.

The Stone Lords' empire was grand, but it was not all glory. It was built on the backs of countless human servants. And while the Stone Lords were not especially cruel, neither were they kind. They imposed order on their world, by whatever means necessary.

For, better than the other Makers, the Stone Lords knew the Things Below.

Knew the insidious songs that echoed in the deep. Knew the chaos promised. Knew that they must never, ever be freed.

And so, when the Green Lords called on the Things Below to put down their own servants' rebellion, the Stone Lords turned on their brethren.

They shattered the Green Lords' lands and hunted down the survivors.

Yet: the seals had cracked. The Things Below sang all the louder. The Stone Lords themselves stood resolute, but their servants did not. Corruption seeped through their society like water finding cracks in a poorly laid foundation.

The end came swiftly. Sorcerers turned the city of Dulenn into a massive sinkhole, creating what is now Blackwater Lake. Seals were broken across the land and horrors slithered up through the tunnels. Mobs turned on their former masters.

One by one, the domains and cities of the Stone Lords fell into ruin.

The Time of Cataclysm had arrived.

Names

Breton- and Cornish-inspired, but with extra vowels for a drawn-out sound:

Aenedellion, Caedour, Daenizel, Eelowain, Gaeille, Iaves, Kaeteal, Loiawen, Mearauwd, Neassa, Oaneaz, Paerrain, Rozainne, Saennaen, Taenguey, Wainoac, Yainniac

Combine with prefixes like "Aalz" ("the great"), "Skol" ("master"), or "Loaji" ("apprentice"), etc.

Hooks

• Someone claims to have found a Stone Lord ruin abundant with precious gems
• A petrified prisoner of the Stone Lords was recently reanimated, and must now make sense of this new age
• While seeking shelter from the elements, the PCs stumble on a Stone Lord ruin
• Hillfolk need help dealing with dangerous stone constructs that are running amok

Themes

Pick, or roll 1d12.

Sites

Pick, or have someone roll the Die of Fate.

Lingering signs

Pick, or have someone roll the Die of Fate.

Something trapped

For example:

• Someone trapped in a stalagmite, their grasping hands, anguished face, and mournful moans just barely discernible
• A hollow, seamless cube of rune-carved white stone, 6 feet per side, bitterly cold; a dozen specters are sealed within, impotent and mad
• A stretch of shining black flagstones, showing reflections of people long past; those who open their minds see a parade of memories, clear as day
• A construct with a crack in its "head," possessed by an evil spirit; bound in a circle of deeply-cut runes
• A labyrinth of stone walls, the walkways forming a rune of binding, some sort of demon trapped in the center

Strange geologies

For example:

• A large grotto, unnaturally smooth and precise, like part of a sphere just vanished from the stone
• A gorge cutting perpendicularly through a valley, the walls lined with glass
• A tunnel or valley, shaped so that the smallest sounds echo echo echo
• A cliff face, the striations perfectly smooth and parallel, the different strata strikingly different colors or types of stone
• A slope entirely made of smooth, rounded stone; like an old lava flow, but chert, granite, or limestone
• An enormous rock formation, shot through with dozens of small holes that catch the wind and sing a haunting melody.

Monument, marker, or enigma

For example:

• A crater of bare stone, 100 paces across, with a lozenge of black stone floating in the center, thrumming
• A statue carved from a mountainside, fragments of its stone sword littering the valley below
• A pedestal bearing two vast and trunkless legs of stone; hints of an inscription, now unreadable
• Giant stone heads arrayed upon a slope, their faces faded yet still disapproving
• A pylon of glass, 100 feet tall at least (and who knows how deeply set into the earth), faintly humming, faintly glowing
• Great lines gouged into the earth, running for miles; meaningless from the surface, but making enormous runes when seen from on high
• A large room in some cave or ruin, the charred bones of a giant at the center; bits of blackened bone/tooth/carapace litter the edge; hundreds of fist-sized shards of crystal are embedded in the walls
• A chamber with dozens of glass cylinders, fixed vertically against a wall, each of differing length and width—some sort of instrument, perhaps?

Ruin

Pick or roll for themes, structure, purpose, architectural elements, and condition. Place the ruin in an appropriate terrain (see Huffel Peaks for the Huffel Peaks, The Steplands for the Steplands, or South Manmarch for the South Manmarch). Populate it with lingering signs, artifacts and/or dangers of the Stone Lords or the appropriate region.

Makerglass

Cut or blown into wondrous shapes, in many colors and textures, unbreakable and unworkable by mortal means. Often found near Stone Lord ruins, and highly prized.

Pick or roll for form and characteristic.

Artifacts

Various treasures

• A severed, three-fingered hand of a ◇ stone construct (Value 0), cleverly articulated but inert
• A single makerglass arrowhead (indestructible, 2 piercing, Value 1)
• A makerglass jar with a threaded lid, ◇ seals airtight (indestructible, Value 2)
• A ◇◇ stack of engraved ceramic tiles that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle; properly assembled, the engravings form a potent ring of runes for binding demons (Value 1, or Value 3 to the right person)
• A ring of petrified wood, set with a shining diamond (?) (Value 2, beautiful)
• A huge bronze gong (immobile, Value 2), carved along the edge with runes of amplification
• A makerglass sword (◇ close, messy, indestructible, beautiful, +1 damage, 2 piercing, Value 3)
• A fist-sized ruby (◇ beautiful, Value 4); if placed in a fire or otherwise heated, it hums beautiful, haunting notes

• You are harmed by the coursing energy, taking damage as the GM sees fit
• The power stored in the crystal is extremely unstable, likely to discharge without warning
• The crystal cracks; henceforth, treat a 10+ on this move as a 7-9, and you can't pick this option again.

In the hands of a skilled arcanist, a charged power-crystal can fuel or empower a magical effect (though this is dangerous). In the hands of the incautious, the reckless, or the desperate, it can split or crack, leading to a violent explosion.

Major arcana

These might very well be associated with the Stone Lords.

• The Mindgem
• Whispering Rocks

Dangers

Bound Entities

• Spirits of the wild, especially elementals associated with earth, stone, and terrain, yoked by runecraft to serve the Stone Lord's needs
• Spirits and beasts corrupted by the Things Below: petrified, encased in stone, or sealed away behind layers of runes
• Would-be sorcerer-kings, petrified or otherwise imprisoned before they could cause too much trouble
• Ghosts, mindlessly performing duties they were bound to perform in life, unaware that they could want anything else
• Primordial entities, imprisoned by elaborate workings of crystal and rune, bound to serve or else locked away for safekeeping

Some examples:

• Peacebond runes, worked into roads, halls, public places
• A glossy cube of blue-black stone that steals memories from those who touch it, playing them back for only the strongest of wills
• A stone vault that might slip closed if folks are careless, no way to open it from the inside
• A human-sized crystal, cracked, absorbing telluric energies, occasionally discharging them as bolts of lightning
• A pile of shimmery sand; when someone touches it, it absorbs an imprint of their mind and forms itself into a simulacrum of them (convinced that it is the original)