d20 Goodman Games Against the Iron Giant.pdf

AGAINST THE IRON GIANT

By Luke Johnson

Cover Art: Slawomir Maniak

Concept Design and Cartographer: Jeremy Simmons

Graphic Design: Alvin Helms

Interior Art: Nick Greenwood

Editor: Elizabeth R.A. Liddell

Editor-in-Chief: Luke Johnson

Publisher: Joseph Goodman

Playtesters: Brandon Crowley, Jason Fiedler, James Johnson, Rex Jolley,

Jennie Mar, David McFarland, Dee Mike, Scott Moore,

Jason Nelson, Brian O’Neil, Chris Pettit, Chubs A. Roo-Sauce,

Ray Teetsel, and William Westoven.

www.goodman-games.com

AGAINST THE IRON GIANT

INTRODUCTION

Y our adventures are already exciting. Characters explore

ically preserved, and still they ﬂaked and broke in her hands. The

manuscript stated that, when the world was newly formed, the

“First God” created a great construct of deiﬁc proportions. Sim-

ilar in some ways to a golem on a godlike scale, this new con-

struct god was called the Cosmic Guide. The First God created

the Cosmic Guide to oversee and guide the world. While the

Cosmic Guide was not actually sentient, its instructions were so

complex that it seemed hyperintelligent.

The First God disappeared, and the Cosmic Guide served its

function well for a long time. However, eventually living beings

grew resentful of this artiﬁcial caretaker. In addition, the later

gods — including the “good” god whom Rayne was learning to

follow — grew envious of the Cosmic Guide’s power and pres-

tige. The gods and their priesthoods organized to overthrow the

Cosmic Guide and erase all knowledge of its existence. The Cos-

mic Guide wasn’t programmed to deal with this eventuality, and

so capitulated easily.

The Cosmic Guide’s followers were not so easily dismissed. Cen-

turies of persecution and bigotry passed before the other gods’

priesthoods were satisﬁed that they had wiped out the Cosmic

Guide’s followers. However, unbeknownst to them, many of

those followers’ sacred writings remained, hidden. Thousands

of years later, Rayne Darklin held just such a document in her

hands.

In addition to discussing this mythology, the ancient writings of-

fered proof of its veracity: the ancient followers of the Cosmic

Guide had built a gigantic construct supposedly in its image.

Called Shak’vanna-ron, or the Iron Giant, it was a combination

golem and fortress. While it resembled a colossal humanoid

composed of dark gray metal, its inside was hollow, allowing

creatures to live within and control its movements. It was an

enormous war machine, a mobile fortress of incredible power.

The ancient documents also gave clues as to where the Iron

Giant was hidden: buried deep in the chasms of an alpine

mountain range.

Rayne stole the writings and took them to her friends and fellow

students Minh Alaya and Shan Shalutch. Her friends were just as

bitter as she about the priesthood. The three women then re-

cruited to their friend Ix Revon, a scoundrel and rogue who

roamed the city and did his best to ﬂout the law and authority

ﬁgures whenever possible. All four were disillusioned and, to var-

ious degrees, horriﬁed at what they considered the ancient per-

ﬁdy of the gods they now worshiped.

It was time for a change. They would uncover the Iron Giant and

return it to wakefulness. They would use it to expose the gods’

ancient deception and bring back worship of the Cosmic Guide

— with themselves as its high priesthood. They had become

clerics of the Cosmic Guide.

They accomplished the ﬁrst part of their plan. With help from

the ancient writings and years of effort, they discovered the Iron

Giant, unearthed it, and rekindled the arcane magic that ani-

mated it. Along the way, they discovered a tribe of orcs in the

mountains where the Iron Giant was hidden. The orcs had seen

the giant, buried deep in the caverns, and (correctly) believed it

to be an ancient relic of divine importance. Their wise men wore

armor reminiscent of the Iron Giant, and the tribe was more or-

dered and disciplined than most. After some initial misunder-

standings, the orcs joined the growing cult and added their

muscle to the clerics’ wisdom.

dungeons, crush monsters, and score loot. But maybe you

want your adventures to be more. Maybe you want adventures

that are over-the-top, in-your-face, BADASS THRILL RIDES!

Maybe you want adventures that are things of LEGEND! Maybe

you want adventures that are WICKED SICK! That’s what

Wicked Fantasy Factory gives you: axes hacking, spells exploding,

and blood spewing. Don’t just crawl through dungeons — make

them sorry they ever met you!

Against the Iron Giant is a Wicked Fantasy Factory adventure for

four to six heroes of 2nd–4th level. The party’s total levels should

be 12–18. All characters will have a good time in this adventure;

the party should include at least one healer (like a cleric) and

one or two characters with serious combat potential (ﬁghters,

barbarians, paladins, and so forth). Characters with an interest

in ancient lore will ﬁnd morsels to tickle their intellectual taste

buds.

Though it’s designed for characters of around 3rd level, you can

easily adjust the adventure to challenge heroes of higher or lower

level. See the “Adjusting the Challenges” sidebar for ideas.

Adventure Summary: In Against the Iron Giant , the heroes con-

front a gigantic, iron-shod, town-crushing, monster-smashing

war machine. The Iron Giant, long dormant beneath the earth,

is awake again. The driven Rayne Darklin now controls the Iron

Giant from within, and the enormous construct contains an

army of cultists and hired guns as well as defenses and traps al-

most as old as the world. The heroes sneak into the Iron Giant

and battle their way through the great construct, ﬁnally putting

the hurt to Rayne in the giant’s mechanical brain.

ADVENTURE

BACKGROUND

S everal years ago, Rayne Darklin was a ﬁery young student

newly enrolled at one of the world’s few schools for higher

education. She studied to become a cleric of a good and lawful

god, planning to move out into the world to defeat his enemies

and preach his word.

Rayne was quickly disillusioned. The teachers and the ideas they

taught seemed uptight and overly strict, focusing more on the

letter of the deity’s doctrines than the spirit in which they were

given. Rayne’s parents pressured her, though, so she suffered

through the courses in growing dissatisfaction.

One day about a year ago, one of Rayne’s teachers returned

from an expedition abroad. Rayne overheard him telling a col-

league that he had discovered something that both excited and

frightened him; he would not say what it was; only that he would

keep it hidden for now. Curious and chaﬁng at authority, Rayne

broke into the teacher’s secret vault. The only item within was a

stone chest. Within that chest were crackling pieces of parch-

ment that Rayne could read only with the help of a magic scroll.

They told a story that had her reading, awestruck, even as her

candle winked out.

The parchment pieces were from a manuscript so ancient it was

a wonder they had not deteriorated — they must have been mag-

Continued on page 5…

AGAINST THE IRON GIANT

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