D&D: Wondrous Enclaves Abound in ‘Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants’
One of the new features included in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants, is a set of rules for making your own giant enclave.
Giants have been enemies and allies in D&D since the earliest days of the game. Some of the first adventures that were meant to be strung together as a campaign, instead of just a sort of episodic vessel for treasure and experience, featured giants as the villains. Manipulated by a priestess of Lolth, the Frost Giants in Against the Giants are an infamous example of how D&D loves a good lair.
A big part of what makes the game work is fighting in exotic locales. Even in the early days, the Frost Giant enclave had some rules for reinforcement and the kinds of trouble you could get into if you were unprepared. Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants pays homage to these early days with a look at how to make your own giant enclave.
But each enclave is more than just a village or collection of huts. Many have their own little ecosystems and are microcosms unto themselves. Some are downright mythic or cosmic in focus. Let’s take a look at one, the extraplanar enclave known as Horizon’s Edge.
Horizon’s Edge – A Bigby’s Giants Giant Enclave
Because it’s not enough that these giant enclaves could be dungeons or locations in and of themselves. They are places you could build an adventure around. And Horizon’s Edge makes for a fantastic location in every sense of the word.
It’s a demiplane refuge that drifts “in the roiling fog of the Deep Ethereal plane, beyond a shimmering, golden ethereal curtain.” It is a bright, golden bubble that contains the remnants of an ancient empire of giants, whose magic and technology were much more advanced than anything in the present day.
This is a place of ancient wonders and mysteries preserved against the ravages of time. It is a space of massive platforms made out of meticulously fitted tones, with giant runes floating around it. There are floating disks that traverse the spaces between these massive stone platforms. And you can use them to get from building to building.
The book gives a couple of examples of what you might encounter in Horizon’s Edge. A magical puzzle box might lead into the refuge, and characters are hired to escort archaeologists through the ruins, protecting them from any hazards.
A broken magic item might be found within, protected by giant constructs (which are both constructs that are giant, and constructs created by giants, some of which appear as new monsters in the book).
Or perhaps this is a place now inhabited by demons. Their extraplanar incursion drove out the remnants of that ancient empire from this once isolated place.
And that’s just one of eighteen such Giant Enclaves featured in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants!
