Illus. by J. Jarvis
CHAPTER 3
GOLIATHS
The goliath tent-city of Thella-Lu
In addition to the usual goliath games, Thella-Lu holds an endurance event known as the Test of Naki-Uthai. A dozen athletes—or sometimes a half-dozen teams of two—leave at 6-hour intervals on a journey around the base of nearby Mount Kalithini. The trail is treacherous, featuring both natural hazards and deadly monsters. Characters can climb higher to reduce the total distance they have to travel, but doing so subjects them to higher altitudes and poorer trails. It typically takes eight days for an accomplished runner to complete the journey. Druids often use their animal companions to surreptitiously monitor athletes to make sure no one cheats by using flight magic or mounts, or setting traps for later contestants. Goliaths also travel to Thella-Lu for religious worship. It is said that after Kavaki brought the first goliath tribes down from the mountaintop, he taught them to hunt and forage on the Plain of Standing Stones. Major shrines exist for each deity in the goliath pantheon—even Kuliak, who is otherwise held at arm’s length by goliath worshipers. The stonespeakers who are Thella-Lu’s only permanent residents are responsible for order in the city. Mostly this amounts to maintaining schedules of religious and sporting events. The stonespeakers always deputize one tribe to keep a modicum of peace in the city, breaking up drunken brawls and separating antagonistic tribes. When that tribe leaves, the stonespeakers choose another tribe to take its place, paying well for the tribe’s services. Thella-Lu is the ultimate destination for many goliaths, for west of the city lies a field of cairns where many goliaths, famous or obscure, are buried. Kuliak’s shrine stands
in the middle of all the cairns, and clerics stationed there officiate at several funerals each day. Thella-Lu (small city): Magical; AL CG; population 11,000 adults (varies widely); 15,000 gp limit (40,000 gp for Large weapons and druid magic items); Mixed (79% goliath, 9% stonespeaker [goliath], 5% human, 3% dwarf, 2% halfling, 1% elf, 1% giant). Authority Figures: High Priest Kanekathama, female goliath stonespeaker druid 7/stonespeaker guardian 10; Chieftain Arbiter Elikalani, male goliath stonespeaker druid 14; chieftain of the guard-tribe (identity changes regularly), goliath barbarian 12. Important Characters: Manathua, female cleric 9 (healer in the shrine of Theleya who often casts raise dead for visitors who make a donation); Garlak Warrendelve, male dwarf wizard 4/cleric 7 (longtime resident who often magically enhances goliaths’ weapons); Rulia Appletoss, female gnome bard 7 (proprietor of Rulia’s hospitality tent and brewer of fi ne honey-mead); Kimoku Stoneheart Thalanama, female goliath barbarian 15 (renowned goliath athlete).
THE STONESPEAKERS Touched by the divine spirit of stone, stonespeakers are a far-flung order of goliath druids, clerics, and other mystics who watch over tribes of goliaths and feral garguns (see page 89). The tribes regard them as holy figures, though stonespeakers stand at arm’s length from the daily life of the tribes they guard. When a dispute threatens to tear a
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