The Stonespeakers

Illus. by J. Jarvis

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 fl ight 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 fi rst 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 fi eld 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 offi ciate 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% halfl ing, 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).

Touched by the divine spirit of stone, stonespeakers are a far-fl ung 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 fi gures, though stonespeakers stand at arm’s length from the daily life of the tribes they guard. When a dispute threatens to tear a

tribe apart, or the wild game in an area inexplicably disappears, or monsters threaten the very existence of the tribe, a stonespeaker is there to provide guidance and considerable magical aid.

Agenda: Stonespeakers travel the mountain regions, helping and advising goliath and feral gargun tribes as they wander. This wandering serves many purposes, allowing the shamans to observe and commune with the natural world, carry news between the tribes, and remain vigilant against the depredations of hostile giants, dragons, and other dangerous creatures. Wise and patient, stonespeakers listen before they speak, and they often fi nd themselves in the role of teacher or mentor to members of other races. Stonespeakers love to wander and explore, and they are patient observers of the natural world. Stonespeakers care deeply about the earth, and they work to teach others how to work stone and treat it with care. Conversely, stonespeakers have no tolerance for the rare individuals who do great damage to the earth with careless magic or irresponsible mining, and they work tirelessly to oppose such individuals, regardless of their race.

Structure: Unlike the druids responsible for a mountain tribes’ religious life, stonespeakers are not themselves part of the tribe they watch over. They often wander the mountainous regions, joining a tribe for a short time and then moving on. Older stonespeakers eventually settle permanently within one of these tribes, exchanging wisdom and counsel for the safety of the larger community. Stonespeakers also tend areas sacred to themselves or to any of the other races that they are closely associated with. Powerful stonespeakers sometimes imbue these sites with magic, turning them into rune circles. For more information on rune circles, see page 167. Although a stonespeaker uses spells such as animal messenger to communicate with his brethren, he meets other stonespeakers in person only rarely—often when two wandering tribes pass each other on a mountain path. A stonespeaker is expected to instinctively know what is best for stone, best for the stonespeakers, and best for the tribe he’s watching over (in that order), and to act without needing orders or oversight. Stonespeakers meet four times a year in gatherings known as stonemoots to discuss the welfare of their charges and threats that confront multiple tribes within a region. The goliath tent city of Thella-Lu is host to the most important stonemoot every season, which every stonespeaker is expected to attend if possible. Most of the other stonemoots are held in remote alpine valleys, elaborate mountain cave networks, and other nigh-inaccessible places. These smaller stonemoots are attended by smaller groups of stone speakers, who travel to the one nearest their current location when the time arrives. If giant slavers will be on the move from the icy north come spring, the stonespeakers will formulate a counterplan at their winter stonemoot. If the war between the Thaliak and Gonimalaka goliath tribes threatens to draw mercenaries from the lowlands into the mountains, the stonespeakers will broker a cease-fi re and keep interlopers out. Decisions are made by majority vote after every stonespeaker has had a say and appropriate divination spells have been consulted for guidance. The stonespeakers also work powerful magic at their stonemoots, building and maintaining rune circles and casting spells to keep the mountains healthy. The stonespeakers also make extensive use of divination magic during stonemoots, and many stonespeakers return to their tribes with the words of prophecy on their lips. Finally, the stonemoots are where new members are initiated into the group. Becoming a stonespeaker is a two-step process. First, a prospective member must follow an existing stonespeaker to the stonemoot. Because most stonespeakers are accomplished druids and stonemoots are in exceedingly remote locations, doing this is harder than simply following in a stonespeaker’s footsteps—for starters, stonespeakers nearly all have the trackless step class feature and thus don’t leave footprints. Would-be stonespeakers who reach a stonemoot must next withstand the scrutiny of the existing stone speakers, who test the applicant’s priorities and judgment in a lengthy interrogation. The stonespeakers also demand that the applicant demonstrate his magical prowess; they reject anyone who can’t cast 3rd-level spells or show off abilities of equivalent power. For millennia, stonespeakers have spoken Druidic or the goliath tongue, Gol-Kaa, among themselves. Although Gol-Kaa is their primary language, they have incorporated other phonetic letters from Druidic and Common into their speech. Stonespeakers, like other goliaths, have recently picked up the alphabet of the Dwarven language. Stonespeakers have taken to this new written version of the language much faster than goliaths in general, and they guide and encourage the goliath scribes who are busily transcribing the goliaths’ vast oral tradition.

Names: When a new stonespeaker joins the group, he adds “-tor” to his name as a hyphenated suffi x, denoting his devotion to earth and stone. Stonespeaker guardians (see page 127) further modify their names by changing “-tor” to “-ber.” For example, when Arakan, a druid, joins the stonespeakers, he changes his name to Arakan-tor. Later, after entering the stonespeaker guardian prestige class, he changes his name to Arakan-ber.

Symbol: The stonespeakers have no symbol that they wear to differentiate themselves from the tribe they travel with, but they use an elaborate sequence of spoken passwords in a combination of Gol-Kaa, Druidic, and invented words to identify each other. If the stonespeakers have a symbol at all, it is the circles of stone they leave scattered across the mountain landscape. Some of these stones merely mark a trail or designate a sacred place, but others form powerful rune circles.

Membership: The vast majority of stonespeakers are goliath druids, but members of other spellcasting classes have occasionally developed a strong enough bond with stone to join the group. Recently, a number of clerics of Kavaki joined the stonespeakers—a move refl ective of the confl ict between druids and clerics in goliath society.