A One-Round Adventure for 3rd Level Characters
Crimson Codex Faction Adventure 3
From the introduction:
A mere 50,000 years ago, the giants of Xen’drik built a civilization of unparalleled arcane mastery. Tutored by dragons, their sorcerous acumen enabled them to unlock the inscrutable mysteries of their world. One of these mysteries was the strange influence over magic held by the three types of dragonshards: Khyber, Eberron and Siberys. Khyber and Eberron shards were reasonably abundant for research purposes, but Siberys shards held a peculiar allure and were difficult to find. These shards fell erratically from the great Ring of Siberys, which circled the sky above Xen’drik. It was possible to retrieve these shards after they fell to Eberron, but the uncertain quantity and availability challenged the giants. The challenge, they felt, was not insurmountable.
An enclave of giant wizards constructed a fortress with a clear mission: develop a means to draw down Siberys shards wherever and whenever desired. The giants succeeded in developing an eldritch telescope to accomplish the task, but the device carried a terrible price. It plucked the shards from the Ring of Siberys by creating an attraction between the shards and concentrations of ambient mental energy. The first and only attempt at using this attraction to bring down Siberys shards resulted in the decimation of an entire giant settlement. Before they were able to fix the problem, dragons from Argonnessen swept down upon the fortress, cursing a virulent plague upon the giants and their elf slaves living there. The dragons destroyed the device’s designs and ruined much of the eldritch telescope.
Recently, the eldritch telescope was rediscovered by a group of prospectors scouring the Xen’drik jungles for valuable Siberys shards. These fortune hunters are led by a half-giant named Sailoc ip’Ahar. Despite being born in Stormreach, Sailoc harbors nothing but spite for the humanoid races he sees as thieves of his giant heritage. Prospecting in the jungles of Xen’drik affords him the opportunity to rediscover the power of his descendants with the hope that he can one day use it to drive off the humanoid interlopers, perhaps even enslaving the elven races again. Sailoc and his crew recently found the fortress and its secret. They recognized the power of the eldritch telescope but were unable to fix it on their own. Sailoc contacted a patron (a follower of the daelkyr known as Virulence) and was able to obtain assistance in returning the device to operation. In return, the aberrations are to receive a portion of the dragonshards for their own schemes.
They have already tested the device on small humanoid villages near the fortress and are ready to implement their ultimate goal: they plan to use mental energy of the inhabitants of the city of Stormreach to summon a massive Siberys storm. Sailoc’s crew plans to gather as much of the treasure as possible so that when the dragonmarked houses send new buyers for the Siberys shards, they find Sailoc commands a veritable monopoly. The ambitions of the daelkyr and his followers are unfathomable, but their approval of Sailoc’s intentions means the destruction of Stormreach is not antithetical to their goals.