This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.
At a Glance
These gigantic stone golems are scattered across the landscape of Mulhorand. They are more common in certain vicinities, including Gheldaneth, Azulduth, and a handful of ancient ruins. Their purpose and origin are unknown even to most sages; few credible accounts exist of their creation.
The Xaeyruudh Campaign — DM Notes
The description in FR10 suggests that they were built by giants “before the coming of the lizard folk” to defend the giant kingdoms and wage wars for them. If the lizard folk referred to are the sarrukh, then this may be a change made at the Creative dept, but it’s clear to me from Serpent Kingdoms that the sarrukh kingdoms came well before the giant kingdoms. That is, however, the story that PCs will be told by sages who are knowledgable on the subjects of ancient Mulhorand and golems. These sages are incredibly rare outside of the Old Empires (Mulhorand, Unther, Murghôm, Semphar, and Chessenta).
However, I wanted to give the story some credence and expand it, so I made up a bit about a civilization of giants flourishing in the area now known as Mulhorand, at the close of sarrukh dominance when dragons were beginning to gain the upper hand. This was quite a bit before most giant civilizations achieved any power, so it had to be a group of interlopers. I decided on maug, because they’re awesome; problem solved.
So, in the Xaeyruudh campaign and to my knowledge only in this campaign, a group of maug was marooned on Faerûn and, finding themselves unable to return to their unit, which was in the Lower Planes at the time, adapted for a while to life on the Prime Material. At that time, the region now known as Mulhorand was called Bralfiron by the dragons and Ssallanh by the sarrukh, and it was a sort of no-mans-land between the waning sarrukh forces of Okoth and the increasing might of the dragons gathering at Arogol, now called the Thaymount. (Many, many years later, this name would be reused and corrupted over time to Araugul by dragonkin settling in what is now the Stonelands; later their goblinoid servants would take control and hence the Goblinmount known to the Netherese was called Araugul among goblins.)
The maug made their temporary home at the present location of Gheldaneth, and soon found themselves surrounded by hostile forces. They allied with the dragons against the all-devouring sarrukh, creating massive golems (which they simply called Guardians) to intimidate the aggressive members of both sides into leaving the maug-claimed land unmolested. In-between skirmishes, the golems repaired the maug citadels and homes.
Since both sarrukh and dragons had magic which enabled them to seize control of constructs, the maug safeguarded their Guardians with the crafting of amulets which enabled control of the elemental spirits which animated the golems. The amulets overpowered all other influences which might attempt to direct the golems or the elementals within. Originally known as Baras’ torcs, these amulets were large purple corundums set in heavy gold chains. The carved corundum (larger than a human hand, and worth at least 5,000 gp even if its power is unknown) is all that’s necessary; the chain was never more than a convenient means of keeping the stone readily available.
When the last of the sarrukh withdrew into their demiplane, the dragons moved quickly to seal the portals, and the maug positioned several of their great golems around the sarrukh capital now buried under Azulduth. As part of their alliance, the dragons had promised to help the maug return to the outer planes after the conflict with the sarrukh was resolved… the maug held up their end of the bargain, so after a period of argument amongst the dragons it was decided by their leaders that the dragons must honor their contract as well… or perhaps face the prospect of gigantic uncontrollable golems snatching dragons out of the sky and laying waste to their strongholds.
The maug disappeared from Faerûn some time after the founding of Imaskar, but before Imaskari explorers made their way westward. When human adventurers first attempted to settle the east shore of the Alamber Sea they were forced to find shelter within the abandoned giant-built structures; rampaging golems would periodically arrive and systematically destroy all man-made buildings.
As the centuries passed, the spells directing the golems gradually weakened. They slept for years, then decades, patrolling the land more sporadically. Most of them have ceased destroying human settlements but all remain vigilant against reptilians, as roving groups of yuan-ti have discovered. The number of golems has also slowly waned; a few have been destroyed by adventurers or marauders forced to defend themselves. The Guardian on the shores of Azulduth was destroyed in 1348 DR by a yuan-ti anathema, to impress its followers into more enthusiastic support of the awakening sarrukh. Another statue nearby turned, in 1351, to face Azulduth and take a step, and then sank once more into slumber.
One of the largest Guardians towers 167 feet over the streets of Gheldaneth, where it has stood for 3 millennia. Occasionally its head and arms shift, briefly alarming visitors with ominous thunder and a shower of dust, but its feet haven’t moved since Gheldaneth was built on the weathered ruins of the ancient maug city. Two more Guardians are visible from the walls of Gheldaneth, and one stays near the crossroads town of Rauthil. A few others stand near giant-sized ruins along the Rivers of Spears and Swords. The others slowly patrol the foothills of the Dragonsword and the border with the Eastern Shaar.
The maug took a few of their golden amulets with them, leaving the remainder in various sealed tombs where they remained undiscovered for millennia; in fact, some still remain where they were placed dozens of centuries ago. Most, however, have vanished into the hoards of dragons or other explorers. A handful have found their way into human hands. None of these mortal collectors, it seems, have any memory of the amulets’ power or purpose.
Based on obscure and unverified accounts of Statue movement during the early days of Imaskar, there is reason to suspect that someone had a means (perhaps a grand amulet?) of simultaneously directing all of the Statues to a common destination, but there’s no indication of who that individual might have been or where the item is now… if it is an item.
It’s worthwhile to note that the Guardians do not protect Mulhorand; they protect the remains of the maug settlements, and to a lesser degree the borders of the territory once claimed by the maug, which happens to coincide with southern Mulhorand. Currently, this protection extends only to preventing desecration of maug structures (walking among them is okay; toppling pillars or carrying stones away is not) and violently halting any reptilian incursion into the territory. The Statues-That-Walk have been unconcerned with Mulhorand’s wars, including the Mulhorand-Unther war and the Orcgate Wars. There is a 1% chance of a reptilian PC being attacked by a Statue… but the PC would have to walk up and touch it, due to the dilution of the sarrukh bloodlines since ancient times. If a sarrukh were to enter Mulhorand, however, many Statues would simultaneously animate and confront the intruder, falling dormant again only when the threat was eliminated.
Sources
- Epic Level Handbook [88169] page 171 — this seems like a good 3e description for the Statues That Walk, except that the faces were tributes to various maug heroes so they appear to most humans as primitive carvings, in odd contrast to the engineering and magical prowess needed to create the golems. Also notable in times past, their shatter power was sometimes used against buildings… as if the Guardian’s natural attacks wouldn’t do enough structural damage.
- Old Empires [FR10/9274] pages 30, 88
- Statue That Walks — ENWorld’s Creature Catalog conversion (not consistent with my version, but there’s nothing wrong with that)
- Xaeyruudh: Other than that, the rest of the details were written for this campaign
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