Adventure Site Contest 3: The Stormlord’s Citadel

​Written by Birch Boyer
For ACKS levels 9-11
A GIANT’S FLYING FORTRESS
In days long past, the Stormlord was a patriarch of the titans, subtle and masterful as befits an elder child of the ancient gods. By a sorcerer’s treachery, he donned a helm of disalignment, his potent powers bent to serve Chaos; he now proclaims himself the Avatar of Storms.     
   There aren’t many fantasy images more iconic than the Cloud Castle. Who among us hasn’t looked up to the tower clouds of summer and imagined them as isles of stability, walked upon by giants? One need only find Jack’s mythic beanstalk to reach them. Of course, if we’re talking about whimsy and flights of fancy, the first system all of us think about is ACKS II. At least that’s what our friend Arbrethil here posits.
   The site story won’t surprise anyone who regularly dwells in these places, formerly good cloud giant (excuse me, titan) gets tricked into wearing a helm of evilfication, and so now he’s into hurting simple peasants and all the goodly kings of the land. Of more interest to me is the pitilessness of the hooks…either the giant spots the PCs and tells them “pay me $38,000 a month or die” or a king requests with their aid. How do we get there? You tell me, buttercup, you’re level 9-11. Figure it out.
   Maps are HUGE here…not just in terms of how many 10’ squares we’re looking at, but also in terms of file size. Bruh. This file was a tenth a gig. Beyond that, though, it’s a pretty well-executed skyfortress, complete with under-caves for the slaves, goats, and griffins. Interconnections might seem a little rote, but once again, this is high-level play…of course you’ve got guys flying around and teleporting and chucking that one Boomerang of Travel you foolishly gave them from a third-party module back in level 5. We’re good here on maps.
   High-level modules often have direct nerfs to hit the players over the head with, and this one is no exception. Ever been to Denver? This is worse, welcome to Altitude Sickness sucker, hope you enjoy the steadily ticking debuff. Traps are spare but suitably horrifying, like a reflecting pool that acts like a mirror of life-trapping (multiple victims inside) and the control chair loaded with a warding rune containing the nasty-sounding fillet and serve spell. The boss is load-bearing, and the castle itself falls from the sky if he gets himself got. Overall, a very tough environment even before the monsters hit.
   And the monsters, nice. Griffins are only the start, there’s a cyclops herding giant goats, a water elemental, animated statues, the Stormlord himself, and the mega-nasty Quicksilver Golem, which just sucks to fight. Hope you brought your A-game, even at level 11. As is only right and proper, this is going to be one heck of a challenging location.
   So much so that even with 300,000 gold around to loot, I’m not entirely sure that this place isn’t a little lightly treasured. Magic items are from the Treasure Tome, which, as of 12/3/2025 when I’m writing this review, means they’re unavailable unless you were a Kickstarter backer…a kindness would have been describing them in the text (update, it's here now). Lots of magic is nice and all, but if you’re trying to get petty cash to spend you better hope you can crash this sucker near your wagon train…there’s a lot of the wealth in silver. I enjoy the cruelty of that, but others might be miffed.
   The site can be included in any game that has Cloud Giants who ride around in Castles needing to by opposed (or at least plundered) by high-level heroes. Classic. I’m kind of disappointed with you all that it took three whole contests before one of these cropped up.