In general forest-dwelling giants seem to be nicer than their most other giant races. (Probably a resource thing: forests have food and resources, whereas mountains have icy, craggy death.) That doesn’t mean the neutral jungle giants are benevolent like wood giants; it just means they might allow you to run away when they threaten to kill you for trespassing.
For relatively simple monsters stat-wise, jungle giants are packed with evocative flavor touches: almost tree-like features (a reflection of the land…or hints of treant or fey influence?); the ability to wield bows in melee combat; spell storing, warding tattoos; and a matriarchal society (perhaps due to custom, religion, biology, curse, plague, you name it). Plus anything involving runes is always good for an adventure hook…
A jungle giant warns trespassers against visiting a forbidden ruined city. She sends leaf leshys to spy on them, and if they disobey they find themselves harried by druid-summoned animals and girallon ambushes.
A well-meaning but hapless scholar wishes to study the runic brands and tattoos of a jungle giant tribe. The matriarch is quite understandably less than enthusiastic about her people being examined like butterflies. She also wishes to preserve the secret reason for their matriarchal society: a stain of corruption that renders a percentage of their males into brutes (use cave giant statistics) or even violent psychopaths (ash giants) who must be driven underground.
Explorers searching for a lost jungle nation of elves succeed—sort of. What they find are a nation of jungle giants attended by wild elf servants and laborers along with strange obsidian golems. This horrifies the elves in the party (used to their own nation of oak-tree-and-living-crystal cities that dominates a subcontinent), and they are stunned to discover the wild elves approve of the arrangement.
—Pathfinder Bestiary 3 129
Quick one today. Got Florence + the Machine tickets that need using.
Speaking of which, I never kvetched about Saturday, did I? Was supposed to go to this; was even on guest list thanks to a radio connection. On the day of, almost too exhausted to go, but I rallied because I’d never seen Flogging Molly live. Get there and…
…The door people don’t have my name. Sigh. Which I should have expected. (Pro Tip: Never trust guest list at an outdoor show. Almost always lots of temporary staff and there’s never anyone higher up/with an Internet connection to appeal to.) So of course suddenly I go from not even wanting to go to the show to having never wanted to see a show more in my life. Predictable. #patchlogic (The worst part is that by coincidence a client of mine was involved in the show, so I probably could have gotten tickets weeks ago if I had a brain.)
Anyway, back to jungle giants. I know all you Star Wars Expanded Universe fans read “jungle” and “matriarchal society” and started going, “They’re giant Witches of Dathomir!” To which I reply: “Uh, sure?”
Finally, remember I’m looking for reader-generated random hooks! Per yesterday’s post, roll three times on whatever monster/spell/terrain/plane/NPC/whatever tables you like. Send the results to me (here or at my Gmail address) and I’ll do my best to work into a post!
Several tribes of jungle giants dwell on Gladia’s mainland. Their occasional conflicts with the Kingdom of Kown-Dam left them distrustful of smaller races, and they prefer to keep to their villages unless they are on the hunt. Their tribe leaders are typically witches, serving powers of nature and healing. They universally dislike the ruins of the Kingdom of Kown-Dam, and often keep watch over ones in their territory.
Shores of Swords 