Running a campaign for my family, with two kids (9,11) and wife. They discovered a hidden temple with a large blue gem in it that contains the soul of a Frost Giant. The gem was located at the intersection of ley lines (in our world it's where strands of hair from the God of Magic intersect). Any magical spell or thing has tremendous power when activated at the that site. I'm running into an issue because because of a few things (see secrets below) and need some help figuring out why the arcane collector would have left the gem in place, put in place and left, or not discovered it yet. If they didn't put it in place or find it yet then why would it have activated? Any suggestions on how to deactivate the gem?
A lake froze to its core in a nearby town which prompted the PCs to find the temple.
The activated Soul Gem likely caused the freezing.
An arcane collector lives in a tree house directly above the temple. PCs do not know this yet.
The temple has an underground river system that connects to other temples (5 temples dedicated to homebrew gods). PCs have a half map to the rivers.
Gem Deactivation
Visit a jeweler friend of the arcane collector to learn how to activate it.
Easiest way to go about why it was placed or left there would be instability. If the gem has an issue such as a crack that leaks out magical energy (causing the Freezing you mentioned) then it could be a reason why the collector left it there. Maybe the cave was a place to store it and keep it hidden but it released too much energy and started affecting too much.
For the collector maybe they are unsure as to how to activate it or take it, but know its worth a high value or interest and refuses to leave, so instead they are waiting for someone to come along and solve the issue for them so they can steal it away and take it for themselves.
Another idea could be that the collector knows how to activate/deactivate it but was run out of town or something happened causing him to hate the town, so they decided to get revenge by placing it in the cave and allowing it to run amok.
As for the activation by itself idea you mentioned it contained a frost giant soul? Maybe something connected to that such as someone finding the body and trying to resurrect that giant, causing the soul to resonate. Or there is a shrine to the frost giants god in that cave that has yet to be discovered and the gem is acting as an offering to that god, freezing nearby things to create a new frost giant land.
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If your players think you're reading from a module while you're making everything up, you're doing better than you think!
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Running a campaign for my family, with two kids (9,11) and wife. They discovered a hidden temple with a large blue gem in it that contains the soul of a Frost Giant. The gem was located at the intersection of ley lines (in our world it's where strands of hair from the God of Magic intersect). Any magical spell or thing has tremendous power when activated at the that site. I'm running into an issue because because of a few things (see secrets below) and need some help figuring out why the arcane collector would have left the gem in place, put in place and left, or not discovered it yet. If they didn't put it in place or find it yet then why would it have activated? Any suggestions on how to deactivate the gem?
Gem Deactivation
Easiest way to go about why it was placed or left there would be instability. If the gem has an issue such as a crack that leaks out magical energy (causing the Freezing you mentioned) then it could be a reason why the collector left it there. Maybe the cave was a place to store it and keep it hidden but it released too much energy and started affecting too much.
For the collector maybe they are unsure as to how to activate it or take it, but know its worth a high value or interest and refuses to leave, so instead they are waiting for someone to come along and solve the issue for them so they can steal it away and take it for themselves.
Another idea could be that the collector knows how to activate/deactivate it but was run out of town or something happened causing him to hate the town, so they decided to get revenge by placing it in the cave and allowing it to run amok.
As for the activation by itself idea you mentioned it contained a frost giant soul? Maybe something connected to that such as someone finding the body and trying to resurrect that giant, causing the soul to resonate. Or there is a shrine to the frost giants god in that cave that has yet to be discovered and the gem is acting as an offering to that god, freezing nearby things to create a new frost giant land.
If your players think you're reading from a module while you're making everything up, you're doing better than you think!