> Baby now leaves or is tempted away... This all assumes that this
> really is a *baby* in every sense of the word.
It *is* a baby: a 30-yards tall one, admittedly, but still a baby. I'm sure it goes "goo" if suitably provoked. The "treasures" of the Cradle are intended for use in its millennia-long education: since this hasn't yet started, I'd have no trouble believing it's still quite babylike in every respect.
> Who could have been around at that time to do this? Oasis people?
> Nomads? Pol Joni? What about newtlings?
Oasis People have never achieved anything, as far as we know. Means it *could* have been them (startling and atypical), but nobody would suspect it, as they never stick their necks out or get involved in anything outside their oases -- and this is a bog, not an oasis, so what were they doing there in the first place? (That is, you can do this in your campaign, but should realise that it's a Big Change to what Gloranthan scholars would expect a typical Oasis Person to do, and you'll need to work on an explanation of this unusual event).
Nomads could have done it, I suppose. Unlikely, given their fear of "Giant Things", but there are more of them than anyone else in Prax, so balance of probabilities says there were Nomads around when it happened.
The Pol Joni didn't exist in the First Age: their tribe was founded by and named for Derik Pol-Joni in the 1400's, over a thousand years after the Sunstop. Cf. "King of Sartar" for the relevant history. Horse Nomads came to Prax in the Second Age, as allies of the EWF, and were nobbled at the end of that Age (and beginning of the Third) when the Animal Nomads regained their dominance on the Plaines. Cf. Peter Metcalfe's succinct and informative post in V5 #393.
Newtlings: OK, if it fits in with your campaign needs. I can't see why you'd want to do this, though.
I'd incline to pin the blame on a Trickster Shaman type (one of the Raven or Coyote aspects -- or why not Rattlesnake, using his tail as a rattle to lure the baby from the Cradle?)
> Could the giant baby still be around, but grown up? Could it be
> somebody famous?
If lured away by the "nice, shiny, rattly" Rattlesnake Trickster, I doubt it! But if you want her to be someone known in your campaign, go for it. Most likely a prominent mountain somewhere far, far away. Yes, these are *those* Giants we're talking about: remember, she's thirty yards tall as an infant! If she's grown up without the special education she was being sent for, I'd guess she was a "monster" by now, not a civilised and sophisticated Giant Adult. I still think death by rattlesnake is your best bet: that leaves big bones somewhere obscure for the PCs to find while rummaging through caves.
> Looting of the cradle could be at any stage - I would opt for just
> started. If a lot of stuff had been taken then the Jrusteli might
> have been able to figure out what had happened.
I thought the whole point was to have a pre-Jrusteli wrecked Cradle. If you want it to have been looted by God Learner cradle-snatchers, what om earth was the point of the previous few posts? Surely we're trying to have a more-or-less complete buried Cradle undiscovered in the bogs of the Zola Fel valley, not a heap of big old planks which the God Learners looted nigh on a thousand years ago.
> Preposterous or possible?
Possible, of course. I'd prefer digging down to the wrecked Cradle to having a miraculously-preserved 1200 year old Cradle "magically" emerge from the bog, but each to their own. Surely you'll leave some "goodies" behind for the PCs to find: if not, it's just a messy heap of wrecked giant cradle, not worth all the fuss of sinking it. But I guess it's all a matter of taste. If you want to give your players vacant possession (and control?) of a fully-functional Giant Cradle, your gaming is happening at a radically different level to my own, and I'll stop making suggestions which can only interfere with your group's fun.
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Nick
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