I recently read a short story by J.G.Ballard which I felt had a distinctly Gloranthian flavour despite being set on Earth.
It's called The Drowned Giant and it's in a collection of short stories called The Terminal Beach. There are spoilers to that story here so if you don't want to know what happens - don't read on.
Basically a drowned giant gets washed up on the beach. It's about the size of a large sperm whale. Nobody knows where it came from and day after day the tide washes it in further into the coast.
It's too big for the police to cordon off so all the locals arrive to gawp at it, climb all over it, use it as a diving board and so on.
When the authorities eventually arrive, all they do is send experts to measure it. After these guys leave bits of the giant start to disappear as various people start chopping bits off for souveniers, cattle food or fertiliser.
It doesn't take long before the thing is hardly recogniseable for what it once was.
In the months/years to come visitors to the local villages see its remains in various guises. A stuffed hand is used as the entrance to a circus. A large jaw-bone is used as an arch in somebody's garden. And so on.
ISTM there's all sorts of possibilities for scenarios here. People could arrive while the giant is lying out there, dead, or arrive months later and recognise the remains.
A few questions.
Could an Elder Giant drown? and if so, how? Or would it have to be one of the chaotic sort? I expect it would have to be an Elder Giant for this scenario to be *really* interesting - but maybe not....
How would the authorites react in different parts of the world to a dead giant washing up on the beach. I presume it would happen on an ocean coast - southern Genertela is the only area I know well.
If it was an Elder Giant, are parts of it useful for anything or have any special properties?
Like I said, just a diversion.
Richard
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