Replotting Storm King's Thunder (Spoilers, obviously)

[Grod_The_Giant]

I've heard a lot about how Storm King's Thunder is kind of a... disorganized module. I told my players I'd run it, though, so I've been flipping through the book and trying to come up with a stronger thread to connect the various bits and pieces. I think I've got most of it... most of it.

Spoiler: The Plan

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• The players will be there for the attack on Goldenfields, confirming that the giants do in fact threaten the entire North.
• The party explores the Savage Coast looking for Harshnag, a heroic frost giant who's fought evil giants in these parts for centuries. (I figure I'll pick the most interesting points and built a trail of clues, leading them from one site to another until they find the guy)
• Eventually, they find Harshnag healing from being badly wounded by stone giants. He doesn't know what's going on, but he can tell that the Ordening is broken.
• Harshnag sends the party to the Eye of the All Father to ask the oracle what's going on.
• The Oracle tells them that King Hekaton has been kidnapped, breaking the Ordening and spurring the giant lords to prove themselves the most powerful. It can only give an indecipherably cryptic answer about where he is, but it can tell the party what the five giant lords are planning to do and where they are.
• The party will wreck each of the lords' plans in turn, gaining a level after each chapter.
• After the last giant lord is dead, the party hears that queen Serissa is planning a war on the small folk. They travel to the Maelstrum (via some underwater adventuring; none of this teleportation nonsense) to talk her out of it and unmask Iymrith.
• With the queen's support (hopefully), the party will rescue Hekaton from where he's trapped deep beneath the earth. Freeing him will leave them at level 15 for the final battle.
• The party will hunt Iyrmith down and kill the dragon in its lair.

I'm ditching the Kraken cultists altogether. They seem unnecessary, and the presence of a CR 25 kraken somewhat undermines the CR 23 dragon, I feel like.

There are two points I could use some help with, though.

• I don't really care for the existing lead-in, so we're starting at 5th, but I'd like to have a few sessions before the attack on Goldenfields-- that feels like it should be a climactic moment, not the first session. Problem is that I'm having trouble thinking of what that could be, and what sort of foreshadowing should appear.
• I want to work Iyrmith into the plot in more thoroughly, so she can be a central villain rather than just appearing out of nowhere near the end. Where are some good places for her to pop up?
• Or, last second thought, should Iyrmith be written out of the adventure and the kraken become the overall archvillain? It'd be more unexpected, if nothing else, and an aquatic villain seems like a closer tie to the aquatic storm giants.

[Laserlight]

I've played it, not DM'd it. The two things that made the least sense were the flying wizard tower guy ("so, this is hugely important but you can't do anything about it? ") and the dragon's airship ( basically any random encounter will destroy the airship, so why does it exist?)

I'd rather fight a dragon than a kraken, for this module.

[Fable Wright]

I'm about to run it, and I'm rather confused by some of your changes.

1. The giant strongholds become increasingly underwhelming at higher levels, and continue to 'Giant Fatigue'. That is, fighting one enemy exclusively until all its charm is gone.

2. Your trail of clues should probably tie into the NPC mini quests at the end of Goldenfields, if possible. Just to wrap up loose ends.

3. Turning Serissa into a warmonger is very, very likely to prompt the PCs to kill her and shatter the ordning once and for all, as opposed to the initial hook of "get her to strengthen her position and reign in her subordinates".

4. Iymrith can be difficult to work in, outside of the return to the Oracle's temple where she reveals her presence. She's supposed to be a master manipulator, not a front and center threat. Taking out the one appearance and asking how to work her in is somewhat contradictory.

Personally, I'm choosing to run the game as a simple power struggle. A mastermind kidnaps the king of a powerful nation, and an unprepared regent winds up on the throne. The various feudal lords vie for power while the ruler has a weak position while a treasonous advisor further poisons her with destabilizing advice. You're trying to strengthen the monarchy so that the lords both making open plays and the ones biding their time are both reigned in.

If I were to give her a more obvious presence, I'd have her advise the Fire Giants about the Primordial; advise the hill giants of where to find the most food; and lie to the frost giants about the location of the Ring of Winter. A journal of each of the leaders mentioning the advisor, and making note for a few of them that the cited sources were ancient DRACONIC tomes, should give the PCs enough of a hint. At least, combined with the cutscene.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I've played it, not DM'd it. The two things that made the least sense were the flying wizard tower guy ("so, this is hugely important but you can't do anything about it? ") and the dragon's airship ( basically any random encounter will destroy the airship, so why does it exist?)

I'd rather fight a dragon than a kraken, for this module.

Oh god yes. Both of those are gone.

I'm about to run it, and I'm rather confused by some of your changes.

1. The giant strongholds become increasingly underwhelming at higher levels, and continue to 'Giant Fatigue'. That is, fighting one enemy exclusively until all its charm is gone.

I figured I'd have to overhaul encounters anyway-- that's been my experience with modules so far-- so I'm not worried about level/CR mismatch. Fatigue is a fair point, though. I haven't looked too much at the different lairs to see how many non-giant allies are around, but... yeah. Maybe I'll cut the Hill and Stone lords?

2. Your trail of clues should probably tie into the NPC mini quests at the end of Goldenfields, if possible. Just to wrap up loose ends.

Good idea.

3. Turning Serissa into a warmonger is very, very likely to prompt the PCs to kill her and shatter the ordning once and for all, as opposed to the initial hook of "get her to strengthen her position and reign in her subordinates".

I was trying to find a way to bring her in after the giant lords. But... looking at the storm giant chapter a bit harder, it's mostly intrigue-- I could drop it in with the rest of the eye's prophecies...

4. Iymrith can be difficult to work in, outside of the return to the Oracle's temple where she reveals her presence. She's supposed to be a master manipulator, not a front and center threat. Taking out the one appearance and asking how to work her in is somewhat contradictory.

Wait, where did I cut her out?

If I were to give her a more obvious presence, I'd have her advise the Fire Giants about the Primordial; advise the hill giants of where to find the most food; and lie to the frost giants about the location of the Ring of Winter. A journal of each of the leaders mentioning the advisor, and making note for a few of them that the cited sources were ancient DRACONIC tomes, should give the PCs enough of a hint. At least, combined with the cutscene.

Good ideas.

[Fable Wright]

Wait, where did I cut her out?

You mentioned her only appearing at the end of the book, but she makes her first appearance at the return to the Oracle's temple at almost exactly the halfway point. She shows up in a big scene, Harshnag brings the temple down on her to give the players a chance to escape—in doing so removing their safety net in the event of Deadly+ Random Encounters, giving them investment in taking down Iymrith later, and alerting them to an unignorable threat. Because very few savvy players are ever going to ignore a blue dragon out for their blood, or think that a temple collapse will stop them.

It feels very scripted, but it's an unfortunate necessity. If you want the players to feel more invested, maybe have some giant-sized ballistae or other weapons they could use to attack Iymrith on approach, while Harshnag sets up a trap. It makes his sacrifice feel more earned when they players actually could try to do something to stop the Ancient Blue Dragon and end up needing to abandon ship.

[Great Dragon]

Greetings, Grod!

I'm actually also running Giants....
And Dragons!!

Two different Groups, though each can affect the things that happen in the other.
Since neither group are likely to meet, I'll do the Big Reveal at the End.

To Reduce Monster Fatigue, Dragons make camios in vs Giants, and the reverse.

Since the two groups are different levels, I'm trying to do some foreshadowing.

For Giants, I'm using Orcs "using" Chain Brute and Ram Ogres for their Raids. Those Ogres are on fact the Scouts for the Fire Giants that are busy BIG bees making weapons and armor for their War against the Dragons.

For (Tyranny of Dragons), I'm starting with a new Hobgoblin Fortification near Wyvern Tor, that are being used by - yep - an Adult Dragon (Chromatic, type not determined yet) some of these are in Phandelver Mine, "helping" the Black Spider, for a step price, of course.
(I removed the Spell Forge, for personal pet peeves reasons)

The Party has met the Wyrmling Gold Dragon spying on these Hobgoblins, reporting to his Ancient Great*5 grandfather.

These Hobgoblins will soon be replaced by Kobolds and Dragonborn....

Some details are spoiler-ed by Game Name/Day in my Ancient Realms thread in World Building.

I wonder if I could get both groups together for an Epic Giants vs Dragons Battle, and to see which side (of at least three) they pick...
Oh, well. I can Dream.

[Fable Wright]

To Reduce Monster Fatigue, Dragons make camios in vs Giants, and the reverse.

Funnily enough, I'm doing a similar thing. Chapter 3 and 4 are kinda... cliche? Unfocused?

So I'm throwing those out and running Red Hand of Doom in the middle instead.

...And giving every Giant some unique spell-like abilities to account for the fact that the players are going to be way higher level than expected when they assault the strongholds.

[Zhorn]

Also getting ready to run SKT.
My party's coming in from a modified LMoP and so they're levels 6,7,7,7,9 (XP, player deaths, missed sessions etc).
Intending to launch directly into rumblings, journey from Neverwinter to one of the locations on unrelated player-quests.
The journeys encounters between locations will be themed around background build ups of other modules (it's how I padded out LMoP) to give variety and drop lore for future games so it doesn't feel like everything's happening now-now-now. Dragon cultists, gnolls, blights, aboleths, red wizards, etc. Towns will all be SKT focused (quests, rumours, major news of events, etc) to keep players on task.

Iyrmith is background tied to Rise of Tiamat, and her final lair has been re-themed to be a Yuan-ti site.
The Dodkong will be floating around the Sword Coast doing undead shenanigans
Slarkrethel is on a plot to ascend to godhood
The ordening's shattering wasn't really to the work of the giant's god (since my group hasn't done Tiamat's story yet) and whichever of the giants the player's pursue for The Chosen Path will have a subtle demonic benefactor pulling the strings.

I don't want to plan any major details deviating too far from the book too early in advance, since no plan survives first contact with the players, but my general style has been to flavor the world as though other events are happening (or at least getting close to boiling point) outside of the primary adventure.

[Great Dragon]

@Zhorn. Looks interesting.

Grod.
I want to work Iyrmith into the plot in more thoroughly, so she can be a central villain rather than just appearing out of nowhere near the end. Where are some good places for her to pop up?

Or, last second thought, should Iyrmith be written out of the adventure and the kraken become the overall archvillain? It'd be more unexpected, if nothing else, and an aquatic villain seems like a closer tie to the aquatic storm giants.

The first problem I always have with any Spy, is that I'm extremely bad at giving Clues. Either I give everything away right away, or the Players either never solve it, or never seek it out in the first place.

The second part is, no matter how good a Spy you might be, there are always Clues to figure it out. Plus, no matter how cautious, someone knows your Secret.

For Iyrmith (I'm making her a Spellcasting Ancient Dragon) I'm giving her some Decendants, who in turn have either Dragonborn or Kobold Minions. (there is a fierce Rivalry between these Races. {Kobolds are Grognards unhappy with the "newby" Dragonborn}.
Plus, there are those of both Races being the willing Minions of both Metallic and Gem Dragons. Ferris and Other Dragons are lurking out there, somewhere.)

The point of all that Rambling, was that there's several Minions (Both Kobold and Dragonborn) that knows Iyrmith's Secret, since they report directly to her, or at least deliver Messages to/from her on at least a monthly basis, with Important Information being delivered asap.
Some Minions are Spellcasters.

Since I'm running both Modules together, I'm also tying Iyrmith to RoT, with Bahamut pulling the (Dragonlance) Fisbin bit, and doing mysterious indirect Actions to prevent Tiamat's Goal/s.

Part of the Challenge is for the PCs to convince the various (Metallic and Gem) Dragons to take action against the Dragon Cult (and the Dragons commanding/using it), as well as helping with the Giants; the Heroic Goal there is to forge a new Ordening and Peace with Good Dragons... The PCs can then discover the Council of Wyrms, and explore all kinds of possibilities....

The Kraken? IDK, depends on what the Players choose.
It's out there, and it's Cult (With GoO Warlock leaders) is very active in both Games.

Spoiler: Giants

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King Hekaton has vanished, and everyone suspects foul play!
Without their mighty father the Daughters cannot hold the various Giant Tribes together.
Each Giant Lord is trying to become the New King of Giants.

Serissa the Heiress cannot seem to keep either Mirran or Nym from bickering with each other.

Iymrith - is here, but her work is slow. She is very frustrated.

The Frost Giant Jarl Storvald - has only succeeded in cowing two Wyrmling White Dragons, their Parents are plotting (unsuccessfully, so far) their release. Villain.

The Fire Giant Duke Zalto has dedicated himself to slaying All Dragons.
Alliance with the Drow House Xorlarrin against the Dwarven fortress of Gauntlgrym, for how long?

The Cloud Giant Countess Sansuri is indeed torturing Felgolos the Bronze Dragon for information on treasure locations. If you enter Sansuri’s castle, whose side will you choose?

The Hill Giant Chieftess Guh - while she eats to become the Biggest Giant Ever:
Her newest Husband (?) is starting a War to become the new Chief….

The Ogre Chief CryzU has a Headband of Intellect and a magic Axe….

The Stone Giant Thane Kayalithica is the Villain of her region.

I don’t see much to change within the module, but that might change as Players do things.

Spoiler: Dragons

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HotDQ I’m not using Greennest. But I am keeping all the Dragons.
Cult of the Dragon leaders Rezmir (#1), Frulam Mondath, and Langdedrosa Cyanwrath

Cyanwrath is a half-blue dragon. (Might change to Blue Dragonborn. Champion Fighter)
I’ll be using this braggart and his 8 Kobolds as a Distraction….

Wyrmling (Party up to 7th level) Young (up to 12th level) Adult (up to 16th level) or Ancient (17+)
I'm not 100% sure which Names I will use for the different Ages of each Dragon Type, yet.

Blue Dragon: Lennithon accompanied this raid but is not an enthusiastic participant. Its chief contribution has been its Frightful Presence, but that becomes less effective as the night wears on and defenders overcome their fear. Shortly before midnight, the dragon launches a final assault against the citadel.[b]Frulam Mondath[b] orders the attack, knowing that the adventurers are in the (target) at the time. Lennithon doesn’t consider this to be his fight, and it isn’t keen on tangling with adventurers for another’s benefit. During this attack, Lennithon flies over the keep and uses his breath weapon without moving closer than 25 feet from the structure.
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If the party needs a clue where to go I’ll use the Monk Nesim Waladra and Leosin
Erlanthar, his missing Master.
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No changes to the Hatchery.
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Use things from the various Cities, and the Road as makes sense.

Carnath Roadhouse makes a good ‘resting stop’.

Castle Naerytar is next up.

Voaraghamanthar is an adult black dragon who claims the Mere of Dead Men as his territory

Dralmorrer Borngray an elf Wearer of Purple commands Castle Naerytar for Rezmir and is claiming it for the Cult of the Dragon (in name only; she considers it her personal property).


Azbara Jos the Red Wizard has his own Agenda, keeping his plans carefully hidden.
Unless useful, he eliminates Adventurers as quickly and quietly as possible.
Ambushes at night with Greater Invisibility are a favorite tactic.
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Graypeak Mountain hunting lodge goes in. If they Party can figure out where that blasted Red Wizard went!!
Talis the White is going to be a tough fight, unless they can convince her of their usefulness.
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Need to figure out where I want the Village of Parnast and Skyreach Castle.
Unlike HotDQ, these Giants are not helping the Cult of the Dragon, and are in fact making moves against them.
The Village is controlled by Ogres, and they report to Hill Giants, and they report to Blagothkus the Cloud Giant. While not overly concerned about the Lesser Races, Blagothkus has taken note of the increased Dragon activity, and is doing all he can to rekindle the Ancient War. As such, he is gathering Frost Giant allies. While he doesn’t care about non-Giants, he will attack any Dragonkin (including Dragonborn and Kobolds) to capture for interrogation. Once he has all the information they know, he kills them. Blagothkus knows there are Dragon Cult spies in the Village, and his Ogres are alert for suspicious activity.

Put the Cultists in a basement somewhere in the village.
The Red Wizards have their own secret base, since no one really trusts anyone else.
Note: the (Evil) Alliance is respected, and they all will band together against an obvious threat.

RoT

still reading....

[Grod_The_Giant]

You mentioned her only appearing at the end of the book, but she makes her first appearance at the return to the Oracle's temple at almost exactly the halfway point.

Right, yes. That's definitely worth keeping. I'll try to drop some hints of a dragon being involved during chapter 3, then let that be her big entrance.

EDIT: For the lead-in, I'm thinking that the party will be hired by a Goliath tribal leader. His tribe's ancestral burial grounds have been taken over by an orc warband, and-- in the wake of a dragon attack-- his people aren't strong enough to take them back alone. (And he can't get in contact with the great giant hero Harshnag)

They'll fight some skirmishes as they travel, and discover that the orcs in turn have been driven out by a couple cyclops. The Goliaths will be confused, because that's not supposed to happen-- the stone giants are supposed to keep lesser giants like the cyclops under control, not let them prey on allied tribes like theirs.

After the cyclops are dead, the Goliaths will march back north, and the adventures will head to the closest decent sized settlement, Goldenfield.

[darknite]

SKT is a sprawling mess. It's got so many hooks, however, that knitting together something fun should be pretty easy. Good luck!