D&D 5E Enhancing "Storm King's Thunder"

[Motorskills]

I've had a great idea for Countess Sansuri!! The adventure doesn't specify exactly what she is trying to acheive, other than it involves dragon magic. The adventure also doesn't say which giant lord stole the Nightstone from the village. Finally the adventure doesn't place much emphasis on the Wyrmskull Throne, which apparently had a bigger part in the story in early drafts..

As I read the description of the Wyrmskull Throne, I realised that it is made of obsidian, like the Nightstone is. So what if Sansuri took the Nightstone in an attempt to create her own version of the Wyrmskull Throne? Having a throne like that would massively help convince other giants that she should replace Hekaton! But it needs four ancient dragon skulls, so that is why Sansuri has captured the young bronze dragon - she is trying to locate its parents in order to kill them.

In my campaign, the PCs are quite likely to get out of their depth when dealing with some of the dragons in the game, like Claugiyliamatar and Klauth. Having this plot point in play means that if the PCs are ever facing a TPK then Sansuri and some cloud giant followers can show up, kill and decapitate the dragon, and ignore the PCs, considering them beneath notice. I like having plausible in-game reasons for any deus-ex-machina rescues that may be needed

That's a great idea.

 

[Ovinomancer]

I'm continuing to fine-tune the upcoming encounter with the Great Worm tribe in the Shrine of Annam.

I had forgotten that I owned JValeur's guide to The Chosen Path, where he breaks this chapter down as expertly as ever.
JValeur's tactical suggestions might mean I need to scale back the pain a little more as well, we'll see!

I didn't like the barbarians encounter at all. Didn't work for me. So, what I did was scatter dead barbarian corpses around the temple at points where bad things could happen -- the gate, the boulder trap, etc. -- and replaced the encounter with them with 6 yetis in ambush from the raised balconies. It gives the balconies (a neat architectural bit and nice defensive design) something to actually do rather than be there and makes for a thematic encounter. Further, it means that the party doesn't pretty much automatically kill the GW chieftain before even learning that there are those that want him dead. I replaced the frost spider victim with the GW tribe shaman, and allowed her to become an ally wishing the tribe to be free of the chieftain, who's fallen under the control of an adult white dragon, instead of the couatl (a tropical mythological beast willingly bound into a frozen altar?).

So, summary of changes:
Hallway encounter changed to 6 yetis from the barbarians.
Barbarian corpses used to foreshadow danger points in the temple.
Shaman replaces both the spider victim and the couatl as an ally in the GW tribe sacred place.
GW tribe sacred place encounter now has chieftain with 2 guards and 4-6 tribal warriors and an adult white dragon.

This worked out really well for me. The yetis are a strong encounter, especially from ambush, but the paucity of other encounters in the temple evened it out. The party still had plenty left for the rehmorraz(sp?).

Also, I tweaked the boulder/spider encounter. Firstly, I had the stone wall sealing the area malfunction at the entrance with the spider tunnel opening -- it doesn't seal until after the boulder passed. Then, I had the spiders attack out of the tunnels against any characters that took refuge from the trap in that room. The spiders would immediately withdraw with any captured characters, giving good reason to chase after and discover the trapped shaman. Finally, I modified the spiders so that their venom worked like the basilisk gaze -- first failed save is restrained, as you begin to freeze up, second failed save is petrified, as you freeze solid. Recovery requires at least 1 hour in front of a large fire or other heat source (like the bonfire in the feast hall). Kept the DC the same as the written DC for the spider poison. Felt far more thematic and the players absolutely freaked when they finally failed a save.

 

[Motorskills]

I didn't like the barbarians encounter at all. Didn't work for me. So, what I did was scatter dead barbarian corpses around the temple at points where bad things could happen -- the gate, the boulder trap, etc. -- and replaced the encounter with them with 6 yetis in ambush from the raised balconies. It gives the balconies (a neat architectural bit and nice defensive design) something to actually do rather than be there and makes for a thematic encounter. Further, it means that the party doesn't pretty much automatically kill the GW chieftain before even learning that there are those that want him dead. I replaced the frost spider victim with the GW tribe shaman, and allowed her to become an ally wishing the tribe to be free of the chieftain, who's fallen under the control of an adult white dragon, instead of the couatl (a tropical mythological beast willingly bound into a frozen altar?).

So, summary of changes:
Hallway encounter changed to 6 yetis from the barbarians.
Barbarian corpses used to foreshadow danger points in the temple.
Shaman replaces both the spider victim and the couatl as an ally in the GW tribe sacred place.
GW tribe sacred place encounter now has chieftain with 2 guards and 4-6 tribal warriors and an adult white dragon.

This worked out really well for me. The yetis are a strong encounter, especially from ambush, but the paucity of other encounters in the temple evened it out. The party still had plenty left for the rehmorraz(sp?).

Also, I tweaked the boulder/spider encounter. Firstly, I had the stone wall sealing the area malfunction at the entrance with the spider tunnel opening -- it doesn't seal until after the boulder passed. Then, I had the spiders attack out of the tunnels against any characters that took refuge from the trap in that room. The spiders would immediately withdraw with any captured characters, giving good reason to chase after and discover the trapped shaman. Finally, I modified the spiders so that their venom worked like the basilisk gaze -- first failed save is restrained, as you begin to freeze up, second failed save is petrified, as you freeze solid. Recovery requires at least 1 hour in front of a large fire or other heat source (like the bonfire in the feast hall). Kept the DC the same as the written DC for the spider poison. Felt far more thematic and the players absolutely freaked when they finally failed a save.

I really like this approach, and will adopt it pretty much wholesale. My party is MUCH tougher than the book expects, so I will need to up some stuff. Maybe mega-yetis or summat. The spider freeze-poison is awesome, I love reskinning stuff thematically like that.


So to be clear, Wormblod isn't there at all. If the party rescues the sha-woman, they now have a legitimate reason to visit the Great Worm's sacred place. If they kill the dragon and maybe also Wormblod, the reward will be a relic from the tribe's mound which they no longer have to desecrate. Nice!

 

[Motorskills]

I really like this approach, and will adopt it pretty much wholesale. My party is MUCH tougher than the book expects, so I will need to up some stuff. Maybe mega-yetis or summat. The spider freeze-poison is awesome, I love reskinning stuff thematically like that.


So to be clear, Wormblod isn't there at all. If the party rescues the sha-woman, they now have a legitimate reason to visit the Great Worm's sacred place. If they kill the dragon and maybe also Wormblod, the reward will be a relic from the tribe's mound which they no longer have to desecrate. Nice!

Mega-yetis actually exist, page 306!

I think a mated pair of abominables, plus 4-6 regular "kids" should be a decent challenge for our brave idiots.

 

[Ovinomancer]

Mega-yetis actually exist, page 306!

I think a mated pair of abominables, plus 4-6 regular "kids" should be a decent challenge for our brave idiots.

Abominables are tough. Their chill ability is hardcore. Unless you have 8 or so players, 2 Abominables and 4-6 yetis is a murderous encounter for 7th levels. I find monsters with lockdown ability and dominant CR ratings (as in their offensive CR is higher than their defensive CR) can go very bad very fast. Or not, if no lockdown lands. But the abominable chill ability has a good chance of catching players with the high save DC, and the fact that it can rotate that ability, unlike the normal yetis (normal yeti is save against one, immune to all, while you have to specifically save against abominables) means that a single abominable significantly ups the danger level of a yeti encounter, much less 2 with 'kids'.

And 2 abominables and 6 yetis is a double deadly against 8 level 8 characters. A few failed saves going into lockdown can easily be a TPK with these guys.

(I love the yetis, and have used them a bunch in various encounters against various groups. I've found that abominables with assistance can challenge even much high level parties with good cohesion and skill. It's the lockdown they do -- a bad roll is a very bad day with these guys.)

 

[Motorskills]

I'll have 7-8 players, with 10th level characters.

I think it'll be fine, but I appreciate the warning.

 

[Ovinomancer]

I'll have 7-8 players, with 10th level characters.

I think it'll be fine, but I appreciate the warning.

Ah, I must have misremembered. Yeah, that should do the trick.

A tip on the remorrhaz, though -- it's slow. Like as fast as the characters slow, and it's a big room. If your party has any halfway decent ranged attacks, it'll be a pushover if you start it where the module says to start it.

 

[Yavathol]

Following a discussion in another thread, I have put together a document which GMs may find useful for providing clues to the many mysteries in SKT. In a few days I will turn these into cards which can be handed to the players. Feedback and suggestions for further clues would be very much appreciated.

The document is in the downloads section http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?do=download&downloadid=1417

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

My players have just done a couple of the sacred Uthgardt mounds to retrieve giant relics for the Eye of the All-Father. In my version of the story, the PC's left with the dragon cultists in their airship to speak to Klauth personally. By pure chance, I had previously rolled treasure and they'd found a Crystal Ball which they'd used to scry on Harshnag and Worvil. Klauth made a deal with them that he'd give them the airship and the crew, to do with as they please (even going so far as to say that the crew can be tossed off the side of the airship, at altitude, if they so please), because it suits his purpose, but only if they gave him the Crystal Ball in trade. I talked up his lair as having hundreds of crystal balls all over the place and Klauth talked about his scrying on everyone and everything and even he couldn't find King Hekaton. His primary interest, though, was that Iymrith was somehow involved and he hates her and doesn't want her to gain any power, or start a war between dragons and giants.

Prior to all of this, I've run an extra encounter right at the start when they chased the orcs (goblins by default, but I made them tougher and orcs) back to their lair in the Dripping Caves and found a crevasse at the back of the caverns which led deeper. They'd questioned an orc and found out that the Kraken Cultists had been manipulating them into attacking Nightstone, and they were located deeper in the caverns. So they went down and found a bunch of Kraken Society cultists led by an aboleth. They wiped out the aboleth and cultists and found Golden Goose tokens on them.

They ignored it and moved on. Eventually they end up in Bryn Shander and then get a bunch of quests, one of which is about Worvil, scry on Harshnag and Worvil, go back to Waterdeep, find they have to go back to Bryn Shander, and on returning they're met by the bounty hunters who are after Worvil. Since they've scried on Worvil they know that he's on some sort of gambling ship, playing with the Golden Goose tokens. The bounty hunters immediately know that to be the Grand Dame and tell the PC's about it. Again, the PC's ignore it and leave the bounty hunters to go collect Worvil.

Now we get back to the Uthgardt sacred mounds. They've looted a couple (I added in beefier encounters since my PC's started at 7th-level in Nightstone and are now 10th-level) and were near Yartar in the dragon cultist airship the SS Klauth's Maw. For no apparent reason, they decided to go and restock in Yartar, not even caring about the Grand Dame or Worvil. Through several encounters with the Hand (I changed them to the Handmaids of Yartar because the new leadership is misandrist and likes the irony of the name, when it's them who are basically in control of the city), some Harpers, some Zhentarim and others, they end up deciding to "infiltrate" the Grand Dame and check out Khaspere.

Then Nelvin is like, "Nope, no armour, no weapons, no exceptions," and the players are like, "OK then... DIE!"

A massive battle that took all of one session then ensued. Again, I beefed them up so that Nelvin was a Champion (Volo's), there were six Swashbucklers (Volo's) as ship bouncers, Pow Ming was an Archmage, and Khaspere was a Kraken Priest. The town guards were knights but I rolled for them to arrive after six rounds. I decided that Pow Ming would prepare with a few defensive spells before entering and Khaspere was busy engaging with and calming the nobles before leaving and so both took three rounds before they joined in. It was a pretty epic battle that took six rounds before the victors were clear (the PC's) but then the knights turned up. They attacked the knights but realised that killing them probably wasn't a great idea and so they forced them to surrender and then stole the Grand Dame, with all the nobles aboard. They're now having it rowed upriver where they left the dragon cultists and the airship, looting it, and then leaving it.

And just to be clear, they killed Khaspere outright. I made sure to ask if they were killing or subduing any of the enemies they felled.

So, that now leaves me running like... I don't even know how many sessions, but they'll go back to the Eye of the All-Father with the giant relics, get the location of Sansuri, get the conch off of her, go to Maelstrom, learn from Serrissa that they have to go find the person involved with the Golden Goose tokens, and then learn that Khaspere was the only person in the entire world who knows the location of King Hekaton.

I find that hilarious, don't you?

 

[Motorskills]

Sounds epic!