D&D 5E SKT - Need Ideas for Introducing Harshnag

Hi all,

I am running Storm King’s Thunder. My group has been set on the path to the Eye of the All-Father and Harshnag by Old Gnawbone, the ancient green dragon of Kryptgarden Forest. They are currently in Westbridge.

I know that I want to have Harshnag suggest to the PCs that they collect some giant relics from Uthgardt mounds to take with them as tribute. (My PCs have already defeated Guh, so I don’t want to make them have to prove themselves to the oracle by doing fetch quests). I am thinking one relic for each PC: this way they can learn about the four remaining giant lords.

What I don’t know is this:

• where and how to have Harshnag show up
• whether or not to have Harshnag accompany the PCs to each Uthgardt mound or just have him give them a map and say “I’ll wait for you at the [landmark]. Good luck!”
• whether or not to have the dragon cult airship show up early to expedite the process and make it easier for the PCs to reach some of the mounds that are further away (and just to get the airship in their hands that much sooner)

Any and all suggestions would be most welcome.

Thanks!

In general, having the players steal the giant relics from the barbarian mounds is close to the worse part of this adventure.
Harshnag should really only be used to introduce the players to the villain and then let them escape as he dies.
Otherwise, he's just an overpowered NPC running with the players and takes away from the players doing cool stuff.

You already have them going to the location that Harshnag would be leading them towards. I wouldn't bother bring him in except to distract the main villain as they are leaving the oracle.

practicalm said:

In general, having the players steal the giant relics from the barbarian mounds is close to the worse part of this adventure.

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I can see how people might feel that way - I briefly felt that way myself. However, I’m not really interested in rehashing old arguments on this topic. Suffice it to say, I am going to have my players visit at least some of the mounds to recover giant relics.

Harshnag should really only be used to introduce the players to the villain and then let them escape as he dies.
Otherwise, he's just an overpowered NPC running with the players and takes away from the players doing cool stuff.

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Normally I’d agree with you. This is one of the issues I have with Dragon Heist. However, in this case, the designers have kindly included some helpful advice on how to keep Harshnag from stealing the spotlight from the PCs. That kind of guidance is much appreciated.

Any other suggestions?

For my SKT campaign, I made sure that during Chapter 3, the group kept hearing rumors of giant attacks, and coming across the results of giant attacks (destroyed farms and the like). However, they also would hear rumors of a frost giant who appeared to be fighting the other giants, and was helpful instead of destructive. I had my group meet him just outside of Yartar (where they finished up their Chapter 3 quests, and, helpfully, went on a cruise on the Grand Dame in order to help them figure out things much later down the line); by that time, they were aware of who he was, and he told them he had heard of the deeds that they were doing as well, so why not team up?

I had Harshnag stay at the Eye of the All-Father to guard it, instead of accompanying them on the burial mounds quests. This meant only a limited time where he could potentially overshadow the group. And as for the airship, as the adventure is written, the party is supposed to get it before going to the burial mounds (see page 132).

EDIT... Oh, and never mind, I didn't read your original post fully, and see this is probably pretty meaningless on how things have gone for your game. However, I'll leave it up as advice for others!

Ran out of time to do anything spectacular sadly. (Game was tonight.)

The PCs are all members of the Waterdeep chapter of the Lords' Alliance. At the start of the session, I had their quest-giver contact them via sending for an update. When they related what Old Gnawbone had told them, he IDed the "friendly giant" as Harshnag. One PC is a courtier from Waterdeep and recognized the name.

Their quest-giver agreed to contact Harshnag (again via sending) and get him to meet them somewhere on their way north. The PCs took a side journey to Yartar, where I finally enticed them onto the Grand Dame for a night of gambling. (Last time they went through Yartar, they were intrigued by the fancy boat and did some asking around about it but didn't take it any further).

I didn't have time to buy, read, prep, and run the Kraken's Gamble adventure from DMs Guild, but I have at least set the scene for later. If nothing else, they should now recognize the Golden Goose gambling chip when Serissa gives it to them and know where to go to follow up on that lead.

The Lords' Alliance guy then contacted them later to say he'd arranged for the PCs to meet Harshnag at Longsaddle. Rather than go back via Triboar, they went cross-country (they have a ranger whose favored terrain is grasslands) and arrived at Longsaddle on Midsummer Day.

Since they couldn't see a giant in the village itself, one PC sent her hawk familiar out to look for Harshnag and found him battling another frost giant in the Starmetal Hills to the southwest. After killing the other giant, Harshnag gave the hawk a friendly wave - echoing a scene from a prophetic dream I had given the ranger PC some sessions ago.

They rode out to find Harshnag and encountered some Griffon tribe Uthgardt on the way. They focused fire on the shaman, killing him in one round and breaking the morale of the others, who ran away. Harshnag showed up just then. They talked with him for a bit, and he told them they should loot some Uthgardt mounds for relics to take to the oracle as tribute. Although he offered to take them to the Eye, he didn't volunteer to accompany them on their raids. Instead, he told them he'd meet them outside of Mirabar when they were ready to proceed to the oracle.

Returning to Longsaddle without Harshnag, the PCs partook of the Midsummer festivities. Since the SCAG warns that storms on Midsummer Day are seen as bad omens, I made it so there was an old crank in town warning everyone that a storm was coming. No one believed him, but sure enough, that night a storm did arrive, and it ruined Shieldmeet on the following day - buckets of rain, thunder and lightning. The PCs were concerned it was unnatural.

Now, the book says that Klauth has been spying on Harshnag. Now that the giant has met up with the PCs and has given them the suggestion of raiding mounds, I can more plausibly have the cultists show up in their airship. The PCs are planning on hitting up Morgur's Mound first, so I can have the airship meet them around there. (It should only take them a day or two of round-the-clock travel to get from Klauthen Vale to Morgur's Mound.)

When they meet up with Harshnag later, he won't be able to travel on the airship with them, but I suppose they can always just fly slowly behind him as he leads the way to the Eye. I'll then have Iymrith show up and Harshnag will stay behind as the PCs make their way to whatever giant lord they choose to confront next.

I think the reason this is awkward for you is that you mixed up the order of events. Harshnag is supposed to encounter them and bring up going to the Eye of the All Father and lead them there. The oracle there tells them it wants an offering from those mounds, Harshnag stays cause he wants to check out the temple more and when they leave Klauth gives them the airship so they can more easily get to their destinations like the mounds. Then when they decide they have gotten what they want from the mounds they return to the Eye get the info, and Iymirth shows up.

Basically there are two trips to the Eye of the All Father, but from the sound of your thing, there is only going to be one.

[MENTION=6706188]MonsterEnvy[/MENTION]: I am well aware of the default setup. I have consciously altered the script. That said, introducing Harshnag was always going to be potentially awkward, since the adventure leaves that part open-ended (as it must).

The only new variables my changes introduced were the second and third points in my OP: whether or not to have Harshnag accompany the PCs to the Uthgardt mounds and whether or not to introduce the airship early.

Although I went into last night's session without having concrete answers to any of my questions, I was able to improvise to everyone's satisfaction, and I now have a clear idea of how to proceed.

Harshnag has set them upon their next quest: Retrieve four giant relics from the Uthgardt, then rendezvous with him outside Mirabar before heading to the Eye. He drew them a map showing them where the various mounds were located but did not offer to accompany them to the mounds. My players didn't seem to mind.

They are going to go to Morgur's Mound first. I will have the airship show up there.

Should be fun!

I had Harshnag introduced via rumors, and that he was seen in the area looking for rampaging hill giants. The party was interested in anyone that might help them find out more about all the attacks. This worked well to push things along. I too left Harshnag at the Eye of the All Father.