Ambrose Honeysuckle
Villager
I ended up turning Elia into a messenger from the draconic council and creating a new silver dragon representative, Hyvantekevaisys, to take her seat. Hyvantekevaisys was the one who had a problem with dwarves.
D&D 5E Enhancing "Rise of Tiamat" (Practical stuff to try at your table!)
akr71
Hero
My group is still in HotDQ, but looking ahead I have decided to use portions of Storm King's Thunder to link HotDQ to RoT.
I'm trying to strengthen Blagothkus' character and motivations - why is a giant helping the Dragon Cult? I've got a pretty good handle on that, but basically, I'm scrapping the Thay quest in favour of the party trying to bring giantkind to the alliance. Has anyone run SKT as well as the Dragons AP? I have also bought Frozen Castle and may use pieces of that as well.
My thoughts:
Blagothkus is a member of the Cloud Giant court - Countess Sansuri is his sister or aunt?
At the end of HotDQ - assuming Glazhael or Rath Modar escape and report back to the Cult - Skyreach Castle is attacked by a Cultist airship, which the PCs can commandeer and use to get back to Waterdeep.
Blagothkus did not kill his son - Iymrith used her shapechange ability to disguise herself as Blagothkus' wife and murdered the son & then did the same to the wife.
Blagothkus is disgraced and exiled - in his despair & grief he hatches his plan to assist the Dragon Cult to spur the giants into action - he hopes to find out who framed him, but if the end of the world happens, that's alright too.
I'm going to scrap Mission to Thay in favour of the a mission north in order to help Blagothkus clear his name. Once Iymrith is uncovered as an impostor, perhaps a quest to find some artifact that will unite the giants against the dragons. I'm still reading through SKT to figure out what that quest might be.
I think I will have Force Grey as NPCs at the Council of Waterdeep meetings - they'll be reporting to the council about the 'giant troubles' in a similar fashion that the PCs are reporting in about the dragon cult. I'm hoping that this will give the world more depth - stuff is happening elsewhere and the PCs aren't the only Heroes on the Sword Coast. This also gives me an avenue to better introduce Harshnag should I need him.
Any thoughts or input?
I'm trying to strengthen Blagothkus' character and motivations - why is a giant helping the Dragon Cult? I've got a pretty good handle on that, but basically, I'm scrapping the Thay quest in favour of the party trying to bring giantkind to the alliance. Has anyone run SKT as well as the Dragons AP? I have also bought Frozen Castle and may use pieces of that as well.
My thoughts:
Blagothkus is a member of the Cloud Giant court - Countess Sansuri is his sister or aunt?
At the end of HotDQ - assuming Glazhael or Rath Modar escape and report back to the Cult - Skyreach Castle is attacked by a Cultist airship, which the PCs can commandeer and use to get back to Waterdeep.
Blagothkus did not kill his son - Iymrith used her shapechange ability to disguise herself as Blagothkus' wife and murdered the son & then did the same to the wife.
Blagothkus is disgraced and exiled - in his despair & grief he hatches his plan to assist the Dragon Cult to spur the giants into action - he hopes to find out who framed him, but if the end of the world happens, that's alright too.
I'm going to scrap Mission to Thay in favour of the a mission north in order to help Blagothkus clear his name. Once Iymrith is uncovered as an impostor, perhaps a quest to find some artifact that will unite the giants against the dragons. I'm still reading through SKT to figure out what that quest might be.
I think I will have Force Grey as NPCs at the Council of Waterdeep meetings - they'll be reporting to the council about the 'giant troubles' in a similar fashion that the PCs are reporting in about the dragon cult. I'm hoping that this will give the world more depth - stuff is happening elsewhere and the PCs aren't the only Heroes on the Sword Coast. This also gives me an avenue to better introduce Harshnag should I need him.
Any thoughts or input?
This is exactly what I've done. I've replaced the Metallic Dragons and Thay chapters with the second half of SKT. It's going great!
That sounds cool. I just removed the dead son as it went against how I'd portrayed Blagothkus in HotDQ.
I simply had the dragon cult threaten to destroy the spirit of his head wife (basically being held hostage) so they could use the flying castle as their loot conveyor. Blagothkus is seething in anger and frustration and willing to help the PCs liberate his castle from the cultists. He's not helping, he's helpless and not happy happy about it. And that's why he's willing to help the PCs when they investigate what's up with the giants.
For my group simply rescuing Hekaton and restoring him to his throne will impose enough obligation on him to rally the giants and come to the aid of the sword coast. They love fighting dragons after all
Sounds great! We've just completed the river boat section of SKT and are about to head to the Trackless Sea to find and rescue Hekaton. The PCs know that Iymrith is in disguise in the Maelstrom and have sent warning to Serissa. When they get back to the Maelstrom they'll find Iymrith gone with the sceptre. And most likely they'll go after Iymrith in her layer. There they'll find Blagothkus (who they think is dead) prisoner - he'll end up leader of the cloud giants after the battle with Tiamat (assuming there's victory of course
)
akr71
Hero
@robus - Thanks! I may have to borrow some of your ideas if/when my players do something unexpected or if my changes feel ham-fisted or forced. Now to read SKT in depth rather than just skim through it.
Edit: I may recast the stone giants in HotDQ as cloud giants - perhaps minor courtiers or cousins - someone who has known him a long time, stuck by him and seen his fall. Now that VGtM & SKT are out, fleshing out the different giant races, xenophobic stone giants that shy away from the surface real doesn't really fit well. I have it now that if the encounter goes well, they receive a token of some sort so that Blagothkus is willing to parlay with the PCs.
Edit: I may recast the stone giants in HotDQ as cloud giants - perhaps minor courtiers or cousins - someone who has known him a long time, stuck by him and seen his fall. Now that VGtM & SKT are out, fleshing out the different giant races, xenophobic stone giants that shy away from the surface real doesn't really fit well. I have it now that if the encounter goes well, they receive a token of some sort so that Blagothkus is willing to parlay with the PCs.
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Have you checked out [mention=786]GuardianLurker's[/mention] "Jotunmoot" adventure (post 58 of this thread)? It might give you some ideas you could borrow as well.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...able!)/page3&p=6857959&viewfull=1#post6857959
akr71
Hero
Yes I have. I'll likely incorporate some of that too - names and titles and such since its all set to go. I don't want to make it too involved. Enough to secure the giants' help at the summoning ritual and then move on. My players have said that they want to see this through to the end and try and stop Tiamat. There was even some discussion of heading to the Hells to kill her outright.
[MENTION=6702445]jayoungr[/MENTION] - I'm making the rounds of the Enhancing threads asking that they be made into Wiki threads so the best ideas can be accumulated on the first post. Collected under Chapter name. I'm not saying you need to do it - just that the opportunity is made available (your other threads too if you don't mind )
Thanks!
(your other threads too if you don't mind )Thanks!
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