So I was prepping for tonight's SKT session which occurs in the Maelstrom. Great setting - looking forward to presenting it to my players and hoping they get the right feel.
However, I then read that the two guards of the throne room are stupid Hill Giants??!! And you can easily fool them into letting you pass?? WTF? The giant world is in turmoil and the Storm Giants are relying on a couple of idiots to guard their leader? Was it done for laughs?
Then there's a room with a geyser that erupts every hour (damaging a creature if they're in the room when it goes off) - but no advice on how to track time (perhaps there's something in the DMG but I don't think so...)
Then there's some sharks that are locked behind portcullises and no indication on how/when they might be released effectively making them a non-entity.
This is not the first time I've run into stuff like this. But what gives? Why are things like this put in the adventures? With all the assets they have why make these kinds of bad choices.
(The "Harshnag ex machina" was another crappy design element too IMHO).
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1. The Hill Giants might not even come into it as the PCs have to get past the party first, but they are probably dumb but loyal. Serissa is also guarded by Imryth and Uthor and has possession of the Wyrmskull throne. She is probably okay.
2. I just checked whether the PCs were in the room at the stroke of the hour in real (not game) time.
3. My party figured out how to sneak through the central vortex, come up through the the tank for Serrissa's whale, come up the stairs, find the secret door, and enter the throne room from the back. They barely got away from the whale. It also states in the Maelstrom's features that the various portcullis are raised or lowered with a DC 26 Strength check, and if one of the sister's tries to escape, they go to their whale, raise the portcullis, and escape on the whale. So it is raised or lowered by physically moving it.
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1. The Hill Giants might not even come into it as the PCs have to get past the party first, but they are probably dumb but loyal. Serissa is also guarded by Imryth and Uthor and has possession of the Wyrmskull throne. She is probably okay.
2. I just checked whether the PCs were in the room at the stroke of the hour in real (not game) time.
3. My party figured out how to sneak through the central vortex, come up through the the tank for Serrissa's whale, come up the stairs, find the secret door, and enter the throne room from the back. They barely got away from the whale. It also states in the Maelstrom's features that the various portcullis are raised or lowered with a DC 26 Strength check, and if one of the sister's tries to escape, they go to their whale, raise the portcullis, and escape on the whale. So it is raised or lowered by physically moving it.
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