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

[Charles Rampant]

Interesting. What's the name of the Goodman effort? I always find myself torn with Dragons - on the one hand, the common depictions of them is as totally solitary creatures: Smaug on his hoard in his empty mountain. However, in D&D terms you absolutely do not want to have a Dragon by itself, and instead you want to have a whole series of hurdles, ambushes, guard posts, and traps between the players and the Dragon, hopefully giving it time to prepare to fight them. I did once overegg it though, and put in a pre-Dragon fight so tough that the players actually elected to take a long rest in a small side chamber afterwards, which left me in a bit of a bind as to how to handle the Dragon's response. Tough to balance it, since you want the players to go through the place in one 'rest interval', to make sense, but you also want them to be not at peak abilities when they arrive...

 

[Daern]

"Into the Dragon's Maw"

 

[Motorskills]

I'm not totally sure how the Iymrith connection gets made. Maybe it's just the horn-y head gear? Maybe a rival dragon like Klauth or Felgolos can drop the hint.

I came to the same conclusion - I will have other dragons call her Iymrith, most everyone else will call her the Doom of the Desert.

 

[Motorskills]

My account got eaten in the purge, but I'm about to start a 12 session expedited run through of the campaign, so here's what I'm changing:

1) The King is Dead. Hekaton is Hamlet's dad, not King Lear. This lets me skip chapter 11 entirely, and expand the political situation at Malestrom.

2) The Throne is Empty. None of Hekaton's daughters have taken the throne, and his brother is serving as regent. The court is in a deadlock that the players can break. Any of the three daughters are viable candidates for ascension, each with their own approach to rulership, and their own strengths and weaknesses. This gives the players true agency in respect to the aftermath of the campaign, allowing them to make a decision with consequences that will shape the fate of a region. (As is befitting of late-2nd-tier, or early-3rd-tier, characters.) The players will be able to back any one of the three without it being a "wrong choice" that leads to the "bad ending".

3) The Oracle is a Woman. Not a magic plot room. Specifically, she's the ex-court oracle of Malestrom. She'll replace Harshnag as your Giant NPC Companion after Chapter 4, and guide the player to the Giant Lords, and eventually to the Malestrom. She'll fill the players in, without spelling out too much for the players, since "it wouldn't be appropriate. My job is to see, not interpret." She can also act as a translator for the characters.

4) No Desecration of Uthgardt Holy Sites. Both in the consideration of time, and also because WOW how did that make it into the final cut of the adventure? That is so inappropriate.

5) No Magic Teleport Shells. If the court thinks smallfolk killed the Queen AND POSSIBLY their King, why would not immediately murder a pack of armed smallfolk who teleported in with a magic conch given only to ranking members of the Court? Instead, the players will gain access to the court by finding a member of the court, and gaining their sponsorship by helping them deal with some previously-low-ranked upstart who is acting out.

6) I'm using the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide characterization of the Uthgardt, instead of the Storm King's Thunder characterization of the Uthgardt. Because there's nothing really distinguishing them from the Reghed Barbarians in SKT, aside from the animal motif. Also, one of my players chose to play an Uthgardt barbarian, and like, that alone makes them an inappropriate choice for "filler mooks appropriate for a low-2nd-tier party".

7) I'm doing more to characterize each of the three sisters. Because let's face it, the begininng and end of Mirran, Nym, and Serissa's characterization is "the angry one", "the cold one", and "the good one". Rather, I'm going to start by likening each to one of Annam's daughters, who are curiously absent from the adventure itself, but are described briefly in the Monster Manual: "Hiatea, the huntress and home warden; Iallanis, goddess of love and peace; and Diancastra, and impetuous and arrogant trickster. " These three, and their family drama, are at the center of everything that is happening in this campaign, so I'm going to act like it.

Anyway, I hope this sparks some ideas of your own! I welcome any questions, respectful critiques, or additions you all may have.

I like the Oracle being a woman, but I actually think I will make her an Undead, CG Ghost or something.

I'm completely the other way on the Uthgardt holy sites. I love the idea that the PCs must do something might will leave a bitter taste in their mouth. And they don't necessarily need to desecrate the sites, they are just removing a relic that the tribes stole in the first place, it's very fitting to steal it back. If they can figure out how to remove the relics without leaving Uthgardt body parts on the altars, so much the better. They might even be able to convince the tribes to give them the relics.

Worst case scenario, they just take Route 1 to retrieve the relics, and the word spreads, leading the Uthgardt tribes to set aside their usual differences and declare a bloodfeud against the party. Extra beserkers, powered up shamans, I will doubtless think of something.


Your point about the party being killed on arrival in Maelstrom is a good one. I'll figure out some way they can avoid that, I reckon a token (or maybe even an Aura that can be seen by someone sat on the Dragonskull Throne) that is given by the Oracle should do the trick.
I'm not sure I need to change the political situation at court quite so much, but I like your thinking.


I have decided to include the little side adventure on DMsGuild "Kraken's Gamble", it adds a nice intro to Yartar, the River Queen(?) gambling palace, and the Kraken Society.

 

[Motorskills]

While I remember!

 

[cfmcdonald]

Can anyone explain what Klauth's motivation is for helping out the PCs? He just wants someone to take down Imyrith? Shouldn't he be happy about the disorder among the giants?

 

[Motorskills]

Can anyone explain what Klauth's motivation is for helping out the PCs? He just wants someone to take down Imyrith? Shouldn't he be happy about the disorder among the giants?

Yeah, I'm a bit lost on that as well. In my head, Slarkathel(sp?) is the Big Bad, looking to ascend to Immortality, and cutting a deal with Tiamat for her to become his sponsor.
I will link the end of SKT to Rise of Tiamat, which I will run through L20. So Klauth either hates Slarkathel (or at least wants to screw up his ambitions), or fears Tiamat coming to his neighbourhood.

Failing that, he is pissed at Iymrith for stomping over his lands. But that's very thin.

 

[Daern]

I will link the end of SKT to Rise of Tiamat, which I will run through L20. So Klauth either hates Slarkathel (or at least wants to screw up his ambitions), or fears Tiamat coming to his neighbourhood.

Failing that, he is pissed at Iymrith for stomping over his lands. But that's very thin.

This is what I'm thinking too. I was even thinking that Klauth is old and crippled. Arthritic wings or something and he knows he will be culled if Tiamat arrives.

I also have it in my head that the Barbarians are the descendants of a kingdom that fell during ancient war between Dragons and Giants. They have forgotten, but their relics are all from that war, giant sword, dragonlance, the head of the Vodinod, dragon bones, giant crowns, etc.

I like the idea of finding one's own way to Maelstrom, perhaps with Apparati of Kwalish.

 

[Motorskills]

This is what I'm thinking too. I was even thinking that Klauth is old and crippled. Arthritic wings or something and he knows he will be culled if Tiamat arrives.

I also have it in my head that the Barbarians are the descendants of a kingdom that fell during ancient war between Dragons and Giants. They have forgotten, but their relics are all from that war, giant sword, dragonlance, the head of the Vodinod, dragon bones, giant crowns, etc.

I like the idea of finding one's own way to Maelstrom, perhaps with Apparati of Kwalish.

I'm thinking of having Klauth's airship not crewed by Cultists of the Dragon, but maybe the airship itself used to belong to the Cult. My players killed CotD during Phandelver, so they've already got history with them. Klauth rejected the idea of becoming a dracolich, and relations were permanently soured.

So Klauth helps the party because he likes the idea of these humans causing chaos. Or something. Still working on that.

But I think the answer as to why the hell Klauth is helping the party at all in SKT, will be the same reason I can apply to Rise of Tiamat.

 

[cfmcdonald]

I'm thinking of having Klauth's airship not crewed by Cultists of the Dragon, but maybe the airship itself used to belong to the Cult. My players killed CotD during Phandelver, so they've already got history with them. Klauth rejected the idea of becoming a dracolich, and relations were permanently soured.

So Klauth helps the party because he likes the idea of these humans causing chaos. Or something. Still working on that.

But I think the answer as to why the hell Klauth is helping the party at all in SKT, will be the same reason I can apply to Rise of Tiamat.

Yeah my solution will probably be to eliminate the airship.