D&D 5E Enhancing "Storm King's Thunder"
Another plug!
The Chosen Path
I've put together some DM's resources for the Chapter 4 of Storm King's Thunder: The Chosen Path. I've beefed up the puzzle and the trap (and, in my humble opinion, made them a lot more exciting), added in an optional ambush encounter, tied some knots and pulled some strings. It's nothing fancy or strictly necessary, but I think it might help you make the chapter more exciting for your players. It's a 5-star rated product that costs 1.99$ for 11 pages (I have to put a price tag on it, or I can't justify the time spent to the missus) so give it a shot, if it sounds like something you might like.
You can find it here.
It includes:
Overview and advice - A brief overview of the chapter, along with some general advice for running it.
Ambush - An optional ambush encounter that foreshadows Iymrith’s arrival at the temple, along with an encounter map and three new creatures.
Notes and suggestions - changes and idea for each of the areas and events in the chapter that’ll set your own mind going, and help you run the chapter in an entertaining way, including extensive overhauls of both the puzzle and the trap featured in the chapter.
Creature Cards - Printable index cards for each of the creatures your players are likely to interact with during their visit to the Temple of the All-Father.
The Chosen Path
I've put together some DM's resources for the Chapter 4 of Storm King's Thunder: The Chosen Path. I've beefed up the puzzle and the trap (and, in my humble opinion, made them a lot more exciting), added in an optional ambush encounter, tied some knots and pulled some strings. It's nothing fancy or strictly necessary, but I think it might help you make the chapter more exciting for your players. It's a 5-star rated product that costs 1.99$ for 11 pages (I have to put a price tag on it, or I can't justify the time spent to the missus) so give it a shot, if it sounds like something you might like.
You can find it here.
It includes:
Overview and advice - A brief overview of the chapter, along with some general advice for running it.
Ambush - An optional ambush encounter that foreshadows Iymrith’s arrival at the temple, along with an encounter map and three new creatures.
Notes and suggestions - changes and idea for each of the areas and events in the chapter that’ll set your own mind going, and help you run the chapter in an entertaining way, including extensive overhauls of both the puzzle and the trap featured in the chapter.
Creature Cards - Printable index cards for each of the creatures your players are likely to interact with during their visit to the Temple of the All-Father.
Motorskills
Explorer
I've loved your other products JV, had no hesitation in picking this up as well. 
(Left a positive review and score for you.)
(Left a positive review and score for you.)
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Motorskills
Explorer
My guys cleared 2/3 of Ironslag at our last double-length session. JValeur's guide was helpful to keep things focussed, there are some many (literally!) moving parts to the place, but it is so much insane fun.
For the first time in the campaign, the party really were on the back foot, as the entire* garrison turned out and started a rolling charge on the wheel room. If the monsters had been organized and did a sensible attack, it would have gotten very bad very fast.
As it was, the baddies turned up in dribs and drabs, and even so the party only just survived.
They have retreated to the mines for a long rest (and to wait for the return of a couple of players who are geared for BIG FIGHTS).
I messed up the use of Duke Zalto, and although I used the Fire Giant Duke template from the other EN thread, he went down rather easily.
No problem, I just decided that the Duchess is the real power here (but of course!!).
I will use the Pyromancer template for her.
She has two Dreadnaught bodyguards, a handful of ogres (kitchen staff), a few hobgoblins (officer types for the gobbos), and fifty goblins who are now fully armed up since the party granted them eight hours to get ready. The fight to come will encompass the whole of Voivonode room, the dining area, and the lift shaft, and more (rooms 24-32).
There are tentative negotiations going on. The party want to kill everything, but the place has been secured pretty well, those basalt tables are blocking doorways, the gobboes are all armed and armoured and camped out in the engineering huts** in the robot room. The party has a decent grasp of the opposition's set-up, but they are rightly rather wary of tangling.
But in reality the Duchess is buying time for the drow to arrive. Because even though I have signalled it loud and clear, what the party may not be aware of is that a serious group of drow are on their way down, to deliver Maegara.
When the drow arrive I will take the fight to party, force them to react to drow magic and a serious clock as the drow do whatever needs to happen to lock the Dawn Titan into the admantium forge.
We are using a projected map for navigating Ironslag, which is great, but it won't be big enough to handle the whole big fight, so I am trying to figure that one out. I'm looking forward to a massive fight in the robot room, with fifty gobbos chucking arrows at the party. I decided that the four structures in the robot room were engineering huts**.
*doubled all the numbers since I have 8 PCs, and threw in 25% Dreadnaughts for good measure.
**I couldn't figure what those four structures were, so I just made up some plausible on the fly.
If the party get out okay, I will have the airship meet them, but I am hoping that they will take up the earlier offer from Felgolos to raid the blue dragon hoard (JValeur's product The Flying Misfortune).
I haven't decided how many of the barbarian sacred sites, or the other Giant strongholds I will use. I'm loving the story so far, but I have a concern that I will dilute it if I extend things too much to take the campaign to L20.
For the first time in the campaign, the party really were on the back foot, as the entire* garrison turned out and started a rolling charge on the wheel room. If the monsters had been organized and did a sensible attack, it would have gotten very bad very fast.
As it was, the baddies turned up in dribs and drabs, and even so the party only just survived.
They have retreated to the mines for a long rest (and to wait for the return of a couple of players who are geared for BIG FIGHTS).
I messed up the use of Duke Zalto, and although I used the Fire Giant Duke template from the other EN thread, he went down rather easily.
No problem, I just decided that the Duchess is the real power here (but of course!!).
I will use the Pyromancer template for her.
She has two Dreadnaught bodyguards, a handful of ogres (kitchen staff), a few hobgoblins (officer types for the gobbos), and fifty goblins who are now fully armed up since the party granted them eight hours to get ready. The fight to come will encompass the whole of Voivonode room, the dining area, and the lift shaft, and more (rooms 24-32).
There are tentative negotiations going on. The party want to kill everything, but the place has been secured pretty well, those basalt tables are blocking doorways, the gobboes are all armed and armoured and camped out in the engineering huts** in the robot room. The party has a decent grasp of the opposition's set-up, but they are rightly rather wary of tangling.
But in reality the Duchess is buying time for the drow to arrive. Because even though I have signalled it loud and clear, what the party may not be aware of is that a serious group of drow are on their way down, to deliver Maegara.
When the drow arrive I will take the fight to party, force them to react to drow magic and a serious clock as the drow do whatever needs to happen to lock the Dawn Titan into the admantium forge.
We are using a projected map for navigating Ironslag, which is great, but it won't be big enough to handle the whole big fight, so I am trying to figure that one out. I'm looking forward to a massive fight in the robot room, with fifty gobbos chucking arrows at the party. I decided that the four structures in the robot room were engineering huts**.
*doubled all the numbers since I have 8 PCs, and threw in 25% Dreadnaughts for good measure.
**I couldn't figure what those four structures were, so I just made up some plausible
on the fly.If the party get out okay, I will have the airship meet them, but I am hoping that they will take up the earlier offer from Felgolos to raid the blue dragon hoard (JValeur's product The Flying Misfortune).
I haven't decided how many of the barbarian sacred sites, or the other Giant strongholds I will use. I'm loving the story so far, but I have a concern that I will dilute it if I extend things too much to take the campaign to L20.
Demetrios1453
Hero
My guys cleared 2/3 of Ironslag at our last double-length session. JValeur's guide was helpful to keep things focussed, there are some many (literally!) moving parts to the place, but it is so much insane fun.
For the first time in the campaign, the party really were on the back foot, as the entire* garrison turned out and started a rolling charge on the wheel room. If the monsters had been organized and did a sensible attack, it would have gotten very bad very fast.
As it was, the baddies turned up in dribs and drabs, and even so the party only just survived.
They have retreated to the mines for a long rest (and to wait for the return of a couple of players who are geared for BIG FIGHTS).
I messed up the use of Duke Zalto, and although I used the Fire Giant Duke template from the other EN thread, he went down rather easily.
No problem, I just decided that the Duchess is the real power here (but of course!!).
I will use the Pyromancer template for her.
She has two Dreadnaught bodyguards, a handful of ogres (kitchen staff), a few hobgoblins (officer types for the gobbos), and fifty goblins who are now fully armed up since the party granted them eight hours to get ready. The fight to come will encompass the whole of Voivonode room, the dining area, and the lift shaft, and more (rooms 24-32).
There are tentative negotiations going on. The party want to kill everything, but the place has been secured pretty well, those basalt tables are blocking doorways, the gobboes are all armed and armoured and camped out in the engineering huts** in the robot room. The party has a decent grasp of the opposition's set-up, but they are rightly rather wary of tangling.
But in reality the Duchess is buying time for the drow to arrive. Because even though I have signalled it loud and clear, what the party may not be aware of is that a serious group of drow are on their way down, to deliver Maegara.
When the drow arrive I will take the fight to party, force them to react to drow magic and a serious clock as the drow do whatever needs to happen to lock the Dawn Titan into the admantium forge.
We are using a projected map for navigating Ironslag, which is great, but it won't be big enough to handle the whole big fight, so I am trying to figure that one out. I'm looking forward to a massive fight in the robot room, with fifty gobbos chucking arrows at the party. I decided that the four structures in the robot room were engineering huts**.
*doubled all the numbers since I have 8 PCs, and threw in 25% Dreadnaughts for good measure.
**I couldn't figure what those four structures were, so I just made up some plausible
If the party get out okay, I will have the airship meet them, but I am hoping that they will take up the earlier offer from Felgolos to raid the blue dragon hoard (JValeur's product The Flying Misfortune).
I haven't decided how many of the barbarian sacred sites, or the other Giant strongholds I will use. I'm loving the story so far, but I have a concern that I will dilute it if I extend things too much to take the campaign to L20.
Glad to see you used my fire giant variants! I was going to use them too for the Ironslag fight, but, as mentioned a few pages back, my group completely derailed the situation by accidentally releasing a very angry Maegara, who then proceeded to take out most of the foes in the complex for them.
Now, using the cloud giant variants - that seriously messed my group up. They thought they could handle anything by that point, and started a fight in Countess Sansuri's throneroom. They ended up having to jump through the hole in the floor to their airship in a mass panic!
Davelozzi
Explorer
I looked back through the thread searching for Maegara but couldn't find where you talked about this before. How did the players avoid falling victim to Maegara themselves? I was thinking that releasing her sounded like an exciting scene but was having trouble picturing it not ending in a TPK.
Motorskills
Explorer
I told my players that this was crucial homework for them.
[video=youtube;4u3DWxPknYU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u3DWxPknYU&t=788s[/video]
[video=youtube;4u3DWxPknYU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u3DWxPknYU&t=788s[/video]
Motorskills
Explorer
In relation to this, I retrofitted that Jasper Dimmerchasm (the dwarf caged inside Zalto's macehead) is a huge traitor. He revealed to Zalto how to access Gauntylgrym and how to obtain the Iron Flask, the legendary dwarf-crafted magic item stored near Maegara (because of course it would be).
Jasper didn't figure that Zalto could actually capture Maegara, he didn't know Zalto had drow allies that were only too happy to execute a Mission Impossible against their hated dwarf adversaries in exchange for [dunno, any ideas?*]
*I'm thinking, "whatever you need adamantium-forged for the next 30 years"
In my campaign, the party know that Jasper sold them out a little, by identifying to Zalto the location of Wave Echo Mine and the Forge of Spells (which was the engine room of the Giant Stompy Robot (tm) ), which the Fire Giants promptly dug out and stole.
What the party don't know is the full extent of Jasper's greed / treachery. One of the other party is a Zhent, and I've given him most of the rest of the story. Jasper is extorting him a little "Help me get away, or I'll say this whole thing was a Zhent mission" (It wasn't, but no-one is going to believe that, at least not initially).
Jasper didn't figure that Zalto could actually capture Maegara, he didn't know Zalto had drow allies that were only too happy to execute a Mission Impossible against their hated dwarf adversaries in exchange for [dunno, any ideas?*]
*I'm thinking, "whatever you need adamantium-forged for the next 30 years"
In my campaign, the party know that Jasper sold them out a little, by identifying to Zalto the location of Wave Echo Mine and the Forge of Spells (which was the engine room of the Giant Stompy Robot (tm) ), which the Fire Giants promptly dug out and stole.
What the party don't know is the full extent of Jasper's greed / treachery. One of the other party is a Zhent, and I've given him most of the rest of the story. Jasper is extorting him a little "Help me get away, or I'll say this whole thing was a Zhent mission" (It wasn't, but no-one is going to believe that, at least not initially).
Davelozzi
Explorer
Enhancing "Storm King's Thunder"
I love this, and I'm kicking off my Lost Mine of Phandelver > Storm King's Thunder campaign on Friday, so I may have to steal this.
I just have to tweak it a little as my campaign is set before the great FR time jump, the discovery of Gauntlgrym, and the eruption of Mt. Hotenow. Some of those events may happen during/as part as of the campaign.
In fact, I had been debating moving Ironslag to the Crags, but I probably won't because I love the Silver Marches region and am keen to fit it into the campaign. Still debating some of the moving parts, but was already planning on tying LMoP/Wave Echo Cave into the main plot by having Nezznar be a part of House Xorlarrin with ties to Zalto. Fortunately, we'll probably only get through the Cragmaw hideout this week, so I still have time to toss ideas around in my head...but thanks for the contributions!
I love this, and I'm kicking off my Lost Mine of Phandelver > Storm King's Thunder campaign on Friday, so I may have to steal this.
I just have to tweak it a little as my campaign is set before the great FR time jump, the discovery of Gauntlgrym, and the eruption of Mt. Hotenow. Some of those events may happen during/as part as of the campaign.
In fact, I had been debating moving Ironslag to the Crags, but I probably won't because I love the Silver Marches region and am keen to fit it into the campaign. Still debating some of the moving parts, but was already planning on tying LMoP/Wave Echo Cave into the main plot by having Nezznar be a part of House Xorlarrin with ties to Zalto. Fortunately, we'll probably only get through the Cragmaw hideout this week, so I still have time to toss ideas around in my head...but thanks for the contributions!
Demetrios1453
Hero
Well, the text states on page 186 that whoever frees Maegara from the iron flask can control it for an hour. As my party were the ones to free it (albeit inadvertently by shooting the partially-open flask out of the hands of the drow about to transfer the primoridal to the forge), they commanded it to attack the fire giants of the complex (who futilely attempted to flee after a several deaths) while they systematically looted the place over the next hour. They then flew the airship to where Maegara was wiping out the last few giants, commanded it to return to Ironslag and seal itself in. They then fled as quickly as possible on their airship to Citadel Adbar and Citadel Felbarr. The dwarves in both places were happy that the fire giants were destroyed and to have their prisoners returned, but were very worried what Maegara might do in the future...
