D&D 5E GM question about "Storm King’s Thunder" SPOILERS!

[ElterAgo]

In the Eye of the All Father, chapter 4, room 6; there is the following statement.

To activate the portal, a giant of the hill, stone, frost, fire, cloud, or storm variety (or a creature polymorphed into one of these forms) must take a weapon from one of the statues of the six lesser giant gods and touch it to the appropriate rune on the archway.

The group is very gish oriented. They all have some magic, but nothing close to the polymorph spells yet. Harshnag could activate one of the runes for them. Do I make them leave, travel to a city, purchase 5 scrolls of polymorph, and then travel back to be able to pass this? Should I make them do deception checks to 'fool' the portal. I'm kinda at a loss. I feel like this should be a hard challenge to question the mighty oracle. But I don't want it to just be an annoyance.

How would you handle this?

 

[pukunui]

A big change that I made when I ran the adventure was to make it so the PCs only needed to visit the Eye once. The PCs were all agents of the Lords' Alliance. When I felt they were ready to go to the Eye, I had their Alliance handler contact them and tell them to meet Harshnag near Longsaddle.

I then had Harshnag tell them to visit the various Uthgardt sites and recover some giant relics to deliver to the oracle as gifts - one for each PC. Harshnag gave them his map and said he would meet them at the Eye. I then had the dragon cultists meet them with their airship at the first Uthgardt site they visited instead of outside the Eye.

Thus Harshnag was with the PCs when they explored the temple. Through trial and error, they figured out how the portal worked. After recovering the missing axe, they got Harshnag to open the portal for them.

Here's a recounting of my group's playthrough of this part of the adventure: Trials of the All-Father


So one solution is to make sure Harshnag is with the group when it comes time to open the portal. Another option would be to make sure the PCs find at least one scroll of polymorph before they reach the Eye.

If you want to allow them to deceive the portal's magic into letting them open it without being a giant, I would say go for it, but maybe make it a bit of a skill challenge - don't just make it a group Deception check or anything. Make it so each PC has to contribute to the overall deception in some meaningful way.

 

[ElterAgo]

Well, I'm not sure one scroll would do it. Doesn't it have to be a hill giant taking the hill giant weapon, a fire giant taking the fire giant weapon, etc... ?
Also a polymorph scroll will only let you change to your a creature of your challenge rating. the PC's are level 8 and a cloud giant is CR 9.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

In the Eye of the All Father, chapter 4, room 6; there is the following statement.



The group is very gish oriented. They all have some magic, but nothing close to the polymorph spells yet. Harshnag could activate one of the runes for them. Do I make them leave, travel to a city, purchase 5 scrolls of polymorph, and then travel back to be able to pass this? Should I make them do deception checks to 'fool' the portal. I'm kinda at a loss. I feel like this should be a hard challenge to question the mighty oracle. But I don't want it to just be an annoyance.

How would you handle this?

Just have Harshnag activate it. You only need to activate one, not them all.

Edit: Which I realize now is the issue, you misread it. "hill, stone, frost, fire, cloud, OR storm variety" not And.

 

[pukunui]

Well, I'm not sure one scroll would do it. Doesn't it have to be a hill giant taking the hill giant weapon, a fire giant taking the fire giant weapon, etc... ?
Also a polymorph scroll will only let you change to your a creature of your challenge rating. the PC's are level 8 and a cloud giant is CR 9.

As @MonsterEnvy has pointed out, it only needs to be one. The trick is just that the giant, the weapon, and the rune all have to match -- and that if the PCs want Harshnag to do it for them, they have to find the missing frost giant god statue's weapon.

 

[Lojaan]

A big change that I made when I ran the adventure was to make it so the PCs only needed to visit the Eye once. The PCs were all agents of the Lords' Alliance. When I felt they were ready to go to the Eye, I had their Alliance handler contact them and tell them to meet Harshnag near Longsaddle.

I then had Harshnag tell them to visit the various Uthgardt sites and recover some giant relics to deliver to the oracle as gifts - one for each PC. Harshnag gave them his map and said he would meet them at the Eye. I then had the dragon cultists meet them with their airship at the first Uthgardt site they visited instead of outside the Eye.

Thus Harshnag was with the PCs when they explored the temple. Through trial and error, they figured out how the portal worked. After recovering the missing axe, they got Harshnag to open the portal for them.

Here's a recounting of my group's playthrough of this part of the adventure: Trials of the All-Father


So one solution is to make sure Harshnag is with the group when it comes time to open the portal. Another option would be to make sure the PCs find at least one scroll of polymorph before they reach the Eye.

If you want to allow them to deceive the portal's magic into letting them open it without being a giant, I would say go for it, but maybe make it a bit of a skill challenge - don't just make it a group Deception check or anything. Make it so each PC has to contribute to the overall deception in some meaningful way.

Hahahahaha have them make a really big trench coat and stand on top of each other's shoulders

 

[pukunui]

Hahahahaha have them make a really big trench coat and stand on top of each other's shoulders

Yep, that's pretty much what I was thinking!

 

[ElterAgo]

Well doh!
I need to read a little closer.
Thanks folks.