Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 7237363" data-attributes="member: 16814">As has been noted, in varying degrees of kindness, SKT takes a bit of work.  It's designed as a sandbox, and the first half is supposed to be wandering that sandbox.  Even then, it takes work to reinforce the nature of the plot.  The summary of the plot above is pretty good, so keep that in mind from here on out:  the North is suffering under the depredations of the giants.  The why of this is what you're going to get at the Oracle, so that scene is crucial to rerailing your game.That said, the Oracle set up is intended to flow from the previous chapters, and it looks like you may have skipped some of that setup.  That means that the Oracle is going to take some changes.  First of these is that the Oracle is entirely passive -- it has a lot of good information, but you have to ask it the right questions to get that information.  This isn't a good setup for you, as you haven't prepped those questions for sessions and sessions.  So, I'd recommend you change the oracle from a question/answer style into a more engaged and explanatory style.  Merge the cloud giant ghost with the oracle -- have his death actually mean that he's now a powerful conduit to the Oracle (which, incidentally, fulfills the prophecy he was murder for).  Swap his father, Blagothkus out for a mother, Countess Sansirri.  Make promising to deal with her, at some point, a part of the price the ghost negotiates for further details.  This does a few things - it gives you a NPC mouthpiece instead of a question/answer format to provide the information to acquaint your players with the storyline AND gives the players some motivation to engage with the giants (if you make the ghost likable, that is).So, I'd have the ghost provide information on the ordning being broken and what this means for the North -- each of the giant types is now striving for power and prestige to improve their positions.  The Hekaton is missing, and there is evil lurking in his court.  That the North will not do well under an ordning that does not have Storm Giants partial to smallfolk in charge.  But then say that there is a cost for further information -- where and how to access the court of the Storm Giants, root out the evil, and restore the Storm Giants to the head of the ordning.  And that cost is the retrieval of ancient giant artifacts.  This isn't something the ghost can alter -- it's immutable law from Ammon that assistance requires payment. And so, now you've set up the quest for the artifacts.  You can run that according to the book, having now rerailed your adventure, and move on, but I find that the Uthgardt mounds are fairly boring, for the most part.  If you limit it to only a few options, instead of all of them (only have Harshnag remember the location of a few sites), you can pick some of the more interesting mounds (like the Well).  Or come up with a different tack.  The thread on improving SKT is excellent for these suggestions.As a final point, the best parts of SKT are the giant lord lairs.  They're well done set-pieces that have a flow to them based on what the party does.  They are top notch for published adventure pieces.  But the story only requires that the players visit one of them, which is sad.  I said that a single conch would only transport 2 persons, not everyone, so my party of 5 had to go to 3 lords to get conchs.  But, if you're more interested in finishing, this isn't necessary.  I just don't want you to miss the absolute best bits in SKT, especially after your frustrations.  That said, though, be aware that the Cloud Giant castle is particularly deadly if run as a frontal assault.  Work to allow the party to rescue Felgolos and then use him to even the field.  Also, try to have the giants engage in waves - a single cloud giant is a threat, but one easily dealt with by 9thish level characters, but 2 gets dangerous and 3 will kill someone.  Throwing them in waves still puts pressure on the party while not overwhelming them with the very hard hitting giants.  Use Felgolos to help deal with the open courtyard where multiple giants will congregate.So, to sum up, sorry you've found yourself in this spot, but use the Oracle to rerail your game.  Change the Oracle into something that can converse (from the Q&A format) so that you can lead the discussion and provide information more clearly.  Make the threat to things the party cares about if the giants aren't stopped clear using the Oracle.  Then get back on the adventure path.  Read the improving SKT thread for ideas on how you might want to change the later chapters -- there's great advice from those that have gone through it in that thread that can really improve some of the weaker aspects of SKT.Good gaming!</blockquote>

Verification