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Message: <blockquote data-quote="demiurge1138" data-source="post: 4699031" data-attributes="member: 7451">DCC #21: Assault on Stormbringer CastleNominally, an adventure for 12th – 14th level characters.No, this isn’t “Stormbringer Castle” as in Elric’s awesome sword. This Stormbringer refers to a clan of storm giants. Their matriarch, Stozari Stormbringer, uses extortion to finance her many magical experiments—costal towns pay her a hefty “good weather tax” in exchange for not being wracked by hurricanes sent by her ability to control weather. The rates have been steadily growing, and the large town of Argalis has refused to pay, so has been hit with three hurricanes in as many weeks. Argalis’ government has decided it would be cheaper to hire adventurers to kill the giantess than to pay her exorbitant rates. What sort of magical experiments, you ask? Well, she needs lots of cash to pay for good equipment for her army of ogres and hill giants. She needs to maintain the magical greenhouse that grows the enormous vegetables for them to eat. But she also has been pouring money into the creation of “living spirits”, force elementals powered by the souls of the dead and possessing their memories. She’s also been financing the construction of The Stormbringer Juggernaut, a warship sized for giants intended to take her extortion deal on the road to cities all over the world. What I liked: Rarely is the question asked, “Where do D&D villains get their money?” Rarer still are the considerations of paying staff, equipping them and feeding them brought up. I liked that Assault on Stormbringer Castle has a certain element of that accountancy; we know where Stozari’s cash comes from, and where it’s going. What I disliked: Unfortunately, some of Stozari’s financial decisions make little sense. Like the ogre barbarians. She employs dozens of them, but only three hill giants. The hill giants have no more equipment than rocks and hide armor, whereas the ogre barbarians are decked out in magical equipment. Both ogre barbarians and hill giants are CR 7. Wouldn’t it be more cost-effective if it were the other way around?None of the encounters seem particularly inspired. It’s just fight after fight with giant after giant. What’s worse, many of the encounters seem less than challenging. Some of them (classless ogres, the advanced blood boulders and violet fungi) are too low of CR to even give 12th level characters XP! And our author, Christina Stiles, doesn’t seem to know how non-associated class levels work. The idea is that class levels for classes that don’t compliment the basic strengths of a monster are only CR +1/2 per level. Unfortunately, there’re a lot of giants with spellcasting classes in this module that should be non-associated. It’s pretty easy to just change the CRs to the proper number… and there are enough of these non-associated problems and softball encounters to suggest that perhaps this module should be run for 10th level adventurers, not 12th. Until you reach the encounters that really are that deadly, like a 15th level ogre fighter, with the living spirit template. These living spirits are pretty damn powerful—think of them as force liches and you’re not too far off.I’m not sure if this complaint belongs with this module or with its sequel, The Stormbringer Juggernaut, but I’ll mention it here. The next module assumes that its premise, that Stozari Stormbringer had arranged contingencies so that she would rise as a living spirit aboard The Stormbringer Juggernaut in order to control it after being killed by the party, was well foreshadowed. It was not. There’s more foreshadowing of a plot that never comes up in the modules proper, for her late husband’s living spirit to animate an iron colossus to march up from the sea and destroy their enemies. The only indication of The Stormbringer Juggernaut’s plot is a mural with a boat on it. Maybe she just likes boats!Was it worth the $2? No. Although I like the “weather extortionist” plot, the module itself is unremarkable in the extreme. Take that premise and give a weekend of thought to building a dungeon around it—you’ll do just as well, if not better.</blockquote>

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