Ambrose Honeysuckle
Villager
I told you about the spoilers in the subject line. This topic is ALL spoilers. If you don't want spoilers, AVERT YOUR EYES. Go read this webcomic, maybe. It's great.
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So my group is almost finished with Hoard of the Dragon Queen. They smooth-talked Blagothkus into letting them take down the cultists without his interference, took the Red Wizards by surprise and killed them both (Rath Modar tried to escape, to no avail), killed Rezmir and the 10 dragonwings, destroyed Sandesyl and her spawn, and came up with a pretty brilliant way of slaying Glazhael (it didn't go exactly as they planned but worked out in the end). Basically, all the combat is done; from here on, it's all social interaction.
I'm presented with three fundamental problems, in order of importance:
The third of these problems is fairly trivial. The first, on the other hand, is potentially very complicated.
First, the Monster Manual describes cloud giants as deceitful, self-interested tricksters, and Blagothkus is evil. This logically means he can't be trusted to keep his word to the PCs, doesn't it? On the other hand, given that they managed to kill the dragon that was too much of a handful for him and his ogres, he might think it wiser to exercise caution around the PCs. Right now, they're talking about buying him off by letting him keep the bulk of Glazhael's hoard, since they can't even begin to cart it all off themselves. But per the MM flavor text, cloud giants are less interested in quantity than in quality, and the PCs have already grabbed all the good stuff.
Second, Skyreach has to be able to land someplace for the PCs to disembark. If they ask Blagothkus to take them back to Elturel, for instance, that's not really feasible, because the lower part of the iceberg would leave the gate a good hundred feet off the ground -- even the river wouldn't be deep enough to accommodate it. They could probably land it in the Sea of Swords and disembark near Waterdeep, but would a giant want to venture that close to small-folk civilization?
And third, supposing that Blagothkus did insist on flying the castle to the Spine of the World mountains, where in the Spine of the World mountains would his destination be? Neither book seems to say, at least not anywhere I've been able to find.
So . . . the PCs have given Blagothkus peace of mind by removing the possibility that the cult will turn on him, as he suspected they might. Is this enough for him, or will he now turn on them? What incentive could they possibly offer him that could sway him -- what interest does he have that they could appeal to? Cloud giants like to gamble; might he require them to win a bet with him?
And how have other folks solved the Rath Modar problem? I've seen it suggested that the first Rath Modar should be considered only a simulacrum of the real wizard, but that feels like a cheap cop-out to me.
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.
.
So my group is almost finished with Hoard of the Dragon Queen. They smooth-talked Blagothkus into letting them take down the cultists without his interference, took the Red Wizards by surprise and killed them both (Rath Modar tried to escape, to no avail), killed Rezmir and the 10 dragonwings, destroyed Sandesyl and her spawn, and came up with a pretty brilliant way of slaying Glazhael (it didn't go exactly as they planned but worked out in the end). Basically, all the combat is done; from here on, it's all social interaction.
I'm presented with three fundamental problems, in order of importance:
- Where does Blagothkus drop them off?
- What do I do about Rath Modar, since Rise of Tiamat seems to assume that he's still alive?
- What do I do about Talis the White, since Rise of Tiamat seems to assume that she's dead (our PCs struck a deal with her)?
The third of these problems is fairly trivial. The first, on the other hand, is potentially very complicated.
First, the Monster Manual describes cloud giants as deceitful, self-interested tricksters, and Blagothkus is evil. This logically means he can't be trusted to keep his word to the PCs, doesn't it? On the other hand, given that they managed to kill the dragon that was too much of a handful for him and his ogres, he might think it wiser to exercise caution around the PCs. Right now, they're talking about buying him off by letting him keep the bulk of Glazhael's hoard, since they can't even begin to cart it all off themselves. But per the MM flavor text, cloud giants are less interested in quantity than in quality, and the PCs have already grabbed all the good stuff.
Second, Skyreach has to be able to land someplace for the PCs to disembark. If they ask Blagothkus to take them back to Elturel, for instance, that's not really feasible, because the lower part of the iceberg would leave the gate a good hundred feet off the ground -- even the river wouldn't be deep enough to accommodate it. They could probably land it in the Sea of Swords and disembark near Waterdeep, but would a giant want to venture that close to small-folk civilization?
And third, supposing that Blagothkus did insist on flying the castle to the Spine of the World mountains, where in the Spine of the World mountains would his destination be? Neither book seems to say, at least not anywhere I've been able to find.
So . . . the PCs have given Blagothkus peace of mind by removing the possibility that the cult will turn on him, as he suspected they might. Is this enough for him, or will he now turn on them? What incentive could they possibly offer him that could sway him -- what interest does he have that they could appeal to? Cloud giants like to gamble; might he require them to win a bet with him?
And how have other folks solved the Rath Modar problem? I've seen it suggested that the first Rath Modar should be considered only a simulacrum of the real wizard, but that feels like a cheap cop-out to me.
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