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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jyenh (Penitence)" data-source="post: 7613555" data-attributes="member: 6998027">I just ran it, knowing my characters would love the encounter with him. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this encounter. It took my party 3 hours, mostly just role-playing (they are very combat-oriented players, so this is big).We were coming off of LMoP though. My players already knew giants were attacking places, and displacing people, via their factions. The book would have me skip this encounter (being part of Ch1) and go to Triboar, but I know my players like to get everything from an adventure, and that they would make their way to Triboar if I sent them to Goldenfields to return the Tressym to Miros (in this, Miros' parents were killed in one of the diversionary orc raids around triboar). However, I knew this encounter was a great scene, and mind, setter.The biggest points are:- The giant is met by an "evil" group wishing to gain his support. He declines, and they leave without confrontation. This indicates a type of neutrality towards the small races.- The giant is met with a "good" group wishing to stop the tower - a good indication of the threat the giants pose, and that not all giants are evil, signalling that the characters should not always attack giants. - Really easy way to introduce the magnificence of giants - the stone statues casting artistic shadows (suggesting they were made by skilled stone giant crafters), how every movement Zephyros makes seems to cause a slight gust of wind from his sheer size (from pulling the entryway curtain back to dropping tiredly into his chair). I even had him let out an excruciatingly large whistle to call to one of his griffons which he then treated like a cat. These things tell the characters "they're not just big, they're powerful."These three points are huge "mind-setters" for the players, and the whole ordeal is memorable if you play the social aspects well, which reminds players that 1) giants are strong, and a threat 2) That this is not a kill-em-all campaign.--------------Lots of small points as well:- First giant they interact with- He is eccentric, so they characters can deduce he is not the norm- Informs them of the ordning (and anything the characters would like to know from his books - they have 10 days to waste, could use for introducing little hooks. For example Fireshear, if they're interested in riding griffons)- They get to see how he fits into the cloud giant hierarchy, thus learning of different hierarchies (I placed him as being quite low, having 1 magic item and the tower, with the only other things of value being the books he wrote himself. My players assumed he didn't have much due to his being overly generous after receiving the pixie dust)- Easy to have as a reoccurring character - The tower/cloud is ancient, and comes from the Thousand Year War period ("these magic clouds are a lasting remnant of the giants’ lost empires." - Monster Manual), so it should/could have traces of other giants or some interesting details to fill in the flavour of the giants (see shadows cast by the statues above)- No pressure to explain everything, easy excuse to not provide information is that he was told not to interfere too much- You can have so much fun role playing this guy, my players LOVED him (they even told me they would rage quit if I killed him like I did their favourite character in Strahd)</blockquote>

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