It has been some time since I have been able to write about
my Storm King’s Thunder campaign. My group is all about 40 years old with
careers, families, and responsibilities, it has just been crazy for all of us
for different reasons. We finally got to meet up this past Friday and continue
our game into the murky world of SKT. When we last left our group had just
fended off the Orc attack on Nightstone and was considering options in
attempting a rescue on the civilians in the caverns to the North. They had
Felgolos go to the caves to scout, he returned and told them that the villagers
must have been captured, and they decided to have him go to Waterdeep to send
help. The village seemed to be on everyone’s radar as open for the taking, and
they needed help in keeping it free. Like the good “Bro” that Felgolos is, he
decided to help again.
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| Hekaton looking great |
The
first order of business was the party wanted to deal with Kella. She was
chained to Shandy, but helping against the Orcs with solid advice, if anything
to keep herself alive. Towards the end of the Orc fight, things looked like
they were not going the party’s way, Shandy decided to cut her free and told
her to run. Taking full advantage of this, she did and took off into
Nightstone. Now that the incident was over there was a big debate as to what to
do with her. They noticed that the drawbridge was not down, so she could not
have left yet. She must be in the town. The party, being three people, split
into three different chains of thought on what to do with her. Shandy wanted to
let her go, and even wanted to try and see if she would help them with the
rescue of the villagers. Izumi took the exact opposite track and wanted to
bring her to justice for her crimes, possibly killing her. Ionas took a middle
path, he wanted to lock her up until they got back from the rescue, then
release her. He did not want her loose while they were away. They never fully
came to an accord once they found her and it got rather heated.
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| Kella still causing problems |
The
group set off for the caves hoping to be able to rescue the townsfolk from the
clutches of an enemy they believed correctly was goblins. They still have not
done a long rest since the Orc fight, but got a short rest while on the way to
the cave. While headed there they decided to look for any signs of activity and
see if the tracks looked like anything they recognized. They did well on the
roll and I described obvious goblin prints, but some other humanoid prints were
there as well, something big. At this point they have giants on the brain and
thought that this was part of the giant narrative. I did mention if it was
giants, it would be giants on the smaller end of the spectrum, possibly
giant-kin. They approached the cave and Izumi went to scout and discovered the
main room. It had some goblin guards on ledges, and an Ogre bathing in a mud
bath. They decide to try and lure the guards out by making an illusion in front
of the cave, and hiding above the entrance. When setting up for this, Ionas
noticed a bit of smoke coming out of the top of the hill. When they
investigated the smoke, they realized there was a chimney up top and decided to
descend into the caves that way.
Immediately
they run into Snigbat and attack him, luckily for him he lives long enough to
be pathetic. They take pity on him and he agrees to betray Hark and show him
where he is located. He encourages them to kill him, and then Snigbat will take
over as boss, and free the prisoners. The party seemed to agree, and Snigbat
upheld his part. He led them over to Hark’s area and they see Hark and 2 other
goblins betting on giant rat fights, while other giant rats are feasting on the
corpse of a villager. Now is a good time to discuss how module think things
will play out, and how they actually play out. The module spends a good two
paragraphs discussing “if the party tries to negotiate with Hark”. This, I
believe, is wasted ink. Most gamers I know will show little mercy to a goblin
that is eating people and feeding them to giant rats. There might be some out
there, but I don’t know many. Hark sees the party enter with Snigbat, and
begins to speak, before that can happen Shady sees the bodies and says, “I rage
and throw my spear at him.”
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| Both my games this week featured Ogres |
The
Goblin Boss in the Monster Manual is downright amazing, l love the little guy.
He is mean, and has a handful of great abilities. He gets two attacks, can
disengage as a bonus action, and can use his reaction to shift an attack onto a
nearby goblin. He was very fun to play. The spear came at him in a surprise
action (I know they are not in 5e officially, but I still use them), he pulled
his mate in front of him and that goblin nearly died. Then the combat ensued. Hark
managed to move around, and get all the other goblins in the room killed by
dragging them in front of him, including Snigbat (it does not say the goblin
has to be willing). He had his rats attack the party and in the end, everything
was dead, except him, he had 1 HP and the party was severely hurt. Giant rats
tore the party up, and I forgot their pack tactic rule. At this point Hark tried to negotiate, and
was going to let the people go, the party was having none of it. He did warn
them, “I can make sure the Ogres don’t…..” he never finished the sentence as
Shandy cut him in half. Speaking of the Ogres, I had them making listen checks
every round and they were on their way.
The
party disagreed as to what to do, Shandy wanted to stay and fight, Ionas and
Izumi wanted to flee and come back. Shandy decided to move to a choke point
where he could only face one Ogre at a time, Izumi fled up the chimney, and
Ionas said he was leaving, but ended up backing Shandy with the few spells he
had left. Remember the party still hasn’t had a long rest since before the Orc
fight, supplies were at their breaking point. Shandy and Ionas managed to kill
Throg the Ogre, but their mate was a different story. Ionas decided to pull the
Iron Bands of Billaro and wrap up the second Ogre. At that point Shandy and
Ionas made short work of the Ogre who failed to break out of the Bands. Izumi
came back down, with a combined effort of illusion, thaumaturgy, and a
screaming warforge carrying an Ogre head, they scared the rest of the goblins
from the cave.
They
rescued the villagers, but I did give them the body count of those that were
eaten. The group was a little hard on themselves for not acting sooner, but all
things considered they did well. I tried to ingratiate them to Morak Ur’Gray
the dwarven proprietor of the Nightstone Inn, because of the upcoming events
and sending them on a quest to Bryn Shander. Morak did not want the mantle of
leadership that the party was thrusting upon him, making him make decisions for
the group. He did step up though because he cared about the townsfolk and
respected the party. I decided to play Morak, like many of my dwarves, as Ron
Swanson from Parks & Rec. I plan to write a larger article on how Ron
Swanson is the perfect dwarf stereotype, but that is for another day.
The
party brought the villagers home, and spent the next few days helping to fix
the town as they received word from Waterdeep that supplies were on their way,
and a small contingent of Griffin Riders would be patrolling the area to keep
the riff raff away. They also received orders from the Harpers to continue
deeper into the North and try to recover any information about the situation
with the giants. Kella did stick around a few days, helping with the clean-up,
she knew many of the villagers from her spying days, and is not completely
heart-less. That is, until Izumi and Ionas pushed the issue. Izumi wanting her
locked up, and Ionas wanting her gone. They left it to Morak, who was told
about her friends trying to take over the city, and he decided it “might be for
the best if you leave”. So she packed her things and moved on.
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| Zephyros |
Morak
then asked the party for a favor, his friend Semile was killed in the attack
and wanted to know if the party would pass the news and some of the personal
items onto her brother. Her brother, Markham, is in Bryn Shander and this would
allow them to go deeper into the North and see what they can find out. This is
a contrivance of the story, because if the party says “no” it is hard to get
this puppy back on track. Especially because Bryn Shander is extremely far
away. My group are old veterans of D&D and smell a plot hook and bite full
force. They set off for Bryn Shander. They don’t get but a day away from
Nightstone when they hear a horrible and loud crash off in the distance. When
they move to see what has happened they see a floating tower, surrounded by
clouds, that has crashed into the ground. There is energy surging all over the
tower and it looks dangerous in general. The party knows that something similar
to this attacked Nightstone and move to investigate. They manage to scale the
side as the tower begins to slowly rise. They then meet the owner of the tower
Zephyros the Cloud Giant.
Zephyros
lets the party in on the main plot of the entire SKT module and he has been
looking for the party to help them fix what is broken. Here are his main
points:
- The All Father of the giants was mad at the giants for the events in Rise of Tiamat. He decides to abandon his children, and shattered The Ordning.
- The Ordning is the giant’s hierarchy, and determines their place in society.
- King Hekaton, Lord of the Storm Giants, was keeping the giants in place through force.
- Queen Neri was killed by “small folk” and this sent Hekaton into a rage.
- Princess Serissa, next in line for the throne, convinced her father to investigate the problem.
- Before that was resolved, Hekaton disappeared, leaving the three Princesses vying for power.
- All the other giants are trying to please the All-Father in their own respective ways, so that when the Ordning is restored, they will ascend. This is what is causing the madness in the North with all the giants.
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| Next stop! |
This is where we
ended the session, the party has met with their traveling companion and is on
their way to Bryn Shander. I just had one of my party members message our group
chat saying that he is really enjoying the game. I am happy about that, I am
having a good time too. What adventures aboard the tower await? Who knows? Tune
in next time.
I went ahead and created a Facebook group for the blog, if you are interested the link is here.
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