Storm King’s Thunder: Episode 13
The most iconic pillar of D&D is combat. Most of the character’s design deals specifically with how they fight. Many of the rules are purely about combat. But sometimes battles in D&D just slow things down. Characters are exploring new places and discovering new parts of the story and interacting with interesting characters. In these cases, combat can ruin the pace of the game or just seem abrupt or out of place.
But sometimes a combat is so perfectly placed, and so intensely fought, that it ends up telling a whole story of its own.
The Party:
(Adam) Auberon — Elf Druid
(Terry) Cygnus — Half-elf Warlock
(Matt) Xavian — Human Rogue
(Stacy) Zedrick — Human Cleric
The Path:
The Coldwood, Ironslag
I want to see mountains again, Gandalf.
Each giant lord was doing what they could to put themselves at the top of the Ordning. Duke Zalto’s fire giants were rebuilding the Vonindod — a grand colossus that he could use to destroy the dragons. They were using the ancient forge in Ironslag, safely tucked inside a mountain and protected by huge adamantine doors. The only way in was by going to the top and navigating down through its mines. But guarding the top were a tribe of yakfolk — gruff spiritual warriors who had entered into an alliance with the fire giants.
The party had learned from the moon elves that their princess was being held captive by the yakfolk. The elves led them to the mountain, where they would climb the “10,000 steps” that wound precariously up to the top. They waited for nightfall, and began their approach.
They made it nearly halfway up, and Auberon Wild Shaped into a falcon to scout above. He flew up, past a chimera’s lair, who gave chase.
Luckily, Auberon was faster than the chimera, but he wouldn’t be able to scout for long. He quickly flew by the top of the yakfolk village, and lost the chimera in the darkness then returned to the party on the side of the mountain.
The tension growing in the party was excellent. It wasn’t clear whether they would fight or sneak their way through. I was prepared for either one, but happy to let the players dictate how this encounter would go down.
Auberon had the general layout of the village, and saw a good spot for them to creep in. The party snuck up the rest of the way, and soon arrived at the yakfolk village.
They split up and scoured the area, trying to find the princess. Cygnus used his magical flying Tressym to scout the yakfolk’s huts. Auberon cast Pass Without Trace to make Zedrick’s paltry stealth skill into an asset, and the two of them crept up to the nearest hut. Xavian, who was the best at stealth, went around the perimeter of the huts and looked on the far west side. He could see some moon elf prisoners were chained up in pens and cages outside, but there was so sign of the princess.
Auberon and Zedrick saw a group of yakfolk forcing some prisoners outside to be chained up, while Cygnus’s Tressym flew above the main hut and found the yakfolk chief with his wives — and the princess. He used his powers to telepathically communicate with her, and tell her that they would signal her at the right time to run for an escape.
The party met back up and concocted a plan. They cast Silence on the chief’s hut while the yakfolk were sleeping, and they telepathically told the princess, Halani, to slip out. She ran to them, but explained that many more moon elves were still prisoner, and she did not deserve to be rescued while they were not.
I was trying to force a difficult choice out of the players, where they could see some direct consequences based on what they wanted to do. They could save Halani, but it would mean certain death for the rest. Would they try and save a few more moon elves? Would they sneakily assassinate some yakfolk?
There was some back and forth until finally Cygnus said, “look, princess — we got you out to bring you back to your tribe. We’re leaving now, you can either come, or stay.”
Halani begrudgingly obliged as Xavian threw a lantern at the main hut in an attempt to burn it down as they left.
They made it back to the elves, and Halani said she was disappointed with her rescuers, as they had sentenced the rest of the prisoners to death. Some of the elves appreciated the actions of the party since they at least accomplished something. Others were sad to hear of the deaths of their tribe mates.
And, whatever happens, never forget to wipe your sword.
Xavian was getting more and more incensed at being near the site of his former servitude, and declared that he was going to attack the yakfolk at dawn, and anyone willing to help should join him. The party was happy to see a handful of elves remain with them, as they prepared for their assault.
They began the trek up the mountain path. A river split the yakfolk village into two sides, and this time the party went to the smaller side. They crept over the wall, and quickly killed those yakfolk (sparing a youth who didn’t pose any threat). One yakfolk did manage to alert the other side to the fact that there were intruders, but the party was ready.
They got into position. A wall was protecting them, and there was only one entrance. They spied a powerful force of yakfolk running across the bridge over the river, and up the mountainside that they were on. Cygnus Polymorphed into a tyrannosaurus rex, Auberon cast Spike Growth, and Zedrick placed a Sleet Storm above the entrance, while Xavian and all of the elves readied their attacks on the first creature to open the door.
Based on the encounter design, you can sometimes predict how a battle will go. But this whole part was too open-ended. But the yakfolk were ruthless, and battle-hardened, so they would be doing everything they could to win.
The players were waiting for the yakfolk to run through the entrance into their traps. But the yakfolk weren’t dumb. The adventure book says “yakfolk have a drive for learning, particularly when it comes to the secrets of elemental magic and dark knowledge that might serve to corrupt or dominate others.”
They could see a giant sleet storm raining down on the entrance, and figured the intruders who had stolen their prisoner were in there. They decided to scale the wall. Cygnus, in dinosaur form, attacked one of the yakfolk. The chief’s wives were also priestesses, and one of them cast Banishment on Cygnus. He failed his Charisma saving throw roll, and just like that, he was banished to another plane of existence for at least one minute.
My player’s faces dropped. They now realized this was going to be a challenging fight. All of their traps and preparations were useless if the enemy wasn’t going to walk into them, so they’d have to take the fight directly to the yakfolk.
Auberon and Xavian climbed up the wall and peppered the enemy with ranged attacks, but they were absorbing blows from almost a dozen yakfolk — not good odds. The other priestess summoned an Earth Elemental who started ravaging the elven tribespeople. Zedrick could see things were dire, and as the closest thing to “the muscle” in the group, he did the only thing he thought he could. He jumped right into the fray.
This fight was getting awesome. My players were fighting for their lives, and they needed to pull out all of the stops. Zedrick dropped into the middle of some yakfolk and cast Thunderwave, blowing a few of them off the side of the mountain. He realized this tactic could work if he could stay alive long enough. Xavian dropped down too so Zedrick wouldn’t be taking every hit, and watched as he cast a mighty Gust of Wind that blew off some more enemies, including a priestess. It looked like Zedrick’s abilities as a tempest cleric were tipping the scales back in their favour.
If they could just hit the other priestess and stop her from concentrating on her Banishment spell, Cygnus would come back. They focused all their might onto her. Zedrick killed some more yakfolk, but soon was beaten down. Xavian killed the chief, but he too went down. Auberon shot an arrow at the priestess and her spell fizzled, bringing Cygnus back, but it was too late. Auberon was defeated as well.
Cygnus could see he didn’t have many options. He cast Meld into Stone, and hid his body inside the stone wall, as the remaining yakfolk gathered the bodies of the fallen characters. He’d wait there for eight hours, undetectable, until it was safe to come out. From there, what awaited him was unknown.
