Storm King’s Thunder: Episode 15
Momentum is something that you can feel collectively as a D&D group. Early in the campaign everyone is still trying to figure out what is going on, who the major players are, and why it’s all happening. During that period it’s good to be open to the player’s whims, because you might make discoveries as a group about what they find important. Maybe a side-quest could actually have bigger consequences in the game, or get revisited somehow.
In the late game, however, most of the pieces of the puzzle have been played. The players can see the end, they just have to figure out how to get there. I still had some personal side-quests that I could have placed into the story, but it wouldn’t have been worth it. The momentum was picking up, and this was not the time to take a detour.
The Party:
(Adam) Auberon — Elf Druid
(Terry) Cygnus — Half-elf Warlock
(Matt) Xavian — Human Rogue
(Stacy) Zedrick — Human Cleric
The Path:
Maelstrom
Oh, the cleverness of me!
The party used the magical conch they’d stolen from the fire giants, and were teleported to Maelstrom, the Hold of the Storm Giants. In their travels around Faerün, they’d come across every kind of giant in some manner, except for storm giants. It was storm giants who were at the top of the Ordning, and the disappearance of their king that seemed to have been the catalyst for this whole crisis. It would be very interesting to find out what they were actually up to, but they’d need to speak with Serissa.
They arrived in Maelstrom, and began exploring. The art for this dungeon really sets it apart from the rest. It’s underwater, covered in barnacles, starfish and other sea creatures, and has such a different colour palette. This was perfect for showing off in Roll20.
Cygnus was getting antsy about choosing the best course of action. He asked his god for some advice with a Divination spell, so I quickly cobbled together a rhyme for him.
To be friends of the giants is what you seek
To anger your hosts means fortune is bleakTo kill the sisters would be grave
And Serissa’s trust will be lost with a wave
I was a little worried they would kill a Storm Giant, even devious ones like Serissa’s sisters. If they did, the adventure rightly proclaimed that they would ruin their chances of working together with her, as it would prove that they really were enemies of the giants. I also wanted to put some water imagery in there for fun.
Roughly half of Maelstrom was underwater, and there was a huge sinkhole to avoid, so Zedrick cast Control Water and carved out a safe path for the party to follow, while Auberon cast Water Breathing just in case. They found a large whale who was the pet of one of Serissa’s sisters that the Oracle had warned them about — Mirran. It told them about Mirran’s aspirations, and that she would make a better queen than Serissa.
They crept along and accidentally stumbled upon a Roper, who flung his tentacles at the party in a wild fight. They wanted to hold back in case they had to fight later, but Ropers are very powerful, and they had to use a lot of their abilities. Fights against Ropers are hilariously fun. This Roper grabbed one character and dragged them through the water as the party tried to free him. Then, it grabbed another. It was like the characters were playing whack-a-mole as they tried to free everyone. Eventually they won, but after the fight, Cygnus chose to cast Leomund’s Tiny Hut so the party could rest.
It’s tricky to strike the right balance for allowing resting in dungeons. If they can’t rest at all, they might die, but if they rest too much it becomes unrealistic and they become too powerful. I felt like they needed some form of “punishment” for so blatantly resting in this dungeon (and after only a single battle, too). They were woken up by some storm giant guards who said they were trespassing and would be in serious trouble.
They were taken to Mirran and Nym, the very sisters the party were hoping to avoid. The sisters were entertaining some ambassadors of the other giant types, but listened to the party’s excuses. They hadn’t killed any giants yet, and they claimed to want to help giant-kind. The sisters slyly grinned, and said their audience with Serissa would be granted. Nym snapped her fingers, and told the guards to escort the party to some human-sized quarters while they waited — so they headed downstairs.
They were finally called upon, but there would be no audience. The sisters ran off, but not before telling the four giant ambassadors to kill the party. A wild battle ensued, with the characters coming very close to death. But a well-placed Banishment spell, and some diplomacy ended up saving the day. The characters tried to appeal to each of the giants, using Charisma or History checks to remember/figure out what each giant cared about. It eventually worked on enough of the giants to put a stop to the fighting. In fact, the ambassadors took the party directly to Serissa herself.
People are more than just the way they look.
There, they were in for a shock. Serissa granted them an audience, and the party saw that to her left, her head advisor was introduced as Iymrith. The ancient blue dragon was disguised in the form of a storm giant, and had apparently been the advisor for quite some time. To Serissa’s right was Imperator Uthor, her gruff uncle who softly interjected on her behalf.
I was unsure of what the party would do here. I was prepared for them to attack Iymrith at any moment, but they didn’t seem interested in that. In fact, they acted as though they didn’t recognize her at all.
They made their case to Serissa. Zedrick reminded her that they had met as children. He explained that they had travelled far and wide specifically to put an end to the chaos of the Ordning. They had allied with giants, like Harshnag, and even spoke to the Oracle at the Eye of the All-Father. Their commitment to giant-kind, not to mention going to an ancient temple of the giants, was enough to get Serissa and Uthor partially on their side.
She offered the players a wooden coin, adding that it was found beside her mother’s body. If they could find out where it came from, they could perhaps find out who did this.
Seeing Serissa deal with the humans was enough to set Iymrith off. She exclaimed “for all we know, these smallfolk killed your mother and kidnapped your father!”
The characters caught the slip up. Nowhere was a kidnapping mentioned. Cygnus used his telepathy to warn Serissa about Iymrith. But they did not overtly act towards her.
I had my proverbial finger on the trigger. Any aggressive action meant I would have Iymrith start casting spells and causing havoc. But the players were surprisingly patient. This could have been in part because they knew exactly what they had to do.
They had seen the coin before — a Golden Goose from the riverboat gambling den called The Grand Dame— from when they’d stopped over in Yartar. They thanked Uthor and Serissa for their hospitality and vowed to hunt down the owner of the wooden coin. Serissa showed them to her teleportation chamber and said she could send them straight to Yartar, where they would get to embark on their Golden Goose chase.
