Storm King’s Thunder: Episode 16
The choice of enemies that do battle together tells a story by itself. When a party is ambushed by orcs, goblins, and wolves, each enemy type has different motivations than the rest. The goblins could be under the boot of the orcs, and if enough orcs die, they feel brave enough to run for their lives. But maybe they care about their pet wolves, and won’t run unless they can take them too.
Combinations of enemies should be interesting for battle purposes and story purposes. And an epic battle in the penultimate chapter of Storm King’s Thunder provided a substantially satisfying combination.
The Party:
(Adam) Auberon — Elf Druid
(Terry) Cygnus — Half-elf Warlock
(Matt) Xavian — Human Rogue
(Stacy) Zedrick — Human Cleric
The Path:
Yartar, Maelstrom, Trackless Sea
By hook or by crook this peril too shall be something that we remember.
The party arrived in Yartar, ready to discover more about the wooden coin that Serissa had given them. If they could track who would have it, then they could discover who had killed Queen Neri, and perhaps where King Hekaton was.
Xavian’s mentor Garrin had mentioned that he was going to Yartar, so Xavian tracked him down. Garrin warned that the Grand Dame had undergone some changes since Xavian visited last time. The owner had restricted entry to only the finest, richest nobles, but if he posed as a worker, he could get a job for the day. Xavian had an excellent Sleight of Hand skill and could easily pass for a well-trained card dealer, but the rest of the party would have to pass as musicians somehow.
The party showed up in disguise the next morning looking to get hired. Garrin had warned them that no weapons or armor were allowed on, which the party adhered to, except for a sword they hid in their cello case. The Captain gave them a look. Cygnus, Zedrick, and Auberon had an old horn, a cello, and a lute, and with a little convincing from their Persuasion check, they were able to get on board.
Everyone spent the day gathering information as they tried not to blow their cover. Queen Neri had been found by the Purple Rocks, but none of the guests gave any solid leads. The only suspicious thing mentioned was that Lord Khaspere Drylund, the owner of the Grand Dame, had done some travelling around there.
They also saw that Pow Ming was very strict about the Golden Goose coins. Ming handled the coins and paid out people before they left, so the supply would never leave the ship.
The party was getting suspicious of Drylund, and decided to check in on him in his private quarters. Xavian slunk away from his card table, while Cygnus used a Minor Illusion spell to make it appear as though the band was still playing. They cast a Silence spell and busted in on Drylund’s quarters. The four of them quickly overcame the old man, and he immediately surrendered. Without being able to speak, Drylund tried to write a confession.
He admitted that he was a member of the Kraken Society, a group of spies and smugglers, and that King Hekaton was aboard a ship called the Morkoth which was sailing in the Trackless Sea. Before he could continue he looked at his pet octopus and dropped to the floor dead, blood dripping from his nose.
The Kraken Society were secretly being controlled by a magic-using Kraken named Slarkrethel. It had a psychic connection to Drylund, and once it saw that Drylund was confessing to the party, it mercilessly shattered his mind. I figured the pet octopus was purchased in honour of the Kraken, so I hinted at their relationship, but my players became more suspicious of the octopus than I intended, and grabbed it as they blew the conch and headed back to Maelstrom with their newfound information.
I did not plan for this, as the adventure assumes the party will want to head straight for the Morkoth and find King Hekaton. But since I had kept Iymrith at bay last time, I figured now was a good time to unleash her.
The group spoke with Serissa, and again warned to not trust the dragon Iymrith. She went into a rage, and grabbed the Korolnor Scepter from Serissa, which when separated from the Wyrmskull Throne that Serissa was sitting in, left her completely paralyzed. Iymrith then teleported away as the party futilely tried to stop her.
Uthor was distraught at seeing his niece paralyzed. He begged the party to help find Hekaton. With him back, surely they could save Serissa. The party perhaps felt a little responsible for this latest mess, and offered to help right away, but how could they survey the Trackless Sea for one ship? They were just four humanoids, and time seemed to be of the essence.
They could go back for their airship, but that would take some time. Also, the airship wasn’t the safest vehicle, and they were expecting a fight. Then Cygnus had a wise idea. They used a Sending spell to send a message to Felgolos, the bronze dragon. They could ride on him, and he seemed very inspired to repay the party for their last encounter.
There will be killing till the score is paid.
They met Felgolos just outside of Maelstrom. He would fight with the party and do his best to save King Hekaton. It was too bad the party didn’t get to do the Cloud Giant’s dungeon, where they would actually get to save Felgolos, but I wanted him to be in the final battle anyway, so I thought it was a good idea to let them have him now.
They wandered the Trackless Sea for a couple days, but soon spotted the Morkoth. The ship was carved to look like a sea monster, and they could see King Hekaton chained up on deck. They kept their distance and waited until nightfall. With some extra magical obscuring, Xavian went ahead alone.
He snuck up against the side of the ship. I asked for a few Athletics checks and Stealth checks, and the results were shaky at best. Xavian didn’t fall in, but he wasn’t as graceful as he usually was. And he caught the attention of the Merrows who swam by the ship. Just as he was getting ready to jump aboard, they attacked. They used harpoons that pulled enemies underwater, and one hit Xavian square in the back, sending him straight into the sea. Cygnus’s Tressym was watching this and informed the rest of the team they needed to act quickly to save Xavian.
What followed was a wild battle filled with close calls and extraordinary moments. Cygnus got harpooned himself, but saved Xavian with some timely Eldritch Blasts. Xavian made it back into the ship and tried to free Hekaton while fending off hoards of Kraken Society cultists, as well as the deadly first mate Rool (with a sneak attack, of course).
The Morkoth was captained by a powerful archmage, Tholtz Daggerdark, who proved to be quite deadly himself. After Felgolos gathered Cygnus and Xavian into the ship, the archmage sent the dragon to another plane with a Banishment spell, and followed that up with a painful Lightning Bolt that almost took out Auberon and Xavian at once. His Counterspells prevented the party from doing the damage it wanted, until Zedrick got face-to-face with him and rocked him with his warhammer. Eventually they took out almost everyone, and the few remaining cultists surrendered.
I’ve come to see that the best D&D 5th edition battles involve lots of enemies of varying power, like our epic yakfolk battle. This one was perfect. The cultist crew were pretty weak, but the first-mate was no pushover, and the archmage was brutal with 8th and 9th level spells at the ready. Also the Merrow were very powerful, and had a totally different flavour than the rest of the crew. This battle took hours, and it was exciting from start to finish.
They rescued King Hekaton, who needed a little calming down at first, but soon they were on their way back to Maelstrom — which was a good thing, because if they lingered on the ship, the mighty kraken Slarkrethel would show up and obliterate them. Instead, I merely teased his appearance as they blew the conch and began teleporting back to the storm giant’s lair.
Now the real final fight awaited. They’d saved King Hekaton from the clutches of the Kraken Society, but the major player who had subtly put all of these events in motion was still on the loose. It was time to bring the battle to the one who deserved to be brought to justice. It was time confront the Doom of the Desert, Iymrith.
