Storm King’s Thunder: Episode 4
A lesson in letting go and following the whims of your players
The Party:
Auberon — Elf Druid
Cygnus — Half-elf Warlock
Xavian — Human Rogue
Zedrick — Human Cleric
The characters had heard some rumours about what was happening in the world of giants. Evidently the Ordning, the caste system of the giants, had been broken. The different giant races were doing whatever they could to re-order themselves at the top. The characters heard of fire giants building a powerful war machine, hill giants engaging in an overeating frenzy, and frost giants trying to bring on a new ice age.
Now, a pack of frost giants had come to the gates of Bryn Shander and were demanding Artus Cimber. Cygnus’s backstory included being rescued by a band of Harpers led by Artus Cimber, who used the famed Ring of Winter to hold back the dragon Lymrith. Was there some connection there? Perhaps, but the fact remained — Artus Cimber was nowhere to be seen, and these frost giants did not look like they wanted to talk about it peacefully.
Who were there, however, were six NPCs whose character sheets were handed to the players. If they could keep them alive in the ensuing conflict, they would be able to give the party information and help move the story forward with a personal quest. If they died — too bad. The characters would never know what they could have told them.
One of these NPCs was Sirac of Suzail, who had been in the midst of a conversation with Cygnus. As Cygnus’s player looked over Sirac’s sheet he could see that he indeed carried with him quite the secret. Cygnus had been speaking with the son of Artus Cimber.
A Brilliant Plan! Thwarted by… the DM?
The frost giants spread around the town, boulders in hand. Drufi, their leader, two bodyguards and winter wolves stayed at the southwest gate. Zedrick and a handful of the NPCs were also there. Duvessa Shane, the town speaker, and Zedrick decided to tell the giants that they indeed had Artus Cimber, and were bringing him right now. This bought them some much needed time.
As a DM, I have a vague vision of how an encounter is going to go, and what I’d like to happen. I figured this would be a chaotic battle, but I was curious to see how they would incorporate the NPCs. I had warned them early on, as directed by Power Score, that sometimes there would be “unwinnable” fights. Sometimes they would have to figure out other solutions other than charging the enemy and beating them to death.
The players took this to heart. After seeing a dozen frost giants surrounding the town, they didn’t think this was a winnable fight. Suddenly they started talking about escape plans, and what else they could do to survive.
In retrospect, I should have encouraged the escape plan. I was stubbornly trying to have them proceed with the encounter as it was written, and coming up with in-world logic for why the escape plan wouldn’t work. They asked about what was around the town, and where they could get a nearby army to come and save the day. I said Bryn Shander was the biggest of the Ten-Towns, so this was the largest army. If they got outside the city, it was just open fields — easy pickings for frost giants to take them out. And I stressed the urgency — this plan would take too long.
But really, the adventure would not have gone off the rails if some or all of them managed to escape and bring an army. In fact, Augrek Brighthelm’s sidequest involves recruiting her old dwarven clan to protect Bryn Shander. What a missed opportunity! I could have had the giants lay siege to the town, giving the PCs enough time to take Augrek to nearby Ironmaster and come back with a pack of dwarves.
Maybe some PCs would have stayed behind, and they would have had to roleplay keeping the town’s morale up (with some charisma rolls to see what effect it had on the town guard). Then they could have returned and had the battle as intended, but the player’s would have felt way more ownership for what had transpired.
This is a common plight as a DM. A wrench is thrown into your plans, and you can only adapt so much. A balance must be struck between the DM and players. A good DM needs to have confidence that they can let go of their power over the adventure and let their players take the lead and explore.
You Shall Not Pass
What they ended up doing was getting all of the PCs and stronger NPCs to the southwest gate. As the frost giants grew impatient, battle became inevitable and the surrounding giants began heaving boulders at the walls.
The only caveat to this was that Xavian and Beldora had now decided to team up. When Beldora lies she commits to her lie — she wasn’t about to let on that she was actually a Harper. So she stuck with her “giant hunter” story (fantastic roleplaying choice by Xavian’s player), as she and Xavian picked one of the giants to hunt. Xavian was hoping this would fail, and they could join the rest of the group at the southwest gate. But some incredibly high rolls of acrobatics and athletics meant they were able to shoot the grappling hook onto one of the giants, and climb a rope onto the 14-foot creature.
Things at the gate were messier. The frost giants there were trying to bash down the barriers and get into the city. Meanwhile, the characters were pelting them with ranged attacks and area-of-effect spells. Zedrick cast a Sleet Storm to slow the giants down, and Auberon’s Call Lightning spell was chipping away at their health. Cygnus was sending Eldritch Blasts from above, while the NPCs they controlled were using ranged attacks.
All in all, their defence was going incredibly well. Unfortunately, the giants got a lucky strike on Sir Baric Nylef. A devastating club to his head resulted in a critical hit — and his death. Then, just as the giants were able to bash open the gates, the characters killed their leader, Drufi.
The frost giants still had trouble actually entering the city. They kept slipping and falling from the Sleet Storm, and getting pelted by attacks as they tried to regain their position. Eventually they crawled through. The characters immediately strategies. Their NPC’s safety became top priority, and they ordered them to leave the battle.
Meanwhile, Xavian discovered Beldora’s bravery, but realized she could not survive a frost giant attack. But Xavian still knew that two rogues were better than one. The pair performed a ballet of distraction, scrambling the giant’s focus and allowing Xavian’s sneak attacks to shockingly take the giant down. Xavian cut the giant’s icy white beard to take as a trophy.
Inside the city, the characters protected the NPCs and threw everything they had at the two frost giants inside. After killing another one before it was able to do much damage, the second frost giant lost its nerve. Their leader was dead, and they were close. It turned and ran. The rest of the giants immediately followed. Some cried “Jarl Storvald will hear of this!” and “By the gods, we will return!”
What could have been an epic escape capped off by a heroic return, turned into a still fun, but nowhere near as cool battle.
But the fact remained that they had successfully defended the city of Bryn Shander. The characters had seen the fear the rampaging giants could cause, and knew they needed to help— but how? Fortunately, an answer seemed to surface with the NPCs they had just saved.
