APRIL 26-28, 2024
Bloomington, MN, USA

 

I’ll be attending DaveCon this weekend!

The convention celebrates “all the Daves who were there at the beginning,” including Dave Megarry (designer of the Dungeon board game), David Wesley (creator of Braunstein, the game that inspired Blackmoor), and, of course, Dave Arneson (creator of Blackmoor, co-creator of D&D, and the father of modern roleplaying games).

Friday, 11am — Random GM Tips
Sunday, 10am — Three Clue Rule
Sunday, 11am — Book Signing
Sunday, 12pm — Opening Your Game Table

I hope to have the chance to meet many of you there!

If you can’t make it to DaveCon this month, my upcoming appearance schedule includes:

Green Dragon Fest — Knoxville, TN — May 16-19, 2024
GM Academy @ Tower Games — Minneapolis, MN — May 25, 2024
Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo — Oaks, PA — January 16-19, 2025

See you soon!

UPDATE: Due to a scheduling conflict, Random GM Tips will be at 11am on Friday instead of 12pm!

DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 37B: An Uneasy City

At the gates of the Necropolis, Tee stopped and spoke with the Keepers of the Veil. She inquired after records of those buried in the Necropolis, hoping that they might indicate the location of Alchestrin’s ancient tomb. The knights didn’t keep records of that sort, but they suggested that one might inquire at the Administration Building in Oldtown.

At the end of Session 36, the PCs realized that what they thought was Alchestrin’s Tomb was actually a false tomb that had been constructed from scavenged sarsen stones that bore Alchestrin’s sigil.

This left them stymied. (Which was surprising to me: I once again thought it would be obvious that the stones must have been scavenged from somewhere nearby – particularly since they had been told Alchestrin’s Tomb was in this area – and therefore all they needed to do was look around the area a little more to locate the actual tomb. But they didn’t think to do that.)

They did, as you can see here, have the idea of asking the Keepers of the Veil – an order of knights who guard the borders of the Necropolis – to see if they would have a record of the tomb.

That makes logical sense, but in this case I knew from my notes that the Keepers didn’t have those records. (I did make a Knowledge check to see if one of the knights they spoke with would just coincidentally know the location of Alchestrin’s Tomb due to their experience with the Necropolis, but they failed the check.)

So at this point we have a fairly straightforward execution of the Spectrum of GM Fiat: I could just say, “No, the Keepers don’t have those records.” But you generally want to avoid simply saying “No” if at at all possible, which means that this is a perfect opportunity for a No, but…

In fact, it’s the perfect opportunity for a diegetic No, but… I know the Keepers don’t have those records, but that such records can be found in the Administration Building. I could just tell the players that (e.g., “Elestra, you’d know that such records would typically be kept in the Administration Building”), but in this case there’s no reason that the Keepers can’t know that. (It actually makes perfect sense: Although they don’t keep these records, it’s easy to imagine why those keeping watch over the undead and other dangers of the Necropolis would need to access them and, therefore, know where to find them.) So I can simply put the No, but… into the mouths of the Keeeprs and make it a natural part of the game world and the flow of play.

Ranthir spent the morning hours at the Administration Building, seeking records of Alchestrin’s Tomb.

Unfortunately, most of that time was wasted as Ranthir was shuffled fruitlessly from one ministry to another. He eventually found his way to the Ministry of Public Works and a relatively friendly older woman who showed him to what she thought “might be the proper room”. It was stacked high with moldering stacks of yellowing, unorganized parchment. In some ways, it was Ranthir’s perfect heaven… but it still left him stymied in his search for the Tomb.

Shortly thereafter, Tee caught up with him, assessed the situation, and made a quick circuit. Leaving a few greased palms in her wake, Tee was able to secure him assistance in sorting through the papers. This sped his task somewhat, but despite the help he was no closer to finding the Tomb by the time he had to leave.

When Ranthir actually goes to the Administration Building later in the session and tries to look up the records, however, I swapped off the Spectrum of GM Fiat and turned things over to the good ol’ fictional cleromancy of the mechanics…

… and Ranthir promptly failed his skill check.

(Tee showed up later and tried to help, but after some more bad rolling, it was still a failure.)

So here we go from No, but… to No.

Of course, some might ask why I had Ranthir roll for this vital information in the first place! If you roll for getting clues like this, then you risk the roll being a failure and the PCs not getting the clue! And, in fact, this horrible disaster is exactly what has happened!

I certainly could have stayed on the Spectrum of GM Fiat and ruled that Ranthir, having gotten to the right place, would automatically find the information he was looking for. But in this case, it’s not what my notes said, so that outcome really would have been a fudge. (Don’t fudge!) More importantly, though, I don’t actually care that Ranthir missed this check. It’s not my problem. It’s the players’ problem!

Because I know that:

• the PCs don’t actually NEED to get into Alchestrin’s Tomb in order to continue making progress in the Banewarrens (so it’s not a load-bearing aspect of the scenario);
• there’s other ways for them to find Alchestrin’s Tomb (remember the Three Clue Rule); and
• there’s lots of other leads the PCs can pursue (so the campaign isn’t going to stall here).

And so this is yet another situation where I can just be okay with failure being meaningful and seeing where it will take the campaign.

Campaign Journal: Session 37C – Running the Campaign: Patron Exhaustion
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE

SESSION 37B: AN UNEASY CITY

May 9th, 2009
The 20th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

Elestra hit the streets. Rehobath’s claiming of the “Holy Palace” had become common knowledge. It turned out that Rehobath owned legal title to the Palace, having quietly acquired the property rights six months ago. (“Sneaky bastard!” Tee said upon learning the news.)

But Elestra also learned that the Commissar wasn’t pleased with Rehobath’s maneuver, seeing it as an attempt by Rehobath to consolidate a non-religious base of power in Ptolus. Earlier that morning the warrant of arrest for Sir Kabel had been publicly annulled, a move that was commonly seen to be the Commissar sending a message to Rehobath.

While the news of Rehobath particularly caught Elestra’s attention, it wasn’t the story at the forefront of public thought: Open war had come to Tavern Row. The night before, frustrated Balacazar enforcers had encountered Killraven recruiters on the street. The confrontation had turned to blows and attracted some other low-level enforcers. In the end, nearly two dozen gang members engaged in open violence on Tavern Row before scattering in response to the City Watch.

ASKING QUESTIONS

Meanwhile, Tee had gone down to the Docks. Speaking with the Dockmaster’s staff she learned that the Freeport’s Sword was likely to dock in the early afternoon of the next day.

Ranthir spent the morning hours at the Administration Building, seeking records of Alchestrin’s Tomb.

Unfortunately, most of that time was wasted as Ranthir was shuffled fruitlessly from one ministry to another. He eventually found his way to the Ministry of Public Works and a relatively friendly older woman who showed him to what she thought “might be the proper room”. It was stacked high with moldering stacks of yellowing, unorganized parchment. In some ways, it was Ranthir’s perfect heaven… but it still left him stymied in his search for the Tomb.

Shortly thereafter, Tee caught up with him, assessed the situation, and made a quick circuit. Leaving a few greased palms in her wake, Tee was able to secure him assistance in sorting through the papers. This sped his task somewhat, but despite the help he was no closer to finding the Tomb by the time he had to leave.

THE FURTHER TROUBLES OF ILTUMAR

Agnarr had gone to the Bull and Bear with the intention of finding some armor for Seeaeti. But when he arrived he found Hirus looking pale and wearied behind the counter, with large black pools beneath his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” the barbarian asked.

“Master Agnarr!” Hirus cried. “It’s Iltumar!”

“Of course it is,” Agnarr said. “What happened?”

“He’s gone! Last night I found this note in his room.”

Thank you for everything you have done for me. I go now to live a new life with a new body. I’ll make you proud. I’ll make everyone proud.

—ILTUMAR

“I came up to the Ghostly Minstrel to see if I could find Sir Tor or Mistress Tee, but you weren’t there. Lavis was, though – that’s another lass that’s a friend of Iltumar’s. She promised to find him. And maybe she did. She sent word by messenger that she had tracked him to some warehouse in Oldtown. But I haven’t heard from her since. I don’t know what to do!”

“I’ll look into it,” Agnarr promised.

“Thank you! Thank you so much!”

FALSE FEARS IN WELCOMING EARS

Tor, meanwhile, had ridden up to the Holy Palace. The three-story tall walls were crafted from baroque white marble and topped with crimson-red shingles. Doors two-stories tall parted without touch to give him admittance into a wide, long entrance hall.

He sought audience with Rehobath and was quickly granted it, being ushered into a grand throne room of sorts. Although the throne itself was only of plain wood, its opulent surroundings spoke loudly to Tor’s eyes.

Rehobath looked up at him as he entered. “Sir Tor. It’s a pleasure to see you.”

Tor bowed and smiled. After congratulating Rehobath on his new abode, however, his face drew in seeming concern.

“I’m afraid I come with bad news.”

“Oh?” Rehobath said.

“Dominic is gone.”

“Dominic is… gone?”

“Yes,” Tor nodded. “He didn’t come down to join us for breakfast. When we went to his room, most of his things were gone. We don’t know where he is.”

Rehobath seemed completely baffled by the news. He questioned Tor in particular detail, but there was little more to tell (and Tor was pleased to find that he had gotten through the ordeal without ever telling an actual lie).

“I actually came to see if perhaps you had summoned him. Or if he had contacted you.”

“No,” Rehobath shook his head. “But perhaps he went to the Godskeep. You should speak with Sir Gemmell at once.”

Tor agreed and excused himself. Leaving the Holy Palace, he mounted Blue and rode straight to the Godskeep. There he found things in total disarray – knights were packing, rearranging, and generally discombobulated.

Sir Gemmell, it turned out, was less than pleased with Rehobath’s sudden (and unexpected) move to the Holy Palace. But he was faithfully gathering together the final elements of the honor guard that would serve him there. He was short on patience and seemed to care little for the whereabouts of Dominic. So Tor, after making sure that he should come to the Godskeep for his training the next day, took his leave.

TRUE REPORTS FOR UNHAPPY HEARERS

Tee had confessed to the others that she had spoken to the Commissar on the eve of Rehobath’s convocation and warned him of what was coming. For similar reasons, she felt it important that the Commissar be warned of Dominic’s denunciation of Rehobath.

Somewhat to Tee’s surprise, everyone quickly agreed that it was a good idea. So while Ranthir returned to the Administration Building (with little success) and Elestra went looking for the word on the street regarding Illadras (there wasn’t any), Tor, Agnarr, and Tee went to see the Commissar.

When they arrived at the Dalenguard, Agnarr volunteered to wait outside while the others went in to meet with him. After only the briefest of considerations, Tee and Tor agreed that was for the best.

The Commissar, looking up from various papers spread across his desk, greeted them with a small smile and a nod of his head.

After exchanging brief pleasantries, Tee got to the heart of the matter. “May we speak safely here?”

“Of course.”

At this, Tor nodded, reached up, and removed the red sash hanging from his shoulders.

The Commissar became suddenly solemn. “I..  see.”

“We’re here to talk about Rehobath,” Tee said.

“So I would assume,” the Commissar said.

Having made their loyalties as clear to the Commissar as possible, Tor and Tee quickly went over the details of Sir Kabel’s plan. The Commissar said he had been aware of the approach of the new Silver Fatar from Seyrun, but he was surprised to learn that Dominic planned to denounce Rehobath.

“I don’t think Dominic has ever supported Rehobath,” Tee said. “He had no idea what was going to happen at the convocation.”

“Sir Kabel’s hope – our hope – is that, once the Silver Fatar arrives, this matter can be decisively resolved.”

“I would frown upon anyone seeking to take the law into their own hands,” the Commissar said. “We have had enough bloodshed in the streets of Ptolus of late.”

“Sir Kabel believes that – once the Silver Fatar arrives – many of those loyal to Rehobath will… see the error of their ways,” Tor said. “If Sir Kabel’s strength is large enough, I think bloodshed can be avoided.”

“Are you aware that Rehobath is hiring mercenaries?” the Commissar asked pointedly.

“Mercenaries?” Tee asked.

“And barracking them in the ‘Holy Palace’,” he said. At this revelation the room filled with silence. The Commissar let it rest there for a moment before continuing. “I want no disturbance of the peace. That, above all, is my duty.”

When they left the Commissar’s office, they found Agnarr dicing with the two guards who were supposed to be on duty outside. Although their meeting had been short, Agnarr had already managed to lose 23 gold pieces. He was in good spirits about it, though. He was beginning to truly enjoy the riches they were earning (or, at least, finding) here in Ptolus.

As they were moving off, however, Tee’s sharp ears caught the guards chatting amiably about what to do with their winnings that evening.

“With this run of luck we should head to the White House.”

“I dunno. There aren’t any dumb barbarians at the White House.”

Running the Campaign: No, But… – Campaign Journal: Session 37C
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

Go to Table of Contents

In addition to the Three Cities attacks in Phase 2 of Storm King’s Thunder, the pointcrawl in Phase 3 of the campaign is filled with a plethora of giant attacks, raids, and other activity. The map above shows the locations of these encounters, color coded by the giant faction involved.

• Cloud Giants: Yellow
• Fire Giants: Red
• Frost Giants: Blue
• Hill Giants: Orange
• Stone Giants: Green

Unlike the other giant factions, the Storm Giants of Maelstrom do not have keyed encounters and, therefore, do not appear on this map. (However, see Part 4C of the remix for suggestions of how such raids and other activity could be added to the campaign.)

The map below uses the locations of the giant encounters to roughly map out spheres of influence for the various giant factions:

The areas indicated are, of course, just rough approximations, but they should prove useful when generating random giant encounters and the like. The intersection between the hill giants, fire giants, and cloud giants in the Evermoors and Dessarin Valley also immediately leaps out as potentially significant, suggesting a dynamic and unstable situation which could easily evolve over time in your campaign. (Or, perhaps, be taken advantage of by your PCs.)

A few more quick notes:

Shining White. The storm giants encountered here (SKT, p. 107) are not explicitly associated with Deadstone Cleft. I’ve included the encounter here for completeness, but (a) given how far Shining White is from any another stone giant activity and (b) the fact that there’s no coherent reason for Deadstone Cleft giants to be here, it’s probably safe to assume that these are unrelated stone giants.

You might actually consider swapping these stone giants out with cloud giants from Lyn Armaal (seeking the cache of dragon  magic) or fire giants from Ironslag (who might believe a fragment of the Vonindrod is located here).

Fire Giants. Duke Zalto has sent out a number of farflung expeditions for various purposes, most notably seeking the pieces of the Vonindrod. For the purposes of mapping out their area of influence, I’ve chosen to not include their drow agents in Gauntlgrym, but you could just as easily conclude that the fire giants encountered in Triboar, Stone Bridge, and even those passing through Mornbryn’s Shield on the western side of the Evermoors are similarly small expeditions and not indicative of wider activity.

However, it’s probably more interesting for Duke Zalto to actually be pushing an expansion in this direction. (Particularly because, as noted, it brings him into conflict with Lyn Armaal and Grudd Haug.)

Cloud Giants. There are a large number of cloud giant encounters in Storm King’s Thunder which are NOT associated with Lyn Armaal. This includes the cloud giants who attack Nightstone at the beginning of the campaign (p. 20), as well as Zephyros (p. 32), Count Nimbolo’s cartographers in Waterdeep (p. 113), and the cloud giant youths in Secomber (p. 107). These encounters are not shown on the map.

In fact, unlike the other giant factions, there are no encounters associated with the cloud giants of Lyn Armaal or Sansuri’s schemes. Since Sansuri is not actively preying on the countryside, this might potentially make her a more natural ally for the endgame of the campaign (see Part 5 of the remix)… except for the whole “torturing good dragons” thing.

Remember that Lyn Armaal’s location above the Evermoors, although it’s “default” position (SKT, p. 187), can easily change. It is, after all, a flying fortress.

Go to Storm King’s Remix

Additional versions and high-resolution copies of these maps, as well as a layered Photoshop file you can use to customize your own, are available to Patrons of the Alexandrian.

Go to Table of Contents

The War of the Giants has begun!

Whether that’s a war against the giants, the war the giants are fighting against each other, or some form of draconic crusade will depend on how your campaign goes. But the core concept is that the campaign has escalated beyond dungeons crawls and simple raids: The PCs are no longer a simple fellowship, but are part of an alliance — likely an alliance they have helped forged themselves! — capable of resolving an international conflict.

There are several ways you can handle this, possibly all at the same time.

TRUE WAR

Armies have been gathered and mass combat is the order of the day!

A full-scale military operation is a thrilling option to consider, but vastly exceeds the resources available to us in Storm King’s Thunder. Not only are the giants and other faction threats scaled to tactical combat with a group of five PCs (not armies marching across the Sword Coast), but we also don’t have the mechanical support or scenario structures for running a war campaign in D&D 5^th Edition.

If you want to go big, therefore, you’re going to have to start basically from scratch and it’ll take a lot of work to pull it off. I can suggest a couple of options you might want to consider, however.

Option #1: Handle the macro-strategic elements of the war — the size of the armies, their movements, etc. — in a more or less ad hoc fashion. For the individual battles, adapt the fray system from Shadow of the Dragon Queen to put the PCs on the battlefield and in the thick of things.

The major shortcoming of the fray system is that the PCs’ actions don’t truly have an impact on the outcome of the battle. The old D&D 3^rd Edition module Red Hand of Doom used a similar system, but also had the PCs’ actions matter more in the grand course of things. You may find it useful to draw some inspiration from that.

Option #2: Implement a full-fledged system for war. MCDM’s Kingdoms & Warfare might be a good place to start, although its primary focus may not make it a perfect fit for what your Storm King’s Thunder campaign needs. Another project with Matt Colville as one of the lead developers you may find useful here is Fields of Blood: The Book of War, another 3^rd Edition-era supplement.

ALLIED ASSAULTS

Instead of full-scale war, we can evoke a similar thematic scope of allies gathering to fight titanic struggles while still keeping within a typical D&D-style tactical scale (i.e., individual combatants on a manageable tabletop battlefield). They key escalator here — what will make these fights feel larger-than-life and bigger than a typical D&D combat encounter — is simply the allies themselves: It won’t just be the PCs vs. the bad guys; it will be the PCs + their allies vs. a much larger and/or more  dangerous force of bad guys.

Storm King’s Thunder already includes an example of what these allied assaults might look like: In Chapter 12, a combined strike force of PCs and storm giants head to Iymrith’s lair for a gigantic showdown with the blue wyrm!

Whether these allied assaults are targeting giant strongholds or draconic lairs (or both) in your campaign’s final act, they’ll follow a similar structure:

1. The PCs will hit up their allies.
2. Their allies will provide a strike force.
3. The players will run both their PCs and their other members of their strike force.

Giving each player one additional character to play during the assault is probably ideal, and in practice I’d suggest that two additional characters per player is probably the maximum you’d want them to be juggling simultaneously. Fortunately, this is more than enough for the scale of the confrontation to feel epic in scope.

On the other side of the battlefield, if the PCs line up a bunch of allied support and then siege the giant strongholds, the problem you’ll immediately run into is that these strongholds were balanced on the assumption that the PCs — and only the PCs! — would be attacking them. If the PCs attack with a much larger and more powerful force, they’ll likely just roll over the opposition.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing for the first allied assault: It will be like a reward for the hard work the PCs have put into bringing that allied force together. But if the end of the campaign turns into a series of trivial mop-up actions, that likely won’t feel very satisfying.

Fortunately, there are a few options you can use here.

Reinforcements: Simply add more giants to the strongholds. Whether they’re mustering for their own military actions or bolstering their defenses in response to the PCs’ assaults, the giant lords are simply calling more giants home to defend their strongholds.

Allies vs. Allies: Along similar lines, if the PCs are forging alliances to take down the giants, it will likely force the giants into new alliances with each other. For example, the fire giants of Ironslag and the cloud giants of Lyn Armaal might join forces in a defensive pact. (This will also reduce the number of stronghold assaults you need to play out, which may be useful if your group is finding “fight yet another giant stronghold monotonous”.)

Alternatively, you can use the concept of enemy alliances to evoke “offscreen” giant factions — e.g., the cloud giants of Lyn Armaal ally with the cloud giant wizard who stole the Nightstone. This allows you to simply increase the number of giants (or their small-folk allies) present, in a fashion similar to reinforcements, while simultaneously raising the stakes and making the scale of the giant crisis seem vast.

Split the Assault. If the players adopt — or can be encouraged to adopt — a battle plan in which the strike teams split up and each assault a stronghold from a different direction, you may not need to rebalance the encounters at all. The encounters will be split across multiple groups, but since each group will have roughly the same strength as the PCs, each encounter will remain a balanced and challenging fight.

These split assault plans may also make it easier for the players to juggle multiple characters, since the strike teams can be arranged in such a way that each player has one character in each team.

In terms of actually running these encounters, I recommend checking out Spectacular Sidekicks for techniques to use while running multiple characters simultaneously. Remember that the Three Cities Proxies will have also given your group some basic training in running these types of encounters.

On your side of the screen, these assaults will run best if you can run them dynamically, having the defenders actively respond and adapt to the actions of the PCs and their allies. Don’t be afraid of letting this collapse towards a dramatic final stand in which the various assault teams join up for one final, epic assault on the final defenders. (See “Dynamic Encounter Design” in So You Want To Be a Game Master, p. 186.)

Tip: On a wider scale, you might also want to consider how, why, and when the PCs enemies — whether giants, dragons, or other factions — might choose to counterattack, forcing the PCs into a defensive scenario for a change of pace.

SPECIAL OPS

Along similar lines, you can evoke a larger battle or military campaign, but rather than focusing the gameplay on that military campaign, you can instead put the focus on the PCs performing essential special ops missions:

• Disabling supply lines.
• Assassinating a giant leader.
• Sneaking into a besieged fortress to lower the gate.
• Breaking through enemy lines to deliver a vital message or object.

And so forth. Instead of Aragorn leading the Army of the Dead at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, the PCs are taking the role of Frodo and Sam sneaking into Mordor with the Ring.

The exact nature of these special ops will depend a lot on exactly how your campaign’s endgame is playing out, but I would certainly look for opportunities that leverage the existing resources in Storm King’s Thunder — e.g., the giant stronghold maps and keys. You’ll likely also discover that it’s easiest to frame and hook these special ops missions if the PCs are taking orders from someone else (who can give the a mission brief). That may be less desirable, of course, then having the players feel like they’re in the driver’s seat.

MIXED METHODS

In practice, none of these techniques need to be all-or-nothing. PCs who have conceived, coordinated, and executed an allied assault may report back and get assigned to a special ops, only to receive a promotion and lead the troops during a full-fledged wargame finale.

Or, alternatively, the players might be running a full-scale war, only to conclude — like Aragorn parting ways with King Theoden to recruit the Army of the Dead — that there’s a special op that requires their attention.

Or perhaps while some are holding back the armies of the fire giants, the PCs will need to lead allied assaults on dragon lairs in order to complete a draconic crusade and seal the deal for a new Ordning.

CONCLUSION

The common theme here, of course, is that the true conclusion of Storm King’s Thunder is uncharted territory: Neither I nor you nor your players will truly know the fate of Faerun until that fate is forged at your table.

With the right tools and techniques in your pocket, though, you should be able to confidently follow your players’ lead, actively play the huge cast of characters and factions at your disposal, and discover that thrilling tale together.

ADDENDUMS
Addendum: Kraken Society
Addendum: Faction Reference
Addendum: Three Cities Proxies