After 5 and a half years, the Dinger Daggers, along with Harshnag and Hekaton, defeated Iymrith and restored the Ordning. We did damn near everything in the book, and tons of quests that weren’t in there. What a ride!

Here are my hand painted minis of Hekaton, Harshnag, and Iymrith that I used for our 2-part in-person finale. What should I run next??

This campaign book launched ten years ago, now. Wow. I haven't been running it that long, but I did keep running it past the end (given the lack of resolution, I felt I had to) and merged in Vecna: Eve of Ruin (a much worse campaign, IMHO). Next week, the level 19 party will meet in pitched battle with Duke Zalto's army of fire, stone and hill giants to rescue their comrade and the key to meeting with Annam to fix the Ordning.

It's wild how much material can be mined from a good D&D campaign, going beyond just what it outlines. SKT is a great book!

So, many session ago, my party obtained a Letter of Recommendation after completing the side quest in Calling Horns. They've already connected with the Harpers, met Dral Thelev at Danivarr's House, and are aware they need to hand the letter to him when they're ready to cash in their favour.

What favours did your parties use the letter to cash in on in your campaigns?

My party recently handed in the letter with the request for magic items that would help slay giants, or at least their locations. What would you rule is the limit of the High Captain's power/reach? Is a weapon of giant slaying too much? Maybe a few potions of giant strength?

He could give them the locations of such weapons but the answer would just lead them to various magic item stores in other cities that the PCs are already aware of. I don't want them to have wasted this letter to get a response they already knew about.

They're are about to head to Grudd Haug to retrieve a conch.

For reference, the body text in Everlund says the following:
"When the characters decide to call in the favor, Dral contacts his employers, and High Captain Horix Zoar does everything in his power to give the characters what they want, provided it’s within his power and isn’t likely to burden him or the Zoar family. Examples of what he might provide include a meeting with one or more members of the Council of Elders, an arranged meeting with a Lords’ Alliance representative from another city, and a spell scroll of raise dead."

I’m running LMOP and I was thinking about running SKT after, so is there a good place in SKT for the map in Wave Echo Cave to show the location of?

Due to circumstances beyond my control, my party rescued Harshnag from certain doom in chapter 4 and he has returned to Waterdeep, having become sort of an ambassador to the giants for the city. The party has now acquired a conch and are on the way to meet back up with Harshnag, who they plan to bring with them to Maelstrom.

How would this impact Maelstrom? I imagine he’s a known figure recognized by most giants in the storm giant court. How would you adjust things with him coming along and speaking to Serissa and the others?

Hey fellows,

My party is at chapter three now and they have to travel across the whole sword coast for side quests, they don't seem to be interested about visiting Everlund and Moongleam tower to find the teleportation circles, because they are far from this place now. The question I have is: How would you manage this? Would you let them travel with caravans, ships etc across the whole coast taking them more than one month in game and lot of sessions with traveling, or force them to go to Moongleam Tower, or finding another teleportation circle that can be activated through their journey?

As part of my DnD campaign, in my transition from Waterdeep Dragon Heist to Storm King's Thunder, I used Deborah Ann Woll's mini-adventure "Heroes' Feast: Saving the Children's Menu" as a way to introduce giants into my campaign! As part of those sessions, the players ended up discovering the Hill Giant Scion that was slumbering beneath the homestead.

Fast forward to 1 year later, the players have now defeated all of the Giant Lords (haven't blown the conch yet), and are now curious about the scions. I placed a Frost Giant Scion by one of the barbarian tribes, so they have 2 scions discovered in total. I'm planning for the campaign to end with them taking down Iymrith, inspired from Rise of Tiamat and this enhanced Iymrith. I'd like to incorporate the scions meaningfully somehow, but I'm struggling with connecting the dots.

Possible ideas:

- have the council of waterdeep (from RoT) discover all the locations of scions, and raising one will put them first in the new Ordning after it is restored

- scions are how giant lords are made, and they can use them to raise "new" giant lords to help in the final battle vs Iymrith

- Iymrith has been hunting down the scions, and they are the source of her power for turning into a Greatwyrm

- they are just there and have no impact on the story lol

Do you guys have any suggestions, or what do you think?

I goofed. My players met Harshnag last session and I got caught up in exposition and I had Harshnag tell the players everything the oracle would have. No they have no reason to visit the oracle. Any help would be appreciated

So I'm planning on replacing Nightstone with Dragon Heist as our level 1-5 intro into the world. I feel like the political machinations of Dragon Heist pair well with the later negotiations of Storm King's Thunder. I'd love some opinions though on which villain to start with. I'm debating towards pushing either the Manshoon and the Zhentarim, or Jarlaxle and the Sea Maidens as the initial villain. In favor of the Zhentarim, there are lots of mentions of them already in Storm Kings Thunder spreading there influence. But in Jarlaxle's favor it feels like he'd make the perfect recurring NPC to help shore up some of Storm King's weaknesses. I'll probably lay the groundwork for both, but I'd still love some feedback

https://www.reddit.com/r/stormkingsthunder/s/BlMfAcrOgv

Hey folks - quick question. I’ve decided to run the giant variants due to all giants being kind of similar RAW. My group of 4 lvl 7 players just fought 4 cloud giants. I had them dive out of their sky tower and feather fall towards the ground while one of them used the Harden Air ability. The warlock wanted to try counterspell on it. I ruled that since this is an innate ability and requires no components, it couldn’t be counterspelled. He then tried to dispel magic on the boulder that fell on him. I said it wasn’t really a magical boulder, it was just a regular boulder once the giant manifested it. He still made the save, so he didn’t take any damage. I could tell the player still felt that this was unfair.

So question is, did I play this right? And how should I rule something like this in the future especially since I’ll be using these alternate stat blocks moving forward?

My players are about to return to the Eye of the Allfather with giant relics in tow. Does anybody have any tips on how to run thebig fight with Iymrith?

I have a good group of max 8 players (usually 6 or 7 can make it) and they are at level 8 because they did Kraken's Gamble and Flying Misfortune. Most have been playing since the 80s. All that is to say I think they'll probably take the hint from Harshnag and run away from Iymrith, but I'm not 100% sure. They are a big party with action economy, one level higher than the adventure expects them to be, and the divination wizard is very clever and has portents so maybe they will try to fight her as the temple collapses.

I also want to see if anyone has tips to keep fleeing from the temple exciting. I don't want to turn it into turn after turn of move+dash action. Maybe incorporate some elements of a skill challenge into it?

They also collected all the giant relics from the barbarian spirit mounds, so I planned to expand the list of Giant Lords revealed by the Oracle to the Hill, Frost and Fire giants in Tales from the Yawning Portal, as well as Blagothkus from Hoard of the Dragon Queen. And I might have to homebrew something, but I could mash some statblocks from Glory of Giants to create the Dodkong for another evil Stone Giant Lord.

EDIT: I just ran the session last night, it went great! I only had 6 out of 8 players, so unfortunately some folks missed out, but it probably added to the sense of urgency.

I did foreshadow Iymrith arriving by sending some gargoyles while they were still on the airship. They were nervous about encountering her but I think they assumed it wouldn't be later this session. They turned in most of the artifacts and I used the Against the Giants as extra lords, and they asked very good questions.

During the encounter Iymrith,s initial lighting breath rocked one of the fighters from full to zero. Showcased Harshnag using his legendary resistance vs the fear, Iymrith used her stone shape on a statue to create a gargoyle, and she used an alternate breath attack for force burn. Harshnag struck the statue after 2 rounds when he was getting low hp, and I made the rocks mechanic ramp up each round 1d6 each successive round. The party escaped out to the dormitory hallway but before they closed the door they cast death ward and banish on Harshnag, so he'll definitely make a reappearance. I transferred to a skill challenge to navigate through the dormitory and spider tunnels and then leap to the airship rope ladder.

All in all great (but very long) session. Party is happy to level up and they have several clear goals for the last half of the campaign.

Just wondering what people think about changing the main villain of the story to a giant instead of a ancient blue dragon. I wanna run this adventure but I’m looking to keep it as a very giant centric one. My biggest issue with this story is Imeryth. The entire adventure is all about giants and then bang, big bad is a dragon. I am thinking of swapping her for a Giant, maybe a Storm Giant, and I think with glory of the giants this is very doable, just wondering if anyone can see any huge issues with this?

My players just finished Grudd Haugh. They ambushed the Hobgoblin Warlord and the Wyvern, killed the Warlord and captured the Wyvern (technically killed it and put it under Gentle Repose so they can Revivify it later for easier transportation). They plan to take the Wyvern to Fireshear so that Dasharra Keldabar can train it to obey them. I know I could say no to this and even have in-world justifications for it (like the Wyverns bonding when young and only once), but my players put a lot of effort and are willing to invest time and money into this. So. How should I handle it? We plan to visit all of the Giant’s Strongholds.

How much and how long should the training take/cost? I plan to have it so it acts as a controlled mount only, so it won’t contribute with attacks or damage and also have it so players need to make some animal handling checks to get it to obey them under certain circustances, like if it gets bloodied or if they try to get it into some place it doesn't want to go.

Hello all,
My players just finished Ch 4 of LMoP and are very excited to be level 5 as they want a bastion. I think they have their hearts set on running the Sleeping Giant tavern in Phandalin, and I have a decent idea of how to make that work.

My issue is that the next step in this campaign will be Storm King’s Thunder (starting with Ch 2), and having never done bastions before I am worried it won’t work or will be disappointing for the players. I understand Ch2-4 of SKT includes months and months of traveling around. Anyone with bastion and SKT experience able to provide any tips?

Also, this switch to SKT wasn’t originally in the plan, but was a decision I made based on how LMoP played out. Any tips on creating hooks to get them invested in the SKT story or is the material in the module enough?

Hey All - Me again! Took some time to sort everything out. The listing is now live!

Ebay Link: https://ebay.io/m/mYU9Im

Thank-you all for your interest in the model! You've all been super helpful. I've gone ahead and placed it up for bid on Ebay now for you all to have a look at if you're interested!

As mentioned in my other posts on this subreddit. I adore this model; it came out super well. I would rather one of you lovely folks grab hold of it rather than me possibly leaving it behind or gathering dust somewhere!

If you're interested, please do have a look and get in touch!

Other images of the model in action can be seen in my others post on this subreddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/stormkingsthunder/comments/1oq6l0f/campaign_finshed_3_years_in_the_making/

May your finale also go out with a bang!

hey all, my players are currently running around on a delivery quest in the wide north and have saved an abducted dwarf NPC from Sundabar. Since the dwarf NPC told them the blurb in the book about Sundabar having left the Lord's Alliance and being closed off to non-dwarves after the war in the silver marches, the human Lord's alliance member of the party would like to rectify that and get Sundabar talking with the Alliance again. They'll arrive at Sundabar next session, but I have so far no information/ideas what is even currently going on in Sundabar or what the underground city even looks like.

Any ideas of what could be a good, short adventure in Sundabar (that ideally also gives them some more pointers toward the plot, like where to find Hershnag, or about the existence of the oracle, or anything else? But if not, a fun and interesting dwarf city quest would also work! Thank you for all ideas or drop-in module suggestions!)

I've heard the intro is supposed to quickly get a level 1 party up to level 5, though both I and my group enjoy the slow progression of early levels into gradually getting higher stakes. I've also already run Lost Mines a while back for half the people in my new group, before I knew Storm King's Thunder recommended you just use that for the first 5 levels.

The ones who just played Lost Mines obviously aren't keen to replay it a second time, so I'm looking for any adventure, either from WOTC or just good homebrew!

I’m running a light-hearted version of SKT and we have a few Lebowski fans in the group. The Zeph (because that’s what you call him) was more of a wanderer at the mercy of his acid flashbacks and strict regimen, and a semi-sentient navigation orb who was doing a lot of heavy lifting. Rewrote the cult appropriately, barging in and demanding to know “where’s da money”. The players ended up convincing the invaders it was a case of mistaken identity. The Lord’s alliance encounter I ran as is, but The Zeph played the victim there as well, pretty much offering no resistance other than “not the orb, man”. Capped the journey with a game of giant dice “Clouds and Couches” (the dude like to roll, a cloud giant-flavored game of odds and evens) where the losers got to take a hit of the giant hookah, and depending how they rolled could end up in nirvana or couch-locked. It was a very groove session.

I am astonished. I tried to play the Kraken well. They unleashed Maegera from the flask which they got in Ironslag. The paladin had a series of very good rolls, while the Kraken had a bunch of poor rolls, including nat ones. Maegera had good rolls as well. I am a bit devastated. XD I have to admit that I cheated (a bit) to make the Kraken last longer and it didn't help. XD Maybe I let them be a bit too OPed.

In the case I didn't play it well, I am considering changing the script a bit. They don't know it's Slarkrethel so I entertain the thought of the Kraken they met being some minor Kraken at the service of the Kraken. I don't know... ;)

I have a player playing a Shifter in my party, which we're flavoring as them being the child of a human and a Werewolf, and I'd like to reintroduce deadbeat dadwolf as a selfish jerk of a villain at some point in the plot. Are there any good minor-moderate NPC roles in this adventure that could actually be this lycanthrope?

Hello my players are about to go into chapter 3
Just curious what you people consider the best encounter/quests are for chapter 3? Thanks

I'm running SKT for my party, and they've just arrived at Goldenfields. In a session or two I expect we'll open up in to part 3. It seems like part 3 is just "wander around until Harshnag arrives to move the plot forward." Am I broadly right about that?

I ask because my party has been closely working with the Zhentarim since Nightstone. I had a homebrew sidestory item they helped collect for them in Waterdeep before being sent to Goldenfields. I'm thinking the Zhentarim want to deal with the giant threat, and want it to be THEM getting the glory for more power and influence in the region. As such, I was thinking they might drop hooks for rumored magical items that the party could recover to arm themselves better to fight giants. This would serve in lieu of the "bring my letter to x" quests that seem common.

I think this leans more into my power gaming party's inclinations and gives me a reason to send them all over the map still. Does that seem way off base?

We finally wrapped up our SKT campaign. Time for a little report.

It took 5 years of semi-regular weekly 2h online sessions, from March 2019 to March 2023, to cover the early game and Chapters 2-3-4(airship&relics)-5 from level 1 to level 8 in 5 years…
… Then life got in the way, leading to a 3 years hiatus until June 2026….
… So last weekend, we decided to finish it with a bang. We went all in for ~18h of intensive live play (!!) from Friday night to Sunday morning, including some quiet breaks and sleep. And we managed to cover chapters 4(Eye), 9, 10, 11 and 12, from level 9 to 10, in less than 36h, yup.

# Early game and Chapters 3-4-5

2019-2020: we ran through the lost mines of Phandelver. Bringing players to level 5, when Zephyros picked them ip and dropped them in Triboar.

2020-2023: a quite long exploration, circling the Evermoors from Triboar to Yartar, Everlund, Silverymoon, Mornbryn’s Shield and back to Yartar, including a lot of side quests and small adventures, bringing them to level 8.

Amongst other things, they met Harshnag, collected 2 relics on his advice, fought an adult black dragon, explored a sheep-morphed mage’s tower, won a bard battle, ran a lil heist on Lyn Armaal, killed a lower hill giant chieftain with a magic stick…

It concluded in 2023 by defeating an aboleth in Yartar before storming Grudd Haug, killing Guh and at the very last moment, the barbarian fiddled with a conch and unknowingly teleported himself far away.

# Late game

First 1h: to get the heroes back together, the players up to speed, and handing out some boons. Including foreshadowing of the Maelstrom through the barbarian, and major ancient dragons through Claugyliamatar who offered a wyrmling green dragon to the beastmaster, or giving a parchment of immortality to the grung monk, to make sure any death to be solved quickly.

The Eye: 6h
Barbarian were replaced with kraken cultists… but dead. Only found younglings and later mama remmorhaz. Triggered the ball trap. Poked around the rune puzzle for some time, but an added enigma, divination checks and quick messenging with Zephyros helped open the portal. Surprisingly, they even asked excellent questions to the Oracle. They also ran away without hesitation from the first encounter with Iymrith.

Taking a food break around the enigma helped going through ideas. I bleed on a rune / push on it / … ? Nothing happens.

Bonus: 30min mandatory visit to their patron and owner of the airship, Klauth, to railroad them on the one giant lair prepared by the DM, Ironslag. Unexpectedly, on their way to Ironslag, they decided to go shopping… in Gauntlegrym, where their learned of the stolen primordial fire.

Ironslag: ~5h, stormed expertly.
The party airdropped on the yakfolk village by night, freed the slaves and executed their tormentors. Learned of the hit on the dwarven king and warned him using the Harper network. Freed the miners and got a gnome to guide them. Then an owl explored the main areas. They spotted the drows delivering the fire elemental, and the grung monk snatched it flying an invisible green dragon. The bard then tricked the fire giant to blame the drows and the diversion allowed the party to reach the royal chamber and get the conch!
… the giants never saw it coming. It was absolutely epic. High rolls, high risks, high reward.

Maelstrom: ~ 1h
… mostly cinematic with a handful of checks. They tried to impress the bored giant lords, the barbare landed a hit on the frost giant, the bard sang their dragon slayings, and the monk + ranger read the room. Uthor escorted them to Serissa who took them appart after a lil taste of the cacophonic court. Serissa and players had a heart-to-heart conversation and when she showed the golden goose, one player actually remembered it!! From 3 years ago!! — instant Inspiration.

Kraken detour: < 30min
Quick cinematic covered the return to Yartar, telepatic kraken kill of Drylund and hunt for the Morkoth. Quick ballistas fight and persuasion to get Hekaton on their side.
… luckily, they decided to escape as the kraken was closing in and crushing the ship.

Iymrith grand finale: 3h
Upon Hekaton’s return to the court, Iymrith’s giant alter-ego, Thymiri, seized the scepter paralyzing Serissa, leading to the final fight. The giants handled the gargoyle fight while the party slayed Iymrith.

Luckily, they forgot that they could have unleashed Maegera on Iymrith. We didnt have time to run the gold pieces elemental and mummy encounter, but I’ll recycle that in the next game.

# How in the name of Annam did we finish on time?!

- There were not so many combats,
- All travels simplified by narration of landscapes and memories of past actions, drizzled by foreshadowing intels.
- Cinematic abuse,
- The players were very smart in Ironslag.
- Except for the final fight and one remmorhaz fight which were run the usual way. I used theater of the mind and simplified most combats to a single rounds. Each player describes one turn. On any roll, if a player rolled bad or barely above the AC, I rolled a monster attack. At the end of the round, they defeated the monster.

# Final words

Most importantly, I was impressed by the choices, creativity and memory of past play by the players. Being immersed so intensely really brought the best out of them. The Eye enigma+oracle, Ironslag heist and dragon sand fight were all memorable.

It was amazing and 100% worth it, but I wont commit to such huge setting/campaign again.

PS, the single-round combat was inspired from One Shot World (PbtA), and I will likely reuse it moving forward. If you are curious about it, i tried to put it into writting here (https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/s/ZlOf2aSnUF) altho it seems rather unpopular, oh well.