SESSION 26A: TOR’S TRAINING

August 24th, 2008
The 13th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

After several mournful minutes in which little was said, they quickly decided that someone needed to return to the surface and notify House Erthuo of the death of Faeliel and the others.

Dominic and Ranthir took that heavy task on themselves. Tor left with them, needing to keep an appointment later in the morning.

The walk back to the surface took a little more than twenty minutes. Then they took carriages in opposite directions: Tor back towards Midtown; Ranthir and Dominic towards the Nobles’ Quarter.

When Ranthir and Dominic arrived at the estate of House Erthuo, they still weren’t sure what they were going to stay. Clambering out of the carriage they approached the two guards on duty at the gate.

“What’s your business here?” The guard had an edgy suspicion in his voice. It wasn’t until that moment that they realized what a dismal sight they must present – dusty and bloody from their delving.

“We bring news for Cordelia Erthuo.”

“News of what?”

“Of Erthuo workers who were retrieving an orrery. She’ll know what we mean.”

The guard nodded to his comrade, who left through the gate. They stood in uneasy silence for several minutes before Cordelia came rushing up.

MEANWHILE…

Tee, Agnarr, and Elestra had remained behind in the bloodwight complex to watch over the bodies.

Agnarr and Tee took the time to go back to the hall where the ghulworg had stacked the more cumbersome treasures from the Laboratory of the Beast, confirming that nothing had been taken by Ribok or the other servants of the Surgeon in the Shadows. Nothing was missing, although it was clear that the items had been rifled through.

The bluesteel door had been smashed open, proving that they were not completely impassable. But in the process, the door had also been rendered useless. There was nothing preventing the Surgeon’s men – or other intruders – from returning to these tunnels. So Tee made the decision to gather up the few remaining items of taint and chaositech from the obsidian temple, intending to take them to the safety of the facility Aoska had mentioned to them on the 12^th. They also took the time to strip the adamantine from the ghulworg’s skeleton, stacking it with the other items in the hall.

A little over forty minutes had passed by the time they returned to where Elestra had been waiting. As they were walking up, Elestra suddenly heard footsteps approaching from the direction of Greyson House.

It was still much too soon for Ranthir or Dominic to be returning, so they quickly moved into defensive positions: Tee kept a watchful eye focused in the opposite direction, while Elestra, Agnarr, and Seeaeti flanked the passage from which the footsteps were approaching.

“Do you want to send your dog down to the stuff we gathered?” Elestra asked. “You know, to guard it?”

Agnarr looked flatly at her. “No. I don’t.”

And then they fell silent, awaiting the approach of whoever – or whatever – was coming…

… they were House Erthuo’s men. Six of them, dressed in the livery of the house mercenaries.

MEANWHILE AT HOUSE ERTHUO…

Cordelia came rushing up. “Master Ranthir! Master Dominic! You’ve come from Greyson House?”

They nodded. “Yes,” Ranthir said.

Cordelia couldn’t help noticing their melancholy. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m afraid… Your men are dead.”

Cordelia gasped. “All of them? What happened? Even the guards I just sent?”

“Yes— Wait… the guards you just sent?”

After several moments of confusion, they quickly realized that they must have crossed paths with the House Erthuo guards. Cordelia had sent them after Faeliel failed to report in.

“Oh dear,” Ranthir said. “I hope nothing unfortunate happens.”

Cordelia asked them to return to the orrery site and help with the recovery of the dead bodies so that they could be given proper rites.

“Of course.”

MEANWHILE AT THE ORRERY SITE…

“What happened here?” The House Erthuo mercenaries, taking in the sight of their dead housemates, were clearly suspicious – if not outright hostile.

Agnarr – his sword still raised above his head – opened his mouth to respond, but Tee quickly stepped forward. “They were killed by a man named Ribok who worked for the Surgeon in the Shadows.”

“Who?”

“He works for the Balacazars.”

They clearly recognized that name. “Why would they want to kill scholars?”

“They were just innocent bystanders,” Tee said.

“We think they were looking for chaositech!” Elestra blurted.

“Back that way,” Tee said. “Beyond a bluesteel door. That’s where we met them.”

“And who are you? What are you doing down here?”

“My name’s Tee,” she said. “This is Agnarr and Elestra. We were the ones who sold the location of the orrery to Cordelia.”

At that, the Erthuo mercenaries finally relaxed and lowered their weapons. Agnarr followed suit.

“What happened to the murderers?”

“We killed most of them,” Agnarr said.

“Except Ribok,” Tee said. “He escaped.”

The Erthuo mercenary grimaced. “Not for long, if I have anything to say about it.”

The three companions helped the Erthuo men gather up the bodies. Ranthir and Dominic arrived during this morbid work. It wasn’t long before the dead were being carried up the passage towards Greyson House.

TOR’S TRAINING

Instead of taking his carriage into Midtown, Tor had it turn aside on Golden Elm Way and pass into the Temple District. When he arrived at the Cathedral, he quickly headed to Sir Kabel’s office.

After a warm and cheerful greeting, Sir Kabel took him back across the Cathedral’s courtyard and up the Godswalk towards the Godskeep.

 “The Godskeep serves as the headquarters and training facilities for the Order of the Dawn,” Kabel explained. “In truth, it is a set of twin keeps which have been joined by the upper towers.” He pointed up to the colossal statue of Crissa atop the western keep and the matching statue of Athor atop the eastern keep, both looking north.

Crossing through the Godskeep gateyard, Kabel led Tor out the far side of the keep. There stood the Statues of the Six Gods – Itor, Itehl, Sarathyn, Sayl, Bahl, and Tohlen. Smaller than the colossi atop the keeps, these statues were nonetheless impressive, standing three times as high as Tor.

“These are the heart of our order, Tor. Only Vehthyl has no statue here at Godskeep, but that should not be considered any slight. We are all sworn to serve the Nine Gods.”

Sir Kabel then led Tor into the Godskeep itself, and began recounting the oral history of the Order.

TOR’S PRIMER – RELIGION IN BARUND

Tor was born in 757 YD at the height of the Twenty Year War between Seyrun and Barund. Among other things, the Twenty Year War triggered a religious schism within the Imperial Church. After Seyrun invaded Barund, the king of Barund refused to acknowledge the Edicts of the Novarch (as those edicts were closely associated with imperial power in Seyrun). An outright refutation of the Novarch, however, would have put the king on somewhat shaky ground: For six centuries, the Line of Kings had been recognized and legitimized as a divine bloodright dating back to the Holy Coronation performed by the Novarch in 127 YD.

So the king declared that the Novarch, while still the Living Voice of the Nine Gods, had no secular or religious authority over the lands controlled by the divine bloodright of the Barundian royal family.

The supreme leader of the Church in Barund had always been the Prelate of Barund. The Prelate of Barund had been appointed by the Novarch and had authority over the regional prelates of the church throughout Barund. Following the religious schism, however, the king of Barund – on the authority of his divine bloodright – promptly appointed his own Prelate of Barund.

Following the end of the Twenty Year War, the schism was at least partly repaired. However, even today, there are still two Prelates of Barund: One appointed by the King and the other appointed by the Novarch.

This is all to say that Tor was born into and grew up during the height of this religious tension.

TOR’S PRIMER – ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD

Any order of knighthood has three things in common:

1. They follow the Code of Law as laid down in the Book of Athor.
2. They adhere to the Martial Code as laid down in the Book of Itor.
3. They honor the Seven Compassions as laid down in the Book of Crissa.

The Code of Law is your bedrock “thou shalt not” stuff: Don’t murder, steal, enslave your brother, and so forth.

The Martial Code is essentially your standard chivalric ideal: Face your opponent fairly and honorably.

The Seven Compassions are a bit more philosophically complex, and are also referred to in some commentaries as the Seven Cares. The compassions are of the self, the companion, the stranger, the task, the thought, the memory, and the true. In other words, care for yourself, for your companions, and for strangers. Take care with what you do, what you think, and it shall be remembered. And if you can do all that, then you will know true compassion. (For most people, the Seven Compassions boil down to “be nice to people” and “think before you act”.)

Collectively these are also known as the Way of Knighthood.

TOR’S PRIMER – THE DEEDS OF HONOR

Although not an official part of the Way of Knighthood, the Deeds of Honor are intimately tied to the popular conception of “what it means to be a knight”.

The Deeds of Honor, as written in the Book of Itor, are a collection of legendary tales of valor, honor, bravery, and faith. In some ways they serve as a kind of “scorecard” or exemplar of heroic actions. “He lives his life by the deeds of honor” is a common saying.

TOR’S PRIMER – THE ORDER OF THE DAWN

The modern city of Ptolus was founded by a man named Shay Orridar, the head of the Orridar merchant family (now defunct). It is said that the inspiration of the city was based on the research of the loremaster Gerris Hin, who was studying the ruins of an ancient city built on the same location.

As a result of Hin’s researches, Ptolus also became one of the early centers for the rejuvenation of Pantheon worship. The Knights of the Golden Cross, founded by Hin on the basis of his research into the old traditions which predated modern history, championed the cause of the Nine Gods.

The Knights of the Dawn were founded perhaps a quarter of a century after the Knights of the Golden Cross. The Knights of the Dawn, like the Knights of the Golden Cross, were dedicated to the Pantheon. The two groups became rivals of a sort, but the Knights of the Dawn became ascendant when they became the official protectors and guardians of the Imperial Church in Ptolus – an official Order of the Church.

The Order of the Dawn is now primarily a defensive knighthood, there to protect the temples, holdings, and interests of the Church. Only occasionally are they sent on quests, and then only with the direct blessing of the Silver Fatar.

The current leader of the order is Sir Kabel Dathim, who answers directly to the Silver Fatar of Athor.

NEXT:
Running the Campaign: Urban Splits – Campaign Journal: Session 26B
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

SPOILERS FOR DESCENT INTO AVERNUS

Descent Into Avernus begins by having the PCs stand around doing nothing while the GM describes an NPC doing awesome stuff.

It then proceeds to “if they don’t do what you tell them to do, the NPCs automatically find them and kill them.”

It’s not an auspicious start.

EVERYBODY INTO THE HANDBASKET!

Although titled Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus, this adventure has very little to do with Baldur’s Gate.

It does begin in the city, however, with Baldur’s Gate being overrun by refugees from Elturel, a city further up the River Chionthar which has mysteriously vanished from the face of Toril. The PCs will spend a couple of days investigating Zarielite cultists in the city, discovering that they may have something do with Elturel’s disappearance. They will then be sent to Candlekeep to research an infernal puzzlebox they’ve recovered during their investigation, and Baldur’s Gate is never seen again.

A scholar at Candlekeep opens the infernal puzzlebox for them, revealing that Elturel has been taken to Hell as the result of a pact signed between the High Observer of Elturel and Zariel, the Archduchess of Avernus. The PCs are then sent to a different wizard, further down the road from Candlekeep, who can take them to Hell.

Arriving in Hell, they discover that Elturel is floating above the hellish plains of Avernus and slowly sinking into the River Styx. Jumping through a number of hoops, with NPCs sending them hither-and-yon, they eventually encounter an NPC who tells them that he’s had a vision from the god Torm, and the PCs are supposed to go forth and find the Sword of Zariel if they want to save the city.

So where is the Sword of Zariel?

Well, back in Candlekeep they were also introduced to a small, golden, flying elephant (technically an angelic being known as a hollyphant) named Lulu. Lulu came with them to Hell and it turns out she used to be Zariel’s warmount, but she’s lost all of her memories. She does remember one thing, though: She was at a place called Fort Knucklebones, and she met a couple of kenku there.

So the PCs leave Elturel and journey across Avernus to Fort Knucklebones. It turns out the kenku don’t know anything, but by a stroke of luck the hag who runs Fort Knucklebones has a machine that can restore Lulu’s lost memories. So Lulu gets strapped into the machine, she recovers her memories, and remembers where the Sword is!

… or, at least, that’s what Descent Into Avernus claims will happen. We’ll come back to this, but the reality is that Lulu has no idea where the Sword. Fortunately the PCs can jump through some more hoops and eventually claim it.

With the Sword in hand, they can confront Zariel and either redeem her, make a deal with her, or decide to join her. The last of these is rather unlikely (although good show to the book for considering the possibility), while either of the former two result in Elturel being saved and the PCs escaping from Hell triumphant!

THE REST OF THE BOOK

While the adventure may not be overly concerned with Baldur’s Gate, the same is not strictly true for the book. About fifty pages are given over to the Baldur’s Gate Gazetteer, detailing the city as it exists in 1492 DR. (Oddly, the campaign itself is described as taking place two years later in 1494 DR. There have been some recent indications that the campaign is canonically being moved back to 1492 DR in order to maintain continuity with Baldur’s Gate III… so we’ll just mark this down as “thoroughly confused.”)

The Gazetteer itself is quite serviceable, although much like the gazetteer of Waterdeep found in Dragon Heist, it pales in comparison to previous sourcebooks detailing the city. It notably includes a number of player-facing options, including customized backgrounds for characters from Baldur’s Gate.

The oddity here is that the discordance between the focus of the background material and the actual content of the campaign (in which the PCs are likely to only spend 48 or maybe 72 hours in Baldur’s Gate) renders the gazetteer largely useless for anyone actually running Descent Into Avernus.

It can also actively mislead DMs and put them on a bad footing. For example, the gazetteer includes a section on Dark Secrets:

During character creation, once players have developed their characters, they should collectively choose a dark secret shared by the entire party. Every member of the party is entangled in this dark secret, regardless of how new they are to the city or how incorruptible their morals. Maybe they’re merely witnesses, maybe they’re covering for a friend’s crimes, or maybe they’re deep in denial. Regardless, in the eyes of the law, they’re guilty. Each dark secret shares a number of elements. Players should work with you, the DM, to customize these particulars to the group.

These dark secrets include Conspiracy, Murder, Theft, and a Failed Coup. Each type of secret has multiple versions, and also details the PCs’ roles in the secret, the consequences of what they did, and who in Baldur’s Gate knows their secret.

This is a really cool concept and, for any campaign set in Baldur’s Gate, it’s a fantastic way of giving the PCs deep and meaningful ties to the city (and to each other).

The problem, of course, is that Descent Into Avenus ISN’T set in Baldur’s Gate.

So you get the players invested in these connections to Baldur’s Gate and lay down the seeds of what seems like an epic campaign. (For example, you want to overthrow the patriars and lead an egalitarian revolution.) Then, after just a couple sessions, the PCs blow town and leave all that stuff just dangling in the wind.

And some Dark Secrets are completely incompatible with the campaign. For example, the primary campaign hook is the PCs getting hired by the Flaming Fist to investigate some cult-related murders. One of the Dark Secrets is, “The Flaming Fist is corrupt. You turned against your commanding officer, seeking to take the Fist in a new direction. Now you’re branded a traitor.”

AMAZING IDEAS, FAILED EXECUTION

Unfortunately, a lot of Descent Into Avernus is like this: There’ll be an amazing idea, incredibly cool concept, or breathtaking revelation, but then the execution of that idea will be broken or simply lackluster.

For example:

DIA: Do you want to play MAD MAX IN HELL with infernal muscle cars fueled by the souls of the damned?

Me: Fuck yes, I do!

DIA: Just kidding. We’re not doing that.

Me: …

These infernal war machines were actually hyped quite a bit in the pre-launch marketing for Descent Into Avernus. In the book itself, there are two and a half pages which are the introduction to a Warlords of the Avernian Wastelands campaign. It is straight up cooler than anything else in the entire book.

And then it just… vanishes.

There are a couple of scenes where an infernal motorcycle is parked nearby because that’s how an NPC showed up.

That’s it.

It’s really weird.

My best guess is that this was a really cool idea that somebody had really late in the development of the book and they just couldn’t integrate it?

But maybe not. Because, like I said, this is kind of a pervasive problem for the book.

DIA: Do you want to explore HELL ITSELF ON THE WAR-TORN PLAINS OF AVERNUS?

Me: Fuck yes, I do!

DIA: Just kidding. We’re not doing that.

Me: … stahp.

The book frequently talks about how the PCs are going to be “exploring” Avernus. But then it goes out of its way to stop them from doing that in almost every way possible.

For example, it’s impossible to make a map of Avernus. Apparently the Lawful Evil plane of Avernus is so chaotic and ever-shifting that anyone trying to map it goes insane.

(This is, it should be noted, something that was made up specifically for this adventure. It not only doesn’t make sense — read my lips: Lawful — it explicitly contradicts preexisting lore.)

The reason they don’t want you making a map is because navigation is meaningless. If you want to go somewhere, it’s completely random whether you get there or not:

Using the map to chart a course from one location to another is unreliable at best… When charting a course through Avernus, ask the player whose character is overseeing navigation to roll two dice:

• Roll 2d4 if the characters are traveling to an unvisited destination marked on their map.
• Roll 2d8 if the characters are returning to a destination they’ve visited previously.
• Roll 2d10 if a native guide is leading the characters to their destination.

If the rolls of both dice don’t match, the characters arrive at their destination as intended. If the dice match, they wind up somewhere else: pick one of the other locations.

Despite maps being both impossible and useless, the adventure nevertheless gives the players a poster map. It’s unlabeled and, again, the spatial relationships it depicts don’t actually exist, so it’s utterly useless for literally anything you might actually use a map for. But it is very pretty, so it has that going for it.

(Astonishingly, neither Elturel nor Fort Knucklebones — the two places the PCs would start navigating from — are depicted on the map. The DM is told that they can put them anywhere on the map they want, but — once again! — this is pointless and has no meaning.)

The one thing the map does do is magically talk to the PCs: Every time they go somewhere, the map tells them exactly what it is and where they are before they have a chance to explore and find out.

“Okay, we’ve made sure it’s impossible to run an exploration scenario on Avernus.”

“But what if the players nevertheless accidentally discover something for themselves and feel a momentary frisson of delight at exploring the unknown?”

“Oh shit! We gotta put a stop to that!”

Without actually seeing it in the book, I think it’s difficult to really believe the lengths Descent Into Avernus goes to in order to make sure that the players absolutely cannot explore Avernus in any possible way.

Even the smaller cool ideas in the book are often mucked up. For example, there’s a Zarielite cultist in the first part of the adventure whose dying words are, “See you in Hell!”

Which is so goddamn clever, right? Because the PCs are going to go to Hell later on and then — presto! — there she is.

… she doesn’t show up in Hell.

THE WEIRD RAILROAD

DIA: Do you want to play a nice game of CHOOSE. THAT. RAILROAD?!

Me: Fuck no!

DIA: All aboard! Let’s GO!

Me: Goddammit.

The problem with shouting, “It’s time to explore Avernus!” but then blocking any and all attempts to actually explore Avernus is that you’ll need some other mechanism to move the campaign forward. Descent Into Avernus chooses to do this by presenting the players with the choice of two different railroads they can follow.

It’s difficult to explain how poorly this is done.

We start with Lulu getting her memories back. She wakes up from the procedure and shouts, “The sword! The sword! I know where it is!”

Spoiler Alert: She doesn’t.

Instead, her “dreams lead the characters on a wild goose chase to Haruman’s Hill.”

There are a couple problems with this. First, there’s no clear reason given for why Lulu thinks Haruman’s Hill is where the Sword of Zariel is. Second, given the timeline presented in the book, it’s fairly clear that Haruman’s Hill did not and could not exist when Lulu was in Avernus.

But, OK. Fine. This thing that makes no sense happens.

So the PCs go adventuring at Haruman’s Hill for a little while, they figure out that Lulu took them to the wrong place, and then Lulu says: “I’m so sorry! My memory is a little hazier than I thought! Having pondered my dreams further, I think there are two sites in Avernus that are important to finding the sword! Choose between a place where demons manifest and one where demons are destroyed.”

But, once again, there’s no reason given for why Lulu thinks either of these locations have anything to do with the Sword of Zariel.

And that’s because they don’t.

They have nothing to do with the Sword. They have nothing to do with Lulu’s memories. There is absolutely no reason for Lulu to say that the PCs should go there. And if you do go to either location, it becomes immediately and abundantly clear that this is the case.

Despite Lulu telling the PCs to go to the wrong place and then immediately doing it again, the book assumes that the PCs will just continue blithely along the “path” they’ve “chosen,” even though there’s no discernible reason for them to do so.

This is not the only example of weird scenario structures in Descent Into Avernus. At the beginning of the campaign, for example, the PCs have followed a lead to the Dungeon of the Dead Three. In order to the adventure to continue, they have to speak with a specific NPC. But:

• The NPC is located behind a secret door. (Which the designers bizarrely go out of their way to make difficult to find, even going so far as specifying that a normal rat will absolutely NOT reveal its location if someone randomly casts speak with animals on it.)
• The NPC immediately identifies himself as the serial killer they’re here to kill.
• The NPC, having just confessed that he’s the serial killer they’re here to kill, says, “Hey, can you help me take revenge on the people who tried to kill me?”

Assuming the PCs agree to help this guy for some reason (and, remember, they MUST do this in order for the adventure to continue), he tells them that they should kidnap his brother so that they can use him as leverage while negotiating with their mother.

But negotiating with their mother to do… what?

Descent Into Avernus doesn’t seem to know. And promptly forgets the idea except to briefly tell you it definitely won’t work (because their mother will “happily watch any of her sons die before consenting to ransom demands”).

The failure of the scheme doesn’t bother me. (“Go ahead and kill him, I don’t care,” is a perfectly legitimate moment and builds pretty consistently from her known relationship with her kids.) What bothers me is that there doesn’t seem to BE a scheme.

The PCs are, once again, told to do a thing, but given no coherent reason for doing it.

This happens again when an NPC tells them they should teleport to Hell and save Elturel. They’re 5^th level characters who have no special abilities, knowledge, or resources teleporting to a city which has been established to be filled with high level arcanists, clerics, and warriors who obviously haven’t solved the problem. What are they supposed to do, exactly? And why does that make more sense than investigating the Elturel crater or seeking a cure for Lulu’s amnesia?

Later Lulu tells them that she remembers meeting some kenku at Fort Knucklebones. Maybe they’ll know about her lost memories?

So the PCs go to Fort Knucklebones, they meet the kenku, and the adventure says, “The kenku Chukka and Clonk instantly recognize Lulu, since they’ve met her previously.”

And then… nothing. Literally nothing. The kenku remembering Lulu is never mentioned again.

What is going on here?

It’s a cargo cult.

THE CARGO CULT

Let’s take one step back: RPG adventures are built using scenario structures. A dungeoncrawl is one type of scenario structure. A mystery is another. There are many others, including things like heists, hexcrawls, raids, etc.

A significant problem in RPG design is that these scenario structures aren’t really talked about. DMs and even designers just kind of pick them up (often imperfectly) by osmosis. Most of them are limited to just dungeoncrawls, mysteries, and railroading.

What’s happened with Descent Into Avernus is that the designers have sort of flailed their way into a malformed scenario structure which consists of, “An NPC tells the PCs where to go and then the PCs go to there.”

Once you realize that, you can’t unsee it: The entire campaign is just that one structure repeated infinitely. An NPC tells you where to go, you go there, and you find another NPC who tells you where to go.

Because this malformed structure is apparently the only thing they have, it seems to have become a kind of cargo cult for them: They know that NPC A has to give some sort of “explanation” for why the PCs need to go to NPC B, but they don’t actually care what that explanation is.

And they assume the players won’t care either. The presumption is that the players are onboard and the words coming out of the NPC’s mouth are just, “Blah blah blah Vanthampur Villa blah blah blah.”

So why do they put essential encounters behind secret doors? Because if the PCs haven’t found the NPC to tell them where to go next, clearly the players will know to keep looking until they find them!

Why are the PCs told to go talk to people without being given any coherent reason for doing so? Because the reason is irrelevant. It’s just white noise around the person’s name.

Why does the adventure assume the PCs will plane shift to Hell without having any reason to do so? Because an NPC told them to!

Why doesn’t the adventure tell you what the kenku remember about Lulu? Because the writers don’t care. “The kenku might remember Lulu” was just the blah-blah-blah dropped around “Fort Knucklebones.” Once the kenku tell the PCs that they should “blah blah blah talk to Mad Maggie blah blah blah,” the writers assume that you will no longer care about the previous blah blah blah.

It’s a cargo cult because the designers have seen PCs talking to an NPC and then going where that NPC tells them to go. But this interaction has become ritualistic. The designers repeat the form, but with none of its semantic content. It’s a hollow shell lacking meaning and seemingly ludicrous to anyone seeking to rationally understand it.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

So what is Descent Into Avernus, exactly?

First, it’s a pretty good gazetteer for Baldur’s Gate.

Second, it’s a big ol’ bundle of cool concepts studded with memorable moments, evocative lore, and epic stakes.

• Mad Max in Hell
• The redemption of the Archduchess of Avernus
• The secret history of the Hellriders
• The fall of an entire city into Hell (and its possible salvation)
• Machinations among the dukes and duchesses of Hell
• Thrilling political stakes in both Baldur’s Gate and Elturel

Along with a gaggle of vivid dungeons crammed with flavor and featuring unique gimmicks (sewer temples, ghost prisons for damned souls, floating hellwasp nests, a crashed Avernian warship, etc.).

We should also not discount the huge cast of varied, larger than life characters (broken families, nefarious cultists, magical shields, maniacal scholars, proud leaders, pitiful victims).

Third, it’s a couple of pretty fantastic poster maps.

Unfortunately, all of this is wrapped up in a completely dysfunctional package. The intriguing characters and big ideas are hopelessly morassed in the broken logic of the campaign and crippled by a careless disregard for continuity. The cool set pieces are sapped of meaning, frequently broken by poor execution, and almost universally left as hollow disappointments of unrealized potential.

Would I recommend it?

Unfortunately, no. The amount work required to salvage Descent Into Avernus is, sadly, staggering in its scope. Despite its potential, there are simply so many better adventures out there that do not need to be completely revamped from the ground up to make them work that it’s impossible to say that you should spend your time grappling with this one.

(Unless, of course, some hopeless fool has already done a bunch of that work for you.)

Style: 4
Substance: 2

Story Creators: Adam Lee (lead), James Introcaso, Ari Levitch, Mike Mearls, Lysa Penrose, Christopher Perkins, Ben Petrisor, Matthew Sernett, Kate Welch, Richard Whitters, Shawn Wood
Story Consultants: Joe Manganiello, Jim Zub
Writers: Bill Benham, M.T. Black, Dan Dillon, Justin Donie, James J. Haeck, James Introcaso, Adam Lee, Chris Lindsay, Liane Mersiel, Shawn Merwin, Lysa Penrose, Christopher Perkins, F. Wesley Schneider, Amber Scott, James Sutter
Developers: Jeremy Crawford, Dan Dillon, Ben Petrisor, Kate Welch

Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Cost: $49.95
Page Count: 256

Go to Table of Contents

We’ve analyzed the revelation lists of Storm King’s Thunder and we’ve revised those revelation lists by adding and enhancing clues throughout the campaign.

Before we move on, I want to talk for a moment about the fact that what we’ve seen so far is not what my typical revelation list looks like. In the middle of a session, of course, you don’t want to have to remember that there’s a clue on the revelation list that you need to inject into a particular scene or location. You want that information to be at your fingertips and ready to go.

So although we’ve been detailing what our revised clues will be on the Remix’s revelation lists, what I would do in actual practice is:

• Work the clues into the actual key of the adventure.
• Write up a much more streamlined revelation list to serve as a combination of index and checklist during play.

The revelation lists that we’ve presented here in the Remix, therefore, are best thought of as worksheets or to-do lists. The expectation here is that you’ll add this material to your prep notes, develop it where necessary, and distill a final revelation list for use in actual play (that isn’t bloated with the now extraneous details).

MAKING THE REVELATION LIST

Let’s consider the revelation list for Deadstone Cleft. In Part 3B of the Remix, our worksheet list for this revelation looked like this:

DEADSTONE CLEFT – CANYON OF THE STONE GIANTS

• Uthgardt Blessings (Stone Stand). Members of the Blue Bear tribe, which has recently formed an alliance with Kayalithica of Deadstone Cleft, seek blessings from the Grandfather Oak at Stone Stand for their efforts. They do so by describing their endeavor on the tanned hide of a bear, which is then tied with blue gut-string in ceremonial knots and left within the clefts between the old oak’s roots. One of these was left by Kriga Moonmusk (p. 66) seeking blessing for her alliance with Kayalithica. The document includes a reference to Deadstone Cleft as Kayalithica’s fortress. (The PCs should be able to make inquiries to identify the location of Deadstone Cleft.)
• Silixia (Grayvale), p. 88. This young brass dragon will point the PCs towards Deadstone Cleft.
• Grudd Haug – Area 13: Prisoner. Gryhawk, the Uthgardt prisoner here, is from the Blue Bear tribe (instead of the Elk tribe). He was a spy sent by Kayalithica, but was captured by the giants. If freed, he will thank the PCs (as described on p. 144) and tell them that he is certain they will also have the thanks of the greater giants that he serves when he returns to Deadstone Cleft.
• Svardborg – Area 1G: Throne Room. Jarl Storvald has correspondence from Kayalithica, in which she proposes, with the Ordning dissolved, an alliance between them — one in which her giants will “tear apart all that the little ones have built, restoring Ostoria to its glory” under her rule, while Storvald’s reavers will “rule the seas.” Her letter notes that she has traveled to consult the oracles of Deadstone Cleft in the Graypeak Mountains, and it has suggested that the All-Father and fortune alike would smile on such an alliance.
• Questioning/Backtracking Giants. Grayvale Run (p. 88), Llorkh (p. 96), Orlbar (Zorkh, p. 103). The origins of the giants in Grayvale Run and Llorkh are not indicated in the text, but are from Deadstone Cleft.
• Eye of the All-Father, p. 151. Oracle gives them directions.

Ultimately, in my prep notes for the campaign this revelation list would look like this:

DEADSTONE CLEFT – CANYON OF THE STONE GIANTS

• Uthgardt Blessings (Stone Stand)
• Interrogating Silixia (Grayvale), p. 88.
• Uthgardt Prisoner (Grudd Haug, Area 13)
• Kayalthica’s Letter to Jarl Storvald (Svardborg, Area 1G)
• Questioning/Backtracking Giants. Grayvale Run (p. 88), Llorkh (p. 96), Orlbar (Zorkh, p. 103).
• Directions of the Eye of the All-Father, p. 151.

It’s not difficult, obviously, to see the rather radical difference between these two lists, and how much easier it would be to reference and use the latter during play. (For more details on this, check out Using Revelation Lists.)

ADDING THE CLUES

In How to Prep a Module, I discuss how I prepare my notes for a published adventure like this. The short version is that, rather than rewriting entire locations, my notes usually consist of a diff doc (which simply notates what changes or new elements are added to the published key).

For example, Area 13 of Grudd Haug (STK, p. 144) reads:

13. PRISON

In the area north of the pigpen, rivulets of water trickle down the north wall and carve shallow ruts in the floor as they snake their way across the room and through openings in the opposite wall. Five wooden cages are arranged about the room. Their doors are situated on top, with heavy rocks placed on them. A creature can use an action to attempt a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check to knock off a rock or open a cage door that has a rock pressing down on it. The sound of a rock hitting the cave floor alerts the guards in this area.

Three of the five cages contain prisoners destined for Guh’s gullet. Two bugbears guard the prisoners. These bugbears can’t be surprised once the alarm sounds or if they hear combat in area 12.

PRISONERS

Unless otherwise noted, all the adult prisoners are commoners. Child prisoners are unarmed noncombatants with AC 10 and 2 hit points each.

One cage contains human farmers: a father, a mother, and their three children (a teenage girl and two boys).

A second cage holds an unarmed tribal warrior of the Elk tribe, Gryhawk (CN male Uthgardt human). He fights alongside his liberators. If he makes it out of Grudd Haug, he bites the palm of his hand and tries to smear his blood on the faces of those who freed him. Anyone who succeeds on a DC 13 Intelligence (Religion) check realizes that this gesture is a sign of gratitude. Gryhawk leaves to return to his tribe whether the characters accept his gratitude or not.

A third cage holds an unarmed prisoner: Emerald Enclave member Ghalvin Dragonmoor (CG male half-elf scout). If freed, he asks the characters to escort him to Goldenfields, so that he can report to the Abbot what he has seen.

In my prep notes I would simply write:

AREA 13 – PRISON

Gryhawk: Blue Bear tribe member.

• Spy sent by Kayalithica.
• If freed, tells PCs that he is certain they will also have the thanks of the greater giants that he serves when he returns to Deadstone Cleft.

And that’s it. Super simple.

When running adventures like this, my procedure is simply to check my prep notes first to see if there are any modifications to an area and then refer to the printed adventure. (This means that I have the changes I need to make in mind as I scan the text, and can easily apply them as I go.)

On rare occasions, an area or scene may need to be so completely redesigned that it’s easier to just rewrite the whole thing. If that’s the case, I indicate this in my prep notes (with a tag like [REVISED]) and then I know I can just ignore the printed adventure entirely for this bit.

I also recommend paying attention to opportunities to prep physical props. Kayalithica’s letter to Jarl Storvald is a perfect example of this: Actually writing out the letter will take a little extra effort, but it will be a big value-add for the campaign and pay dividends as the PCs explore the sprawling twists and turns of Storm King’s Thunder.

Go to Part 4: Hekaton is Missing!

Go to Table of Contents

The core structure of Phase 1 is fairly straightforward:

• The PCs arrive in Nightstone and discover the town badly damaged by a cloud giant attack, abandoned, and infested with goblins.
• After discovering that the townspeople evacuated to the nearby Dripping Caves, the PCs go to the caves and rescue them from the goblins who have taken them prisoner.
• The PCs receive (in the Remix) adventure hooks pointing them towards Bryn Shander, Goldenfields, and Triboar (see Part 3A).

And that should basically wrap things up.

… except it doesn’t.

After the PCs clear out the goblins in Nightstone, the village is immediately attacked by a completely unrelated group of orcs. And then, after the PCs fight off the orcs, the village is immediately attacked AGAIN by a group of Zhentarim mercenaries.

So, to sum up, in just a couple of days Nightstone has been independently assaulted by cloud giants, goblins, orcs, and Zhents.

That is, to put it mildly, some incredibly bad luck for this town. More importantly, it’s really repetitive gameplay that completely grinds the campaign to a halt at the very moment that it should instead be kicking into high gear.

The reason this happens is that Storm King’s Thunder needs to level the PCs up to 5^th level so that they can face the Tier 2 challenges of Phase 2 (i.e., fighting a bunch of giants). The designers level the group up after clearing the goblins out of Nightstone and rescuing the villagers from the Dripping Caves, but they don’t think they can justify more than that, so they just stuff in a couple more fights so that you can level the PCs up after each of them.

FIXING THE ORCS

They’re dumb.

Cut them.

Note: Greg Benage suggests that the orcs could be a raiding party connected to the Iceshield orcs at the Hill Giant lair of Grudd Haug. He had clues from the raiders lead to Harpsheild Castle, a location which appears in Scourge of the Sword Coast, and from there to Grudd Haug. That’s a good idea, and if the PCs end up extending their stay in Nightstone (see below) having these orc raiders show up later could work well. You could also use this idea if the PCs return to Nightstone at some later date.

FIXING THE ZHENTARIM

The Zhentarim are a bit more complicated. Before the cloud giant attack, a Zhent agent named Kella Darkhope had been sent to Nightstone to investigate the possibility of turning the village into a Zhentarim stronghold. The cloud giant attack has created a perfect opportunity, and so she’s sent a message requesting the dispatch of a Zhentarim strike team.

The presentation of the Zhentarim in Storm King’s Thunder is a little incoherent. The book can’t quite figure out if the Zhentarim should be a faction that the PCs will want to join and work with or if they’re moustache-twirling villains. This is actually a common problem in 5^th Edition books, because roughly half of the writers seem to be aware that the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide had the Zhentarim turn a new page as a kinder, gentler, more nuanced organization… and the other writers are familiar with them twirling their moustaches in the video games and novels of the ‘80s and ’90s.

In any case, the Zhent plan in the book seems to be:

1. Murder people.
2. ???
3. Profit?

This is a silly plan, because Lady Nandar, the ruler of Nightstone, was killed in the cloud giant attack. So the really obvious play for the Zhentarim to make here is, “Oh! Good townspeople! We have come to you in your hour of need!”

Then they help the PCs save everybody, the PCs move on (as PCs are wont to do; or, if not, the Zhents can nudge them aggressively in that direction), and the Zhentarim settle in as the new protectors of the town in this troubled time.

This approach has a few advantages:

• It provides an opportunity for the PCs to ally with the Zhentarim and perhaps even be recruited by them. (If so, you might consider creating a Zhentarim scenario hook pulling the PCs into Phase 2 in addition to the others found here.)
• It plays nicely with the themes of established order being upset and power vacuums being created (and filled) that resonate naturally throughout Storm King’s Thunder.
• It can be neatly incorporated into the broader question of what post-crisis Nightstone looks like.

Which sets us up for…

THE END OF PHASE ONE: NIGHTSTONE’S FATE

As noted, with Lady Nandar dead there’s a power vacuum in Nightstone. The village has also been horrifically damaged, with key infrastructure in the form of food stores and economic pillars (including farms and the Lionshield Coster trading post) being destroyed.

We don’t necessarily want the PCs to get mired in fixing Nightstone, but we do want to provide a satisfying conclusion to Phase 1 by providing closure for this crisis.

First, we’ll let the PCs contribute to rebuilding Nightstone by moving forward with the adventure. This is achieved in Part 3A of the Remix, where two of the scenario hooks leading to Phase 2 of the campaign are rebuilt to feature responses to the crisis.

Second, the key question that will wrap up the adventure is: Who will rule in Nightstone?

Options include:

• The Zhentarim
• Morak Ur’gray, the dwarven proprietor of Nightstone Inn who can act as something of a neutral figure in the community
• A patriarch or matriarch of one of the major families of the village (SKT, p. 31)
• An appointed or democratically elected council
• A PC (guess this will be a different campaign; or maybe the player swaps to a new character)

Simple Conflict. Have the Zhentarim arrive when the PCs have explored about half the town (ideally after they’ve met Kella independently). The Zhentarim won’t immediately make a play for leadership (although Insight checks might suggest that’s their goal); they’re “just here to help.”

In the Dripping Caves, seed rivalry between a couple of family heads. (My eye is drawn to the Delfryndels, who own the village mill, and Taela Summerhawk, the apothecary, but you might just go with whatever NPCs seem to click with the players.) Establish early that they have different opinions about the best way to deal with the goblins and/or escaping the caves. Morak is also there, clearly trying to moderate the conflict.

Once everyone is back in Nightstone, have someone offer themselves to become the new leader. This is probably the Zhentarim if they’re still in the picture. Have others make their claim in response. Morak asks the PCs what they think and enough of the other families follow their advice.

More Dynamic. In this scenario, have just two significant candidates plus Morak. This will likely be the Zhentarim and one of the major families (I’d go with the Delfryndels, although maybe having it be Destiny Agganor, the tiefling who worships Asmodeus, would create more drama).

The key thing here is that the leadership will likely be determined by the other five major families of Nightstone. Use Morak to frame the situation, but, at least initially, avoid having him prefer one option over another. (If he expresses a preference, the players may assume that they’re “supposed” to back Morak’s candidate rather than making the choice for themselves.) Morak is concerned about the economic well-being of Nightstone, and this may also be a good opportunity to drop his scenario hook.

At this point, it’s up to the PCs to talk with each of the major families and try to influence them. Persuasion checks are easy here, but also think about small favors the PCs could do (using other skills) to win favor. If you wanted to flesh this out more, add distinct tensions and relationships between the families for the PCs to discover, exploit, and/or resolve.

Note: If the Zhentarim lose out on having Kella or Xolkin become the new Lord Protector of Nightstone, it’s up to you how they respond. You might have them attempt a last minute assassination and seize power (sparking a fight that presumably the PCs will get involved with). Alternatively, they might just roll with the punches, approach the new leader, and say, “Congratulations! Now, it looks like you’ll be needing some armed men to help keep the town safe. Shall we talk terms?” and establish a local base that way.

THE ISSUE OF ADVANCEMENT

As we discussed earlier, the PCs are supposed to be 5^th level heading into Phase 2 of the campaign. We’ve eliminated some of the milestones in Nightstone, so we’ll need to rearrange things to look like this:

• Advance to 2^nd level after clearing the village of goblins.
• Advance to 3^rd level after rescuing the villagers from the Dripping Caves.
• Advance to 4^th level when a new leader has been chosen for Nightstone.
• Advance to 5^th level after the encounters in the Tower of Zephyros.

If this seems too rushed for you, here are some other options.

Phandelver. Start the campaign by running the PCs through the Lost Mine of Phandelver from the D&D Starter Set. It’s located fairly close to Nightstone and will dump the PCs out at 5^th level, which is more or less perfect. Add a hook from Phandelver to Nightstone, level to 6^th after the Dripping Caves, and skip the level up after the Tower of Zephyros.

Dragon Heist. Waterdeep: Dragon Heist also wraps up with the PCs entering Tier 2. (This is a little less true with the Alexandrian Remix, but still close enough.) What I recommend here is starting the PCs in Nightstone, advancing them to 3^rd level, and then sending them to Waterdeep.

During the events of Dragon Heist you can seed material for Storm King’s Thunder: Harshnag can be their contact with Force Grey, for example. Towards the end of Dragon Heist, Count Nimbolo and Countess Mulara can arrive in Waterdeep in their flying castle (SKT, p. 112-113) so that the PCs can meet them and learn that they’re planning to stay for several months while studying at some private libraries in the city. (As giant stuff starts to happen later on, the PCs might return to Waterdeep to meet with those giants again.)

At the end of Dragon Heist, of course, you’ll need to come up with new hooks to send the PCs to one or more of the Three Cities for Phase 2. But since they’ll have likely aligned with one or more factions during their Waterdhavian adventures, you can ultimately just give them a faction mission to set them on their way.

Just Do It. Alternatively, just start the PCs at 3^rd level. Level them up after rescuing the villagers from the Dripping Caves and again as they get dropped off by the Tower of Zephyros.

Go to Part 2: Revelation Lists

Go to Table of Contents

Storm King’s Thunder is built around two core structures.

The primary structure is node-based. In Phase 1 of the campaign, the adventure begins in Nightstone, where the PCs get a lead to one of three cities (Bryn Shander, Goldenfields, and Triboar).

In Phase 2 of the campaign, whichever city the PCs go to will be attacked by giants, resulting in the PCs getting a wide variety of leads which will point them to various locations across the Savage Frontier, the northern realms of Faerûn.

This launches Phase 3, featuring the second structure of the campaign, which more or less acts like a pointcrawl. Locations throughout the Savage Frontier are keyed with encounters, which the PCs will trigger as they navigate through the region (primarily by road). Many of these encounters, in turn, will point to other nodes/locations.

Thus the node-based structure prompts PCs to move throughout the Savage Frontier, which triggers content in the pointcrawl, which gives the PCs more leads to the node-based content.

The node-based elements of Phase 3 are, at least hypothetically, designed to funnel the PCs to the Eye of the All-Father, an ancient giant oracle. In Phase 4 of the campaign, the Eye requires the PCs to recover artifacts stolen from the giants by the Uthgardt tribes and scattered around the Savage Frontier. For each artifact the PCs recover, the Eye gives them a lead to a citadel of a giant lord:

• Den of the Hill Giants
• Canyon of the Stone Giants
• Berg of the Frost Giants
• Forge of the Fire Giants
• Castle of the Cloud Giants

The PCs can raid one or more of these citadels during Phase 5 of the campaign. Each giant lord possesses a magical conch of teleportation, which is keyed to the court of the Storm Giants. This is another funnel leading to Phase 6, with the PCs using the conch to travel to the Storm Giant court (in an underwater fortress called Maelstrom) and forge an alliance with Serissa. Serissa gives them a wooden coin that was found at the location where her mother’s body was recovered, and she believes it may also be connected to her father’s, Lord Hekaton’s, disappearance:

• The coin leads to a gambling riverboat called the Grand Dame.
• On the Grand Dame, the PCs must question Lord Drylund, who tells them that Lord Hekaton is being held on a ship called the Morkoth.

After being rescued from the Morkoth, Lord Hekaton invites the PCs to join him in assaulting the lair of Iymrith, a blue dragon who had infiltrated his court and was responsible for his kidnapping.

Note: There are two places in the campaign where the PCs are abruptly given access to aerial travel. At the end of Phase 1, a cloud giant offers to give them a lift in his flying fortress. And at the beginning of Phase 4, a dragon randomly decides to send the PCs an airship that they can use for the rest of the campaign.

If you look at the structural analysis of the campaign above, you can see why this happens: Overland travel in Storm King’s Thunder is handled through the Phase 3 pointcrawl. Because the content of this pointcrawl is keyed for Phase 3 (what’s happening in the game world at that time; what clues and leads are relevant to the PCs during that phase), it would cause problems for the PCs to encounter that keyed content before Phase 2 or after Phase 3 is complete. To avoid that, the designers simply arrange for the PCs to literally fly over the pointcrawl unless the PCs are in Phase 3.

For ease of use, let’s title these phases:

• Phase 1: Nightstone
• Phase 2: The Three Cities
• Phase 3: The Savage Frontier
• Phase 4: Eye of the All-Father
• Phase 5: The Giant Lairs
• Phase 6: Finding Hekaton

We’ll be referring to these phases throughout the Remix.

STRONG HOOKS

The campaign as written is underhooked. The PCs are never given a strong reason to actually care about all this giant stuff that’s going on.

The book includes four hooks:

• Get paid to fight goblins in Nightstone. (This is resolved by the end of Phase 1.)
• Get paid to guard nobles in Nightstone. (This goes nowhere.)
• Get paid to negotiate with elves. (This goes nowhere.)
• Contact an agent in Nightstone who can connect you with high-paying jobs. (He apparently can’t do that. But he will give the PCs some letters to deliver.)

As you can see, most of these dead end in Nightstone (and only one of them actually has anything resembling a satisfactory conclusion). This isn’t necessarily a problem, as you can structurally pull the PCs into an introductory scenario like Nightstone and then deliver the big, meaty hook that will pull them into and through the rest of the campaign.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t really happen either. Instead, Morak Ur’gray gives them a mail carrier hook with a generic message in order to procedurally shuffle them along to Phase 2. And even if you flesh those hooks out a bit more (as we’ll do in Part 3A: The Three Cities), the fundamental problem remains that there’s not really anything motivating them to figure out what’s going on with the giants.

This is not to say that they won’t investigate the giant stuff. But it becomes quite likely they’ll end up doing it because it just sort of… seems like the thing they’re supposed to be doing? The unmotivated play will become rote, with the players kind of drifting through the campaign. These are the types of games that often just wither away as the players put less and less priority on playing.

Of course, many players will find ways to motivate themselves or become motivated by the events of actual play. That’s the gold standard, and will almost certainly be the most effective motivation. (Stuff that actually happens at the table is almost always seen and felt to be “more real” than stuff concocted for back story.) But we can certainly prime the pump a bit.

Connections to Nightstone. In the first two phases of the campaign, giants attack four different communities. Simply giving the PCs a strong connection to one or more of these communities can do most of the heavy lifting for getting them invested in the campaign.

In the case of Nightstone, simply look at the list of prominent families and their dead (SKT, p. 31). Having the players related to one of these families not only makes for easy pathos, it can also easily explain why they’re coming home to Nightstone in the first place.

Alternatively, a PC might still live in the Nightstone. Having the cloud giant attack wipe out their home and/or business can easily motivate them. (At the beginning of the campaign, they might have been out of town on an errand. Alternatively, they can just finish digging their way out of the rubble as the other PCs show up.)

One potential problem with Nightstone-related hooks, however, is that, as written, the PCs will never actually track down the giants who attacked the town. Being unable to find that closure (or even make an iota of progress towards finding the cloud giants responsible) will be very frustrating for the player(s). Check out “Creating New Giant Lords” on p. 12 of Storm King’s Thunder and be prepared to flesh out an additional cloud giant faction.

You’ll probably also want to steer clear of having a PC related to Lady Velrosa Nandar, unless you want the campaign to really disappear down a rabbit hole. Nandar’s heir will be the de facto ruler of Nightstone after her death, making it overwhelmingly likely that the campaign will remain rooted in the village as the PCs focus on rebuilding in the wake of the crisis.

Connections to the Three Cities. Connections to the three cities of Phase 2 — Bryn Shander, Goldenfields, or Triboar — can all the follow the same basic pattern as connections to Nightstone. There’s plenty of lore there to flesh out a PC’s background and lots of notable NPCs for them to have a connection to.

This connection can help justify the link from Nightstone to Phase 2. (“You’re from Triboar? Can you take this message there for me?”) If they already have a connection to one of the prominent NPCs, it’ll also add oomph to the scenario hooks delivered after the giant attacks in Phase 2.

It’s also possible to weave these connections together. For example, a PC might be from Bryn Shander and a member of the Southwell family. Coming south to Nightstone to visit their sister Semile, they tragically discover that she’s been killed by the cloud giants. The Delfryndels (see Part 3A) give them a bundle of Semile’s things that they’ve gathered together, and they’ll need to return to Bryn Shander to let their brother Markham know that Semile has died.

A History With Giants. The other option is to simply tie a PC directly to the giants. Was their mentor/mother/first love killed by a giant? Or, flip it around, and their mentor/mother/first love IS a giant.

You may want to be a little wary of characters who “hate all giants,” though. Even though that seems like a really natural character concept for a Fight the Giants! campaign, Storm King’s Thunder requires that the PCs be willing to work with at least some of the giants. The Remix will, in some ways, reduce that strict necessity, but will also hopefully be enriching the options for giant cooperation and it might be a shame to nip those options in the bud.

(On the other hand, a character who has good cause to be prejudiced against all giants who learns that the reality is more complicated than that could be an incredibly powerful roleplaying experience at the table.)

Friendship can actually be just as strong as animosity here: There’s something wrong with the giants. The breaking of the Ordning has shattered their society, and while that’s an opportunity for some, it’s arguably a problem for all of them. If there are giants that the PC(s) care about, they’ll be strongly motivated to solve this problem. (And to do so in a way that either keeps the giant(s) they care about safe, benefits them, or both.)

MAKING THE HOOKS

How do you actually seed these elements into the PCs’ back stories?

It depends on how you actually go about creating characters for the campaign. There are, of course, lots of ways of doing this. I’ve previously written in detail about the method I typically use for campaigns like this in Running the Campaign: Designing Character Backgrounds, the short summary is:

1. Establish the campaign concept.
2. Have the players pitch their character concepts.
3. Collaborate on a public integration, with the GM using their expertise in the setting to take generic archetypes of the character concept (e.g., northern barbarian) and make them specific (e.g., an Uthgardt barbarian).
4. Have the GM do a private integration of the character, tying them into the larger structure of the campaign (e.g., Is there a major villain? Make the long-lost brother of one of the PCs).
5. Bring the party together. At least 95 times out of 100, you’ll want to explain why the PCs are all going to hang out and do things together — specifically, the usually crazy things the campaign concept is predicated on — before you start your first session. 4 times out of the remaining 5, you’ll probably want to have things pre-arranged so that they fall in together within the first few scenes.

Most of the concepts described above are going to fall into the public integration phase. Is there a PC from a small village? Suggest Nightstone and begin feeding them appropriate lore to flesh out their back story there. A major city? Triboar. Are they a druid? Give them connections in Goldenfields.

And so forth.

Note that the PCs don’t all need to have the same hook. And these hooks may or may not be the reason that they’re adventuring together. You might want to check out Random GM Tip: Bringing the PCs Together for additional tips.

If this process has not already explained why the PCs are heading to Nightstone, I recommend working with the players to come up with a better reason for that than just “maybe there’s some money to be earned there.” What you’re looking for is something specific. For example:

• Some highly specific lore about the nightstone itself. (For example, the PCs may have stumbled across information relating to the apocalyptic capacity of the stone during a previous adventure and they’re following up on those leads.)
• Did one of the players decide to create a Zhentarim? Then they’re being sent to meet with Kella Darkhope (replacing the zhent agents who would normally show up).
• They’ve been hired by someone to assassinate Lady Nandar.
• A rich uncle has left the Nespers a tidy sum of money and the PCs have been hired to deliver it.

But try to avoid anything that can’t actually be resolved by the end of Phase 1, unless you do, in fact, want to spend extra time in Nightstone and Ardeep.

Go to Part 1B: Nightstone Conclusions