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NODE 8: MINNEAPOLIS FEDERAL RESERVE

(502 Marquette Ave., Minneapolis, MN)

BACKGROUND:

• 1913: Federal Reserve Act signed by Woodrow Wilson.
• 1914: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis incorporated May 18^th, directors elected over the summer.
• October 1914: John H. Rich is appointed the first Minneapolis Federal Reserve Agent.
• January 1915: Offices established at New York Life Building (2^nd Ave. South & 5^th Street). Vault space for cash rented from nearby banks.
• 1921: Federal Reserve had outgrown its current offices. Site purchased at 5^th Street  & Marquette. Excavation of the site begins by the end of the year.
• During construction of the new building. John H. Rich dies and is replaced by John Barca. By this time, all nine directors of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve are Tanit cultists.
• Designed by Cass Gilbert to feature classical architecture, the new building was also designed to include a secret Tophet sanctuary beneath the vault in which child sacrifices could be used to create tophet serum.
• 1923: Cornerstone of the new Federal Reserve Building is laid. (The cornerstone contains a Tanit reliquary, part of a series of ceremonies which sanctify the building as a holy site.)
• 1924: Primary construction is completed. John Barca and the cultists begin using the Tophet sanctuary create Tanit serum. Officially, the board of directors and various other officers (all cultists) begun using the offices.
• February 1^st, 1925: Historically, the new Federal Reserve Building is occupied. The New York Life Building offices are shut down and vault deposits are centralized in the new building’s state-of-the-art vault.

WHAT THE FED OFFICIALLY DOES

• Economists: Collect and analyze data from across the Midwest to help the federal government monitor the economy and set interest rates.
• Cash Reserve: The Federal Reserve Bank is a bank for banks. When the banks need bank notes or coin, they request them from the Federal Reserve. That cash reserve (consisting of millions of U.S. dollars and other currency instruments) are stored in the Fed’s vaults.

INFILTRATION

Make an Appointment: Whether with John Barca or another member of the Fed staff. Although these are all cultists, official business is being conducted as a cover for their activities.

Charity Event: Dolls for Family Welfare is a charity which, as the name suggests, involves selling dolls to raise funds for charity. On Saturdays through the end of the year, they set up in the lobby of the building, also offering people the opportunity to do a short tour. The small crowds and/or tours offer the opportunity to perhaps slip away into the deeper recesses of the building. (Prop: Dolls for Family Welfare)

Fake Delivery: There are frequent deliveries to the building. These include periodicals and other material for the Archives (which are currently in the process of being transferred from the New York Life Building) and also construction material for the crews still working on finishing the interior features and décor.

Breaking In: If the vault were operational (and full of cash), this would be virtually impossible due to the extreme security measures that would be in place. Fortunately, this is not the case and only a minimal security team is onsite (see below).

Search Warrant & Police Raid: The PCs are working with Fred Watson, so it’s quite plausible that they’ll go to the police with the evidence they have. If they do so, make sure the PCs get an invite to be on the team serving the search warrants and expect a bloody shoot out between cops and cultists. (Fred taking a bullet seems dramatically awesome.) Alternatively, if you want to keep the ball in the PCs’ court, then “jurisdictional issues” can be invoked between the federal government and local law enforcement that will delay the law enforcement response by days or possibly even weeks.

NEW YORK LIFE BUILDING

Core Clue: John Barca spends little or no time at the old offices, conducting all of his business out of the offices in the new Federal Reserve Building. (Basically any investigation into the Fed’s activities at the New York Life Building should lead to some variation of, “This is all just business as usual… but the new building is weird / upper management is being very secretive about it / I keep trying to get transferred over there and apparently only people on a special list are allowed / etc.”)

New York Life Building:10-storey building with lower stories of St. Cloud granite and the upper stories of pressed brick. Built in 1890.

• Lobby: The lobby is simple incredible, featuring a pair of floating, double-helix staircases.
• Federal Reserve first rented offices in 1915. They currently occupy two floors.
• Building contains 250 offices.
• Other tenants include: The National Mutual Life Association, Walter L. Badger Real Estate and Loans, the Tontine Savings Association, Hennepin Commission Co. (a grain and stock company), the Gale Agency (representing various stock companies), and multiple attorneys (including Cross, Hicks, Carleton, & Cross; Weed Munro, Geo. Harold Smith; Edward C. Gale & Walter C. Tiffany; Alvord C. Egelston & George H. White; Booth & Douglas).

RESEARCH

History: Easily pull up the public history of the Federal Reserve and, specifically, the Minneapolis Federal Reserve as described above.

Art History – Newspaper Morgues: Local reporting features photographs of art being moved into the new Federal Reserve Building. Art History indicates that this includes rare examples of Carthaginian sculpture.

Bureaucracy: Obtain copies of the architectural plans for the new Federal Reserve Building.

• Architecture: It appears that an unusual steel alloy was used in the construction of the building; reputedly for tensile strength, although it’s unclear why that would be necessary. (Sourcing this alchemically infused steel could lead to another Tanit cultist operation at your discretion.)
• Architecture: Studying the public plans makes it’s clear that there’s something missing from them — a void directly underneath the Vault for which there are structural supports, but no indication of what’s actually there.
• Architecture 1: There’s also something weird about one of the elevator shafts. It’s designed for a greater height of operation than the other shafts, but there’s no visible reason for it.
• GM Note: Copies of the full, uncensored plans can be found in Barca’s office. At your discretion, copies might also be on file with the construction company (or, alternatively, they’ve been mysteriously destroyed). Cass Gilbert, the architect, would almost certainly have kept personal copies, but he now lives (and keeps his offices) in New York City.

Oral History / Intimidation – Construction Company: Talking to workers can probably shake free whispers about a “secret” area of the site that only certain workers were allowed into.

• Those workers (who were actually Tanit cultists) have all left the company and vanished. The person responsible for hiring them, Carl Mason, left the construction company and, strangely, now works as an economic analyst for the Minneapolis Federal Reserve.

The Cass Gilbert Rabbit Hole: Pursuing Cass Gilbert, the architect who designed the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, on the assumption that he must be part of the conspiracy can turn into a huge rabbit hole. For example:

• He designed the Minnesota Capitol Building (completed in 1905).
• He designed the Woolworth Building in New York City (currently the tallest building in the world). And does that mean that F.W. Woolworth, the founder of the F.W. Woolworth Company, is a Tanit cultist? Are his nationwide five-and-dime stores acting as operational centers for cult cells?
• He is currently designing the U.S. Supreme Court Building (which will be completed in 1935). If they’ve infiltrated the Federal Reserve, how deep has the cult penetrated the U.S. government?
• Where is he now? On a trip to England with his family, where he’s to be granted an audience with the British Royal Family. Can the PCs stop the British Empire from being suborned?

Or, alternatively, this really is just a rabbit hole: Cass Gilbert was just hired to do a job, modifying the building to include the sub-vault space at the instruction of John Barca after the death of John H. Rich. (You could even have him conveniently visiting family in Minnesota — he was raised here — and available for questioning, revealing Barca as the source for the sub-vault modifications.)

IN THE AREA

Streetcars: Streetcar lines run on all sides of the Federal Reserve Building.

Coleman’s Greasing Station: Located directly behind the Federal Reserve Building. (It’s like a service station / gas station.)

Syndicate Building: Built by a syndicate (thus the name) in 1883, the Syndicate Building contains a quarter-million feet of retail space. Assume the investigators can buy almost anything they want here.

Go to Node 8B: Inside the Minneapolis Federal Reserve

Go to Part 1

NODE 7: HARRIS CHEMICAL PLANT

(4121 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis, MN)

• Located along Minnehaha Avenue, which runs between downtown Minneapolis and Minnehaha Falls.
• A Milwaukee Road rail line runs behind the chemical plant, servicing other factories and grain silos that run up and down the western side of Minnehaha Avenue.
• A rail spur runs into the Harris loading dock, it’s not unusual for 1-3 tanker cars to be parked there (loading or unloading chemicals).

BACKGROUND

• Founded by Ezra Harris in 1895.
• Ezra Harris died in 1905 and the company was inherited by his son Clarence.
• Clarence died in 1923 without heir and the company was acquired by John Barca. (Clarence was actually poisoned by Tanit cultists specifically so that they could acquire the company.)
• Harris Chemicals has a contract with the federal government to denature alcohol: Although banned by Prohibition, alcohol still has a wide variety of necessary uses in industry. When it became clear that this industrial alcohol was being used to create illegal liquor, the government began denaturing the alcohol — adulterating the alcohol with foul-tasting additives that wouldn’t affect its industrial uses, but made it unpalatable for drinking.
• Under Barca’s direction, some of the denatured alcohol is also adulterated with Tanit parasites. This alcohol is then dropped off at an otherwise abandoned warehouse a few blocks south on Minnehaha Avenue, where Oleg Andersson picks it up and takes it to Node 6: Davis Farm to be renatured and turned into Minnesota 13.
• The secret section of the denaturing plant where the Tanit parasites are added to the alcohol is also being used as a convenient holding facility for kidnapped kids before they are taken to Node 8: Minneapolis Federal Reserve.

SURVEILLANCE

Workers: The plant employs nearly fifty people. It operates twenty-four hours a day in three shifts, although the night shift is a skeleton crew.

Security: There are four security guards on the day shifts (one at the front desk, one at the loading docks, and two on patrol). At night this is increased to six security guards. (This seems like an unusual amount of security for a business like this.)

Loading Dock: There are usually 1-3 tanker cars on the Harris rail spur, which are filled or emptied with special pipes and hoses before being picked up. Trucks arrive throughout the day, loading and unloading barrels.

Secure Denaturing Facility: External surveillance will note a special freight elevator on the loading dock that requires special keys to access. (This freight elevator leads to the denaturing facility.) PCs who gain access to the plant interior (getting hired, posing as inspectors, etc.) will be able to identify the location and public function (denaturing alcohol) of the secure facility.

John Barca: Barca will intermittently stop by the facility. He’ll visit the management offices and then go into the secure denaturing facility (on his way to the Tanit infusion area). Streetwise or Bureaucracy pegs him as out of place (his suit and shoes several tax brackets above anyone else working here). He can be followed back to Node 8: Minneapolis Federal Reserve.

Company-Owned Truck: Harris Chemical Plant has a single company-owned truck, which can be noticed as distinct from the other trucks coming and going from the loading dock. Following this truck will reveal a handful of local deliveries, but also notably:

• Being loaded with barrels of denatured alcohol that’s dropped at an abandoned warehouse a few blocks north. (Oleg Andersson then picks these barrels and takes them to Node 6: Davis Farm.)
• Transporting kidnapped kids (see below).
• Leaving empty to pick up tophet serum from Node 8: Minneapolis Federal Reserve and bringing it back here.

Moving Alex Griffin: During the night shift on Sunday, November 15^th, Alex Griffin is moved to Node 8: Minneapolis Federal Reserve by four Tanit cultists in the company-owned truck. (He’s brought down the secure elevator and loaded into the company truck.)

QUESTIONING WORKERS

Drivers: The Harris drivers can give details about their normal delivery schedule and the secure freight elevator used for processing denatured alcohol.

• They also intermittently pick up crates from Node 8: Minneapolis Federal Reserve, which are sent up the secure freight elevator to the denaturing facility.
• Any Interpersonal 1 / Credit Rating 1: The Harris drivers will reveal that they intermittently drop denatured alcohol at an abandoned warehouse a couple blocks north of the chemical plant. They don’t know, but they suspect what happens to it after they drop it off.

Other Workers: Any Harris worker can tell the PCs about normal plant operations, layout, and the secure denaturing facility.

ENTRANCES / GETTING IN

Front Entrance: On the corner of the building. Leads to the Front Office.

Loading Dock:

• Front Office: A door leads from the Loading Dock to the Front Office.
• Factory Floor: Large doors lead from the Loading Dock to the Factory Floor.
• Freight Elevator: Goes up to the Testing Labs on the 3^rd Floor.
• Secure Elevator: Goes up to the Denaturing Facility on the 4^th Floor.

Windows: 1^st Floor windows are barred (except in the Front Office). Windows on the higher storeys are unbarred (except for the 5^th Floor, which are heavily secured and cannot be opened).

INTERIOR

1st FLOOR

1st FLOOR – LOADING DOCK

• Trucks can drive into the rear loading yard from the street; there’s an entrance gate and an exit gate.
• The rail spur leads directly across Harris Chemical’s yard and into the loading area.
• There are two freight elevators — one leads to testing labs on the 3^rd Floor; a secure freight elevator leads to the Secure Denaturing Facility on the 4^th Floor.
• Large loading doors lead to the Factory Floor.

FRONT OFFICE

• Located on the corner of the building.
• Staff here manages customers and processes shipping documents brought here from the loading docks.
• Stairs lead up to the Management Offices on the 2^nd Floor; and down to the Basement.
• Bureaucracy: There’s plenty of evidence to be found here of John Barca’s ownership of the company, although he seems to take little interest in the day-to-day management, except for the denaturing contracts.

FACTORY FLOOR

On the far side of the loading docks from the Front Office.

• Various vats, pressure vessels, and the like.
• The ceiling is two storeys high with windows primarily on the upper level.
• Stairs lead down into the Basement; and up to the Testing Labs.
• The Management Offices overlook the factory floor; there’s a balcony and also large glass windows. A staircase leads from the offices down to the factory floor.

BASEMENT

• Non-volatile storage.
• PCs can waste a lot of time down here, but there’s little of interest.
• File Cabinets: Digging through these dusty records with Bureaucracy will reveal the factory’s history of ownership (including John Barca’s current ownership). It will also reveal that the 4^th Floor was heavily revamped to accommodate the federal denaturing contracts, and further construction work was done up there following Barca’s acquisition of the company.

2nd FLOOR

MANAGEMENT OFFICES

• These offices overlook the Factory Floor. (There’s a balcony and a glass wall. Stairs lead down from the balcony to the Factory Floor.)
• In the corner of the building directly above the main entrance, there’s a spiral staircase leading up to John Barca’s office (which is on the top floor of a tower). Bureaucracy in Barca’s office both identifies him as the owner of Harris Chemical and reveals that chemical shipments are being made from Node 8: Minneapolis Federal Reserve which he’s personally overseeing (which doesn’t make a lot of sense, although they’re tied to the federal denaturing contracts).

3rd FLOOR

TESTING LABS

• Chemistry reveals that these labs are conducting perfectly mundane testing and development work; exactly what you’d expect from an industrial chemical plant.
• Well-secured doors limit access to the 4^th Floor.

4th FLOOR

SECURE DENATURING FACILITY

• Can be accessed via well-secured stairwells from the 3^rd Floor or via the secure freight elevator from the Loading Docks.
• Evidence Collection / Bureaucracy: John Barca has left detailed instructions on the specific quantity of denatured alcohol which, instead of being directly shipped out, should be redirected to the 5^th Floor. (These instructions explicitly identify John Barca.)
• Entrance to Tanit Infusing Facility: The entrance to the secure facility on the 5^th Floor is hidden, requiring a 1-point spend to find. (Any leveraged clued pertaining to the secure facility — records of the facility, noticing the 5^th Floor windows on the outside of the building, etc. — removes the requirement for the 1-point spend.)

5th FLOOR

TANIT INFUSING FACILITY

• In this special chemistry lab, Tanit parasites — stored in glass bottles containing purplish liquid — are carefully infused into the denatured alcohol.
• Chemistry: Procedural notes here reveal that the Harris Chemical denaturing process has been carefully designed to prepare the alcohol for infusion with the “tophet serum.” (Infusing raw alcohol would apparently “sterilize” the serum.)
• Crates: Labels on empty and half-empty crates indicate that the “tophet serum” is shipped here from Node 8: Minneapolis Federal Reserve.
  • Bureaucracy 1: The markings indicate that the crates were stored in the vault at the Federal Reserve Building.

HOLDING CELL

• Alex Griffin is held in a small, heavily soundproofed cell on the far side of the Tanit Infusing Facility.
• Alex Griffin: Alex was kidnapped from Node 4: Harriet Tubman’s Asylum for Colored Orphans and brought here several days ago. He doesn’t really understand what’s happening, he’s very scared, but he’s just barely managing to keep it together. Any show of human kindness or a suggestion that the PCs are going to take him somewhere safe triggers an emotional breakdown (Reassurance can help pull him back together). Alex notably overheard someone say that he was going to be “taken to the Fed,” although he doesn’t know what that means.

NPCs AT HARRIS CHEMICAL

HARRIS CHEMICAL SECURITY: Athletics 5, Mechanical Repair 4, Scuffling 6, Fleeing 4, Weapons 5, Health 8

Alertness Modifier: +1 (Careful Eye)
Stealth Modifier: -1 (Uniforms stand out)
Weapons: .38 revolver (0), Billie Club (-1), Fists (-2)

TANIT CULTISTS: Athletics 5, Firearms 4, Scuffling 6, Weapons 5, Health 8

Alertness Modifier: +1 (three eyes are better than two)
Stealth Modifier: 0
Weapons: dagger (0), fists (-2), small caliber pistols (-1)
Stability Loss: +0, if seeing the eye

Go to Node 8: Minneapolis Federal Reserve

These revelation lists are a master reference document for Left Hand of Mythos, providing a list of the conclusions the players need to make while pursuing their investigation and all the clues pointing to each of those conclusions (including the locations where those clues are found).

For more information on how to use revelation lists while running an investigation, check out Node-Based Scenario Design and Using Revelation Lists.

REVELATION LIST – NODES

NODE 0: HILL HOUSE

NODE 1: 13 BLACK CATS

• HILL HOUSE: 13 Black Cat Flyers
• HILL HOUSE: Questioning Rachel Hill
• HILL HOUSE: Alicia Corey’s Corpse

NODE 2: MINNESOTA 13 / BOOTLEGGER

• HILL HOUSE: Liquor Bottles
• HILL HOUSE: Questioning Rachel Hill
• WHISKEY DEATH: Liquor Bottle
• 13 BLACK CATS: Questioning Gladys Roy

NODE 3: ALICIA COREY’S BOARDING HOUSE

• HILL HOUSE: Alicia Corey’s Corpse/Purse
• HILL HOUSE/RACHEL: Gladys Invited Rachel to Hill House
• GLADYS: Invited Alicia to Hill House

NODE 4: HARRIET TUBMAN ASYLUM FOR COLORED ORPHANS

• BOARDING HOUSE: Alicia’s Diary
• FATIMA’S SHRINE: Letter from Alicia to Gladys Roy
• FATIMA’S SHRINE: Map of Minneapolis

NODE 5: FATIMA’S SHRINE

• GLADYS: Following Gladys
• BOARDING HOUSE: Alicia’s Diary
• BOARDING HOUSE: Questioning Owners / Return Address

NODE 6: DAVIS FARM

• BOOTLEGGER: Questioning Oleg
• BOOTLEGGER: Bootlegger’s Address Book
• BOOTLEGGER: Following Oleg
• HILL HOUSE/HAND ON STREET: Minnesota 13

NODE 7: HARRIS CHEMICAL PLANT

• ORPHANAGE: Chemical Residue
• ORPHANAGE: Canvassing Neighborhood
• DAVIS FARM: Labels on Chemical Barrels
• DAVIS FARM: Questioning Ellie and Billie Davis
• BOOTLEGGER: Picks Up Denaturalized Alcohol
• KID CANN: Questioning Kid Cann (Hooked up Plant w/Oleg Andersson)
• FATIMA’S SHRINE: Address on Pad of Paper

NODE 8: MINNEAPOLIS FEDERAL RESERVE BANK

• TANIT CULTISTS: Federal Reserve Business Cards
• BARCA: Following/Researching Barca
• HARRIS CHEMICAL: Shipping Crates
• HARRIS CHEMCAL: Questioning Drivers/Alex Washington

REVELATION LIST – NPCs

RACHEL HILL

• See Node 0: Hill House.

OLEG ANDERSSON

• HILL HOUSE: Questioning Rachel Hill
• HILL HOUSE: Questioning Lucretia Gray
• DAVIS FARM: Questioning Ellie/Billie Davis
• KID CANN: Hooked Oleg up with Harris Chemical’s ethanol
• HAND ON THE STREET: Questioning Estranged Son

GLADYS ROY

• HILL HOUSE: Flyers for 13 Black Cats
• HILL HOUSE/RACHEL: Gladys Left Early
• HILL HOUSE/LUCRETIA: Sent the invitations
• FATIMA’S SHRINE: Letter from Alicia to Gladys Roy
• FATIMA’S SHRINE: 13 Black Cat Flyers (Printed Here)

KID CANN

• BOOTLEGGER: Questioning Oleg
• GLADYS: Questioning Gladys
• RESEARCH: Bootlegging

ELLIE DAVIS / BILLIE DAVIS

• See Node 6: Davis Farm.

JOHN BARCA

• HARRIS CHEMICAL: Instructions from John Barca
• HARRIS CHEMICAL: Observing Harris Chemical
• FATIMA’S SHRINE: Map of Minneapolis

REVELATION LIST – MISC.

KIDS ARE BEING KIDNAPPED

• FATIMA’S SHRINE: Letter from Alicia to Gladys Roy
• ORPHANAGE: Missing Kids
• GLADYS: Knows what Alicia reported

TANIT TAINTED ALCOHOL

• HILL HOUSE/RACHEL & GLADYS: They weren’t drinking
• HILL HOUSE & DAVIS FARM: Chemical Analysis of Whiskey
• HARRIS CHEMICAL: Tanit-Infusing Process
• GLADYS: Questioning Gladys (knows liquor was tainted)

Next: Background & General Reference

Go to Table of Contents

In Phase 2 of Storm King’s Thunder, the PCs travel to one of three cities: Bryn Shander, Goldenfields, or Triboar. Each of these cities will be attacked by giants shortly after the PCs arrive, and in each of these cities there are six “Special NPCs” that the DM is supposed to give to the players to play during the attack:

In this chapter, each player runs not only a player character but also an NPC who has ties to the settlement that the characters are defending. Once you’ve determined where the adventure begins, make photocopies of the six NPCs corresponding to the location you’ve chosen.

(…)

Each NPC comes with a brief description, personality traits (a bond, an ideal, and a flaw), and a stat block. When the giant attack begins, give one NPC to each player and tell the player where the NPC is at the start of the encounter, as noted in the encounter description.

The structural concept here is that each Special NPC who survives the giant attack will deliver a Special Quest. The DM is supposed to spell this out to the players, by reading the following boxed text aloud:

In addition to your character, each of you has received a special nonplayer character with ties to the location where the adventure begins. Take a moment to review your NPC’s personality traits and statistics. One of your goals in this part of the adventure is to keep your special NPC alive. For each of these NPCs that survives, your party will receive a special quest that yields a reward upon its successful completion. The details of these special quests won’t be revealed until the end of this part of the adventure.

These Special Quests are the scenario hooks that propel the PCs from Phase 2 into Phase 3 of the campaign. The point, obviously, is for the PCs to exit Phase 2 of the campaign with a fistful of scenario hooks pointing in a whole bunch of different directions. In Bryn Shander, for example, you can get hooks pointing to:

• Ironmaster
• Waterdeep (x2)
• Hundelstone
• Neverwinter
• deeper into Icewind Dale

Looking at this section of the campaign, I really like the Special NPC dossiers and the gimmick of taking on these additional roles during the giant attack can be quite effective in lending an epic scope to these events.

What I DON’T like is that “explicitly explain the structural conceit” thing. It pierces the veil in a way that makes the game world feel less like a real place by popping a yellow exclamation mark over the NPCs’ heads. It’s also a little awkward to hand the players brand new characters to play just as a major combat is breaking out, because the pace of events will get bogged down in the procedural aspects of passing out the dossiers, explaining what they’re doing, figuring out the stat blocks, etc.

RUNNING THE PROXIES

Instead of waiting for the giant attack, give the Special NPCs to the players as they’re approaching the city limits. For example:

You see Bryn Shander on a hill rising from the wind-swept tundra. The sun is lowering in the sky and the chill of the wind is taking on a vicious edge. Ahead you can see two 30-foot-tall cylindrical towers flanking the gate.

CUT TO: Six people living in Bryn Shander.

At this point, distribute the NPC dossiers to the players and give them a minute to look things over. Put a copy of the Bryn Shander map on the table for the players to reference. Then prompt each player to frame a simple scene:

• What is something Augrek does every day?
• Where is Sirac right now?
• Markham is in Rendaril’s Emporium. What is he looking for?
• Duvessa Shane is having an argument. Who is she arguing with?
• Beldora is following someone. Who?
• Sir Baric, give me a Perception check to see if you catch the pickpocket taking your purse.

Briefly play through these scenes. Then cut back to the PCs entering the town.

Your goal here is to very quickly make the town come to life and get the players invested in it. When the giants attack later, the players now have a reason to really care about the community AND they’re already oriented to the Special NPCs and their lives, so they can jump straight in.

BEFORE THE GIANT ATTACK

The PCs will now go about their business. (Shopping, finding lodging, following up on whatever scenario hooks brought them to this city in the first place.) As they’re doing this, reincorporate the NPCs whenever you can:

• The PCs meet Sirac when they look for someone to give them directions.
• Markham is, conveniently, who they’re looking for.
• Duvessa comes in while they’re talking to Markham. She wants to talk to him about the argument she just had.
• As they head to the general store for supplies, they run into Sir Baric who is just finishing that pickpocketing scene.
• At the store, they meet Beldora.

And so forth. Whatever feels right for your group, based on how those first scenes played out.

The PCs don’t need to coincidentally meet every Special NPC. (No reason to force it.) But if that happens naturally… great!

Then, suddenly, in the middle of one of these scenes: GIANTS ATTACK!

AFTER THE GIANT ATTACK

In addition to the NPC dossiers, you’ll also want to have prepped a short handout for each scenario hook they can offer to the PCs. After the giant attack is complete, hand these to the appropriate players and let them frame up the scenes where they give the hooks to the PCs.

(You can give these out over time instead of all at once if that feels more appropriate. The pacing here is more art than science.)

The text from Storm King’s Thunder can serve as a good base for these briefing sheets, but you may want to tweak them a bit. For example, Beldora’s reads:

Beldora urges the characters to head southwest and take Ten Trail through the mountains to the mining settlement of Hundelstone. She suggests they make contact with a gnome named Thwip Ironbottom, who lives there year-round. If one or more of the party members are Harpers, she tells them that Thwip serves as the organization’s eyes and ears in Hundelstone. Beldora uses her sending stone to inform Thwip that the characters are coming.

This is very scripted and will likely feel awkward to the player. Shift the phrasing to give the player more leeway in playing the scene:

Beldora is impressed by the actions of the party and would like to recruit them as Harpers. If they’re interested, she’ll direct them to make contact with Thwip Ironbottom in the mining settlement of Hundelstone (which lies to the southwest and can be reached by following the Ten Trail through the mountains).

It’s a small shift, but hopefully the effect is fairly clear.

EXTENDING THE GIMMICK

In the Storm King’s Remix, you’ll repeat this same structure three times. This is good: Each time you do it, the players will feel more comfortable with what they’re expected to do, and the results will grow stronger as a result. You might worry that it will become repetitive, but in practice this won’t happen because the NPCs are unique and the circumstances distinct. The result will play out very differently each time.

Having done so, you might think about how this gimmick could be extended. (Particularly if it seems to be well-received by the players.) There are several ways to do this:

• When the PCs return to one of the three cities, take the time to once again frame up day-in-the-life scenes with the Special NPCs.
• Even if the PCs don’t return to one of the cities, perhaps one or more of the Special NPCs could be encountered elsewhere. (Beldora, for example, might be reassigned by the Harpers.)
• If the players seem really attached to their Special NPCs, you might use some light bluebooking to allow them to stay connected to the characters and follow up on what’s happening with them. (You could also use this as a vector for establishing the scope of the crisis affecting Faerûn; you might even have these NPCs maintain some form of correspondence with the PCs, allowing them to be conduits for additional information or scenario hooks as the campaign continues.)

You might also consider keeping an eye out for opportunities to use a similar technique in other locations during the campaign. (You would, of course, have to write up the appropriate NPC dossiers.) For example, what if the players took on the roles of various giants in Maelstrom when visiting the storm giant court for the first time?

Go to Storm King’s Remix

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!