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As written, the key problem with the Eye of the All-Father revelation is that there’s no way for the PCs to discover it for themselves. Instead, they just kind of bumble around in Phase 3 until the giant Harshnag shows up, tells them what they “should” have been doing this whole time, and then joins the group as a vastly overpowered GMPC who pretends to be only semi-competent in combat so that he doesn’t make the PCs feel inferior. (That’s literally text, see p. 120.)

Here’s how you fix that:

1. The PCs learn what the Eye of the All-Father is.
2. They find out where it is.

These two steps can happen simultaneously, but if they’re separated, then the first step will make the PCs appreciate the significance of the second step when it happens.

The big change we’re going to make here is inverting Harshnag’s role in the campaign. Instead of showing up at the end of Phase 3 and telling the PCs where the railroad tracks are, we’ll trigger the encounter with Harshnag early in the campaign. (Perhaps he’s traveling in Zephyros’ Tower, p. 32.) And what he says is: “I’m trying to find the Eye of the All-Father, the true location of which has been lost for many generations of giants. (Insert a bunch of lore about the Eye of the All-Father here.) If you learn anything about it, please send word to me via Blackstaff Tower in Waterdeep.” (Although this is not mentioned in Storm King’s Thunder, Harshnag is a member of Force Grey, an elite strike force commanded by the Blackstaff that enforces the laws that Waterdeep’s normal watch cannot.)

If the PCs now locate the Eye of the All-Father and decide to contact Harshnag, THEY’RE the essential players (pun intended). The more awesome Harshnag is, the more awesome they are for having helped him.

THE EYE OF THE ALL-FATHER EXISTS

• Harshnag’s Quest. The giant Harshnag (p. 118) is seeking the Eye of the All-Father and asks the PCs to send word to the Blackstaff in Waterdeep if they discover the lost location of the Eye.
• Frost-Touched Monolith (Triboar). In the courtyard of the Frost-Touched Frog, there is a stone sarsen that stands about nine feet high. Written in Dethek characters in a Giant (Jotun) language is the message, “Here are the lands of the Hill Giants. Decreed as Law by the Eye of the All-Father. Let no small folk enter here, or they shall find our stomachs are their final destination.” The stone was once one that marked the territory around Grudd Haug, but was removed a generation ago by treasure-seekers and brought to Triboar, where Alatha Riversword, the former proprietress of the Frost-Touched Frog, accepted it as payment for a bar debt on a lark.
• Dwarf’s Quest (Citadel Adbar/Citadel Felbarr). The kings and queens of these dwarven fortresses know the legends of the Eye of the All-Father and that it exists somewhere in the Spine of the World. They suggest that the PCs might want to seek it out.
• Gwent’s Advice (Ironmaster). If the PCs are following Augrek Brighthelm’s quest from Bryn Shander (p. 42) and meet with Gwent Brighthelm, he will suggest that they might seek out the Eye of the All-Father. (His information is rather vague: The dwarves know it was a site in the Spine of the World which was of importance to the giants in ages past, and “perhaps they are using it as a command center now.” He does not know the exact location.)
• Deadstone Cleft – Area 14: Temple. Add Where lies the Eye of the All-Father? To Kayalithica’s Questions, p. 153. (She has not received an answer.)
• Claugiyliamatar (Kryptgarden Forest), p. 96. If the PCs enter Kryptgarden Forest, the green dragon flies out of her lair and informs them the Eye of the All-Father can tell them “what must be done to end the giant menace.”

Note: Claugiyliamatar lies at the end of a short quest line which originates in Goldenfields (p. 52). Naxene Drathkala sends the PCs to a dragon expert in Waterdeep, who then sends them to the Kryptgarden Forest to look for the green dragon.

THE LOCATION OF THE EYE OF THE ALL-FATHER

• Questioning Cartographers (Waterdeep). Count Nimbolo and Countess Mulara, the cloud giant cartographers who visit Waterdeep while the PCs are there (p. 113), have tentatively identified the location of the Eye of the All-Father. They have not yet gone there, but it’s on their list of places to visit (and confirm if their hypothesis is correct).
• Svardborg – Area 4D: Narthex. The ceiling of this building is decorated with a faded mural depicting the peaks of the Spine of the World. (Artistically it makes it look as if the narthex were the root from which these mountains had grown.) Anyone inspecting the mural will note that the peaks have been individually labeled with their names, some of them archaic and/or peculiar to giant nomenclature. One of them is “the Eye of the All-Father,” and indicates the location of the temple.
• Questioning Hekaton. Hekaton knows the location of the Eye of the World, a secret that was passed down to him from his forefathers. (He never had a chance to pass that knowledge onto his daughters, although you might hide a scroll containing the knowledge somewhere within the King’s Tower in Maelstrom, p. 214.)
• Questioning Iymrith. Iymrith knows the location of the Eye of the World. This fact is alluded to in a letter Iymrith sent to Nym (see Finding Hekaton revelations, below). Iymrith might also reveal this information if he ends up allied with the PCs; or if he thinks that seeking the temple might distract them. (You could add the lore book from which he learned it to Iymrith’s Trove, p. 229.)
• Claugiyliamatar (Kryptgarden Forest), p. 96. If the PCs enter Kryptgarden Forest, the green dragon flies out of her lair and informs them the Eye of the All-Father can tell them “what must be done to end the giant menace.”

Note: The players might choose to take a more proactive approach to finding the Eye of the All-Father, rather than simply waiting to stumble across the information. For example, they might head to Candlekeep to do research, attempt castings of legend lore, ask the Blackstaff to consult the spirits of the former Blackstaffs to see if any of them knew the secret before it was lost, or any number of other possibilities. Generally speaking, if they put some effort into this, pay it off by either revealing the location or by pointing the PCs towards one of the clues above. (For example, they might discover that Iymrith stole a book of lore about the Eye of the All-Father from Candlekeep. Or learn that the information would have been encoded in the murals on the ceilings of Ostorian shrines.)

Go to Part 3D: Concept Revelations

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We took a look at the Questioning/Backtracking Giants leads in this section of the campaign earlier. To that end, I’ve collapsed these leads into a single entry for each revelation (with an accompanying list of instances). There are such leads pointing to all five of the non-Maelstrom lairs.

To this we can also add the Eye of the All-Father, which similarly points to all of these lairs.

Structurally, I decided that each lair should also have a lead pointing to it from one of the other giant lairs. This means that once the PCs “punch up” into this layer of the campaign, it will be possible for them to circulate between the giant lairs. (These leads also, by their nature, begin to reveal the factional rivalries and politics between the giants.)

This gives us three clues for each lair, but they’re both formulaic and also very internal to the giants (they’re either the giants themselves, their lairs, or their oracle). So I finished fleshing out these revelation lists by adding one “outside” option to each list. (These are also the clues that the PCs will encounter while moving through the pointcrawl-like structure of Phase 3.)

Maelstrom is an exception to all this: It gets one clue pointing to it from each giant lair plus the prebuilt route through the Eye of the All-Father.

If you wanted to add an extra option to these revelation lists, you might consider putting a map of all known giant lairs somewhere in the Maelstrom. This makes sense (the Storm Giants were ruling over all of these places until just recently and/or Serissa would be doing her best to keep tabs on everyone) and creates the opportunity for a structure where the PCs punch up through the giant lairs, reach Maelstrom, and can then see the whole strategic picture of the giant situation. (Either as a result of the map or by forming an alliance with Serissa.)

I usually try to avoid this kind of “all the clues in one basket” approach because it can obviously short circuit the entire investigation. (All the answers the PCs want, after all, are conveniently right here for them.) Given the overall structure here, though, it’s probably fine. And you could also temper things by making the current locations of, say, Lyn Armaal and Kayalithica a mystery to Serissa.

GRUDD HAUG – DEN OF THE HILL GIANTS

• Frost-Touched Monolith (Triboar). In the courtyard of the Frost-Touched Frog, there is a stone sarsen that stands about nine feet high. Written in Dethek characters in a Giant (Jotun) language is the message, “Here are the lands of the Hill Giants. Decreed as Law by the Eye of the All-Father. Let no small folk enter here, or they shall find our stomachs are their final destination.” The stone was once one that marked the territory around Grudd Haug, but was removed a generation ago by treasure-seekers and brought to Triboar, where Alatha Riversword, the former proprietress of the Frost-Touched Frog, accepted it as payment for a bar debt on a lark. (Either documents can be found in the abandoned tavern testifying to where the monolith was originally found. Or they may need to track down the tavern’s current owner, Artus Riversword (see the Helm’s Hold lead to Triboar, described above).
• High Forest Poachers. PCs who are crossing the High Forest may stumble across the slaughtered remains of megafauna (huge deer, etc.) who have been slain by hill giants and then taken back to Grudd Haug. (It’s possible that the PCs might encounter hunters from Noanar’s Hold, p. 101, inspecting the kill site.)
• Deadstone Cleft – Area 14: Temple. Kayalithica has reports from scouts she sent to observe Grudd Haug. In addition to providing details of its location and a rough map of its exterior, the scouts also disdainfully report on Chief Guh’s disgusting effort to become “the largest giant” by literally eating her way to the distinction. They dismiss her rovers as being a threat to the stone giants; if anything, Guh has greatly weakened her strategic position by sending giant raiders to scour the surrounding countryside.
• Lyn Armaal – Area 14: Castellan’s Quarters. Cressaro has spy reports and maps identifying the location of Grudd Haug. These include an aerial map of the lodge. The reports of his spies describe with disdsain Chief Guh’s plan to eat her way to supremacy; they do express some concern that if her raiders get closer to the Evermoors they could rile up the people of Yartar or the elves of the High Forest and necessitate Lyn Armaal moving to a new location.
• Questioning/Backtracking Giants. Random Encounter (p. 70 & 71), Goldenfields (p. 51), Uluvin (p. 112), Old Tower (p. 116-7).
• Eye of the All-Father, p. 151. Oracle gives them directions.

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 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.

SVARDBORG – BERG OF THE FROST GIANTS

• Cloud Giant Cartographers. Count Nimbolo and Countess Mulara, the cloud giant cartographers who visit Waterdeep while the PCs are there (p. 113), were planning an expedition to Svardborg after investigating the giant settlement they believe Waterdeep was built atop of. Their maps include the approximate location of Svardborg in the Sea of Moving Ice, and notations indicate that it has been “recently reoccupied by frost giants.” If groups approach them in a more friendly way, they may mention this in conversation; they will certainly be eager to show off their new maps (allowing characters to notice the notation).
• Deadstone Cleft – Area 14: Temple. Kayalithica has correspondence from Jarl Storvald, apparently replying to some earlier letter Kayalithica sent to him proposing an alliance. The jarl is tentatively interested in “a world where you rule all the lands of lost Ostoria and my people rule all the oceans from the Sea of Moving Ice” as joint rulers of a new era, but stops short of actually promising anything. (Add Will the giants of Svardborg ally with us? to Kayalithica’s Questions, p. 153.)
• Questioning/Backtracking Giants. Bryn Shander (p. 41-2), Fireshear (p. 83), Helm’s Hold (p. 90), Luskan (p. 97), Port Llast (p. 104). Backtracking frost giants will generally lead you to their reaver ships. I recommend having navigational charts on the ships indicating the location of Svardborg.
• Eye of the All-Father, p. 151. Oracle gives them directions.

IRONSLAG – FORGE OF THE FIRE GIANTS

• King’s Request (Citadel Adbar), p. 78. King Harnoth asks the PCs to raid Ironslag.
• King and Queen’s Request (Citadel Felbarr), p. 79. King Morinn and Queen Tithmel ask the PCs to raid Ironslag.
• Lyn Armaal – Area 14: Castellan’s Quarters. Cressaro has spy reports and maps identifying the location of Ironslag. These include an aerial map of the Yakfolk Village (p. 174).
• Questioning/Backtracking Giants. Triboar (p. 60), Nesme (p. 100).
• Questioning Drow Raiders (Gauntlgrym), p. 85-86. Drow thieves from Ironslag can be caught in Gauntlgrym.
• Eye of the All-Father, p. 151. Oracle gives them directions

Note: If the PCs are wandering around the Silver Marches trying to figure out where the fire giants are, don’t hesitate to have NPCs suggest they might go to Citadel Adbar or Citadel Felbarr for aid. (This could equally well apply to any other goals the PCs might be pursuing in the region. Or if they’re working with a faction, the faction might send them to the dwarven kings and queens to discuss a potential alliance against the giants.)

LYN ARMAAL – CASTLE OF THE CLOUD GIANTS

• Zymorven Hall. From their outlook over the Evermoors, the knights of Zymorven Hall (p. 62) have observed winged figures repeatedly flying out of the Evermoors and heading towards the northwest. Lord Harthos Zymorven is concerned that the village of Rivermoot (p. 106), which lies in that direction, may be at risk from these creatures and asks the PCs to investigate. (The winged figures are aarokocra from Lyn Armaal, who are purchasing supplies and food in Rivermoot.)
• Random Encounter, p. 69. The PCs see Lyn Armaal flying above them.
• Ironslag – Area 26: Ducal Quarters. Zalto has correspondence from Countess Sansuri, the Lady of Masks, suggesting/asserting that, with the Ordning broken and the dominion of the Storm Giants at an end, Zalto should swear fealty to her and they could rise together to the top of the new Ordning. (The suggestion has enraged Zalto.) There are also reports from Zalto’s spies, who report that Lyn Armaal seems to have taken up a semi-permanent station above the Evermoors while the cloud giants are searching for something. (Or possibly multiple things.)
• Questioning Cartographers. Count Nimbolo and Countess Mulara, the cloud giant cartographers who visit Waterdeep while the PCs are there (p. 113), have heard that Countess Sansuri is interested in obtaining more up-to-date maps of the lands controlled by the little people. Nimbolo and Mulara aren’t really interested in that, but Sansuri’s agents have requested that they visit Lyn Armaal above the Evermoors. (The agent did suggest that the Lady of Masks was searching for some sort of ancient giant artifact… which does intrigue the cartographers somewhat.)
• Eye of the All-Father, p. 151. Oracle gives them directions.

MAELSTROM – HOLD OF THE STORM GIANTS

• Eye of the All-Father, p. 151. Oracle tells them that they need a conch of teleportation.
• Grudd Haug – Area 2: Feasting Hall. Chief Guh believes that once she’s placed atop the new Ordning that the All-Father will give the Maelstrom to the hill giants. (Why the hill giants would even want it is unclear; it really can’t be emphasized just how stupid Guh is.) She has scrawled a crude and mostly inaccurate map of Maelstrom on the wall next to her, indicating how she would redecorate.
• Deadstone Cleft – Area 14: Temple. Kayalithica is conspiring with Iymrith. (She does not know that Iymrith is a dragon.) Iymrith’s latest letter scolds Kayalithica, saying that she is “as impatient as the sisters. Serissa’s reign will end soon enough, but we must not move too quickly. Let her failures continue to mount and her support will continue to wither away. Then the legacy of Hekaton will be undone completely, and the storm lords will be lost in chaos while the fate of the new Ordning is decided.”
• Svardborg – Nilraun. The jarl has had Nilraun using experimental techniques to use the conch of teleportation to cast scrying and clairvoyance spells into Maelstrom. He has discovered that Iymrith is a blue dragon, but has not revealed that information to the jarl.
• Ironslag – Brimskarda. In her bodice, Brimskarda has a letter sent to her by Serissa. It appears that Serissa and Brimskarda were once drinking buddies when they were younger; apparently conspiring as friends during various diplomatic summits that their fathers attended. Serissa calls upon these old bonds, hoping that Brimskarda will intercede with Duke Zalto and convince him to honor the fire giants’ contracts for supplying the storm giants with weapons. “Use the conch,” she urges, “And come visit us at Maelstrom. It shall be like old times again.” Brimskarda has not shown the letter to Zalto.
• Lyn Armaal – Area 14: Castellan’s Quarters. Among Cressaro’s papers is a request from the Lady of Masks to a prepare a plan for using the conch of teleportation to infiltrate Maelstrom. (Cressaro has not yet had time to work on this.)

Go to Part 3C: The Eye of the All-Father

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We’ll start revising the revelation lists for Storm King’s Thunder by looking at the leads that take us from Nightstone to the Three Cities (Bryn Shander, Goldenfields, and Triboar).

A significant change in these revelations is that I’m breaking up Morak’s Quests from Nightstone (p. 31). As written, all three of these quests take the form of, “Please tell so-and-so that their family member is dead.” If you’re using all three hooks (as I recommend), this is very repetitive. I wanted both more variety and, where possible, higher stakes. So we’ve done that and also changed up the scenario hooks so that they come from different people.

Whereas it’s relatively likely that the PCs will enter the regions around Goldenfields and Triboar coincidentally during their travels (if they don’t stumble into them directly), the trick with Bryn Shander is that there’s nothing to really draw the PCs up into the Frozenfar (where we could naturally seed local activity that would hook the PCs into Icewind Dale). To counteract this, I’ve included a hyper-flexible lead in the form of a Harper’s Message that can be dropped into any one of a dozen locations.

Note that the Blod Stone and Escorting Ghalvin Dragonmoor leads are both included for completeness, but both are likely to either happen after the giant attacks these revelations are designed to introduce or preclude them from happening (for reasons described earlier).

BRYN SHANDER

• Delfryndels’ Quest (Nightstone). The Delfryndels’ neighbor and friend Semile Southwell was killed by a giant’s boulder (p. 22). They’ve gathered a small bundle of Semile’s personal belongings and would dearly like to see them delivered to Semile’s brother, Markham Southwell, who lives in Bryn Shander. The PCs are wanderers… is there any chance they might be heading towards the Frozenfar? (If they see that the PCs have Semile’s gold ring, which was looted from her dead hand by a goblin, they’ll request that it, too, be given to Markham. Or express their regret that the ring is missing.)
• Missing Everlund Merchants (Everlund). A merchant named Chenu sent agents to Bryn Shander to arrange the purchase of knucklehead scrimshaw (which is incredibly popular with the mercantile and noble families in Everlund). They were supposed to have returned two months ago, but there’s been no sign of them. She’s looking to hire some people who can handle themselves to figure out what happened to them. (Inquiries reveal that they were killed in a yeti caravan attack. They had no identifying paperwork, but the PCs can identify them by their merchant’s sigil. Duvessa Shane (p. 38) has held the money they were carrying in care; if the PCs can satisfy her that they are the rightful agents, they can receive the money and perhaps even arrange for the scrimshaw that Chenu needs.)
• Frozenfar Caravan (Hundelstone). A caravan in Hundelstone lost its guards to a yeti attack. They’re ready to head back north into Icewind Dale, but they need new protectors. (You can find a usable caravan in Legacy of the Crystal Shard.)
• Harper’s Message. A Harper agent asks the PCs to deliver a message to Beldora, a Harper operating in Icewind Dale. In whatever location the message is coming from, a recent string of murders was traced to a local cult of Auril. Documents found with the cult indicated that they had received visions of an “Ice Maiden” appearing on the Reghed Glacier; an omen of Auril’s “ascension.” They’d like Beldora to look into it.
• Blod Stone (Berg of the Frost Giants), p. 156 & 165. This magical artifact points towards the nearest blood relative of Artus Cimber, which is currently Sirac of Suzail in Bryn Shander.

Note: Alternatively, if the PCs belong to a faction who might be hostile to the Harpers, you could have them sent on a mission to assassinate, expose, or blackmail Beldora.

GOLDENFIELDS

• Nightstone’s Need (Nightstone). Nightstone’s food stores have been destroyed or looted. They need a large shipment of food as soon as possible, and the best place to go for it is Goldenfields. Whoever ends up in charge of Nightstone when the dust settles will ask the PCs to make the journey and arrange things.
• Call for an Old Friend (Uluvin). If the PCs save Uluvin from the hill giants, the community will need help rebuilding. The grateful widow Zorandra Heller (p. 112) remembers a moon elf druid named Aerglas who lived in the town for awhile when she was a young girl. She believes he would be able to help them now, and gives the PCs a ring of protection with his sigil which was given to her mother as a gift by Aerglas. She knows that Aerglas now resides in Goldenfields.
• Dead Messenger. (Dessarin Valley) While passing through the Dessarin Valley, the PCs find the body of a dead messenger in the livery of House Thann of Waterdeep (Dragon Heist, p. 162). He’s carrying a message addressed to Zi Liang of Goldenfields informing her that her father has died. (Zi Liang’s Quest, p. 52, is now in immediate response to her father’s death.)
• Zhentarim Payroll (Bargewright Inn). Zhentarim-affiliated PCs will be asked to deliver a coffer to Shalvus Martholio in Goldenfields (p. 46). The coffer contains cash Shalvus will be using to make strategic bribes to officials in Goldenfields to further the Black Network’s goal of taking control of the community.
• Escorting Ghalvin Dragonmoor (Den of the Hill Giants), p. 144. Freed from the hill giants, Ghalvin asks the PCs to escort him back to Goldenfields.

Note: The Call for an Old Friend hook points the PCs to Lifferlas’ Quest in Goldenfields.

TRIBOAR

• Morak’s Quest (Nightstone), p. 31. Morak’s friend and neighbor, Darthag Ulgar, was eaten by giant rats. Darthag ran the Lionshield Coster trading post in Nightstone, and his ex-wife runs a similar trading post in Triboar. The trading post is a vital lifeline for Nightstone’s economy. Morak asks the PCs to travel to Triboar, deliver news of Darthag’s death, and try to make arrangements for the Lionshield Coster to send an agent to Nightstone.
• Deed to the Frog (Helm’s Hold). If the PCs accept the quest given to them in Helm’s Hold (p. 91) and encounter the raiding frost giant, they will discover that he has taken a prisoner named Artus Riversword. The frost giant knows that his lord is seeking Artus Cimber and when he heard Artus’ wife shout her husband’s name (just before the giant killed her), he concluded this must be the guy. Riversword is unrelated to Cimber, but he is the descendant of Alatha Riversword, who was once the proprietess of the Frost-Touched Frog in Triboar (p. 56). Artus and his wife were heading back to their farmstead from a local village market. Artus will ask the PCs to help him carry his wife’s body home for burial, and then give them the deed to the Frost-Touched Frog as thanks for saving his life.
• Armorial Order (Citadel Felbarr). King Morinn and Queen Tithmel once received splendid suits of ceremonial armor from Ghelryn Foehammer of Triboar (p. 57). They would now like to order an armorial crest of their coat of arms from the talented smith. Since the PCs are outsiders, would they consider carrying the royal request to him?

Note: The king and queen are already designed to give the PCs a lead pointing at the Forge of the Fire Giants (p. 79). I recommend sequencing these requests with Ghelryn Foehammer’s Quest (p. 62): The PCs are asked by the king and queen to deliver their message to Foehammer; Foehammer then asks them to let the king and queen know he will deliver the armorial crest and also writes them a letter of recommendation; on the strength of the letter of recommendation, the king and queen then send the PCs to investigate the fire giants.

Since Citadel Felbarr is somewhat out of the way, you might want to strengthen this by adding an extra lead or two pointing at Felbarr to begin with. However, this is probably not necessary: Because Triboar is a major crossroads, the leads here can afford to be a little more esoteric.

Go to Part 3B: The Giant Lairs

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ANALYZING THE REVELATION LISTS

With the published revelation list from Part 2 in hand, we can use it to quickly assess weak points in the campaign. And there are obviously some things that immediately jump out at us.

First, though, I should say that I was somewhat surprised by how robust this revelation list appears to be. You can see that a lot of these revelations are flush with clues. Certainly more than I had initially thought when simply reading through the campaign book.

However, the word “appears” is somewhat key here.

The thing to note is the lack of variety in the clues. Notice how many of them are some form of Question a Giant. This creates two problems.

First, a lack of variety in your clues can result in a flat and uninteresting investigation. You can see how the primary experience of this campaign could easily boil down to, “Talk to a giant. Talk to another giant. Talk to another giant. Talk to another giant. Talk to another giant.”

Second, and more importantly, this uniformity is a hidden form of fragility. The Three Clue Rule states that for any conclusion you want the PCs to make, you need to include at least three clues. And, technically, talking to a giant in Bryn Shander, talking to a giant in Helm’s Hold, and talking to a giant in Port Llast are three different clues.

But the function of the Three Clue Rule, ultimately, boils down to redundancy. Because these clues are all identical in form (you have to question a giant), they can all fail in the exact same way (the players don’t question a giant). Maybe the players never even consider the possibility of questioning a giant. Or maybe one of the PCs is a dwarf who has sworn an oath of vengeance on giant-kind (a reasonable character concept for a campaign pitched as “take the fight to the giants’ doorsteps!”) and will never take a giant prisoner. There are lots of possibilities, just as there are for missing any clue. The point is that the number of clues in these cases may only offer an illusory robustness.

We can see the effect here clearly, I think, if we look at the Phase 5 revelation lists after removing all forms of Questioning a Giant:

PHASE 5 – DEN OF THE HILL GIANTS

• Eye of the All-Father, p. 151. Oracle gives them directions.

PHASE 5 – CANYON OF THE STONE GIANTS

• Eye of the All-Father, p. 151. Oracle gives them directions.
• Silixia (Grayvale), p. 88. This young brass dragon will point the PCs towards Deadstone Cleft.

PHASE 5 – BERG OF THE FROST GIANTS

• Eye of the All-Father, p. 151. Oracle gives them directions.

PHASE 5 – FORGE OF THE FIRE GIANTS

• Eye of the All-Father, p. 151. Oracle gives them directions.
• Track Triboar Raiders (Triboar) p. 60.
• King’s Request (Citadel Adbar), p. 78. King Harnoth asks the PCs to raid Ironslag.
• King and Queen’s Request (Citadel Felbarr), p. 79. King Morinn and Queen Tithmel ask the PCs to raid Ironslag.
• Questioning Drow Raiders (Gauntlgrym), p. 85-86. Drow thieves from Ironslag can be caught in Gauntlgrym.

PHASE 5 – CASTLE OF THE CLOUD GIANTS

• Eye of the All-Father, p. 151. Oracle gives them directions.
• Random Encounter, p. 69. The PCs see Lyn Armaal flying above them.

In a single glance we can immediately see that only the Forge of the Fire Giants remains robustly supported by the Three Clue Rule, and the fragile funnel through the Eye of the All-Father is also obvious.

ANALYSIS: THE ENDING

Looking at the full revelation list, the other thing that’s obvious is that the end of the adventure doesn’t work.

The clear intention is that the PCs are supposed to unveil the conspiracy between Iymrith, Mirran, and Nym. But, as far as I can tell, there’s really no way for them to discover that conspiracy (other than blindly asking the oracle).

Furthermore, the final sequence of the campaign — making an alliance with Serissa, tracking down the Morkoth, rescuing Lord Hekaton, and then raiding Iymrith’s lair — is strung together by only the thinnest of threads. It’s easily broken, literally leaving the campaign at loose ends.

This is all exacerbated by another problem with the ending, one which is not specifically revealed by the revelation list: The central goal of the campaign is “stop the giant attacks.” The rescue of Lord Hekaton and the death of Iymrith is explicitly presented — structurally, textually, and diegetically to the characters — as the way to achieve this.

But… it doesn’t.

The root cause of the giant attacks is that the Ordning was broken. That happened before Hekaton was kidnapped and has nothing to do with the woes of the Storm King’s court or the machinations of Iymrith. So… yeah. Logically, there’s no reason that saving Hekaton or killing Iymrith would resolve that problem.

This is basically confirmed by the “Adventure Conclusion” section on page 230 of Storm King’s Thunder, which more-or-less says, “We ran out of pages. There is no conclusion.”

The first problem, obviously, is that the adventure doesn’t have an ending.

The second problem, though, is that it’s obvious from the beginning that saving Hekaton won’t logically solve the problem the PCs are trying to solve. This makes it incredibly difficult (bordering on the impossible) to motivate the PCs to do any of that. This plays a large role in why the end of the adventure is so tattered. It’s really difficult to design clues pointing to a conclusion when the conclusion doesn’t make any sense.

REVISING THE REVELATION LISTS

To fix these problems, we just need to revise the revelation list — fleshing it out with additional clues that will make the scenario more robust.

Before we do that, however, there are two big questions we should answer.

First, do we want to maintain the funnel through the Eye of the All-Father?

My personal predilection is to say no.

The structure doesn’t really make a lot of sense in terms of the game world. These giant raids are happening all over the place and are kind of a big deal. (If you’ll pardon the pun.) It doesn’t really seem logical that the PCs are supposed to seek out a hidden temple in order to figure out anything substantive about why the raids are happening or where the threat is coming from.

The structure is not particularly interesting in its own right. In fact, almost the opposite is true. In Phase 3 of the campaign the PCs are motivated to go traveling through the Savage Frontier, scooping up a variety of leads as they go that motivate further travel. But because, with one esoteric exception, the campaign is designed to funnel the PCs through Harshnag (who shows up as a “random” encounter on p. 118) to the Eye of the All-Father, none of these leads actually go anywhere. As a result, the campaign kind of just spins its wheels.

You can certainly improve this by including more clues leading to the Eye of the All-Father, but (a) such clues are easier to justify seeding into the giant lairs and (b) it’s probably more effective to ditch the funnel, let the PCs investigate the various giant factions independently, and then include the Eye of the All-Father as an additional (and very powerful) resource in continuing those investigations.

Second, how do we fix the fundamental problems with the ending?

There’s really two parts to this. First, the structure of the mini-arc around the Storm King’s court (identifying the Iymrith conspiracy, tracking down the Morkoth, rescuing Lord Hekaton, raiding Iymrith’s lair) needs to be made more robust in its own right, with a fully functional revelation list that adheres to the Three Clue Rule.

Second, there’s the more fundamental problem of the campaign not actually providing a conclusion that ends the giant violence.

The easiest solution to this problem would be to revise the premise of the campaign to match its actual structure. As written, Storm King’s Thunder ends when Lord Hekaton is returned to his throne and vengeance has been taken on the conspirators who betrayed him. If we want this to be our conclusion, then we simply need to set things up so that this outcome does, in fact, end the violence.

In other words, the giant attacks are caused by Lord Hekaton’s disappearance, so that his return logically brings them to an end. And we can do this by either (a) having the All-Father break the Ordning due to Hekaton’s disappearance or (b) skipping the whole concept of the Ordning and just having the giants out of control because Hekaton’s court is in disarray and no longer able to control them.

As noted, this is easily done. (It’s at least 99% accomplished by just remembering that the Ordning was now broken when Hekaton disappeared and having the various giant factions report things accordingly.) I think the drawback, however, is that “the king is dead, so everything is chaos” is just metaphysically much less interesting than the deeper and more profound upending of the giants’ social order by the All-Father.

The other option, therefore, is to re-align the ending so that it syncs up with the existing lore. Broadly speaking, I see two possibilities here:

• The PCs systematically eliminate every giant threat; or
• The PCs help one of the giant factions achieve victory in the new Ordning, ending the conflict.

The first approach can be crudely achieved by going from one giant lair to the next and stabbing giants in the face until there are no more giants, but I think there are both aesthetic and practical problems with this. The short version is that it’s difficult to really take the giant threat seriously if it can be trivially solved by five people acting alone.

This is something a lot of narratives — particularly “chosen one” narratives — get wrong. To understand why, consider two examples that get it right: Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. Luke, Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and the droids can all be absolutely essential to the rebel victory, but if the Death Star was just blown up by the Millennium Falcon flying solo (pun intended), the stakes would immediately collapse. The same would be true if there were no armies in Middle Earth and Frodo and Sam could just walk up to Mt. Doom unaided and defeat Sauron. In both cases, the heroes are larger than life because they are the essential lynchpins in a much larger effort.

The final conclusion from all this, ultimately, is that the PCs will need to (a) figure out how they want to solve the problem and (b) start forming alliance(s) to make that happen. The good news is that, whatever course they decide to chart for themselves, we’ll probably be able to handle it through a common structure.

We’ll come back to that. Let’s start by revising the revelation lists leading up to that conclusion.

Throughout these revised revelation lists, I will be providing a description of how the lead should be integrated into the campaign. You may still need to figure out exactly how to do the final implementation, and I do recommend incorporating these clues into your prep notes for a location/scenario so that they don’t need to be cross-referenced from the revelation list.

Go to Part 3A: The Three Cities

Go to Table of Contents

In Part 1 we broke down the overall structure of Storm King’s Thunder. To briefly recap:

• Phase 1: Nightstone.
• Phase 2: The Three Cities, in which the PCs go to Bryn Shander, Goldenfields, or Triboar (which is subsequently attacked by giants).
• Phase 3: The Savage Frontier, a pointcrawl in which the PCs journey across the North.
• Phase 4: Eye of the All-Father, in which the PCs recover giant artifacts stolen by Uthgardt barbarians in order to convince a powerful oracle to give them guidance.
• Phase 5: The Giant Lairs, in which the PCs raid one or more giant lairs to gain the magical artifact they need to teleport to Maelstrom (the court of the storm giants).
• Phase 6: Finding Hekaton, in which the PCs rescue the king of the storm giants and then hunt down Iymrith in its lair.

Once we understand the structure of the campaign, we can analyze it.

Looking at the totality of Storm King’s Thunder, it’s fairly clear that the pointcrawl is largely non-essential. (This should not be understood to mean that it’s bad or that it shouldn’t be part of the campaign. If our adventures were only made up of what was structurally essential, they’d be pretty dreary and uninspiring affairs.) While the pointcrawl in Phase 3 makes the world feel alive and can be a good way to deliver additional leads to make the scenario more robust, ultimately the campaign requires the PCs to follow the node-based scenario into the funnel that will take them to Phase 4.

So the primary focus of our analysis will be the node-based structure of the campaign, and we can do that by looking at the revelation list.

Because of the auxiliary pointcrawl, it should be noted that there are a number of leads in the campaign pointing to “non-essential” nodes. Their function, as we’ve noted, is to keep PCs moving through the Savage Frontier so that they can continue triggering pointcrawl content. We won’t be including all of these leads in the list below, instead focusing on the campaign-essential revelations and the clues that point at them.

REVELATION LISTS AS PUBLISHED

PHASE 2 – BRYN SHANDER

• Morak’s Quest (Nightstone), p. 31. Morak sends the PCs to Markham Southwell in Bryn Shander to tell him that his sister is dead.
• Blod Stone (Berg of the Frost Giants), p. 156 & 165. This magical artifact points towards the nearest blood relative of Artus Cimber, which is currently Sirac of Suzail in Bryn Shander.

PHASE 2 – GOLDENFIELDS

• Morak’s Quest (Nightstone), p. 31. Morak sends the PCs to tell Miros Xelbrin in Goldenfields that his parents are dead.
• Escorting Ghalvin Dragonmoor (Den of the Hill Giants), p. 144. Freed from the hill giants, Ghalvin asks the PCs to escort him back to Goldenfields.

Note: I’m including Ghalvin Dragonmoor here for completeness, but it doesn’t completely hold up. The function of this revelation is to put the PCs in Goldenfields to experience the hill giant attack. If they’re rescuing Ghalvin, they’ve probably devastated or destroyed the hill giants, making the attack on Goldenfields potentially unlikely. (Although in certain circumstances you might be able to recast it as the hill giants coming to Goldenfields in pursuit of the PCs.)

PHASE 2 – TRIBOAR

• Morak’s Quest (Nightstone), p. 31. Morak sends the PCs to tell Darthag Ulger’s ex-wife, who lives in Triboar, that he was killed.

Note: As written, the DM is supposed to only give the PCs one of Morak’s Quests (essentially choosing which of the three Phase 2 cities they’ll go to).

PHASE 4 – EYE OF THE ALL-FATHER

• Claugiyliamatar (Kryptgarden Forest), p. 96. If the PCs enter Kryptgarden Forest, the green dragon flies out of her lair and informs them the Eye of the All-Father can tell them “what must be done to end the giant menace.”
• Harshnag (Proactive Node: Harshnag), p. 118. If the PCs “randomly” encounter Harshnag, he tells the PCs they should consult the oracle to “learn how best to end the giants’ threat to the North.”

Note: Claugiyliamatar lies at the end of a short quest line which originates in Goldenfields (p. 52). Naxene Drathkala sends the PCs to a dragon expert in Waterdeep, who then sends them to the Kryptgarden Forest to look for the green dragon.

PHASE 5 – DEN OF THE HILL GIANTS

• Eye of the All-Father, p. 151. Oracle gives them directions.
• Questioning Giant Raiders (Goldenfields), p. 51. PCs can intimidate the giants to lead them back to their home base.
• Questioning Giant Pillagers / Ogres (Random Encounter), p. 70 & 71.
• Questioning Giant Raiders (Uluvin), p. 112.
• Questioning Moog (Random Encounter – Old Tower), p. 116-17.

PHASE 5 – CANYON OF THE STONE GIANTS

• Eye of the All-Father, p. 151. Oracle gives them directions.
• Silixia (Grayvale), p. 88. This young brass dragon will point the PCs towards Deadstone Cleft.
• Questioning Giants of Grayvale Run (Grayvale Run), p. 88. This is not indicated as a lead in the text, but these giants are from Deadstone Cleft.
• Questioning Giants in Llorkh (Llorkh), p. 96. This is not indicated as a lead in the text, but these giants are from Deadstone Cleft.
• Questioning Zorkh (Orlbar), p. 103. Mute stone giant can point characters towards Deadstone Cleft.

PHASE 5 – BERG OF THE FROST GIANTS

• Eye of the All-Father, p. 151. Oracle gives them directions.
• Questioning Bryn Shander Raiders (Bryn Shander), p. 41-42. This is not indicated as a lead in the text, but these giants are from Svardborg (and could also be tracked back to their ship).
• Questioning Fireshear Reavers (Fireshear). This is not indicated as a lead in the text, but these giants are from Svardborg.
• Questioning Helm’s Hold Reavers (Helm’s Hold). This is not indicated as a lead in the text, but these giants are from Svardborg.
• Questioning Luskan Reavers (Luskan). This is not indicated as a lead in the text, but these giants are from Svardborg.
• Questioning Port Llast Reavers (Port Llast). This is not indicated as a lead in the text, but these giants are from Svardborg.

PHASE 5 – FORGE OF THE FIRE GIANTS

• Eye of the All-Father, p. 151. Oracle gives them directions.
• Track Triboar Raiders (Triboar) p. 60.
• King’s Request (Citadel Adbar), p. 78. King Harnoth asks the PCs to raid Ironslag.
• King and Queen’s Request (Citadel Felbarr), p. 79. King Morinn and Queen Tithmel ask the PCs to raid Ironslag.
• Questioning Drow Raiders (Gauntlgrym), p. 85-86. Drow thieves from Ironslag can be caught in Gauntlgrym.

PHASE 5 – CASTLE OF THE CLOUD GIANTS

• Eye of the All-Father, p. 151. Oracle gives them directions.
• Random Encounter, p. 69. The PCs see Lyn Armaal flying above them.

PHASE 6 – A GOLDEN GOOSE COIN WAS FOUND NEAR QUEEN NERI’S BODY

• Serissa’s Mission (Hold of the Storm Giants), p. 209. If Serissa is convinced the PCs want to help, she gives them the coin.

PHASE 6 – LORD HEKATON IS HELD ON THE MORKOTH

• Questioning Lord Drylund (The Grand Dame), p. 219.

CONCEPT REVELATIONS

In addition to the structural revelations, there are also a few key concepts that the PCs need to learn.

THE ORDNING HAS BEEN DISSOLVED

• Questioning Giants. Hypothetically, you could talk to almost any giant in the campaign and they’d be able to explain that the Ordning has been dissolved. (This includes Harshnag, p. 118.)
• Eye of the All-Father, p. 151. If the PCs ask why the giants are rattling sabers, the oracle will tell them the Ordning has been dissolved.

LORD HEKATON IS MISSING

• Questioning Nirva & Jaral (Secomber), p. 107. These cloud giants know that Hekaton is missing.
• Questioning Harshnag, p. 118. When he shows up, Harshnag can tell the PCs that Hekaton is missing.

IYMRITH IS ACTUALLY A BLUE DRAGON

• ???

MIRRAN & NYM ARE CONSPIRING WITH IYMRITH

• ???

YOU NEED A CONCH TO REACH MAELSTROM

• Eye of the All-Father, p. 151. The oracle tells you.

Go to Part 2B: Revising the Revelations