This is how i'm running my Campaign after the party completed Waterdeep Dragon Heist in which they didnt get the money, rather Captain Zord (JB :)) did with their help and the Cassalanter's failed in their plot (revenge will be sweet for them though :)
Nightstone (chapter 1)
Ran events after the cloud giant raid and after the goblins have wrecked the town and headed back off to their caves
Party went through the village, found the Zhent spy, they tricked the Zhent bandits coming to her rescue into showing them where the caves were, by this time the guards (left alive but unknwoling to the bandits) had closed the drawbridge to their anger upon their return.
Party went through the dripping caves and sorted them and rescue the villagers who went back to Nightstone to help defend that while any support came from Waterdeep in the meantime.
I'll bring the leader of the bandits back in at a later date for some revenge.
Goldenfields (chapter 2)
Played though Goldenfields after Waterdeep council was concerned at reported giant sighting and wanted their food supply to be secured
We had three players in the group (playing 2 pcs each) thus didnt give the NPCs out to play, I played them and intereacted as NPCs suitably within the town and battle
Managed to kill the First attack group off and then the two hill giants
Reported back to Waterdeep
PC's ended up telling their account to the closed council of masked Lords etc
Task has been given to send them to Everlund (by land) in order for them to reconsider their position of entering the Lords alliance now the threat to the realms is at stake with these giant attacks.
NPC Naxene Drathkala mentioned they should try and maybe get some help from the dragons to fight the giants, suggsted contacting a druid called Sharna Earthtalker in Redlarch
Went back to Goldenfields by teleport to a magic circle within the abbey
Savage North (Chapter 3)
Travelled overland from Goldenfields to Amphail
Found a battle between hill giants and barbarians with a load of dead bodies and birds of prey picking at them (random encounter chart)
One of the Pcs stepped into a wear bear lair on route, got attacked and now has the curse...
Amphail, party didnt hang around long in this place thus will miss the hill giants attacking this town (will feed these events through at a later date as news to them)
Amphail to Redlarch, came across Horse drawn wagon (random encounter chart), helped the dwarf traders fix their broken wheel and escorted them to Redlarch.
Passed Lance Rock on the way to Redlarch, gave them a rumour of a Necromancer, didnt follow it up but did mention how the Lance rock was supposedly dropped by a dragon many years ago.
Arrived at Redlarch, stayed the night (PC with curse is now getting dark dreams)
Met up with the druid Sharna who told them about a dragon (old Gnawbone) which lives in a forest (Kryptgarden Forest) near by, she has agreed to help them
Left Redlarch and headed to Westbridge, got attacked on the way at night by a bandit group called the Moon Blades, managed to fend off the attack and follow the remaining members back to their camp in the nearby hills. Rounded the few that was left along with their wives and children and headed to westbridge
Westbridge, handed the male bandits over to the local militia and a paladin gave his share of the bounty to the wives of the bandits to make a new life with their kids
After resting a night, headed to the forest and the dragon.. I used this article which was great and gave great atmosphere on how powerful the dragon is (thanks!)
Turns out the Druid (in my campaign) was the dragon, it lead them deeper and deeper into the forest before the dissappeared and the Dragon appeared
The Dragon gave them some info about the temple of the All Father and that of a Frost giant called HARSHNAG who they should seek out to the North
Also asked them to undertake a task to recover a gem called the eye of the tiger in a shrine within the High Forest (on route to Everlund :), the shrine will be the Hidden Shrine ofTamoachan (Tales of the yawning Portal), I've also placed the Giant Slaying sword which was one of the Quests in Triboar in the shrine instead
The dragon flew off, dropped a green dragon scale, they spotted it and picked it up (unknowling to the party the dragon can now track them :)
After surviving the encounter with the dragon they went off to Triboar
Triboar, Party stayed a night and the next day the giants attacked with the Orogs (again played the encounter with not giving the NPCs out), also i didnt want to waste the Triboar resources in the book and also it gives them a chance to see how much more powerful the fire giants are.
Party managed to fend off the attacked (just, the fire giant hit one of the pcs for 30hp on round one), one of the giants went down to under 82hp and thus the retreat was called, quite a few of the Orogs had died and the magmins.
TriBoar's leader dug up the artifact the giants were after and with consultation from the party, decided to take it out on a wagon and bury it at the edge of the Neverwinter forest, obviosuly not knowing the giants will track it down but at least the town will not be attacked again (well not yet anyway)
Tri-Boar to Yartar is the next journey, 3-4 days overland and following the river, found a cocoon in the river with a man in it claiming hes a noble from Yartar (adventure Kracken's Gamble, nicely ties in and will introduce them to the Kracken society as such and the golden goose symbol for the future.
This is where the party are at, lots to do and lots to explore but keeping them on track somewhat.
Other resources i've used are, Princes of the Apocolypse which has some more details of the towns/maps in the area (like redlarch etc, also a guide to Storm Kings thunder)
Hope this helps you plot your adventure out for Storm Kings Thunder as when i started Dming this i thought, oh wow , where do a i start, seems a lot of work!
Yep seen the guide for STK which is excellent as far as laying out elements so they are easier to read from the core rulebook and giving some good ideas. and yes you are right the middle bit (chapter 3) is a hot mess you need to make something coherant of which isnt easy for a new DM. It's just a giant (pardon the pun) sandbox adventure with an awful lot of places to go, i want to keep the Giant threat very real and the time required to solve it at pace but also let the adventures (hence Hidden Shrine ofTamoachan) do some other stuff as well, bit of a balancing act.
I'm a big R.A.Salvatore fan thus might add in some more from his books into the adventure, some more fun with Jarlaxle might be good, especially if they visit Gauntlgrym and King Bruenor.
This is how i'm running my Campaign after the party completed Waterdeep Dragon Heist in which they didnt get the money, rather Captain Zord (JB :)) did with their help and the Cassalanter's failed in their plot (revenge will be sweet for them though :)
This is where the party are at, lots to do and lots to explore but keeping them on track somewhat.
Other resources i've used are, Princes of the Apocolypse which has some more details of the towns/maps in the area (like redlarch etc, also a guide to Storm Kings thunder)
Hope this helps you plot your adventure out for Storm Kings Thunder as when i started Dming this i thought, oh wow , where do a i start, seems a lot of work!
STK middle part is (as usual for WOTC) a bit of a hot mess, but good stuff there.
Have you seen Sean's guides before? I've used them for years, starting with Curse of Strahd. It's PWYW !
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/193601/A-Guide-to-Storm-Kings-Thunder?term=guide+to+storm+king
HI,
Yep seen the guide for STK which is excellent as far as laying out elements so they are easier to read from the core rulebook and giving some good ideas. and yes you are right the middle bit (chapter 3) is a hot mess you need to make something coherant of which isnt easy for a new DM. It's just a giant (pardon the pun) sandbox adventure with an awful lot of places to go, i want to keep the Giant threat very real and the time required to solve it at pace but also let the adventures (hence Hidden Shrine ofTamoachan) do some other stuff as well, bit of a balancing act.
I'm a big R.A.Salvatore fan thus might add in some more from his books into the adventure, some more fun with Jarlaxle might be good, especially if they visit Gauntlgrym and King Bruenor.