Storm Kings Thunder Attack On Bryn Shander

[username1]

-----------------SPOILERS FOR STORM KINGS THUNDER---------------------------------

Im Currently running storm kings thunder and my players just saved the people of Nightstone from the Dripping caves. they're making their way up the sword coast and will arrive at Bryn Shader. Once there the place is attacked by giants. My problem is I've never done anything like this. Im not a new dm, but this chapter is really out of scale. My party is made up of a dwarf barbarian, a tortle cleric, and a teifling druid. They will all be level 5 at the time of the attack. The town is attacked by 12 giants!!!!!! 12!!!! With challenge ratings of 8! The book says assume whoever the players don't go after the guards take care of. The giants are throwing rocks over the walls, breaking through and attacking, and generally causing mass destruction. I want to make it obvious of all the destruction and that something must be done. But there are so many things going on at once it makes my head spin. The players attack a group of giants, I have to account for the rocks thrown, the other giants breaking in attacking key npcs run by the players. It says if the boss of the giants is killed they call off the attack. But if the players don't go for the boss and guards have to when does the attack get called off? All of this makes me think the best chance the players have is role-play. They need to talk their way out. But it states in the book that the giants will only leave if they learn the exact location of Artus Cimber, which no-one knows. Any advice would be useful, thanks.

[Unoriginal]

You could make a turn-by-turn "this is what happens at X location with Y NPCs if the PCs don't intervene" timeline in advance, and stick to it unless the PCs are intervening in this particular event (while the rest goes as planned).

Don't hesitate to change the module if you find it's too complicated.

[SirGraystone]

When I ran SKT I sent my group to Triboard so I didn't run the attack on Bryn Shander but from what I remember the city have more then one gate, I would send a few giants to the other gate and keep only 6 or so. For those 6 I would throw the chief and maybe 2 into melee with the PCs, the rest can throws rocks at the walls and gate. Describe the damage they do, how a guard is throw off the wall by a rock, thing like that.

If the fight go too easy for the PCs have some of the 3 rock throwing giants join the melee to keep the pressure.

[username1]

What do you think of this idea:
Im giving my players control over the town sherif before the fight even starts. Im thinking of having one of my players role-play the talk with the giants. Then that goes south and all hell breaks loose the players then can intervene. What i want to do is give my players complete control over the fight. The player who controls the sherif will direct troops to face the giants. Because they start in the tower the sherif will have a view of the whole town, so i will draw a huge battle map. This way the players control the town guards to go where there needed and they can deal with the threat of giants attacking them. I know its not usually dnd style, but my players will enjoy it. My only worry is they see it as a war game tactic situation, where they don't really attack the giants with the pcs and just control the guards. I want this fight to be a epic session, possible 5-6 hours.(Not all of it will be fighting, the beginning will have them parachuting from the cloud giants castle in a blizzard, to avoid being spotted with a giant) Its got to be epic. What do you think of this idea?

[Unoriginal]

Well, is it an idea you think you can prepare and run without it being a burden to you?

Is it an idea you like personally?

If yes to both, go for it.

[username1]

My answer is yes to both questions. Ive got plenty of time to make a good map and probably will write a few programs to keep track of all the guards. My plan is the town has 150 guards in it. 10 start at each gate, a further 30 are spread around the walls. That leaves 90 guards. 45 are regular guards stationed around the town and the other 45 are regular people who are trained to take up arms in this situation. They have access to the gate and wall guards turn one. every 10 rounds(1 min) they have access to 10 more guards. If players want to command the guards to do something the sherif has to have someone tell them taking 10-20 rounds. When the giants break through the gate they attack all the guards on the walls. I expect the players to go after them along with all the guards they can get. When it seems they have it under control more giants will break through around town. I'm hoping to spread their troops thin.

[mephnick]

When I ran it I just described the chaos going around them but focused on the front gate where the leader of the giants was going. Attempting to run the entire town in some mass combat encounter is going to be very hard and not nearly as fun as it seems. The boulder throwing giants siege the city while fighting off guards "off-camera" while you run the encounter at the front gate with the printed NPCs and the party.

[SiCK_Boy]

I'm not a fan of these "have the players run these NPCs" gimmicks.

I think you should just describe the town being attacked from all sides, with maybe some guard asking the players to go assist at a certain gate... and whatever place the players choose to go is the place where the giant leader is.

[Afrodactyl]

Here's how I ran it for a party of seven;
- The party enters the town and start asking around for Southwell. I describe stuff going on around them, pointing out a select few NPCs as people in the square near the gates as sticking out from the crowd. The party are unaware of the existence of the NPCs outside of the few I've pointed out just now. The others basically don't exist until they're needed for plot purposes.

- A buttload of Giants rock up outside the walls and start demanding for Artus Cimber and/or the ring of winter.

- Giants get through the gate. Three frost giants and three winter wolves. All hell breaks loose as the giants are tearing the place up, hurling masonry at the party and mincing guards left and right. I added in constantly spawning guards and also had rocks being flung from outside the walls at the guards for cinematic purposes to represent the other giants (I explain after the fight that there were also other fights around Bryn Shander along the walls that the guards managed to drive off).

- The party fight back, and I make a point of giving the guards a turn in the initiative order, which is shared by the NPCs (I'm controlling them). Combat goes on, and with each round the NPCs get more and more involved as they can see the party and guards wearing the giants down. One of the NPCs takes out a winter wolf with a crossbow bolt, saving the cleric from getting his face chewed off.

- Giants go down, the party manages to shoot down the last giant as he flees. Giants still outside the walls make for the hills. Some NPCs now go to speak to the party to thank them, etc. The party then enquire about and seek out the others. Some NPCs don't get sought out, some don't come into existence at all.

- Two ingame days later, the party head out into the wilds to scout for giants for Southwell.

[EternalPrime]

When I played SKT, my DM sent us to Triboar and we never dealt with this situation.
If I were in your shoes, I'd seriously consider turning the tables and let the players take the roles of the three giants at the gate (Drufi and her two bodyguards) and let them try to batter down the gates and stomp through the town like Godzilla in Tokyo.
It might be a good way to blow off steam for the players as well as serving as an interesting diversion from the game.

[username1]

Here is another problem with this encounter:
The town is very large, and takes a few minutes to get anywhere. I used the scale and figured if the players are at the closest inn when they attack(Which is unlikely to happen) it would take them 16 rounds in combat at a full sprint to get to the front gate. And I like your idea of having giants attack multiple gates, but they would take even longer to get to. By the time the players get there the guards will be dead. If i let players run NPCs they would probably be dead.