SKT: Flipping the Tower of Zephyros encounter

[Zhorn]

So my players are doing a lot of Storm King's Thunder out of order and throwing me a few curve balls - which I enjoy because it makes for a more unique take on the material - but now need to course correct a little to get them onto the main plot.
I'll be looking to use Zephyros, but from the perspective of the Orb Strike encounter.
The breakdown:

The players will arrive at Ironmaster next session.
The town is strict on the 'dwarvess only' policy and will want to get rid of them.
The 6 dwarves prepping for the orb strike 'volunteer' the players into helping with their mission in exchange for not imprisoning/executing them (they're being suicide squaded into it).
Ride in on griffons (dropping Clarion, this is Arveiaturace's territory) with the mission of destroying the navigation orb and eliminating the flying castle (The journey to the Zephyros's cloud castle is just a mechanism to transport my players 380 miles in the direction of the Eye of the All-Father).

Looking for advice on how to run Zephyros in combat (spell priorities, strats), or a good twist for the dwarves turning on the party if they attempt to parley with the cloud giant ("nothing personal, laddie, the mission comes first").

[Zhorn]

Giving this a little bump with content for any skilled wizard players that do no have access to Storm King's Thunder (plus I'll be running this in roughly 24 hours:smalleek:).

Zephyros has the following spells prepped as per the book
Cantrips (at will): mending, message, prestidigitation, ray of frost, shocking grasp
1st level (4 slots): charm person, comprehend languages, magic missile, shield
2nd level (3 slots): crown of madness, gust of wind, levitate
3rd level (3 slots): nondetection, protection from energy, tongues
4th level (3 slots): conjure minor elementals, greater invisibility, Otiluke's resilient sphere
5th level (2 slots): cone of cold, contact other plane
6th level (1 slot): mass suggestion

and is also wielding the Staff of the Magi.

As far as self protection strategies or defending the orb, concentration is the biggest hurdle, as most of the ideal spells for a given situation require concentration and thus block out the other options.

The best course of action I can think of for Zephyros is to us the Staff of the Magi and cast Passwall underneath the players and dwarves trying to drop them out of his castle. Downside is this would likely kill anyone without a Featherfall equivalent, and seems like a pretty cold-blooded tactic when the book states he would be trying to not harm anyone.

[SirGraystone]

I would start with changing a few of his prepared spells, in his spellbooks he also have arcane eye, continual flame, fire shield, hypnotic pattern, mage armor, mirror image, misty step, modify memory, shatter, and slow.

I would have Mage Armor already cast before the PCs land, and unless they lands without being notice cast Greater Invisibility to looks and listens at what the intruders are doing, and if they are clearly hostile start with Hypnotic Pattern, then Mirror Image.

[Zhorn]

Sadly with a Dex 10 (+0), Mage Armor is a poor choice for Zephyros knocking their AC from 14 down to 13 with the spell.
The Greater Invisibility, Hypnotic Pattern, Mirror Image order at the start does seem like a good opening sequence, cheers :smallbiggrin:

Still going to need a follow up method for if the Hypnotic Pattern doesn't catch everyone, since that spell is both concentration and only lasts 1 minute.
With 3 casts of feather fall (cloud giant innate spellcasting), Zephyros still could Passwall drop the dwarves out of the castle floor without killing them, roleplay it as the cloud giant can tell they are clearly beyond reason, but the players loot like the might talk. If a fight breaks out after that, then play the giant more effectively without the non-lethal restriction?

[Segev]

Sadly with a Dex 10 (+0), Mage Armor is a poor choice for Zephyros knocking their AC from 14 down to 13 with the spell.
The Greater Invisibility, Hypnotic Pattern, Mirror Image order at the start does seem like a good opening sequence, cheers :smallbiggrin:

Still going to need a follow up method for if the Hypnotic Pattern doesn't catch everyone, since that spell is both concentration and only lasts 1 minute.
With 3 casts of feather fall (cloud giant innate spellcasting), Zephyros still could Passwall drop the dwarves out of the castle floor without killing them, roleplay it as the cloud giant can tell they are clearly beyond reason, but the players loot like the might talk. If a fight breaks out after that, then play the giant more effectively without the non-lethal restriction?

Sounds reasonable. He could also conjure minor air elementals of some sort to harry incoming forces before they land.

Magic missile and ray of frost are good damage effects if those unaffected by hypnotic pattern are few enough. Drop hypnotic pattern if not enough are affected, and try an upcast charm person (I think that hits more people, right?) to get anybody not dropped through the clouds to stop fighting and engage in cordial talks. Maybe leave amicably before the spell ends if accord can't otherwise be reached.

[Zhorn]

He could also conjure minor air elementals of some sort to harry incoming forces before they land.
Either as an ambush or during the encounter, an air elemental (using the staff of the magi) is a simple add to beef the encounter, though with the concentration aspect of the spell, it could easily turn on the cloud giant and just cause more havoc for them. I'll pack some of my elemental tokens for tonight anyway, but they be for either an outside of the castle only event, or if the fight swaps to survival for the cloud giant. For minor elementals, maybe a swarm of steam/dust mephits? The spell text doesn't describe what happens when concentration is broken so I assume they just vansih without turning on the caster, so they might be safe to conjure inside the cloud castle.


Maybe leave amicably before the spell ends if accord can't otherwise be reached.
If this wasn't at the cloud giants castle that would be an option. Since the dwarves are attacking the cloud castle (which is relatively small) with the intent of destroying the navigation orb, the giant is not going to leave unless it come down to life or death.
No plan survives contact with the players, so all bets are off once the dice start rolling, but as DM my desire is to get the players to The Eye of the All Father and for them to NOT have the cloud castle under their own control (it will be convenient for travel, but will make it impossible to guide my players to plot points outside of deus ex machina and railroads if they don't find out the major campaign plot beforehand).

[Segev]

If this wasn't at the cloud giants castle that would be an option. Since the dwarves are attacking the cloud castle (which is relatively small) with the intent of destroying the navigation orb, the giant is not going to leave unless it come down to life or death.

I more meant having him get them to leave. They wouldn't want to destroy their friend's orb, would they?


As to the elementals, yeah, I was thinking an ambush or the like. Something to make approaching the castle with hostile intent difficult. Maybe squander some resources before the fight proper.

[Zhorn]

That was a long session, and the players only just made it to the castle before we wrapped up for the night. So that's another 7 days of planning before I run this after all.


I more meant having him get them to leave. They wouldn't want to destroy their friend's orb, would they?

Only if they players are convinced that the giant is friendly, at which point there's no need for either them or the giant to leave. Honestly with my players there's no telling whether they'll aim for the pacifist route or go all murder hobo on everything they meet.

The dwarves will be "destroy the orb at all costs" and will not be reasoned with, but the players will be travelling in with them so if they keep pushing ahead, they players may follow suit. All their dealings so far have been with frost giants, and the only word they've heard about the giants of other types has been bad news.
Passwall (satff of the magi) on the dwarves with innate spellcasting to Featherfall them with a reaction should be the simplest peaceful solution to getting the dwarves out of the way once past that initial containment strat with hypnotic pattern.

[Belzique]

It is stated that Zephyros has been casting contact other plane quite liberally and knows at least the character's names. You can easily just give him more information, even add scrying to his list of prepared spells, and then he'll know what the characters look like and that they're coming. This will allow you to play him as having prepared for their arrival.