Stop reading here if you haven't read through or finished Storm King's Thunder. So the adventure, as written, ends anywhere between lv 11 (doing as little as possible), and lv ~15 (completing all 5 giant lord encounters, Bryn Shander, Triboar, and Goldenfields, and getting sidetracked a bit). The Ordning remains pretty shattered, (though that's up for interpretation), with the only relevant event (to the Ordning) being one of many groups of storm giants working with smallfolk. Overall, not a whole lot has changed, at least not from a giant's perspective. Some of the threats to smallfolk civilization have been dealt with, sure, and a king of the storm giants signing on with our heroes is a big deal, but the Ordning was shattered "to break his “children” out of their complacency", not to ensure the safety of smallfolk. Annam the All-Father is far from satisfied. Plus, we've got a good 9-5 levels left to keep running this! I'm planning on running this campaign all the way up to lv 20, and I want to resolve the whole Ordning in a manner appropriately epic for characters in the second half of play. So here is my idea: King Hekaton forges an alliance with the kingdoms of the smallfolk to unite the giants and restore Ostoria. The giants have been trying to do this by themselves for thousands upon thousands of years, and maybe the key to finally succeeding is working together with the humans, elves, dwarfs, and other smallfolk of the North. In exchange for the help of the smallfolk, King Hekaton promises peace between all of the giants and civilized races of the north, and aid against further orc attacks. Upon restoring Ostoria, the Ordning would settle, Annam would be happy, the most Maat giants would move up the chain, while the Maug ones would move down. There would be three stages to this endeavor: Stage 1 : Uniting the giants. The majority of giants would need to be convinced to rejoin the empire under Hekaton, and to be willing to work with smallfolk. Each giant would represent a unique encounter, similar to chapter 5-9, but this time our heroes are winning over the whole race instead of simply removing one threat. Cloud Giants : This one is easy. Cloud giants long ago lost the secret to constructing cloud castles, and would do pretty much anything to get it back. They also know where the nearest cloud giant is, so after you managed to find the secret, gathering all of the giants would be easy, if not very quick. I'm thinking the first place players would be directed to look would be Candlekeep, and after some painstaking research they find a reference to a copy being kept in one of the ancient Netherese cities. Players could also find this in Silverymoon, and smart players could skip the research altogether by remembering that the Netherese also had floating cities. They must then brave the Warlock's Crypt and defeat the Shadow King to find the secret. Fire Giants : These guys respect strength and solid craftsmanship. They were the smiths of old Ostoria, and would probably be willing to rejoin if everyone else was on board, if not for two problems. They don't respect smallfolk at all, and they fear dragons. The players might fix this by going back to Ironslag and finishing what Zalto started; reforging the Vonindod. This would force the fire giants to respect them, and give them a powerful weapon for stage 3. Frost Giants : Frost giants obey brute strength above all else. They would be excited to work with the fire giants again, as they are really hard done by when it comes to giant sized weapon and armor, considering how much they dislike forging temperatures. To be willing to ally with the smallfolk though, our players would need to prove they have the strength to be worthy allies. I'm thinking a camp of everlasting ones has been preying on a significant number of frost giant settlements, who have failed in protecting themselves. By crushing the camp of everlasting ones, the frost giants in the region would respect the players, and having enough of a backing behind you would cause the rest to fall in line. Stone Giants : I'm not sure about these guys. They like making art, so maybe a work of art would impress them? They are the best with giant runes, so maybe there is a tribe of stone giants for each rune, and collecting that rune's magic item would convince them to follow you? They think that the real world is so fluid and changing that it's a dream, and nothing they do in it matters(spending too long away from stone causes them to go nuts), so maybe you could cure them of their insanity? Needs more thought. Hill Giants : These dumbasses will join up as long as they are fed and the other giants tell them too, violently. Storm Giants : Stormies are sensitive to omens and signs, and presumably by this point, uniting the other 5 types of giants with Hekaton at the lead, they have seen an omen or two. Maybe a second group pops up and challenges Hekaton for leadership of the new empire, saying smallfolk are too weak and untrustworthy to be allies, and the players have to convince them otherwise, one way or another. Not very sure about this one either. Maybe 4 Quintessents are considered to be the ancient kings and wisest elders, and by bringing the north/east/south/west one to their side, all the storm giants will flock to them. Stage 2 : The restoration process. A massive army of giants of all kinds, as well as several contingents of humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, and halflings march to the frozen north and start excavating the ice, looking for ancient ruins. Lotta fire spells here to thaw out the glaciers, and both cooperation and tension between the races. Players could either help out the excavation, maybe find some ancient rune artifacts, or be "scouting party one" and deal with some of the local wildlife. Meanwhile, a shadow forms on the horizon. Stage 3 : As the expedition finds Voninheim, an army of dragons (both chromatic and metallic), kobolds, goblinoids, manticores, wyverns, and all sorts of other dragon types attacks, having banded together for the first time since the first fall of Ostoria to stop the giants from restoring it. At the same time, a massive rumbling happens inside of Voninheim, a Tarrasque has been sleeping here since the fall! The players are encouraged to take on the Tarrasque while the giant army fights the dragons (with the Vonindod kinda sorta being liberty prime), so that it doesn't have a chance to destroy their capital. The players defeat their final boss (or don't), and we play out a resolution. Either way, the Ordning is fixed, perhaps in whatever order the players recruited the giants, the dragons suffer a devastating loss, and the survivors head back to their homes to lick their wounds, and the north enjoys a new alliance with giants! For however long that lasts, but that's another story. There is a ton of foreshadowing to be done here, rumors of a great beast who forced the giants out of Voninheim, giants using "for Voninheim" as a battlecry, dragons performing acts of sabotage as the players gather the empire, and dragon types disappearing for a few weeks before the expedition. There is also freedom to go in a ton of different directions, maybe the players figure out another way to win a camp of giants over to their side, or maybe they deny Hekaton and end up as adversaries as he tries to do all this without them. Maybe another giant lord (or shapeshifting dragon) kills Hekaton and takes over control. Maybe the Lord's Alliance or Harpers don't approve, and while towns like Luskan and Elturgard aid the giants, it divides the north and causes a war. I'm not happy with all the ideas here, so I'm asking for feedback: What works, what doesn't work, what can I do better, and do you have any better ideas for the damn stone giants.
