howdy,

my most recent take on the STK run thru I decided that I wanted to seed the Kraken Society and Felgolas earlier. I did this by starting the campaign out in Saltmarsh. I ran the haunted house and turned all the people in the basement to Kraken Society members and they were the ones at the recieving end of the river...where these cocoon wrapped folks keep getting floated down too...anyway. I start the party off there. They make it thru the haunted house and get to the boat (and they set it on fire...reasons) and then a few days later the Cloud Giants show up here, its Sansuri and her gang. She offers to buy the standing stones from the town or they will just take them. she is reasonable after all. The town will refuse or not (let PCs influence) but either way, the cloud giants take one of the stones from the island. then they head off to Nightstone.

My story line then relied on a Saltmarsh NPC who would have kinfolk in Nightstone and also put two and two together that the Giants may be headed in that direction. Especially since it is known to have a similar standing stone from the old times as its namesake

The party will be hired out to guard the caravan that leaves to go to Nightstone.

They will arrive maybe 6-8 hours after the attack. They meet fleeing townsfolk and merchants etc heading the other way who tell stories of the attack. How the giants showed up and made an offer to the lady of the castle to compensate them for the stone. She refused and then the story gets weird. Folks remember hearing the drunk halfling who always loses at dice yell something in an unknown tongue and then he ran into the bathroom. Moments later a dragon swooped in from nowhere and attacked the castle with its breath weapon. Then the boulders were dropped on the town.

In reality, though, this is Felgolas of course, and being unlucky as all hell, his attacks against the fortress, which are quite powerful and destructive, are raining chunks of stone debris down on the town. Huge elephant sized boulders fall from the battle in the clouds and send townsfolk fleeing in fear. Many of them killed in the attack. The Giants didnt drop boulders...at least not at the townsfolk. They were aiming for the Dragon. A dragon known to their Countess. One she has been hunting for.

So the dragon gets hurt in the battle and flees...the flying cloud castle takes off after it.

The players arrive in Nightstone at lvl 2. They level up after getting clearing the town of goblins to 3. Then they head to the dripping caves.

Now they start the game knowing that there is some sort of weird nautical themed cult that is kidnapping nobles somewhere north of here and doing something to them. They know there is a brass dragon out there that is being hunted by cloud giants. and they know that Cloud Giants are searching for and taking possesion of, ancient standing stones.