Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Forgive Nov 03, 2014 10:58:24	Hoard of the Dragon Queen mentions that the crashing of Skyreach Castle will be covered in the Rise of Tiamat, but it isn't.  How has anyone delt with the crashing of the castle?  What sort of rules, damage, etcetera was used?  Any help here is appreciated.     It seems the giant will also take the Castle north toward giant allies but again his ultimate destination is "described in the Rise of Tiamat" - but isn't.  How have other DM's dealt with this route?
#2 Kalani Nov 03, 2014 11:55:22	Admittedly, I have yet to read through my copy as yet, as I am busy running both Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Expeditions at my FLGS twice/week. With that being said however, a cursory glance at the Council scorecard indicates that the outcome at Skyreach castle has an impact on the First Council.    Specifically, maintaining possession of Skyreach castle or returning it to the Giants has a positive/negative effect on the various factions..... Crashing it into the ground however - would result in a neutral effect on the various factions, harming the PCs ability to win them over by 1-2 points each.   Council Scorecard
(Reply to #2) DocSun	Kalani wrote:
#4 Bloodscythe Nov 04, 2014 9:35:01	You also lose the castle as one of the resources available in the final battle, as detailed in Rise of Tiamat.
#5 Forgive Nov 04, 2014 17:21:09	I understand what happens politically with losing the castle, but my concern is that the player will see the castle crash and I won't have any rules for how to handle the crash.  I'm currently thinking a dex save to bail off the castle with 6d8 dmg (half on success), then they fall to the ground for 10d6 blunt dmg (100 feet fall).  If they survive at lvl 8, kudos.  I was wondering what anyone else has done.   Likewise HOTDQ mentions that if the cloud giant lives he will navigate the castle to his people and says that his destination is in the Rise of Tiamate - but there is nothing in Rise...no mention at all.
#6 GEBELL Nov 04, 2014 22:41:29	Gotta agree with this issue.  HOTDQ ends with seemingly two possible scenarios: 1. the giant has the castle and he is flying it back to the land of the giants, with the characters in it.  2. the castle crashes into the mountains.  3. (looks like a long shot to me- as I remember it this was virtually impossible?) the players have control of the castle and can go where they want.    But Rise of Tiamat just starts with them in Waterdeep and maybe they have this castle resource that the giants will want later.  WTF? that's way disjointed.     If the castle crashes, I'm ok.  It seems like the sort of event that should have some challenges and damage associated with it.  But, whatever.    the real issue to me is the giants.  The giant of skyreach surviving seemed like a legit possibility, with a need for the PC's to parlay in some way with giants righit out of the gate.  What do they want? how many are there? where are they?    The players have just learned that a powerful giant was helping some dragons into order to challenge his fellow giants into reaching their former glory.  This seems crucial.  And we expect them to just wander home to the sword coast rather than pursuing this giant angle?    Seems like a big gap in the story to me.  I mean, I can fill it in, sure, it just seems really odd.
#7 EbbTide808 Jan 18, 2015 15:13:07	Reviving this thread.   For those that had the castle crash in their campaign, how did they handle it?
#8 El_Condoro Jan 18, 2015 19:29:53	We managed to deal with the BBEG (I don't want to give too many spoilers but his name begins with G) without crashing the castle. We returned it to the giants and use it to transport from place to place with their assistance. We did think about crashing it but looked at the descent rate from the controls and it works out to be something like 1-2 mph, which isn't very fast. I think as a house rule we said that (if we had wanted to crash it) holding the descent control down would result in a free-fall. In any case, a flying castle was much too cool to crash and we made other arrangements.