WOW! I'm so glad you did not reach the cloud giant castle last week!
Tonight I went to double check that I had all minis and stat blocks ready for battle next week and to my shock I didn't! WTF!!!!
After some thought I remembered why! The short answer is I wasn't certain how long it would take you to get here, I wasn't sure you'd survive and even thought you might reconsider the mission.
I didn't want to pull all the minis only to put them if you didn't reach this point! So, tonight I worked on pulling many minis and preparing stat blocks for next week!
The longer it takes the group to complete a mission the more difficult or involved it may become. Why?
Well the simple reason is it gives me more time to look at encounters and situations and improve them. Time almost ALWAYS means more challenging.
So, travel back to cities to get supplies or information is important and often necessary but allows me to rethink my strategy as well.
Also, for this mission I needed additional cloud giants. Not typical cloud giants but some specific leader types. So, I went out in search and found there were not many available. In the end I bought some other giant minis which look like cloud giants but were not right with what their skin color should be (whitish) so I repainted them!
The mission has just amped up a bit in danger. Just some insight from the DM.
DM Insight:
Here's some valuable insight I think.
The longer it takes the group to complete a mission the more difficult or involved it may become. Why?
Well the simple reason is it gives me more time to look at encounters and situations and improve them. Time almost ALWAYS means more challenging.
So, travel back to cities to get supplies or information is important and often necessary but allows me to rethink my strategy as well.
Also, for this mission I needed additional cloud giants. Not typical cloud giants but some specific leader types. So, I went out in search and found there were not many available. In the end I bought some other giant minis which look like cloud giants but were not right with what their skin color should be (whitish) so I repainted them!
The mission has just amped up a bit in danger. Just some insight from the DM.