Chapter 9: Castle of the Cloud Giants - Storm King's Thunder

Chapter 9: Castle of the Cloud Giants. For as long as giants have walked the world, cloud giants have been one step below storm giants in power and influence. Now, with the ordning dissolved, a few cloud giant nobles have seized the opportunity to rise above the storm giants and thereby fulfill their lifelong dream of becoming the true, undisputed aristocrats among giants. One such noble is Countess Sansuri, who believes that her destiny lies buried in the past, waiting for her to unearth it. Sansuri's ancient ancestors, anticipating the fall of their great empire, reportedly hid their magical knowledge and wealth in vaults and left markers for future generations to find them. The greatest of these troves was a cache of "dragon magic"-spells and artifacts plundered from the lairs of powerful wyrms. Sansuri wants to find this cache and use her newfound power to destroy her ambitious rivals and convince the rest of giantkind to kneel before her. Sansuri believes the gods will reward her appropriately for doing so. When that day comes, all other cloud giants will thank her for doing what they could only dream of. After using telescopes to scour the land below for clues, Sansuri has come to the realization that her maps are woefully out of date. She hasn't found a single marker pointing the way to the trove she seeks. When a curious and danger-prone bronze dragon named Felgolos paid her a visit some weeks ago, Sansuri played the role of benevolent host. She tricked the dragon into helping her and, when its guard was down, captured and imprisoned it. When the adventurers come knocking, Sansuri is in the midst of torturing the bronze dragon for information, hoping it knows where one of the ancient Ostorian markers might be. The dragon's roars of pain can be heard for miles. In this part of their mission, the characters travel to Lyn Armaal, Sansuri's cloud castle, and meet the countess and her family. The countess shares the place with her castellan and consort, Cressa...