D&D 5E Enhancing "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" (Practical stuff to try at your table!)

[jayoungr]

Skyreach Castle

This whole area is pretty sandboxy, so I'll just give an overview of how my group handled it and how we dealt with some of the issues/questions raised.

My group befriended the cloud giant early on, getting his permission to command the ogres as well. The PCs also managed to tame the wyverns by feeding them, so now they have wyvern mounts.

I cut the other giants who are living in the castle. They seemed extraneous to the story of Blagothkus and the cult, and my group never opened the door to their room anyway.

There's been some discussion on the "Rise of Tiamat" sister thread about whether to keep the vampire encounter. I kept it in largely because I wanted my cleric to have more opportunity to use his undead-smiting abilities; these modules as a whole are not large on undead. Besides, I was pretty sure my party could handle a vampire even in a toe-to-toe fight.

Next, they tackled the Red Wizards. I upped the number of gargoyles in the room to four, and they still had no trouble taking them out, along with Azbara Jos (Rath Modar got away). The party chatted with the wizards for a bit before the fight started. They wanted to know about their motivation and why they thought Tiamat wouldn't just eat them when she was summoned. I think I fielded the questions reasonably well, but there's a passage in Rise of Tiamat that lays out Rath Modar's intentions more clearly; I wish I had read it before running this scene. It would have been nice to name-drop the Thayan Resurrection, since that comes up in the next module. Here it is:

The leader of the Red Wizard exiles allied with Severin is Rath Modar, a human illusionist.

Though he has no particular bond with dragons, Rath Modar believes that when Tiamat returns, she will be willing to do favors for those who supported her. In comparison to the feeble members of the Cult of the Dragon, who offer Tiamat devotion but little else, the Red Wizards who opened the gate for her can wield great magical power in her name. All Modar plans to ask in return is the Dragon Queen's aid in overthrowing the hated Szass Tam and restoring Thay to its former glory. Rath Modar and his splinter sect refer to their movement as "the Thayan Resurrection."

EDIT to add: Oh yes, and by the way, in my game Rath Modar didn't cast two concentration spells at once. Instead of fly, he cast feather fall to get away from the castle!

Next, the PCs took down Rezmir. I had her wear the mask during the fight, and I let the party keep it after they killed her. I'm curious about one thing, though: The Rise of Tiamat suggests having Rezmir resurrected by the cult so she can face the party again later. But the fight description says that her body turns to ash when she is killed. Wouldn't that prevent her being resurrected?

For the final phase, the party made good use of the pots of hallucinogenic powder which they'd taken from Castle Naerytar. They slipped some into the cultists' dinner, causing all of them to get high and making it easy for the ogres to herd them into a room and lock them up. Then the party also dusted Glazhael's meat with the powder and got him high as well. I ruled that they got a surprise round and also that the dragon blew his breath weapon at the ceiling. In defeating the dragon, they had the help of five or six ogres throwing javelins. The book doesn't say how many javelins the ogres carry, so I said they had two each.

The module ended with Skyreach Castle appearing over Waterdeep and the PCs dramatically flying down on their wyverns before the castle drifted off northward.

 

[pukunui]

The book doesn't say how many javelins the ogres carry, so I said they had two each.

For future reference: According to the MM (pg 11), "You can assume that a monster has 2d4 pieces of ammunition for a thrown weapon attack, and 2d10 pieces of ammunition for a projectile weapon such as a bow or crossbow."

 

[jayoungr]

For future reference: According to the MM (pg 11), "You can assume that a monster has 2d4 pieces of ammunition for a thrown weapon attack, and 2d10 pieces of ammunition for a projectile weapon such as a bow or crossbow."

Thanks, I had missed that little tidbit!

***

As I mentioned above, I allowed the group to keep the black dragon mask after they defeated Rezmir. I'm going with an idea that many other groups have used, namely that the cult doesn't have to have all five masks in order to summon Tiamat; she'll just be weaker if they don't have all of them. This article was very useful to me in making that decision.

It may be fortunate for me that none of the PCs have decided to wear the mask, though. They also didn't want Hazirawn once they found out that it was evil-aligned.

***

P.S. My biggest regret from Skyreach Castle is that the group never discovered Esclarotta's tomb or spoke with her spirit. It's a cool detail and makes the whole thing more magical. I'm not sure how I could have encouraged them to do this, however.

 

[pukunui]

Thanks, I had missed that little tidbit!

No worries. I missed it for a long time too.

I'm going with an idea that many other groups have used, namely that the cult doesn't have to have all five masks in order to summon Tiamat; she'll just be weaker if they don't have all of them.

From the description of the mask (RoT, pg 94): "Individually, the five dragon masks resemble the dragons they are named for. When two or more of the masks are assembled, however, they transform magically into the Mask of the Dragon Queen."

My emphasis.

P.S. My biggest regret from Skyreach Castle is that the group never discovered Esclarotta's tomb or spoke with her spirit. It's a cool detail and makes the whole thing more magical. I'm not sure how I could have encouraged them to do this, however.

I've wondered about that myself. As written, there doesn't seem to be any way for the PCs to learn about the tomb - or how to get to it - in the first place.

 

[jayoungr]

From the description of the mask (RoT, pg 94): "Individually, the five dragon masks resemble the dragons they are named for. When two or more of the masks are assembled, however, they transform magically into the Mask of the Dragon Queen."

My emphasis.

I noticed that passage too. I wonder if the idea was in flux during the writing of the modules, though, because HotDQ seems to imply that they need all five of the masks:

"When all five [dragon masks] are brought together, they magically merge into a single Mask of the Dragon Queen. With the assembled mask, the cult can release Tiamat from her prison in the Nine Hells" (HotDQ, p. 5).

I've wondered about that myself. As written, there doesn't seem to be any way for the PCs to learn about the tomb - or how to get to it - in the first place.

It would have been a cool thing to work into a combat. If they were chasing Blagothkus, or even someone in the know like Sandesyl, their quarry could run into the tower and vanish, perception check to see if they overheard the command word.

 

[pukunui]

I noticed that passage too. I wonder if the idea was in flux during the writing of the modules, though, because HotDQ seems to imply that they need all five of the masks:

"When all five [dragon masks] are brought together, they magically merge into a single Mask of the Dragon Queen. With the assembled mask, the cult can release Tiamat from her prison in the Nine Hells" (HotDQ, p. 5).

Hmm. I'll have to ask Steve.

It would have been a cool thing to work into a combat. If they were chasing Blaogthkus, or even someone in the know like Sandesyl, their quarry could run into the tower and vanish, perception check to see if they overheard the command word.

That is a cool idea! Thanks.

 

[MrZeddaPiras]

My players defeated the dragon and befriended the giant, but now I'm not quite sure on what the consequences are for the rest of the campaing. Rise Of Tiamat seems to assume that the party either destroyed or conquered the flying castle. For my game, I'm going to assume that what the characters did is enough to secure the giants' support for the final battle, but I don't understand what the designers' intent was in this case.

 

[pukunui]

The impression I got was that if the PCs acquired the flying castle for themselves, the council members would want to use it against the cult, while the giants would want it back before they're willing to help.

 

[MrZeddaPiras]

Ok, but what if the characters did not acquire the castle but just liberated it from the Cult of the Dragon? The fact is that the cloud giant's plans and motivations don't make much sense to me.

 

[jayoungr]

Ok, but what if the characters did not acquire the castle but just liberated it from the Cult of the Dragon?

That's what happened in my campaign. There are a few references to that option in the book, so clearly the designers saw it as a possible outcome. It's just that the other two scenarios have more consequences for the PCs and/or easy ideas for follow-up events.

I suspect this is a casualty of the page count; we know that a section transitioning between HotDQ and RoT was cut from the second book, since there is a published map showing a giants' hall that didn't get used in the printed product. You can find some people's ideas on how to use the map at this link. Note that the map shows a crashed flying castle, but if the group didn't crash the castle in your game, you could always make that the ruin of another one, perhaps an ancient one (an early experiment in flying castle magic?).

Negotiating with the giants to join the alliance could still be a part of the game, much like the negotiations with the metallic dragons and the Red Wizards. Perhaps Blagothkus sends for the PCs because he is having trouble persuading the other giants to join his cause, and he wants the PCs to address the giant moot. The fact that they did not attempt to seize the flying castle should be a point in their favor. (If you decide to do this, it would be good to come up with a list of potential demands and concessions for the giants, similar to the one for the metallic dragons.)

Or if you don't want to spend a lot of time on it, you could just say that Blagothkus is grateful to the PCs for their help and that when the time comes, the giants will join the fight against Tiamat. You could even have him say this before the PCs leave the flying castle, if they haven't already done so.

As for Blagothkus' motivations, one small addition satisfied my group. I had Blagothkus state that it was better when the giants were united against the dragons because now, they fight amongst themselves instead.