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

[MrZeddaPiras]

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.

Yea, that's what I planning to do. The fact that there were some clarifications about the giants that were cut from the book explains a lot.

 

[pukunui]

Just doing some prep for the caravan journey in Episode 4. Since Blando's map doesn't have a scale, I decided to use Schley's new map. As far as I can tell, the distance by road between Baldur's Gate and Waterdeep is only 650 miles on that map. With the caravan able to cover 90 miles every seven days, that would put the journey at around 50 days.

I've got the caravan reaching Trollclaw Ford by day 14 and Dragonspear Castle by day 23. It then reaches Daggerford on day 40. I think I might have the caravan stay in Daggerford for a few days and maybe give the PCs a sidequest - or at least a chance to have a look around town and maybe get to know some of the locals. So the caravan will arrive in Waterdeep around day 50.

 

[pukunui]

On page 31, it says that Rezmir buys five wagons from Selebon, but on page 33, it says the caravan consists of "the three wagons of the Cult of the Dragon plus 2d4 more." How many cult wagons did other people go with?

Also, I feel like making it so Rezmir doesn't ride ahead of the caravan. Instead, she'll go by ship (one that's owned by the Redlocks patriar family, which the PCs can fine out either by asking around or by getting a look in the harbormaster's magic record book [see MiBG]), perhaps with some of the choicer bits of treasure. That way she can get to Waterdeep even faster.

Another issue is that while I get the impression that the PCs are supposed to spend part of the trip trying to figure out who the cultists are, it says on page 31 that they can apply to get hired as caravan guards after they've "identified the cultists' wagons and seen their arrangements." Since the PCs have hired urchins to keep a lookout, I think they'll easily be able to tell which wagons have the cult loot in them ... unless I make it so some of the cult wagons are from group's other than Rezmir's. So maybe they identify the 3-5 wagons that Rezmir bought, but there are a few more from other groups. I've already had a Harper agent inform the PCs that the cult is bringing in cargo from all over, including from the Moonshaes and even up from the Underdark. Some of it might go on ships, while some might go by land. It makes sense that they'd split it up a bit so if a ship gets sunk or a caravan gets attacked by monsters or whatever, they won't lose everything. It also makes it harder to track it all.

What do you guys think?

 

[Sloblock]

for our travels we had 3 cultist wagons, the PCs wagon and 4 other ones. I didn't want to run too much

In our game the PCs decided to act as merchants themselves rather than being say bodyguards etc.

Also as I felt the PCs were tracking the cultists and had access to Harper information, that when the caravan set off the PCs were under no doubt who the cultists were. Rezmir wasn't with the caravan as she was travelling ahead of them via another route, never specified what that was but to be fair the PCs didn't bother asking. phew

 

[Sloblock]

Just doing some prep for the caravan journey in Episode 4. Since Blando's map doesn't have a scale, I decided to use Schley's new map. As far as I can tell, the distance by road between Baldur's Gate and Waterdeep is only 650 miles on that map. With the caravan able to cover 90 miles every seven days, that would put the journey at around 50 days.

I've got the caravan reaching Trollclaw Ford by day 14 and Dragonspear Castle by day 23. It then reaches Daggerford on day 40. I think I might have the caravan stay in Daggerford for a few days and maybe give the PCs a sidequest - or at least a chance to have a look around town and maybe get to know some of the locals. So the caravan will arrive in Waterdeep around day 50.

sounds good

With the help of bad weather and poor parts of cross country travelling, I made my travelling 58 days.

Part 1 - Baldur's Gate to DragonSpear Castle ( 28 days )
Part 2 - DragonSpear Castle to Daggerford ( 22 days )
Part 3 - Daggerford to Waterdeep ( 8 days )

I also used the Forgotten Realms WIKI to flesh out the settlements between Daggerford and Waterdeep.

 

[Eltab]

My group, the PCs cleaned out the Cult cannon fodder first.
They creamed Rezmir (first use of Hold Person) in less than one round.
Then they tackled the Red Wizards; demolished the Apprentice but the Master got away (Seeming), with the Vampire in hot pursuit. I still haven't decided if that scroll of Feather Fall was read in time.
The Warlock rolled a 20 on Persuasion to remind the King that Giants will not follow a follower; they will follow a leader.
The King came along to fight the dragon (I didn't need to do that, as it turned out) and repeated Théoden's verbal assault on Wormtongue to let the dragon know he was no longer welcome here. The PCs took out the dragon when he tried to escape.
The group got "three Giant wishes" - offer to give them a lift -when they ask. There is a Giant envoy mentioned briefly in Tiamat, so his staff will be the courier for the message.

 

[Bayonet]

What if I were to combine the two?

Here's what I'm thinking ...

"Patchy" is the town innkeeper/bartender. The PCs have arrived in Greenest as the sun sets, so they're in the inn getting a bit of a late meal (bread and cheese and ale?). There are only a handful of others in the inn at this time of day, so the PCs are pretty much a captive audience as Patchy regales them with tales of his adventuring days and asks them questions about their own adventures and such.

At one point, he starts telling them a story about fighting a dragon, and just as he's describing how it swooped overhead, Lennithon does just that. Once it's established that the town is under attack, Patchy grabs a mace and shield from behind the bar. He tells the PCs he's going to grab his horse and distract the dragon with his magic mace - which lights up like a beacon when he strikes it on his shield - as he rides out of town. He then tosses the PCs what turns out to be a bag of holding (my wife's been wanting one for a while) filled with potions.

.

This is kind of what I did. I was running a few one-shots for a couple friends, and when they got to Level 3 I had them invited as guests of honour to a Halfling Feast Day in Greenest. As they slept off their revelries in the Inn, I had the attack begin on Greenest, with kobolds bursting through the windows to attack the PC's. (stole the idea from the guy who DM'd the HotDQ game I played through. Thanks Gabe!)

That way, it was easier to steer them toward the keep in the first place. Instead of charging headlong into a burning, besieged, dragon infested city, they instead head for the only strong point in the burning, besieged , dragon infested city that they're currently trapped in. Removes the whole Hero vs. Adventurer argument.

 

[Eltab]

If one of your PCs took the 'gold dragon' background, when he does something to get a dragon's sole and undivided attention, have that dragon pause, breathe deeply, and address the adventurer as "Canary". (This is actually a Dragonlance reference.) If the dragon survives, he spreads the word.

In Tiamat, I had Arauthator - an Ancient and legendary dragon - figure it out. He would not address anybody else for the rest of the encounter: he spoke third-person ABOUT everybody else. ("Well, Canary, I see that you persuaded a competent archer to follow you in here; it won't matter, I'll take care of him shortly," after being critted by Maccath's Arrow of Dragon Slaying.) Because only fellow dragons are important enough to be worth his time.

 

[pukunui]

If one of your PCs took the 'gold dragon' background, when he does something to get a dragon's sole and undivided attention, have that dragon pause, breathe deeply, and address the adventurer as "Canary". (This is actually a Dragonlance reference.) If the dragon survives, he spreads the word.

It could also be used as a reference to the bit in the MM about how Bahamut often appears as an old man accompanied by seven gold dragons disguised as canaries.

 

[jayoungr]

On page 31, it says that Rezmir buys five wagons from Selebon, but on page 33, it says the caravan consists of "the three wagons of the Cult of the Dragon plus 2d4 more." How many cult wagons did other people go with?

I had three cult wagons in the caravan. One was for the cultists posing as the newlywed couple, one was full of hay, and one was a repurposed wagon from the list in the adventure: Nyerhite Verther, the silk merchant, became a cultist (and my players promptly nicknamed him Nyarlathotep). The hay wagon was a "gimme" for the PCs to figure out it was a fake, because why take hay all the way from Baldur's Gate to Waterdeep? There were twelve wagon-owners total in the caravan, although some of them had more than one wagon (Achenry Ulyeltin, the fur merchant, for example). If I were running this again, I might make the caravan even larger.

Another issue is that while I get the impression that the PCs are supposed to spend part of the trip trying to figure out who the cultists are, it says on page 31 that they can apply to get hired as caravan guards after they've "identified the cultists' wagons and seen their arrangements." Since the PCs have hired urchins to keep a lookout, I think they'll easily be able to tell which wagons have the cult loot in them ...

I'm sure you can go either way depending on what preparations your party makes. My party completely blew chapter 2 and never infiltrated the cultists' camp near Greenest, so it made sense that they didn't recognize anyone in the wagon train. But I've also listened to a podcast where the DM just told the group at the start of the journey that they'd figured out who the cultists were. Both ways worked fine.

...unless I make it so some of the cult wagons are from group's other than Rezmir's. So maybe they identify the 3-5 wagons that Rezmir bought, but there are a few more from other groups. I've already had a Harper agent inform the PCs that the cult is bringing in cargo from all over, including from the Moonshaes and even up from the Underdark. Some of it might go on ships, while some might go by land. It makes sense that they'd split it up a bit so if a ship gets sunk or a caravan gets attacked by monsters or whatever, they won't lose everything. It also makes it harder to track it all.

What do you guys think?

I think that makes a lot of sense. Making it so the party knows about some of the wagons but not all of them might just give you the best of both worlds.