Sending it by sea springs to mind. Maybe the PCs could find out which ship belongs to/has contracted with the cult to take the treasure north, and then they can mess up that plan?
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D&D 5E Enhancing "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" (Practical stuff to try at your table!)
- Thread starter jayoungr
- Start date
pukunui
Legend
Yeah, that's one option. Another could be a magical portal that the PCs deactivate.
I'm also toying with the idea of reworking the D&D Expeditions adventure "Cloaks and Shadows". That adventure has air cult assassins trying to a) take out some of their own people who have "failed" the cult and b) frame the PCs for murder. I could, instead, have it be turmoil within the Cult of the Dragon between the new breed who favor Tiamat and the old guard who prefer sticking with dracoliches. And the murdered lord at the beginning could be a Guild kingpin (so it's the Guild that's after the PCs rather than the Watch or the Flaming Fist) or something.
Not sure how I'd work Mondath into that. Unless I make her the assassin instead of a reskinned Little Wing.
I'm also toying with the idea of reworking the D&D Expeditions adventure "Cloaks and Shadows". That adventure has air cult assassins trying to a) take out some of their own people who have "failed" the cult and b) frame the PCs for murder. I could, instead, have it be turmoil within the Cult of the Dragon between the new breed who favor Tiamat and the old guard who prefer sticking with dracoliches. And the murdered lord at the beginning could be a Guild kingpin (so it's the Guild that's after the PCs rather than the Watch or the Flaming Fist) or something.
Not sure how I'd work Mondath into that. Unless I make her the assassin instead of a reskinned Little Wing.
If you go with that one, expect them to want to deactivate the portal in Castle Naerytar as well, and be ready to head them off from doing so! (Maybe stress to them that they have to follow the treasure and find out its ultimate destination.)
pukunui
Legend
Hmm. Good point. I wonder if maybe I shouldn't risk messing with the cult's plan - just keep it as being the overland route - and give the PCs the opportunity to find this out without letting the cult know they've done that. Then maybe I can have Mondath show up as a sort of rogue agent hellbent on revenge. And maybe with her dying breath, she'll warn them that the cult won't stop until they're dead - hinting that they should spend the rest of their time in the Gate lying low.
EDIT: I think the reason I'm struggling a bit here is because this is very much an intrigue style scenario, and I'm not that good at doing intrigue. The PC wants to get some information from the cult (namely, whether the stolen treasure will be leaving Baldur's Gate by land or by sea), and he needs to do it stealthily so they don't know he's on to them ... but, at the same time, the cult is already aware that the PCs are on to them, because Mondath managed to escape the dragon hatchery.
Perhaps what I need to do is have Mondath attack first, before the PC can follow through with his plan - her job is to find them and take them out *before* they can find out how the loot is leaving Baldur's Gate. Once she's dead, perhaps she has some clues on her person that will lead them to a cult hideout in the city somewhere. And then the "Cult Infiltrator" PC can work his magic, while the others wait nearby, ready to help if he sends them a signal.
That doesn't really solve the ultimate problem of the PCs finding out where the cult loot is going without letting the cult know they've found out. The trouble is that I can't know ahead of time whether the PC infiltrator will get caught or not. I can't tell him that the loot is going by sea, because if he manages to get that info and get out without being caught, then the info he's got is wrong ... but if I tell him that the loot is going by land but his cover ends up getting blown, it doesn't seem plausible to me that the cult would stick to the land route, knowing that someone else knows.
I'm undoubtedly overthinking it, but I want it to be plausible, you know?
EDIT: I think the reason I'm struggling a bit here is because this is very much an intrigue style scenario, and I'm not that good at doing intrigue. The PC wants to get some information from the cult (namely, whether the stolen treasure will be leaving Baldur's Gate by land or by sea), and he needs to do it stealthily so they don't know he's on to them ... but, at the same time, the cult is already aware that the PCs are on to them, because Mondath managed to escape the dragon hatchery.
Perhaps what I need to do is have Mondath attack first, before the PC can follow through with his plan - her job is to find them and take them out *before* they can find out how the loot is leaving Baldur's Gate. Once she's dead, perhaps she has some clues on her person that will lead them to a cult hideout in the city somewhere. And then the "Cult Infiltrator" PC can work his magic, while the others wait nearby, ready to help if he sends them a signal.
That doesn't really solve the ultimate problem of the PCs finding out where the cult loot is going without letting the cult know they've found out. The trouble is that I can't know ahead of time whether the PC infiltrator will get caught or not. I can't tell him that the loot is going by sea, because if he manages to get that info and get out without being caught, then the info he's got is wrong ... but if I tell him that the loot is going by land but his cover ends up getting blown, it doesn't seem plausible to me that the cult would stick to the land route, knowing that someone else knows.
I'm undoubtedly overthinking it, but I want it to be plausible, you know?
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That could work, but make sure they know that just because Mondath knows who they are, it doesn't automatically mean the whole cult knows. Otherwise, they might be afraid to join the caravan, and while you could patch that over, it would leave them out of some fun stuff in chapter 4.
That sounds good too.
Three ideas for handling the possibility of the PC getting caught, depending on how it happens:
1. If it happens in a subtle way that the PC might not be aware of, just make a note of it and don't have anything happen right away. Then spring the "Recognized!" event from chapter 4 on them later, while they're on the road.
2. The PC could be recognized by someone who is, unexpectedly, an ally or potential ally: a Harper agent who's also infiltrating the cult, a disenchanted cultist who's having second thoughts about this whole Tiamat thing and wants out, a corrupt cultist who's willing to stay quiet for some money (and will continue to ask for more during the caravan journey), a really dumb cultist who assumes the PC has joined the cult for real since the last time they met, or perhaps a cultist with a guilty secret (the thief mentioned in chapter 5?) who can be blackmailed into not giving them away.
3. Make sure the cell of cultists the PC infiltrates is a small one. Then, if it turns into a fight, the PCs have a good chance of not leaving any witnesses. The cult will only know that someone attacked one of their meeting places and killed several cult members. If the infiltrator is clever, he/she could even pretend to have survived the attack and give a fake story to other cultists in town.
pukunui
Legend
Good point. Now that I've decided I'm going to run the caravan segment after all, I need to make sure I don't scare them off it. Any ideas how I can make sure that doesn't happen?
Good suggestions. Thanks!
The best suggestion I can think of is to stress the size of the cult's operation. After all, they're trying to collect the biggest dragon hoard ever; it stands to reason they're not confining themselves to raiding just the area around Greenest. Treasure and cultists should be pouring into Baldur's Gate by several different routes, including the river and perhaps even by sea. Thus, there will be quite a lot of cultists in town who have never seen the PCs, and the cultists who travel with the caravan need not all be veterans of Mondath's encampment. (An added plus to this approach is that it starts to open out and reveal the epic scale of the plot.)
Are any of your PCs Harpers? A Harper contact would be a good source of information on the scale of cult activity in town.
The PCs could also be encouraged to disguise themselves so that they'll be less likely to be recognized by cultists who have seen them before.
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pukunui
Legend
Right, so just because Mondath's on to them doesn't mean everyone will be. And turning Baldur's Gate into a meeting point also makes it so the cult is less likely to change the route just because some pesky adventurers are on their tail. It would be too awkward to try and change the details of an operation of that size at the last minute. One will have to assume that the cult has its fingers in the various power groups in the city, though, to help ensure that they don't get stopped there.
Yes, my wife's dwarf wizard just joined the Harpers. The elf arcane trickster is still considering it. The druid joined the Emerald Enclave back in Elturel, and the human fighter is probably going to join the Lords' Alliance, once I set that up (I'm going to run another short side quest involving some corrupt Flaming Fist soldiers that will bring the PCs to Ravengard's attention).
I did have Leosin and Ontharr suggest that, but the players didn't really do anything. I think the elf changed his clothing, but that was about it. The dwarf refused to shave his beard. Besides, there's only so many ways you can disguise an 8-ft tall goliath ...
EDIT: As an aside, I'm still struggling to figure out what to do about Talis. As you may recall, one of the PCs in my game has the "Talis was a childhood friend" bond, which suggests that she might have been kidnapped by dragon cultists, and that the PC's investigation into the cult has led them to Greenest. I had originally thought about planting some clues about Talis there but I never got around to it, so it ended up being a bit of a dead-end.
Anyway, the player of the PC in question wants to visit Talis' family to let them know she's had no luck, so in trying to figure out who her family might be, I settled on Coran. He seems like quite the womanizer, and I figure he's probably left a whole string of half-elven bastards in his wake. So why not make it so Talis is Coran's lovechild? Perhaps she happened to be staying with him for a while when the PC was growing up and they got to be friends by attending all the same parties and such.
This way I can introduce Coran as a famous local person in the Gate, and have him serve as a clue dispenser and/or quest giver, as he is wont to do. The elven PC in my group is also on the hunt for an elven cleric who can heal him of a head injury, and I figure Coran might be the one to point him in the right direction for that, as well, since elves don't have a big presence in the Gate.
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A few links:
Older articles found via the Wayback Machine, reposted from this thread:
7 Legitimate Beefs with Hoard of the Dragon Queen
13 Tips (and 1 Map) for Running Hoard of the Dragon Queen (separate link to the map)
*(Note that the information on the Adventurer's League is incorrect according to the thread linked above)
"D&D Tyranny of Dragons Campaign Review and Rebuttal"
A positive review that addresses some of the common complaints about the modules.
Also, there has been some discussion on the "Rise of Tiamat" thread that encompasses both modules (starts here). Have a look--it's quite interesting!
Older articles found via the Wayback Machine, reposted from this thread:
7 Legitimate Beefs with Hoard of the Dragon Queen
13 Tips (and 1 Map) for Running Hoard of the Dragon Queen (separate link to the map)
*(Note that the information on the Adventurer's League is incorrect according to the thread linked above)
"D&D Tyranny of Dragons Campaign Review and Rebuttal"
A positive review that addresses some of the common complaints about the modules.
Also, there has been some discussion on the "Rise of Tiamat" thread that encompasses both modules (starts here). Have a look--it's quite interesting!
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Castle Naerytar continued:
I forgot to mention that I tossed in a random encounter with some ogre zombies on the way to the castle. I wanted to give our cleric a chance to use his undead-zapping abilities, and this seemed like an appropriate place for it. I used this map from Dundjinni. The streams (silver) are difficult terrain.
Hunting Lodge
The pacing of this part of the adventure seemed weird to me. The group explored the place like a dungeon, but it never seemed to flow properly. They seemed to be in full "dungeon mindset," and they wouldn't even let Talis explain her proposition to them, much less think of getting information from her. They also never met the four-armed troll, which made me sad.
I think if I were doing it again, I'd make it more dynamic, with more encounters coming to the players. I'd probably have the troll find them on the way to the lodge, and I'd have Talis burst in with her guards while the group was trying to loot the tapestry room.
Parnast
I pretty much jettisoned what's in the book for this interlude. The battlemaster in my group has the "grandchild of a famous dragonslayer" background, and she's been itching for a chance to confront the thugs who attacked her back when she was level 0. So I described Parnast as being lit up all night, with multiple shifts of workers loading treasure and supplies onto the floating castle. The PCs spotted the gang of thugs (five veterans) among the workers; later, the battlemaster and the eldritch knight tracked them down and killed them without even any help from the rest of the party! Then the group got onto the floating castle by joining a supply wagon that was going in to unload.
***
I forgot to mention that I tossed in a random encounter with some ogre zombies on the way to the castle. I wanted to give our cleric a chance to use his undead-zapping abilities, and this seemed like an appropriate place for it. I used this map from Dundjinni. The streams (silver) are difficult terrain.
Hunting Lodge
The pacing of this part of the adventure seemed weird to me. The group explored the place like a dungeon, but it never seemed to flow properly. They seemed to be in full "dungeon mindset," and they wouldn't even let Talis explain her proposition to them, much less think of getting information from her. They also never met the four-armed troll, which made me sad.
I think if I were doing it again, I'd make it more dynamic, with more encounters coming to the players. I'd probably have the troll find them on the way to the lodge, and I'd have Talis burst in with her guards while the group was trying to loot the tapestry room.
Parnast
I pretty much jettisoned what's in the book for this interlude. The battlemaster in my group has the "grandchild of a famous dragonslayer" background, and she's been itching for a chance to confront the thugs who attacked her back when she was level 0. So I described Parnast as being lit up all night, with multiple shifts of workers loading treasure and supplies onto the floating castle. The PCs spotted the gang of thugs (five veterans) among the workers; later, the battlemaster and the eldritch knight tracked them down and killed them without even any help from the rest of the party! Then the group got onto the floating castle by joining a supply wagon that was going in to unload.
***
That makes a lot of sense, and it allows you to use one of the more colorful canon characters from Baldur's Gate, too!
