HotDQ advice? (spoiler)

[spongebob1138]

Can anyone who is familiar with Hoard of the Dragon Queen give a little advice? My PC's are just about ready to make the journey down the Chionthar River to Baldur's Gate. Back in the Dragon Hatchery chapter, cultist Frulam Mondath escaped, realizing she was outnumbered and that Langdedrossa was going to be defeated. I also had the PC's encounter a paladin of Torm, Callista Mondath, Frulam's younger sister, who has a blood vendetta against Frulam. I don't know if and when Callista will reappear after Elturel. But my question is: where can I have Frulam reappear for maximum impact? I know the PC's are/will be of higher level, so I don't know how much of a match Frulam would be for them, but I figured I didn't want to waste her as a character completely. Appreciate your thoughts, especially if you've run HotDQ.

 

[pukunui]

In my campaign, Frulam also managed to escape from the PCs in Episode 3. I had her report back to Rezmir, who spat acid in her face, hideously deforming her. She then gave Frulam a second chance to redeem herself by setting up an ambush in Baldur's Gate. (I had her set it up in a warehouse in the outer city.) Unfortunately for her, the PCs were too strong and defeated her and her would-be assassins quite easily. Her last words were, "Tell Talis I love her." (One of the PCs has the "Talis was a childhood friend" bond.)

 

[GuardianLurker]

Easy spots to insert her in HotDQ: Castle Naerytar (reporting the debacle to Rezmir), the Hunting Lodge (seeking support from one of Rezmir's rivals, i.e. Talis), the town next to Skyreach (buffing the Cult's presence).

Spots in Rise of Tiamat: Death in the Council (supporting cast, clue/herring), Sea of Ice (cult envoy to the dragon), Metallic Dragons Arise (interfering with the negotiations), Well of Dragons (as one of the Wyrmspeakers).

In general, maximum impact will occur when she doesn't share the spotlight with anyone, so look for an event that has little active cult involvement and insert her there, giving her a new task/thread. Also, don't forget to advance her - the PCs have learned and advanced, so should she.

 

[jayoungr]

I consider Baldur's Gate to be the ideal place for players to encounter Frulam Mondath again. They won't be very high level by then, and there is really nothing for the PCs to do there. Just my two cents.

 

[Sloblock]

I consider Baldur's Gate to be the ideal place for players to encounter Frulam Mondath again. They won't be very high level by then, and there is really nothing for the PCs to do there. Just my two cents.

That is a great suggestion for the encounter.

Did the PCs go through her room in the cave? if so they could have learnt the location of a safe house location that Mondath could be heading for in the case of a problem.

That way your PCs could face her down there with or without re-inforcements and away from the prying eyes of the Watch etc

 

[jayoungr]

In my game, I added an encounter with some cultists transporting part of the treasure by river, adapted from the idea of cultists with a wagon breakdown over at Sly Flourish. I changed the wagon to a barge that had gotten stuck on a sandbank. The leader of the cultists had a letter in her pack directing them to a contact in Baldur's Gate. If you use this encounter, you could easily have Frulam Mondath hiding out in the same place.

 

[Sloblock]

I consider Baldur's Gate to be the ideal place for players to encounter Frulam Mondath again. They won't be very high level by then, and there is really nothing for the PCs to do there. Just my two cents.

I added a few extra encounters for the stay in BG. Some were lifted from the module Murder in Baldurs Gate,were to add a bit of flavour. I also made a little heist adventure for the PCs as I felt more needed to be going on.

 

[jayoungr]

I added a few extra encounters for the stay in BG. Some were lifted from the module Murder in Baldurs Gate,were to add a bit of flavour. I also made a little heist adventure for the PCs as I felt more needed to be going on.

I'd love to hear more about what you added! I'm especially curious what you were able to lift from MiBG. I bought that hoping to be able to tie it in with HotDQ, but I ended up not using any of it because I couldn't find anything I liked.

 

[koga305]

In my campaign, Frulam also managed to escape from the PCs in Episode 3. I had her report back to Rezmir, who spat acid in her face, hideously deforming her. She then gave Frulam a second chance to redeem herself by setting up an ambush in Baldur's Gate. (I had her set it up in a warehouse in the outer city.) Unfortunately for her, the PCs were too strong and defeated her and her would-be assassins quite easily. Her last words were, "Tell Talis I love her." (One of the PCs has the "Talis was a childhood friend" bond.)

That's awesome! I love the dramatic flair of Rezmir punishing her for failure, and of the villain's humanizing - and dramatic reveal upon death.

 

[discosoc]

She escaped in my campaign as well, although Cyanwrath died. My initial intention was to introduce her again later on, but the campaign gets pretty plot-heavy pretty quickly. Instead, I integrated Cyanwrath into the white dragon mask adventure by revealing that the dwarf had the mask stolen by Zhentarim agents at the behest of a now-resurrected Cyanwrath who appears to also be working against the cult (the white mask was never recovered by the party or the dragon cult for summoning tiamat).

It left a bit of mystery there, and I'll probably introduce Frulam and Cyanwrath in another campaign entirely. Stuff like that can make for fun connections between campaigns for players.