pukunui
Legend
Copying this thread over from the WotC forums ...
I thought some people might appreciate seeing how I've modified the Tyranny of Dragons modules for my campaign. Although I disagree with the assessment that these adventures are poorly designed, they do contain some flaws, as all adventures do. There is also the standard expectation that any adventure will be customized to suit the needs of your group. With that in mind, here are the changes/fixes I've made to the adventures so far:
[h3]HOARD OF THE DRAGON QUEEN[/h3]
Cheers,
Jonathan
p.s. You can read about my group's adventures here: A Hoard to Remember
I thought some people might appreciate seeing how I've modified the Tyranny of Dragons modules for my campaign. Although I disagree with the assessment that these adventures are poorly designed, they do contain some flaws, as all adventures do. There is also the standard expectation that any adventure will be customized to suit the needs of your group. With that in mind, here are the changes/fixes I've made to the adventures so far:
[h3]HOARD OF THE DRAGON QUEEN[/h3]
- I had the PCs start at 3rd level instead of 1st. I had two reasons: 1) I prefer to start at 3rd level and 2) I reasoned this would mean the PCs wouldn't have to rest as often between missions.
- I also started the adventure with the PCs already in Greenest. They had congregated at the inn, which I determined was the walled building in the northwest corner of the town map. The barkeep was a retired adventurer nicknamed "Patchy" (who happened to be the brother of Governor Nighthill). I had him question the PCs as a means to get the players to introduce their characters to each other. As Patchy was telling them a story about fighting a dragon, something big and heavy wooshed overhead, followed by a loud crackle of lightning and an explosion from somewhere else in the town. One of the PCs is a dragon scholar, so he was able to recognize that the town was under attack by a blue dragon -- a fact confirmed by Patchy, who grabbed his magic glowing mace and asked them to help him distract the dragon so the townsfolk could get to the keep.
- Before the PCs could respond, however, there was a commotion outside front of the inn. Looking out the windows, they saw a local family (the Swifts) being chased by kobolds. The PCs had to choose whether to accompany Patchy on his seemingly suicidal mission or go and help the family. They chose the family. Patchy tossed them his old bag of holding -- filled with potions and old socks -- and headed out the back door to get his horse.
- Patchy's glowing mace managed to catch Lennithon's attention, and Patchy rode off across the Greenfields. Later during the raid, I had Lennithon drop Patchy into the keep as he returned. As he lay dying, Patchy told the PCs to "earn this".
- Given the relatively small size of Greenest, I felt that the raid was spread out over too much time. I had also reduced the length of a short rest to 20 minutes, so I chose to have each mission eat up only 30 minutes rather than a whole hour. I skipped the Sally Port mission. After the initial Seek the Keep mission, I ran the Sanctuary mission. After that, the PCs took a short rest - and got some healing from the Chauntean priests they'd rescued. Then I ran the Prisoners, Dragon Attack, Save the Mill, and Half-Dragon Champion missions, in that order. The raid was over by 2am instead of 4am, giving the PCs a little more time to rest.
- I put a ballista on top of the keep tower so the PCs could fire it at the dragon during his attack. Unfortunately for them, it drew his attention and he destroyed it (and nearly destroyed them too). The wizard PC managed to drive him off with a few well-aimed catapult spells, though.
- When the PCs went to scout the mill and saw that it appeared to be an ambush, they returned to the keep to warn the governor. They asked him for reinforcements to help secure it, and so I gave them a few NPC guards - who proved to have better luck handling the would-be assassins than the PCs did! We joked that if the PCs all died, the players would have to start playing the guards instead.
- Not so much a change as a clever tactic that the PCs employed: The wizard cast invisibility on the rogue, who went over to the kobold stragglers and incited them to go and attack the cultists. The PCs then stood back and watched as the two groups had at each other. They finished off the last ones standing and interrogated the last dying cultist, which enabled them to avoid the rearguard encounter entirely.
- When they were scouting the camp from the ridge above, I made it clear that they could probably walk right in unchallenged, but that if they were caught, they'd have to fight the entire camp. I also had a few factions in the camp: the kobolds near the entrance, the mercenaries near the south side, and then three groups of cultists (red, black, and blue) in the middle.
- As per author Steve Winter's unofficial errata, I made the leader of the rearguard a veteran, as well as the human guards outside the leaders' tent in the camp. [Not that it mattered in my case, since the PCs steered clear of them all.]
- At the top of the trapped stairs leading down to the fungus garden (Area 3), I included a note scratched into the wall in Draconic that read "Watch out for that last step! It's a doozy!" to telegraph the trap's presence.
- I've included a chest half-buried under the trash at the back of the pit (Area 5). It contains the items already listed in the adventure plus a jar of Keoghtom's ointment. The PCs spotted a key, which the wizard lifted out of the pit using mage hand. When they held the key by its strap, it pulled in the direction of the chest. [The idea here was to give the players some incentive to actually go into the pit so the troglodytes could attack them -- so they could earn some extra XP. I'll admit that, in retrospect, my handling of it was a little clunky, though my players didn't seem to mind.]
- I replaced the winged kobold in the drake nursery (Area 7) with a kobold "wyrmpriest" of my own design. Basically a low-level sorcerer (CR 1/2; AC 15, HP 18; spells: DC 12, at will: acid splash, blade ward, prestidigitation; 3/day: chromatic orb [acid only]). Turned out to be a bit of a glass cannon.
- Since the PCs never interacted with the prisoners in the raiders' camp, I placed three of them in the pit (Area 10b). I also added a wooden scaffolding platform to the side so the kobolds could stand on that and use the ledge for cover (having them stand at the bottom of a 10 ft deep pit and lob grenades blindly at the PCs made no sense).
- I removed the reference to Naerytar in the note on Mondath's desk (Area 11). I also decided that only Rezmir knows that the loot is headed to Naerytar. All the other cultists in the Greenfields area, including Mondath and Cyanwrath, only know that it's going to Baldur's Gate. The cultists who are traveling with the loot will get further orders to take it to Daggerford once they get there, where they will receive more orders to take it Waterdeep, and so on ... This helps make it so the PCs have a legitimate reason for following the loot caravan all the way to Naerytar, since they can't learn that that's its destination ahead of time.
Greenest -> Elturel
Baldur's Gate
- My players decided to take the long way to Elturel via Berdusk and Scornubel. I explained that along the way, they saw more evidence of the extent of the cult's raiding: burned out farms and homes, abandoned villages, scared and grim-faced villagers trying to pick up the pieces, and so on.
- I also threw in an encounter with a trio of griffons on the road to Berdusk. The griffons attacked the PCs' horses while they were all resting in the shade of some trees near the road.
- When they were almost at Berdusk, they encountered one of the city's gauntlets (roving patrols) heading the other way. [You'll note that at the beginning of Episode 3, the young monk Nesim Waladra informs the PCs that one of his brothers had gone to Berdusk for help, but that it would take many days for anyone to arrive. After reading up on Berdusk in the old Forgotten Realms Adventures and Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast books, I decided that the help would come in the form of a Berduskan patrol.] The PCs gave them a quick rundown of what had occurred and the gauntlet continued on their way, determined to help the folk of Greenest in any way they could.
- I gave the PCs a quick overview of Berdusk and showed them some of the black and white pictures from Volo's Guide. They sampled some of the local delicacies - goldenstars and Berduskan dark wine - and found a barge captain willing to give them free passage to Elturel via Scornubel if they agreed to act as guards along the way because the gnolls of the Reaching Woods had been getting bolder of late. [The 4e FRCG mentions that the paladins of Elturgard barricaded the Reaching Wood, which merely resulted in the local gnolls killing/enslaving all the other creatures in the forest. A single elf escaped with a warning that the gnolls wouldn't stay put in the forest for long. As ToD is set only a decade or so since the 4e FRCG's time period, I figured the gnolls might still be a problem.]
- As the River Chionthar gets quite close to the Reaching Wood at times, I decided to have a pack of seven gnolls attack the barge as they made a run for it at night - using the elf PC's darkvision in place of lanterns. The gnolls fired fiery arrows at the barge from the relative safety of the trees.
- The PCs had the better part of a day to spend in Scornubel. I gave them a quick rundown of the place based on what's in Forgotten Realms Adventures and Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast and mentioned the addition of the paladin citadel that was built when Elturgard annexed the city after the Spellplague.
- As the barge neared Elturel, I made sure to describe the city's magical second sun. I had the barge captain talk about how it was a gift from either Amaunator or Lathander, he wasn't too sure which one. Supposedly it kept undead at bay. I also pointed out that many homes and buildings in the city have heavy curtains.
- Because there's a druid in the party, I was planning on having a representative of the Emerald Enclave with Leosin and Ontharr. Unfortunately, the guy playing the druid wasn't able to make it to that session, so I ended up leaving the rep out.
Baldur's Gate
- I ran a slightly modified version of "DDEX1-4 Dues for the Dead" as a sidequest. One of the PCs is a greataxe-wielding fighter who belongs to one of the Gate's minor patriar families, and I wanted do give her the opportunity to encounter the spirit of one of her ancestors, who would aid her by making the family axe magical.
- I also introduced some street urchins in Baldur's Gate who offered to help the PCs out. They used them to keep an eye on things in Blackgate so they wouldn't have to hang around that part of the city all day every day. On that note, I also had Selebon tell them that putting together a caravan is a long, slow process and all they'd need to do is pass through the caravan assembly yard once a day.
- I included a brief encounter based on the "Thieves!" section of the Murder in Baldur's Gate launch weekend module. In short, the PCs were exploring the stalls in the Wide when a patriar (I named him Lord Devlin Redlock) accused a PC of treading on his fine silk cloak. He then challenged the PC to a duel, using the recently reinstated duelling laws (see MiBG). While the duel was going on, two bandits took advantage of the distraction to start picking pockets.
- I also had the two Harper PCs meet up with a local Harper agent, a human spy named Jandar, in the Hissing Stones bathhouse. He told them that the Harpers were aware of several cult cells in the city and that they had detected an increase in activity, with the cultists bringing in shipments from a number of different places, including the Moonshae Isles and even up from the Underdark. He also warned the PCs that the cult had put a price on their heads.
- The PCs also met with Coran at the Elfsong Tavern (where the elf PC was able to experience the ghostly singing and get a free drink). As an aside, one of the PCs in my game has the "Talis was a childhood friend" bond. Because Talis' backstory is non-existent in the adventure, and the PC in question is a Baldurian patriar, I decided that Talis was Coran's love child (one of many, in fact).
- Because the elf PC was suffering a long-term injury dating all the way back to the attack on Greenest and his player insisted that he wouldn't want to seek help from human gods, I decided there was a shrine to the Seldarine, called the Moon Grove, in the suburb of Twin Songs. An elf priestess named Caelynn Siannodel tends the shrine. She had the PC drink from the sacred pool, at which point he experienced a "vision quest" consisting of a modified version of iserith's Barrow of the Evensong adventure.
- As part of the adventure, I replaced the three NPCs in the ettercap's lair with three NPCs from the caravan: Edhelri Lewel, Eldgar Agetul (a modified version of the dwarf guard from the list), and Green Imsa. I then later had the PCs rescue the real Green Imsa from the same band of Guild thugs they'd "rescued" from the catacombs. Later, at a party on Midsummer's Day, the elf PC met the real Edhelri Lewel, while the dwarf PC met the real Eldgar Agetul and his boss, the gold dwarf merchant, Lai Angesstun. The PCs learned that all of them were planning on heading north to Waterdeep via the caravan route, which clued them in to the idea that that was the route they should take, even though the cultists from the Greenest raid hadn't showed up in the city yet.
- For fun, I also adapted "DDEX 1-6 The Scroll Thief" for use in Baldur's Gate. I placed Mantor's Library in the Upper City, along with Aya Glenmiir's shop. I made Marten Foss and his daughter human and put their training yard and home in the Blackgate district. I put Agin Lamarck's shop in Bloomridge. I placed the swamp in which Rythnax is hiding between the River Chionthar and the Cloakwood, near the mouth of the river. I also made Soares a dragonwing, rather than a cult initiate, and I made Ellison an arcane trickster in order to a) explain the lack of any signs of a break-in at any of the three theft locations and b) explain how he is able to cast spells from scrolls and disable magical wards and the like. I also made it so that the clues from the stolen books led to Xandria's Crypt (from "DDEX 1-1 Defiance in Phlan"), which I placed in the Tumbledown cemetery. I made it so the area under the crypt hadn't been used in a long time. I mostly just included it to give the Scroll Thief a decent conclusion, since I didn't want to use the Pool of Radiance theme, and to remind the players that the Cult of the Dragon used to be all about dracoliches rather than living dragons.
- Nine days after the PCs arrived in Baldur's Gate, I had the urchins report that someone in a palanquin had arrived at Selebon's shop. The urchins reported that the occupant of the palanquin had a "gruff but feminine voice" and that they'd seen glimpses of purple through gaps in the curtains. The palanquin then wound its way down to the city docks, where it was taken aboard a ship that departed soon after. (I decided that it made more sense for Rezmir to take a ship up to the Mere of Dead Men than expose herself on the road.)
- I then had Mondath -- whose face was hideously scarred after Rezmir spat acid in her face for failing to protect the dragon hatchery -- waiting to ambush the PCs in the warehouse to which the cult's three wagons had been sent from Selebon's shop. She had two dragonclaws and four cultists backing her up. The PCs scouted the warehouse and saw them, so they didn't go in ... so I had Mondath forge a note from the Harpers and got the PCs to come to a different warehouse the next night, where she was able to spring her ambush - the idea here being that Rezmir was giving Mondath one last chance to make things right by eliminating the PCs before they could follow (or stop) the treasure wagons.
Baldur's Gate -> Waterdeep
- All the sidequests I ran in Baldur's Gate were enough to get the PCs up to 5th level, so I've been having to upgrade the encounters on the road to Waterdeep.
- The way I set up the caravan leaving from Baldur's Gate is as follows:
- Wagons 1-2
- Owner: Edhelri Lewel (caravan master)
- Cargo: exotic timbers, spare wagon parts
- Teamsters: Werond Torohar, Ravek Mander (human commoner)
- Guards: a PC (sergeant), plus five human guards (including Orvustia) - Note: these guards are sort of general caravan guards, not just guards for Edhelri's wagons, and the PC sergeant has some authority over the other generic guards in the caravan as well.
- Wagon 3
- Owner: Aldor Urnpoleshurst
- Cargo: personal belongings
- Teamster: Dorn Tallstag (human commoner)
- Guards: a PC (bodyguard)
- Wagon 4
- Owner: Lai Angesstun
- Cargo: scented oils and perfumes from Amn
- Teamster: Enom Tobun (human commoner)
- Guards: Eldgar Agetul, a PC (bodyguards)
- Wagon 5
- Owner: Samardag the Hoper
- Cargo: fragile porcelain
- Teamster: Samardag
- Guards: Leda Widris, a PC (guards)
- Wagon 6*
- Owner: Morn Amblecrown (human cultist posing as an arrogant aristocrat from Iriaebor)
- Cargo: "preserved fruits (eg. olives, dates, figs, etc)" (actually cult treasure)
- Teamster: Salazar (sleazy human bandit)
- Guards: Larion Keenblade (half-elf spy; can be of help in Episode 5)
- Wagons 7-8
- Owner: Beyd Sechepol
- Cargo: alcohol
- Teamster: Beyd, Thildon Crofter (human commoner)
- Guards: Sulesdeg the Pole, Tyjit Skesh, plus two human guards
- Wagon 9
- Owner: Nyerhite Verther
- Cargo: silk from Calimshan
- Teamster: Losvius Longnose
- Guards: Two human guards
- Wagon 10*
- Owner: Devlin and Tilda Appledown (human dragonclaws)
- Cargo: "personal belongings" (actually cult treasure)
- Teamster: Devlin
- Guards: none (the "Appledowns" take turns guarding their wagon at night, and they don't let anyone hitch a ride)
- Wagon 11
- Owner: Lasfelro the Silent
- Cargo: undisclosed
- Teamster: Lasfelro
- Guards: a gargoyle
- Wagon 12*
- Owner: Pavel Borsk (a rude human commoner [member of CoD])
- Cargo: undisclosed (actually cult treasure)
- Teamster: Pavel
- Guards: Umara (human veteran; seeks revenge in Episode 5)
- Travelers
- Imsa the Green
- Barakis (tiefling dragonwing)
- nine human cultists
- Using the new FR map released with the SCAG, I determined that the overall journey from Baldur's Gate to Waterdeep would take 50 days. Here's my timeline:
- A PREMONITION (Day –2)
- I gave one of the PCs a dream, in which he saw a humanoid shadow falling across the road in front of him only to turn and find a vicious-looking stag staring at him (a clue about the perytons).
- RECOGNIZED! (Day 2)
- I had Barakis be the cultist who recognized one of the PCs.
- I had the fall-out from this escalate. First, Barakis sabotaged the wagon the PC was guarding. When that didn't get rid of the PC, he poisoned his drink with wyvern poison. When that didn't get rid of him either, Barakis got three of his fellow anonymous cultists and ambushed the PC in the forest during the hunt for the golden stag.
- STRANDED (Day 5)
- I added four worgs to the encounter, although it didn't really help that much; if I were to do it again, I'd make sure to spread the hobgoblins out more, so they can't all be taken out by a fireball or two.
- I had Oyn Evenmor be the stranded merchant. I gave him two wagons, but all the horses were dead, as were both teamsters and one of his guards. After he was rescued, he transferred all of his birds to one wagon, bought some spare horses from the other merchants, and started driving his one remaining wagon by himself, with his three remaining guards helping out.
- Wagon 13
- Owner: Oyn Evenmor
- Cargo: exotic birds
- Teamster: Oyn
- Guards: Three human guards
- REST DAY (Day 7)
- First day that the caravan didn't go anywhere. The PCs had the opportunity to mingle, while the merchants gave their animals a rest and repaired any damage to their wagons and so on.
- FUNGUS HUMONGOUS (Days 9-11)
- I ran this as written, with two days of stormy weather preceding it.
- NO ROOM AT THE INN (Day 11)
- I had this take place at the end of the same day as the 'shrooms.
- The inn was the last inn on the south side of the Trollclaws.
- Instead of four assassins, I had one female cambion and three human veterans. The cambion had charmed the innkeeper, so he was unable to override the cambion's orders to keep everyone else out.
- Since the PCs seemed inclined to talk rather than fight, I had Tyjit Skesh lose her temper and draw her sword. Although the PCs ultimately prevailed, Orvustia Esseren died.
- I used the map of the Inn of the Welcome Wench from the 4e version of The Village of Hommlet.
- The next day, Samardag the Hoper dropped out of the caravan when his wagon fell apart, destroying his cargo. It had been sabotaged by the cultists.
- TROLLCLAW FORD (Days 13-15)
- The caravan had its second rest day at Trollclaw Ford.
- Radacere Perethun joined the caravan at this point.
- I also had Losvius snoop around Pavel's wagon and discover that he was carrying various art objects (paintings, statuettes, etc). Pavel was suspicious and "hired" one of the other cultists traveling with the caravan as an extra guard.
- CONTRABAND (Day 15)
- As the caravan was winding its way out of the Trollclaw Hills north of the ford, the Appledowns' wagon tipped, spilling some of their stuff. Losvius Longnose discovered that one crate was full of treasure. He was found dead - poisoned - the next morning.
- BANE OF THE MOUNTAINS (Day 21)
- During the next rest day, a flock of six perytons arrived from the nearby Troll Hills. Three attack neared where the PCs were, while the other three attack elsewhere in the caravan camp (for the NPCs to deal with). One attacked the cultist, Tilda Appledown, while another attacked Imsa the Green. Both NPCs were taken out by the perytons but revived by one of the PCs.
- As the druid PC had rescued Imsa, I had her ask him to teach her the ways of the druids.
- DRAGONSPEAR CASTLE (Day 23)
- The caravan reached the junction between the Coast Way and the Trade Way near the ruins of Dragonspear Castle.
- The caravan grew as another, smaller caravan coming up from Boareskyr Bridge joined them. This caravan included:
- Wagons 1-2
- Owner: Achreny Ulyeltin
- Cargo: furs/hides
- Teamster: Achreny, Bor Nemetsk (human commoner)
- Guards: Four human guards
- Wagon 3
- Owner: Noohar Serelim
- Cargo: elven-made wood carvings
- Teamster: Noohar
- Guard: Selvek Serelim (Noohar's mute brother)
- Travelers
- Grigor Chernin (human noble), plus his bodyguards Alethra (human knight) and Olem (human mage)
- ANIMAL ABUSE (Day 25)
- One of the PCs tried to talk to Grigor about his abuse of his horses. He didn't want to get in a fight, though, so resolved to secretly tend to the horses in the night while Grigor was sleeping.
- THE GOLDEN STAG (Day 28)
- During the next rest day, a golden stag was spotted amongst a herd of deer. While the elves in the caravan tried to stop anyone from hunting it, most people didn't listen and gave chase into the Misty Forest. I was originally going to make it an actual chase, but when only two of the PCs opted to participate, I decided to make it so the NPCs all got lost while the stag appeared to be leading the two PCs to the ruins.
- I used the prophecy option for the stag. However, instead of a magic longbow, I put a spring in the ruins and had the stag tell the PCs to drink. When they did so, they each received a charm of heroism.
- On their way back, the two PCs were ambushed by Barakis and three cultists (that I had upgraded to dragonclaws). Both of the PCs went down and the cultists left them to die. One died, the other stabilized by the time the other PCs found them. They revived him and they all went back to the ruins and called out for elves. Eventually some elves showed up and the PCs were able to convince them to take their dead friend to some druids to cast reincarnate on them. One PC is a member of the Emerald Enclave, so I gave them a discount on the cost of the spell.
- SPIDER WOODS (Day 32)
- For this event, the PCs' wagons happened to be clustered together. Their section got attacked by the three ettercaps and two giant spiders, while I explained that a few more of the monsters were attacking the rest of the caravan. Since one of the PCs had gone ahead, I had his player control Sulesdeg the Pole for this fight. While the PCs were able to fight off their attackers, I made it so Edhelri and Beyd each lost one of their "red shirt" guards.
- THE WAY INN (Days 34-36)
- I arranged it so the caravan had a rest day at the Way Inn. The reincarnated PC rejoined the caravan here, pretending to be another person. Although I explained that Edhelri thought there was something familiar about him, she didn't recognize him and so he was able to infiltrate the caravan without anyone other than his fellow PCs knowing who he really was.
- PAYBACK (Day 37)
- On the road between the Way Inn and Liam's Hold, the caravan came across the buried Harper agent, Carlon. The PCs dug him out, spotted the Harper tattoo, and got the real story out of him in private later on.
- LIAM'S HOLD (Day 38)
- The caravan stopped at Liam's Hold for the night. I made it so Carlon was able to obtain some fresh clothes and equipment from a Harper cache hidden in the area.
- GILLIAN'S HILL (Day 39)
- The caravan stopped at Gillian's Hill for the night.
- DAGGERFORD (Days 40-42)
- The caravan had another rest day in Daggerford.
- Azbara Jos joined the caravan, noticeably buying a ride with Morn Amblecrown. I retroactively made it so Azbara was the same Red Wizard that the PCs had encountered in the catacombs outside Baldur's Gate.
- Jamna Gleamsilver (see post #7 for my version of her statblock) also joined the caravan, hitching a ride with Nyerhite. The PCs were instantly intrigued by her.
- UNWANTED ATTENTION (Day 43)
- Noticing Jamna's interest in both the cultists and themselves, the PCs attempted to talk to the gnome but they weren't able to get much out of her that was of any use. But I explained that they could tell she knew more than she was letting on.
- HIGH HOLY DAY (Day 44)
- Going by my calendar, this was the day of the autumnal equinox. On this day, the followers of Loviatar traditionally partake in the Rite of Pain and Purity. I used Steve Winter's favorite event that got cut, in which 200 "Loviatans" slowly process up the road while flogging themselves with whips and such. I had Edhelri task the PCs with trying to get them off the road so the caravan wouldn't get slowed down too much.
- One of the PCs was able to identify a priest amongst the throng and tried to persuade him to lead his followers off the road to no avail. I let the druid PC make a Perception check and told him he'd spotted a nice big thorn patch off in a field. He was able to get the Loviatans to go roll around in the thorn patch, thus freeing up the road.
- WHO'S YOUR FRIEND? (Day 45)
- No changes.
- MURDER MOST FOUL (Day 47)
- Jamna murdered the anonymous cultist that Pavel "hired" at Trollclaw Ford.
- FINAL REST DAY (Day 49)
- I had intended to have the PCs notice Jamna doing something with a flying snake to give them a clue that she was working for the Zhentarim, but I completely forgot.
- WATERDEEP (Day 50)
- I had Carlon offer to keep track of the cultists' wagons on the PCs' behalf. He told them to meet him at the Yawning Portal inn at six bells.
Council Quiet
- When the PCs arrived at the Yawning Portal inn, they found Leosin and Ontharr waiting for them along with Carlon. Leosin informed the PCs that there were others waiting for them in a back room. As they made their way across the common room, I had Ontharr elbow one of the PCs and gesture towards a bunch of rookies preparing to descend into Undermountain.
- The back room was warded with various spells (I told the players their PCs felt a sort of magic tingle as they passed through the doorway). Inside was a table with a fancy spread laid out on it. There were also four people in the room: three noblewomen and a male ranger. The women were Remallia Haventree (representing the Harpers), Lady Laeral Silverhand (representing the Lords' Alliance), and Elia (the polymorphed silver dragon and Remi's friend). The man was Delaan Winterhound (representing the Emerald Enclave). As Leosin introduced them, he jokingly referred to them as the "Council Quiet".
- As Ontharr implored everyone not to let the food go to waste, Jamna popped out from behind the PCs and attempted to invite herself to the party. She revealed that she was working for the Zhentarim and claimed to have valuable info to share. I had everyone vote on whether or not to include her. Ontharr voted against it, while pretty much everyone else (including the PCs) voted in favor.
- Carlon's Report: Carlon's informers had observed the cultists each taking a different route to Virgin's Square, the traditional Cult of the Dragon meeting place in the city. There they met with a hooded figure who gave them new instructions. They split up again, only to reconvene at a stableyard owned by the High Road Charter Company, where they left their wagons and horses and went to stay at a nearby inn. Carlon was also able to learn that they had signed on as part of the next convoy due to head up to the Carnath Roadhouse.
- The council discussed this info, concluding that the cult must have bribed someone in the company (or infiltrated it). Lady Laeral commented that she would never let the cult infiltrate one of her projects. [I had her make a few quips like that as foreshadowing for her replacement of Lord Neverember in the next adventure.]
- Jamna's Report: Steve Winter suggested that I emphasize the unreliability of Jamna's info by having her provide two things that could be verified as true, two things that could be verified as false, and one thing that couldn't be easily verified as either. To that end, I had her tell the council the following:
1) The cult had allied with some Thayan exiles, including Azbara Jos, the Red Wizard that joined the caravan at the same time she did. She claimed not to know any details of their alliance. (True)
2) One of the cult's wyrmspeakers went by the name Galvan the Blue, and he also happened to be one of the Thayan exiles. (True)
3) The elves of the Misty Forest were paying a hefty sum in protection money to keep the cult out of their woods. (False; and I had Delaan strenuously object, on the grounds that he had a good relationship with the elves and knew of no such arrangement.)
4) Some Zhentish agents recently encountered cloud giants near the old dragon graveyard known as the Well of Dragons. They said they were hunting for relics from the ancient conflict between their kind and dragons. Jamna suggested that, if this was true, then perhaps the giants could potentially help in the fight against the cult. (Mostly False; the giants were delivering some of the cult's treasure to the well, but of course they can potentially be recruited as allies in the next adventure.)
5) The cult was also seeking to forge an alliance with the Arcane Brotherhood. (Unclear; and this could lead to some fun complications when the PCs encounter Maccath the Crimson in Arauthator's lair in the next adventure.)
- I then had the faction leaders reiterate the PCs' mission: Continue tracking the stolen treasure. Once its final destination has been established, the PCs are to attempt to stop it from getting there (and recover it, if possible, so it can be returned). The PCs should also attempt to capture Rezmir and any Red Wizards they encounter along the way.
- I threw in a brief aside to the player of the dwarf PC that it became clear to him over the course of the dinner that Elia didn't like him, although he got the sense that it wasn't personal, it was just because he was a dwarf. [More foreshadowing for the next adventure.]
- As the meeting adjourned, I had Remi take the two Harper PCs aside and formally welcome them into the faction. Lady Laeral did the same for the Lords' Alliance PC, as did Delaan for the Enclave PC. I also had him suggest that the PC send Imsa to Goldenfields for more training so that she'd have a better chance of surviving out in the wilds. The PC agreed.
- After the meeting, I had Carlon escort the PCs (and Jamna) to a Harper safehouse in North Ward. They spent the night in relative comfort there, then spent most of the next day lying low in the house as well. I had Leosin stop by at one point to deliver a cache of equipment and magic items that the PCs' factions had requisitioned for them: four potions of climbing, four potions of greater healing, four potions of acid resistance, a vial of oil of sharpness, a robe of useful items, and a wand of secrets.
- On the Road Again
- Although Carlon said he could get the PCs jobs as guards on the road-building convoy, they didn't like the sound of that. Instead, they chose to shadow the convoy as it made its way up north. Jamna came with them.
- I just rolled one random encounter for the journey. They got attacked by a lone troll that came to investigate their campfire.
- At the roadhouse, the arcane trickster PC disguised himself as a cultist, went in and charmed Bog Luck, and learned about the secret tunnel (then got out before his spell wore off). The PCs then decided they'd just go into the swamp and look for the tunnel exit, so they mostly skipped the roadhouse, although they may go back later.
- I summarized the PCs' travel through the swamp, describing how they were having to fend off man-eating lizards and blood-sucking insects and the like, and then just used a bit of attrition (eg. having them lose a few spell slots and hit dice and the like) before throwing the yuan-ti hunting party at them.
- At the lizardfolk camp, I had Waervaerendor approach them invisibly. He circled the camp, revealing his footprints in the soggy ground, and drew close enough that the PCs' could feel his hot breath on their skin. He introduced himself as Voaraghamanthar and told them that he wouldn't eat them if they did something for him. He gave them a bit of background on Castle Naerytar, particularly its use as a stargazer's academy (that was really just a way for a penanggalan to obtain easy victims, as all of her "students" were female). He then said that he wanted them to retrieve a ring (one of the rings of Myrkul, worn by Dralmorrer) from the castle, as well as destroy the farseer of Illusk as retaliation for Rezmir having stolen something from him (the knowledge that he has a twin). Lastly, he informed them that some lizardfolk were heading towards the camp and that one of them was his servant (Snapjaw), then he slid off into the water.
- During the boat ride from the camp to the castle, I had a giant crocodile attack them.
- When Snapjaw talked to the lizardfolk on guard duty, I had the PCs makes a group Charisma check to see how well they impressed the guards, rather than having Snapjaw make a single check on their behalf. I then had them make another group check to impress the lizardfolk inside the castle when they met with them during their nightly get-together in the room above the forge.
- On advice from @jayoungr, I have made it so the dragonwings all know the portal password, not just Dralmorrer and Rezmir. This enables the cultists to send loot through the portal without it having to be personally escorted by either of the two leaders.
- Since other people have complained that Dralmorrer is too much of a pushover, I decided to beef him up a little for my game. I gave him the War Caster feat for starters, and also bumped him up to 8 hit dice (so he has 60 hit points). I also gave him Action Surge, Second Wind, and the Dueling Fighting Style. Lastly, I swapped out shocking grasp for green-flame blade from SCAG and gave him a longsword of life stealing. I've also got him wearing a pendant in the shape of the Eldreth Veluuthra's skull-and-sword emblem.
- I messed around with Pharblex's spell list a bit, giving him spells like Melf's acid arrow and tidal wave, but the PCs killed him in his sleep, so in the end the changes I made didn't really matter. Go figure!
- When the PCs went into the caverns below the castle via the underwater entrance, I didn't bother having any of the giant frogs in the lake attack them. It didn't seem to me like it would be all that interesting a combat, especially since the giant frog lost its tongue attack between the playtest and the final 5e rules.
- I swapped out the dagger of venom hidden in the statue of Tiamat for an acid-based dragontooth dagger (see The Rise of Tiamat. Since the PCs didn't seem inclined to search the statue for secret compartments, I made sure to have Snapjaw mention the hidden dagger.
- I made it so visiting cultists could bypass the trapped armor in the entry hall by saying a pass phrase (eg. "Tiamat lives").
- It appears the designers got helmed horrors confused with shield guardians in terms of the spell storing trait. Nevertheless, I decided to keep it and set the DC for Evard's black tentacles at 12.
- I made Kusphia a dragonwing rather than a dragonclaw.
- I changed Talis' +1 scale mail to white dragon scale mail.
- I also swapped out the +1 chainmail in Talis' room for serpentine owl figurine.
- I went with having the castle leave one hour after the PCs had infiltrated Parnast.
- I replaced Rath Modar with a simulacrum of him (so same stats but with only half the hit points and none of the magic items).
- I modified Blagothkus' statblock to bring it more into line with the generic cloud giant statblock in the MM.
- I made it so Rath Modar's simulacrum had cast a 6th level version of the major image on the door to his rooms so it would just look like a solid wall.
- I made it so the cult was forcing Blagothkus' hand somewhat by threatening to have the vampire desecrate his wife's tomb should he renege on their deal (I figured there must be a few cracks leading down into the tomb that the vampire could get through in mist form. To this end, when the PCs met with Blagothkus, I had him agree to send the castle away from the Well of Dragons if they took out the vampire for him.
- When the PCs initially failed to beat Sandesyl and two of them ended up charmed by her, I decided to play up the old vs new rivalry in the cult and had her instruct the charmed PCs to kill Rezmir and bring her the dragon mask and Hazirawn ... with the idea being that Sandesyl and her fellow "old guard" crew are worried that Tiamat won't approve of dracoliches and will wipe them all out on her return, so Sandesyl has decided that she'd actually prefer to stop Severin's plans to bring Tiamat into the world. She would also like to turn Glazhael into a dracolich if she can.
- I ignored the bit about Rezmir's treasure teleporting away to the Well of Dragons upon her death. That just seemed too cheesy to me. So I let the PCs get the treasure and the dragon mask.
- I reworded the list of treasure in the dragon's lair so that it's just "20,000 gp in mixed coins, gems and art objects" and replaced the generic +1 magic items with the following: a +2 wand of the war mage that also lets the wielder know Netherese, a pair of boots of striding and springing, and a javelin of lightning. I also modified the bracers of defense so they are made of fish scales and float on the water.
Cheers,
Jonathan
p.s. You can read about my group's adventures here: A Hoard to Remember
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