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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AnotherGuy" data-source="post: 9797784" data-attributes="member: 7029930">SITUATIONCult of the DragonThe Cult of the Dragon is on the brink of summoning Tiamat (Rise of Tiamat Chapter 9)The Wyrmspeakers, their Thay Wizards, their chromatic dragons and the rest of their forces as well as Blagothkus cloud fortress housing the Draakhorn are already by the Well of Dragons.Many of the prisoners brought through from other worlds (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hand_of_Doom" target="_blank">Red Hand of Doom</a>) via <a href="https://www.realmshelps.net/faerun/portals/index.shtml" target="_blank">At'ar's fortress in the Azirrhat</a> (this was destroyed by the PCs) have been sacrificed in creating souled diamond-dust which will be used in the ritual to summon Tiamat.The GiantsKing Hekaton has been saved but his daughter Serissa is trapped on the Wyrmskull Throne.The party along with King Hekaton defeated the Doom of the Desert, Iymrith but failed to find the sceptre to free Serissa.Nym and Mirran are gone - the eldest revealed her treasonous nature but escaped.Meanwhile the recently resurrected Heartkiller <a href="https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Hartkiller%27s_Horn" target="_blank">(Heartkiller's Horn)</a> is gathering forces in New Ostoria and giantkind is divided between following King Hekaton or Heartkiller as both have a claim to leadership, while many giants have decided to wait-and-see what unfolds.Then there is Baron Rajiram who plays his own game for power, taking advantage of an absent Annam and a shattered Ordning.Lastly, Jarl Storvald and his frost giants have commandeered the Ten Towns and the greater part of Icewind Dale, while a supernatural winter has taken hold of the region.ElturelElturel is gone, sucked into Avernus.One of the PCs along with a cohort of NPCs is on his way to Avernus to help save a friend who was in the city at the time of its disappearance and with the hope of saving the city itself (if even possible). i.e. Party is split!!!He is needed back for the final assault on the Well of Dragons, but his timeous return is not certain.The UnderdarkDemons have breached the Prime.The party is limited for time while the factions are stretched for resources between dealing with the Underdark and the inevitable assault on the Well of Dragons.The PCs have decided to abandon the Underdark (for now).ChultA mysterious malaise has taken hold of that area, but no one is yet aware of its implications...Council of WaterdeepThe Council of Waterdeep has begun sending its pledged forces to the rushed teleportation circles crafted near the Well of Dragons. These teleportation circles have been made in 3 months but using excessively large amounts of diamond dust and residuum from the disenchanting of masses of magical items sourced throughout the Sword Coast and The North.The assault on the Well of Dragons is expected to be days away. ThayWhat role the Wizards of Thay have to play in all this is unknown.<a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/234490/a-mission-to-thay-nethwatch-keep" target="_blank">The PCs inadvertently were responsible for the destruction of the Thayan Resurrection</a>.It is suspected Thay have one of the dragon masks.Their dealings with Xonthal's Keep for souled dragon phylacteries was concerning.The Seer and ZephyrosIn conversation The Seer has also provided a clue "There appears to be an unseen hand at play" (breadcrumb for <a href="https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1659-what-is-vecna-eve-of-ruin-a-high-stakes-high-level?msockid=0b08978f74f56e1704ed8116756b6f7d" target="_blank">Vecna: Eve of Ruin</a>)But also a <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23150739/dnd-doomed-forgotten-realms-darkest-timeline-fan-made-campaign/" target="_blank">Doomed Realms</a> setting.Long story, but The Seer is in possession of an ever-changing map of the future which reveals threats and changes according to PC actions and in-actions. There are many unknowns, the disappearance of Elturel was foreseen on the map but they could not decipher how/why...Along with the above clues there is also the cloud giant Zephyros whose divinations are revealed through a multitude of chess boards as he attempts to uncover who the player/pieces are and how best to utilise them. The chess boards and moves are all quite intricate and represent various fronts of the battlefields - some chessboards are empty, others are missing a king...etc some only reveal the truth of the divination once a winning combination is found [I use real life historical chess games].Anyways both the Seer and Zephyros provide breadcrumbs and insight...THE DELIBERATIONThe players deliberated for 4 hours...They believed the Underdark quest received from the archmage Vizeran DeVir demanded too much time.Although finding a missing Drizzt Do'Urden and gaining him as an ally against Tiamat would help a lot.The Seer suspected Baron Rajiram has having one of the Ruling Sceptres of Shanatar but it would take at least 8 days on the backs of whales to travel to the Nelanther Isles from Maelstrom and then having to negotiate with the pirate captains there who could hopefully direct them to Thunderbound, Rajiram's flying fortress. This would not be an easy feat now that he had obtain the artifact on the <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-mysterious-isle-eye-of-xxiphu-time-travel-query.702505/" target="_blank">Mysterious Isle of Xxiphu</a>They could teleport back to the Theatre of Dreams, Iymrith's lair in the hopes of finding the Korolnor Sceptre, perhaps it is hidden in the ruins of Ascore or the lairs of her children...the stone vessels half sunk within the Anauroch Desert.Perhaps they could entreat with Hartkiller to gain his help, although in the past such actions had led to failure. Or they could secretly assassinate him - but if found out that could cause more damage between the small folk and the giants regressing the situation back to the early stages of Storm Kings Thunder.They could consult with the divinatory pool at the Tomb of Diderius to find one of the Shanatar sceptres but that would require time and they are concerned of the personal sacrifice required to use the pool.Using the Harper Circle from Waterdeep to Loudwater they would then have to griffon their way to the Serpent Hills and deal with the Mummy who had previously killed one of their own.(They couldn't teleport directly as only the PC dealing with Elturel had been to the tomb, the rest are a fresh batch of characters).There was Xonthal's Keep with the open bargain to gain Zhentarim support for the assault on the Well of Dragons, but that was not practical. The party member friendly to that idea was lost with Elturel.Council member and delegate for the Order of the Gauntlet, Onthar Frume, still hoped they would join the quest with their other party member to save the city of Elturel.They could entreat with other towns and cities that had abandoned the Lords' Alliance after the collapse of the Silver Marches - with the express purpose to gain additional allies for the assault. They had already gained Mirabar as an ally.They could pursue the location of Numenera artifact, which was supposedly a day's ride away from Waterdeep, which details the artificer PC had stolen from Elminster's study with the help of his ward. The idea being that this artifact, hopefully, could assist in the assault against the Well of Dragons....and so on and so on...much too many quests and ideas to list here...Ultimately the PCs settled on buying their friend pursing the Elturel quest more time by actioning a stealth mission on the Well of Dragons...with the following hopeful goals...<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Capturing Skyreach Castle</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Destroying the Draakhorn, thus assisting the metallic dragons during the assault</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Slaying wizards of Thayan Resurrection that would be involved in the summoning ritual</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Slaying Severin, the ultimate goal</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Stealing additional dragon masks (they already managed to steal the blue one from Galvan and with downtime created a ritual that would make the Tiamat's blue head half as effective)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Stealing any of the souled diamond dust necessary for the ritual,</li> </ul>Not all goals will be met obviously, but they are going to try their best before pulling out (teleportation spell)THE RISKSArriving at the time of the ritual summoning without the support of the factions and their 1 party member (in Avernus) - ultimately undoing all the good they had done in the campaign for the last several years (in real time).The way it was decided: They knew the ritual summing would be 90 days + 3d10 (randomised +2d10 and as a result of story awards +1d10 due to their actions)It was calculated that they would be arriving at the Well of Dragons on day 97.If I roll 93-97, they arrive without help during the time of Tiamat's summoning.If I roll 98+, they can attempt to complete any of their goals and a date is set (unless they do succeed in delaying the summoning - i.e. gaining additional d10's to the result.SIDE NOTE FOR THE TIME OF ARRIVALPCs can not arrive late, they can arrive early (by beating the number I roll) and on time. If they arrive "after the date" they automatically arrive on time but my encounter budget for the final series of encounters is increased by a specific amount per day. The in-game reason being the Cult forces are more alert and greater in number (swell up) as they gather to welcome the Dragon Queen (expect a few githyanki as a gift from Vlaakith CLVII). <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />The players have been made aware of the changing math hence there is an incentive to not delay because it makes the task to defeat the Cult and Tiamat ever more impossible. </blockquote>

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