D&D 5E Rise of Tiamat Questions

[Delazar]

Not having played or read RoT....

So you're telling me there's this horn blaring continuously, that effects an entire REGION, & attracts chromatic dragons???
And only our handful of heroes notice/intervene???

Only (evil?) dragons can hear it, the rest of the region (2,000 miles radius from the horn) feel a "sense of unease".

In our campaign, I had our dragonborn hear it too...

 

[GuardianLurker]

Not having played or read RoT....

So you're telling me there's this horn blaring continuously, that effects an entire REGION, & attracts chromatic dragons???
And only our handful of heroes notice/intervene???

No - in fact, *everyone* hears the initial blast - as far away as Waterdeep. The continuous sounding does fade into the background, making animals and people "uneasy".

As for the intervention, the adventure has it scheduled for either just before or just after the first Council meeting, where all the regional players are discussing how to deal with this reoriented Cult of the Dragon.

 

[jayoungr]

New question:

How many metallic dragons should be available to the PCs after the council of dragons?

I re-read the book carefully and couldn't find any mention of a number. How the PCs assign the dragons affects the scorecard, and groups that don't get a dragon get mad at them, so it seems clear that the number isn't supposed to be enough to help out everyone; but I can't glean any clues beyond that. Or did I just miss something?

If you've run or played in the game, how many dragons were available at your table?

***

No - in fact, *everyone* hears the initial blast - as far away as Waterdeep. The continuous sounding does fade into the background, making animals and people "uneasy".

Belated reply, but I don't believe it says they hear it; they just sense it.

 

[discosoc]

New question:

How many metallic dragons should be available to the PCs after the council of dragons?

I re-read the book carefully and couldn't find any mention of a number. How the PCs assign the dragons affects the scorecard, and groups that don't get a dragon get mad at them, so it seems clear that the number isn't supposed to be enough to help out everyone; but I can't glean any clues beyond that. Or did I just miss something

I think it's designed for the presence of the metallic dragons to simply counter the chromatic dragons. That way, when the players are pushing into the temple during the last battle, they aren't worrying about dozens of dragons attacking them on their way.

I actually just skipped over the metallic dragons entirely and had the Giants counter the chromatic dragons. I felt the introduction for the metallics was way too late and the "adventure" was kind of pathetic. Normally I'd have just put in some extra time to flesh it out a bit, but HotDQ was such a poorly-designed campaign in the first place that I was tired of having to do that.

 

[discosoc]

Belated reply, but I don't believe it says they hear it; they just sense it.

Play it up however you want, but considering the horn actually causes deafness when you're close enough (and the thing is basically being blown on by an air elemental), it's most definitely producing sound.

 

[jayoungr]

I think it's designed for the presence of the metallic dragons to simply counter the chromatic dragons. That way, when the players are pushing into the temple during the last battle, they aren't worrying about dozens of dragons attacking them on their way.

That's what I thought at first too, but as I said above, the PCs are supposed to assign dragons to particular territories at the Third Council of Waterdeep. Factions that don't get a dragon get a - to their score at the Fourth Council.

 

[cmad1977]

Not having played or read RoT....

So you're telling me there's this horn blaring continuously, that effects an entire REGION, & attracts chromatic dragons???
And only our handful of heroes notice/intervene???

Nope.

 

[Sloblock]

That's what I thought at first too, but as I said above, the PCs are supposed to assign dragons to particular territories at the Third Council of Waterdeep. Factions that don't get a dragon get a - to their score at the Fourth Council.

I said that the areas protected would have around 3-4 dragons from each of the clans.

In the final battle I will describe a few more, but my understanding was that there weren't that many about.

 

[discosoc]

That's what I thought at first too, but as I said above, the PCs are supposed to assign dragons to particular territories at the Third Council of Waterdeep. Factions that don't get a dragon get a - to their score at the Fourth Council.

Oh I see. The way I read that is when you win the favor of a specific dragon, you gain access to other dragons he leads (those of his color). There's 5 metallic dragon leaders, so 5 potential "units" that you can assign to regions or factions leading up to the battle. If you have Nymmurh on your side and you assign him to protect, say, the Zhentarim faction (ha!), the actual number of dragons doing so doesn't really matter; you can make it as many or few as you like.

What I don't think the book intends is for you to say "Nymmurh has 23 bronze dragons behind him, so how would you like to assign those dragons?" Instead, you just pick resources or regions or factions or whatever and assign metallic dragon leader to go protect it (along with whatever forces he has).

 

[GuardianLurker]

What I don't think the book intends is for you to say "Nymmurh has 23 bronze dragons behind him, so how would you like to assign those dragons?" Instead, you just pick resources or regions or factions or whatever and assign metallic dragon leader to go protect it (along with whatever forces he has).

That.

This is also why I arranged for "degrees of success" in the Dragon Council. Get the dragons just barely on the Alliance's side - they're there for the battle, but not much more. A more solid result (like what the adventure assumes), as above. Knock it out of the park? The dragons are escorting the armies to the battle, and maybe even offering rides to the PCs and Leaders.