awdragons

[awdragons]

All In

And, so, we finally come to the climax of our story when the heroes and the villians put all their cards on the table see who has the better hand. An epic ending, it was.

The party, after barely surviving the Tower of Xonthal, made their way back to Waterdeep to report on the capture of the Blue Dragon Mask as well as their experience wrangling the support of the Red Wizards of Thay. At the same time, the Draakhorn begins to sound constantly and more obviously. The Council is sure this means the endgame is near, but after hearing the party's report, they want to contemplate their options and decide in the morning.

During the evening, a representative of the Zhentarim approaches the party and offers a large cash reward and some magical items in exchange for handing over possession of the Tower (to which the party can claim ownership by right of conquest). The party decides that rather than having the money, they'd prefer magic items that will assist in their final assault. The representative comes through through a Ring of Invisibility for the rogue, a Ring of Protection for Ra, magical mithril for Doug, and a magical bonused weapon for Galistor. With these items, the party feels they have a shot in the end.

The Council is dismayed to learn that the tower has been handed over to the Zhentarim, but the overwhelming good track record the party has with the Council causes them to overlook the slight and agree to calling on all allies to make a final assault on the Well of Dragons. This is where they feel the ceremony to raise Tiamat will be performed and, with the change in the sound of the Draakhorn, they feel that it may have already begun.

The party sets out to be an advance strike force at the Well and to find a way inside while the larger armies push from the outside.

The party arrives at night and can spy a single entrance on the slopes of a volcano's caldera. During the next day, the party circumnavigates the caldera to spot several more entrances. Some more heavily guarded than others. In fact, they decide to go the deception route (twelfth time's a charm!) and approach the most heavily guarded entrance where they see some captives being escorted in. The team successfully bluffs the guards and the roving patrols (since there are so many new faces in the cult here, anyway) as they examine the holding cells, the boarding rooms, and other storage looking for where the ceremony is happening.

Finally, they pop their heads up inside the Temple of Tiamat that has been literally raised from hell into the caldera floor. Inside are eleven wizards (including Severin wearing the combined Mask of the Dragon Queen) helping to open the portal that will allow Tiamat to enter our plane. Furthermore, they can spy multiple dragons outside the front door of the temple slaughtering many captives to achieve the bloodletting required to raise Tiamat. It's an awful situation, but not one that would be solved with a front assault at this time.

The team backtracks to look for an alternate entrance so as to give themselves a better chance in the fight. The best they can do, though, is to stumble upon a long abandoned tunnel that leads to a sinkhole inside the caldera, but outside the temple. From there they can better spy the slaughtering dragons, but would have to get past them to get into the temple. So, while they decide they need to use the only entrance they've found, they also notice the larger battle is being engaged outside. The dragons outside the temple leave to join the fight. Now is their chance!

So, with handshakes and professions of respect all around, the team launches a sneak attack on the two wizards in the black chapel and take them both out before anyone else can respond! Then the battle is on, but they notice that not all of the wizards move to respond. Some stay in place continuing to work on opening the portal above Severin at the top of the temple.

The wizards lean on Ice Storm and Fireball spells to beat on the party. But, the party has excellent saving rolls and keep themselves up during the first wave. Sir Krudnik and Galistor focus fire on Severin and seem to be doing tremendous damage without him falling. The party does start taking hits that require OJ to revive and heal frequently.

After killing more of the wizard, the rest finally abandon the work of the portal and move to attack the party directly. About this time, two barbed devils and four drakes come rushing through the front door to attack the party as well. The party also soon starts to hear the sounds of battle right outside the temple again. It sounds like the roar and blast of dragons fighting each other for access to the temple.

Finally the party is able to drop Severin, but he stays floating 100 feet in the air. With all of the other Red Wizards fighting the party the portal collapses. Another well placed Ice Storm spell drops several members of the team causing OJ to fire off his high powered Mass Cure Wounds spell to keep them up. Amadeus is able to hypnotize two of the drakes and later uses the Wand of Fear to scare off another. The barbed devils display the ability of throwing small fireballs and are proving difficult to take down.

With the party barely hanging on and the fight outside the temple door, the fate of Faerûn hangs in the balance.

One of the last two Red Wizards disappears and the other continues to fight. One last Fireball does damage, but doesn't drop the party. The missing wizard reappears and attempts another Ice Storm, but the party has spread out now and he cannot target more than two members, both of whom survive, but barely. The party drops one of the wizards, but then is interrupted by a terrible crash.

With a roar and a loud crash, a bronze dragon sticks his head through the front door, smiles, and says, "Hello, friends!". At this site, the remaining wizard flees invisibly, but the battle is won!

The party has successfully disrupted the portal and prevented Tiamat from being raised to this plane. The allies succeeded in beating back the combined arimes of the Cult and meeting the party just as they were fighting off the last wizards. While there will be much celebrating, the logistical nightmare of redistributing the massive treasure hoard and properly compensating all parties involved will begin. Those who were playing politics before the battle will now take advantage of those who were focused on the fight itself. The victory does not bring about a paradise, but live will return to something more normal, the chromatic dragons will go back into hiding, and Council meetings will go into indefinite recess as negotiations begin on how to resettle refugees and redistribute the confiscated wealth.

Congratulations on your success!!

[awdragons]

An Ambush and an A-maze-ing Tower

This will summarize the last two sessions the team has had as they came close together during the winter break.

The adventurers were returning to Waterdeep to report on the results of their encounter with Neronvain and his green dragon. They had to also report on their efforts to negotiate with the metallic dragons. While King Melandrach is furious that Galistor promised to make him publicly apologize for the Dracorage mythal. That attitude is tempered, however, when informed that it was his very son, Neronvain, that was the green wyrmspeaker and that he died in battle against the party. At that point, Melandrach agrees to make the apology and suddenly supports the effort to mount an assault on the Cult.

While at the Third Session of the Council, the party learns of two new leads. First, there appeared to be a potential defector from inside the cult as Iskander, a wizard studying the blue dragon mask, wants to be rescued by the adventurers in exchange for the mask. Second, Antonio is contacted by a representative of the Red Wizards of Thay about a possible alliance, but only if they leave now.

The party agrees to visit Thay and has a thoroughly unpleasant experience. The wizards question them carefully, but some of the party undergo torturous dreams where they are further questioned and suffer pain even if they give the right answers. Despite this awful experience, the wizards agree to help the Council by simply promising to "take care of" Serevin and his band of Red Wizards as soon as the party can locate them.

With that out of the way, the party decides to head to the Tower of Xonthal to follow up on the possible defector. On the road, however, they are ambushed by another strike team sent from the cult. The team would have been in serious trouble from two young red dragons, a half-dragon gladiator, and an invisible wizard if not for Amadeus Amadeus who promptly used Hypnotic Pattern to incapciate the gladiator and another cultist. This allowed the rest of the team to fight and defend against the young dragons, the other cultists, and the wizard. Notably, the attackers knew how to best to attack the party by attempting to take down the casters quickly. Party members were up and down repeatedly until the team finally survived and healed up. Due to the ferocity of the ambush, the party agreed to go back to Waterdeep to re-prepare for the trip to Xonthal's Tower.

The second session was all about the tower. The party arrived and discovered a magically arranged maze that they would have to navigate to get to the tower. Iskander called to them from the tower and appeared to be in trouble, so the party was on the clock. A sundial that cast more than one shadow and never in accordance to the sun proved to be a tricky test. Several unavoidable traps involving a pool full of chuul, a shotput game with cyclopes, endless animated armor, and killer flowers with pearls. Despite the struggles in deciphering the sundial, the party did find a way to the base of the tower and teleported inside.

The tower was only navigable by a series of teleportation circles controlled by runes. The party ran into cultists actively searching for Iskander and had the werewithal to capture one of them to question who shared the meaning of the teleportation runes and how to navigate to the lower levels. After a quick fight on a balcony, the party recovered the hourglass key that allowed them to enter Xonthal's workshop which was still being guarded by elementals and many traps. Ra cleverly dodged the elementals by using one of his own to distract them while the party moved on to the cosmic hallway. Antonio was knocked off the hallway floor by a meteor shower, but used a fly spell to land back with the party.

Following bloody footprints, the party found Iskander, dead. But, were able to retrieve the blue dragon mask (which they could not make work, despite their best efforts). They also found a room with two large hourglasses where Xonthal had clearly been experimenting with time magic. While the hourglasses turned and made much noise, there was no apparent effect.

On the way out, the party discovered Xonthal's magic pantry, a trapped efreet, a library that fought back, and a labratory with a stable whirlwind in the center. Having had enough of the magic traps, the party just decided to get out as fast as possible. Upon exiting the tower, spent and tired, the party witnessed a blue dragon attacking the nearby village. Being the heroes they are, they drew the dragon attacks to themselves and resisted the demand to give up the blue dragon mask. Doug and Galistor were terrified by the blue dragon and fled. The rest of the party attempted to deal damage while healing in attempt to just outlast him. Sir Krudnik was able to continue to deal damage at a distance despite several attacks by the dragon. Amadeus Amadeus continued to taunt the dragon and cause him to reconsider his strategy. Finally, when the dragon was attempting to leave, the party was able to do enough damage (especially sneak attack damage from Fin and Kithri) to bring the dragon down.

Completely burned out, beaten up, and surviving multiple near death experiences, the party survived the tower. With the next session the team will report back to Waterdeep and assess the allies they have gathered for the final battle.

We're near the end, team! Congratulations on surviving this far!

[awdragons]

Green and Blue

The party began the evening right where they left off last time; in the middle of a green dragon's lair hoping they had time to heal up before anything else showed up. They began exploring the side passages that their attackers had come from during the last session. They discovered the common room and bunk room of the elves that had been working with the dragon. After further investigation, they also found the luxurious room that the leader of this little outpost kept. And, despite spotting the rune at the entrance, Doug simply ran through an some of the party were hit by acid from the explosion.

But, after poking around, the party also found a trapped chest. Triggering the chest from a safe distance, the party found some nice loot in the chests, but not much else. Further searching revealed a secret door that led to a small shrine and the dragon rider's journal. The rider turns out to be Neronvain, the son of the elven King Melendrach and monarch of the very forest the party was in. Unfortunately, the journal also says that the Green Dragon Mask has already been moved to the Well of Dragons in preparation for the ceremony to raise Tiamat.

Finally, the party finds it's way into the dragon's chamber and his hoard. The dragon is found to enter and exit via an underwater tunnel, so the party sets up an explosive rune of it's own as a surprise. When the dragon does come back, the rune works, but doesn't do enough to slow down the dragon and Neronvain. The party begins to collapse on the dragon, which allows him to use his chlorine gas breath and do some serious damage. Neronvain gets into the act with some Eldritch Arrows of his own. This, unfortunately, knocks Galistor and Ra down badly and causes the party to scramble to get them up again. Doug and the sorcerer do manage to land some mighty blows and eventually the dragon decides to leave rather than risk death. Neronvain, however, is left behind to face the entire party and he did not survive. The fight sees half the party unconscious for some of the fight, but they do all survive eventually.

The party then collects a few goodies from the dragon's mini-hoard including a Belt of Giant Strength that Sir Krudnik gladly takes.

Further investigation of the cave turns up the ettin den that they had overlooked earlier and the surprising discovery of a tied up gnome hiding in a garbage pile. Amadeus Amadeus had been captured along with the other elves from the village, but had attempted to escape during the struggles of the evening and ended up stuck in the garbage. After untying him and cleaning him off, Amadeus Amadeus agrees to join the party as an encouraging bard.

The party then leaves the cave and reports back to the leader of the village that had originally been attacked by the dragon you had chased off. The news of his defeat is heartening, but the news of Neronvain will break the king's heart. That is news the party will have to deliver back in Waterdeep when they can.

On the road back to Waterdeep, the team is ambushed by a young blue dragon, a blue half-dragon champion, and several high-level cultists. Again, this fight went poorly in the beginning (Galistor was down again), but Amadeus Amadeus proved his worth by hypnotizing two of the cultists long enough for the team to take care of the rest. During the fight, the cultists were taunting the party by name. They clearly knew who each of you were (other than Amadeus Amadeus). This was no chance encounter. This group had been hunting you all specifically. The Cult of the Dragon has taken note of your party.

The evening ended when the party finally survived the ambush and was able to revive everyone.

They are still on the road to Waterdeep with a mixture of good and bad news. The green dragon in the Misty Forest had been run off. The dragon rider was the long lost son of King Melendrach, Neronvain. And he was now dead. Furthermore, the Cult has chosen to focus particularly on the party and sent a team to kill them. Happily, the ambush failed, but they are sure to try again.

[awdragons]

The Misty Forest and a Green Dragon

The Misty Forest and a Green Dragon

After the last session, our heroes found themselves in Waterdeep with a somewhat mysterious mission to investigate the goings on of the Dragon Cult in the Misty Forest. Delaan Winterhound (another elven ranger) seeks out Galistor to let him know that he is concerned that the cult isn't finished in the forest despite a lull in their attacks. King Melandrach, however, feels that his decision to step up the defense in the forest is what scared off the Cult and their dragon. The king's son, Prince Alagarthas and Winterhound are fellow members of the Emerald Enclave (along with Galistor) and they don't buy it. Hence Winterhound's attempt to seek out Galistor and your band for help.

The group decides to investigate and travels to the Misty Forest and the village of Altand. There they find elves picking up the pieces after a Cult attack in the recent past (weeks ago). You find the current leader of the village, Galin the warden. Your meeting with him leaves some of you doubtful that he's telling the truth, but a further discussion satisfies you that his shiftiness was due to the fact that he saw his wife killed by the dragon that attacked and he still feels guilty for not protecting her.

Questioning him and other villagers gives you the idea that something odd happened. Midway through the attack, the Cult withdrew and left half of the village alive. In all previous attacks, they have wiped out the entire village. Still, they described the dragon as flying south by southwest from your current location at the other end of the forest. Some claimed the dragon had a rider, too, which is surprising and concerning.

Your first encounter after this was an old druid woman who was testing your honor (which you passed) and she granted you all magic garlands of flowers that would help resist fear.

Further on, you are ambushed by giant spiders and ettercaps and have a heck of a time putting them all down. But, you eventually do.

Finally, you find a pool with a waterfall over which a green mist is floating. Ra's arcane eye gives some great intel about what is inside the cavern and where the dragon is. The team tries to reason with the wood elves guarding the cave, but they demand the group leaves or they'll all be killed.

The team decides to leave, rest, and observe. During the night, the dragon flies away with a rider on its back. The team makes a more determined incursion and begs the elves to let them pass, but they resist. When the guards call out, a number of new enemies arrive. The team circled up and fought off ettins, cultists, and captive wood elves fighting under compulsion. Just when the team was feeling worn down and about out of gas, they are attacked by an elven knight and mage. The mage is able to do serious damage that requires multiple revivals of downed teammates (even if some of it was due to some excessive fumbling), but some invisible defenders of their own eventually takes him out.

Now the team is left in the dragon's hideout in a large cavern that hasn't been fully explored and needing some rest. Now is the time to plan for the dragon's return, but how can they do so safely? And, can they form a plan to even the odds against a dragon that has been terrorizing villages throughout the forest?

[awdragons]

The Lair of Arauthator

The evening began with a plan. The party gathered in the hut of the village's shaman as she described where the great dragon could be found and what to watch out for in the lower levels.

The party decided to descend the same way they had earlier (through the main hall of the village) and begin exploring as a whole party. They prompty wiped out the small tribe of kobolds and two ice trolls that found them in the larder. They then worked their way around to find a large tent more suited for desert nomads than an ice cave. After dispatching another ice troll guarding this tent, they met Maccath the Crimson. She was a bit resigned to her fate and initially felt there was no escape from Arauthator. Regardless, she said she was willing to attempt to leave as long as the party agreed to help transport the library of books and scrolls the dragon had stolen from her order centuries ago.

She also directed the party to an alternate entrance to the lower level, but warned them that it would drop them right at the dragon's feet. The team decided to attempt a stealthy descent and nearly succeeded. Antonio lost his grip and nearly knocked Fin off the rope as well. But, he did succeed in making enough of a racket to draw the dragon to their location immediately.

The battle started off direly as the dragon frightened and froze much of the party right off the bat, including poor OJ! Having your healer down in the middle of a dragon fight is not a good start to the evening. Sir Krudnik was able to force feed enough health potions to make OJ ambulatory again, who then started healing others. The party would not have lasted much longer, but Arauthator decideed he'd had enough and left through an open space in the ice into the ocean.

The party had driven him off successfully! They also rounded up some treasure and a bag of holding to help transport Maccath's library. The party returned triumphantly to Waterdeep and gave their updates to the council that now has a new leader. Making allies of the Arcane Brotherhood by rescuing Maccath is a significant feather in your cap. During your wanderings in the city to reload, Galistor runs into his fellow ranger who warns him that something odd is going on in his part of the forest. He believes that the Cult will strike again, but his king is convinced that their elven troops have driven them off and doesn't believe they need any help.

You join the Second Council before you leave, though, and learn that the Cult of the Dragon is doing significant damage to the countryside. More interestingly, though, is what happens after hearing your updates and updates from the other parties. A new attendee stands and announces that she brings an invitation from the Council of Metallic Dragons to the small folk to consider coordination in the resistance of the Cult of the Dragon. In fact, the lady announces that she herself is a Silver Dragon and is willing to offer you a ride to this Council, but only if you leave now.

There is some debate, but Galistor is convinced and the party leaves to meet with Metallic Dragons. This council consists of five representatives from each of the metallic dragon races (Gold, Silver, Copper, Brass, Bronze) and they wish to discuss why it makes sense to work with the small folk rather than working alone. Some seem very much on your side, while others seem very skeptical. Eventually, you promise to make each of them equal partners in splitting the hoard that the Cult of the Dragon has amassed. You discover that Doug's sword, Vader, was previously part of a hoard the Silver dragon had and she would very much like it back. Doug resists and she does not press the issue. The Gold dragon wishes for the dragon masks to be returned to their council for what he says will be destruction because they do not believe they should be available to small folk at all. The party resists the particulars of that request by countering that they would be willing to witness their destruction together. That particular point is left at a stalemate. Finally, Galistor is asked to promise that he will extract a full apology from the Elven King for the Dracorage Mythal that elves long ago performed that cause dragons to go mad.

Despite the party having no authority to make any of these promises, they commit to some so they can return to Waterdeep having allied themselves with the Metallic Dragons for the final battle everyone seems to be sure is coming.

The party is then returned to Waterdeep and communicates their promises to the new Open Lord of Waterdeep and head of the Council who grudgingly agrees that this was a good arrangement despite not having given them permission to do so. The apology, however, is up to Galistor to extract. Conveniently, that is the very area the party intends to visit next.

[awdragons]

Temporary Insanity and Ice

When we last left our intrepid team of adventurers, they had just about finished cleaning out the Tomb of Diderius, but Antonio desperately wanted to give the pool of divination one last go. So, the while the team slept and healed, Antonio and Fin moved through the tomb to where the pool was. But, he only succeeded in going temporarily insane and remembering nothing. But, after that sidetrack, the team did take their prisoner, Varram the White, back to the Council at Waterdeep. That earned them great respect and a chance to go shopping before they headed out again.

In pursuit of the Draakhorn, the team learned from Dala Silmerhelve that the last known location was the Sea of Moving Ice. A member of the Arcane Brotherhood, the Tiefling known as Maccath the Crimson, had chosen to seek out Arauthator, a white dragon and an old nemsis of the Brotherhood, that had more knowledge about dragon arcana, including the Draakhorn. While Maccath stayed in contact with friends during her search, she disppeared after one last report of a giant iceberg she was about to investigate.

So, the team charters a longship and an experienced captain to head north and seek out this iceberg. There were some troubles with giant ocotpi and a group of merrows, but the team finally spotted the iceberg that the would later learn was named Oyaviggaton. Thereupon they discovered a village of ice hunters acting oddly hostile and the team decided to investigate further.

Later than night, Galistor, Fin, and Kithri snuck through the town and into the main hall and discovered a stairwell down beneath the floorboards. Hoping to find an alternate entrance to the caves underneath, they explored and discovered a coughing man huddled in a corner, a large storeroom of supplies, a cave with many frozen creatures in the walls, an oddly empty ice cave, and the barracks for a group of kobolds. But, no exit. So, they decide that they have to sneak out the same way they came in since dawn was coming.

To their shock, nearly the entire town is waiting for them outside the hall. Through some shouting and jostling, the team offers their services in ridding them of the dragon. The chieftain and the shaman started arguing about whether or not the team could help them. Finally, the shaman won out and the village reluctantly agreed to let them stay if they wanted to try to fight their captor. The shaman warned the team of a most vicious white dragon, ice caves with ice trolls, ice toads, and the "horned lady". None of the hunters would join them, but they would allow them to pass into the caves once again. This time, though, the shaman offered an alternate entrance that would draw less attention during daylight hours.

So, some random encounters at sea and a night of stealth ended with the team learning what they can about Arauthator and planning a proper investigation the next day.

Congrats on successfully returning a valued captive, negotiation a truce with the ice hunters, and generally setting yourselves up well for a confrontation with another dragon.

[awdragons]

Dungeon Crawl

Well, it was a bit of a slog, but progress was made.

After finishing the previous session at the top of a sloping staircase with the obligatory pit of doom, the team had to begin this session with a crossing. They were smart enough to use rope to keep folks safe, because nearly everyone slipped off the edge at least once. Eventually, the entire team did make it across, but not without some close calls.

Next was a little bit of sneaking and peeking to see what was around the various corners. First off was an oddly off-square room with carvings of Yuan-ti gods and priests. After stepping into the room, two suits of armor filled with snakes came to life and the team had to slowly fight them off. Kithri and Fin both made off with the ruby eyes of these creatures at the end.

As they were resting, they were set upon by a combined party of lizardfolk and yuan-ti wanting them to leave. That battle disrupted the sleep of some, but Antonio slept through it and got his full eight hours of rest. After a few more hours, the team finally moved on.

In the next room, the team found what appears to be sleeping tubes for some of the yuan-ti along with two tall statues of open-mouthed asps. The fight here was faster, but the team didn't know what to make of the statues and moved through to a dead-end hallway. Or so it appeared.

An arch etched into the wall caused the team to move down the hallway and Krudnik and Ra were hit by a dart trap in the wall. Krud was immediately paralyzed. Ra moved on and began to investigate the archway etching, but found nothing. After searching by Fin, though, he DID find the switch and opened the secret door into a jail. This room had six empty jail cells that were empty, but recently used. That turned up nothing of interest, either, so the team moved through that room and peeked around a corner to see a large temple area.

This was impressively decorated with six snake statues breathing magical, green flame. There were also a large number of various kinds of yuan-ti including what appeared to be an oversized, full-on snake. Ra and Antonio led with a double fireball attack which injured them all, but didn't thin the herd too much. The rest of this battle took nearly the rest of the evening to complete. At one point Doug was down. Later Galistor was down. Fin finally finished off the big bad. But, eventually the team prevailed. The casters did lots of damage. The fighters did their share. And the rogues landed some sneak attacks. But, without OJ, the fight would have ended very differently. When the battle finally ended, the team finally noticed a battered dwarf tied up in the corner. It turned out to be Varaam the White, the very wyrmspeaker they team was seeking.

Unfortunately, Varaam had never recovered his mask and had no idea where it went. Still, bringing him back to the council will be quite the prize.

Before the team left the temple, they did discover the treasure stash of the yuan-ti group and an alternate exit. Varaam had also disclosed that he came to the tomb to use the pool of divination, but had no success. He told the team how to use the pool, but warned them that they might go insane by the attempt. Still, Antonio wanted to give it a go. So, the team moved through the new exit around to the front and attempted to enter the pool room again. This time, they opened the doors that had previously been bulging outward and were slammed with a wall of rubble. After the dust settled, that path was still not usable. So, the evening ended amongst the rubble and deciding whether to move through to the pool or investigate the rest of the tomb before leaving.

This was an evening that may have felt more like a crawl, but a major objective was attained and the team is making progress against the Dragon cult and their plans.

Next time we'll see what the remaining corners of the tomb hold for the crew and what mission is next on the agenda.

Well done, adventurers!

[awdragons]

We’re On a Mission

The nature of the team’s fight has changed. When this all started, they were investigating some suspicious behavior out in the sticks. They found some allies in Leosin and Ontharr, but they were still under the radar a bit. But, their accomplishments were not a secret.

Upon successfully defeating a dragon and sending Skyreach Castle back to the giants, you have found your way to Waterdeep and a grand council gathered by Remallia “Remi” Haventree. Her husband was one of the Hidden Lords of Waterdeep and was assassinated by the Cult. She is the representative to the Council from the Harpers organization and has been the driving force for gathering the Council to form a coherent plan against the cult.

Your friend Ontharr Frume is also a delegate to this council and while Leosin is in town, he is simply available for information and support and was not invited to the council itself.

Galistor is acquainted with the delegate representing the Emerald Enclave (of which he is a member), but otherwise the council members are strangers.

After sharing information about the whereabouts of the remaining eggs from the dragon hatchery and exactly what happened to Skyreach Castle, the team is deputized and given a writ of authority from the council to pursue various missions in an effort to slow down and eventually defeat the cult.

Generally the council is in favor of the team, although the head of the council, the Open Lord of Waterdeep, Lord Dagult Neverember, abstained from the vote for deputization. The dwarf Connerad Brawnanvil of Mithril Hall voted against the team for his dissatisfaction with the disposition of Skyreach Castle. That said, he’s willing to be convinced that the Council will need his forces if the danger is proven to be great enough to leave his home less protected.

During this time with the Council, the team learned three things:

- Rath Modar was likely the Red Wizard of Thay that escaped from Skyreach Castle and he is a key piece of the puzzle. He is a rebel in exile from Thay and has offered to help conduct the ritual that will raise Tiamat from the Nine Hells. While most of Faerûn distrusts Thay, there is an enemy-of-my-enemy situation because Thay fears any rebellion Modar may be attempting.

- The Draakhorn had sounded and signals that the cult has found this ancient object to call dragons to its cause. One local noble, Dala Simlerhelve claims to know some significant details about the Draakhorn due to her family’s history with dragons.

- The Harpers (at the direction of Remi Haventree) have discovered some tantalizing information about one of the five wyrmspeakers, Varram the White. He has lost his dragon mask and is abroad searching for it. The Harpers have a good bead on his location.

The team chooses to pursue the clues about Varram the White and soon find themselves nosing around an odd complex in the side of a cliff that seems to be dedicated to a wizard named Diderius. It’s clear they are just a day or two behind Varram and find some evidence they’ve been investigating the same complex, but they’ve only succeeded in being rolled over by a boulder made of bones and having a strange conversation with five bearded devils that Varram has ordered to remain in a peculiar room.

Following the obvious path, they find Diderius’ sarcophagus and he warns them and leads them through a secret door to a fight with some lizardfolk and yuan-ti. Across a slippery walkway, the team takes turns firing range shots and dealing with the ability of the yuan-ti fighters to play with the minds of those around them. They successfully convinced Doug to attack Galistor and Sir Krudnik to attack OJ. Once they were finally dispatched, the team was healed, but another few rounds may have proven disastrous. 

While the evening ended at the completion of this fight, the team is not out of danger. They will need to decide whether to immediately move on or find a place to rest while Varram may be wandering around the same complex or may be long gone and gaining separation.

A fun night with a classic dungeon crawl! I look forward to seeing how you all escape when we meet again.

[awdragons]

Near Death Victory!

After a slow grind during the last session, there was some doubt as to whether the team would be able to make much progress through the castle this session. But, the roller coaster approach to battle carried them through once again!

The session started with the team atop the highest tower debating about where to go next. They decided to head for the kitchen, which was one of the only rooms on the lower level that they had not yet investigated.

However, as they made their way across the courtyard, the two stone giants they had spotted earlier started heading their way with a large group of ogres in tow. Sir Krudnik advised an approach of playing it cool as they attempted to head for the kitchen door before having to engage with the giants. The parties met just outside the kitchen and looked like the fight was about to start when Sir Krudnik simply raised his had and yelled, “Stop!”. That seemed to confuse the giants momentarily as the rest of the party headed for the door. But it wasn’t long enough. Eventually the giants started swinging and damage was being done. 

The bodies of the two giants fell and became partial cover as other team members fell variously. Others rushed around attempting to stabilize their teammates until OJ could grant much-needed healing. They seemed to have a slight advantage as the ogres weren’t coming en masse, but in small clumps. But, then, the owner of the castle, Blagothkus, descended from above and landed behind the group and starting knocking heads as well.

With half the party down (including OJ) and death seeming imminent, Blagothkus demanded that the party submit to which they quickly (and hilariously) agreed. After disarming the team and leaving them tied up in his office for a few hours, he started asking questions.

It turned out that he had only been willing to help the Dragon Cult in an effort to shock his giant comrades into action against the dragons. Since the team had effectively cleaned out the cult from the castle, he was willing to take them with him to where he was gathering an army under one condition: They had to eliminate the white dragon in the belly of his castle.

After a full rest, the team entered the glacier and did battle with the dragon. His Frightening Presence and cold breath left some members unable to attack and others unconscious. The remaining members fought and attempted to stabilize or heal their companions in another valiant attempt to avoid a party wipe. 

At one point, the only standing party members were Sir Krudnik, a frightened Douglas Blueshield, and Finnan.

While Sir Krudnik, Galistor, Antonio, and Ra all did damage to the dragon, it was the smallest of the party, Finnan, that deal the killing blow with an epic sneak attack using his venomed dragon dagger. 

The party celebrated their victory by melting the ice on the treasure hoard and digging out some magic items and a chest of platinum and sapphires. 

After landing at Blagothkus’ training camp, they were soon met by a messenger raven from Leosin Erlanthar congratulating them on their successful mission and requesting they return to join the Council of Waterdeep to further plan how the honorable people of the Sword Coast could battle the Dragon Cult.

The entire team leveled up and was taking advantage of being in a large city while they waited for the council meeting to see what comes next.

Two near death experiences and claiming the kill of an adult white dragon is a worthy night’s work. Congratulations, adventurers!

[awdragons]

Death in the Mist

The gang gathered on April 15 to further investigate Skyreach Castle. The previous session found the team holed up in the living area after killing a black half-dragon and a handful of ogres.

The team was desperate for a rest and decided to try to wait out the eight hours. They heard much rustling and arranging outside the doors, but then it got quiet. When the team opened the door to leave, in rolled thick fog and they discovered it was night.

Not being able to see more than 20 feet in the dense fog, the team grabbed the length of a rope and decided to try to make their way to the stables. While they made it there, they were attached by pale elves with scary teeth and claws. The team clambered into the stables only to find two very hungry wyverns, which they eventually dispatched.

But, these stables would become their nightmare as a vampire and two spawn would get into the door and attack. The vampire was dispatched not once, but twice. Each time evaporating into a mist allowing the team only a short rest. OJ had been charmed and desperately wanted to leave. The team tied him up and he didn’t get very far.

When the vampire appeared the third time, the team had made the effort to use holy water to prevent the vampire from healing. They again wore him down, but not before Sir Krudnik was also charmed and told to protect the vampire. When the team finally killed the vampire for real, the charms were broken, but the team was beat up.

While trying to last another long rest in the stables, the party thought they were about to have to deal with ogres once again only to see a slab of meat thrown in for the wyverns that were now dead.

Fully rested, the party then made it’s way into the taller of the frontmost towers and dispatched the ogre inside and the three ogres on the roof. That gave them the high ground to also dispatch the three ogres on the lower tower and that’s where they ended the evening.

As it seems that the party will attempt to clean out the entire castle, the question is only how they will proceed? Will they deal with the giants huddled around their cooking pot? Will they head upstairs to the ogre troops? Or just skip all that fun and have a chat with the dragon?

We’ll break out the big map again next time and see where the party heads to next!

[awdragons]

Game Night

Here’s the final product and some pictures of where our party ended up at the completion of the evening.

Look carefully at the cave opening at the base of the glacier and you’ll see the opening for the stairwell.

This is a view underneath the top level. You can see the door in the back that heads to the stairwell. The other rooms had already been explored in a previous evening, so I didn’t bother building roofs for them.

Here, I’ve added miniatures to represent the enormous number of ogres guarding and training on the grounds. Inside that small room on the lower level are two hill giants the team had spotted earlier.

Our first night using this map was also the first night we had a remote player. You can see the TV and camera I set up so we could Skype.

This is about mid-evening when the party found themselves in the wyvern stables fighting off a persistent vampire. They only had to kill him three times.

Here is where our party finished the evening. They had cleaned out the ogres on the two towers and had the high ground for the next night. You’ll notice that we simply removed and set aside the upper level while we played on the lower level.

Fortunately, my players moved slowly during the evening. I think we may get three sessions worth of gameplay out of this map!

[awdragons]

All Together Now

With the big structural issues solved, all that was left was polish. That meant tops for the towers that had roofs and roofs for the rooms the players had not yet seen. I didn’t bother making roofs for the areas the players had already explored in our previous session.

I also placed my portable glacier top in place to get a full sense of things.

The holes in the tower roofs are intentional. You can see the little roofs I built for the rooms on this upper level. There’s even a staircase along the wall in the lower right of this picture.

Here’s the other side where you can see the doors and the path from the bottom of the glacier up to the tower door. If you look carefully, you can see multiple entrances to the glacier around the outside edge, too. The opening to the left on the above picture and to the right on the below picture, actually opens up to a hole cut in the foundation for the spiral staircase (which went unbuilt, unfortunately)

The last issue to solve was installation. When we first set it up on the dining table, it still stood over three feet high and blocked the players from seeing each other across the table. I didn’t want to change it, but while we were debating, Stefanie came up with a great idea: bring in my adjustable-height work table and add it to the end. Players would have empty table space and the map would set at one end. The further brainstorm was to lower this second table and slide it partially under the dining table. This allowed us to match (somewhat) the two-tier aspect of the castle. The result was this:

Notice the vacuum cleaner in the back. Yes, this work generated a veritable snowstorm of styrofoam dust!

[awdragons]

Walls

The last step for a complete experience was the walls. I had these two large sheets of styrofoam that was only about 3/4″ thick. My thinking was that I could cut it into strips of the height I needed and then either bend or cut pieces as necessary to make the walls.

First, there was an issue of how bendable this stuff was. The outside walls of each platform are very curvy and meant to represent large swooping cliffs of ice that keeps everyone contained in the castle. The internal structure was more rectangular and could easily be represented by simply cutting pieces for each wall. 

Second, was how to keep the walls upright with strength. Nobody was going to be letting a two-year-old loose on the map, but the walls would get bumped and nudged as we played.

The key aspect was attachment. How would the walls attach to the platform (and possibly each other) in a way that would keep them upright and withstand accidental bumps from the players?

If I simply cut pieces and glued them, the glue would have to be able to withstand the torque of someone nudging the wall without tearing the graph paper and I wasn’t excited about having to somehow hold the walls in place until the glue set. There were quite a few and that would be time consuming.

Worse, if I attempted to curve the walls, how in the world could I hold them to glue in place without them moving? How could I be sure the wall’s desire to be straight wouldn’t just pull the glue and tear the paper itself? Just gluing was off the table.

My next solution was this:

What you’re looking at is a test drive. I used those heavy-duty paper clips like tiny little rebar. I snipped off a 1-2″ piece and pushed it down into the cardboard. I then pressed the styrofoam wall down onto the pin to hold it. This example is three pins that attempted to prove that I could curve the wall without breaking it. The little styrofoam cells would snap if you bent a length of it too far, but I discovered later that you could bend it quite a bit as long as you bent it slowly. Those little cells would compress quite a bit, but you had to be gentle. I was impressed with how much curve I achieved later.

This brilliant idea presented two problems, though. One, there was no guarantee that the pins would remain upright. The more the wall wiggled, the looser they became and the structural advantage might be lost. Second, all the pins would have to be installed before an entire run of wall was impaled on them. That meant I’d have to press the entire wall (curves and all) down all at once. I could have installed the pins in the wall first and pressed them down into the foundation, but that would mean using styrofoam as the material pushing the pin into heavy-duty cardboard. That wasn’t going to fly. The styrofoam had to be the last piece attached to the pins. So, I was on the right track, but not quite.

Then I remembered the lowly T-pin.

The idea would kill a few birds with one stone. The pin would be pressed up through the bottom of the cardboard which would provide the strength to stay upright and, because they could be moved independently, I could press them into the styrofoam one at a time! Victory!

So, the pattern was pretty easy. First, I’d pick a run of wall to install. I’d use these pins to pick strategic locations for structure to push them down through the top of the foundation (to get the holes exactly where I wanted). Then, I’d remove the pin and reinstall it through the same hole through the bottom. So the T part would be under the foundation and the pointy part would be sticking straight up the in air. Finally, I’d only let the pointy end stick out just enough to see it. So, I would have several pins sticking out of the bottom of the foundation with tiny, pointy tips along the run on top.

Now, I’d place the edge of the wall in place and press the first pin up into the styrofoam. Then adjust the wall so it was over the next pin and press that one up. And so on. If the wall needed to curve, I’d need more pins closer together to enforce the curve and I’d be gentle in bending the wall, but I never did break one. By being able to go one pin at a time and not caring about the wall already in place, installation was quick and easy.

That break at the bottom was simply because I couldn’t construct a run long enough. That was a necessary joint (and not a pretty one). But, you can see the rest and how well they curved. What you see here is only three runs of wall. Dang near perfect! The only minor issue is that the tops of the wall were still resisting the forced curve, so the tops had less dramatic curve than the bottom in places. But, still, I considered it a win.

Here’s the lower level with the towers installed (notice the last-second addition of a portcullis!) and some shaved styrofoam to represent the back wall made by that glacier.

Now, since at least one of these would be resting on our dining table, I was a little concerned about those T-pin scratching the table. Duct tape to the rescue!

Once I had the pattern down, it was just a matter of cutting walls to length and installing them. It went quickly to get me to here.

Cutting doors didn’t seem valuable, so I just started hand drawing them. Worked just fine for gameplay.

[awdragons]

Making a Mountain

So, it may not be obvious from the maps I’m working from, but the castle this map represents has a glacier at the core. This bumps up on the upper level and is represented as being partially hollowed out to house a white dragon. The part of this ice mountain underneath the upper level is effectively the back wall of the lower level. The spiral staircase is in a hollowed-out portion of the glacier and leads into the block of ice as well as up to the second level.

My biggest goal was to represent this on the upper level. I could have gone for a big block of styrofoam and carved it, but I didn’t have such a piece and didn’t really want to buy one. So, my brainstorm was to use the pieces from the TV box that I did have and create a skeleton of the shape I needed. Then I’d cover it with the thin foam sleeve that was used to cover parts of the TV. The end result would be an uneven, opaque, white surface that would look roughly like the surface of an icy rock. The only minor complication was that two towers needed to be embedded in this rock.

Here you can see how I carved off two curved pieces from the foam that wrapped the base of my TV. I used the curve to give the glacier some shape. The larger piece in the center would be the support for a larger tower to come later.

In this shot, I’ve cut the first piece of tubing to act as the smaller tower on the glacier. There was a larger tower to come.

So, now, skip ahead a few steps where I’ve created the other tower, glued them both to the platform and then wrapped the entire glacier skeleton with that thin foam.

You can see a few design decisions I made here. First off, I knew the whole glacier top would be heavy and make the entire platform hard to move (not to mention that I wasn’t sure it would fit through my door sideways). So, I cut a smaller piece of cardboard to build the mountaintop and towers on so it could be removable. This also had the advantage of allowing me to glue pieces and let them dry while I did other work.

I wrapped both towers with white paper to fit the icy theme. The smaller tower is described in the book as being a shining blue color. I didn’t have time to paint, but smooth icy, white seemed appropriate.

The larger tower is described as being broken and run down and that, while still made of ice, appeared to have large cracks that had been iced over. I took simple printer paper and wadded it up, rubbed it on the floor of my garage and I had bumpy, dirty, ice walls. Worked great.

You’ll also see a platform about 2/3 the way up the larger tower. It’s important for the adventurers to see the platform, so I made sure to put it out there. That’s playable space.

Here’s a shot from the backside of my little portable mountaintop.

The very flat wall was intentional as a large living space butts up against the mountain here. That piece would have been hewn and flattened to create the wall of the living space. The rest is icy rock. I think the look worked reasonable well.

All the towers were missing were tops, but then it was on to the walls.

[awdragons]

Towers

Now that the foundation was set, I had to start thinking in the third dimension. I had to build walls, a miniature mountain (a glacier, really), and towers. The towers seemed like the simplest thing to start with. They also represented the only other purpose-bought material. The cardboard I had was thick and wouldn’t curl. I had some heavy-duty cardboard tubes, but those wouldn’t work for everything.

So, I simply bought a ten pack of white poster board. It worked a treat. I used strips of the poster board to bind the joint to make the cylinder.

You can see where I cut small flaps around the bottom to glue to the platform. I also glued small pieces of the thicker cardboard on the inside down a couple of inches. That allowed me to wedge in platform so the top of the towers are playable space as well.

Here are the two main towers for the lower level. You can see the two circular platforms covered in the same blue graph paper between them. You can also see here how I was able to easily trace out the outlines on top of the graph paper. The random styrofoam isn’t so random. I’ll explain those next.

[awdragons]

Foundations

Now that scale has been established, the next step was to get the outlines down on cardboard. The map I had was conveniently drawn on a grid, but I had to map it to my new scale (so one square on the map was not going to be the same as one square on my cardboard). And the grid itself was an issue. Would I have to draw a grid on the cardboard for my players to use?

But, outlines first. I started by doing heavy lines on my paper map every ten squares (or 50 feet in the game world). I then drew a large grid that represented that same 50 feet on cardboard. With my scale of 1″ = 7.5′, that meant that ten squares on the paper map scaled out to 6.66″ on my large map. Now, doing lots of ruler math with thirds sucks. But, I kept eyeballing it and it generally worked out. I really could have used a yardstick with 1/3″ and 2/3″ markings.

Anyway, so I outlined the layout with a heavy Sharpie marker and then cut the cardboard with a little extra space around the outside to get the general shape of each level. That resulted in these. This is the lower level. Note where the spiral staircase is at the far right.

This is the upper level. Note where the same spiral staircase will emerge near the center (looks like a small sun drawing).

If you look close, you can see my penciled grid that I used to match to my paper map.

Okay, not bad! Right size and relatively easy to work with. The cardboard is from the sides of a 70″ flatscreen TV box. It’s a nice thickness of 3/8″-1/2″, so very rigid and easy to work with. All that was left was the player grid for the miniatures.

It just so happened that I heard about disposable RPG grid paper. It was advertised as being cheap and great for single use maps. I ordered some thinking I could just glue it over my cardboard, but I was bummed that I would have to redraw my outline again. I was in luck. The fancy paper turned out to just be cheap gift wrapping paper with a nice grid printed on it. Smart marketing and perfect for my purposes. I went with the blue since this castle is supposed to be made of magical ice. Blue works.

What you can’t see here is that because it was cheap paper, it was pretty easy to see my Sharpie ink through it. I simply retraced the outlines on top and I was on my way!

[awdragons]

Scale

The first issue I had to solve was scale. You see, the final setting in Hoard is a large, two-tiered castle built by giants. As a result the castle is larger than normal and I wanted it to feel that way by my players. I wanted them to feel dwarfed (even the dwarf) by the size of the walls, the rooms and the structure itself.

However, our dining room is only so big! I also did not have an infinite supply of cardboard, so I started measuring our table and doing some math.

As you can see on this map, each grid box is supposed to represent five feet. I won’t make you count the little boxes, but if I had gone with the standard one inch grid and matched it so each box was five feet, the map would have been six feet long and four feet wide per level! Since the levels are offset, the table surface area needed would have been nearly eight feet in the long direction. We have a big dining room, but not quite that big. It would have also been far wider than our table leaving no room for dice and character sheets. This did not even take into account that the entire structure would have been nearly four feet tall at that scale. Maybe if we removed the table and set it on the floor? But, that seemed logistically prohibitive.

However, if I simply cut the scale in half such that one inch would equal ten feet, the resulting map would have been three feet by two feet per level. Still fun, but it would lose some of the “giant”-ness I was going for. So, in a fit of mathematical masochism, I chose my final scale to be 1″ = 7.5′. That’s halfway between the other two such that the map would fit the room and still be big in relation to our miniatures.

As a result, each level would need to be roughly four feet long by three feet wide and the complete structure would be just under three feet tall. That fit the table with some room to work (not much) and maintained the relative scale to the miniatures that reinforced the grand feeling. That still presented some issues around players seeing each other, but a brilliant inspiration by my wife solved that problem later.