Tyranny of Dragons was the first full D&D 5e campaign I ran, starting back in 2015. Here’s the write up from the 28th session in which we continued with The Rise of Tiamat. I added one of my favourite Kobold Press monsters – the grim jester from Tome of Beasts – into this session.
Begin here with Session 1 – Greenest in Flames.
2nd Hammer, 1491 DR
After a day spent resting and potion shopping, the characters attend the Second Council of Waterdeep.
This time round there are two new attendees – Laeral Silverhand, the new Open Lord of Waterdeep, and a human woman named Elia, who later reveals herself to be a polymorphed silver dragon.
The adventurers give their reports to the council. Gwastdyn tells them how the party tracked Varram the White down to the Tomb of Diderius in the Serpent Hills and battled yuan-ti as they searched for the Wyrmspeaker, but were unable to stop him from being killed by the snake people’s priestess and did not recover the White Dragon Mask. Remallia Haventree of the Harpers and Connerad Brawnanvil of the dwarves both seem unimpressed that the characters were unable to interrogate Varram or speak with his dead spirit.
Next, Turin reports on the trip to the Sea of Moving Ice. The bard waxes lyrical on the party’s bravery in battling the dragon and his intellectual ice toad servants, as well as how they rescued Maccath the Crimson and returned her to the Arcane Brotherhood in Luskan along with her evil books. This impresses almost all of the council members – even the dwarf – but Ontharr Frume of the Order of the Gauntlet is concerned about the motivations of the Brotherhood.
Once the characters have finished their reports, Delaan Winterhound of the Emerald Enclave tells the party he would like them to investigate raids by the cult on elven villages in the Misty Forest. A green dragon has been sighted and Delaan thinks it could be working with another wyrmspeaker.
Then Elia addresses the council, revealing that she is the silver dragon Otaaryliakkarnos and that the metallic dragons of Faerûn have heard the Draakhorn sound. She asks the PCs to come to a meeting with the dragons in the Nether Mountains when they return from the Misty Forest.
As the characters go to leave the council, Ontharr Frume takes Ug to one side and tells him that he’s been promoted within the Order of the Gauntlet to the rank of marcheon.
3rd Hammer
The characters use the teleportation circle in Castle Waterdeep to travel to Daggerford, and then set off down the road to the forest.
5th Hammer
Late in the day, the characters encounter a grim jester on the road. Crake and Gwastdyn both succumb to its Killing Joke, with Crake reduced to 0 hp and dying after failing his second saving throw.
Turin tries to heal the rogue but the jester uses Ridicule Hope to make the cure spell damage him instead. Ug tries out his new sorcerer spells rather than closing in melee and Turin hangs back too, allowing the grim jester to cast delayed blast fireball. When Turin dispels the spell, the fireball detonates. Then, the jester uses Joker’s Shuffle to switch places with Turin so Ug is tricked into attacking the bard rather than the jester. Gwastdyn turns himself into an air elemental but realises “Turin” is really the jester and vice versa. With all three characters attacking it, the jester is destroyed, with Turin inflicting the killing blow.
The characters have a short rest and Crake is back on his feet. By this time it’s getting late, and the party decide to camp by the roadside. Unfortunately they aren’t paying close attention to what’s going on and don’t spot the dragon cultists sneaking up on their campsite, or the young blue dragon swooping down through the air.
The cultists and dragon attack with surprise, with both the blue dragon and the half-dragon warrior among them breathing lightning on the adventurers. Gwastdyn wild shapes into an air elemental again and flies up to engage the dragon while the others battle cultists on the ground. Turin goes unconscious a couple of times, Crake goes down to 3 hp and Gwastdyn is forced out of wild shape. Even Ug’s health drops alarmingly as the cultists score multiple critical hits as they demand the party hand over the Black Dragon Mask.
When Crake takes down two dragonwings, the tide starts to turn in the characters’ favour and the cultists start to flee. Ug kills the half-dragon and Crake shoots the dragon with his last arrow of slaying, then Gwastdyn casts ice storm, killing the wyrm. Two cultists manage to escape but the adventurers are victorious.
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Tiamat image by Michael Komarck
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Richard Green | Game Designer 