Tyranny of Dragons was the first full D&D 5e campaign I ran, starting back in 2015. Here’s the write up from the 29th session in which we continued with The Rise of Tiamat.
Begin here with Session 1 – Greenest in Flames.
6th Hammer, 1491 DR
The adventurers continue down the Trade Way towards the Way Inn. A black dragon is sighted in the distance, flying towards the Lizard Marsh. Ug is convinced this is the same dragon that killed her family and heads off after it. The other characters try to persuade the paladin to focus on their current mission to no avail and end up tagging along. By the end of the day, they still haven’t reached the marsh and with no way of finding the dragon in the swamp, they manage to convince Ug to head for the Misty Forest again in the morning.
8th Hammer
The characters reach the elf village of Altand in the Misty Forest. After talking to some of the villagers, they meet with the warden, Galin, in his treehouse. Unlike the other elves, he does not believe that the green dragon that attacked the village had a rider. Turin plays a lament for the warden’s wife who was killed in the attack.
9th Hammer
The characters return to Galin’s home and Gwastdyn uses speak with animals to talk to Galin’s pet raven Quoth. The druid learns that the warden has been meeting the dragon and an elf in the woods at night. The party confront Galin who confesses to making a deal with the Wyrmspeaker to leave Altand alone in exchange for passing on information on other elven villages in the forest. He reluctantly agrees to cooperate with the characters as they prepare to ambush the Wyrmspeaker and dragon that night.
Close to midnight, the green dragon flies down to the forest clearing with an elven Wyrmspeaker in purple robes mounted on its back. As the cult leader talks to Galin, he realises something isn’t right. The characters attack – Gwastdyn flies in as a giant eagle and attempts to knock the Wyrmspeaker off the dragon’s back while the others attack with arrows and spells. The dragon attacks Gwastdyn, then breathes on the druid and Ug. With the Wyrmspeaker badly wounded. it flies off to the southeast.
Realising that they have now put the village in danger, the adventurers advise Galin to lead the elves to safety in the morning while they go after the dragon.
10th Hammer
As Altand is evacuated, Gwastdyn flies southeast as an eagle looking for signs of the dragon. He spots a destroyed elven village but no dragon. He returns to the others and they all head towards the village on foot. En route, they come across a venerable elf whose leg has become trapped under a fallen tree. Ug begins to lift the tree up when it rises on its own. The elf stands up and declares the PCs to be heroes. She hangs garlands of flowers around their necks before turning into an owl and flying off, followed by a trio of awakened trees.
The characters reach the elven village by dusk and spend the night there.
11th Hammer
Heading southeast, the characters follow a stream in the hopes that this will lead them to the dragon’s lair. Passing through an area filled with spider webs, they are attacked by ettercaps and giant spiders but have little trouble dealing with the creatures.
Soon afterwards, they arrive at a waterfall which feeds a pool whose surface is obscured by an emerald haze. This is surely the dragon’s lair.
Gwastdyn scouts around, first as an eagle, and then flies through the waterfall as a duck, confirming that there is a cave behind it. After a short rest to recharge his wildshape, the dwarf transforms into a giant eagle and transports the other characters through one by one.
The adventurers head down the tunnel into a large chamber filled with stalactites and stalagmites, and with a large pool with a small rocky island in its centre. Four elves dressed in forest garb appear and ask the party to name the leaders of the Cult of the Dragon. When Turin names Severin the Red and Talis the White they seem satisfied. As more elves with bows appear on a high ledge looking down on the cave, one of them goes to fetch “Neronvain”…
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Tiamat image by Michael Komarck
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Richard Green | Game Designer 