“I want to pat you!”

That was what Ice told the surprised White Dragon, who suddenly was confronting a halfling sorcerer who really, really like dragons. As Ice was especially charming – aided by having advantage on Charisma checks against dragons – the white dragon, whose name was Glazrael, acquiesced and discovered it was rather nice. Then he took Ice for a ride outside the castle (to the stares of her bemused party members) before returning to his lair.

Then the rest of the adventurers came down, and after making some excuses, dragged Ice back up to the castle above.

The cultists were dead. Blagothkus was back in control of his castle, but there was still a white dragon in control of the hoard below, and Glazrael couldn’t be ignored for much longer. The castle was heading north again, and at some point Glazrael would notice, so the group and Blagothkus made their plans to take down the dragon.

Their plan was to have Ice distract the dragon while everyone else moved to positions where they could attack. Everyone agreed to this plan, and then rested overnight. (Just as well, Michael was on only a handful of hit points after falling off the wyvern earlier in the day).

Soon enough, they were back in the hoard chamber, and Ice began to distract Glazrael. Well, that’s what the rest of the characters thought she was doing, but instead she was pleading with Glazrael to leave, because otherwise her friends would kill him. Tim’s monk did speak draconic, and was not impressed by the dracophilia displayed by the halfling. In fact, there was every chance that Ice could persuade Glazrael, but when her two d20s came up showing a “1” and a “2”, I knew the dragon would be fighting the group.

They probably would have all died if not for Blagothkus. Having a cloud giant on their side was really, really important – as was the group spreading out to fight the dragon. Ice continued to try to persuade Glazrael to flee, but her next attempt was a “2” and a “3”, as the dice gods said “FIGHT!” So they did. Michael, replicating his trick with the wyvern, jumped on Glazrael’s back. A couple of rounds later he was thrown off, landing beside Blagothkus and one of the other characters, just in time for Glazrael to breathe frost over all of them. They survived – barely.

Eventually, the combined efforts of the group were enough to whittle Glazrael down to 3 hit points, and the dragon finally heeded Ice’s pleas to flee. But a magic missile spell on the fleeing dragon was enough to bring it down, and finally the last part of the Cult of the Dragon was purged from the castle. The group got really interested in the hoard, and especially the magic items. Permanent magic items have been few and far between during this adventure!

Blagothkus would drop them off near Waterdeep, but for now, they were happy at disrupting the plans of the Cult.

Next session… we begin The Rise of Tiamat!