We played our tenth session of Shadow of the Dragon Queen on Monday, August 7, 2023. In this session, the party continued through Chapter 6, exploring the City of Lost Names.
In the last session, the players entered the city through the Path of Memories and restored their broken Dragonlance at the flooded Temple of Paladine. The city’s ruins were mostly abandoned, although they could see a few patrols of the Red Dragon Army looking for spoils amongst the broken buildings. There were three areas where the Dragon Army troops were congregated: About a large mansion, which they seemed to be using as a command post, about a dark temple wreathed in purple fire, and finally about the floating tower in the centre of the city.
Patrols in the Streets
The adventure provides a selection of random encounters to use when characters move between destinations, and I chose to employ one now. The hidden d8 I rolled turned up a “2”, so it was time for the Bridge Checkpoint: Three sivak draconians guarding a bridge over a chasm. The party considered the situation, then just decided to attack.
Dealing with patrols in such a situation is a challenge for the DM. What’s the drawback of just avoiding a battle and seeking another route? Can the party sneak around the obstacle?
My solutions tend to work this way:
If the players select another route, then there is a time penalty (it takes longer), and the chance of another encounter. If there’s no time pressure in the encounter, then they must have another encounter.
If they seek to sneak past the obstacle, then I will typically resolve this as a group Dexterity (Stealth) check, with a majority of successful rolls indicating they bypassed it; otherwise combat ensues. If I’m feeling that the encounter requires more to bypass, then additional group checks may be required, or I might construct new obstacles (say, a crumbling ledge to navigate with Acrobatics or a broken wall to climb with Athletics) that also require group checks or spells to overcome; once again, half the group failing tips the party into combat.
With a bridge, this is a challenge: I suppose the party might trying sneaking under the bridge and using handholds on the underside to cross?
Of course, there’s always combat. Guess what my party chose?
The battle took 17 minutes to resolve, consisting of three rounds of combat. The party – mainly Hrothkar – took some damage, but the sivaks were dealt with.
The Occupied Mansion
In its heyday – around 400 years ago – this noble villa would have been a sight to behold. These days, its main attraction was that it was mostly intact, and the Dragon Army had claimed it as a base. It wasn’t a great place to be around, but led by Tordek, the party were curious to discover what the Dragon Army were doing in this place.
They carefully scouted the exterior of the building, noting where the guards were, and decided to take a stealthy approach, neutralising guards when they found them, and not alerting the entire compound if possible.
It was a good plan. For a different party, it might have even worked. But, as it turned out, their scouting was inadequate, and they walked right into the most inhabited section of the mansion.
Cue one massive combat, with new soldiers arriving in waves throughout the fight. This was a battle where Parren’s area of effect spells were vital – as these poor soldiers discovered. (Parren prepared lightning bolt today!)
Seven rounds later – almost an hour of play time – the halls fell silent. The party were victorious!
Searching through the complex, they discovered notes indicating that the Dragon Army leaders were at the Threshold of the Heavens – that floating tower in the centre of town. Also, in a useful tocuh, the passphrase to get past the patrols was also written down. That could prove useful.
Tordek was quite happy to obtain a couple of javelins of lightning. There were other sundry items present, but that was the main items of note.
On to the central tower!
The Threshold of the Heavens
Much to my players’ delight, the pass phrases worked and they were able to reach the central tower. Well, after jumping up some floating rocks, as the tower was floating thirty feet in the air! Tordek and Hrothkar happily jumped up, but Parren used magic to get Vermin and himself up. Jumping up rocks? It’s so unseemly for a wizard!
The guards in the entry chamber wanted to know what they were doing there, but Parren spun a tale about delivering messages to the commanders. And rolled a natural 20 (for a total of 22) on his Charisma (Deception) check. The guards let them past, and we got this comment from Hrothkar’s player: “Hrothkar is now convinced we’ve actually switched sides. Parren was too good.”
The tower is a five-level affair, consisting of ten areas, several of them containing odd magical artefacts from the Age of Might, some of which affect how the tower flies. One should never, ever tamper with them.
The party, of course, tampered with them, causing the tower to drop ten feet before stabilizing. There were no other immediate effects, but unknown to them, Lohezet, one of the commanders, sent a patrol of flameskulls to determine what was going on. They’d find the party in due course.
Drones and Skulls
Continuing upwards in their exploration, the party found several Istarian drones – constructs dedicated to protecting the place. Luckily, they were powered down. It was becoming clear that this place held much magical technology, of which the majority was dedicated to flight – and the flight of the entire city.
As they ascended to the third level, the patrol of three flameskulls found them.
Flameskulls are some of the potentially most dangerous foes a party can face, with each able to cast fireball and immune to a lot of popular spells – those ones using fire. When they win initiative, they are devastating. Let’s see what happened here:
Initiative: 20-Tordek, 18-Parren, 17-Hrothkar, 13-Flameskull, 12-Flameskull, 9-Flameskull, 6-Vermin.
Tordek used his +1 longsword to strike a flameskull twice for 23 total damage.
Parren cast steel wind strike and inflicted 32, 31, and 50 damage (a crit) on the flameskulls.
Hrothkar finished off the one surviving flameskull with his +3 dragonlance pike.
Vermin, seeing no further enemies, used cure wounds to heal some damage the party had taken earlier in the evening.
Steel wind strike (from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything) is an awesome spell. Enough said!
Aurak Draconians!
The fascinating things in the tower kept coming – the next chamber held a three-dimensional illusion depicting the landscape around the city. Two aurak draconians were studying it, and – as a result – were unaware of the party’s approach. Well, until Parren stumbled and knocked over an inconvenient vase as he entered the chamber.
One of the Aurak’s managed to get off its breath weapon attack, but they were swiftly overwhelmed. (10 minutes, 2 rounds).
The map was fascinating, but not what they were looking for. They continued upwards.
Lohezet of the Black Robes
In the penultimate level of the tower, the party discovered a black-robed wizard investigating a scrying chamber. Unusually, this encounter did not devolve into combat! Lohezet was a sly fellow, and decided to lie to the group, explaining that he’d been “forced” to work for the Dragon Army, and he was so happy to see his potential saviours!
Well, if anything needs a bunch of Insight checks, that declaration does! Everyone was convinced of his honesty – everyone except Vermin, that is. (25 Insight check! She was doing well!)
But even if Vermin was still distrustful of Lohezet, the wizard wasn’t leaving things to chance: he wanted to survive this situation, whatever it took. And so, he cheerfully betrayed the Dragon Army, informing them that the commander of the troops here, the priest Belephaion, was above in the control chamber, attempting to restart the magic that would allow the entire city to fly!
Vermin was still suspicious but was persuaded to leave Lohezet alive – although they tied him up and gagged him. No teleporting away to cause trouble.
And now, it was time to enter the final chamber.
Belephaion of Takhisis
The final foe sat on a great throne connected to all the magic of the tower. As the party entered, he mocked them and commanded the city to rise. The party weren’t so thrilled with this, so dispensing with pleasantries, they attacked, only to have the priest reveal his true form – that of a blue dragon!
It was 10:09 pm when we rolled initiative – normally we finish at 10 pm, so this session was running late. And Hrothkar, the barbarian with a +3 dragonlance pike rolled a natural 20 on his initiative, then another natural 20 on his first attack roll.
Oh, wow!
Looking through my notes, I can’t see any actions Belephaion got to take in combat. It’s all the party and his two bozak draconian attendants. I think his one action might have been to transform into his dragon form, but I can’t remember at this point. What’s certain is he didn’t survive long. None of the foes did.
At 10:17 pm – fewer than two full rounds of combat – the fight ended. Belephaion lay dead, and the City of Lost Names was beginning to break apart, as the magic of the Threshold of the Heavens was insufficient to raise the broken city into the air and keep it in one piece.
There was a further revelation to come, but due to the lateness of the hour, it would have to come next session.
Until then!