Our eleventh session of Shadow of the Dragon Queen took place on Monday, August 14, 2023. In our last session, the heroes had defeated Belephaion, the leader of the Dragon Army forces in the City of Lost Names and prevented his plans for the city. However, we weren’t quite done with Chapter 6; there was still a couple of events to go.
Those events were setting up the finale of the campaign. Just as they fled from the crumbling Threshold of Ascension, they saw to the south, Lord Soth had returning to the Dark Temple. As the party watched in horror, the Dark Temple, wreathed in purple, cataclysmic fire, rose into the sky, the first of what would be known as Flying Citadels – the greatest weapon of the Dragon Armies.
I’ll have a lot to say later about how this doesn’t respect actual events in the original Dragonlance stories, but just taken as its own as part of this adventure, it’s a cool and terrifying moment.
It’s also the moment I wanted to end the last session on, but we’d gone overtime significantly and – as working adult humans – we needed sleep. So, I moved it to the start of this session.
And now… the escape from the City of Lost Names!
And I abbreviated it. At this point in the session, having a lot of encounters as the party flee is just delaying the next stage of the story. As part of the last session, it would have worked. Now? Let’s get out of here! A few Arcana checks allowed them to realise that no-one would be able to attune to the flying citadel helm – even if it functioned properly – and then it was a mad dash to the exit.
The Army of Kalaman
A few hours later, they caught up with the remains of Darrett’s forces. Which, if you remember, had been drawing off the Dragon Army and Lord Soth so the party could explore. At least, that’s one explanation for it. Darrett has an amazing hero’s journey in this adventure. It’s just a shame that the party are missing for so many of the big moments. I’ve been looking at the board game to see if that would have helped, but I can’t say that it is a substitute for role-playing the events during the adventure.
The party were now 10th level, by the way. And it was time to start Chapter 7, the final chapter of the adventure. Their goal was clear: Return to Kalaman, warn the leaders, and defend the city against the Flying Citadel.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t bring the army with them. It was just too slow – they needed to get home as quickly as possible, to rally the forces still in Kalaman. Just as well the leaders of Kalaman hadn’t sent their best troops, huh?
First, the party had to cross the wastes and find the ships.
One Random Encounter in Every Journey
I chose not to use random encounters. You can use them, but once again, it’s a matter of pacing. I know my sessions are relatively short, and I tend to want encounters that add to the theme of the adventure. The adventure does include a set encounter which I liked the look of, so why dilute that experience with random encounters?
This encounter was the opportunity to free a wounded dragonnel that was trapped by Dragon Army forces. The party enthusiastically threw themselves into this encounter – which lasted about 20 minutes. At the end of it, you had some dead or fleeing Dragon Army soldiers, and one grateful dragonnel. Which flew away. But not before looking gratefully at the party. Foreshadowing.
Vermin and Tordek were pleased. They’d done a good deed – and Vermin rather liked dragonnels.
Back to Kalaman
I handwaved the ship journey back to the capital. There was a council (much changed after Soth’s pruning of the dead wood) to apprise of the dire situation they found themselves in.
If you want to have some quality time role-playing Marshall Vendri’s reaction to learning a Flying Citadel (powered by the spirits of Dead Dragons) was on its way, this is your opportunity. It would be wrong to say that the party gained a small amount of pleasure from the leaders’ reactions. They gained a large amount of pleasure – especially in explaining the situation to Lord Bakaris.
There are things I don’t like in this adventure, but the way it handles Lord Bakaris and his son? Pure pleasure. By this point, Bakaris the Younger had fallen in battle – his body had not been recovered. And Lord Bakaris was more than happy to blame the heroes. But my players were incredibly pleased whenever they could use their influence (and stubbornness) to confound the elder lord. And that they did. Sympathy for his loss? None at all.
Lord Bakaris, of course, swallowed his pride and set his best efforts to the defense of Kalaman. Like hell he did!
The Approach of the Flying Citadel
Rumours soon multiplied in the city of the state of affairs – that a great flying citadel was approaching them with a great army. Unfortunately for the people of Kalaman, that rumour was entirely true. And panic began to set in; the heroes got a few chances to calm the populace and keep the panicking in a somewhat orderly fashion.
At the gates, there was a large uproar – a captain of the guard had closed the Trade Gate early, trapping many refugees outside. Vermin was not impressed and berated the captain. To little effect, I’m afraid. The refugees were trapped outside.
The night got closer, and the nervous soldiers let out a loud cry when they spotted a wing of dragons moving in. Our heroes went to investigate to find out that, in fact, they were not dragons, but dragonnels. Two in fact, bearing Clystran and Darrett!
And it turned out, they’d done a little scouting of the Flying Citadel, noticing that some underground tunnels appeared to still be open. The heroes might be able to catch a lift with the rest of the dragonnel wing up into the citadel and sabotage it! This seemed like a plan. (It had to be a good one, it’s the one the adventure expects you to do!) Clystran went to gather the rest of the dragonnels, while Garrett went to help with the defense of Kalaman.
I note that if you haven’t encountered and befriended Clystran earlier in the adventure, this leads you with a particular plot hole. While you are meant to meet him, there are some oddities in the adventure structure that might mean it doesn’t happen. This is bad. Make sure the party meet him!
The Night of Terror
The Flying Citadel properly came into view as dusk fell, and the Siege of Kalaman began.
Dragonnels bearing bozak draconians flew into view. This gave the party their first chance to have fun with siege weapons: great ballistae set up by the soldiers. Their first few bolts went wild, as the dragonnels were at long range, but soon enough the sky was full of the sight of exploding bozak draconians. Pretty!
This was not the only threat, of course. Sivak draconians had also infiltrated the town, posing as soldiers and intending to slay their commanders. Our heroes saw the beginning of the ambush and leapt into the fray. The Sivaks were dispatched, despite Tordek taking fright of the giant images of himself in the air. The commander was saved, and the party continued on their patrol. (3 rounds, 17 minutes)
Now came the moment for Lord Bakaris to try to defect. Unfortunately for the elder lord, another soldier had noticed the suspicious activity near the Warrior’s Gate, and he ran to warn our heroes. Who arrived and, understandably, took a very dim view of Lord Bakaris’s actions. Treating with enemy soldiers? Why, that was a capital offense!
In the adventure, it notes that the party has three rounds before Lord Bakaris’s entourage of knights are able to open the outer gate and let in the waiting Dragon Army soldiers. Unfortunately for them, Parren was casting an empowered fireball, Hrothkar was raging with a Dragonlance, and both Vermin and Tordek were very motivated. We got to the beginning of the third round of combat before all of Lord Bakaris’s men were dead. So too was the Lord. From his body, they retrieved a note from his son, who had apparently survived and was now serving in the enemy forces. The party? Not impressed. (3 rounds, 11 minutes).
It was now late, and the party now took the opportunity to have a long rest.
The Full Assault Begins
The next day, they prepared to meet with Clystran, but before that, as they navigated a way out of the city to a nearby grove, a lesser death dragon attacked! The things that come from a flying dragon graveyard, huh?
The worst thing about fighting the undead dragon was that it didn’t count as a dragon, so Hrothkar’s Dragonlance wasn’t being more effective. Oh, and its breath had killed four unfortunate Kalaman soldiers and turned them into zombies that also attacked the party! That’s some creepy horror right there!
Only one thing for it – Parren won initiative and cast a 36-point fireball at the group! All failed the saves, and there weren’t any zombies left to fight. So, the dragon went next, and went into melee (its breath not yet recharged). Attack rolls on the die were 3, 5, 2. It was not having a good time. Vermin peppered it with crossbow bolts, Parren peppered it with fire bolts, and Hrothkar and Tordek got on opposite sides of it and attacked in melee. In the third round, it got its breath back, but due to the positioning of the characters, could only breathe on one of them: Hrothkar. Who had advantage and saved (just). 19 necrotic damage to the barbarian! Vermin took it down with two more bolts. (3 rounds, 11 minutes)
The heroes reached the grove where they were to meet with Clystran, but had a slight problem with a party of four red dragon wyrmlings who had set the grove alight, and then waited to ambush foolish people who strolled in. (The dragons had been chasing Clystran in case you were wondering why they were setting random groves alight). Vermin and Tordek pointed them out in the smoke to the others, and the battle was away, with Hrothkar making two attacks a round with his Dragonlance. Wyrmlings were just as susceptible to its effects as full grown dragons! Hrothkar took a few bites and burns, and as the battle progressed, a sivak draconian entered the fray, curious as to what was occurring. Parren was forced to employ Shocking Grasp to try to escape!
Hrothkar eventually finished off the last of the dragons (raging with a Dragonlance is scary!) and the battle was over. Vermin used a 3rd level cure wounds to heal him – he was greatly depleted in hit points. (3 rounds, 15 minutes).
Into the Skies
Exchanging hurried greetings with Clystran, the group mounted the dragonnels (including a particular familiar one they may have rescued at the beginning of the session) and flew up towards the Flying Citadel. The path was not unimpeded – dragons and their riders flew around the citadel. (Well, dragonnels). And though the party did their best to avoid being spotted, they weren’t able avoid all confrontations.
And the confrontation they got? An ace aerial combatant known as Red Ruin, and their apprentice – Bakaris the Younger!
Hrothkar took the first blow and managed to avoid being knocked off his dragonnel. But then his Dragonlance came into action, slaying Red Ruin. Tordek flew in, using his battlemastery talent to knock Bakaris straight out of his saddle – he disappeared into the clouds below. And that was that! (1 round, 4 minutes).
They spotted the tunnels into the Flying Citadel and made their landing. The way forward was clear – but could they find a way to disable the citadel?
It was now getting late (10:30 pm), so we called it for the night. The characters all gained a level – at this point, the adventure runs into a real problem of No Long Rests, but way too many encounters. I was waving my hands saying “favour of the gods – you get the effects of a long rest and a level”, but it’s never mentioned in the text. A definite thing that detracts from the adventure.
But this session? Full of awesome action. One of the better sessions of the campaign!