We played the penultimate session of Shadow of the Dragon Queen on Monday, August 21, 2023. The characters had entered the Flying Citadel, and were making their way through the tunnels that combed its base, looking for a way to disable the blasted thing.
Honestly, I’m pretty happy with most of this section. But the one thing that obviously no-one at Wizards considered is the need for long rests. There are no times in the timeline in the adventure when one could be taken. (Yeah, if you stay aboard the citadel resting, I’m sure Kalaman will hold out for the extra days you take). And yet, there is a level gain while you’re aboard the citadel.
Sigh.
They made their way through the lower tunnels of the citadel, and soon came across a Lesser Death Dragon. Just the thing for a rousing fight! As an undead creature, Hrothkar’s Dragonlance didn’t have extra effectiveness against it, and so they had to take it down the hard way. Parren tried a confusion spell, but it just succeeded on its Wisdom saving throw. The party scattered effectively, so when it came to use its Cataclysmic Breath (what a great name!) it could only target Tordek, who made the saving throw to mostly dodge out of the way. Hacking and slashing (and various arrows from Vermin) were enough to take it down. (2 rounds, 16 minutes).
Continuing upwards, they encountered Leedara, who they’d met in the first session – only now she was revealed as an ancient Silvanesti elf, here to aid them against Lord Soth. (She is also a ghost, but the party didn’t ask, so she didn’t reveal that). Leedara had information about an ancient elven artefact, the Mirror of Reflected Pasts, that they could use to distract Lord Soth and give them a chance to extinguish the Cataclysmic Fire that kept the Citadel aloft.
They now had a goal! As they made their way onwards through what were now apparent as burial tunnels, more undead stood in their way, guarding a burial vault: Two skeletal warriors and a skeletal minotaur. Parren used his favourite spell, steel wind strike, to greatly reduce their hit points, and the rest of the party had a great time smashing them to pieces. (3 rounds, 15 minutes).
The party had still taken some hits, and they took a short rest. Looking around the crypt, they found some entertaining plaques, plus a shrine to Chemosh which they all steered well clear of, no-one foolish enough to receive a blessing from the Death God.
The tombs here had many interesting things to find, but – as you would know it – they missed most of them, instead going almost directly to the lair of an evil vampire and priest of Chemosh, Alstare Bellis! Incredibly, a combat did not ensue, but instead they talked amicably with the vampire and discovered they had many things in common, including a hatred of draconians. The vampire, knowing much of the layout of this dark temple, offered to guide them to the Mirror of Reflected Pasts if they’d deal with the draconians on the level above. Impressively, the party agreed – this was a good decision, and one that would not come back to bite them. Despite his vampiric nature. (Although Alstare would be quite surprised when the citadel later fell from the sky!)
They made their way upwards to deal with the draconians. Two final skeletal knights lay between them and the next set of chambers. Parren tried confusion again and managed to negate one of the knights for one round. The combat didn’t take long. (2 rounds, 10 minutes).
With that, they went looking for the draconians. As you might know it, they actually found another vampire! This one a kender vampire, and one that completely creeped out Vermin. Her name was Lorry Wanwillow, and she was that most terrifying of creatures: a bored kender vampire! The party did their best to make her not bored and learnt a few more things about the citadel. She was certainly able to point them in the way of the Big Room of Draconians.
That big room, with statues to all the evil gods, had many a bozak draconian disassembling every statue except that of Takhisis. They were led by an aurak draconian. The party were able to attack with surprise, and first Parren used a fireball spell, and then Tordek followed up with a javelin of lightning. Do you know what bozak draconians do when they get reduced to 0 hit points? They explode. Get it right, and you get a chain reaction. (I’m taken back to happy days playing the Champions of Krynn video game.) The combat was short and loud. Most of the time was spent calculating the effects of bozaks blowing up! (2 rounds, 10 minutes).
There were two more encounters with draconians to go before they got rid of all the infestation on this level, as they needed to do for their bargain with Alstare. They had an unexpected ally in their next battle against Sivaks – a very bored Lorry Wanwillow, who was wondering what all the noise was about. She was probably helpful. Probably. (3 rounds, 11 minutes). While this dungeon generally has big enough rooms, I think the designer wasn’t quite aware that Sivaks are large creatures!
The last battle of the evening was against a room full of Kapak and Bozak Draconians. This last battle included a lot of melee, which meant that Tordek and Hrothkar got a lot of extra die rolling dodging the explosions and acid puddles. (3 rounds, 13 minutes).
By the time the last explosion cleared, everyone needed to take a short rest, and so they did.
Returning to Alstare (I almost typed Astarion there!), they learnt the secret that would unlock the room of the mirror – and avoid the trap! This they did, and took the Mirror of Reflected Memories into their possession. Above them lay the Bastion of Takhisis and Lord Soth! And that would be the chief focus of our next and final session!