And the adventurers killed the Green Wyrmspeaker, his great blue dragon having fled and abandoned him. Unfortunately, the Green Dragonmask was not present. His journal revealed that it had been taken to the Well of Dragons… to join the Draakhorn.

And that was the 7th session of The Rise of Tiamat.

Session 7 was very unusual – I didn’t run it! Due to cancellations on another of our tables, I was needed to run a session of Hoard of the Dragon Queen for another group, and Tim – who normally plays the warlock at our table – ran my table instead. Unfortunately, it leaves a gap in these reports. From what I gather, the party entered the caves and dealt with the initial waves of cultists therein, freeing a number of elves. They then confronted the Green Dragonspeaker, who turned out to be none other than Neronvain, the exiled son of King Melendrach. He fought them and lost. The fight against the green dragon proved inconclusive, the dragon fleeing before it could be slain, and the party returned to Waterdeep victorious. And now for Session 8!

Waterdeep. The City of Splendours. Year of the Warrior Princess (1489 DR).

Once again, the Council of Waterdeep was in session, and the adventurers were in attendance. They reported to the council on what had occurred in their trips to the Dragon Council and the Misty Forest. King Melandrach was particularly unimpressed that the group had killed his son, and furious that they had forced him to apologise to the dragons – something he would do, if reluctantly. Likewise, Connerad Brawnanvil of the dwarves was furious with the adventurers for forcing him to apologise as well – the feuds between dragons and dwarves are legendary. Despite this, Laeral, Open Lord of Waterdeep, calmed down the council.

The discussion turned to where best to employ the dragons the alliance had netted them. Once again, the adventurers were called in to mediate. The cult had been attacking the lands around more and more over the previous weeks, and a fast response force was needed to protect them. In the end, forces of dragons were assigned to Waterdeep, the Harpers, Connerad Brawnanvil’s dwarves, Taern Hornblade and Sir Isteval.

Now discussion turned to future plans. Emissaries of the Red Wizards of Thay had arrived, informing the council that the Red Wizards aiding the Cult of the Dragon were exiles and opening the possibility of an alliance, but the adventurers would have to travel to Thay to conduct the diplomacy. This was instantly rejected, with many of the adventurers remembering the invasion of the Sword Coast by the Red Wizards a few years ago, and wanting nothing to do with them.

Instead they chose to travel to the Tower of Xonthal. One of the members of the Cult was planning to defect and he wished to meet them there. As an additional reward, he knew where the Blue Dragonmask was being kept – all he required was the adventurers to take it and rescue him.

Unfortunately for the adventurers, the Tower of Xonthal was not the easiest place to get into. It was surrounded by a great, magical maze, which shifted and turned around them, confusing any sense of direction.

The adventurers cautiously entered the maze, and soon came to a sundial in a clearing the shadow of which ignored the sun and instead pointed towards a pathway leading to the tower. The adventurers cautiously followed it, the path twisting around until they came back to the clearing. But this time, two shadows could be seen on the sundial!

They tried following one path, then the other. The first time they came to a great pool, in which lived great crustaceans that attempted to grab them – something that Ice discovered as she stood on the edge of the pool and tried to recover a gem that hung above it with a mage hand spell. The gem was caught, and so was Ice! Her companions saved her, and the halfling breathed a sigh of relief. The second path led a pasture of two cyclopes, whom engaged the adventurers in a game of “Throw the Boulder” – whoever could throw a 500 pound rock further would win the contest! This time, it was Ice who saved the day, using her newly mastered telekinesis spell to throw the boulder the length of the field. The cyclopses granted her a topaz, and the party left the pasture.

However, both times the group returned to the sundial. They attempted going forward again, only to end up in a carnivorous garden with many great flowers attempted to grasp and eat the adventurers. However, Ice still had her telekinesis spell in effect, and was able to seize each of the blossoms and rip them from the plants. The flowers turned into gems, and the adventurers moved on – only to return once more to the sundial, with the two shadows still pointing the same ways.

Finally, they attempted a path to which the shadows did not point. This worked… to an extent. They returned to the sundial, but this time it had three shadows – one pointing to the path they’d come from, the others to the front-left and front-right paths.

More challenges awaited them as they tried the pathways: animated suits of armour attacked, then rose and attacked again when defeated. A gorgon chased them through a proper hedgemaze, and a dao raised walls of stone and attempted to poison them. They defeated each of the challenges in turn, but they kept returning to the sundial of three shadows…

…and, I’m afraid, that is where we ended the session! More soon!

Yes, I’m writing this several weeks after the session. We finished The Rise of Tiamat a few days ago. I expect I’ll be able to finish these reports before we start Princes of the Apocalypse in May.