This is the last and concluding chapter of my guide for Hoard of the Dragon’s Queen campaign. You can read all chapters of this guide here:

• LiquidAnalog’s DM’s Guide to Hoard of the Dragon Queen
• 2. HOTDQ – Lore, Clues and Secrets Reveal
• 3. HOTDQ – Before you begin
• 4. HOTDQ – Episode 1 – Greenest in Flames, part I – The Dragon Attack
• 5. HOTDQ – Episode 1 – Greenest in Flames, part II – The Long Night
• 6. HOTDQ – Episode 2 – The Raiders’ Camp
• 7. HOTDQ – Episode 3 – The Dragon Hatchery
• 8. HOTDQ – Episode 4 part I – The Road to Elturel
• 9. HOTDQ – Episode 4 part II – Elturel
• 10. HOTDQ – Episode 4 part III – A boat ride to Baldur’s Gate
• 11. HOTDQ – Episode 4 part IV – Baldur’s Gate
• 12. HOTDQ – Episode 4 part V – The Death house
• 13. HOTDQ – Episode 4 part VI + Ep 5 – The caravan to the Carnath Roadhouse
• 14. HOTDQ – Episode 6 – The Mere and Castle Naerytar – part I
• 15. HOTDQ – Episode 6 – Castle Naerytar part II – NPCs
• 16. HOTDQ – Episode 8 – Skyreach Castle – part I
• 17. HOTDQ – Episode 8 – Skyreach Castle – part II

The Epic Battle

If the heroes succeed with moving the pieces on the castle, they should find themselves in an all-out war between all factions on the castle.

On the one hand – Rezmir and her cultists, Azbara Jos (and Rath Modar if you choose to have him), and the white dragon – against the other side – Blagothkus, Wigluf and Hylda, a dozen Ogres and the heroes. This is the anticipated epic battle the heroes wished for a long while – getting their revenge against Rezmir at last, and stopping this evil cult.

As a DM, only this setup allows you to dial the battle to its full force, but requires careful planning on your side. The party would not stand a chance facing a dragon, or Rezmir plus two Red Wizards – however having Blagothkus and his giants and ogres initiate the battle allows the heroes better positioning, and keeps them out of being the main targets for a while.

Blagothkus

• Note he is a magic user Cloud Giant, so he would levitate, use his giant mace and cast spells. The spells described in the book are a bit lackluster, so I gave him the 4th level spell Storm Sphere – creating a sphere of hail around the dragon that can also lightning bolt once per turn.

The Giants

• The Stone Giants Wigluf and Hylda will use their huge stone mace – but they do much more awesome things, like grab a cultist, take a few steps and throw him off the balcony; Or hurl the huge stone mace at the dragon for a shattering blow.

The Castle Defenses

• The castle has Ogres at the towers with ballistas. However I upgraded the ballistas to full dragon-sized harpoons: A Javelin-sized arrow with a very thick rope attached. Even a single successful hit from one of the harpoons might force a dragon to stay put – this also allows for fun maneouvers like zip-lining along the harpoon to strike a direct hit on the dragon.

On the other side – the cult and the dragon.

Rezmir

• She will definitely have her Black Dragon Mask on, and will be out in full force. Recall I gave her Bracelet of Spell Storing – so that she could activate some nasty mind spell on Blagothkus at the last minute. She might ride the dragon for an epic attack on the heroes and Blagothkus – if you do so, be careful not to have her fall off the dragon to the abyss below (she has some pretty important artifacts…)

The White Dragon

• The dragon is the epic combatant in this battle. This is a full ice breathing dragon, evil and angry. He will gladly unleash his wrath on Blogathkus, the other Giants and their puny human helpers.
• Rezmir will command the dragon to attack – and if needed, can even ride it for an epic duo.

Azbara Joss (And Rath Modar)

• I gave Azbara Joss a wand of lightning bolts (which sadly for him he did not have a chance to use).

The Cultists

• I figured that once the all-out war breaks out, the cultists will obey Rezmir but they are not going to stand a chance against the giants, and will try to evacuate via the wyverns. This is a good hint for the heroes in case you plan to crash the castle.

Winning the Battle

Assuming the heroes win the epic battle against the cult and the dragon, you need to decide how you want this part of the story to end.

If you take the blue pill – Blagothkus lives and the castle stays under his command. After he thanks the heroes greatly for uncovering the cults’ treachery, he can offer to drop them wherever they like, and maybe give them some means of calling him if they need to in the future.

However I chose to take the red pill, which I think is the more epic conclusion. Blagothkus dies in the battle – and as he does, the castle starts to fall down. The heroes with the aid of Wigluf and Hylda finish off the dragon, and the heroes kill Rezmir and Azbara Joss – only to scramble to climb the wyverns for escape out of the disintegrating castle on its way down.

The castle hits a mountain side and crumbles to a mound of huge pieces – it would be very hard to find the hoard down there.

Treasure

This is the final piece of the story – you need to make sure the heroes feel they not only achieved a great deed, but actually got some pretty powerful items as an epic reward.

The Black Dragon Crown

I let the heroes have it. Its an evil artifact, so if they plan on using it for anything bad things will start to happen.

Rezmir’s Sword

I think that the book prescribed Rezmir’s sword Hazirawn as a too powerful evil artifact. I think it is too strong against the heroes, and definitely not something I wanted to give to the heroes as trophy to use. So I made it into a +1 Greatsword that emits dark violet glow – which was considered a great reward by the paladin.

Rezmir’s Bracelet of Spell Storing

As I mentioned above, I gave Rezmir a Bracelet of Spell Storing, so she could have access to some versatile spells like Dimension Door and Mind Thrust. This is a great reward for the heroes.

Azbara’s Spellbook

As the heroes are going to take his spellbook and copy the spells, make some effort to decide which interesting spells he might have had. The module gave him some borking spell selection. Consider something like:

Cantrips

• Mage hand
• Prestidigitation
• Ray of frost
• Shocking grasp

1st level

• Shield
• Bane
• Charm person
• Fog cloud

2nd level

• Misty step
• Wither and bloom
• Mind thrust
• Aganazar Scorcher

3rd level

• Counterspell
• Dispel magic
• Fireball

I also gave Azbara a Wand of Lightning Bolts, which he (regretfully for him) failed to use.

Aftermath

As I wrote above, I chose the more epic outcome of Blagothkus slain and the castle disintegrating as it crashes on a mountainside, while the heroes scrambled to escape by mounting two of the tamed wyverns.

The Hoard ?

Well – here it depends how on how things evolve on your story, if the heroes could reach the hoard – and if they want to take any of it.

The total hoard is likely tens of thousands of GP. Good aligned heroes will want to return it back to the raided cities of the Sword Coast – however they are definitely worthy of some reward for their epic deeds – stopping the evil cult and taking hold of the loot.

In my game I had Ontharr and the Lords Alliance award the heroes a sizable reward for their efforts, while they secure the hoard for the cities.

Frozen Castle

The Frozen Castle is a $3 expansion in between the end of HOTDQ and the second book – defend the broken castle from the Cult, Giants and creatures of the frozen wastes.

PowerScore RPG has a brief synopsis and review of this module.