This is part 7 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

Episode 3 – The Dragon Hatchery

I feel the hatchery provides several very important roles at this stage of the story.

The first role is that it provides the first old-fashioned dungeon crawl that was missing so far from the adventure. Players till now dealt with the tense events in Greenest and then the daring infiltration mission into the raiders camp. Now they can at last get into a more familiar ground – a good old dungeon crawl.

The second role is meeting Cyanwrath again – a major closure to this nemesis arc – now in a more favorable position for the heroes. Hopefully, this time they win!

The third role, and possibly the most important, is that through all this effort, stealth and fighting, the heroes will get a few big reveals. Here they are.

Clue: The Mask Holder

Arriving to the deserted camp after the army hastily moved away on wagons allows the heroes to find a crucial hint: In the deserted command tent, at the far back near a field bed, the heroes find an empty mask stand – a head with a carved place holder for the mask. If the wizard tries to detect magic, he would feel that there are faint remnants of very strong magic on the stand. This should give the players a hint on the importance of the mask as a powerful artifact.

Clue: The Shrine to Tiamat

This is a major reveal. By iteself this is an important clue – but should contain another clue that pushes the heroes to question the motivation of the cult. The heroes find a framed sentence on the far side of the shrine wall:

The importance of this sentence is that through it, once the heroes contact a sage at Baldur’s gate, he will pull the original and discover the difference, that will illuminate the shift that happened in the cult’s focus, and the new sinister target the Cult is aiming for.

Clue: The Letter

When defeating Cyanwrath they find he had a letter that was given to him by Rezmir. (I can’t recall where I took this great idea from, sorry for the lack of reference):

This letter is important evidence for the heroes – outlining the army’s plan to blend in, and placing a mark on the next step – Baldur’s Gate. Its also crucial for naming the agent they need to seek themselves.

Some thoughts on the Dragon Egg in the Hatchery

Their last venture will be into the dark, acidic room of the hatchery. A likely fight with Kobolds, with an unexpected adversary – Frulam can step in to give a major spell fight (Darkness is very strong at this point), accompanied by her guards.

You can choose an epic battle to the win here – in my game she managed to escape (she is not here to fight to the death) – which introduced her as the next adversary – and allowed a reverse game of hunt and seek all the way to Eltural.

Investigating the hatchery, they will find a 5 ft high Black Scaly Egg – protected by a roper that shoots its tentacles in search for food. Not a recommended fight…

My main gripe with the Dragon Egg is that it actually does not play any role in the story. Is there just to illustrate the depths this sinister cult is at with pursuing dragon apocalypse – but the module itself does not refer to this anywhere.

In some of the references above some DMs discuss allowing the heroes to take the dragon egg. Personally I don’t think this is a good idea – here is my take:

• Technically – the egg is 3 feet high, so likely weighs one ton. Transporting it anywhere will require high magic.
• More technically – For hatching, the egg should be at the conditions it gets in the hatchery – humid, acidic, warm, protected.
• If they heroes somehow take it, and somehow make it hatch it on their way, they now have an evil baby dragon to tame and take care for. This could derail their focus from this campaign.
• If the heroes have a loyal evil black dragon, mamy things will become strange.

Mostly I would place it as a moral dilemma – as the egg is an evil thing, should you leave it, take it or smash it?

Major NPCs in this Episode

Cyanwrath

This should be of course a grand encounter – The heroes finally meet their true nemesis before them, where they can utilize their entire party skills to overcome him and his minions.

Make sure to make this an epic and worthy combat! Hopefully for the heroes this is his last appearance.

Frulam

She is overseeing the caves after the army left. I envisioned her as a smart and loyal manager – will defend the caves from invaders.

The best place to encounter her will be near the hatchery itself, where the heroes will be distracted by the Kobolds with their Glue bombs and arrows. As a priest she is resourceful – and can use several tools to confuse the heroes – control spells like Hold Person can be useful – but she has no intention to fight to her death, and will use evasion (Darkness for example) to hide her tracks when running away.

Next: 8. HOTDQ – Episode 4 part I – The Road to Elturel