D&D 5E - The Rise of Tiamat

If he is asked about the White Dragon M ask, Varram
grudgingly admits that he saw it in the pool—and that it
has already been found and reclaimed by the cult, and is
presently at the Well of Dragons.
The characters gain a level at the end of this episode.
E p is o d e 4: N e r o n v a i n
With the loss of Skyreach Castle at the end of Hoard
o f the Dragon Queen, the Cult of the Dragon’s efforts
to gather Tiam at’s tribute were badly compromised. To
compensate, the cultists launched several raids against
the elves of the Misty Forest, led by Wyrmspeaker
Neronvain and his companion, the green dragon Chuth.
Having fulfilled their quota for the cult, wyrmspeaker
and dragon retreated deeper into the Misty Forest,
leaving the elven enclaves ruined behind them.
However, the survivors of those cult raids would have
been astonished to learn that the green wyrmspeaker is
Neronvain—King Melandrach’s exiled son, believed to
have died many years before.
On one of his raids, Neronvain won the fealty of an elf
named Galin—a warden of the forest who pledged his
service to the wyrmspeaker in exchange for ending the
attack on his home village. Neronvain accepted, using
Galin’s knowledge of the Misty Forest to help plan raids
against other settlements. Galin has so far kept secret
his oath to Neronvain, though he feels tremendous guilt
over his actions.
Under King Melandrach’s command, the elves of the
Misty Forest have stepped up their defenses, and the
cult attacks have ceased. Melandrach believes the threat
has ended, though his son Alagarthas disagrees. Prince
Alagarthas used the Emerald Enclave to search for clues
to the source of the raids, and they have learned that an
elf seen with the green dragon appeared to command
the beast. Both Prince Alagarthas and Delaan
Winterhound of the Emerald Enclave believe that more
attacks are imminent, and that the green dragon’s
master might be one of the cult’s wyrmspeakers. But
what neither realize is that the Green Wyrmspeaker is
actually Alagarthas’s own half-brother Neronvain—the
disgraced second son of King Melandrach, exiled by
his people and long thought dead. They now seek the
adventurers’ help to find this dragon master.
G a l l f o r A id
Delaan Winterhound comes to the adventurers during
the Council of Waterdeep or while they are returning to
the city after completing another episode. He speaks of
the draconic incursions in the Misty Forest mentioned
at the council, and says that the Emerald Enclave's
agents have been working with the support of Prince
Alagarthas to prevent a new round of attacks. With
his agents already scattered throughout the Misty
Forest, he wants the adventurers to travel to one of
the few dragon-raided settlements left standing in the
aftermath—a village called Altand. If Delaan’s belief that
the mysterious master of the green dragon was one of
the cult’s wyrmspeakers is true, the survivors of Altand
might know something that w ill help find him.
T h e M i s t y F o r e s t
This episode takes place within the Misty Forest—a vast
woodland concealed by thick mist and rain. Enormous
spruce trees dominate the northern end of the forest
where Altand is found—and where Neronvain and Chuth
have established their stronghold.
G e n e r a l F e a t u r e s
Mist. The mist in the forest is omnipresent. Though it
can be ignored inside buildings, all outdoor areas of the
forest are lightly obscured.
In v e s t i g a t i o n a t A l t a n d
Altand is primarily a wood elf settlement, blending
almost seamlessly into the forest around it. The village
exists on two levels, with a few structures built on the
ground around an ancient monument to an elven ranger.
Residences and the village temple are built into the
upper boughs of the forest. The elves string rope bridges
between these sites and construct circular walkways
around the trees.
Like many other settlements raided by the dragon,
pulley-operated platforms connect the two levels of the
village, and provide an excellent defense against the
ores that occasionally enter the forest as an alternative
to raiding human settlements along the Trade Way.
However, those defenses proved a deathtrap against the
flying green dragon, leaving many elves unable to reach
the ground quickly enough to escape.
Su r v i v o r s ’ T a l e s
Of the three hundred residents of the village, more
than half survived the raid—a different outcome than at
other raided settlements, where the dragon hunted and
killed the elves to the last adult and child. Many of the
residents of Altand were on the ground when the attack
came. O f the elves in the upper level of the village, many
died of the dragon’s poisonous breath while waiting to
descend, or fell to their deaths as bridges and walkways
collapsed under the weight of panic.
Most survivors fled and saw little of what ensued.
However, by asking careful questions of a number of
villagers, the characters can learn the following:
• The dragon swooped down and attacked on the
ground first. Nearly half of the village’s victims died
during that first assault.
• Humans in the regalia of the Cult of the Dragon followed
the dragon, killing all those they found. The
village’s priest stepped out to lead others in fighting
the dragon, but the beast swallowed him whole.
• Some survivors claim to have seen a cultist riding
atop the dragon. Most of those refer to the dragon
rider as human, like the other cultists. However, a
few people report that the figure moved with the
grace of an elf.
• With the priest dead, the village’s warden, Galin, has
become the leader of Altand. Though he was in the
thick of the fight, he survived unscathed, and has been
a potent force for rallying the survivors.