D&D 5E - The Rise of Tiamat

T y r a n n y o f D r a g o n s
Tyranny o f Dragons: The Rise o f Tiamat is a
Dungeons & D ragons adventure for characters
beginning at 8th level, and the continuation of the
first volume, Hoard o f the Dragon Queen. By the time
the adventure runs its course, the characters should
reach 15th level (or be close to it).
Four characters is the ideal party size. If your group
is smaller than that, consider removing a few opponents
from combat encounters. If the group is bigger,
consider adding opponents to the fights. Consider
altering encounters for smaller groups to avoid overly
tough battles.
In t r o d u c t i o n
Tyranny o f Dragons is set in the Sword Coast region
of the Forgotten Realms—a thin strip of civilization
stretching down Faerun’s western shore. The widely
spaced cities of the Sword Coast are arranged on a
single great road like beads on a string. The road goes
by several names as it winds over two thousand miles
from Luskan in the north to Calimport in the south,
passing through Neverwinter, Waterdeep, Baldur’s Gate,
and other great ports along the way. The first volume
of Tyranny o f Dragons took place largely on the stretch
between Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter. This second
volume takes the adventurers farther afield across the
Sword Coast, preparing them for the final showdown
against the servants of Tiamat.
Adventure Supplements. You can play this adventure
with just the Dungeons & D ragons basic rules and the
Tyranny o f Dragons online supplement, which contains
all the monsters and magic items not described in this
book. Both of these supplements are available as free
downloads on DungeonsandDragons.com.
Character Advancement. This adventure uses the
milestone experience rule. Under this rule, completing
certain events in the campaign causes the characters to
level up. See “Advancement,” below.
B a c k g r o u n d
The Cult of the Dragon has been active in Faerun for
centuries. For most of that time, its focus has been on
undead dragons, but that’s changed. Now the cult seeks
to act more directly and more boldly—by summoning
Tiamat out of the Nine Hells and bringing her bodily
into the world. So far, cultists and their leaders have
gathered great stores of treasure, forged an alliance
with Thay to assist with learning and performing the
required summoning ritual, gathered up the five dragon
masks central to the ritual (see “Dragon Masks,”
below), and persuaded or cajoled many of the oldest and
strongest evil dragons of Faerun into supporting them.
However, not everything has gone according to the
cult’s plans. The discovery of an alliance between
the Cult of the Dragon and the Red W izards of Thay
has shaken the various factions aligned against both
organizations. The Harpers view any such alliance as
an abomination, as does the Order of the Gauntlet. The
Lords’ Alliance recognizes the obvious threat to the
lands and rulers of the Sword Coast and the North,
while the Emerald Enclave suspects that anything Thay
promotes is likely against the natural order. Even the
Zhentarim fear the union of two such powerful forces.
News of the alliance has thus brought the various
factions of the Sword Coast together. The leaders
of those factions understand that they must gather
and rally forces to fight the cult, even as the situation
in Faerun grows more dire. Abductions and raids
undertaken by the Cult of the Dragon increase daily,
and refugees are fleeing from burned-out regions under
cult attack to major cities and fortresses. Villagers have
abandoned their crops and herds, fleeing the constant
predation of dragons.
In many cities, all-out panic has created a growing
movement in favor of agreeing to the cult’s demands in
the hope of winning concessions in return. It is difficult
to muster troops when people are afraid they w ill be
burned by dragonfire. This is a time for heroes to inspire
the people of the Sword Coast with a great victory or
two. Fortunately, the Forgotten Realms has just such a
group of heroes.
D r a g o n M a s k s
The new leader of the cult is a Calishite named Severin
Silrajin, who believes that real draconic knowledge
and power belongs to living dragons, not undead ones.
Severin’s ambition amused Tiamat, so she revealed the
existence of five dragon masks to him—one for each
chromatic dragon color. Individually, these ancient
masks allow wearers to communicate with dragons.
More importantly, a character who is erudite in draconic
lore becomes a wyrmspeaker while wearing the
mask, which allows the wearer to think like a dragon,
gain favor among dragons, and subtly influence their
behavior. When all five are brought together, they
magically merge into a single Mask of the Dragon
Queen. With the assembled mask, the cult can release
Tiamat from her prison in the Nine Hells.
After Severin (subtly guided by Tiamat) discovered
that secret, he bent all the cult’s resources to finding
the long-lost dragon masks in their secret hiding places.
When he recovered the red mask, Severin became the
first of the wyrmspeakers, but others soon followed.
S e c r e t s
In the first volume of Tyranny o f Dragons, the Cult of
the Dragon gathered up a hoard for Tiamat—then lost
a portion of that hoard when Skyreach Castle fell. A ll
the while, the cult kept secret its goal of bringing back
Tiamat and its alliance with an exiled group of Red
W izards of Thay. The cult now needs only to gather
enough sacrifices to power the ritual by which the
dragon masks w ill open a portal to the Nine Hells,
allowing Tiamat to travel to the Material Plane.
These plans continue to move ahead as the
Thayan exile Rath Modar and his Red W izards bring
expertise in summoning magic to the cult, preparing
a tremendous blood sacrifice to empower the ritual.