D&D 5E - The Rise of Tiamat

Se v e r i n ’s T r i u m p h
Severin’s plan to bring Tiamat back to the world has
been set up in five distinct stages:
• Assemble a treasure hoard worthy of Tiamat.
• Gather an army of dragons and other evil creatures to
defend the Well of Dragons against interference.
• Capture hundreds of prisoners whose souls w ill
power the magic that draws Tiamat to Faerun.
• Perform the ritual that raises Tiamat’s Temple in the
caldera of the Well of Dragons.
• Sacrifice the prisoners while performing the ritual
that guides Tiamat from the Nine Hells to the world.
The first three stages of Severin’s plan are complete.
Stage 4 w ill be completed by the time the characters
arrive at the Well of Dragons. Stage 5 begins soon after
the heroes and their factional allies arrive, and becomes
the focal point of this final battle against the cult.
St o p p i n g Se v e r i n
The heroes’ goal is to thwart Severin’s plans and
prevent Tiamat from passing from the Nine Hells into
Faerun. The characters’ accomplishments up to this
point have frustrated Severin and slowed his plans. But
the only thing that can truly stop him now is ending the
ritual performed by the cult’s Red Wizard allies inside
the Temple of Tiamat.
A p p r o a c h i n g t h e W e l l
As the characters and the forces commanded by the
factions of the Council of Waterdeep approach the Well
of Dragons, they should have no doubt that they are
moving deep into enemy territory. The landscape for a
hundred miles in all directions is a grim harbinger of
what Tiamat’s rule would mean for the world.
Little remains in the territory surrounding the Well of
Dragons, and the constant drone o f the Draakhorn has
forced the local animals to flee or driven them mad. A
handful o f villages in the area are bloodstained ghost
towns, and every farmstead is a charred ruin. The few
survivors you encounter are headed in the opposite
direction, all of them watching the sky for the telltale
shape o f a dragon on the wing.
Chromatic dragons patrol the area by day and night.
You can call for DC 12 Intelligence (Nature) or Wisdom
(Survival) checks to determine whether the characters
find shelter or camouflage themselves in time to avoid
a passing dragon. Alternatively, simply ask what
precautions the characters are taking against being
spotted and judge for yourself whether that w ill keep
them safe. Sticking to wooded areas, following ravines,
spending as little time as possible on open ground, and
even dressing as cultists are all useful ploys.
Flying to the Well of Dragons is problematic. Whether
they’re on metallic dragons or flying under their own
power, the characters w ill be attacked by chromatic
dragons long before they reach their destination.
T h e W e l l o f D r a g o n s
The Well of Dragons is the caldera of an extinct volcano
at the northern end of the Sunset Mountains. For
reasons no mortal understands, many dragons reaching
the end of their lives come to the Well of Dragons to die,
and have been doing so for millennia.
The caldera o f a long-dead volcano rises from an
ashen plane ahead. Along the cinder cone's steeply
sloped sides, thousands o f creatures mill about or are
lining up into ordered infantry ranks. In the air above,
dozens o f chromatic dragons wheel and shriek like a
flock o f immense crows, awaiting the bloodshed o f the
battle to come.
The Cult of the Dragon discovered the Well of Dragons
long ago. Lava tubes snaking beneath the now-dormant
volcano formed natural corridors connecting caverns
that the cult enlarged for their own use. W ithin the
central caldera, they raised a ritual space for creating
dracoliches from dragons drawn to the site knowing
they would soon die. Under Severin’s leadership,
the caldera and the catacombs beneath it have been
repurposed as the site where Tiamat’s vast temple w ill
be raised and the Dragon Queen’s new reign begun.
The floor of the caldera is blanketed with the bones of
dragons, mounded into immense, tangled heaps.
The caldera of the Well of Dragons is roughly ovalshaped,
with high, steep walls. The dragons flying
above it are not scouting for infiltrators, thankfully,
but are quarreling and posturing for each other before
the battle.
In the past, the number of cultists at the Well of
Dragons seldom exceeded one hundred. Now, with
ultimate victory near at hand, their numbers have
swelled. Only cultists live and work in the warrens
beneath the caldera. The thousands of mercenaries,
giants, devils, and monsters serving the cult are camped
chiefly along the north and east slopes.
T h e T e m p l e o f T i a m a t
The map of the caldera shows the outline of where the
Temple of Tiamat w ill appear when it is raised by the
Red W izards’ magic. That job w ill be finished by the
time the characters and their allies arrive to do battle
with the cult.
The caldera is blanketed beneath the bones o f hundreds
o f dead dragons, but that’s not its most arresting feature.
A mind-numbing structure has pushed up from beneath
the tangled bones to tower above the blasted volcano.
Partly volcanic ash fused with dragon bones and partly
stone imbued with the dark magic o f the Nine Hells,
the Temple o f Tiamat is all chaotic angles and jutting
buttresses. Within that snarl o f cornices and soaring
angulation, you make out five asymmetric towers topped
by twisted steeples.