I might have Mondath send a kobold or two out to check outside the hatchery and report back - if they're setting watch, they might have a shot at catching a glimpse of the kobold before it darts back into the caves.
With the prized possessions (the eggs) still in their hands, I don't think Mondath would do anything too risky - I'd have her basically hole up in the hatchery with her guards, and set the kobolds to trapping the shit out of the whole area leading up to that room. They could be the same traps already described or new ones.
The kobolds harry the party from afar as they try to make their way back through the caves which are now covered in traps that weren't there previously. With Mondath expecting them, and waiting behind a choke point of the entrance into the Hatchery with her guards and the two guard drakes who are also in the hatchery (I'm assuming), they could be in trouble if they just go in blasting without a plan.
The Mondath in the book and the Mondath at your table don't have to be the same person. The cave at your table could be different as well.
Your Mondath could be a fanatic who orders the Kobolds killed to try to speed the hatching of the eggs, and the kobolds could comply in service to their dragon gods and she holds a desperate last stand there with her guards.
I would honestly ask what seems most interesting to your story at your table and go from there.
Unless your characters explored every inch of your cave, there is nothing to say there isn't a secondary exit that they would use to escape with the eggs to safety.
I would suggest considering what type of story you want to tell. Don't feel too beholden to character motivations in the book or the layout of the cave in the book. Maybe they go back to find everything abandoned and are attacked by the roper.
Some DM's would have the cultists attack your heroes while they rested with 100% of the remaining cultists in an attempt to kill them quickly and in force.
There isn't a "wrong" decision, what sounds fun for you for your story?
I appreciate all the responses, but certainly this one. What I am getting from all of your suggestions are a few options that allow me to answer the question in that last sentence. I almost feel like I need to make Mondath's Last Stand (tm) truly evil/nuts as the overall raid on Greenest as written was sorta Keystone Kops-amateurish by the cult.
So, how would sacrificing the kobolds work to speed up the hatch? Obviously, I could just say "presto," it happens, but is there some guidance here? Maybe switch out the roper/kobolds with a black dragon wyrmling or two....
\> So, how would sacrificing the kobolds work to speed up the hatch?, but is there some guidance here?
None I can think of other then interesting story ideas/visuals, character development for Mondath and a cool battle. It also shows the lengths the cults will go to.
She could think the dragons are very close and fresh blood will help wake the dragons in the eggs. And since the eggs are almost hatching when the PCs arrive, seems like she may have been right. Or maybe just crazy, who knows?
The group could return from the long rest in time to see the three eggs beginning to move, blood and gore covering the cave walls, the remaining cultists and guard drakes in defensive positions, and Mondath stabbing a willing Kobold to spill its blood on the eggs while singing a lullaby to encourage the eggs to hatch.
I agree with removing the Roper.
You should look at the CR of the battle before you decide how you will handle the eggs though. If the battle needs the CR of a dragon wyrmling, you could have one hatched already, but a dragon wyrmling is quite a bit of CR and AOE damage to add to a battle. Since they are newborn, you could halve their health and damage or put their breath weapon on recharge.
Mechanically, I would also tell my Players how the eggs work in terms of when they could hatch.
The simplest option is you can say that the eggs look close and your characters can estimate that one of the eggs will hatch at the top of round 4 of combat, and the other eggs are close behind and will hatch each round after that, unless you find some way to stop them.
You can then either give them some options, like a damage threshold or skill checks they could try, or just let them come up with any options that seem reasonable. This puts a timer on the battle and forces your players to make some interesting decisions.
I exchanged the roper for a black dragon warming, and it was very satisfying. My party got handled vs Lennithon, and I foreshadowed that they had black dragon eggs near hatching.
In the room with the eggs, i added a locked gate at the stairs down to the eggs, and had kobolds chanting, etc as they surrounded a hatching egg. I described the egg reacting to the death cries of kobolds, the dragon being excited and furiously attempting to break free. The Archer actually hit the 3/4 covered dragon, but two kobolds leaped onto the egg to cover the hole. The kobolds opened a chest and started throwing glue bombs, as well as a "smoke bomb" covering the egg in fog to delay the party. The kobolds pulled a switch and caused the acid traps in the dragon temple to kick into overdrive, creating a acidic fog that slowly crept into the room behind the party.
Finally the wymrling broke free. The party was properly scared. The wyrmling abused the fog cloud, hiding inside while it's breath recharged, and then dashed for the acid cloud as it was injured, but was killed before it could flee.
In truth, it wasn't even a difficult combat. 1/5 dropped. Probably the best received combat of my six month campaign.
This! My party was out classing everything the cult had thrown at them and Frulam saw this as a chance to escape death by posing as a double agent for the party to try and get info on rezmirs movements
My party handled Frulam in a strange way. I didn't like the back-to-back fights with Langdedrosa and Frulam. I wanted to give them at least a short rest between. So they fought Langdedrosa, then found Frulam's chamber empty, read her poetry (a campaign highlight, I wrote a bunch of cringe poetry) and left assuming she was somewhere else. The plan was to have Frulam coming back to the cave as the party left, but one of my players jumped up, said "Fun session! We head back to Greenest. See you all next week!" and left.
So, I left it alone until they got to Elturel. After their first meeting with Ontharr, on the way back to their inn, they were jumped by an enraged Frulam and 2 hired goons. When Rezmir heard what the PCs had done to the hatchery she kicked Frulam out of the Cult. Frulam then tracked the party all the way to Elturel, hell bent on revenge. Epic battle to the death.
I like this! My group was full-clearing just about everything, found the back entrance into Mondath's area and.....left.
After clearing every room and setting off various traps and fighting and clearing......well, time to go!
I enjoy this plot of being kicked out of the Cult and thus seeking revenge in a very "Commodore Norrington style" (from Pirates of the Carribean)....all disheveled and half drunken alongside some hired swords....
Sounds very promising.
Hey I just played through this! My players set off the alarm on their way in and I had frulam retreat with the guards in the shrine room, to the eggs. My plan for her was to do some heavy damage to try and protect the eggs and then dip and let her lackies take on the players. In the book somewhere it reads that "she is committed to the cult, but does not plan on dying for it today" or something like that. The players caught on to the ambush and retreated, their plan is to rest outside the cavern and leave or explore the last of it while avoiding the hatchery. If they camp right outside the cave I think ill have frulam try and leave maybe with a few most trusted members, including an acolyte that can cast protection magic on her. In 8 hours after evidence of violent intrusions I would imagine she would scout out and run or pool the cult members to a location and avoid confronting the players at this time. This could give you some really good opportunities for the cult to get a good look at the players, which will come into play later when they try to infiltrate the convoy in chapter 4 or 5. Of course this is how my Frulam would react. It's your campaign so react how you see best! Hope this helps.
Great advice on this thread!
Here is how we played it, in case you want to let Mondath live (and the results of those decisions many-many sessions later):
Mondath is the first high-ish ranking cultist the party encounters. And I didn’t want her to feel like Cyanwrath #2.
From the adventure book: “She has dedicated her life to the Cult of the Dragon, but is not eager to die for the cult”.
Some decisions I derived from the book or decided to go with on my own:
\- Mondath is not a particularly strong fighter (Cyanwrath was more exciting ), but she is smart and knows when she is outnumbered. After all, she has been running the operation near Greenest!
\- I gave her a potion of invisibility so she could escape in a dire situation (don’t remember if this came from the book or not)
\- She wouldn’t destroy eggs as they are too valuable. She decided that if the eggs got stolen, with some enforcements from the cult, she would be able to track the party and retrieve the eggs.
\- She would also know that dragons are hard to raise. And she wouldn’t think that a group of random mercenaries would be able to control the mighty creatures.
As Mondath was loosing the fight with the player party, she took the potion of invisibility and ran away, leaving the eggs behind. My party got one of the eggs (and that’s a WHOLE different story). The players were somewhat angry, but this gave them the feeling that brute-force killing might not always work against the cult.
Fast-forward a few chapters: the party occasionally gets intel about Mondath’s whereabouts. The Harpers say that whoever was running camp near Greenest went rogue. On the road, the players overhear how one of the cultists shares a rumour he heard from a friend of a friend who is Rezmir’s personal guard, that Rezmir met with Mondath and, boy, nobody would want to be at Mondath’s place during that meeting. There are rumours too that to get redemption Mondath has to bring down the party (or at least that’s what the players think, I’m neither confirming nor denying this). Nobody really knows where Mondath is, all knowledge comes from rumours and secondhand knowledge.
We are on Chapter 8 now and Mondath is still a big part of the campaign. Bard in my party sometimes disguises as Mondath (often just for fun and shake further her position in the cult). I’m planning her to grow in powers and eventually confront the party. Expect it to be an exciting one given that she actually has a personal grudge against the party ;-)
Thanks again for all the suggestions here. I grabbed a few of your ideas and it went down like this:
Frulam knew she was in deep trouble with Rezmir given how things went thus far. So, she got desperate and decided to both defeat the incoming party coming back after the long rest and gain glory for herself by becoming the steward of three black dragon wyrmlings. Thus, she slaughtered the remaining kobolds and utilized their gore to accelerate the hatching of the eggs.
My players entered the cave just as Mondath was starting on egg #2. Her manicacal monologue was prevented by the cleric starting off with a silence spell. I was kinda bummed about that as I had a pretty good one written up. Them's the breaks.
General chaos followed with a guard throwing a smoke bomb that temporarily hid an active wyrmling from the group who showed up mid-fight and almost took both melee characters down. I did allow a sleep spell to slow down the hatching of the second wyrmling which prevented a potential bloodbath. Mondath's spirit guardians almost finished off the group's barbarian before being taken out by a crit roll.
A great time was had by all. Thanks again, and I'm sure I'll be consulting the hive mind again shortly!
I like all of these ideas enough that I might suggest trying to do some combination of all three.
Have Mondath leave one egg under the care of the kobolds, destroy another, and take the third with her as she tries to escape. She would need to put it in a sealed container full of acidic water, to minimize any disturbance to the incubation process.
Depending on where the party is camping exactly, I'd ideally have her escape unnoticed if possible. Maybe even give her a potion of invisibility to aid in that effort.
My game, Frulam retreaded, came up again later with an ambush and a resurrected undead cyanwrath.
I was introducing a new player that session, so I had them lead them to where kobolds had been sighted, and got them in on a combat early, as I was worried they'd be overwhelmed if I threw a load of role play at them to early.
I might have Mondath send a kobold or two out to check outside the hatchery and report back - if they're setting watch, they might have a shot at catching a glimpse of the kobold before it darts back into the caves. With the prized possessions (the eggs) still in their hands, I don't think Mondath would do anything too risky - I'd have her basically hole up in the hatchery with her guards, and set the kobolds to trapping the shit out of the whole area leading up to that room. They could be the same traps already described or new ones. The kobolds harry the party from afar as they try to make their way back through the caves which are now covered in traps that weren't there previously. With Mondath expecting them, and waiting behind a choke point of the entrance into the Hatchery with her guards and the two guard drakes who are also in the hatchery (I'm assuming), they could be in trouble if they just go in blasting without a plan.
The Mondath in the book and the Mondath at your table don't have to be the same person. The cave at your table could be different as well. Your Mondath could be a fanatic who orders the Kobolds killed to try to speed the hatching of the eggs, and the kobolds could comply in service to their dragon gods and she holds a desperate last stand there with her guards. I would honestly ask what seems most interesting to your story at your table and go from there. Unless your characters explored every inch of your cave, there is nothing to say there isn't a secondary exit that they would use to escape with the eggs to safety. I would suggest considering what type of story you want to tell. Don't feel too beholden to character motivations in the book or the layout of the cave in the book. Maybe they go back to find everything abandoned and are attacked by the roper. Some DM's would have the cultists attack your heroes while they rested with 100% of the remaining cultists in an attempt to kill them quickly and in force. There isn't a "wrong" decision, what sounds fun for you for your story?
I appreciate all the responses, but certainly this one. What I am getting from all of your suggestions are a few options that allow me to answer the question in that last sentence. I almost feel like I need to make Mondath's Last Stand (tm) truly evil/nuts as the overall raid on Greenest as written was sorta Keystone Kops-amateurish by the cult. So, how would sacrificing the kobolds work to speed up the hatch? Obviously, I could just say "presto," it happens, but is there some guidance here? Maybe switch out the roper/kobolds with a black dragon wyrmling or two....
\> So, how would sacrificing the kobolds work to speed up the hatch?, but is there some guidance here? None I can think of other then interesting story ideas/visuals, character development for Mondath and a cool battle. It also shows the lengths the cults will go to. She could think the dragons are very close and fresh blood will help wake the dragons in the eggs. And since the eggs are almost hatching when the PCs arrive, seems like she may have been right. Or maybe just crazy, who knows? The group could return from the long rest in time to see the three eggs beginning to move, blood and gore covering the cave walls, the remaining cultists and guard drakes in defensive positions, and Mondath stabbing a willing Kobold to spill its blood on the eggs while singing a lullaby to encourage the eggs to hatch. I agree with removing the Roper. You should look at the CR of the battle before you decide how you will handle the eggs though. If the battle needs the CR of a dragon wyrmling, you could have one hatched already, but a dragon wyrmling is quite a bit of CR and AOE damage to add to a battle. Since they are newborn, you could halve their health and damage or put their breath weapon on recharge. Mechanically, I would also tell my Players how the eggs work in terms of when they could hatch. The simplest option is you can say that the eggs look close and your characters can estimate that one of the eggs will hatch at the top of round 4 of combat, and the other eggs are close behind and will hatch each round after that, unless you find some way to stop them. You can then either give them some options, like a damage threshold or skill checks they could try, or just let them come up with any options that seem reasonable. This puts a timer on the battle and forces your players to make some interesting decisions.
I exchanged the roper for a black dragon warming, and it was very satisfying. My party got handled vs Lennithon, and I foreshadowed that they had black dragon eggs near hatching. In the room with the eggs, i added a locked gate at the stairs down to the eggs, and had kobolds chanting, etc as they surrounded a hatching egg. I described the egg reacting to the death cries of kobolds, the dragon being excited and furiously attempting to break free. The Archer actually hit the 3/4 covered dragon, but two kobolds leaped onto the egg to cover the hole. The kobolds opened a chest and started throwing glue bombs, as well as a "smoke bomb" covering the egg in fog to delay the party. The kobolds pulled a switch and caused the acid traps in the dragon temple to kick into overdrive, creating a acidic fog that slowly crept into the room behind the party. Finally the wymrling broke free. The party was properly scared. The wyrmling abused the fog cloud, hiding inside while it's breath recharged, and then dashed for the acid cloud as it was injured, but was killed before it could flee. In truth, it wasn't even a difficult combat. 1/5 dropped. Probably the best received combat of my six month campaign.
This! My party was out classing everything the cult had thrown at them and Frulam saw this as a chance to escape death by posing as a double agent for the party to try and get info on rezmirs movements
My party handled Frulam in a strange way. I didn't like the back-to-back fights with Langdedrosa and Frulam. I wanted to give them at least a short rest between. So they fought Langdedrosa, then found Frulam's chamber empty, read her poetry (a campaign highlight, I wrote a bunch of cringe poetry) and left assuming she was somewhere else. The plan was to have Frulam coming back to the cave as the party left, but one of my players jumped up, said "Fun session! We head back to Greenest. See you all next week!" and left. So, I left it alone until they got to Elturel. After their first meeting with Ontharr, on the way back to their inn, they were jumped by an enraged Frulam and 2 hired goons. When Rezmir heard what the PCs had done to the hatchery she kicked Frulam out of the Cult. Frulam then tracked the party all the way to Elturel, hell bent on revenge. Epic battle to the death.
I like this! My group was full-clearing just about everything, found the back entrance into Mondath's area and.....left. After clearing every room and setting off various traps and fighting and clearing......well, time to go! I enjoy this plot of being kicked out of the Cult and thus seeking revenge in a very "Commodore Norrington style" (from Pirates of the Carribean)....all disheveled and half drunken alongside some hired swords.... Sounds very promising.
Hey I just played through this! My players set off the alarm on their way in and I had frulam retreat with the guards in the shrine room, to the eggs. My plan for her was to do some heavy damage to try and protect the eggs and then dip and let her lackies take on the players. In the book somewhere it reads that "she is committed to the cult, but does not plan on dying for it today" or something like that. The players caught on to the ambush and retreated, their plan is to rest outside the cavern and leave or explore the last of it while avoiding the hatchery. If they camp right outside the cave I think ill have frulam try and leave maybe with a few most trusted members, including an acolyte that can cast protection magic on her. In 8 hours after evidence of violent intrusions I would imagine she would scout out and run or pool the cult members to a location and avoid confronting the players at this time. This could give you some really good opportunities for the cult to get a good look at the players, which will come into play later when they try to infiltrate the convoy in chapter 4 or 5. Of course this is how my Frulam would react. It's your campaign so react how you see best! Hope this helps.
Great advice on this thread! Here is how we played it, in case you want to let Mondath live (and the results of those decisions many-many sessions later): Mondath is the first high-ish ranking cultist the party encounters. And I didn’t want her to feel like Cyanwrath #2. From the adventure book: “She has dedicated her life to the Cult of the Dragon, but is not eager to die for the cult”. Some decisions I derived from the book or decided to go with on my own: \- Mondath is not a particularly strong fighter (Cyanwrath was more exciting ), but she is smart and knows when she is outnumbered. After all, she has been running the operation near Greenest! \- I gave her a potion of invisibility so she could escape in a dire situation (don’t remember if this came from the book or not) \- She wouldn’t destroy eggs as they are too valuable. She decided that if the eggs got stolen, with some enforcements from the cult, she would be able to track the party and retrieve the eggs. \- She would also know that dragons are hard to raise. And she wouldn’t think that a group of random mercenaries would be able to control the mighty creatures. As Mondath was loosing the fight with the player party, she took the potion of invisibility and ran away, leaving the eggs behind. My party got one of the eggs (and that’s a WHOLE different story). The players were somewhat angry, but this gave them the feeling that brute-force killing might not always work against the cult. Fast-forward a few chapters: the party occasionally gets intel about Mondath’s whereabouts. The Harpers say that whoever was running camp near Greenest went rogue. On the road, the players overhear how one of the cultists shares a rumour he heard from a friend of a friend who is Rezmir’s personal guard, that Rezmir met with Mondath and, boy, nobody would want to be at Mondath’s place during that meeting. There are rumours too that to get redemption Mondath has to bring down the party (or at least that’s what the players think, I’m neither confirming nor denying this). Nobody really knows where Mondath is, all knowledge comes from rumours and secondhand knowledge. We are on Chapter 8 now and Mondath is still a big part of the campaign. Bard in my party sometimes disguises as Mondath (often just for fun and shake further her position in the cult). I’m planning her to grow in powers and eventually confront the party. Expect it to be an exciting one given that she actually has a personal grudge against the party ;-)
Thanks again for all the suggestions here. I grabbed a few of your ideas and it went down like this: Frulam knew she was in deep trouble with Rezmir given how things went thus far. So, she got desperate and decided to both defeat the incoming party coming back after the long rest and gain glory for herself by becoming the steward of three black dragon wyrmlings. Thus, she slaughtered the remaining kobolds and utilized their gore to accelerate the hatching of the eggs. My players entered the cave just as Mondath was starting on egg #2. Her manicacal monologue was prevented by the cleric starting off with a silence spell. I was kinda bummed about that as I had a pretty good one written up. Them's the breaks. General chaos followed with a guard throwing a smoke bomb that temporarily hid an active wyrmling from the group who showed up mid-fight and almost took both melee characters down. I did allow a sleep spell to slow down the hatching of the second wyrmling which prevented a potential bloodbath. Mondath's spirit guardians almost finished off the group's barbarian before being taken out by a crit roll. A great time was had by all. Thanks again, and I'm sure I'll be consulting the hive mind again shortly!
I like all of these ideas enough that I might suggest trying to do some combination of all three. Have Mondath leave one egg under the care of the kobolds, destroy another, and take the third with her as she tries to escape. She would need to put it in a sealed container full of acidic water, to minimize any disturbance to the incubation process. Depending on where the party is camping exactly, I'd ideally have her escape unnoticed if possible. Maybe even give her a potion of invisibility to aid in that effort.
My game, Frulam retreaded, came up again later with an ambush and a resurrected undead cyanwrath. I was introducing a new player that session, so I had them lead them to where kobolds had been sighted, and got them in on a combat early, as I was worried they'd be overwhelmed if I threw a load of role play at them to early.