#8 : The Fourth Council of Waterdeep
Planning the Finale of Tyranny of Dragons
At Twenty Sided Store, players began Hoard of the Dragon Queen in August of 2014. The campaign began when the adventurers approached Greenest, the small town centered in the green fields of the southern Sword Coast, and found it was up in flames.
As sessions progressed the Heroes made their way North following leads, and a hoard of gold that was being collected and transported by the Cult of Dragon.
We continued the campaign into the second published book in the Tyranny of Dragons storyline, Rise of Tiamat. The Adventurers soon learned that the Cultists sought to bring the five-headed chromatic dragon god named Tiamat, back from the Nine Hells, into the mortal world. In order to stop the Cult of the Dragon, the Adventurers needed to gather many allies. Knowing who to trust was becoming increasingly more difficult as the Cult had already swayed powerful entities to their side.
After six months of playing every Wednesday, with only three sessions left in the season, Team DM turned the adventure planning over to the players. During the Fourth Council Meeting we guided our players, they inspired us, and together we created our own, unique, epic finale. In this article I will explain how we pulled it off.
Building off the Past Sessions
The past three Council of Waterdeep sessions created unique roleplaying opportunities for the players. During each of these sessions we gathered all 42 players together and ran the session as one large group (Group RP). The seven DMs each took on an NPC role and positioned ourselves in the front of the room like a panel. Players and DMs speaking in character would share information, make decisions, and discuss what to do next.
Lisa (DM) and I typically work on the concepts for these sessions together, creating scripts for each DM and seeding players with information for their characters to share with the rest of the council. This time around we did not have a concrete plan in mind. I was hoping to use this final council meeting as a way to get all the players together and basically info dump. I knew there was a lot of information, crucial to the finale, that most players had not yet grasped.
The more Team DM thought about how to wrap up the season in a meaningful way for the players, I kept coming back to this idea of using the council meeting as a way to let the players tell us what the plan would be. I wanted to make sure players felt the scope of the greater forces at play and I wanted everyone, players and DMs, to be able to paint the larger picture surrounding them at all times when we split up back to small parties of six players for the last two sessions.
The Fourth Council of Waterdeep
When players arrived on that Wednesday, the Fourth Council of Waterdeep was in session. Players found a large map placed on the tables that had been pushed together in the center of the room. The map was a drawing of a location they had been seeking to uncover.
Image courtesy of Lauren Bilanko
The map was used the source of the exposition. Reports of the Well of Dragons being heavily guarded had already been brought to the council’s attention. It was time to use the map as a guide and allow the players to come up with a solid battle plan. My goal was to give the players all of the information they needed to plan their approach to the location and hope in return they give us something to work with.
Players learned about all the possible routes to the Well of the Dragons, the pros and cons of air, sea, and land approaches, what aid they would receive, and what foes they were up against. They had all the information they needed to get there, but what they would find inside remained a mystery.
Image courtesy of Ken Breese
Players stayed in character (for the most part). They all hovered over the map asking questions and formulated plans of approach. The thing that surprised me the most was how often players would come up with a brilliant idea, then look up at me and ask if it was ok – as if the idea was going to screw something up for Team DM – little did they know we were depending on them to come up with the plan, and come up with a plan, they did!
Everyone agreed on the initial approach to Baulder’s Gate along the Sword Coast. Discussions of what to do once they got within the red area on the map spawned special mission teams to form over specific strategic planning. As players split up, they were also asked to decide how to disperse the allies, what the ally strategy would be, and if the allies would be traveling with specific missions teams.
During the break, each DM decided which mission team we were excited to take on. Then after the break, we split up the players by assault squads.
Northern Assault – DMs Leo & Tom
This group had the aid of Lord’s Alliance, the Order of the Gauntlet, and the Arcane Brotherhood. They were going in offensively trying to draw forces out and away from the Well. Once the forces where dealt with Leo’s group would head to clear the east tunnels while Tom’s group would find the Draakorn and put a stop to it’s call.
Image courtesy of Michael Newton
Skyreach Castle (aka Kamicastle) – DM Lauren
This group was flying in on the Skyreach Castle. With the aid of Druids and the Giants, they would create a massive air strike. The Giants would keep the Chromatic Dragons busy while the Castle disguised as a massive storm rolling in would create a distraction for the Suicide Squads.
Image courtesy of Michael Newton
Suicide Squad (aka Dumbo Drop) – DM Lisa & Tim
Strapped to the bellies of 3 Metallic Dragons, casting invisibility spells, the Suicide Squad would wait for the Castle to create a distraction then the Dragons would fly over the center spire dropping the Adventurers in a feather fall down the center of the Volcano.
Southern Stealth – DM Richard
Would travel by foot from the south, taking cover under the foliage of the Treants, to infiltrate the southern prisoner entrances. Once inside the tunnels the Metallic Dragons would blast out the enemy forces, prisoners would be rescued, and the adventurers would go straight to the temple.
Best laid plans often go awry…
By giving the players an entire session to figure out their plans, Team DM was able to focus on the plot and provide a unique experience for each group going into the first half of the last episode of Rise of Tiamat.
Here are some of the materials we prepared for the first half of the finale of Rise of Tiamat based on the plan the players came up with during the Council of Waterdeep session.
Timeline for PCs (in black) and Cultists (in grey)
Dear Master, Dungeon Master,
I teach at a tiny international school in northern Japan. I would like to start a D&D club as an after school activity. However, creating and leveling-up characters seems difficult, especially for students who are not fluent in English. Can you please recommend some good online resources for managing characters?
Unfortunately I do not know of any online tools for managing characters, but hopefully I can give you some suggestions to help make creating and leveling up characters seem less difficult.
Dungeons & Dragons at the core is about storytelling. Start off by asking your players a series of questions about the character they would like to play.
“What does your character look like?” “Is your character strong or athletic?” “Does your character like to get in close to fight foes or would your character prefer to hide under cover and attack with ranged weapons?” “What are your characters motivations?”
After the player has described their character then the DM can work with the player to fill in the numbers. As players level up, use the experiences gained in the adventure to shape the choices made for gaining feats or spells.
Once a player is familiar with who their character is, what kind of decisions their character would make in specific situations, and what their character’s strengths and weaknesses are, the player will only need to refer to the character sheet when looking up the numbers.