Tyranny of Dragons - Session 6

After setting their kobold prisoner free and continuing along the path, the party entered a narrow ravine between two of the plateaus. Gwen and Adolphus spotted some faces peering down from above in the rocks at the same moment that boulders began falling down on the group. After a long battle with the cultists, the party managed to capture the leader and one of the acolyte spell casters. They were very difficult to interrogate as they were extremely dedicated to the Cult of the Dragon.

As a DM note, the players went the intimidation route immediately. And they jumped to, "tell us or we'll kill you." After they failed their first attempt at intimidation that way, from a role-playing perspective there was nowhere to escalate to. This led to a frustrating few minutes of back and forth where the players felt like they were missing some information that they couldn't get anymore because of some unlucky die rolls. There was one incredible attempt by Gwen, but unfortunately her roll was not high enough to succeed:

"You've seen what we've done here today to all of your party. No matter what happens today with you, whether you live or die, we will hunt down the rest of your cult and slaughter them all the same. If you have any family or any person of significance to you, we will find them and they will meet the same fate and we promise we will make it as painful as possible."

We talked about it after they finally succeeded in extracting the information, agreeing that escalating the threats is a good way to not feel like you're stuck. They players also wanted to look up interrogation techniques to help out for next time, so we'll see how that goes.

The party hid the bodies and the two prisoners, restrained and gagged, up in the rocks so that any other stragglers wouldn't find the group on their way into the camp. They also collected some black robes, leather tunics, and other assorted jewelry from the cultists in hopes of blending in in the future.

Continuing to follow the trail, you start to make out a massive plateau, rising 150 feet above the landscape. Appearing roughly horseshoe shaped, the lower portion of the plateau rises gently from the surrounding land, but quickly steepens and ascends to its full height. Boulders form jumbled heaps at the bases of the cliffs. The level shelves and top of the plateau are covered in long grass, with brush and scrubby trees growing in patches.

There was a lot of back and forth from the players about what was the most likely way to approach the camp and infiltrate it. Some thought that walking in disguised would be fine, others thought that they should try to sneak in somehow. The players finally settled on one of the oldest D&D strategies in existence: send the rogue.

Duckie easily scaled up the plateau and was able to check out the camp without being seen. She observed that there were many kobolds, humans, and other humanoids of various other races. Most were not wearing cultist uniforms. The camp also seemed very disorganized. Upon Duckie's return and relaying of the information she'd gathered, the group figured that now was the time to walk into the camp and pretend like they were raiders.

They walked into the horseshoe and through the entrance to the camp, passing a watchtower of rough timbers lashed together with ropes on their left. The tower was manned by a few kobolds. As they entered, I asked the group to roll charisma checks to determine if they could sufficiently disguise themselves among the crowd. Adolphus had a penalty since he participated in the one-on-one combat with Cyanwrath. They all rolled pretty terribly. Rather than being recognized immediately, I waited to spring the trap at a dramatic moment.

Continuing through the camp, the entire front area was occupied by mostly kobolds milling about their crudely built, circular tents decorated with animal skulls. The group quickly moved past this area and onto slightly higher ground to an area with more humans. The tents here were better maintained and the raiders dominated.

The group split up, looking for information and to find Leosin. Walking around the camp, they encountered a few distinct groups of mercenaries. Lou joined the party at one cluster of tents and met Leonard of the Red Sun mercenaries, learning much about the cult and the camp from him.

Gwen, Moki, and Duckie headed off to the south wall and ran into another mercenary named Jared, who was in the medical tent of the Storm Blades, a more disciplined mercenary group than the Red Suns. Gwen gave him some aid and gleaned some information about the leaders of the camp and found that there were prisoners being kept near this collection of tents, guarded by six dragonclaws. She learned that some prisoners and even more of the raiders were converting to the cult.

Thamior, Adolphus, and Ilda moved to the north wall and around to the east, spotting the leader's tent, guarded by several elite cultists, and the cave, also guarded. Continuing around the perimeter, Thamior recognized Leosin tied to a post. They approached, pretending to be quite angry with him to appease any cultists that might be observing. Learning that he'd been willingly captured, Leosin was now badly beaten but still of sound mind and was determined to learn more information despite being held up by the stake he was lashed to. The three heroes interviewed him about what he had learned so far before Frulam Mondath exited the tent with a guard escort and began making her way toward them.

Seeing her approach, Thamior said to Leosin, "We're glad to know that you're alive, but I have to make it, you know..." before punching him and knocking him out. Mondath took objection to these apparent mercenaries beating her prisoner. Coming up with a lie about taking revenge on him for something he did back in Greenest, Mondath sent them away, apparently believing it.

The whole party then met up together again to plan how to break Leosin out of the camp. They had just decided on starting a brawl between some of the mercenary groups and split up the party when Mondath, Cyanwrath, and an entourage of guards. Cyanwrath immediately recognized Adolphus and the cultists surrounded him along with Lou, Ilda, and Thamior. Meanwhile, Gwen, Moki, and Duckie had to just watch it all happen.

The captured heroes were interviewed one-by-one by Mondath while the others made their way out of the camp and up the plateau to wait for the cover of dark. At about 2am, Duckie dropped a rope down the cliff near the stakes and snuck down the side. She cut the bonds of her companions and Leosin, who the party had to carry up the cliff. Just as they began descending the outer wall of the plateau, the party heard horns and cries from the camp. Their absence had been noticed!