History TabletopGame / TyrannyOfDragons

* MakeMeWannaShout: The ''draakhorn'' is a magical horn whose sounding is loud enough to be heard throughout the Sword Coast. Standing directly in front of it while it’s being sounded is not a good idea.

* TerribleArtist: Frulam Mondath is implied to be one. Most of the non-plot-relevant papers on the tables in her chamber are bad poems about dragons.

* SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration: The Red Wizards will pull every player character into a SharedDream, where the wizards engage in some ColdBloodedTorture. However, this won't work on any elves or half-elves in the party, because elven player characters can't be put to sleep by magic. That includes by the Red Wizards.

* DragonHoard: The ritual to summon Tiamat requires the Cult to gather a hoard worthy of the Dragon Queen. To that end, they have been raiding towns and communities throughout the Sword Coast, funneling the stolen plunder to the Cult's headquarters at the Well of Dragons. ''Hoard of the Dragon Queen'' has the players follow a large chunk of the plunder as it makes its way north, and will likely end with them doing something to keep that chunk out of the Cult's hands.

* EmpathicWeapon: Rezmir's sword ''Hazirawn'' has a mind of its own and can speak two different languages.
* EnemyMine: Blagothkus the giant will help the party if they can talk him into it. But he's not doing it out of self-preservation or because he fears the Cult. It's because he wants to spur other giants into action, and he was already planning on betraying the Cult if it meant getting giants to fight dragons. Blagothkus wants giants to take their "rightful place" as rulers of the world. This belief lasts even if the party convinces him to help them, so he's a nominal ally with a shaky alliance at best.

''Tyranny of Dragons'' is a storyline for [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition the fifth edition]] of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. It is broken up into two adventure modules: ''Hoard of the Dragon Queen'' and ''The Rise of Tiamat'', both of which were released in 2014.

The story begins with the adventurers arriving in the town of Greenest, only to find it under attack by an army of raiders accompanied by a blue dragon. After doing their part to fend the raiders off, the adventurers are then tasked with tracking down the raiders' camp to retrieve the townsfolk's stolen valuables and rescue some hostages. From there, they become embroiled in a struggle against the Cult of the Dragon, which is conducting these raids as part of a greater plan to summon the ChaoticEvil dragon goddess Tiamat into the Material Plane, which would cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.

''Tyranny of Dragons'' is a storyline for the fifth edition of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. It is broken up into two adventure modules: ''Hoard of the Dragon Queen'' and ''The Rise of Tiamat'', both of which were released in 2014.

* DeadMansSwitch: Rezmir's personal chest has been enchanted to teleport its contents away in the event of her death. If the party kills her before opening the chest, they'll lose out on the loot.

* EnemyMine: Several of the allies you get for the finale of ''Rise of Tiamat'' include Giants, Metallic Dragons, Devils, and the various mortal races and their factions, many of whom hate each other. Despite how much they hate each other, all of them agree that letting Tiamat be summoned is a ''bad idea'', and so join forces with the players to stop her.

* TheExile: Rath Modar and the other Red Wizards allied with the Cult are exiles from Thay. They oppose Szass Tam's rule of the nation and are lending their arcane powers to the Cult in the belief that Tiamat will help them depose him.

** Several members of the council of metallic dragons have a beef with some of the humanoid races. Protanther the gold dragon despises elves because they created the ''Dracorage mythal'', which drives dragons homicidally insane. Otaaryliakarnos the silver dragon resents dwarves because they killed her niece in one of their dragonmoots. The book outright says that any race the dragons have issues with will cause them to be less likely to help, and essentially demand an official apology from the player character's race for a past misdeed to get their aid.

** The Cult's blue wyrmspeaker, Galvan, is mentioned a few times but never actually appears in either module. He does not even have a stat block or a proper description. Though an UpdatedRerelease of the module on virtual tabletop website [=Roll20=] gives Galvan a token, description, and proper character sheet, it still doesn't have any place for him in the campaign as written.

->''[[TheStinger DISCLAIMER:]] Under no circumstances shall the [[ApocalypseCult Cult of the Dragon]] or its adherents, affiliates, partners, licensors, or thralls (enchanted or otherwise) be liable for [[ApocalypseHow any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or cataclysmic damages to the Material Plane, its features, denizens, geographies, spheres, or natural laws]], arising from the acts, incarnations, servants, and ruinous whims of [[DraconicAbomination Tiamat, Queen of Dragons]]. Those seeking to avoid abject draconic annihilation should relocate to the nearest convenient afterlife or just try and stop us.''

* WrongAssumption: After Leosin Erlanthar escapes from the Cult of the Dragon's base camp (whether the party helped him do it or not) and gets back to Greenest, Leosin says that he doesn't think the party needs to head back to the Cult's camp right away. Leosin is wrong about this; after Leosin correctly guessed that the Cult was going to hit Greenest next, his presence spooked the Wearers of Purple enough that they put their plan into motion early. By the time the party gets back to the camp, it's almost entirely empty.

* EarlyGameHell: The first chapter of ''Hoard of the Dragon Queen'' can be rough. The players are all 1st level, they have few hit points, and they’re expected to deal with encounters that pit them against large groups of enemies who, while frail, can inflict a high amount of damage for that point in the game. Then there are the encounters with Langdedrosa Cyanwrath and Lennithon. The former is a half-dragon fighter with 57 hit points, and his attacks (of which he can make two per turn, or four if he action surges) inflict enough damage to cripple or kill a first-level character in one hit. The latter is an adult blue dragon who attacks exclusively with his breath weapon: most first-level characters wouldn't survive that even under the best of circumstances. [[HopelessBossFight The players aren't expected to win against either of them at this point]], but even so, [[OffTheRails they can still bring the campaign to a premature end]].

* CuttingOffTheBranches: If the players didn't play through ''Hoard of the Dragon Queen'' before starting ''The Rise of Tiamat'', the events of ''Hoard'' will have taken place with another adventuring party standing in for the player characters. These adventurers will have sacrificed themselves to [[spoiler:crash Skyreach Castle]], depriving the Cult—and the party—of a valuable asset.

* NotWorthKilling: Lennithon, the blue dragon that attacks Greenest, can be convinced to leave the town and stop causing any more chaos by convincing him that the assault on the town isn't worth his time. If the players don't do this, Lennithon will eventually leave anyway because [[NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction fighting a bunch of peasants that just die to him over and over has gotten really old to him]].

* WrongAssumption: After the party rescues Leosin Erlanthar from the Cult of the Dragon's base camp, Leosin says that he doesn't think the party needs to head back to the Cult's camp right away. Leosin is wrong about this; after Leosin correctly guessed that the Cult was going to hit Greenest next, his presence spooked the Wearers of Purple enough that they put their plan into motion early. By the time the party gets back to the camp, it's almost entirely empty.

** The Cult's blue wyrmspeaker, Galvan, is mentioned a few times but never actually appears in either module. He does not even have a stat block or a proper description.
** Tiamat's brother Bahamut -- the LawfulGood Platinum Dragon, god of honor, duty, and courage -- gets mentioned a few times throughout the modules. There's a few references to him as the yin to Tiamat's yang, and it's said that Bahamut often interferes in the mortal world when Tiamat is involved. However, Bahamut himself never makes an appearance.[[invoked]]

* {{Railroading}}: ''Hoard of the Dragon Queen'' follows an extremely linear plot, with few opportunities for players to deviate from it and do their own thing. Certain events will also take place regardless of the players' actions: for instance, Leosin Erlanthar ''will'' escape from the Cult's camp whether the players choose to help him or not. ''The Rise of Tiamat'' is more open-ended, allowing players the freedom to choose the order in which they tackle the adventure's main objectives.
* RelationshipValues: In ''The Rise of Tiamat'', the party is brought into the Council of Waterdeep. The actions they take while fighting the Cult of the Dragon will affect the opinions of the various councillors, who represent many of the major factions and kingdoms of the Sword Coast. Impress a councillor enough, and they will commit every force at their disposal to the final battle at the Well of Dragons; otherwise they will commit only a token force to the fight. The book includes a helpful scorecard for the DM to keep track of the party's reputation with each councillor.

** In ''Rise of Tiamat'', the Cult realizes that the heroes are the biggest threat to their plans, and send three assassination squads to kill them. The first two are supposed to be hard, but the third is supposed to be close to impossible. If the characters all die, it's suggested that Onhtarr Frume save them, and use the fact that the Bult thinks they're dead to their advantage.