D&D 5E Tyranny of Dragons Question

[Yubbie Nubbins]

I've been looking through HotDQ and RoT and can't seem to find the answer to these questions.

When do the adventurers find out about the Well of Dragons and its location and who gives them this information? Is this a common known location in the Forgotten Realms? Do they acquire the information from Varram the White, the metallic dragons, the Red Wizards? If the adventurers know about the location and the cult's plans, what is their motivation for not skipping the rest of the story line and just going directly to the Well of Dragons?

Am I overlooking information that's already in the text or is it missing?

Thanks for the help!

Yubbie

 

[Rellott]

Not looking at the books, but I think they find out or can find out when the dragon horn begins blowing. All dragons know where to go to get to it, so the metallic dragon at the council could tell you which direction.
(Again, don't have the book in front of me, so don't string me up if I'm wrong.)

 

[robus]

There's a few pieces of missing info that the writers assume the DM will figure out and then find some way to deliver to the PCs. Varram is a good option or Leosin (as he's been spying). It is on the DM though.

 

[discosoc]

The Well of Dragons is not a secret location or anything; it's just the kind of place that people avoid, and I think most sages that are at all versed in draconic lore understand that dragons go there to die for some reason. It's also no real secret that the Cult of the Dragon is a thing. They aren't a new cult that crops up for this adventure, but have instead been around for a long time. It's just that something has changed and now they are highly-organized and somehow incredibly powerful -- hence the Harpers are trying to investigate for more information.

As for when the players should understand that the Well of Dragons is important for reasons beyond simply being the home base for the Cult, it really shouldn't happen any later than their encounter with Talis, and possibly earlier. Keep in mind the following outline for Hoard of the Dragon Queen (SPOILERS)

1. The characters help defend a town under attack by some mercs and cultist, who seemed more interested in looting than killing or occupying.
2. They track the attackers back to a cave complex and infiltrate the army long enough to rescue a Harper and discover the Cult of the Dragon is raiding the Sword Coast for treasure.
3. The Harpers know that the Dragon Cult seems to be moving the stolen treasure north, disguised as traders and such. Rather than simply retrieve the treasure, the Harpers ask the characters infiltrate or track those caravans north to determine where this vast treasure is being taken.
4. The treasure is eventually tacked to a remote swamp castle that connects to another location via a portal.
5. Through the portal, the characters find an old hunting lodge acting as a command center for the Dragon Cult, lead by Talis. There are several ways of getting it here, but the main goal is for Talis to provide exposition on where the treasure is going (Well of Dragons) and how (Cloud Giant castle).
6. From here the adventure is simply a race to stop the cloud giant castle from getting to the Well of Dragons -- by commandeering or crashing it.

Based on that broad outline, it should be clear why step 5 is the latest point where the Well of Dragons comes into play, but it should also open up the possibility that the characters learn the information before then while infiltrating or tracking the caravans heading north.

 

[Yubbie Nubbins]

Thank you, everyone. I really appreciate the input.

 

[ccs]

The Well of Dragons is not a secret location or anything; it's just the kind of place that people avoid, and I think most sages that are at all versed in draconic lore understand that dragons go there to die for some reason.

This is true.

It's also no real secret that the Cult of the Dragon is a thing. They aren't a new cult that crops up for this adventure, but have instead been around for a long time. It's just that something has changed and now they are highly-organized and somehow incredibly powerful -- hence the Harpers are trying to investigate for more information.

Also true.

Why the Harpers etc don't immediately go check out the Well though is a mystery....
I mean if your hunting for a cult focused on dragons, and especially one with a penchant for making draco-liches, a place that's A) called the Well of Dragons, B) a known location, & C) known to be a draconic graveyard.... You'd think someone would swing by & take a look sooner rather than later once the problems start.

 

[discosoc]

Why the Harpers etc don't immediately go check out the Well though is a mystery....
I mean if your hunting for a cult focused on dragons, and especially one with a penchant for making draco-liches, a place that's A) called the Well of Dragons, B) a known location, & C) known to be a draconic graveyard.... You'd think someone would swing by & take a look sooner rather than later once the problems start.

First of all, the Well of Dragons isn't exactly the kind of place you go "check out." It's remote and poses obvious dangers even in the best of times. Secondly, although the Cult of the Dragon is known, the stuff it's doing (large scale raids) is totally outside of it's normal capacity or even motivations. Thirdly, the Harpers is neither a large organization, nor an omniscient one, so being able to immediately connect rumors of regional raids to the Well of Dragons right off the bat is kind of a stretch (Leosin correctly guessed that Greenest would be the next target due to studying previous targets and determining that all the smaller and easier ones had already been raided, but even that was ultimately a shot in the dark for him).

There's also some other things to consider. The treasure from raids was known to be sent far to the north via disguised trade caravans, even though the Well of Dragons was much closer and to the east of the raiding targets. The whole point of that plot was to specifically avoid drawing attention to the correct purpose and destination of the treasure by essentially laundering the stuff through the caravans, a portal, and a flying castle through the mountains. That's the adventure-specific details that the characters deal with, but it stands to reason that the cult was also obfuscating their operations in other ways, like via hired mercenaries and double agents and planted rumors, etc..

What they cult didn't plan on was some pesky adventurers (with the help of a skilled Harper agent to piece the initial pieces together) to not only track the real destination but possibly prevent the treasure from even reaching it.

It's also worth noting that -- as of the beginning of the campaign -- had someone actually decided to go physically check out the Well of Dragons, nothing would have seemed out of the ordinary. There'd still probably be a few dragons or dracoliches flying around, and the fortress would certainly be active, but that's it. It's not until the second book when the horn starts compelling dragons to show up that the cult really begins consolidating it's forces in the area in preparation for Tiamat's Glorious Return.

 

[jayoungr]

I'll also draw your attention to the side quest "Fallen Hero" on page 7 of Rise of Tiamat. In that, the PCs can get information from an elf ranger named Cylanestriel, who recently escaped from imprisonment by the Cult of the Dragon and can give some inside information. She could easily have been captured while snooping around the Well of the Dragons.

The Zhentarim also have a base near there, so they may be keeping an eye on the Well. But they wouldn't say anything about it unless they saw a reason to do so.