Tyranny of Dragons (Hoard of The Dragon Queen) Act 1 Scene 1 Part 1 - Cultists, Cultists Everywhere

So I persuaded JT and HanDan to give DnD a go (well JT has played before but this was HanDan's first go).  JT portrayed a Dwarven Paladin (who had been abandoned at a young age to live with the wolves!), the Han part of Handan played a Half-Elf Rogue (with very little memory of anything which had happened previously) and Dan was a High Elf Wizard (with comparatively little backstory - yet).

***SPOILERS AWARE FOR THOSE CONSIDERING PLAYING THIS ADVENTURE!!!***

Having run through the basic concepts, we entered the adventure with the party approaching the quiet town of Greenest. Unfortunately for our brave adventurers the town wasn't as quiet as advertised as a large Blue Dragon crackled with electrical energy in the skies overhead as cultists looted and burnt the buildings that they were approaching.

Sneaking into town they came across a family being chased by a group of kobolds. Being relativity inexperienced in real life combat, they took some hits before being able to dispatch the creatures. The parents of this family - Cuth and Linan - advised them to head for the keep.

Map courtesy of Heart of The Realms

On the way there the party defeated a bunch of cultists as stole their cloaks. This allowed them to pass the last obstacle on they way to the keep - unfortunately as they left the cloaks on as they approached the gates, they were nearly skewered by the town guard before managing to persuade them of their intentions.

Tarbaw Nighthill, the governor of Greenest, advised the party of the situation; the keep seemed secure but the cultists were looting and burning the town with the remaining citizens who hadn't escaped to the keep in imminent danger.

The gates were sealed shut now so the party had to make their way out through an old escape tunnel. A swarm of rats was scared off and upon exiting the tunnel they were able to persuade a cultist leader to come over a rise (sending away the rest of his party through the magic of nat 20s) and mugged him (gaining a deed to a piece of land just north of Waterdeep). Taking him back they were able to interrogate him into informing them that the cultists were raising a great hoard for Tiamat - unfortunately they then failed to remember from their learnings who Tiamat was - well that is a tale for another day I guess.

At this moment a crack of thunder signaled that the Blue Dragon was attacking, racing up to the rampant, our party arrived just in time to see a lightning bolt strike the wall and throw many of the defenders into the air. Realizing that they had no hope against this monstrosity they pulled the wounded down and reported again to the Governor. He advised that many of the citizens had barricaded themselves into the town's temple - could our heroes help?

Well having defeating the guards at the back door they broke into the temple and were unable to persuade the townsfolk to calm down from the frenzy they had got into. However they received assistance from the priest and evacuated everyone shortly before the cultists smashed down the door. Our heroes persuaded the cultists that they were with them before scarpering off after the refugees.

In one final bloody battle they cut a path through one final bunch of cultists (including saving Wisdom saving throws on multiple occasions to save against Command) and escaped to the Keep. And there we left it.

***SPOILERS OVER***

Sorry if that is all a bit garbled but I wanted to make sure I had a synopsis in a safe place. I hope to get better at the writing out as I do it more. 

On a side note I also am looking at painting plans for 2018. At the moment I am considering 52 bases in the year - we'll see.