Hekazu

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

@Ryonara
While I am not exactly appreciative of you going and looking things up from the MM, the info you have is indeed correct. In a fair fight, the party would stand no chance against an adult dragon. I'll have to withhold any further knowledge of the situation to myself as to not ruin the encounter.

Just... could you please not pull out the source material and use the raw mechanics information for metagaming? I trust that the plan of "living to fight another day" could have been formed from the storytelling alone.

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

I like the portrayal of fear on this one. Well then, next up is Kyra @Norschtalen!

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

Parum is up next, @Ryonara.

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

That would be the first adventurer accounted for. @The Harbinger of Ferocity, your turn. I trust your plan will not be quite as "Victory or death!" as the first one to go.

The escape from Wolfwing's lair

@Dusksong
I'll try to remember.

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

@The Harbinger of Ferocity Well, you all know how horrendous of an artist I am, but a crude drawing you shall have!

As per request

Indeed, the roof is quite barren and the best cover you can find (that is not on the the upper battlements where the you have met with the governor at the very top of the tower behind you) would be to dive back inside. Also, a more accurate call regarding your distance to the dragon would be more like 80 ft. I'll fix it to my earlier post.

In any case, Orchid (aka @Lucius Cypher), you are up! We'll be taking the normal initiative order.

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

I hope the proper introduction of your foe is to your liking. Also @Lucius Cypher, as your DM I feel obligated to ask you "Are you sure?" when it comes to your plan.

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

The raven that acted as Torus' eyes and the human warrior that went by the name Brannor were the first eyes of the group on the battlements. While the raven had been around for some time and marked where the dragon was moving, it had missed the initial swoop that caused the current uproar. Both it and the warrior raised up just in time to see the second approach of the awe inspiring force of nature as the dragon dived down for the second time.

From the smoke, like a swift bolt, the dragon descended sharply towards the keep, first appearing black but soon the fire illuminated it's shining scales. It wasn't black, there definitely was some colour to it. The colour of light from the fire made it tough to tell outright, but soon cold white light shone upon the creature's horrifying, almost skeletal visage. Crackling bolts of this white energy surged both between it's teeth and outward from the creature's maw and lighted up the skin the was tightly wrapped on the dragon's skull. The scales illuminated by this light were clearly blue.

The much larger than anticipated creature reached the turning point of it's descend just as the rest of the group arrived onto the roof to behold the sheer size of their opposition. Some, if not most of them had seen it flying around earlier, but only now they realised just how large it was. There was no questioning it... this thing was most definitely an adult. It let loose it's breath on the other side of the keep, visibly evaporating some of the good men and leaving a few charred or missing limbs. As the cries of those people barely made themselves audible through the beating of the dragon's wings as it began to ascend again, primal fear rushed over our champions. What kind of a chance would they have against something like this?

Mechanics

I would like to request everyone to roll a WIS saving throw against the dragon's Fearful Presence. On a failure (under 17), your character will become FRIGHTENED (PHB, Appendix A, page 290) for 1 minute. The saving throw can be repeated on the end of each of your turns, ending the effect on a success. I do believe it will be for the best to roll Initiative too. The dragon is currently in the air approximately 80ft. away from your current location.

The escape from Wolfwing's lair

The heavy footsteps stopped momentarily at the door. For a few moments, nothing. Once people might already have started to question if they had heard any footsteps at all, the door slowly opened on it's creaking hinges and if anyone had eyes on the door, they saw a familiar face. The bipedal creature covered in jet black fur walked into the room, wings extended behind itself as it walked through the doorway. As soon as it was through, it drew them back against it's back and sniffed the air.

Wolfwing then looked into the women's cell on the left, before marching onward to check up on Derrick's quarters. Now that it was in the light and moving slower, the hunters could finally get a good look at it. It had a particularly muscular build even for a werewolf, the claws were slightly shorter than standard but still more than sharp enough to cause damage through soft armour. The wings on it's back were leathery with much less fur on any parts of them and on the front of his snout a pair of teeth could be seen where a human would presumably have their canines. It was wearing a makeshift red wrap on it's upper body and a pair of presumably burlap pants. This upper body garment was new.

It sniffed the air in front of Derrick's cell, growled in a deep, threatening tone and slammed their right forearm against the cell door. Evidently not happy about something, it stormed out of the room right after, slamming the door shut after itself once it had carefully drawn it's wings out of the doorway.

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

I will likely post tomorrow, detailing what the people with eyes outside can see. The post will assume you all will move onto the battlements soon, so poke me if that is not the case with your character. Of course, the druid with merely a familiar on the move being an exception.