Rise of Tiamat - Council Meetings and Well of Dragons

[jessebooth]

Hey Syrinscape Creators!

I am looking for a soundscape that would suit the Well of Dragons EPIC War-Front and combat and then follow the party into the Lava Tunnels and finally the combat and final confrontation with the Dragon Queen herself after 10 rounds of ritualistic chanting to bring her back. As well as some great music for the final Council of Waterdeep.

This is what they see when they arrive:

Little remains in the territory surrounding the Well of Dragons, and the constant drone of the *Draakhorn* has forced the local animals to flee or driven them mad. A handful of villages in the area are bloodstained ghost towns, and every farmstead is a charred ruin. The few survivors you encounter are headed in the opposite direction, all of them watching the sky for the telltale shape of a dragon on the wing.

This is what they see when they enter the Well of Dragons:

The caldera of a long-dead volcano rises from an ashen plane ahead. Along the cinder cone’s steeply sloped sides, thousands of creatures mill about or are lining up into ordered infantry ranks. In the air above, dozens of chromatic dragons wheel and shriek like a flock of immense crows, awaiting the bloodshed of the battle to come.

This is what they see when the Temple of Tiamat is appearing

A mind-numbing structure has pushed up from beneath the tangled bones to tower above the blasted volcano. Partly volcanic ash fused with dragon bones and partly stone imbued with the dark magic of the Nine Hells, the Temple of Tiamat is all chaotic angles and jutting buttresses. Within that snarl of cornices and soaring angulation, you make out five asymmetric towers topped by twisted steeples.

Inside Tiamats Temple :

Once your eyes adjust to the stunning chaos of Tiamat’s Temple, you see that its interior is a single, cathedral-like space that towers far overhead. Five distinct vaults branch off the central gallery. Though the overwhelming color of the place is a lifeless, ashen gray, each of the side vaults shimmers dimly blue, green, red, white, or black — the hues of the evil dragons and their world-consuming queen.

Red Wizards stand in each of the five vaults, chanting and channeling magical force into the central apse. There, a kaleidoscopic whorl of arcane energy rises above the blackened floor, stretching up into the twisting recesses of the temple’s central spire.

Tiamat Comes!

The magical maelstrom filling the central apse of the temple suddenly splits open with a crack of thunder. The gargantuan heads of five dragons begin to tear and gnash their way out of the rune-lined pit of fire that forms there. Tiamat the Dragon Queen is about to burst bodily from her confinement in the Nine Hells and enter the world.

[HECook]

Woo, this sounds like a fun one! Let’s see:

For the ruined villages and Draakhorn, probably need some wind elements (Elements - Wind) like “chilly wind” along with some crackling flames (Elements - Fire) for the remains of the burned-out villages. Some crying villagers occasionally can ramp up the desolation (“souls in grief” from Elements - Horror is a good one). For the Draakhorn, there’s a couple of possibilities (depending on what your players can take; there’s driving the animals mad and then there’s driving the players mad!). Clockwork entities has a “magical power source”, Shimmering Veils has a trio of magical resonances that could be combined, and Elements - Horror has one called “ringing in the ears”.

Big-ass battle time! Battle of Wolven Pass is your big battle set, and you could add some wing flaps and creature shrieks from Dragon Battle for the additional dragons (or wing flaps from Nightgaunt Battle also work). I also like the “ethereal creature shrieks” from Sci-Fi Player’s Swarm Attack for an additional level of unease as the group approaches the Well of Dragons.

For the Temple of Tiamat, here’s where Descent in Avernus is going to be useful. In Path of Demons Part 2, the mood “Arches of Ulloch (no comment)” is going to work really well. You can add in various wing flaps, etc if needed.

For inside the temple, try Descent into Despair, the “Black Star Ritual” mood. Kick up the magic by using the Shimmering Veils resonances, fire from Elements - Fire, etc. For additional chanting (there is chanting in this mood, but there’s always room for more, right?), Cultists from the Sci-Fi has female chanting, as does Path of Devils 1 with the element “chanting and Tiamat”. You can also use Path of Devils 1 for the element “black hole hummm!” and Ziggurat of Night for the one-shot and the element element “shadow vortex” for the arcane energy.

As Tiamat arrives, you can use many of the elements you were using for the malestrom, and kick them up, then finish that off with the big thunder one-shot from Storm, or a combination of the ones from Natural Elements (maybe including the eruption one-shot to boot), or even the Huge Shattering Explosion universal one-shot! (the last two are from Sci-Fi Player). Then you can kick up the fire elements from “Elements - Fire” (or Hell) to show the pit.

For the battle itself, Eye of Avarice has a big epic battle with a blue dragon already in it. Turn off Karzoug (as you don’t need his comments) and then you can add in the roars from Wyrmwraith, Lunar Prison (which has a Nightmare Dragon), Green Dragon, Red Dragon City Battle, and White Dragon, just to scare the boots off your players!

As for the final council of Waterdeep, there’s some victory moods in Apex of Bone, Mangv’s Heart, Isle of the Abbey II, and Tammuraut’s Fate II.

I hope that helps! Let me know if you need anything else!

[jessebooth]

Thank you very much!!!

[Steve]

@HECook is as awesome as always!