Hoard of the Dragon Queen

Hoard of the Dragon Queen and its sequel, The Rise of Tiamat, pit the player characters against the evil dragon queen Tiamat and her minions.^[2][1] The adventure takes place in the Forgotten Realms setting.

In an audacious bid for power, the Cult of the Dragon, along with its dragon allies and the Red Wizards of Thay, seek to return Tiamat from her prison in the Nine Hells to Faerûn. To this end, they are sweeping from town to town, laying waste to all those who oppose them and gathering a hoard of riches for their dread queen. The threat of annihilation has become so dire that groups as disparate as the Harpers and the Zhentarim are banding together in the fight against the cult.

The module is divided into eight episodes:^[3]

1. "Greenest in Flames": A small town is attacked by a dragon and members of a dragon cult.
2. "Raiders' Camp": The town tasks the adventurers with pursuing the raiders to recover kidnapped townspeople.
3. "Dragon Hatchery": The party returns to the raiders' camp to uncover a secret guarded by the cultists.
4. "On the Road": They follow a convoy carrying loot to the next town, where they ally themselves with factions rising up against the dragon raiders..
5. "Construction Ahead": They follow the convoy to Waterdeep, which then turns north.
6. "Castle Naerytar": They follow the convoy to the lair of the dragon cult hidden within a vast swamp where they discover a teleportation portal.
7. "Hunting Lodge": The portal takes them to a large hunting lodge that serves as a transit hub for important cult members.
8. "Castle in the Clouds": The party discovers a flying castle hidden in clouds above a village where the dragon cult stores their stolen loot.

Player characters start at 1st-level and gain one level of experience with each chapter, reaching 8th-level by the end of the adventure.^[3]

In 2014, as part of the release of the new 5th edition of D&D, WotC commissioned Kobold Press to design the first adventures for the new edition.^[4][5][6] Wolfgang Baur and Steve Winter subsequently created a two-part adventure path, Tyranny of Dragons, the first part being Hoard of the Dragon Queen, which was released by WotC in August 2014 as a 96-page hardcover book with cover art by Raymond Swanland and interior art by Aaron Hübrich, Tyler Jacobson, Guido Kuip, Marcel Mercado, and Bryan Syme.^[3] WotC also simultaneously launched game supplements, video games, and other outlets.^[2][7][8]

The first three chapters of this adventure were also released as part of a free D&D Encounters kit for the D&D Adventurers League, WotC's official organized play program.^[9][7][1]

Two months later, in October 2014, the sequel adventure The Rise of Tiamat was released. A month later, Gale Force Nine released a licensed four-panel Tyranny of Dragons gamemaster's screen.^[10]

Five years after the original publication, a new edition of Tyranny of Dragons was released in October 2019 for sale only in local game and hobby stores.^[11][12][13] This new edition repackaged Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat together as a single volume, and also included a full errata, a reworked opening chapter, and new cover art from artist Hydro74. James Whitbrook, for Io9, reported that "the re-release incorporates player feedback from the first two releases to smooth out the progressive curve of the quests presented in Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat, which will encompass all the tweaks and addendums made to how D&D fifth edition plays in the five years gamers have had their hands on it. As an included bonus, the book will also include extra resources for players and dungeon masters that were only previously available online, as well as a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes concept art made for the adventure that rivals even Tiamat’s most desirable loot".^[13]

This edition was re-released in January 2023 with new cover art but no changes to the content.^[14][15][16]