Upon his return to Maelstrom, King Hekaton is quick to act against the evil that threatens all giants. With the help of his scrying pool, Hekaton figures out where Iymrith has gone to ground. Seated upon the
If the characters were unable to rescue the storm giant king, or if Hekaton didn’t survive, Princess Serissa vows to avenge her father’s death, swearing that Iymrith’s deception will not go unpunished. She reaches out to the adventurers one more time, imploring them to join her as she confronts the dragon.
An ancient blue dragon is more than a match for a party of 10th-level adventurers, but the characters have storm giants watching their backs. Hekaton or Serissa also gives each character a
Hekaton or Serissa also gives the party a
Finding Iymrith
The storm giants bear the burden of finding the dragon so that the characters can focus on preparing themselves for the final showdown. Hekaton and Serissa know that blue dragons favor desert surroundings, and it doesn’t take much research for them to discover that Iymrith has a reputation in the North. The storm giants learn the following facts about their nemesis:
- Iymrith is an ancient blue dragon known as the “Doom of the Desert.” She is also called the “Dragon of Statues” because she creates living statues (actually gargoyles) to guard her lair.
- Her lair is a ruined amphitheater half-buried in the cold desert sands northeast of Ascore, an ancient and abandoned dwarven city.
- She is a spellcaster and, like all blue dragons, is immune to lightning damage.
Armed with this information, Hekaton (or Serissa) leaves Imperator Uthor in charge of Maelstrom and sets out with four storm giant bodyguards named Nimir, Orlekto, Shaldoor, and Vaasha (see appendix D for statistics) to confront Iymrith. The characters are invited to join them. King Hekaton has 330 hit points at full health but otherwise has the statistics of a typical storm giant. If Serissa leads the attackers, see area 15 in chapter 10 for modifications to her statistics.
The storm giants ride whales to the Whalebones. At the islands, they mount rocs and fly the remaining distance to Anauroch. Once they are within half a mile of Iymrith’s lair, the storm giants dismount and approach on foot, leaving the rocs to perch atop rocky outcroppings and wait for their return. Characters can ride with the giants, or they can use some other method of conveyance—it’s up to them.
Storm giants aren’t stealthy and would prefer to stage a direct assault on Iymrith’s lair, but they will adjust their tactics based on the desires of the characters. If the characters favor a stealthy approach, the giants offer to create a distraction so that the characters can enter Iymrith’s lair undetected. Such a plan stands a better chance of succeeding if the characters refrain from drinking their
It’s best if Hekaton (or Serissa) remains an NPC under your control. You can have your players run the other storm giants if you prefer (and if they would enjoy doing so). See the storm giant NPCs below and distribute them among the players in your group. If your group includes more than four players, not every player will receive a storm giant NPC to play, and that’s okay. Accompanying the giants' stat blocks are roleplaying notes that the players can use to portray the giants accurately. One of the giants (Orlekto) has sinister ulterior motives that might come into play during the events of this chapter. If you have a player who’s particularly good at roleplaying underhanded characters, consider giving Orlekto to that player.
You can have all storm giants act on the same initiative count, or have the players roll initiative for each storm giant. The former approach expedites combat; the latter leads to a battle with more verisimilitude.
Harshnag Returns!
If the characters decide to confront Iymrith without storm giant reinforcements, consider having Harshnag appear out of the blue and offer to fight by their side. A giant of few words, Harshnag doesn’t talk much about how he survived the destruction of the Temple of Annam. The truth is that he escaped certain death by leaping into the oracle chamber. There he was trapped until a friendly wizard appeared and rescued him with the aid of a teleport spell. Harshnag declines to reveal this helpful wizard’s identity. The wizard could be Elminster of Shadowdale, Laeral Silverhand of Waterdeep, the Harper archmage Krowen Valharrow (see the “Everlund” section in chapter 3), an ancient spellcasting dragon in humanoid form, or some other character from your campaign.
Iymrith’s Lair
The Doom of the Desert has claimed an enormous, abandoned amphitheater in the desert as her lair (shown on map 12.1). Beneath the amphitheater lie chambers where the blue dragon sleeps and hides her treasure. When the characters approach Iymrith’s lair for the first time, read or paraphrase the following boxed text aloud to the players.
Your long journey ends here, in the desert. A churning cauldron of black clouds fills the sky as thunder peals and lightning flashes. Half buried in the cold dunes is a crumbling amphitheater adorned with statues, many of them broken, the rest worn smooth by wind and sand. Two large trebuchets stand atop the ruins. Where cheers once rang out across a great city, now a solemn fortress stands before you, waiting for you to draw near.
The dry thunderstorm is the dragon’s work-a regional effect (see the blue dragon entry in the Monster Manual) that stretches for 6 miles in every direction. The storm has no effect on the battle as it unfolds; it’s simply a reflection of Iymrith’s mood.
Storm giants who stride boldly toward the amphitheater with weapons in hand draw fire from the trebuchets (see area 1). The characters can let the storm giants bear the brunt of these attacks while they approach from another direction, or they can join the giants in their direct assault. When storm giants or characters of giant size come within 1,000 feet of the amphitheater, the gargoyles notice them and fire the trebuchets. The giants can hurl lightning at the gargoyles and trebuchets once they get within 500 feet of them.
If a storm giant or a character of giant size stands in the amphitheater and loudly challenges Iymrith, the dragon’s ego gets the better of her, and she responds to the challenge by crawling out of her lair to destroy her challengers. Otherwise, she remains hidden in area 3 and lets her gargoyles soften up her enemies.
Iymrith can use her lair actions within the amphitheater as well as in the dungeon underneath it. The dragon doesn’t waste her lightning breath on storm giants; similarly, the storm giants know that their lightning strikes have no effect on Iymrith. The giants didn’t bring any rocks with them, but they can hurl chunks of sandstone torn from Iymrith’s own amphitheater.
If Iymrith is drawn to the surface and reduced to 240 hit points or fewer, she retreats to the dungeon level and makes her final stand there. She can collapse tunnels (see the “Iymrith’s Lair: General Features” sidebar) as well as burrow new ones, as needed.
Iymrith’s Lair: General Features
The dragon’s lair consists of a sandstone amphitheater surrounded by sand and a few ruined outbuildings, as well as a dungeon level below the amphitheater. The general features of Iymrith’s lair are summarized below.
Dungeon Architecture
The dungeon level contains worked areas and rough-hewn areas:
- Worked areas have flat sandstone ceilings 40 feet high, with connecting tunnels that are 20 feet high. They have brick walls with sand and clay behind them, and floors covered with sandstone tiles.
- Rough-hewn areas were excavated by the dragon from clay and sand, and have ceilings that range in height from 20 to 30 feet.
In her dragon form, Iymrith can move through passages that are 30 feet wide without impediment. She can squeeze through passages that are 20 feet wide. Openings narrower than 20 feet are too small for the dragon to squeeze through, but Iymrith can effectively burrow new passages or widen existing ones, moving through the clay and sand at her burrowing speed.
Collapsible Passages
Dotted lines enclose these locations on the map. Iymrith has weakened the ceilings in these places so that she can collapse them, either to cut off escape routes or to trap intruders. A creature can trigger a collapse by dealing 10 damage or more to the ceiling with a single attack or spell effect. The collapse renders the passage impassable until the sand and stone are cleared away, which requires 250 hours of work. (Multiple creatures working together can reduce the amount of time accordingly.) Any creature in the marked section of tunnel when it collapses must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 22 (
A burrowing creature (such as a blue dragon) can move through the collapsed area at its burrowing speed, leaving no tunnel in its wake as the sand fills in behind it. A buried creature that doesn’t have a burrowing speed can, at the start of its turn, make a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check. If the check succeeds, the creature can pull itself in one direction or the other at a rate of 1 foot for every 5 feet of movement spent. If that movement isn’t enough to exit the collapsed area, the creature can repeat the check on its next turn. A creature standing at either end of the collapsed area can use its action to pull a buried creature out of the area, provided the buried creature is within reach (no ability check required).
Illumination
Iymrith uses darkvision to see in the dungeon level. No light sources are present except for what visitors bring with them.
Sand Dunes
Marked on the map are mounds of sand that range in height from 10 feet to 40 feet. They are difficult terrain for Large and smaller creatures.
1. Amphitheater and Environs
The amphitheater once stood at the center of a magnificent city, the rest of which lies buried under the sand. The walls have abundant cracks and other handholds, enabling them to be climbed with ease. Iymrith cut a swath through the northeast section of the amphitheater, leaving a rubble-filled path that leads to an open sinkhole and conceals another one that lies along the route (see “Sinkholes”).
Gargoyles and Trebuchets
Thirty gargoyle inhabit the amphitheater. Twenty-two of them are perched on stone plinths, waiting to swoop down and attack intruders. The eight remaining gargoyles operate the wooden trebuchet—four per weapon. Two gargoyles use their actions to load a trebuchet while another two use their actions to aim it. Once a trebuchet is loaded and aimed, one of the gargoyles uses its next action to fire the weapon. This routine allows a trebuchet to be loaded, aimed, and fired every other round. For trebuchet rules and statistics, see the “Siege Equipment” section in chapter 8 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide.
Mystics' Camp
Three tents surround a smoldering campfire southeast of the amphitheater. A search of the camp reveals one empty bedroll in each tent. The camp belongs to the yuan-ti in area 3 and is currently unoccupied. Characters can follow their tracks in the sand (one wavy line left by a serpentine creature plus eight sets of footprints) to the stairs leading down to area 5 (see “Stairs Down”).
Sinkholes
Several sinkholes lead down to the lower chambers.
- A large open sinkhole in the middle of the amphitheater drops down into area 2; Iymrith uses it to enter and exit her lair.
- Three hidden sinkholes are marked 1A, 1B, and 1C on the map.
The first creature to enter a hidden sinkhole’s space causes the sinkhole to appear and must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or fall to the bottom of it. A creature that falls into a sinkhole lands prone but takes no damage, since the sand cushions its fall. The sinkhole remains open thereafter. Sinkhole 1A drops down into a rough-hewn passage that connects areas 4 and 5. Sinkhole 1B is directly above the purple wormling pit in area 5, and any creature falling into it is surprised and attacked by
Stairs Down
At each end of the amphitheater’s “U” shape is a tunnel staircase that descends 50 feet to a sandy passageway that leads to area 2.
The ruined building south of the amphitheatre used to be the basement of a stage. It contains a sandy, 10-foot wide staircase that descends 50 feet to area 5.
2. Entrance Chamber
Partition walls made of tight-fitting sandstone blocks support the ceiling of this chamber, which contains a 20-foot-high hill of sand. Twenty feet above the top of the mound is a gaping hole in the ceiling that leads outside. The hole lets in bright sunlight during the day and dim moonlight at night. The light doesn’t extend beyond the room. Iymrith uses this hole to enter and exit her lair, and her enormous tracks can be seen coming and going from an even larger room to the north (area 3), from which chanting can be heard and torchlight seen.
3. Serpents of the Sands
Two rows of sandstone pillars support the ceiling of this vast chamber. Before Iymrith claimed it as her own, this room was once a secret temple belonging to a sect of desert-dwelling yuan-ti mystics called the Serpents of the Sands. These mystics worship Dendar the Night Serpent (see the yuan-ti entry in the Monster Manual for more information on this deity). Iymrith invited the mystics here to contact their demon-god, hoping it might provide guidance on how to crush her enemies. Because she has become desperate, Iymrith is willing to trust the mystics' interpretations of the Night Serpent’s whispers, which she doesn’t understand.
Floor-to-ceiling piles of sand have been pushed up in three of the room’s corners. One of the piles conceals a hole in the western wall (see “Dragon Bolt-Holes”). Unless Iymrith was drawn to the surface and defeated there, the ancient blue dragon is lurking under the pile of sand in the southeast corner of the room. Only her eyes and her horn are visible, and only to characters who have a passive Wisdom (Perception) score of 17 or higher. Any character who searches that corner of the room spots the dragon automatically.
Iymrith avails herself of her lair actions here.
Demonic Snake Statue
At the north end of the room is an alabaster statue carved to look like the head and neck of a giant demonic snake erupting from a block of stone. The block is 10 feet high, and the serpent is another 10 feet taller still, with two gleaming eyes of polished obsidian (see “Treasure”). Its fanged mouth is open as it glares down at a 20-foot-diameter hole in the sandstone floor. The hole represents the top of an 800-foot-deep shaft, the bottom quarter of which is filled with sand and old bones (previous sacrifices to Dendar the Night Serpent). Standing around the edge of the hole are three yuan-ti pureblood wearing desert robes and six yuan-ti malison (type 1). Two of the malisons are type 1 (human body with a snake head), two are type 2 (human head and body, with snakes for arms), and one is type 3 (human head and upper body with a serpentine lower body instead of legs). The yuan-ti chant a vile prayer, at the end of which one pureblood leaps into the shaft to his death. His sacrifice causes faint, prophetic whispers to rise from the depths, speaking in the Abyssal tongue. Any character within earshot who understands Abyssal can translate the demonic whispers:
Wrack and ruin, flash and thunder, Let them claim the dragon’s plunder; Death is close! Her doom has come! To blade and spell she will succumb.
Dendar the Night Serpent, having foreseen Iymrith’s doom, offers her neither hope nor guidance. Once the demon-god has spoken, Iymrith calls out to the yuan-ti, demanding that they translate its words. Rather than anger her with the truth, the yuan-ti lie and tell the dragon that she must face her enemy in battle. From this, Iymrith concludes that she must kill the storm giant leader to destroy any hope of lasting peace between giants and the small folk. Once the dragon leaves, the yuan-ti attempt to flee the dragon’s lair by the safest route, attacking anyone in their way.
A yuan-ti that is captured and interrogated tries to win its freedom by offering useful information about the dragon’s hoard. All of the yuan-ti have, at one time or another, seen Iymrith burying or digging up sarcophagi in her treasure vault (area 4). The cultists suspect that the blue dragon keeps her most precious baubles in these sarcophagi. A yuan-ti shares this information in return for the promise of safe release.
Dragon Bolt-Holes
Iymrith has broken through two walls and excavated tunnels and chambers beyond, expanding her lair.
- A 30-foot-diameter hole in the west wall is buried under a 30-foot-high mound of sand. Iymrith can burrow through the sand to reach area 4 beyond.
- A 30-foot-wide hole in the east wall is plain for all to see and leads to a rough-hewn passage that eventually connects to area 2.
Treasure
Any creature that can reach the statue’s eyes can pry them out with a dagger, a crowbar, or a similar tool. Each eye is a 4-inch-diameter orb of polished obsidian worth 250 gp and weighing 25 pounds.
4. Iymrith’s Trove
Iymrith dug this cavern out of the sand, clay, and rock and uses it to store her treasure. In the middle of the cavern are two 10-foot-high sandstone walls. A giant pile of gold coins lies in the sand where the two walls meet.
When a creature other than Iymrith approaches within 10 feet of the treasure pile, the gold coins are swept up into four whirlwinds. These vortexes are four air elemental that deal extra damage because of the gold coins swirling inside them at high velocity. Each slam attack deals 18 (
The most prized treasures of Iymrith’s hoard are contained in six stone sarcophagi buried 10 feet under the sandy floor and scattered about the room. Each sarcophagus has a sequester spell cast upon it, rendering it invisible and impervious to magical detection. The sequester spell on a given sarcophagus ends when a creature comes in direct contact with it. A creature that spends an hour digging in this cavern has a 10 percent chance of finding a sarcophagus. A group of characters working together must spend at least 10 minutes clearing the sand around the sarcophagus before it can be opened. Then and only then can a character use an action to try to pry open the lid of a sarcophagus, doing so with a successful DC 13 Strength (Athletics) check. Using a crowbar or a similar tool grants advantage on the check.
Treasure
Each air elemental has 2,500 gp swirling inside it.
The six sarcophagi held the mummies of dead Netherese priests, until Iymrith devoured their remains to make room for her precious loot. (She left one of the mummies intact as a surprise for would-be thieves.) The contents of the sarcophagi are described below in the order in which the sarcophagi are found. Magic items are determined by rolling on the magic item tables in chapter 7 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide.
The first sarcophagus contains four magic items. Roll on Magic Item Table F for each item. If Iymrith stole the
The second sarcophagus contains three magic items. Roll on Magic Item Table G for each item.
The third sarcophagus contains two magic items. Roll on Magic Item Table H for each item.
The fourth sarcophagus contains one magic item, determined by rolling on Magic Item Table I. This item rests on a bed of 900 pp.
The fifth sarcophagus contains a bowl made from the skull of a gold dragon wyrmling (worth 25 gp) that holds twenty 500 gp gemstones. Piled around the ivory bowl are several more items: a mithral helm sculpted to look like a head of a blue dragon (worth 250 gp), a gold dragon comb set with red garnets for eyes (worth 750 gp), an eyepatch with a mock eye of blue sapphire and moonstone affixed to it (worth 2,500 gp), and a jade Dragonchess board with matching playing pieces carved to resemble metallic and chromatic dragons (worth 7,500 gp for the entire set).
The sixth and final sarcophagus contains Shaxan Kazraat, a Netherese mummy lord that awakens and attacks its liberators. The mummy lord was spirited from its tomb by Iymrith and can’t take lair actions or cause regional effects to occur in the vicinity of the dragon’s lair. Shaxan Kazraat wears a circlet of black gold formed in the shape of a cobra that has tiny black opals for eyes and ruby fangs (worth 7,500 gp). A secret compartment inside the sarcophagus contains the mummy lord’s intact (yet desiccated) heart in a black cloth pouch. A character who searches the sarcophagus finds the compartment and the pouch with a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check.
5. Purple Wormling Nursery
Everyone needs a hobby. Iymrith’s latest avocation is raising baby purple worms until they’re big enough to release into the wild. She digs up purple worm nests under the sands of the desert, steals the eggs, and brings them back to her lair. When the eggs hatch, she confines the wormlings here and feeds them a healthy diet of meat so that they grow up big and strong.
Iymrith has converted a 10-foot-deep, T-shaped pit in the middle of the room into a purple wormling “play-pen.” The pit currently holds thirty squirming purple wormling. Although they are too small to burrow or climb out of the pit, the wormlings eagerly attack other creatures that enter the pit, including any creature that falls in through the sinkhole above (see the “Sinkholes” section in area 1).
Adventure Conclusion
Iymrith is too proud to abandon her lair and fights to the death to defend it. The characters' role in the death of Iymrith forces Hekaton to admit that he has misjudged the small folk. His beloved wife once told him that if giants and small folk could learn to coexist peacefully and help one another, the world would be better off. Moved by the party’s heroism, Hekaton admits that he should have heeded Neri’s words. “Storm giants and small folk can work together,” he proclaims, “to create a better world, free from the tyranny of dragons.” He vows to honor the characters and his wife by allying with the small folk against other draconic threats. This, he believes, is the test that Annam the All-Father has thrust upon him-and this alliance, he hopes, will restore the ordning as it was.
Whether or not Hekaton is correct is up to you. Seeing giants and small folk working together to destroy a common foe might inspire Annam the All-Father to elevate storm giants to the top of the ordning once more, or the order of giants might remain an open question. In any case, the death of Iymrith has no effect on the machinations of the evil giant lords of the North who aim to win their gods' favor and rise to the top of the ordning. The characters might be moved to confront and defeat these few remaining giant lords. Hekaton thinks that’s a good idea and does nothing to hinder their efforts.
If Serissa participated in the battle against Iymrith in her father’s place, she thanks them for their heroism and, like her father, looks forward to future cooperation between small folk and giants. Serissa likewise has no qualms about letting the characters deal with the evil giant lords who still threaten the North. She is eager to return to Maelstrom and tell the tale of Iymrith’s defeat, knowing this will lure giants back to her court.
Powerful evil dragons such as Klauth and Claugiyliamatar are hardly saddened by the death of Iymrith, but they aren’t pleased to see giants and small folk working together. They bide their time, as old dragons do, and wait to see how long the alliance lasts.
Although Iymrith meets her end in this adventure, the blue dragon’s legacy lives on in the form of her offspring (see the “Ascore” section in chapter 3). They turn on each other, with the victor claiming Iymrith’s lair and the title of “Doom of the Desert.”
Character Advancement
With the defeat of Iymrith, the characters gain a level. If the players are keen on defeating the remaining evil giant lords, you can continue running the adventure and allow characters to gain a level for every two additional giant lords they thwart.