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Session 7 - The Vault of Dragons

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    🪐 Campaign Arc

      Campaign: Waterdeep: Dragon Heist Session Title: Session 07 — The Vault of Dragons Dungeon Master: Reuben Setting: Waterdeep (Yawning Portal, Sea Ward, Castle Ward, Market District, hidden vault approach, Vault of Dragons)

      🧭 Overview

      The session opened with the party working out how to satisfy the Vault of Dragons’ three keys: a performance of “Your Beardly Face,” sunlight, and a gift from a queen. They learned the song was a common bagpipe duet, arranged a recording at the Golden Harp in the Sea Ward for 51 gold, secured a sunlight scroll from a magic shop, and obtained an audience with Laeral Silverhand, who ultimately gave them a swan-feather quill. The group also hit level 5 during this stretch, and Eyeless gained a celestial steed.

      With all three keys in hand, the party followed the Stone of Golorr to a derelict building. A hidden passage led to an adamantine door that responded to the bottle-song, Laeral’s feather, and sunlight. Beyond that, they faced a second dwarven puzzle: a hall of twelve iron doors marked with dwarven runes and a riddle about what dwarves love most. The party chose the Clan door, explored multiple puzzle-rooms, and eventually opened a trap door by offering the secret that they possessed the Stone of Golorr to the lips of a dwarven face tied to the god of secrets.

      At the bottom, the party reached the Vault and met an old dwarf calling himself Brock Klanghammer, who asked after Dagult Neverember and resisted giving up the treasure. When the party touched the hoard, the old dwarf dropped his staff and transformed into the gold dragon guardian Aurinax. A hard fight followed: Slim Jim climbed onto the transforming dragon, Eyeless fought from the ground with steed and smites, and the party eventually brought the creature down. Afterward, they discovered the published 100,000-gold figure was wildly off: the vault held roughly 500,000 gold pieces, around 65 gemstones worth 100 gold each, and an estimated total weight of 10,000 pounds. They ended the session alive, richer than expected, and immediately neck-deep in the problem of how much to keep, how much to return, and how not to look outrageously suspicious doing it.

      🧑‍🚀 Party Members

      Character

      Player

      Class/Subclass

      Race

      Notable Actions

      Eirlys “Eyeless” Shadowstep

      Justin

      Paladin

      Aasimar

      Gained a celestial steed, helped solve the vault approach,, fought the dragon in melee, and rode Dawnhoof during the vault sequence.

      Captain John Mercer

      Kennith

      Rogue

      Human

      Spoke for the party in the vault, introduced himself to Brock Klanghammer, pressed the claim to the treasure, and argued directly over who had the right to the gold.

      Dren

      Mike (absent; played by Reuben)

      Fighter

      Mountain Dwarf

      Helped interpret the dwarven runes and puzzle language; continued with the group through the vault approach and dragon fight.

      Slim Jim (Tiberius Argent)

      Robb

      Rogue / Artificer

      Human

      Climbed onto the transforming dragon, stabbed into its neck while riding it, later picked up the dragon’s staff, and remained central to the melee chaos around the guardian. :contentReference[oaicite:13]{index=13} :contentReference[oaicite:14]{index=14}

      Silas “Silver Tongue” Rushtyn

      James

      Sorcerer

      Yuan-ti Pureblood

      Contributed to solving the key problem, used sunlight as one of the three keys. explored the puzzle chambers, and used damaging spellwork during the dragon fight. Delivering the finishing blow.

      📍 Key Locations

        Yawning Portal — The party gathered information, spoke with contacts, and lined up next steps toward the queen and the song. Golden Harp, Sea Ward — Music shop/studio where the party arranged the bagpipe recording for “Your Beardly Face.” Castle Ward / Main Castle / Throne Room — Site of the audience with Laeral Silverhand, who gave the swan-feather quill. : Market District magic shops — Where the party bought the sunlight scroll. Hidden passage beneath a derelict building — The Stone led the party to a concealed corridor and the adamantine vault door. Dwarven puzzle halls — Twelve runed doors, a secret-lips chamber, a fresco room, and a forge/anvil room guarded the final descent. Vault of Dragons — Massive hoard chamber with columns, alcoves, gems, and the disguised guardian Brock Klanghammer / dragon Aurinax.

        🔥 Session Highlights

          The party solved all three vault keys: bagpipe performance, sunlight, and a queen’s gift. Laeral Silverhand gave the party a swan-feather quill after a tense audience. The recorded bagpipe song arrived in a glass vial that could be reused so long as it was not shattered. The party leveled up to level 5, and Eyeless gained a celestial steed. The Stone led them into the hidden vault approach, where the three key objects opened the adamantine door. The dwarven riddle chamber led them to the Clan door and then to a second puzzle involving a “secret never before told.” Declaring possession of the Stone of Golorr opened the trap door to the true vault. Inside the vault, Brock Klanghammer challenged the party’s claim to the gold and asked after Dagult Neverember. Touching the hoard triggered Brock’s transformation into the gold dragon guardian, starting the final fight. The party won the dragon fight and discovered the hoard was vastly larger than the public figure: about 500,000 gold and valuable gemstones.

          🎬 Key Scenes

          One spoken secret opened the final way down.

          A queen’s gift became one of the keys to the vault.

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          One spoken secret opened the final way down.

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          Captain John crossed the gap and kept the path moving forward.

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          Before the battle began, the vault was won and lost in words.

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          Slim Jim met the vault’s guardian head-on — and stayed on.

          🧩 Ongoing Threads & Plot Hooks

            Immediate objective: Decide how to remove, store, divide, or return the treasure without attracting disaster. The group was already debating multiple trips, carriages, bags of holding, and public cover stories by session end. Biggest unresolved mystery: What is the “right” disposition of the hoard, and how much of it will powerful people in Waterdeep know is missing if the party skims off the top? Faction / authority pressure: The money is established as embezzled wealth from Waterdeep’s citizens, and the party explicitly notes that other people are still hunting the gold. Stone of Golorr pressure: The group discussed leaving the Stone in the vault, but the transcript makes clear the three keys change after each lock, so abandoning it creates a new problem. Named NPC status: Laeral Silverhand is aware of the party and gave them a gift; Yagra joined the vault run as hired muscle; Nim was present in the vault and was stabilized after the fight Dagult Neverember thread: Brock asked where Dagult was; the party answered that he had run. That connection feels very much not dead, just inconvenient.

            💰 Loot & Discoveries

            Item

            Finder

            Description / Status

            Glass music vial / bottle

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            Party

            Recording of “Your Beardly Face” in a bottle; reusable so long as it is not shattered.

            Swan-feather quill from Laeral

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            Party

            Gift from the Open Lord; used to satisfy the “gift from a queen” key.

            Sunlight scroll

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            Party

            Purchased from a magic shop; used to satisfy the sunlight key. Cost described as 90 gold in the transcript, though the exact shared payment gets messy in play.

            Dragon staff

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            Slim Jim

            Picked up during the dragon fight. Identified on pickup as a dragon staff; transcript indicates it grants

            Command

            and protection/advantage related to dragon breath or dragon magic. Exact official item name is unclear

            Vault hoard

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            Party

            Roughly 500,000 gold pieces in the alcoves. The combined weight is stated as 10,000 pounds.

            Gemstones

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            Party

            Around 65 gemstones worth 100 gold each. The DM suggests these may have been the dragon’s “food.”

            Dragon corpse

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            Party

            The guardian was killed in the vault. The head was destroyed in the finishing blow, which immediately ruined some trophy ideas.

            🪝 Cliffhanger

              The party ended inside the Vault of Dragons with the hoard exposed, the guardian dead, and no clean way to move 10,000 pounds of treasure quietly. The immediate next problem is not “can we get rich?” but “how do we touch any of this without every faction in Waterdeep deciding we are now the problem?”
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