Gilmore’s Folly

Gilmore’s Folly is the desolate, smoldering crater that remains of the Dragon Barrow, the ancient burial mound of the legendary dragonslayer Lady Tanagar Alagondar. Located along the high road between Neverwinter and Phandalin, the barrow was transformed into a scarred ruin following a disastrous, half-completed resurrection ritual. The site represents the tragic intersection of noble desperation, ancient draconic malice, and the betrayal of the Stork family bloodline.

History of the Dragon Barrow

Three centuries ago, during a massive chromatic dragon invasion of the northern Sword Coast, a coalition of cities formed the Lord’s Alliance to repel the beasts. The conflict culminated in the slaying of the ancient green dragon Villathas, the Jade Queen (also spelled Virethas or Villethas), just outside Neverwinter. The hero who struck the final blow was Lady Tanagar Alagondar, who drove her greatsword deep into the dragon’s maw even as one of Villathas’s claws pierced her chest. Both died in the struggle.

Following her sacrifice, Lady Alagondar was interred within a grand burial mound. To prevent the resurrection of the Jade Queen, the legendary wizard Elminster Aumar and his companions sealed the dragon’s remains within the earth beneath a powerful ward. This ward was anchored by the very blade used to kill the beast—the Dragon Slayer—which remained fixed in the dragon’s skeletal heart. A plaque on her tomb warned:

The Ancient Murals

Before its destruction, the central chamber of the Dragon Barrow contained beautiful stone carvings depicting the ancient heroes of the dragon war:

1. The First Mural: Depicted five chromatic dragons descending upon a burning Neverwinter and the Sword Coast.
2. The Second Mural: Depicted the legendary heroes standing in a half-circle: Hrothgar Hillsfar (the Firbolg cleric), Esfaloth Nightbreeze (the fey-touched elf), Lady Tanager Alagondar, Elminster Aumar, Uther Vendrock, Kiara Shadowbreaker, and Gorion of Candlekeep.
3. The Third Mural: Depicted the climax of the battle, with Lady Alagondar driving her blade through the heart of the great wyrm Villathas.
4. The Fourth Mural: Showed the aftermath of the conflict, with the remaining four dragons flying away while the surviving heroes went their separate ways, including Uther and Elminster standing beside a tomb for Hrothgar.

The Cult’s Trap & The Betrayal of Elire

Generations later, the Stork family of the Moonshae Isles—direct descendants of Lady Alagondar—lived in bitter exile. When Elire Stork, the family’s eldest daughter and great hope, was murdered by figures wearing red dragon masks, her younger brother Gilmore Stork embarked on a desperate quest to recover her soul. He succeeded in obtaining her soulstone, which was encased in a purple gem on a golden chain.

Unbeknownst to Gilmore, the entire tragedy was engineered by the Cult of the Dragon, led in this region by the Green Wyrmspeaker, Sidorna. Operating within the Dragon Barrow, the cultists set a trap protected by invisible guardians. Because the cult could not touch the Dragon Slayer sword due to the ancient magic protecting it, they lured Gilmore to the barrow, knowing that only a true heir of Alagondar’s bloodline could unsheathe the blade and break the defensive ward.

When Gilmore arrived at the barrow alongside his companions—the Magnificent Five—he bypassed the cult’s illusionary defenses and eagerly drew the Dragon Slayer. This act triggered a massive paralysis trap that froze his companion Nalini in place and shattered the ancient seal.

In that moment, Gilmore’s soulstone strained toward Sidorna, and he was pulled into a harrowing vision of his sister, Elire. Far from being a helpless victim, Elire’s spirit emerged wearing a Green Dragon Mask. She taunted Gilmore as “the second son, the one not expected to matter,” revealing that she had willingly joined the Cult of the Dragon in pursuit of absolute power.

The Cataclysm at the Barrow

With the ward broken, Sidorna initiated a dark reincarnation ritual, declaring that the blood of Alagondar’s heir would awaken the dragon. As combat erupted, the party realized that they were not fighting in an ordinary cavern; the bone-white stalagmites around them were the actual ribs of the ancient green dragon, the pools of acid were its lingering poison, and the cavern walls were the skeletal remains of Villathas herself. Acidic and poisonous gases began to seep into the chamber as the earth itself groaned and shifted.

Despite the party’s heroic efforts—including Farwald utilizing Thunderstep to shatter the cultist ranks and Nalini summoning a giant frog to swallow Sidorna’s head—the cultists sacrificed themselves to complete the ritual. In her dying moments, Sidorna threw her Green Dragon Mask to the final surviving cultist, who stepped into the ritual circle as a willing human sacrifice.

A massive blast of necrotic energy erupted, completing the ritual at approximately two-thirds of its full power. The skeletal remains of Villathas, now fused with the corrupted soul of Elire Stork and the power of the Green Dragon Mask, began to violently reassemble and break free from the earth.

The Creation of the Folly

As gravity flickered and the ground lurched, the reawakened dragon began to rise into the sky. Before the creature could take flight, Farwald used his Marvelous Pigments to paint a massive hole in the creature’s side, casting an impromptu Passwall that allowed the party to escape to the surface just as the dragon broke through the mound.

Villathas, now a weakened adult shadow of her former ancient majesty, took to the autumn sky, leaving behind a massive, smoldering crater where the historic barrow once stood. This ruined landscape—now known to the party as Gilmore’s Folly—remains as a monument to Gilmore’s catastrophic error, the loss of his sister, and the return of the Jade Queen to the Sword Coast.