Newbie DM question here for "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" -- Why exactly are cultists collecting dragon eggs? Is that ever spelled out explicitly in the adventure?

I mean--my guess is that they're "dragon cultists," and they're generally about worshiping and serving dragons, and they just like the idea of more evil dragons in the world. I don't picture the Dragon Cultists expecting the new dragons to be completely subservient to the cultists somehow...but maybe they do? Maybe they're intending to curry favor with them as they grow or something? (Possible motivation). Maybe Rezmir--who loves black dragons--believes she is powerful enough to dominate a few of the other chromatic types? Maybe she has blue and white dragon wyrmlings because they're known to be less intelligent and likely the most easily manipulated?

I'm about to run Chapter 3, and it appears that there are only three eggs in the hatchery. For those that have run the adventure--will there be an obvious place later (maybe in this, or even in Rise of Tiamat) where it will be revealed that, "here are some dragons that were hatched under the care of the Cult of the Dragon," or is it just a loose end to play with? 

My sense is that I'm supposed to come up with that answer--but before I do, I'd appreciate any input from people who have run this before in case the answer to this is really important! Thank you so much!

Whatever the reason is, don't tell the players. Let them guess and try to figure it out.

Then when they come up with an idea you like, say "yeah yeah! you go!"

Check the area description for area 10. and Rezmir's motivations.

The tricky part isn't the cult's motivation so much as the fact that many players will want to try and  take the eggs for themselves to raise their own black dragons. You've gotta be ready to either figure out how to handle  baby dragons, or come up with a reason for why they absolutely can't attempt to raise the baby dragons themselves.

Quote from TransmorpherDDS >>

The tricky part isn't the cult's motivation so much as the fact that many players will want to try and  take the eggs for themselves to raise their own black dragons. You've gotta be ready to either figure out how to handle  baby dragons, or come up with a reason for why they absolutely can't attempt to raise the baby dragons themselves.

 I go with, assume the players haven’t read the part about how they’ll hatch in a couple weeks. Then tell them, dragon eggs need to incubate for a few years at least. This campaign will be over long before they hatch. 

Quote from Xalthu >>

Quote from TransmorpherDDS >>

The tricky part isn't the cult's motivation so much as the fact that many players will want to try and  take the eggs for themselves to raise their own black dragons. You've gotta be ready to either figure out how to handle  baby dragons, or come up with a reason for why they absolutely can't attempt to raise the baby dragons themselves.

 I go with, assume the players haven’t read the part about how they’ll hatch in a couple weeks. Then tell them, dragon eggs need to incubate for a few years at least. This campaign will be over long before they hatch. 

 For my own group I just played up the idea that the black dragon eggs were corrupted by Tiamat and the hatchlings would have been dangerous mutants. The only problem is that what you did with the black dragon eggs is meant to be a factor in how some of the factions react to you in Rise of Tiamat, and if the eggs are 100% dangerous then any moral ambiguity is lost. Not a huge problem, but something to keep in mind

I left it to my players, they wanted to keep them, which I think was a good idea. That then gave them a problem, they would be difficult to transport and make them a target, I put an NPC in that was there for a couple of reasons, one was they could dump the eggs on him, but they came up with their own ruse instead which I liked (and they reasoned that the NPC might get killed, which was true), added a element to the story, and in theend they managed to get all three to Waterdeep. There they could make use of contacts to keep the eggs safe and I introduced an NPC early from RoT who as an expert to hatch them on their behalf raise the dragons. So now the party have three baby dragons, which are too small to be of practical help but might be a useful bargaining tool.

"Few IRL humans can raise a newborn without a not inconsiderable amount of stress.  If the PCs hatch them, they're no longer playing HotDQ, but "how to raise a dragon" less they risk wyrmling mortality as a consequence of party neglect.  A hatchling, like a baby human is functionally a psychotic, no sensory integration just screaming at the fact of its existence and a persistent hunger to nourish.  Good luck balancing that with being an adventuring party."

I'd say something to that effect if I was worried about adventure derailment.  If you counter the brainstorm "oh but it would be cute" with "maybe, but many more may see it as animal or sentient cruelty if you're integrating hatchlings with the regular course of adventuring" the conversation stops once the cultural norms and how people actually regard life in the game world are set out.

Quote from PWMF >>

I left it to my players, they wanted to keep them, which I think was a good idea. That then gave them a problem, they would be difficult to transport and make them a target, I put an NPC in that was there for a couple of reasons, one was they could dump the eggs on him, but they came up with their own ruse instead which I liked (and they reasoned that the NPC might get killed, which was true), added a element to the story, and in theend they managed to get all three to Waterdeep. There they could make use of contacts to keep the eggs safe and I introduced an NPC early from RoT who as an expert to hatch them on their behalf raise the dragons. So now the party have three baby dragons, which are too small to be of practical help but might be a useful bargaining tool.

 

To follow up my post just above this one, kidnapping, with possible steep overhead and liability if things get out of hand in Waterdeep, is also an option.

If you have run RoT you might guess who the NPC is, because agreeably no ordinary person is going to take on that task and I didn't want the party spending the rest of their lives raising dragons.

I wouldn't give a newborn dragon the stats even of a wyrmling, but while newborn dragons might be more coordinated than a human child I would still treat them as, at best, an absolutely horrible five year old with superpowers.

In my broader campaign and head canon, a BG:DiA NPC is responsible for diverting a creche of dragon eggs into a project that produced the "draconic essence" that, among other things, creates the draconic companions summoned by Drakewardens.  It was a controversial move among the Metallics, who generally just destroyed chromatic eggs as policy when the dragon wars were really hot and active, and a project that likely got her exiled to Avernus in the first place ... running a listening station for Tiamat rumblings is not exactly a plum assignment, but it does minimize her visibility to Bahamut's court and thus she goes about pretty much doing as she damn well pleases, so to speak, anyway, with a larger agenda to blur the metallic/chromatic schism.

Kinda like a reverse draconian move.

Yeah I had a big poder about the why and the consequences of it all...
I ended up using the (dragon egg) as a bargaining chip with Lennithon (The Blue Dragon attacking Greenest) as one of the players characters was a sorcerers of Draconic Bloodline a diplomatic solution to that confrontation seemed possible and which the player jumped on
ie Lennithon wanted the Dragon egg back which the cultists were using to gain Lennithons aid on the raids and Lennithon rightly doubted they would return and so seeing the adventures as potentially powerful pawns charged them with returning the egg to her for not torching greenest in its entirety... felt that played well to prideful Blue dragon loathed to being in any way under lesser beings command.

I saw it as "just a loose end to play with"