u/Lumpy-Sheepherder671

So before going into WDH I'm doing a prologue arc which culminates in the party fighting a young black dragon. My plan was for them to fight it in a fortress in which case they'd have lots of support but they chose to go fight it in its lair, meaning it has lair actions and homefield advantage.
I've tried helping them by giving them a coalition of every major NPC (in total ~9 people) but I'm like super sure that they'll all die horribly cause it's a fricken dragon in its lair.

I don't wanna chicken out cause Dragons are half the game's name, but I also don't wanna kill my party's characters cause they love them and have drawn art, so I was wondering:

What would be a way to have a party diegetically find themselves resurrected that also segwaes nicely into the story?

Started DnD with my group a few months back using a homebrewed story cobbled from the 'Heroes from the Borderlands' kit, in which a Cult that uses tainted acid from a wounded Black Dragon to 'ink' followers into their control, believing him to be a god.

I wasn't sure until recently what the main campaign would be, so I'm looking for ideas of how this story could lead into WDH? (In a way that makes it look like I knew what I was doing the whole time).

My current idea is that the sigil for the cult is a sun with eyes, so perhaps the thing empowering this Dragon is an Eye of Golorr. My issue is this either a) locks the keys into being eyes or b) forces them to find 3 eyes, 1 stone of Golorr, and THEN 3 vault keys, which is a lot.
Also, idk if in-lore ordinary people would know that's what it is, and I really want the prologue to end with a clear future plan, kinda like a post-credits teaser.

Making a homebrew addition to a campaign, the backstory for which involves a cult attempting to destroy Waterdeep by possessing a powerful creature.

I know there's plenty of powerful figures like Blackcloak and Haventree, but I was thinking more like beast/animal that'd reasonably be alive in the sea/mountains/countryside around the city.

Do any come to mind?

1. I'm trying to get Australia Hungary achievement but Hungary formed Austria-Hungary so do I now have to grab EVERY Austria Hungary state? Should I just start over?

2. I wanna go communist so I can invade with Soviets but I also want to puppet Malaysia for the juicy garrisons and Indonesia would be nice, but those are locked behind the fascist tree. Currently im doing okay with going down the tree while not letting fasc get too high but will this blow up in my face?

Thank you, any other tips would be greatly appreciated as I'm trying to get all Australian focuses.

Trying to go for Greater Finland and after a brutal soviet war realized I have to take land from Sweden & Norway, but Germany's already made a Reichskommisarriat of Norway.

If I go to war with the allies and we win, will I be able to claim that north bit of Norway in the conference since it was a member of the allies when the war began? Or is the fact it's already been made a RK going to effectively make it a country?