Adventures What is THE classic dragon-hunting/slaying adventure?

[Lancelot]

B5 - Horror on the Hill. It's not strictly about dragon-hunting, but the final bad guy is indeed a dragon, and there's plenty of fun goblin-hunting on the way.

O1 - Blade of Vengeance. This is all about the dragon, and is perhaps the best example I've seen from the older TSR modules. It's designed for a single player (no, it's not a solo adventure - it's for 1 DM + 1 player). Having said that, it's easily adaptable to a group and has a lot of forest/fey/elven goodness.

G3 - Hall of the Fire Giant King (part of the classic GDQ series). Could be adapted to make good ol' Brazzemal the Big Bad. Most players find him to be the ultimate opponent, anyway. Snurre (Fire Giant King) is usually one of the first few encounters, and the notorious Eclavdra (Drow Priestess) is down on level 2. But Brazzemal the Golden is unquestionably the big challenge on level 3 of the dungeon, and could even be positioned as the master behind all the giant/drow shenanigans.

[Mercurius]

Originally Posted by Treebore

Am I the only one to run or play Sabre River?

The main part of this thing was to kill the dragon, and her 5 kids. Imagine the looks of fear on your players faces as they are approaching the mountain and you describe to them a flight of 5 red dragons preparing to make a flaming run on their group. Priceless! Every time!

DriveThruRPG.com

I remember the whole CM1-3 series: Test of the Warlords, Sabre River, and Death's Ride. The cover of the last was particularly evocative, at least to a 10-year old kid!

[Jasperak]

Originally Posted by Mercurius

I remember the whole CM1-3 series: Test of the Warlords, Sabre River, and Death's Ride. The cover of the last was particularly evocative, at least to a 10-year old kid!

Sabre River references Test of the Warlords at least three times... the first adventure path?

[Wulf Ratbane]

Originally Posted by Jasperak

I find it amazing that in 30 years there has not been a published adventure primarily dealing with hunting a dragon. I refuse to believe that there was never one published for OD&D, BD&D, AD&D1e.

Well, as other have pointed out, there have been a few-- though I could have named only Dragon Mountain, myself.

Now, what I think is truly amazing is that in 30 years there has not been one iconic published adventure dealing with hunting dragon that rises to the same level of shared experience as ToEE, G1-3, D1-3, etc.

Might as well have called our game Dungeons & Drow.

A very astute observation. I don't know why but this thread has simultaneously depressed and motivated me.

Quick question, please keep the answer spoiler free:

Would Red Hand of Doom count?

[Jasperak]

Originally Posted by Wulf Ratbane

Quick question, please keep the answer spoiler free:

Would Red Hand of Doom count?

I cannot say from personal experience but from what I can gather, no it would not.

As a matter of fact, so far I cannot find a SINGLE TSR module that has a dragon as its main antagonist, that isn't related to Dragonlance. Kinda makes me wonder about Goodman Games whole "Get to the 20th level and fight a dragon shtick."

This also makes me a sad panda

[olshanski]

I thought the culmination of the 3rd edition "Adventure Path" series was Ashardalon, a red dragon.

Goodman Games has a boxed-set combining several adventures, "Saga of the Dragon King".

[Klaus]

I think one of the main characteristics of a classic "dragonslaying" story is that the heroes set out to "slay the dragon" from the get-go. They don't go on another adventure and become surprised to find a dragon there. If Forge of Fury was adapted to make the hunt for Nightscale the point of the adventure, it would be a very classic "dragonslaying module".

[Mathew_Freeman]

Originally Posted by Wulf Ratbane

I remember playing Dragon Mountain back in my 2e days. I remember it sucking so bad that we never even got to the mountain.

The RPG.net review is interesting.

Having played the module and been lucky enough to have a DM that skipped the whole first section, I can confirm (from reading) that the first part was pretty horrible.

However, the actual mountain itself, packed full of devious kobolds with nasty, nasty traps plus a tough-as-iron Dragon at the end of it, was very much Good Fun.

Even though we suffered a TPK.

[Wulf Ratbane]

Originally Posted by olshanski

I thought the culmination of the 3rd edition "Adventure Path" series was Ashardalon, a red dragon.

I thought of that this morning. Sad that it was forgettable.

Originally Posted by Klaus

I think one of the main characteristics of a classic "dragonslaying" story is that the heroes set out to "slay the dragon" from the get-go. They don't go on another adventure and become surprised to find a dragon there. If Forge of Fury was adapted to make the hunt for Nightscale the point of the adventure, it would be a very classic "dragonslaying module".

I also thought of this this morning. I did enjoy Forge of Fury very much-- probably my best D&D experience of my life, actually!

But I think you nailed it: It's the expectation that the players are hunting a dragon from the get-go that makes all the difference.

[GuJiaXian]

Originally Posted by Wulf Ratbane

I thought of that this morning. Sad that it was forgettable.

See, and I actually enjoyed that final module: Bastion of Broken Souls. As written it needs a fair bit of fleshing out, but it's got a cool core concept, and the final "boss" is indeed a CR 28 (as I recall) dragon. That's appropriately epic, as the PCs are supposed to be 20th level or so when they fight him.

[Mercurius]

Originally Posted by Jasperak

Sabre River references Test of the Warlords at least three times... the first adventure path?

Sort of. If i remember correctly, Test of the Warlords was more of a mini campaign setting, a kind of "adventure context." Sabre River and Death's Ride were set in that setting.

Originally Posted by Jasperak

As a matter of fact, so far I cannot find a SINGLE TSR module that has a dragon as its main antagonist, that isn't related to Dragonlance. Kinda makes me wonder about Goodman Games whole "Get to the 20th level and fight a dragon shtick."

My knowledge of modules is relatively limited as I have tended to run homebrew adventures in the past, but since starting gaming again--and with two kids and a teaching job--I've been modifying adventures to fit my campaign world. So I was curious about the Classic Dragonslaying Adventure and surprised to find that no one has done it.

Originally Posted by Klaus

I think one of the main characteristics of a classic "dragonslaying" story is that the heroes set out to "slay the dragon" from the get-go. They don't go on another adventure and become surprised to find a dragon there.

Exactly. And here's an idea: We should have a dragon-slaying adventure design contest! Or convince some game company to do it. We would need some parameters, like slaying the dragon is the focus and the dragon is the biggest baddie, but other than that...it would be interesting to see what people would come up with.

[Thanael]

Originally Posted by Byrons_Ghost

I remember an old Dungeon adventure I always liked called "The Wounded Worm". Basically a crippled dragon, having survived a group of adventurers, starts using charms and other subtle tactics to control the lands around him and prevent anyone else from threatening his life.

The adventure is pitched to the PCs as "just go here, finish off the beast, and get the horde", but it quickly gets complicated with all the minions the dragon has. Really, it was less a dragon (it couldn't walk or fly, don't remember if it had breath weapon or not) and more a scaly evil wizard. So it wasn't a typical hunt, but still interesting.

As i said Dungeon has lots of them. This one is from...

Issue #8 Volume II, Number 2 (November/December 1987)

WOUNDED WORM, THE
AD&D adventure, 4-10 characters of levels 4-8
Written by: Thomas M. Kane
Artwork by: Mark Nelson
Coastal/Undersea, temperate
11 pages

Description: Sparock Peninsula is threatened by a maimed red dragon.


There are also

Issue #6 Volume I, Number 6 (July/August 1987)

WHITE DEATH
AD&D adventure, 4-8 characters of levels 4-7
Written by: Randy Maxwell
Artwork by: Jim Holloway
Hills/mountains, arctic to sub-arctic
5 pages

Description: The hunt for a predatory white dragon leads the characters into a deadly trap.


Issue #16 Volume III, Number 4 (March/April 1989)

VESICANT*
AD&D adventure, 4-7 characters of levels 4-6
Written by: Randal S. Doering
Artwork by: Mark Nelson
Coastal city/any wilderness, temperate
22 pages

Description: The pirates of Scrape have a deadly ally -- the dragon Vesicant -- and heroes must find the green wyrm's lair.


Issue #17 Volume III, Number 5 (May/June 1989)

OUT OF THE ASHES*
AD&D adventure, 6-10 characters of levels 8-12
Written by: Grant S. Boucher
Artwork by: Carol Heyer
Mountains/Forest, temperate to sub-arctic
22 pages

Description: The red dragon Flame has returned and found himself a new lair -- a crystal citadel hovering above a sea of burning lava.
The sequel to "Into the Fire" (Issue #1).


Issue #43 Volume VIII, Number 1 (September/October 1993)

INTO THE SILVER REALM*
AD&D FORGOTTEN REALMS adventure, 4-8 characters of levels 8-12
Written by: Steve Kurtz
Artwork by: David O. Miller
Any wilderness, temperate/Astral plane
21 pages

Description: A dragon-slaying mission to Mount Cinderspire embroils the PCs in a githyanki scheme to seize control of the Northlands.


Issue #51 Volume IX, Number 3 (January/February 1995)

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER-OF-THE-WORLD
AD&D SideTrek adventure, 4-6 characters of levels 8-10
Written by: Chris Hind
Mountains, tropical to sub-tropical
2 pages

Description: Heroes hired to explore the crater of a dormant volcano find a cruel, cantankerous white dragon resisting the cold embrace of death.




And for something completely different: rescue the dragon!


Issue #9 Volume II, Number 3 (January/February 1988)

PLIGHT OF CIRRIA, THE*
AD&D adventure, 6-10 characters of levels 8-12
Written by: Grant and David Bouncher
Artwork by: Valerie Valusek
Forest or Jungle/Clouds, tropical to temperate
14 pages

Description: Ezoran the arch-mage has kidnapped a cloud dragon's mate. Heroes are hired to free the dragon from the wizard's cloud fortress.


Issue #62 Volume XI, Number 2 (November/December 1996)

DRAGON'S DELVE*
AD&D adventure, for 4-8 characters of levels 3-6
Written by: Christopher Perkins
Artwork by: rk post
Mountains, arctic to sub-arctic/Subterranean
24 pages

Description: Something has seized control of Thunderdelve. The heroes must rid the fortress of its evil menace to free an enslaved crystal dragon.

[Thanael]

Does anyone have the Book of Lairs 1 or 2 ? There's probably a dragon's lair or two in there...

[Klaus]

Originally Posted by Wulf Ratbane

I thought of that this morning. Sad that it was forgettable.



I also thought of this this morning. I did enjoy Forge of Fury very much-- probably my best D&D experience of my life, actually!

But I think you nailed it: It's the expectation that the players are hunting a dragon from the get-go that makes all the difference.

In that vein, the recent Role vs. Roll on Dragon magazine, titled "Longest Night", was certainly closest to the classical trope. The whole point of the thing is to take down a dragon who blackmails an entire region into paying tribute or face death. I wouldn't mind seeing that article expanded into a full-blown adventure (specially since I plan to end my current campaign with it).

[Crazy Chinchilla]

The DCC adventure Castle Whiterock could be turned into a dragon hunt if right from the start the players had Benthosruthsa as their target. Of course they might be in for a bit of a surprise once they made it to his lair...

[mhensley]

Originally Posted by Lancelot

O1 - Blade of Vengeance. This is all about the dragon, and is perhaps the best example I've seen from the older TSR modules. It's designed for a single player (no, it's not a solo adventure - it's for 1 DM + 1 player). Having said that, it's easily adaptable to a group and has a lot of forest/fey/elven goodness.

teh winna!

Blade of Vengeance is an awesome module that has a great classic Tolkien dragon flavor.