Eberron: Seekers of the Ashen Crown query

[darkbard]

The dragon encounter in this adventure has always bugged me. Essentially, the encounter consists of a rogue dragon attacking an airship while the heroes are en route from one adventure site to another and while they carry parts of but not the whole artifact. The dragon demands all of the valuable and food aboard the airship and then attacks if not appeased. Eberron's dragons, though admitting such reckless activity on occasion, beg for more complicated treatment.

Has anyone done anything interesting with the backstory for the dragon's attack in their game? Is it a Chamber agent interested in the Ashen Crown because it's tied to the prophecy in some way? Is it actively working against the interests of the Chamber, or Darguun, or Breland?

My game, which had been on hiatus for quite some time, has begun again and is getting close to engaging this encounter, and I'd like to develop it into something much more than just a simple and straightforward combat, even if the details only come to light for the PCs after the event itself. Though, of course, I would also like very much to spice up the encounter in some way, perhaps cryptic dialogue with or behavior by the dragon itself. Any and all ideas are welcome!

 

[MoutonRustique]

I would go with a sort of double negative...

Have the dragon behave in a similar fashion : unreasonable demands, threats of force, etc. HOWEVER, it's goal is to delay the ship. It's still plenty dangerous, but it's not acting like it wants to destroy the vessel or really kill-off the crew : it's mostly harming propulsion and stearing and engaging the PCs a whole lot. After slowing down the ship, it puts on a show (with muppets and everything! - no, not really...)

See, an agent of the [Lords of Dust/Blood of Vol/Blue Mafia] found out about the flight and invoked a terrible weather manipulation ritual. If the ship continues as it is, it's going to fall victim to an unholly storm (hehehe, pun...) The dragon either wants to help the quest for the crown or just wants to annoy the "hidden bad guy" - it could even learn of the quest for the crown from this encounter, and become interested as a result.

The trick is then to have the PCs find out about the danger they avoided - mass destruction on the ground, comments from the crew, etc, etc. The dragon's motives become murkier : did it want to delay them to save them from this, or this simply chance, or ???

You could even have the same dragon (perhaps under a different guise) return later in the adventure or after. Perhaps the completion of the Crown is the first major sign of a more "important" prophecy - the prophecy seems like a swell thing at first and so the dragon is the main patron, but new information leads the dragon to conclude the opposite. It turns on the PCs trying to both stop the prophecy and redeem himself in the eyes of his elders/supervisors/assistant managers ?

 

[Arlough]

Eberron should be complex

Consider this stolen.
I was drawn to Eberron because it was more complex (and less Color Coded for Your Convenience) than the rest of D&D.
Given the nature of Eberron Dragons, the dragon attack made no sense to me either, and my players are going to run into it in a few more sessions. I was going to replace it with pirates, but what if the players got a hold of a airship as loot this early in the game (not ruling it out, just don't want it so soon.)
Thanks!

 

[darkbard]

Ultimately, I decided to go with something different altogether: a different solo foe smuggled on board the ship by foes of the heroes. Here's a link to my thread on the WotC site with some more details and discussion for those interested: http://community.wizards.com/go/thr...37/Rogue_Dragon_in_Seekers_of_the_Ashen_Crown

 

[MoutonRustique]

That is quite good !

If you wanted to make the connection clearer (not what it is, just that there is one), you could have the "crewman" attack with the tembo since it is, in fact, a shape-shifting imposter !

In the aftermath, you could have others in the crew mention how they thought he acted a little odd lately. You could even allow the sum of the recollections to be indicative enough to lead the PCs into an investigation that leads back to Demise (or whomever) - i.e. they though he was acting strange since xyz, he had lost a ton of cash the night before, but he was touting a brand-new pair of boots (the shapeshifter likes his magical boots and is (over?) confident enough in his abilities of deception to not leave them behind.)

They go on location, the barman/card dealer/bouncer/other information person remembers the crewman throwing a major fit when his dice came up snake eyes. It was a strange thing though because some guy just looked him in the eye and the crewman calmed right down. The stranger claimed to be his friend when they left together, but they obviously weren't from the same kind of world (one was obviously working class, the other a good couple of steps up the economic ladder.)

etc.

Anyway, just riffing.