Memorable Dragons

[Goddess FallenAngel]

Have you ever fought a Dragon?
How large / old, and what color? (Betting mostly reds, and mostly in the upper age ranges)
Was the encounter built up or was it a surprise?
Was the dragon a cheif villian or a minion?
Did you win?

SHORT FORM

1. Yup. Name of Vashinekerim
2. Great Wyrm Silver, Alignment: CE (see long form)
3. Rather a surprise, we thought we were going after a white
4. Chief villain
5. Sort of...

LONG FORM

It was a high-level campaign in 2nd Ed AD&D Forgotten Realms. We were, oh, 15th level or so. We were looking for an artifact – a set of ancient swords which was required to fulfill a prophecy and save the world from Tiamat and her consorts. So, it was (at least in the main part), a dragon-hunting campaign.

We tracked down one of the swords in the lair of a white up near the Great Glacier. On the way, we ran into a couple of silver dragons (in human form) who were looking for their uncle and mentor, respectively. He had apparently vanished with his hoard about 3 months ago. We promised to keep a lookout for him (they were working for the Church of Bahamut, like we were) and let them know if we heard any rumors.

We reached the Great Glacier and talked to the local tribes to try to get more info. We heard that the dragon that used to reside there had recently been in a battle with a larger dragon – also white-ish in color (these were peasants; they had no clue about different dragon colors, just knew both were light white-ish. Whites turn almost light grey with age, so the confused reports and the distance they were seen at made us think they were both white). The tribe didn’t know who had won, but the battle had been about 2 months ago.

We didn’t much care. After all, we were prepared for a white dragon. One is as good as another. Whomever won would still probably have the sword in his hoard.

So, we tromped up there and snuck into the lair… only to find a silver (wearing a very ostentatious crown). We were startled, but tried to converse with him. It didn’t work. We ended up fighting him… totally unprepared, as silvers have different weaknesses than whites.

We did manage to drop him to negative hit points finally… (with much damage to the party). That’s when his contingency kicked in and he teleported away.

We got the sword, and hoping he had died, went back to get healed/raised/etc. We stored our shares of the hoard in the town we were using for a base of operations.

A month later in campaign-time, that town was attacked and razed to the ground. We did a divination and found that it was a great wyrm silver dracolich.

Uh-oh….

Unfortunately, after that the DM moved and we couldn’t continue the game. He has said that Vash would have been a reoccurring villain, though. Basically, he had accepted a ‘gift’ from a group of ‘adventurers’. They were actually members of the Cult of the Dragon, and it was a custom Helm of Opposite Alignment. After it had a chance to work, they came back and tried to deal with Vash, but he wasn’t interested yet. The helm apparently also had a contingency that would teleport him to their lair when he was dying, thus why he vanished after we defeated him. They made their offer again, and this time he accepted... and came after us for revenge.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Again, these are all good stories.

It seems that there is a good mix of dragons. Plenty of one offs, and plenty of campaign villians.

It also seems that the players are usually given the chance to prepare themselves in advance. Since the goal of this game is not to TPK the players, I can see the logic behind it.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Fieari]

I had one encounter with an adult white dragon that the party faced unprepared, and it was very nearly a TPK. Would have been had I not allowed a Deus Ex Machina enter into the equation.

I'm not a killer DM though. I had put MORE than plenty warning signs up. The party wanted to go visit a town in the mountains to the north. Against advice from the townspeople, they made the journey in winter. They were warned that no one makes it through the mountains alive during the winter. They were warned frequently that dragons were seen in the mountains to the north. They personally had seen very large dragons flying over those mountains. They decided to go anyway, more or less on a whim. I shouldn't have let the Deus Ex Machina save them, but... meh. I'm a softy.

For a while, I was pitting them against the enviornment. Snowstorms, dealing with hypothermia. Getting warm. Making shelter. Dealing with wolves stealing their food. But slowly they learned. They caught food for themselves, made lots of good Survival rolls, and continued on. Then game started getting scarce, they were being hunted by wolves. I asked them if they wanted to turn around, but they pressed on.

So that night, when they set up camp, the dragon attacked.

First, obscuring mist covered the campsite. In the middle of another natural snowstorm, a blinding one. The tents were covered over with drift. The dragon melted the surface of the layer of snow, making everything slick ice.

Then it sent some enslaved mephits to tunnel under the snow to harrass the party and drive them out. There were enough of the mephits that they decided that getting out into open air for the use of fireballs would be a good tactic. As the first party member popped out of the hole, he got nailed by the breath weapon.

So now they're trying to make new tunnels out, while being harrassed by the mephits, who aren't really dangerous, but are making a real nuisance of themselves.

They get out, and find themselves at a horrible disadvantage.

They can't see because of the mist. The dragon, with blindsense, can.

They have to make balance checks to move anywhere. The dragon doesn't.

So they're blindly running about (I'm keeping track of their locations, and asking for movement based on relative directions. The party gets more and more seperated.) and the dragon starts toying with them, herding them into pits designed in the night by the dragon, torturing them as they try futily to excape.

There really wasn't much any of the party could do at this point. So when the succubus came to offer them a teleport out, they were pretty eager to accept.

They never again made fun of white dragons. They'd done so frequently in the past.

 

[Zweihänder]

the goal of this game is not to TPK the players

That is a dirty, filthy lie, and you have sullied our reality by introducing it.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

The most memorable dragon was a silver draong, of med size. We were pritty high level, but this dragon had a really low wis score and tried to set up a toll road. Well we talked him down and then he wouldent stop follwing the party. He talked alot but dident have alot to say if you know what i mean. He was a endearing charicter, and has actualy made it all the way to our second compain.

 

[Zweihänder]

Oh, wow. Now that I think of it, I have another story to share, one kind of reminiscint of Moon-Lancer's.

In a game in which I am the player, we (the PCs) recently visited a village that was watched over by an ancient Amethyst dragon named Warren. He is not the significant one. The significant dragon is a half-retarded baby Topaz dragon named Rakthurlyn, who is basically a puppy. He rummaged through the party's belongings while they were sleeping, and nearly bit down on a Bead of Force that the bard had found. It took a bit of coaxing to get him to put it down. He also almost decapitated himself gnawing on my character's weapon (a Large Falchion named the Great Knife; for those in the know, yes, it is the same as Pyramid Head's weapon from Silent Hill 2). We got him to deliver messages for us by bribing him with sugar. 12 pounds of it, I believe. He was adorable.

 

[Agback]

I've never had a memorable encounter with a dragon as a PC, but I've delivered a few as GM.

1) First, there was Chlorophane, the oldest and most formidable dragon in the World of Isles, the bane of the oneiros Persiflex. The PCs were on a quest for the Sword With No Name to be a bride-price from Princess Lysandra (with whom one had fallen in love). They tracked it through legend from Alkinous the Last Unborn to Persiflex and from Persiflex to Chlorophane. Profanity time! They went on no fewer than six sub-quests to get ready just to sneak into Chlorophane's lair and steal the sword. This of course went pear-shaped, and although they managed to extinguish his flame with the fruit of one of the quests, they still had to deal with the fact that dragons are gross mêlée combatants and Chlorophane was a powerful sorceror. Two got away alive, and they killed Chlorophane when he rashly followed them through a magical gate that was too narrow for his shoulders.

2) Then there was the dragon on a Plane of Lesser Consequence, where everything was feebler and less significant than in the normal world. Thasaedon (who had been resurrected after being killed by Khlorophane) saw an opportunity to become a dragonslayer like his friends, took it on single-handed, and was disgusted when it accepted his demand that it surrender. And even more disgusted when its treasure turned out to consist of a pile of sailcloth and copra with a few rusty swords and a bronze tripod hidden at teh bottom.

3) Then there was the rather literal-minded dragon Oolong, who was searching for Innocence, hand been told it was found in the hearts of men, and had racked up an astonishing bodycount á la Jack the Ripper.

4) And finally there was Sarkophyr, who was a dragon-demigod son of Pontus, daimon of the Ocean. At Sarkophyr's naming his father had issued the following prophecy (or rather, decree):

No diver who ever drew a breath of air,
No flyer who ever took a step on land,
No human who ever suckled at the teat,
No leshy who ever grew or changed,

No breathing thing brought forth of living flesh,
No lake, nor stream, nor land in tribute to the Sea,
Nor any sullen thing that that has a drop of moisture in it
Shall be the bane of Sarkophyr.

But neither shall a cripple harm him,
Nor shall an orphan bring death unto him,
Until the Sun is dim and red
And all the seas suspire.

He shall not be killed in the sunshine,
Nor shall he die in the dark of night.
No steel or stone shall bite on him,
Nor poison but sustain him.

And no diamon who fears Pontus will compass his doom.​

To deal with Sarkophyr the PCs had to lay hands on a werewolf-demigod who had been born out of a stone (this in turn depended on begetting him on the daimon of a suitable valley), raise him into a great warrior, equip him with bronze weapons and armour of potency adequate to the task, and arrange a confrontation underground. I don't think that they have forgotten that one yet.

 

[wally]

I have had two that are still talked about…
First – A party had half of its members kidnapped by an evil band that was hunting them. The rest of the group wanted to go in and attempt a rescue, but they knew that the chance of success was minimal. One party member remembered that he had a dragon from a long time past that owed him a favor. So he called the dragon, an enormous bronze, to assist. They wanted to surprise the enemy, so they decided to try and sneak in to the enemy camp during the evening. They funny bit was everyone realizing it wasn’t going to work when the dragon followed on the ground knocking over every tree that was near him as he tried to follow. Maybe they should’ve told the dragon they were going to sneak, but it was funny picturing the lead fighter turning around to the dragon, putting his finger to his lips and saying ‘shhhhhh….’

Second – Watching a sorcerer successfully get through the SR to affect an Otto’s Irresistible Dance on a colossal black dragon. Everyone had to stop a moment to watch this gigantic thing dance about. It caused an inn nearby to change its name to ‘The Dancing Dragon.’

-wally

 

[Lord Zardoz]

I am actually surprised at how many fights ended up going against good aligned dragons.

I also like the story about the stupid dragon that was bribed with 12 pound bags of sugar. I think I may make a point of having my character carry around a large bag of sugar for the purpose of bribing / baiting stupid monsters.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Ok, a flagrant bump

I really want moire stories dammit.

END COMMUNICATION