AaronOfBarbaria
Adventurer
In an upcoming portion of one of my 5th edition campaigns, the party are going to come across an airship. Shortly after this, basically just long enough for the characters to have figured out how to operate the ship, it will become apparent to the party that their enemies have succeeded at releasing an ancient and dangerous foe (an adult blue dragon mummy) that seems to be flying on a direct course toward the party's home city.
I've got my own ideas of how to wing this scenario, but thought it might inspire some cool conversation to ask: How would you set up this scenario as a DM?
Some relevant details for the scenario, and I'll fill in more if they are needed for anyone's input:
There are 3 basic outcomes that I've thought of for the scenario: the party getting to their home city in advance of the dragon, reducing casualties from the dragon's attack on the city; the party getting to their home city after the dragon has already done serious damage to it; or the party managing to defeat the dragon using the airship as an equalizer (they are level 6, and this particular dragon is CR 18) - which delays the dragon's attack until the next day when it has rejuvenated near it's heart (as a mummy tends to do), unless the party realizes they are dealing with a mummy and hunt down the cultists transporting the heart as secretly as they can.
I've got my own ideas of how to wing this scenario, but thought it might inspire some cool conversation to ask: How would you set up this scenario as a DM?
Some relevant details for the scenario, and I'll fill in more if they are needed for anyone's input:
- The airship is currently in poor condition, having been abandoned in a secret hangar for a few centuries.
- It's engines are fueled by lightning, including that there are collection apparatus in place to turn lightning attacks against the ship into more power for the engines.
- The engines are damaged - this is what makes the scenario a race requiring resolution, as the ship in good condition would be faster than the dragon - and the dragon's breath weapon can overload the engines, damaging them further, if it inflicts enough damage.
- The dragon is not aware to begin with that the party is racing him to their home town - he's not aware of the party at all to begin with.
- The airship has some weaponry; numerous ballista, and a front "rail gun" that packs a punch like a trebuchet, but requires a large amount of power that could drain the ship's batteries if used too many times.
There are 3 basic outcomes that I've thought of for the scenario: the party getting to their home city in advance of the dragon, reducing casualties from the dragon's attack on the city; the party getting to their home city after the dragon has already done serious damage to it; or the party managing to defeat the dragon using the airship as an equalizer (they are level 6, and this particular dragon is CR 18) - which delays the dragon's attack until the next day when it has rejuvenated near it's heart (as a mummy tends to do), unless the party realizes they are dealing with a mummy and hunt down the cultists transporting the heart as secretly as they can.