[BADD] Dragon Hunt (my players stay out!)

[DWARF]

I warned you guys, stay out! Ancient_Gamer, that goes double for you!!!









Okay, I'm hosting a dragon hunt. I've never actually ran a dragon in DnD, so I figured I should give it a try before we switch over to 3.5. So, aside from everything on the BADD website, what else can any of you do to help me make this a memorable and BADD-worthy adventure. It will be high-level, 13 to 16 or so, I think. I'll be running a blue dragon, young or young adult in a very large desert.

Anything you can add to help me get this to work in the next day or so would be great, thanks!

 

[gfunk]

Could you please give the exact age of the dragon? There is quite a bit of difference between Young and Young Adult. Also, a blue dragon in this CR range will hardly be a challenge for a party of 15th level PCs. What levels/classes are your players?

 

[DWARF]

I looked back over it and decided to go with an Adult Blue Dragon.
Some may say that won't be a challenge, but I'm not planning on having "you see a dragon in a cave, roll initiative".
This thing will be fouling their water, screwing with their heads with it's voice mimicry. Then, it will have 2 caves, one will be the treasure hoard and home, but it will be seperated from its "battle-arena" home by about 100 feet of open desert. Oh yeah, did I mention that was 100 feet DOWN?! Why would a dragon with such burrowing abilities leave it's lair and treasure out for anyone to find?

So, any other resources you guys can come up with for me?

 

[Dimenhydrinate]

Does this Dragon have minions? If not, then why not? I have to go soon so I will think and see if I can help any later.

 

[DWARF]

Well, since it lives so far in the desert I was going to limit the minions due to the conditions. So aside from offspring of the dragon or half-dragon variety....

hehehe...

HAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!

Urrm... sorry about that. Just realized I could do a half-dragon (blue) sandworm. A sandworm that bursts from the sand, soars over the players and shoots a line of lightning at them?! That visual is just crazy!

 

[Pants]

Some ideas for minions:

Bulettes... maybe Half-Dragon Bulettes

 

[Valiantheart]

Giant Scorpions make nice minions. A Manticore or enslaved Crynosphinx too(whichever the evil one is). Wyverns are a tried and true minion as well. Maybe a couple of half-dragon wyverns would do the trick.

 

[Mytholder]

Blind them by creating a dust cloud with Hover, then use Ventriloquism and Sound Imitation to mimic the party leader shouting "I'm over this way" or whatever. Then, fly over to the leader, grapple him, and then burrow down into the secondary cave. Kill him there, then return and pick off the party one by one. Always be flying or burrowing, never be in melee with more than one enemy at a time if possible.

The dragon's servants should also be trained to force the enemies into a nice line formation, so the dragon can pop up and zap them.

If you want a quick trap, create a circle of glass with lightning breaths. Shatter it and pull it into a funnel shape. Cover that with loose sand, and dig away at the sand beneath it. Whenever anyone walks on top, they'll fall into the quicksand and get cut by the glass shards.

 

[Mytholder]

Oh, for minions, nothing beats a tribe of desert nomads who've been serving the dragon for generations. Their (female) caliphs are half-dragons, but stay hidden behind veils. When the party pass through their lands, they offer misleading but not technically false advice (to avoid spells like Zone of Truth). They also warn the dragon asap that powerful enemies are approaching.

 

[Nifft]

Minions & Cohorts:
- Salt Mephits
- Medusea
- Half-Dragon Tauric Monstrous Scorpion/Goblins (with Rogue levels)
- Belkers
- Mummies
- Beholders
- Devils (especially Imps)

-- Nifft