D&D 5E Dragon Turtle Soup Recipe (Princes of the Apocalypse SPOILERS)

[Uller]

Last night my group cleared most of the Temple of the Crushing Wave. They killed Thaluna and Morbeoth and destroyed the Hezrou and learned that the prophets of water, air and fire have all gone down to the Fane of the Eye. So they leveled up to 9th level and rested. But they found the sword of dragon detection and figured out that the dragon it is detecting is a Dragon Turtle. The Paladin has a particular enmity towards dragons. He is a noble whose estate was destroyed by one so he has convinced the rest of the party that the turtle must be destroyed (without the water cult controlling it, it is only a mater of time before it leaves and starts attacking settlements throughout the Dessarin Vale...so it wasn't that hard to convince at least the good aligned PCs).

Anyway...we'll be starting off our next session with it. It seems to me that a fight against a dragon (even a dragon turtle) should be as epic as possible. And it should be dangerous. So I'm looking for ideas on how to do that.

That party is 9th level.

High Elf Wizard Evoker (loves the fire spells...don't know what his first 5th level spells will be)
Half-Elf Tomepact Walock (Fiend) - he frequently casts water breathing...might be useful
Human Paladin (Vengeance)
Wood Elf Monk of Shadows

They also have Ironfang available to them and it can cast spells like Transmute Rock, Wall of Stone, Investiture of Stone, etc....It is sentient and can dominate a character. Right now they have it socked away in a backpack where it can't make mischief...but if things get dire enough, maybe it can start tempting a PC (particularly the warlock)...

We have established that Bronzefume is summoned via the gong (I added the detail of a post with manacles for sacrifices). Also, prior to entering the temple complex the party sent two NPCs to the Vale of Dancing Waters for safety - a 7th level dwarf cleric of healing and the stonemelder Yarsha who had betrayed the Earth cult after her former home town, Red Larch, was destroyed by them. The party didn't know that the Vale had be captured by the Oni and water cultists. So I was thinking that the dwarf and the stonemelder were killed. But what if they weren't? About a week has passed....could they arrive with some reinforcement henchmen? I don't know.

What about the lair and making Bronzefume more interesting or giving her some minions or legendary actions. A 9th level party that is completely rested and has little or no reason to conserve resources can dish out a lot of damage in a short time. I don't want to see the turtle just get stun-locked and killed in a round or two. There is a great potential for that. This is almost a side quest by it's own...Bronzefume certainly isn't an obstacle to them defeating the Elder Eye. So I don't want a TPK...but I do want there to be some risk of failure/defeat and even death. But with risk should come some reward...

Before I post my own thoughts, I'd love to hear from the community. How do I make the encounter interesting/challenging/risky? What about potential rewards for success? Costs for failure?

 

[77IM]

Give Bronzefume full hit points and stats of a CR 17 dragon turtle, and have her fight using hit-and-run tactics by diving underwater. Even with water breathing the PCs are at a definite disadvantage in the water, and shooting into the water from above usually doesn't work too well, especially with fire spells (be sure to read the "underwater combat" section of the PHB again as a refresher before the battle).

Also note that the canals have a random encounter table with things like sharks and a giant octopus. Unless the PCs have cleared these things out, they should start appearing on rounds after the first, attracted by the sounds of battle. Depending on what you roll this could make the fight very tough (aquatic ghouls could be nasty, for example). So you might have to do some "dynamic game balance" by not adding more mobs if the PCs are getting pummeled.

That's not cheating: a fully-grown dragon turtle is a nasty piece of work, and it's unclear whether a party of four well-prepared 9th-level characters can win that. In my experience, a party that's blowing their wad, alpha and nova and double-fisting strength potions, can carve a hole in 341 hit points way faster than you would expect. But it's iffy, and if they take too much damage (breath weapon recharges a lot, for example) and don't realize how well they are doing, they might break and run for it.

 

[Uller]

Good ideas. I don't know if I'll go with the full hp, but I think more than 220 from the book is warranted.

Last night I happened to watch a bit of the BBC documentary "Frozen Planet". It showed a pod of orcas working to dislodge a seal from a chunk of ice. They would send waves at it to knock it off the ice, generate currents to spin it around and confuse it and create clouds of bubbles to blind it. That could be a lot of fun....open with a breath attack...follow up with a wave to wash some of the party into the lack. Use currents to sweep them around the lake and separate them and us bubbles to obscure portions of the lake...

 

[77IM]

Oooooooooh... that's what you need, Lair Actions!

Plunder the true dragon section for ideas (I remember black dragon has a cool one where waves pull people into the water).

 

[Uller]

So it looks like we will finally get around to fighting Bronzefume tomorrow evening.

I think what I will go with is downgrading her size to huge and HD to d12. So she'll have 253 hp. Based on what I saw the orcas doing I'll give her the following lair actions. I'm not sure of the exact details yet.

Wave: she can launch wave similar to a black dragon to pull PCs into the water and knock them phone.

Bubble cloud: she can fill a cube of water with bubbles to blind creatures in it.

Vortex: she can move one creature that is in the water some distance (usually -down-).

Also contemplating 2 uses of legendary resistance.

The fun part is that the warlock usually casts water breathing on the entire party and the paladin is wearing the armor that black earth guards wear so he can't be pushed or pulled as ng as he is standing on solid ground.