Dragonlance Dragonlance Adventure & Prelude Details Revealed

Over on DND Beyond Amy Dallen and Eugenio Vargas discuss the beginning of Shadow of ther Dragon Queen and provide some advice on running it.

Running a Session Zero for Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen

When starting a new adventure, it's a good idea to get on the same page as your party. Here's how to run a session zero for the upcoming Dragonlance adv...

www.dndbeyond.com

This epic war story begins with an invitation to a friend's funeral and three optional prelude encounters that guide you into the world of Krynn. Amy Dallen is joined by Eugenio Vargas to share some details about how these opening preludes work and some advice on using them in your own D&D games.

There is also information on the three short 'prelude' adventures which introduce players to the world of Krynn:

• Eye in the Sky -- ideal for sorcerers, warlocks, wizards, or others seeking to become members of the Mages of High Sorcery.
• Broken Silence -- ideal for clerics, druids, paladins, and other characters with god-given powers.
• Scales of War -- ideal for any character and reveals the mysterious draconians.

The article discusses Session Zero for the campaign and outlines what to expect in a Dragonlance game -- war, death, refugees, and so on.

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[overgeeked]

I suspect the designers who came up with those numbers(1 or 2-6) didn't really consider the sheer numbers of draconians in the war first.

Again, mea culpa, but what kind of numbers are we talking about?

 

[Maxperson]

Definitely glossed over in 5E. That's their shtick.

It's also kinda silly. If you're going to have to take one dragon egg and corrupt it to make one draconian, why not corrupt the dragon egg to turn the dragon evil? One dragon is way stronger than one draconian. Seems silly.

Or even a dozen draconians. However, there is also the time involved to age the dragon to the point where it's that powerful. One for one you are correct. If it's a dozen to one and you get a half dozen eggs from a good dragon, it might be worth it to get 100 or so troops that are ready now.

 

[Maxperson]

Again, mea culpa, but what kind of numbers are we talking about?

They attacked multiple fronts with thousands and thousands at each front. There were multiple armies of them.

 

[overgeeked]

Or even a dozen draconians. However, there is also the time involved to age the dragon to the point where it's that powerful. One for one you are correct. If it's a dozen to one and you get a half dozen eggs from a good dragon, it might be worth it to get 100 or so troops that are ready now.

Not even aging a few years? They just pop out ready to fight?

They attacked multiple fronts with thousands and thousands at each front. There were multiple armies of them.

That was my assumption from the little bit of reading I've done in the last few weeks.

 

[Alzrius]

Not even aging a few years? They just pop out ready to fight?

There's at least some time involved between when a draconian is hatched and when it's ready to fight; in The Doom Brigade, the newborn female draconians that Kang's regiment hatches are infants at first. That said, by the next book, only a few years have passed and they've all grown and matured.

 

[overgeeked]

There's at least some time involved between when a draconian is hatched and when it's ready to fight; in The Doom Brigade, the newborn female draconians that Kang's regiment hatches are infants at first. That said, by the next book, only a few years have passed and they've all grown and matured.

Yeah. I was thinking something like that made more sense. Not instant, but not decades. A few years to grow and mature.

 

[Stormonu]

Yeah, definitely more than one... from DL9 - Dragons of Deceit where this all comes out.

Pretty much a Jem-Hadar race - born in batches, matures quickly. No ketracel though...

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Yeah. I was thinking something like that made more sense. Not instant, but not decades. A few years to grow and mature.

in star wars the clone army grow at double or triple rate... but think about how long a human takes to become soldier age... if we say 21 that is 7-10 years still if we say 15 that is 5-8 years. In a magic 'build an army' way I would want to do better then that... but we have D&D races that age quick so maybe

 

[MonsterEnvy]

So help me out. I'm not up on my Dragonlance lore. How many draconians come from each egg? For there to be armies of draconians sweeping across the continent there's got to be a few hundred thousand of them. That's a lot of dragon eggs at a 1:1 ratio.

It depends on the Egg. By my memory it was roughly 1 to 4 each egg for the Aurak's the strongest from Gold Dragon Eggs, around a dozen for the Sivaks from the Silver Eggs and so on. The Baaz the weakest and most numerous would produce 4d12 per Brass Dragon Egg. (For example I just rolled the dice for 3 eggs worth of Baaz and got 90 Draconians)

Fizban's Treasury does not give exact numbers but it does say "A single corrupted egg yields several draconians of the same kind."

 

[Stormonu]

Oh, this is very interesting

Two hooded figures flank a small, slime covered altar. They stare at an object on the altar in rapt concentration, uttering the low, droning chant. Looming over the two human-sized creatures, also staring at the object upon the altar, is a sinuous red dragon.

Craning for a better view, you see that on the altar sits a silver dragon egg.
The chanting has reached some kind of climax, for the hooded figures pause. Suddenly, a drop of saliva from the red dragon’s hideous maw plops onto the egg. Immediately, the silvery surface turns black and slimy. Like some poisonous tumor, the egg begins to grow, changing shape and writhing as if in torment. The egg becomes huge and begins to split apart. Instead of the silver dragon that should emerge, however, many squirming, lizard-like figures spill forth.

The egg has just given birth to several dozen miniature Sivak draconians.
If the heroes interrupt this procedure at any point before the draconians emerge, the egg still goes through the birthing process (4d12 two-foot-high Sivaks emerge). The three watchers continue to stare at the egg unless distracted by a loud noise or an attack.