Help from BADD? --Updated with Account of Resolution

[Jeremy]

Any of my players, I trust you to steer clear of this thread. It contains not only spoilers, but things that are subject to change and you are much better off elsewhere. Thank you.

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Now then..

Around 2000 years or so ago, the fall of Ardon Eth Calianthus caused a great many changes in my world. One such change was the collapse of the mines of Anthion at the hands of a deep dragon.

Unfortunately, certain occurences at the time, specifically one very naughty person's death, caused everyone in the caverns (including the dragon) to become a wight.

Now there is something in the mines that the PC's want (besides the death of all undead). It is not in the dragon's possession, so I figured there were a couple of ways of going about it.. There was the puzzle aspect (provided from a speak dead and a couple of communes), or the stealth approach (sneak in, locate, retrieve), or finally the frontal assault.

At the time I had figured that the non-frontal assault type people would be over-ridden by the more vocal LET'S-ROCK people, so I made the dragon two CR categories above their effective party level.

A CR 2 trap and some inter-party conflict later, the party level has dropped by 4 and they've lost a person to the dragon.

Now there are a number of ways this can go, but I'm not interested right now in the most realistic way, but rather the most fun way for the PC's.

Reallistically, the fallen comrade is a wight (as per the create spawn ability of the template www.andycollins.net), and the dragon, now freed by the PC's should be relocating his horde so they can't come back in future with aid or simply after becoming tougher and just teleporting/smacking-down on him. A dragon who's lair location has been discovered should be a moving dragon.

This might not be the best way to play it though as the PC's have managed through some good RP to persuade some strained NPC's to teleport in with them, kick ass, and teleport back out (in return for PC services of a similar nature). Now these combined forces may be enough to take out the dragon, or it may not. The dragon has the advantage of a superheated lake that provided cover and a killing environment for it last time, but their preparations might offset that...

Here's my quandary, have the dragon do what he should and leave and thus accidentally steal the thunder of the teleporting assault group--not to mention all the gear of the dead PC? Or have it be there sitting around waiting to get attacked and maybe kill half of them or maybe die? Have the dead PC they are coming to avenge/recover be floating and bloated in the lake when they arrive or patrolling the entrance of the lair as a wight and a gruesome reminder not to enter?

What's a good way for me to take this?

 

[Pyske]

One idea: As the NPCs are preparing for the teleport, they scry the cavern. The NPCs rush up to the PCs in the midst of the PCs preparations, and inform them that the dragon is gathering up treasure in preparation to move! The PCs must either assault the dragon immediately, or try to track the dragon to its new lair.

. . . . . . . -- Eric

 

[Jeremy]

Nice. I'll encorporate that if they don't get back to Anthion within 10 days. Any one else?

Ideas on how to make the best of this whole situation?

 

[Larry Fitz]

It's not called Dungeons and Well-prepared Adventurers

The Dragon won the first encounter, but it's a dragon and it's smart enough to know that anytime a few adventurers get away, they will come back with more and superior forces and a plan to counter the Dragon's ORIGINAL plan.... so the Dragon needs a whole new plan. He shouldn't move, the occasional flow of adventurers mistakenly thinking they will be the ones who kill the Dragon is how it increases it's hoard, and gets some occasional variety in it's diet. As an undead Dragon it no longer needs to breathe, it could literally lay in ambush in the water and set up a diversion or even an illusionary Dragon deeper in the lair, seemingly in the same place it was when the adventurers came the first time. Their friend's items could be apparently on his corpse lying on the hoard. They fight the illusionary dragon, defeat it, believe they have won, go to retrieve or raise their friend, as the Cleric stands over the body to begin his raise dead or resurrection spell, the Wight rises and attacks, as the dragon comes in through a wall (Deep Dragons burrow, do they not?) and various other undead rise from beneath the hoard. The Hoard chamber could be protected from Teleportation so they must go out again in order to Teleport away, the dead friend could 'play possum' until they leave the hoard where the dragon awaits invisibly, once outside the hoard room the undead friend attackls drawing all their attention then the Dragon attacks while they have their backs to him and are essentially flat-footed.

Larry

"Ah yes, Draconis Mortis, an order of Priests, Paladins, Mages and Warriors, dedicated to the eradication of Dragons. I'm afraid they hit a major setback, they actually met one... unfortunate really."

-Tarben Xsi, Rogue and wry commentator on things Draconic.

 

[Jeremy]

Unfortunately, the party level has dropped by 4, making the creature too difficult for them without the most incredible luck. Adding a surprise attack like that would up the EL by 2 and run the good chance of killing all assembled---that or making the recruited NPC's save the day, which is the LAST thing I want to do.

Talk about anti-climactic.

Very cinematic though. Nice input.

Any ideas from anyone on how to work this to give the PC's a good shot at having fun? The plan doesn't need to encorporate slaying the dragon. Just some idea of how the PC's can get in, get the body, ((get the body's stuff?)), get the item they need from the mines, and get out alive... If it involves slaying the dragon, so be it. Just looking for ideas of possible scenarios.

The PC's really need a victory at this point. 2 defeats, 3 deaths, 2 dismemberments, and 2 embarassments later they are kinda low on morale right now.

Need something heroic to perk them up.

 

[Jeremy]

<listens to the crickets chirp>

Help? Please?

 

[Jeremy]

<nostalgic bump>

...in an effort to alleviate the effects of the... Anyone? Anyone? ...the Great Depression, passed the... Anyone? Anyone?

 

[Garmorn]

You could set up the situation like this:

The finds out that the dragon is moving but can only move a part of its hord at a time. The old lair is being guard by other undead that are subservant to the dragon. Let them hit that lair or the new one while the dragon is away and gain some treasure and the items that they need. A good hard fight against a group of lesser undead might work to boost their moral, provide them with the means to regain their lost comrad and give them a new long term enemy.

 

[hong]

Why would the dragon want to move its hoard? It won the fight, didn't it? If dragons moved house every time someone came knocking on the door, well, the world would soon run out of dungeons.

Have it stick around. In fact, you could even have it go after the party, instead of waiting for them. It got attacked and then turned into a wight; it probably wants revenge. So when they're sitting in a tavern in town (or wherever) planning their next move, it shows up and starts torching things. This has the following effects:
- it gets the dragon out of its lair, where it knows the terrain and has lots of traps and flunkies to help out;
- it lets the party play the big hero in saving the town from a rampaging dragon;
- it gives you an excuse to give the party some help, in the form of town guards, local spellcasters, etc.

They don't have to kill the dragon, just drive it off. However, even that should be a morale booster.

 

[kkoie]

Well, do you have any old villians lying around that are still alive? If so you could have this villain create a "party" of his own, for the purpose of going after the same dragon and horde. The PC's could catch wind of this (say the npc's they hired got wind of a rumor and told the PC's), and A. hurry up and attack the dragon with less people and less time to prepare OR B. Let the evil party attack first, and jump in after to mop up whats left. Since the evil party is being led by a villain they are familiar with, that would be reason enough for them to want to get rid of the evil party.

I know it sounds far fetched. But the idea is, if the PCs are smart, and let the evil party go first. The dragon will have been weakned (but not destroyed), so that the challenge might be a tad closer to the PCs level. That and it might be fun to see the reaction of the PCs when they learn said villain and his flookies were totally wiped out by the dragon. >D


K Koie