How to trap a dragons lair

[Sarellion]

Hi,

I am looking for some traps for a red dragons lair. The group is not sure about taking on the dragon but I need some traps to be sure. Especially ideas for nonmagical traps are appreciated, because I don´t have so many ideas for nonmagical ones.

Some background for this specific dragon:

Somewhere in a big mountain range is an old fortress from a vanished giant race. It is built in an extinguished crater. The giants built some terraces going up to the rim of the crater, filled them with earth and used them for agriculture. A big building was on the west side of the crater rim. The fortress.

This fortress was used by several groups some time after. today it´s a group of goblins. These fortunate little guys have managed to hold on the fortress for some time.
The dragon took over the fortress, roasted ome of the warriors and declared himself boss. The king is still alive thanks for his management skills.

The dragon made his lair by digging in the mountain with earth magic. He didn´t use the fortress becuase the rooms are too small for him.

Some traps:
The dragon has put some easily inflammable material in the entrance area of the lair to ignite it when an enemy enters.

A trench divides the entrance area from the rest of the lair. The dragon can fill it with some inflammable oil. A magic barrier blocks the access to the lair directly after the trench. It can be bypassed by a very good strength check (for a human, it tickles the dragon). The trench is several meters wide so that a human has to make a good jump check, otherwise he falls into the trench.
Thats it for now. i think i put some glyphs of warding or symbols into the lair for magical security. You cannot teleport or enter via similar spellsin the area (dragonspell which only works on dragon lairs).
The backwall of the lair can be passed magically by the dragon as a possible route of retreat.

The dragon has some orcish mercenaries as his taskmasters for the goblins. He doesn´t use the goblins as guards because he doesn´t trust them.

How can I put in some normal traps who don´t bother the dragon.

I am also interested in ideas for lairs of other dragons to make them as inaccessible as possible. My previous dragon fights were in open space to use the aerial capabilities, but I want to make the lairs as deadly as possible, too.

 

[Xarlen]

Too bad you're not using kobolds.

Here's a trick; a reaaaaallly low entrance. That way people have to stoop a little, when entering. In the ceiling of the entrance, a hole is carved, about 1' deep, and 2 or 3 wide. Now, canvas has been stretched across the hole, and laqoured on, then painted over. Inside the hole is lots of oil.

The trick here is, anyone passing through will have a torch. The torch lights the canvas, which sets the oil on fire, which thereby dumps on their head.

Stalagtites rigged to fall.

 

[Kugar]

Red hot Magma! Use it, love it:
Place it between your dragon and his escape route.
Pit traps drop PC into it.
It heats the water that makes steam that powers all of the pretty traps.
It collects in open vents that strong orcs can Bull Rush PC into.
It can give off deadly vapors that poison the PCs.
It gives off deadly fumes that make PC make concentration checks to cast spells.
It eats away at the Protection Form Elements before the PCs get to the dragon.
It fills trapped rooms like sand in cheesy pyramids.
It can be made into paraelementals.
It can conceal fire elementals.
It could just be an illusion ...

 

[Henry]

How big is the dragon?

A powerful dragon is a digging machine all by itself. Many traps that would in the modern day require heavy machinery could be easily crafted by a dragon with a little time on his hands.

don't forget to look that spells with long durations and large areas of effect, especially cleric spells. Good examples for a dragon include desecrate, unhallow, and forbiddance.

 

[Happiest_Sadist]

The dragon makes his lair centered on a vertical shaft with his hoarde 30 feet from the top and no branches in the bottom 30 feet (or the bottom is filled with lava). The top has a escape route he can open up with his great strength or a "stoneshape" spell. The last 30 feet are filled with heavy rocks (think bolders) supported by wood beams. When he fights the party he constantly hovers up the shaft harassing them. Then he dashes out into his hoarde room and torches the beams with his breath. Instant avalanche of doom.

Also consider giving him the cleric spell "deeper darkness" and the highten spell metamagic feat. If the whole lair is filled with darkenss that even daylight spells and darkvision cannot penetrate, the party will have a serious disadvantages fighting a dragon with blindsight.

If you have lava available, have some rooms filled with it, that the dragon has to wade through to reach his hoarde. Some dispel magics could be especially dangerous in those rooms.

If the dragon has stoneshape, he might have some lava lakes that a stoneshape spell can destroy the edges, causing strategic areas to fill with lava.

With stoneshape he may fill the lair with small pits that humans can put a foot in and get cought by downward pointing spikes. However his feet would be too large to fit in, and hence he'd be immune to them.

 

[alsih2o]

pungi holes, instead of bamboo, use dragon teeth(i assume they shed teeth?) and instead of human waste, use dragon waste, and give it a sickness property you see fit

 

[pseudo_hero]

The life of a dragon

Boy do have a lot of experience with helpless evil dragons just minding their own evil business when a party comes along and kills it in it's own lair! The nerve!

But seriously, to prevent this from happening a dragon cannot depend on the age old tactic of trapping it's layer and waiting for the party smart/tough enough to get through and kick it's scaly butt.

1st Defense: Anti-scry. If the dragon can be scryed he's toast the moment he makes himself known. Gotta protect the lair against scry.

2nd defense: Eyes and ears. The dragon needs to have his dungeon filled with spells/items that allows him to odserve any intruder so it can asses their strengths and weaknesses. If he notices the party is bypassing all his traps and is headed straight for him via Find the Path spell he knows to get the hell out. Or at least prepare. Even better then this is for the dragon to have informants working for him in nearby towns. It dosn't cost much gold to keep a few wretches around who wouldn't mind selling out country and soul for a a tankard of ale and a nice meal.

3rd defense: offense, not defense. The minute a dragon discovers a party comin for him he needs to immeditaly go on the offensive. Don't give the party time to think about the best way to penetrate the fortress and find the dragon. Hit them with the big guns right off the bat.

In my experience all the dragons with lairs that DIDN'T do these 3 things died and died horribly. Hell in second edition the party took a great wyrm red down in 2 rounds! Cause all he did was sit comfertably in his trap infested lair waiting to be slaughtered.

On the other hand, in 3rd edition, a dragon that should have only been a a few wounds and a bar story for the party came in and killed one of the group and chased the rest away before it took any damage! Mostly due to defense number 2 and 3.

 

[Sarellion]

The dragon is a quite old one. I am not decided on the exact age category but I am thinking about very old or ancient. The dragon lost a battle against another one, so he took residence in the fortress. Yeah I think he could be quite a good digger, too, but I thought that dragons aren´t able to make precision elements neede for traps. What kind of traps are you thinking of?

Magma is out of the question. The volcano is definitely extinguished. The fortress was built quite some millenia earlier by masters of construction and magic. They checked it at this time. In the meantime it was claimed by different groups, built and rebuilt as it fits them. Some of them were able to check it, too. There is no access to magma now, but this magma ideas are neat for another time. Can a red dragon make his lair in an active volcano like this hawaiian one, who is only spitting magma? Would be great!

I think this idea of a shaft is a great idea. It fits fine with the adventure itself. But i don´t think he can hover in the shaft or it would be really big. Perhaps he could hang on the walls, snapping at them from the other side of the room.

The small spike digs are fine, too. I put them in the entrance area. Some characters of the party get trapped in the holes. While they are trying to free their companions, the dragon roasts them really good and the room catches fire.

The party fights back, but the dragon hides in darkness and uses some of his protection spells to shield himself from spells. The party fighters have to find some way to cross the trench or they are useless.

Hm, I am getting scared for my party.

@alsih2o What are pungi holes exactly and how does it work? Waste on a bamboo stick to infect peolple?

 

[Kibo]

Black gold

A sweet natural feature of a red dragons lair can be petrolium or natural gas. Fumes for nice circumstance penalties in some poorly ventilated areas. And a nice little one two punch when the dragon uses his breath weapon.

You can even make it appear as if you're helping the players along by providing them with the means to very easily make their own very effective torches.

But if you first decide how old the dragon is, his particular bent and worldview, and what it knows, then I think it'll be a little easier to figure out how to trap his lair.

Not to mention a great opportunity to use a nice web + darkness + add fire ambush trap. Or web + darkness and cloudkill.

Oh and a dragon with a familiar might be fun too

 

[Sarellion]

@Pseudo hero

1st Defense: Done, the lair cannot be scryed

2nd Defense: There are no towns nearby, only the goblins who are his slaves. They resent his rule, but most could be willing to spy, if he tells them their family is on dinner menu. The orcs are the taskmasters who keep the goblins in line. Most of them are assigned to watch the huts and the gold washing process. They would alert the dragon in moments notice but have no magical means to do so. Most of them use horns to signal. Orcs outside o patrol are accompanied by some goblins.

The dragon could have some watcher spirits to alert him for intruders. He lost most of his artifacts after he was forced to relocate. He has some abilities to divine the parties actions and powers, if he becomes aware of them.

The party is suppported by a nature spirit to cover their tracks and whereabouts. they´ve got one of the most accomplished mountain guides so they are difficult to find in the first place.

3. The party isn´t coming for him but he will probably think that they are. He will probably parley beforehand but take them if they are trying to penetrate the defenses.


@Kibo

The dragon is a very old red dragon. I don´t care much about the normal alignment. He is of course arrogant and proud but intelligent enough not rush out and fight like an idiot. He is devious and cunning, a little bit lazy perhaps,not to manage the affairs of the warrens himself and to keep the king for various reasons. It could be his final mistake. The dragon will not destroy people near the fortress on sight, but send an envoy (familiar) to demonstrate his power and to find out the reasons for intruding. He will not talk directly but through messengers.

He could get some informations about their general strength. After that he would probably opt to parley.

The party wants to open a treasure vault to get some important informations. The dragon wasn´t able to do so himself (there is a keyed Teleporter and the party has the key).
He will take the major share of the treasure and then will permit the party to leave. If they don´t take his offer or are arrogant he will attack them. So he is quite reasonable.

There are four possible scenarios that the party has to fight the dragon.

1. Infiltrate and ally with the goblin king (they know the goblins aren´t happy with the dragon and could help). This would be the scenario where they could take the dragon in his lair. My party is a bunch of Do Gooders (and I am happy about it). Goblins in my world aren´t typically eveil but everyone looks down at them.

2. Negotiations went wrong or the party wants to keep the treasure. Possible. Some of the party members dislike being kicked around.

3. They sneak in and fight the big one. Could be. They don´t know for sure that the dragon would negotiate. This would be a fight in the lair if they make it to the lair.

4. They sneak in and are discovered.

@All

These are really fine ideas so far and they wil all be put to good use, sooner or later.