- The heroes are hunting for a specific dragon
- If it's a campaign/adventure path, the number of dragons should be limited.
- The Dragon is not supposed to be some mastermind villain or member of some large dragon organization, and he isn't supposed to have tons of henchmen (Kobolds or anything) - it's really "just" a physically dangerous dragon that is difficult to find.
- In 4E terms, I'd expect it to be a Heroic Tier adventure or path (3E maybe Level 1-8)
What kind of story elements would you add to spice this up?
What obstacles stand in the way of the heroes?
What kind of motivations would you bring for hunting the dragon?
What kind of twists would you introduce? (If it's cool enough, the twist can "violate" one of the first 3 bullet points.)
How do you minimize the use of the Dragon itself and focus on non-Dragon related story elements, but keep the main goal always important to the players?
Here's my thoughts if I was creating an adventure for Levels 1 - 8 (3.5 or Pathfinder).
Since the dragon is not a master villain, just a nuisance to hunt, this should be the initial goal. The PC's are drawn into hunting for a dragon. It's cliche to say the dragon is harassing a kingdom, village, community, etc. so let's say the dragon is a herald that signals terrible events to come.
History shows that a particular dragon - a black, a purple, or some kind of gemstone colored dragon is a herald to a calamitous event that will happen in the future. This has happened several times and each time the dragon wasn't killed, the kingdom, continent, or world suffered for it. The dragon represents disaster.
The rewards will be great - kill the dragon and not only will get it's treasure, but a king's ransom as well.
So, how to track a dragon that flies, is spotted all over the place, and the location is not known? That's part of the adventure and here's my adventure breakdown by level.
Levels 1 - 2: Goose Chase - Orc Dragon Cult. The PC's will hear of the dragon lairing in a set of ruins / caves inhabited by orcs who are part of a dragon cult. Of course, there will be rival mercenary and adventuring groups also attempting to beat the players to the punch. This adventure should have a huge flood of orcs (over 400) so that any one group alone will find it impossible to deal with all these orcs; however set up that multiple groups of adventuring companies are foraying and whittling away the orcs' defenses. Not only are the PC's racing against other companies to get to the dragon at the end of the dungeon, but have to contend with the orcs. Set each adventuring company to automatically kill off # of orcs per day before they have to retreat. At some point, some adventuring companies will meet their ends in the orcs' lair.
While the PC's are resting, they can get attacked or offered to join up with any group of rival adventurers. When they are exploring the caves, they are likely to get attacked by any rival group.
Once the PC's get to the end of the dungeon, they discover that the orcs only served as a dragon worshipping cult and there maybe a really young dragon there, but not "the" dragon.
It's important for the PC's to be the ones to defeat the chieftain of the orc tribe because he possesses a talisman that will allow the PC's to pay the oracle who can provide the location of the dragon's lair. If they fail, then they have to trail another group who has the lead.
Levels 3 - 4: It's a Mad Mad Mad World (to find the Oracle). Right now, the PC's possess (or know who possesses) the talisman. They learn through a sage friend, that seeing the Oracle in the Death Swamps will be able to divine the location of the dragon's lair with the talisman.
Again, there will be rival adventuring groups who want the talisman too.
And the PC's will encounter death cults that want to the dragon to be kept alive at all costs so they will have agents that actively pursue anyone who is trying to kill the dragon. These death cults are not humans, but elves (not drow) and undead.
Lastly, there are rich nobles who simply do not want to put in the effort of going after the dragon themselves and will have their agents attempt to steal the talisman for themselves. The PC's may find themselves wanted by authorities on trumped-up charges.
Traveling to the Oracle's lair will be dangerous (it's in a swamp or some other remote wilderness location); however, once there, she will take the talisman and divine the location of the dragon. The divination comes out in a riddle and the price maybe that the oracle herself may want to eat the PC's.
Levels 5 - 6: Solve the Riddle - the riddle itself is a location of a map related to a prophecy. The map is located in a ruined dragon temple. Should the PC's find this map, they will also find all the historical locations of the other dragon lairs that were all portents of doom. This is the last portent that the PC's can discern - they're others, but they are faded because of ruin and age.
However, a group of cruel half-dragon monks guard the pass to the mountains where the dragon temple resides and considers the mountain pass to be a place of enlightenment. None enter, let alone get to the temple.
Death cult agents also harass the PC's
Maybe one or two remaining rival adventuring groups are around.
Level 7 - 8: End Game. The PC's discern the map and now know the location of the dragon's lair as predicted by the prophecy. The PC's then have to trek more wilderness to reach it (in a nation that's currently at war with the nation the PC's are based). Getting across the border will be nasty business (border patrols, monsters, and bandits).
Once across, the last of the death cult will make one last foray to stop the PC's with the leaders personally leading the attack.
The PC's will arrive at the dragon's lair which is a set of caves / ruins that they must explore. There, they will find various other monsters / lizards before they face off against the dragon itself.
Some Issues to Consider
What about high-level parties who know about the dragon? There's more than one death cult and there's more than one group of evil albeit high-powered NPC's going around fighting other good-aligned high-powered NPC's. When the PC's say, "Okay, let's go get some high-powered help!" they find that their "help" is fighting against evil threats of their own. DM's who want to limit powerful healing or prevent the players from using NPC's as bazookas will find that many of them are gone and not home.
Other twists?
There's more than one dragon of this type in the lair. The PC's have to kill them all to stop doom from coming.
Not everyone buys the whole "this dragon is a portent of evil". Yes, evil happens whenever this dragon is spotted, but some think it's an excuse to just kill a creature that is only obeying its nature - much like killing a tiger simply because it's poaching on a farmer's property. Druid circles, fae, and rangers will take issue and attempt to convince the PC's the error of their ways or use blunt force to get their points across. If the dragon itself is not evil, then it's possible that good-align clerics or paladins may think the dragon is a good omen.
Hunting and killing the dragon is a test of the king. They've been doing this for generations to look for the most strong and determine people for sacred duty. Only those who are brave and slay the dragon find themselves approached by the king who offers them a chance to join a sacred and secret order. This will lead to the Real Mission that the king needs done.
It happens, play it again - that's what I did. I kept trying different options to see what would happen.. its strangely addictive.
