Interesting ways to integrate a dragon in a campaign

[Guilberwood]

Hi guys,

I’m about to start a Viking themed campaign next week. It’ll be a low-magic, low-fantasy game using the E6 rules, adapted to Pathfinder. Character’s will start at fist level, but I plan to keep the game going until they reach level 6 or maybe even beyond that, advancing the character’s according to the E6 rules.

Even though the campaign is just starting, I’d like to set the ground early for events that may happen later in the story. One such event is a confrontation with a dragon (preferably a red one), that inhabits the region where the game is set.

This encounter could possibly be the final event of the whole campaign, although I have yet to decide why the PC’s would need to fight the dragon in the first place. I’m open to suggestions and also hopping that once the game begins I’ll come up with an in game reason based on character’s choices to set up this battle.

Even though the character’s will most likely fight this dragon in the final days of the campaign, I’d like to make it as present as possible during the whole story, so the dragon does not appear out of nowhere when he becomes an important part of the plot. A dragon is not just another monster with a status block, it’s a memorable creature and should be treated as such. I want this dragon to be part of the environment the PC’s live in and have the region and its people living according to that situation. I’m looking for small details that breathe life into the setting.

How a dragon living nearby affects the life of the people? Maybe a person in town found a scale and wears it as necklace. Maybe a lady is a widow because his husband died trying to invade the dragon’s lair and steal its hoard. Perhaps the village experienced a year of hunger when the dragon decided to hunt in the farms, things like that.

And don’t know if I’m making myself clear, but I’d really appreciate suggestions on how to integrate the dragon in the campaign, with encounters or plot devices that make the PC’s aware that the dragon exists but does not involve fighting it. Anything goes here.


Thanks in advance,

Guilberwood

 

[Nebten]

Have the dragon come into town and kill one of the PCs.

This will keep your characters in line and show you're not messin' around. They will fear you and respect you. Better to be feared then loved and all that jazz.

Then they can work the revenge angle. The charcter won't care why the dragon came into town, just the fact that he murdered their friend and a few puppy dogs. Plot can't get more simple then that.

Next!

 

[jonesy]

I'd have the dragon be the first thing the party sees, by 'accident', somewhere in the distance. And then just have it go away.

[Description of the opening scene, outdoors] >> "..and you also see a brightly burning cottage high atop the mountain range in the east. There are small figures you deduce to be people running downhill from the spot. As you watch, a red dragon appears out of the cottage and flies northeast."

And then if the party asks locals about it, they tell stories of what it has been up to recently.

 

[Loonook]

Viking Dragons? How about the listing for Níðhöggr (Malice Striker) from the Edda?


A hall she saw standing
remote from the sun
on Dead Body Shore.
Its door looks north.
There fell drops of venom
in through the roof vent.
That hall is woven
of serpents' spines.
She saw there wading
onerous streams
men perjured
and wolfish murderers
and the one who seduces
another's close-trusted wife.
There Malice Striker sucked
corpses of the dead,
the wolf tore men.
Do you still seek to know? And what?

Or the tale of Frænir? A dwarf whose lust and greed turned him into a serpent?

The interesting points of the Edda are that the Gods walk the Earth, and they can die. No epic-levels needed in E6, but powerful entities capable of changing shape, and residing among men and the fair folk.

The Dragons of Norse mythology usually don't fly, and are more serpent than drake type. Most dragons are actually corrupted into their form, growing fat on their stores, and dangerous.

Honestly, the Dragon could be a carrion crow type, a warlord corrupted by the dark forces of the fens and taking into himself a force. He has waxed on the strength of his men, cruel murderers who wander the lands and take their tribute on the New Moon, when his mortal enemy Mani hides his face from the World in preparations for his return. The darkness of the New Moon is the time when guest-law is not applied in the night, for the servants of the Serpent may not harm one who stands within a home and has not given their bread and salt to the men during the moon's cycle.

The warriors of the Dragon hide their hands, burned by the flames of the Dragon as he casts their tie to him, the Crucible Swords. Cold iron held inside their hands until their pain becomes the very blade, the Crucible Swords number two score, and thus the true Warriors of the Dragon number forty.

The Dragon is at his weakest on the Full Moon, as the Man in the Moon protects his children. Thus the weapons themselves are also weaker, and can be shattered by a strong man's hammerblow. During the New Moon these blades glow with black fire, burning a man's blood within and without, and turning the murderer into fell servants of the Serpent.


----

In essence the Dragon would be a Red Dragon, flightless and almost motionless but empowered with multiple auras (Greed, Fear, and Weakness) and able to change his form and move during the Waning Moon. His Chosen are scaling creatures, essentially Karrnathi Zombies (intelligent, strong Zombies) at their Full Moon form, but some actually become more and more powerful as the Moon wanes to New. The most powerful Lieutenants could be empowered forms of others, including Olaf Fleshrend (a brutish Vampire-type that uses his Rage upon the fens to lead the warriors of the Host and his own 'Battlesworn' Vampire Spawn in rape and pillage), Jotun Giantsthief (A wispy Lokiesque lad who chooses the Moon to walk in the skins of various folk to infiltrate various holdings and then lay inside the body when the Moon begins to wax [Possessing Ghost]), or The Undying (a Troll whose body is reborn every New Moon unless finally put to rest).

The servants of the Dragon who do not number among the Two-Score are corruptible fools, or the Reborn. Reborn are in essence zombies or (if long-dead) skeletons that the Dragon has taken under his control.

Necromancy and risen warriors are not necessarily 'evil' in a Norse setting, as the Noble Dead would speak of. The Dragon can influence through dreams and nightmares, but its power is greatest on the New and weakest on the Full.

Slainte,

-Loonook.

 

[Thanael]

How about the good old longtime patron who secretly sends them out against other dragons minions or even another dragon or two and in the end turns out to be a dragon himself plot?

 

[howandwhy99]

A dragon's territory could be tended to very infrequently, even every decade or so, if no other large predators come into it during that time. (Everything else is just food honestly)

One way to showcase the dragon would be to introduce such an intrusion. Perhaps after the dragon wakes up it demonstrates its power over the territory by attacking a kingdom in its midst, smashing the castles, and/or starting a cult to cause insurrection. Perhaps tributes are enforced (or were already in place and had been forgotten?)

I would hesitate to make this about encounter-level confrontation. Wily foes, even powerful and fearsome ones which includes dragons, typically avoid direct assault without multiple purposes. An older dragon is likely to be highly intelligent, so discerning win/win only scenarios can outline its goals and determine its probable behavior in different situations.

Introducing the dragon really should not be a battle or the PCs will lose. The final battle may be big set piece combat. How everyone gets from beginning to end is everything in between. For the dragon that means good monster statting and playing out of scenarios.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

While travelling at night, the PCs might see from a distance a village on fire. Investigating they hear the sounds of battle and see in the smoke the shadows of men defending and dying. Beyond the fire, they see dozens of torches of the assailing marauders.

At some point, in a flash of lightning or in the right glare of the fire (or alternatively, when the assailing army rears up or takes flight), the PCs realize it's not a rading party at all, but in fact a single huge monster, its fiery innards seen glowing through gaps in its scales. The thing is too big, the air too thick, and the situation too chaotic to truly grasp what it is before it disappears back into the forest, its inscrutable wrath spent.

Further investigation the following morning turns up footprints or other spoor that lead only so far before the track (which no animal will follow!) is lost-- a disturbing development given the beast's great size.

 

[Wik]

Here's how I would do it.

First, I'd make it the centre piece of the campaign, and try to tie much of the campaign's events into the dragon finale. Loonook has a good point in the dragon's origin story - I think it'd be much more interesting for the dragon to be a unique monster, as opposed to something that is lifted as is from the Monster Manual. If he were a corrupted warlord, or a fallen god, or a merchant cursed to acquire and acquire without rest... all of these are much more interesting. And also, much more rewarding for the PCs to defeat, since they eliminated a scourge from the world, not just removed a single creature of an entire species.

So, how do you do this?

First, set up your main plot - save the king, kill the orcs, whatever. During that first part of your story, have the PCs come across a burned village, and have a few scattered survivors tell the tale. The Players will take note, but will probably just go on their way, maybe helping a few people out.

Then, later on, have another village, in the middle of nowhere, trying to set up a virgin sacrifice or something similarly superstitious - they're going to sacrifice to the dragon. Let the PCs react as they wish - rescue the virgin and flee (and the rather selfish villagers are left to burn), watch the process but don't interrupt (in which case they get to see the dragon) or maybe even try to fight the dragon (in which case one or two PCs will almost definitely die).

Then, as the group approaches sixth, have them go after the dragon. And in the first fight, weight the fight in the dragon's favour - the PCs can't get past DR, take huge fire damage, and so on and so forth. The PCs are outmatched, and have to flee.

This is when you introduce magical items that will help in the dragon's defeat - legendary items in the setting that you could even have introduced earlier in the game (maybe one was worn by a great king, and another was used by a noted villain in the setting's history). Some ideas would be some sort of item of fire resistance (one for each PC, of course, although it'd be cool if this fire resistance was conditional, and granted by a wood nymph), a magical weapon that pierces the dragon's DR and does additional damage, a staff or wand that prevents the dragon from flying, and so on, and so forth.

The idea being that, once the PCs are pimped out, they can take on a CR 12+ monster and hope to win. Of course, this final, epic battle needs to be in a suitably epic location (I'd prefer glacial mountain, with chunks of ground breaking off into the waves and shrieking winds, all illuminated by the northern lights). And make sure there's a time limit on this final encounter, and a "fleeing is not an option" clause built in there.

Anyway, that's how I'd do it. All while trying to make it non railroady and allowing the PCs to approach things from multiple angles.

 

[Loonook]

Here's how I would do it.

First, I'd make it the centre piece of the campaign, and try to tie much of the campaign's events into the dragon finale. Loonook has a good point in the dragon's origin story - I think it'd be much more interesting for the dragon to be a unique monster, as opposed to something that is lifted as is from the Monster Manual. If he were a corrupted warlord, or a fallen god, or a merchant cursed to acquire and acquire without rest... all of these are much more interesting. And also, much more rewarding for the PCs to defeat, since they eliminated a scourge from the world, not just removed a single creature of an entire species.

So, how do you do this?

First, set up your main plot - save the king, kill the orcs, whatever. During that first part of your story, have the PCs come across a burned village, and have a few scattered survivors tell the tale. The Players will take note, but will probably just go on their way, maybe helping a few people out.

Then, later on, have another village, in the middle of nowhere, trying to set up a virgin sacrifice or something similarly superstitious - they're going to sacrifice to the dragon. Let the PCs react as they wish - rescue the virgin and flee (and the rather selfish villagers are left to burn), watch the process but don't interrupt (in which case they get to see the dragon) or maybe even try to fight the dragon (in which case one or two PCs will almost definitely die).

Then, as the group approaches sixth, have them go after the dragon. And in the first fight, weight the fight in the dragon's favour - the PCs can't get past DR, take huge fire damage, and so on and so forth. The PCs are outmatched, and have to flee.

This is when you introduce magical items that will help in the dragon's defeat - legendary items in the setting that you could even have introduced earlier in the game (maybe one was worn by a great king, and another was used by a noted villain in the setting's history). Some ideas would be some sort of item of fire resistance (one for each PC, of course, although it'd be cool if this fire resistance was conditional, and granted by a wood nymph), a magical weapon that pierces the dragon's DR and does additional damage, a staff or wand that prevents the dragon from flying, and so on, and so forth.

The idea being that, once the PCs are pimped out, they can take on a CR 12+ monster and hope to win. Of course, this final, epic battle needs to be in a suitably epic location (I'd prefer glacial mountain, with chunks of ground breaking off into the waves and shrieking winds, all illuminated by the northern lights). And make sure there's a time limit on this final encounter, and a "fleeing is not an option" clause built in there.

Anyway, that's how I'd do it. All while trying to make it non railroady and allowing the PCs to approach things from multiple angles.

I like the ideas, but I also have to go with the coolness of E6: Use of high-level spells as rituals.

The idea of the PCs having to gather all of the hedge-wizards, arcane scholars, skalds, priests, and that hag that they fought back at level 3 to a standstill, the svartzalfin that made the spear the warrior carried into battle against the Scourge of the Hills, and the sacrifice of the old king for the kingsblood necessary to call down the heavens. The hedge-wizards grant their protection from flame and tooth, the skalds sing of the ancient victory of Lothar, their tribe's patriarch, against the Serpent of the Dark Swamp, the priests say prayers to the new Gods, the hag calls upon the slippery nature of her demonic parentage to protect against the dragon's mental defenses, and the svartzalfin make the collar to bind the dragon's spirit to its original form.

Protection from Elements, Greater Magic Circle, Mage's Transformation, Mind Blank, and a Dimension Anchor/Proof against Polymorph item. All granted in a grand ritual... Of course, the old king's blood seals the pact, and grants them True Sight.

Basically treat the whole thing like a Raid. Disparate elements of the various groups protect and prepare, and the PCs each get their moment to shine. The Paladin who has been hunting the majordomo Antipaladin gets to battle him mano-a-mano with the blessed hammer bathed in the tears of his virginal love saved from the Serpent. The mage and priest battles the mystical demonic influences that are being called from the volcanic rift in which the Serpent has made his home. The Ranger hunts the Hellhound, a devious trickster who killed his animal companion in the last battle...

Then, they come to the big bad. The Hillfolk are fighting off the shadowy warriors of the Serpent, the magicians are battling the living wards of the volcano, and the players come to the weakened Serpent, who will still probably kill a couple of them with fang, claw, and flame.

Because even with all of his wards down, the warriors not there for his sacrificial combat advantages, and his right hand man down... He's still a dragon.

Slainte,

-Loonook.

 

[Gilladian]

Go find the book "The Coming of the Dragon" by Rebecca Barnhouse; it's a retelling of the end of Beowulf. VERY good story, with quite an accurate (as far as I can tell) portrayal of Viking life from a boy's point of view. And there's a companion novel, "Peaceweaver", coming out soon. Both are YA.

Otherwise, stories about where the dragon came from, how it arrived, how it took the barrow where it dwells for its own, how it hides behind the giant's breath on the mountains, the tales of one or two foolhardy warriors who tried to hunt it down and never came back, etc...