[Necro]Adding a Dragon Theme to Shades of Gray

[Psion]

After hearing about tantalizing tidbits about the Necromancer Games mini-adventure Shades of Gray, I finally purchased it.

It's not looking like it's the right adventure to run for my new gaming group, but it does have enough of a classic "dingus hunt" feel I thought it would be a good intro for my family game.

But here's the deal: my daughter really digs themes she is into, and as I would rather avoid the whole pokemon/neopet theme, I thought I would for the other more D&D-friendly theme she digs: dragons.

But she doesn't really like dragons as antagonists, so I was starting to try to think of ways I could work dragons in as allies, things to protect, etc. I pictured a campaign where the good dragons were well regarded guardians and the evil dragons were exiled, and their dark servants strive to undermine the good peoples and overthrow the good dragons and return to the land.

Along these lines, Mongoose's Book of Dragons had a cool idea. This is an excerpt from the book regarding a certain "mystic dragon":

Attacarnis is known as the dreaming dragon. This brass dragon is sleeping, but the power of his spirit is so great, it warps the land around him to reflect his dreams. When Attacarnis has good dreams, the landscape is pleasant and fertile; when nightmares trouble him, monsters crawl out of the ground to ravage and destroy. The locals send their best bards into Attacarnis' lair to sing lullabies to him in the hopes of giving him pleasant dreams.

When I saw Shades of Gray, I got an idea of how I could meld the plotline of Shades of Gray with this concept.

SPOILERS TO SHADES OF GRAY FOLLOW
[sblock]
What the gray death really is is an infection of nightmares. The enemies of good dragonkind smuggle the gray death in and infect Attacarnis with living nightmare, which through him twist and warp the land. This is why the Gray Death is no simple disease that can be easily cured; its actually a reflection of his reality-warping dreams. And this is why the harp is necessary; the bards who tend him are finding their normal music insufficient, and the rainbow harp is the one item that can root out the living nightmares from Hades.
[/sblock]
So, I am looking for any other ways this idea might be developed or other ways to give the adventure series a more draconic theme, either in allies or foes.

 

[Treebore]

Use pseudo dragons and faerie dragons as friends/allies rather than "just a familiar".

 

[Nightfall]

Another option is to have a kind of "cultists" of Orcus work to try to disturb the resting places of good dragons.

Tome of Horrors series has some nice dragons you can use as well. Along with drakes.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'd also liberally grab goodies from Dragon Magic (a book she'd likely love to raid for spells and feats anyway) as well as Draconomicon.

 

[Nightfall]

Whiz,

I'd second that motion and maybe toss in Races of the dragon (very, very liberally on that one) for maybe character ideas. (I'd have her skip the half dragon/dragon blooded race section, but Dragonborn are pretty decent. Along with the kobold section.)

[Edit: Actually be less liberal with Dragon Magic and Draconomicon and probably try to incorporate that more into the adventure perhaps. ]

 

[Psion]

I'd also liberally grab goodies from Dragon Magic (a book she'd likely love to raid for spells and feats anyway) as well as Draconomicon.

Yeah, I was already going there. She wants a dragon companion instead of the animal companion. The druid class alterations in Dragon Magic are weak, but the Dragon Cohort feat might suit her.

 

[Nightfall]

Psion,

So? Just tweak it to allow for a dragon companion, like a wyrm that's below medium size, say Small or Diminuative. (I'm sure there's one of that size....)

Even so good luck with this Psion.