Overlooked Dragon Hoards

[Bullgrit]

With my game group of a few years ago, I saw an unbelievable scenario happen twice. The PCs didn’t check for a hoard after killing a dragon. This was the same Players, but two different campaigns.

First scenario:
The PCs were in a swamp, looking for a structure to delve into. They found the structure. As they neared it, a dragon leaped up from behind it. The fight ended with the dragon dead.

The dragon’s nest and hoard were behind the structure, where the dragon leaped up from. It was not hidden. But the party didn’t bother investigating around the structure. (Just walking around it would have found the treasure.) They just went up to the front, opened the doors, and went in. They explored, came back out, and went home.

When I designed the adventure, and the dragon’s “lair,” I never thought that the party might not get the treasure. I mean, all they had to do was walk around the structure, and bam, there it would be.

Second scenario:
The PCs were trying to liberate a town that had been conquered by a force of goblins and orcs lead by a dragon. At one point while the party walked through the center of the burned out town, the dragon leader flew up out of a (roofless) building and attacked the PCs. The PCs killed the dragon, and then moved on. The entire battle took place right in front of the building the dragon came out of. (Just walking through the front door would have found the treasure.)

When I designed the adventure, and the dragon’s “lair,” I never thought that the party might not get the treasure. I mean, all they had to do was walk into the building, and bam, there it would be.

* * *

In both cases the result for them was just that they lost out on a good bit of treasure. Too bad, so sad, sucks for them. But for me, the “failure” left me scratching my head. How in the world does a party of adventurers fail to loot a dragon’s hoard that’s just right there, around a corner or through an open doorway? They’d already done the hard part.

Have you seen parties fail to get treasure that is essentially just “right there”? I’m not even talking about failing to search for a secret door, I’m talking about treasure that is just slightly out of direct line of sight.

Bullgrit

 

[RainOfSteel]

Those incidents are dumbfounding.

All the groups I have ran or played in have been greedy treasure groupies. A dead dragon would provoke a relentless search for days. If no hoard were located, they would assume it was somewhere else and starting looking for that.

 

[Stoat]

It happened fairly recently in my 4E game. The PC's burned a building to the ground rather than go inside and deal with a handful of low-rent poisonous snakes. There was a magic item in the building, and it was destroyed in the conflagration.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

This rarely happens to me, but when it did, it was a doozy. The group was my main college group, a good two thirds of which had never played D&D or any roleplaying until we started a Fantasy Hero game. So in fairness, there wasn't quite the emphasis on treasure that D&D often has. But the 3 guys that had played D&D were certainly aware of it and usually made sure to check.

So I was still in "storytelling" mode often, and I placed a magic sword that was key to certain challenges that were coming up. It wasn't absolutely necessary, but having it was probably the difference between reasonable challenge versus real risk of characters dying. I put the sword in a somewhat tough location to find, but certainly something they could locate if they searched. They didn't search. No problem, I think. I'll just place it later. I made it a little easier. They bypassed it. The challenge it is needed for is months off in real time. So I keep trying.

They skipped that sword five or six times, if I remember correctly. The last time they bypassed it, it was hanging on the wall in plain sight, in a hall where they fought the big bad for that adventure. They didn't actually get the sword until the middle of the fight where they needed it, when I had it glowing in a pool in the room where the fight occurred. And even then, it took a new guy going with the flow for them to get it.

I'd say they were so nervous that they wouldn't try stuff, but we never lost a character during that whole two year campaign. Later, I got deliberately toughter on them, and looking for stuff gradually became a priority.

 

[S'mon]

4e fights are so long, after them the *players* are often too tired to hunt for treasure!

Mod Edit: Because what this thread really needed was edition-commentary? Not *everything* need to include a knock against a game! Let us not go that route, please! ~Umbran

Personally I'm starting to think that Inherent Bonuses are the way to go in 4e. PCs shouldn't have to be looters if that's not the type of campaign you're aiming for.

 

[the Jester]

I've seen it (and in every edition from BECMI on up). It happens- either the players are off their game or... I dunno.

At least later, you can reuse the same area as the lair of whatever does discover the hoard.

 

[Holy Bovine]

With my game group of a few years ago, I saw an unbelievable scenario happen twice. The PCs didn’t check for a hoard after killing a dragon. This was the same Players, but two different campaigns.

First scenario:
The PCs were in a swamp, looking for a structure to delve into. They found the structure. As they neared it, a dragon leaped up from behind it. The fight ended with the dragon dead.

The dragon’s nest and hoard were behind the structure, where the dragon leaped up from. It was not hidden. But the party didn’t bother investigating around the structure. (Just walking around it would have found the treasure.) They just went up to the front, opened the doors, and went in. They explored, came back out, and went home.

When I designed the adventure, and the dragon’s “lair,” I never thought that the party might not get the treasure. I mean, all they had to do was walk around the structure, and bam, there it would be.

Second scenario:
The PCs were trying to liberate a town that had been conquered by a force of goblins and orcs lead by a dragon. At one point while the party walked through the center of the burned out town, the dragon leader flew up out of a (roofless) building and attacked the PCs. The PCs killed the dragon, and then moved on. The entire battle took place right in front of the building the dragon came out of. (Just walking through the front door would have found the treasure.)

When I designed the adventure, and the dragon’s “lair,” I never thought that the party might not get the treasure. I mean, all they had to do was walk into the building, and bam, there it would be.

* * *

In both cases the result for them was just that they lost out on a good bit of treasure. Too bad, so sad, sucks for them. But for me, the “failure” left me scratching my head. How in the world does a party of adventurers fail to loot a dragon’s hoard that’s just right there, around a corner or through an open doorway? They’d already done the hard part.

Have you seen parties fail to get treasure that is essentially just “right there”? I’m not even talking about failing to search for a secret door, I’m talking about treasure that is just slightly out of direct line of sight.

Bullgrit

Oh those had me laughing out loud!

The only one I've had that came close was when a party discovered a "Treasure Golem" - that is a golem made out of valuable bits of jewelry, gems, gold, silver etc. They knew it was very powerful (about a CR14 creature vs. their then level 5 PCs) but marked its location for future looting (it was stuck in a small area of a dungeon it simply could not escape from). Fast forward about 1 year and 3 levels later and the players decide they can take the thing on. I had by then decided that someone else had beaten them to it and used the treasure to create magical items, traps and hire mercenaries. The PCs walked in thinking they would be facing one creature confined to a smallish area. Instead they found a well armed and organized force ready to defend what was theirs. It was a near TPK with one PC and a dragon ally of theirs escaping. They bartered with the denizens of the dungeon then for the return of their comrades bodies (sans equipment of course!).

 

[Henry]

Could it be, that you've stumbled across a group of people who have NEVER heard of the concept of a dragon's treasure hoard? Could such a person actually exist???

That's a wild one to be sure. Do they normally not bother to search for goods and loot when they vanquish a foe, or do they just seem to have this blind spot against dragons? I'm trying to think of examples of video games and fiction where a dragon wouldn't have a treasure trove, but can't think of any -- even the most casual Howard or Tolkein fan, or World of Warcraft fan, when slaying a dragon, would quip, "where's the hoard, man?"

 

[S'mon]

Mod Edit: You know the rules. If you want to comment on moderation, take it to e-mail or PM, please. ~ Umbran

 

[prosfilaes]

I'm trying to think of examples of video games and fiction where a dragon wouldn't have a treasure trove, but can't think of any -- even the most casual Howard or Tolkein fan, or World of Warcraft fan, when slaying a dragon, would quip, "where's the hoard, man?"

In the second example, I'm not sure I would have expected a hoard; I would have thought that the hoard would be in some well-hidden, well-protected cave somewhere that the dragon was planning to go back to any time now, not out here in the open. Moving that much treasure is a pain, and even a dragon probably would have pilferage with that many CE humanoids around.