D&D 5E (2014) Please give me ideas for a Dragon-Slayer short campaign

[Gastronomie]

Nice to meet you, guys. This is my first thread in these forums. :3

Long version, for those who want specific information for advice
So, I'm thinking of creating a short campaign,which is about professional dragon-slayers(level 15-ish, but considering making them stronger or weaker) infiltrating dragon lairs and slaying the dragons. The length will be several sessions, and I want it to be a compelling and challenging adventure in which the players are told beforehand that their characters may die brutal deaths. The encounters will utilize synergy between monsters, and involve a lot of lethal tactics.

They say that for an army to conquer a fortress, they need three times the soldiers. I believe this should be true, even in table-talk - of course, unless, the players know what’s coming to them. The enemies will set up all sorts of traps and challenging encounters (not traps as in “yeah, you rolled good with perception and theives’ tools so you managed to remove the trap”, but traps as in deceiving the actual players, setting up clever ambushes etc.), and if the adventurers jump in head-first, they have no chance of survival. Think Tucker’s Kobolds. The key point will be gathering information beforehand through interaction with NPCs and other sources, and preparing based on that information.

My players are experienced and optimized, and I’m also introducing an original rule: Every Caster can change their spell lists every day, even those which normally can’t (Sorcerers, Warlocks etc.), to prepare for the upcoming threats they hear about. They will also gain access to some Rare or lower magic items of their choice, both the permanents and the expendables.

However, I’m in need of ideas. I have some, but not enough to fill in an entire adventure.

If anyone has any good ideas or places to reference, please tell me. It could be anything, from the plot hooks, to the characteristics of the domain of the dragon, to the combat techniques of the boss and his mooks, to the personality and goals of the dragon.

Thanks for reading~

Short version, for those who quit in the middle of reading through AngryDM’s articles
I’m in need of ideas about how to run an interesting and deadly, high-level dragon-slaying adventure. I have some ideas, but not enough to fill in an entire adventure.

If anyone has any good ideas or places to reference, please tell me. It could be anything, from the plot hooks, to the characteristics of the domain of the dragon, to the combat techniques of the boss and his mooks, to the personality and goals of the dragon.

Thanks~


What I have in mind so far
I’m thinking the first adventure arc will have an Adult Black Dragon as the main boss (depending on the players’ reactions, there may be second and third arcs after this). This guy is in control of a gigantic marsh infested by kobolds, and recently, armies of kobolds rising from these marshlands have been invading the nearby city states of human civilization. The Kobolds are weak on their own, but are recently seen being tactical, much like Hobgoblins, and some city states have already been conquered. Either the leaders of the city states hire the adventurers, or the adventurers strike out on their own - either way, they need to do something to stop this threat.

The truth behind this is that the Black Dragon is growing bored of his everlasting life, and in his boredom, has decided to create a Kobold empire imitating that of humans. If you know the Drifters manga/anime, imagine something like the Black King - the dragon puts his vast knowledge to use by educating the kobolds and creating an advanced society, with the dragon as its worshiped dictator, Hitler-style. He’s basically playing Civilization.

Running an entire empire is pretty damn hard work. But the Black Dragon likes his job, because he’s free of boredom, and also, he takes pride in making his empire strong. It proves how intelligent and superior he is to the other beings in the world. He has no remorse or affection for his people - and as evidence, executions, especially those done by the dragon himself by eating them whole, are quite common (failing to conquer a city state will result in the deaths of all the returning warriors, for example). Rather, the dragon thinks of the world like a chess game, and the armies are his pawns. His long-term goal is to conquer all the city states nearby and establish a force even more prominent than the current one. But it’s not like he’s really obsessed with it - he’s just bored. If he fails, he wouldn’t really care, save for how he’ll get annoyed because of his gigantic ego. He’ll just go fly somewhere else and re-start his empire.

Kobold villages are scattered across the dragon’s domain, with farms nearby. The Kobold villages are well-defended, but with the right spells and role-playing it wouldn’t be impossible to get in without combat.

The dragon has also abducted a Golemancer who creates Clay Golems, which are positioned in important locations. And with acid absorption, Clay Golems and Black Dragons make quite terrifying pairs...

I’m thinking the dragon’s spell list will be Invisibility, Control Water and Polymorph.

Now, I do have some problems. For one, Tucker’s Kobolds are fun, but having just Tucker’s Kobolds will be just frustrating, given how repetitive it can get. I’m wondering what would make good minions of a Black Dragon, thematically (of course, it can be simply a monster roaming in the swamp, but I’d personally prefer if it was a minion). Perhaps Yugoloths ruled by a ripped-off page of the Book of Keeping ? Or Hags, or whatever... One idea I have is to make the swamp infested by some necromantic energy that the dragon puts to his own advantage, creating zombies from deceased adventurers who have failed and were killed in the swamps. What else?

You can ignore my Kobold empire idea and post anything you want, including non-Black-dragon ideas. It’s not like I actually decided to go Black Dragon first 100% - if I come up with better ideas, or if the ideas posted here are better, I might as well start with Red, or Blue, or whatever.[/spoiler]

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

Black dragons have a swim speed, meaning that they are quite comfortable in the water. Perhaps your black dragon has decided to make its lair in an underwater cave system underneath the swamp and is only accessible by diving to the bottom of a lake. The lair could have been carved out by a tribe of lizardfolk that the dragon has dominated. The lizardfolk act as guards in the lair itself as well as messengers that get sent out from the lair to other creatures in the swamp.

This will create an interesting investigation for the PCs. First they'll have to find the lair's location, and since it's at the bottom of a lake that could prove quite difficult. The PCs will have to interrogate some lizard folk or find some hunters that have noticed that strange things gather in the swamp. Of course, to make things difficult those hunters are missing and are held captive somewhere in the swamp.

Next the PCs have to infiltrate the lair. They have to find a way to breathe water which isn't a huge problem for high level PCs but it still gives off the feeling that the PCs will be out of their comfort zone. And should something find a way to disable their water breathing they'll be in trouble.

Once inside the lair there should be plenty of pools of water that occasionally have a lizardfolk ambush waiting for them. When the PCs are suitably paranoid the next pool contains the dragon which uses its breath weapon and then immediately dives back in, retreating through labyrinth-like water tunnels.

So that's the first thing that came to my mind when you mentioned black dragon. As for the rest of your campaign, I'll make the suggestion that you could change up the type of dragons that the PCs will go hunting. Perhaps the next dragon is a dragolich or a shadow dragon. You thought a normal dragon was bad? How about an undead one that can only be killed by destroying the mcguffin? Or add a dragon turtle into the mix. Fighting a dragon turtle while on a very vulnerable ship sounds like a tense situation. Wyverns can also make good, thematic minions to the big dragons.

 

[Tormyr]

I would recommend Kings of the Rift, the tenth chapter of the Age of Worms AP. I have posted a 3.5 to 5e conversion at
http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?do=download&downloadid=1254

The party has been tasked with finding the location of Dragotha's phylactery in chapter 9. When they release the hidden knowledge, it permeates the entire land and becomes known to many high level beings, including Dragotha. He sends a force of 32 dragons to get it, and they arrive ahead of the party. The force consists of ancient green, blue, red, and fang dragons; 6 adult blue dragons; 10 young green dragons; and a dozen black wormlings. They attack the cliffside fortress where the phylactery is hidden during a civil war between factions of giants with the slaves of the giants caught in the middle. The party must avoid or kill the dragons, figure out how to deal with the giants, find the keys to the vault, and take or destroy the phylactery.

The adventure is designed for 18th-level PCs. The details such as the hook can be changed of course. Our table took about eight 3-hour sessions, but I usually have 6-7 players at my table.

 

[aco175]

For your black dragon adventure you should have it breed with locals like lizardmen to create 1/2 dragons with cool powers all their own and high enough level to challenge the party.

Hostile terrain should mark a dragons lair. Inside a volcano makes a great place for a red dragon. The heat and fumes create an environment people do not go. Same for the middle of a barren desert for a blue dragon. High-level parties have an easier time getting to these places in small groups, but a king's army would be challenged and that's why dragons live there.

Dragons also should have lots of informants and contacts in the local town around their lairs. They are happy to meet and chat with great bands of adventurers only to slip away and report to their master, or better yet, to lead the party into a trap like a box canyon where the dragon blocks the exit and breaths fire upon them from on the high walls.