Jürgen Hubert
First Post
Backstory: I am running a Forgotten Realms campaign, and one of the threads of the campaign revolves around an extremely powerful demon called the "Father of Wyrms" who has fathered offspring with a number of dragons (mostly against their will). The resulting half-fiendish dragons have three red eyeballs in each of their eye sockets, a trait that they have inherited from their father.
The PCs have already fought one of these creatures when they were 3rd level - a half-fiendish wyrmling green dragon, which was little more than an acid-spitting killing machine hiding in the catacombs beneath a castle where it emerged from time to time to kill some of the inhabitants. They managed to talk to it for a few moments (this party always tries to talk first), but it only taked about feasting on other people - on both their meat and their fear.
Now the PCs are 6th level. They decided to travel across the Spine of the World Mountains to see the Endless Ice Sea for themselves (they are like that, too...). Along the way, they crossed into the territory of King Obould Many-Arrows (the current big orc warlord of the North), and after spectacularly incinerating a patrol of dire bat riding orc scouts (and leaving a survivor to tell the story to the other orcs), they moved through the orc territory with as much haste as they could muster until they reached the other side of the mountain pass.
About one year ago, King Obould had an unexpected visitor: A strange, hooded figure (one of the oldest members of the Father of Wyrm's brood) who brought a gift: A Very Young Half-Fiendish female silver dragon, who was instructed to "stay with Obould until she was big and strong". Obould let her live in the caves below Dark Arrow Keep where she snacked on the occasional orc Obould was displeased with.
Now there were some reports about "powerful wizards" who were passing through orc territory and who destroyed an orc patrol. Obould then instructed here to "keep an eye on these strangers" and to "kill them if they posed a threat to him". She changed form into an eagle and followed the PCs, and close to the Endless Ice Sea the druid spotted her when he took the form of an eagle as well - the six red eyeballs freaked him out a lot...
Shortly after that, the PCs discovered a huge structure emerging from the glaciers which will turn out to be an ancient habitat built by the Sarrukh, the serpent folk progenitor race of the Forgotten Realms. They saw the eagle circling above them, but there wasn't much they could do about it.
Within the habitat, they finally met the dragon, who had now taken the shape of a small human girl with "gleaming white hair with black streaks" - and six red eyeballs. They discovered her in a room-sized orrery where large hollow crystals representing planets were floating around in circles. She had taken control of the magical control mechanism and proceeded to let the crystals crash into each other, giggling all the way.
The PCs, despite being freaked out again, talked to her, and she willingly engaged them in conversation. She frankly admitted her orders, asked them if they were "really as powerful mages as the orcs claimed", proved to be very curious about everything - and utterly without any empathy for other beings. For example, she told them that she likes to take things apart "to see how they work", and then proceeded to explain her knowledge of both the crystalline structures of the habitat and the internal organs of orcs with great enthusiasm.
One of the PCs then argued with her that it is Wrong to take apart living things (which didn't convince her at all) and that it is possible to learn much more about things by putting them together instead of taking them apart (which she said she will think about - the player rolled really well with Diplomacy). They then left her presence with the promise "to look her up later", to which she replied: "Perhaps I will look you up first." which freaked them out even more...
Once they were out of earshot, they argued what to do with her. One PC argued for killing her immediately because she was obviously evil and unnatural, one was against killing any thinking being that did not pose an immediate threat to them or others, and the third one hasn't made up his mind up one way or another. In the end, they agreed that exploring some of the other dangers this habitat might hold (and they have some hints about those) took precedence before the dragon...
So, what should happen next? The dragon is very evil and selfish, but if one of the PCs truly wants to turn her from the Path of Evil, I will make it possible - but they should go through hell (pardon the pun) for it. She is highly intelligent (Int 20, Wis 15) and doesn't care for the feeling of others at all except for some sort detached curiosity about these emotions - she certainly doesn't think it is wrong to hurt people.
But right now, she doesn't want to kill the PCs... yet. They seem much more interesting than the orcs that had kept her company so far, and she is also a bit wary about their potential power (though what she has seen so far hasn't impressed her much). Instead she will follow them around in disguise, observe them, and try put them through a variety of "tests" and situations to see how they react. Remember, though she doesn't know much about the world, she is highly intelligent and perceptive, and will quickly figure out just how far she can go until the PCs will react to her. Her being around means a constant source of small provocations for the PCs...
So, what kinds of behaviours and "tests" do you suggest for her? What should she do to get some kind of reaction from the PCs - what will upset the PCs without neccessarily making them want to kill her immediately?
The PCs have already fought one of these creatures when they were 3rd level - a half-fiendish wyrmling green dragon, which was little more than an acid-spitting killing machine hiding in the catacombs beneath a castle where it emerged from time to time to kill some of the inhabitants. They managed to talk to it for a few moments (this party always tries to talk first), but it only taked about feasting on other people - on both their meat and their fear.
Now the PCs are 6th level. They decided to travel across the Spine of the World Mountains to see the Endless Ice Sea for themselves (they are like that, too...). Along the way, they crossed into the territory of King Obould Many-Arrows (the current big orc warlord of the North), and after spectacularly incinerating a patrol of dire bat riding orc scouts (and leaving a survivor to tell the story to the other orcs), they moved through the orc territory with as much haste as they could muster until they reached the other side of the mountain pass.
About one year ago, King Obould had an unexpected visitor: A strange, hooded figure (one of the oldest members of the Father of Wyrm's brood) who brought a gift: A Very Young Half-Fiendish female silver dragon, who was instructed to "stay with Obould until she was big and strong". Obould let her live in the caves below Dark Arrow Keep where she snacked on the occasional orc Obould was displeased with.
Now there were some reports about "powerful wizards" who were passing through orc territory and who destroyed an orc patrol. Obould then instructed here to "keep an eye on these strangers" and to "kill them if they posed a threat to him". She changed form into an eagle and followed the PCs, and close to the Endless Ice Sea the druid spotted her when he took the form of an eagle as well - the six red eyeballs freaked him out a lot...
Shortly after that, the PCs discovered a huge structure emerging from the glaciers which will turn out to be an ancient habitat built by the Sarrukh, the serpent folk progenitor race of the Forgotten Realms. They saw the eagle circling above them, but there wasn't much they could do about it.
Within the habitat, they finally met the dragon, who had now taken the shape of a small human girl with "gleaming white hair with black streaks" - and six red eyeballs. They discovered her in a room-sized orrery where large hollow crystals representing planets were floating around in circles. She had taken control of the magical control mechanism and proceeded to let the crystals crash into each other, giggling all the way.
The PCs, despite being freaked out again, talked to her, and she willingly engaged them in conversation. She frankly admitted her orders, asked them if they were "really as powerful mages as the orcs claimed", proved to be very curious about everything - and utterly without any empathy for other beings. For example, she told them that she likes to take things apart "to see how they work", and then proceeded to explain her knowledge of both the crystalline structures of the habitat and the internal organs of orcs with great enthusiasm.
One of the PCs then argued with her that it is Wrong to take apart living things (which didn't convince her at all) and that it is possible to learn much more about things by putting them together instead of taking them apart (which she said she will think about - the player rolled really well with Diplomacy). They then left her presence with the promise "to look her up later", to which she replied: "Perhaps I will look you up first." which freaked them out even more...
Once they were out of earshot, they argued what to do with her. One PC argued for killing her immediately because she was obviously evil and unnatural, one was against killing any thinking being that did not pose an immediate threat to them or others, and the third one hasn't made up his mind up one way or another. In the end, they agreed that exploring some of the other dangers this habitat might hold (and they have some hints about those) took precedence before the dragon...
So, what should happen next? The dragon is very evil and selfish, but if one of the PCs truly wants to turn her from the Path of Evil, I will make it possible - but they should go through hell (pardon the pun) for it. She is highly intelligent (Int 20, Wis 15) and doesn't care for the feeling of others at all except for some sort detached curiosity about these emotions - she certainly doesn't think it is wrong to hurt people.
But right now, she doesn't want to kill the PCs... yet. They seem much more interesting than the orcs that had kept her company so far, and she is also a bit wary about their potential power (though what she has seen so far hasn't impressed her much). Instead she will follow them around in disguise, observe them, and try put them through a variety of "tests" and situations to see how they react. Remember, though she doesn't know much about the world, she is highly intelligent and perceptive, and will quickly figure out just how far she can go until the PCs will react to her. Her being around means a constant source of small provocations for the PCs...
So, what kinds of behaviours and "tests" do you suggest for her? What should she do to get some kind of reaction from the PCs - what will upset the PCs without neccessarily making them want to kill her immediately?
ed if I know! Thats a matter for you and your group I'm afraid.
