Dragons. It’s right there in the name. They should be one of the primary antagonists in any archetypal D&D game! Yet, many DMs are reluctant to use them, because a dragon is sometimes a bit too big, too much is riding on a full-fledged dragon, it requires too much planning, too much work to telegraph the true impact of the creatures.
Well, that’s where I come in. This week, I’ve got a free single-session-adventure for you featuring the white dragon.
Rage of the Babarian Queen
Introduction
The city of Boyyd has fallen.
On the northern shores, there have been raids every winter from the barbarian tribes that live in the harsh land beyond. The raids decimate towns along the coast, stealing all the food they’ve stored for the winter, and killing hundreds. The local lords have mounted defenses, and some have succeeded, and others have fallen, but over time, the barbarians have been turned back, thanks especially to the trade alliance that has been built in these towns, and the army that the alliance has been training up. As of a few years ago, the barbarian attacks had stopped altogether, and the alliance had declared victory.
Boyyd was one of the centers of this alliance.
A few years ago there appeared a tribe that some have called “unstoppable.” No matter where it met the alliance, it emerged victorious. It began with small towns – fishing villages, farming enclaves. Small tragedies, but tragedies still, each one a failure of the alliance army as well as the loss of the town. There has been a common theme in these attacks: they happen during a blizzard, when the town is cut off and rescue is made difficult. Survivors from these attacks make incredible claims about the barbarian tribe that ravages their town: that they can somehow control the storm that isolates the town, that the leader is a blue giant towering more than twelve feet tall, that there is a massive creature that accompanies them, all teeth and claws.
This winter, a few short weeks ago, the tribe turned from their small successes in villages and hamlets along the coast, to the massive trade city of Boyyd. And, in a furious snowstorm, they took it. Word has begun to reach the outlying towns and cities about the destruction of Boyyd, as refugees flow in just in time for midwinter festivities. Homes are open, but people are concerned: the refugees are saying that, unlike in previous years, when the towns were simply left destroyed, the tribe has taken residence in the ruins of Boyyd, using it as their new lair and launching-ground, to raid all the towns in the Alliance. The refugees bear the name of the tribe: “Bloodfrost.”
Hooks
You can use one of the below hooks as a way to give characters a reason to try and re-take Boyyd, if they’re not chomping at the bit:
Heroic Motive: A mother is worried about a son that she lost in flight from the city. She believes he still lives – “he’s a clever boy, and he knows how to take care of himself!” She is, however, very concerned for the boy. Others believe the boy is dead, and anyway refuse to spare anyone to go looking for him, preferring to shore up the defenses in town – “if the Bloodfrosts are holding up in Boyyd, we might be next!” Heroic PC’s might be asked (or volunteer) to find and recover the boy, or at least learn of his fate.
Mercenary Motive: The Alliance is worried that the Bloodfrost tribe may be as unstoppable as the tales say. They’re properly intimidated, and so have a standing order to pay for any information that can lead to the destruction of the tribe or the re-taking of Boyyd. If the party does some reconnaissance for the Alliance, they will be offered some small reward, but they’ll be offered much more in exchange for destroying the tribe where it lies in Boyyd.
Personal Motive: The city of Boyyd can be replaced with any coastal city that is already a part of the campaign. If the PC’s have contacts or allies there, the taking of the city by the Bloodfrost tribe may hit quite close to home.
Act One: The Undying Rage
As the party moves toward the city, they pass an outlying farm village…just as the Bloodfrost moves in.
The party’s going is slow as they approach Boyyd, and an strong winter storm whips up when they are still several miles out. A small farming village on the outskirts of Boyyd has a warm light in the tavern’s window, and offers some respite from the cold and wet, and rooms for the tired. The tavern is largely empty this time of year – most folks are with their families, and the few hardcore barflies that are here are quiet and tense, fearful of the rumors of what comes with a winter storm in these parts, all too aware of the nearness of the unbeatable Bloodfrost tribe and their blizzard-beast.
The night is spent quietly, listening to the wind howl outside the door…until a young man barges in, screaming, “They’re here! The Bloodfrost are attacking! Run for your lives!”
Encounter: Town Under Attack!
(Level 11 Combat Encounter)
As the youth yells the warning, initiative is rolled. When the enemy receives initiative, one of the walls of the tavern is broken in, and in the dark swirl of snow that enters, a dim outline of glistening white claws can be seen disappearing into the night. The hole is some 20 feet wide (enough to collapse an entire wall), and, at the end of the first round, the entire tavern will collapse in on itself.
Out in the town, a few buildings are burning, and people are running – a truly chaotic scene. The Bloodfrost barbarians that attack are typical human barbarians in most respects, but their face is decorated with bluish-white face-paint, done in fierce, triangular patterns. The Bloodfrost will take the town in several rounds if not stopped before then – and stopping them is a matter of taking out enough of their forces to force a retreat.
Once the party has taken out enough barbarians and barbarian leaders to make a dent in the numbers of the enemy, the rest of them flee into the night. If the battle lasts too long (say, 1d6+6 rounds) the rest of the Bloodfrost tribe will succeed in destroying the town while the party is fighting, anyway.
Aftermath
After beating back the barbarians (or failing to), the party can examine the damage. If the battle went long, the damage is extensive: the houses destroyed, the storehouses looted, the animals and many of the noncombat villagers simply slaughtered. A few survivors hang on, and are thankful to see the party, but they are trying to escape, to get to the nearest intact town. If the party succeeded in driving off the barbarians, the damage isn’t significant: the tavern and a few homes are damage, some people are dead, and the village is shaken up, but they are also relieved to see the party, and optimistic that the “unbeatable” tribe can, in fact, be beaten.
Of special note is that there is a missing person: a farmer’s son named Hadrian has gone missing. This isn’t in and of itself unusual, but what odd is that Hadrian was seen as being abducted by a seven-foot tall, blue-skinned woman, who seemed to be a source of authority for the other barbarians. Though this character appears in a few other accounts (the “twelve-foot-tall giant”), in those she is a figure of pure wrath and violence. Hadrian’s mother explains that the woman was killing everything that she laid eyes on, until she laid eyes on Hadrian, whereupon she simply grabbed him and fled into the darkness. The boy’s family is desperate for Hadrian to be saved, if possible – he was to be married to a wealthy merchant’s daughter, and was the family’s big hope of moving out of the harsh life they’ve known.
Act Two: Exploring the City
The party sets off after the village has been ravaged, and arrives in the city. Exploring the city can be treated much like exploring a dungeon, with “rooms” being particular buildings or areas of the town. The encounters in the dungeon should hover around level 12. The city contains several barbarians, as well, and the party may encounter them while exploring the area. The party may also encounter refugees, or evidence of some great creature – claw marks on stone buildings, walls caved in with remarkable force, bodies with gaping holes or chopped in half.
The party may learn, from refugees or hostages, that the tall blue woman is the leader of the Bloodfrost tribe, a barbarian maiden named Kaltinne. She is the daughter of a human father and a frost giant mother, born in the depths of midwinter. Her mother was killed by adventurers, and her father was thrown out of his tribe for his illicit love with an enemy, only to go mad in the wilderness. Kaltinne was considered a cursed, horrific child by the barbarians of the northland, and she lived on the fringes, homeless in the barbarian villages, following raiders along on their raids like a little lost dog, scavenging the remains of their victories.
This continued until one day, she appeared in the barbarian lands with a sparkling white dragon by her side, immense and powerful. She proceeded to decimate the tribes that once shunned her, and to take control of the remaining rabble that bowed to her authority. The lapse in barbarian attacks over the last few years wasn’t a result of the successful alliance, it was the result of Kaltinne’s successful rise to power, to be the only barbarian lord in the northlands, flanked by her powerful dragon. The raids resumed when she had cemented her control, and they were catastrophically successful, thanks, in part, to the dragon. Word on the street is also that Kaltinne’s taking of the city of Boyyd is also driven by the dragon, who has grander aspirations than the next raid, and is shepherding her to becoming a great power in the region.
Also on the lips of those who have been observing the tribe is the new “prize” that Kaltinne has saved. Typically, she leaves little to nothing alive, as long as she can help it, but the boy she took in her most recent raid seems special to her, and, rumor would have it, she intends to marry the youth, forcefully if need be.
The boy has been taken to the center of power, here, where Kaltinne and her dragon have holed up: on the ruined ships, locked in ice in the bay. One of the “rooms” in the dungeon should represent the wharf of the city, and beyond here, the party can make out the ruins of the ships a few yards out, hemmed in by thick pack ice. They may be able to walk out to these broken ships, on the ice that stretches miles out from the shore, though it may require some finesse to avoid falling through (this could be represented with a series of skill checks).
For a typical “one-session” short adventure, this dungeon will be reduced to a few skill checks (to find the center of power) and a few encounters (fighting the barbarians), but it can easily be extended by adding more encounters and more hazards.
Act Three: The Love and the Hate
Ultimately, the climax of the adventure is when the party approaches Kaltinne’s lair, where she is forcing Hadrian’s hand in marriage (much to his reluctance). She keeps the youth tied up on the ship, but gladly enters the fray astride her white dragon, coming to meet the party on the thin ice of the bay. Here, she attacks along with her dragon ally, and, in her fury, explains that she would make Hadrian love her, with time, because she could not stand to be so hated anymore. Hadrian, of course, has no problem telling her he’d never love such an abomination, which sends her flying into a rage.
Between the barbarian queen, the dragon, the raging storm, and the thin ice (and the cold water below), the party should have their hands full. The encounter should hover around level 13.
Afterwards, the party may return a bruised-but-whole Hadrian to the farming village, and can successfully report back to the Alliance that Boyyd is barbarian-free once again, and, given the state of the barbarians after Kaltinne’s takeover, probably for quite a bit longer to come.
The End.
Evaluations!
The adventure is a little scant on the details, thanks to a word-count limit, but it gives you quite a bit to go on. So, let me know, is this any good? What would you change, how would you adapt it, what’s great and what sucks? I’m curious, so let me know down in the comments!
Well, that’s where I come in. This week, I’ve got a free single-session-adventure for you featuring the white dragon.
Rage of the Babarian Queen
Introduction
The city of Boyyd has fallen.
On the northern shores, there have been raids every winter from the barbarian tribes that live in the harsh land beyond. The raids decimate towns along the coast, stealing all the food they’ve stored for the winter, and killing hundreds. The local lords have mounted defenses, and some have succeeded, and others have fallen, but over time, the barbarians have been turned back, thanks especially to the trade alliance that has been built in these towns, and the army that the alliance has been training up. As of a few years ago, the barbarian attacks had stopped altogether, and the alliance had declared victory.
Boyyd was one of the centers of this alliance.
A few years ago there appeared a tribe that some have called “unstoppable.” No matter where it met the alliance, it emerged victorious. It began with small towns – fishing villages, farming enclaves. Small tragedies, but tragedies still, each one a failure of the alliance army as well as the loss of the town. There has been a common theme in these attacks: they happen during a blizzard, when the town is cut off and rescue is made difficult. Survivors from these attacks make incredible claims about the barbarian tribe that ravages their town: that they can somehow control the storm that isolates the town, that the leader is a blue giant towering more than twelve feet tall, that there is a massive creature that accompanies them, all teeth and claws.
This winter, a few short weeks ago, the tribe turned from their small successes in villages and hamlets along the coast, to the massive trade city of Boyyd. And, in a furious snowstorm, they took it. Word has begun to reach the outlying towns and cities about the destruction of Boyyd, as refugees flow in just in time for midwinter festivities. Homes are open, but people are concerned: the refugees are saying that, unlike in previous years, when the towns were simply left destroyed, the tribe has taken residence in the ruins of Boyyd, using it as their new lair and launching-ground, to raid all the towns in the Alliance. The refugees bear the name of the tribe: “Bloodfrost.”
Hooks
You can use one of the below hooks as a way to give characters a reason to try and re-take Boyyd, if they’re not chomping at the bit:
Heroic Motive: A mother is worried about a son that she lost in flight from the city. She believes he still lives – “he’s a clever boy, and he knows how to take care of himself!” She is, however, very concerned for the boy. Others believe the boy is dead, and anyway refuse to spare anyone to go looking for him, preferring to shore up the defenses in town – “if the Bloodfrosts are holding up in Boyyd, we might be next!” Heroic PC’s might be asked (or volunteer) to find and recover the boy, or at least learn of his fate.
Mercenary Motive: The Alliance is worried that the Bloodfrost tribe may be as unstoppable as the tales say. They’re properly intimidated, and so have a standing order to pay for any information that can lead to the destruction of the tribe or the re-taking of Boyyd. If the party does some reconnaissance for the Alliance, they will be offered some small reward, but they’ll be offered much more in exchange for destroying the tribe where it lies in Boyyd.
Personal Motive: The city of Boyyd can be replaced with any coastal city that is already a part of the campaign. If the PC’s have contacts or allies there, the taking of the city by the Bloodfrost tribe may hit quite close to home.
Act One: The Undying Rage
As the party moves toward the city, they pass an outlying farm village…just as the Bloodfrost moves in.
The party’s going is slow as they approach Boyyd, and an strong winter storm whips up when they are still several miles out. A small farming village on the outskirts of Boyyd has a warm light in the tavern’s window, and offers some respite from the cold and wet, and rooms for the tired. The tavern is largely empty this time of year – most folks are with their families, and the few hardcore barflies that are here are quiet and tense, fearful of the rumors of what comes with a winter storm in these parts, all too aware of the nearness of the unbeatable Bloodfrost tribe and their blizzard-beast.
The night is spent quietly, listening to the wind howl outside the door…until a young man barges in, screaming, “They’re here! The Bloodfrost are attacking! Run for your lives!”
Encounter: Town Under Attack!
(Level 11 Combat Encounter)
As the youth yells the warning, initiative is rolled. When the enemy receives initiative, one of the walls of the tavern is broken in, and in the dark swirl of snow that enters, a dim outline of glistening white claws can be seen disappearing into the night. The hole is some 20 feet wide (enough to collapse an entire wall), and, at the end of the first round, the entire tavern will collapse in on itself.
Out in the town, a few buildings are burning, and people are running – a truly chaotic scene. The Bloodfrost barbarians that attack are typical human barbarians in most respects, but their face is decorated with bluish-white face-paint, done in fierce, triangular patterns. The Bloodfrost will take the town in several rounds if not stopped before then – and stopping them is a matter of taking out enough of their forces to force a retreat.
Once the party has taken out enough barbarians and barbarian leaders to make a dent in the numbers of the enemy, the rest of them flee into the night. If the battle lasts too long (say, 1d6+6 rounds) the rest of the Bloodfrost tribe will succeed in destroying the town while the party is fighting, anyway.
Aftermath
After beating back the barbarians (or failing to), the party can examine the damage. If the battle went long, the damage is extensive: the houses destroyed, the storehouses looted, the animals and many of the noncombat villagers simply slaughtered. A few survivors hang on, and are thankful to see the party, but they are trying to escape, to get to the nearest intact town. If the party succeeded in driving off the barbarians, the damage isn’t significant: the tavern and a few homes are damage, some people are dead, and the village is shaken up, but they are also relieved to see the party, and optimistic that the “unbeatable” tribe can, in fact, be beaten.
Of special note is that there is a missing person: a farmer’s son named Hadrian has gone missing. This isn’t in and of itself unusual, but what odd is that Hadrian was seen as being abducted by a seven-foot tall, blue-skinned woman, who seemed to be a source of authority for the other barbarians. Though this character appears in a few other accounts (the “twelve-foot-tall giant”), in those she is a figure of pure wrath and violence. Hadrian’s mother explains that the woman was killing everything that she laid eyes on, until she laid eyes on Hadrian, whereupon she simply grabbed him and fled into the darkness. The boy’s family is desperate for Hadrian to be saved, if possible – he was to be married to a wealthy merchant’s daughter, and was the family’s big hope of moving out of the harsh life they’ve known.
Act Two: Exploring the City
The party sets off after the village has been ravaged, and arrives in the city. Exploring the city can be treated much like exploring a dungeon, with “rooms” being particular buildings or areas of the town. The encounters in the dungeon should hover around level 12. The city contains several barbarians, as well, and the party may encounter them while exploring the area. The party may also encounter refugees, or evidence of some great creature – claw marks on stone buildings, walls caved in with remarkable force, bodies with gaping holes or chopped in half.
The party may learn, from refugees or hostages, that the tall blue woman is the leader of the Bloodfrost tribe, a barbarian maiden named Kaltinne. She is the daughter of a human father and a frost giant mother, born in the depths of midwinter. Her mother was killed by adventurers, and her father was thrown out of his tribe for his illicit love with an enemy, only to go mad in the wilderness. Kaltinne was considered a cursed, horrific child by the barbarians of the northland, and she lived on the fringes, homeless in the barbarian villages, following raiders along on their raids like a little lost dog, scavenging the remains of their victories.
This continued until one day, she appeared in the barbarian lands with a sparkling white dragon by her side, immense and powerful. She proceeded to decimate the tribes that once shunned her, and to take control of the remaining rabble that bowed to her authority. The lapse in barbarian attacks over the last few years wasn’t a result of the successful alliance, it was the result of Kaltinne’s successful rise to power, to be the only barbarian lord in the northlands, flanked by her powerful dragon. The raids resumed when she had cemented her control, and they were catastrophically successful, thanks, in part, to the dragon. Word on the street is also that Kaltinne’s taking of the city of Boyyd is also driven by the dragon, who has grander aspirations than the next raid, and is shepherding her to becoming a great power in the region.
Also on the lips of those who have been observing the tribe is the new “prize” that Kaltinne has saved. Typically, she leaves little to nothing alive, as long as she can help it, but the boy she took in her most recent raid seems special to her, and, rumor would have it, she intends to marry the youth, forcefully if need be.
The boy has been taken to the center of power, here, where Kaltinne and her dragon have holed up: on the ruined ships, locked in ice in the bay. One of the “rooms” in the dungeon should represent the wharf of the city, and beyond here, the party can make out the ruins of the ships a few yards out, hemmed in by thick pack ice. They may be able to walk out to these broken ships, on the ice that stretches miles out from the shore, though it may require some finesse to avoid falling through (this could be represented with a series of skill checks).
For a typical “one-session” short adventure, this dungeon will be reduced to a few skill checks (to find the center of power) and a few encounters (fighting the barbarians), but it can easily be extended by adding more encounters and more hazards.
Act Three: The Love and the Hate
Ultimately, the climax of the adventure is when the party approaches Kaltinne’s lair, where she is forcing Hadrian’s hand in marriage (much to his reluctance). She keeps the youth tied up on the ship, but gladly enters the fray astride her white dragon, coming to meet the party on the thin ice of the bay. Here, she attacks along with her dragon ally, and, in her fury, explains that she would make Hadrian love her, with time, because she could not stand to be so hated anymore. Hadrian, of course, has no problem telling her he’d never love such an abomination, which sends her flying into a rage.
Between the barbarian queen, the dragon, the raging storm, and the thin ice (and the cold water below), the party should have their hands full. The encounter should hover around level 13.
Afterwards, the party may return a bruised-but-whole Hadrian to the farming village, and can successfully report back to the Alliance that Boyyd is barbarian-free once again, and, given the state of the barbarians after Kaltinne’s takeover, probably for quite a bit longer to come.
The End.
Evaluations!
The adventure is a little scant on the details, thanks to a word-count limit, but it gives you quite a bit to go on. So, let me know, is this any good? What would you change, how would you adapt it, what’s great and what sucks? I’m curious, so let me know down in the comments!
