To kill a dragon?

[Pyros123]

Hi guys. I'm looking for clever and inventive ways to kill a dragon.
Here's the situation:
The dragon is currently sleeping. It lives inside a volcano, and is partially submerged in lava. The volcano is inactive, and we have a tunnel to the inner Lair of the dragon, where there is solid ground around the edge of the chamber, and also solid islands of rock in the lava.
We are a 6-man level 10 party of...
Fighter 7/Kishi Charger 3 Halfling, riding a mount that can change its shape into any animal via a homebrew item.
Druid 6 with the Werebear template and an Eagle animal companion.
Barbarian 10, Half-Orc.
Ranger 10, Half-Elf. Archery ranger.
Bard 7/Virtuoso 3, Gnome.
Sorcerer 4/Favored Soul 4/Mystic Theurge 2, Elf.

We have time to prepare around the dragon's volcano, but shops with powerful magic items are few and far between.

Other Info:
We have a Ring of Energy Immunity, so one person can be fire immune for 1 minute.
A bunch of us have Fire Resist 5 from some items.
We have some Frost weapons.

 

[James the Newbie]

Have your bard use gather information on the dragon if you havnt already, all information is important, age being the key thing

(More importantly post that info here XD)

 

[Sekhmet]

[sblock=Fun Volcano Facts]Remember that if anyone touches the lava at all, that part of their body will be instantly burned, possibly even destroyed. Lava is an average of a scorching 2,120 degrees Fahrenheit (1,160 Celsius). At any point, a pocket of gas can explode out of the surface, causing a miniature pyroclastic event, spraying the stuff over a small distance (about fifteen feet). This will almost instantly burn through any protective covering, and will even melt through skin if it isn't removed quickly.

Inside an active volcano, there would be no escape from the heat. It would begin to boil and blister your skin almost as soon as you entered an area unprotected by wind. Active lava tubes and flows are highly dangerous, and you need to approach from upwind to get anywhere near them. They're so hot, your body won't subconsciously step into an area of active activity - it will naturally pick up on the danger and prevent you from doing it. Even highly trained volcanologists have singed skin and hair because of a slight shift in the wind. [/sblock]

As you enter close (within about 100 feet), the oxygen is sucked out of the air by the intense conditions eating it up, you'll need a breathing apparatus or some sort of spell to breath carbon dioxide as if it were oxygen.
Within 100 yards (about a football field away), everyone is going to require protective gear. Your Energy Resistance of 5 should cover being about that close to it, even up to about 50 yards. I'd require Fire Resistance 10 to get within about 10 feet.
If anyone were to fall into the volcano, even for a moment, he would be gone forever. You can trip into a flow and manage to get out (with severe burns), but into an active pit and you'd be ash.

Remind your players that Balance, Jump, and Tumble will likely be necessary when they are preparing their high Armor Check Penalty gear for the fight.

 

[James the Newbie]

OR D&D logic lava

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Transmute_Stone_to_Lava_(3.5e_Spell)

Probably a more adventurer thing to go by

Though the heat stuff is right, endure elements may provide you with some resistance to the heat, the air is something else - but this is a fantasy adventure, so if a volcano is just a cool environment to you guys, roll with it XD

 

[kitcik]

You should probably qualify the request to ask for solutions which will not result in you receiving a DMG upside the head...

Lava = molten rock
Spam Transmute Rock to Mud around the dragon.
Follow with Dispel Water (Sandstorm) and the dragon should be immobilized - for how long depends on how deeply submerged it was...

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Can the Mystic Thurge add Shivering Touch to his spell selection to spam?

It's the Dragon Killing spell, after all.

 

[James the Newbie]

Not a bad idea, but the Mystic Thurge is sorceror in origin so unlikely to have much unless he can get a wand?

If you have it RUMBLETiGER is right, if not, their spell list would help?

 

[Grogg of the North]

Are you on a time-line? Is the Dragon in danger of eating a nearby village? If time is on your side, I'd say you should just summon a bunch of critters and start having them work on the ceiling of the cave. Maybe burrow in from above. The druid could summon Thoqquas for this. Then you can set up a neat trap for the dragon and drop the ceiling in on his head. Dropping on a mountain on him will hurt quite a bit and, hopefully, knock him out. Dragon sinks into the lava and begins to drown.

Alternatively, you could try to seal up the entrance to the dragon's cave. The lava and the dragon should use up the available air quickly and then you get into slow suffocation rules.

Does the Bard know pyrotechnics? Start spamming it and try to blind the dragon.

Is there anything else you can tell us about your resources?

 

[Pyros123]

Reply: Ages
It's a dragon that hasn't been seen recently. We know it predates the current government (about 200 years old) and that before this government was established, it was old enough to terrorize rural countryside. After the government was established, the dragon hasn't been heard from, and was assumed dead. We killed a tribe of kobolds at this dragon's volcano, which we found out had been serving it, and it's our assumption that the kobolds bringing it treasure and victims were why it hadn't been rampaging around.


Reply: Environment
We've been pushing enemies into lava channels and pools along these mountains, and the DM has been using the SRD's info for lava.
Environment :: d20srd.org
2d6 for being in it, or 20d6 for being totally immersed.

As for air in the volcano, there WAS a tribe of kobolds serving the dragon, bringing it treasure, victims, things like that, so presumably they were able to enter the volcano's chamber without suffocating.



Transmute Rock to Mud would be cool, and that kind of thinking is something our DM would usually applaud and allow to give us some kind of advantage, but it's a 5th-level Druid or Arcane spell, and since our Druid is level 6 and our Theurge only just achieved 3rd-level spells, we don't have it.


Reply: Shivering Touch
We leveled up at the end of last session, and the way we do leveling up is that everyone levels up on their own in the week between sessions, so the Mystic Theurge probably hasn't picked his 3rd-level spells yet. So he lowers the dragon's Dexterity and then we hit it more easily?

I don't have the Mystic Theurge's spell list, but presumably he could still swap a 1st-level spell out upon leveling up, and I doubt he's picked his 3rd-level spells yet. We were given the week between sessions to prepare to fight the dragon.


Reply: Timeline
-If we leave it alone it's definitely going to wake up and start eating villages. It was only being passive because it had a tribe of kobolds serving it, and we murdered them. We don't know how long it would take for it to wake up and notice the lack of tribute. My guess is somewhere between a few days and a couple weeks.

I like the idea of collapsing the volcano on it, that's a good one. As for sealing up the entrances, we'd have both the mouth of the volcano to seal up, and the side tunnel that we were going to use to enter, plus any other vents we didn't notice.

I have no idea about the bard's spell list, but I wouldn't count on her for anything, since she's been a fairly useless party member so far.

For resources, we have or can find most nonmagical supplies. We've been particularly fond of using something that our DM made up called Deepfreeze. It was described to us by the alchemist that sold it to us as the cold version of Alchemist's Fire, and is a grenade item that does 1d6 cold in an area around where it hits. The DM told us that it's very similar to liquid nitrogen, but not quite as potent. We have a fair number of vials of that left, like six or seven.

 

[Sekhmet]

Reply: Shivering Touch
We leveled up at the end of last session, and the way we do leveling up is that everyone levels up on their own in the week between sessions, so the Mystic Theurge probably hasn't picked his 3rd-level spells yet. So he lowers the dragon's Dexterity and then we hit it more easily?

Shivering Touch can easily lower a Dragon's Dexterity to 0, rendering it Paralyzed.
Once Paralyzed, your melee guys walk up and Coup De Grace the enemy, dealing an automatic hit and scoring a critical hit. If the Dragon survives, it must roll a Fort save (DC 10+Damage Dealt) or die.

Since all dragons have 10 Dex, Shivering Touch pretty much destroys all dragons (except ones with the Cold subtype, which your Volcano dweller won't have), with no saving throw, removing all challenge or fun from the encounter.