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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stormonu" data-source="post: 6157916" data-attributes="member: 52734">I usually deal with silver dragons in the game, but I have used a gold dragon twice.The first time, the gold dragon was posing as a human wizard and had created a mapster's guild.  The guild didn't just keep official maps and records (including demarcations of various lands), they actively paid individuals (read: adventurers) to bring them maps of the areas they explored.  The more rare or mystical the area, the more the map was worth - it encouraged seeking out dangerous places and clearing out the former inhabitants.  Of course, the gold dragon was using this to send out adventurous souls to clear out areas of evil it found out about.  It also used the mundane side of it business to shore up the local township through the manipulation of land grants and funding building projects and other social programs.  Finally, the dragon also covertly used its influences to strengthen the rule of law further and firmly over the local area.  I used this gold dragon over several campaigns and only one group ever pierced the dragon's secret - when the unfortunate band decided to find the wizard's secret cache of gems and gold.  It turned out rather poorly for them...The second time I introduced a gold dragon, she was covertly the head of the local monastery (and overtly a monk).  She not only trained the other monks, but offered open classes to teach reading and writing to the locals.  Somewhat surprisingly, she often railed against local church leaders, taking them to task in logical and philosophical debates that often left the church leaders exasperated.  Rather than preach adherence to any particular god, the monastic order promoted a sort of "holy introspection" and a finding of the divinity in one's self.  I had players who ended up being on both sides of this philosophical debate, with one party's cleric getting into and losing a debate (that devolved into a brawl) and another character playing a monk who was tasked to send off a squad of paladins sent to seek recompance for tithes they felt the wiley monastic leader had talked the faithful out of paying.  When the monks weren't engaging in debate or driving off church or local leaders they'd inflamed, the monks of the order were tasked with defending against any of a host of villainous rabble or sent on quests of enlightenment in the outer world.  Those monks who neared enlightenment were placed through secret tests in the catacombs beneath the order - never to be seen again (often transformed into half-dragons and/or sent off on important quests to the outer planes).  Though none of the players ever found out, the dragoness had several young children among the monks of the order - known as "golden children", who were often sent on quests to help others in far-away lands where the dragoness sought to expand both her teachings and perform good wherever it could be passed on.</blockquote>

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