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Will this Lead to a TPK? [updated 3/16]


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My dragon's motivation is entirely on getting some camels to feed his injured mate and brood of hatchlings. I'm afraid something as simple as this (the BD's only requested wanting some camels and that it has a family) has entire escaped my player's consideration as a viable solution.

They have three weeks to mull the whole situation over until the next game. I'll wait until then to let them know that, depending on their actions, a TPK, or even death for half the party, is very possible and the dragon won't be holding back.

As for the mini presentation, I bought and started constructing Storm Wing, a huge-sized blue dragon from Reaper. I kept him under a hand towel near me during the game until it was parlay time. So they've seen him. The mini is still in the works - I've finished the body and started on the wings, so he will be finished by the time we play again. I'll be sure to post photos!
 

bento said:
Most of my players still want to fight this dragon, but want to trap it inside the narrow tunnel. At the same time they don't want to sacfice any of their camels, that is unless it is heavily drugged with something that can slow down the dragon.
The dragon should be able to cast Purify Food and Drink on the camel before eating it.

Cool recap. I'm interested in reading what happens next.
 

bento said:
My dragon's motivation is entirely on getting some camels to feed his injured mate and brood of hatchlings. I'm afraid something as simple as this (the BD's only requested wanting some camels and that it has a family) has entire escaped my player's consideration as a viable solution.

They have three weeks to mull the whole situation over until the next game. I'll wait until then to let them know that, depending on their actions, a TPK, or even death for half the party, is very possible and the dragon won't be holding back.

Sounds like typical early PC metagaming - "It's there, so there must be some way we can overpower and kill it!" :p
 

bento said:
As for the mini presentation, I bought and started constructing Storm Wing, a huge-sized blue dragon from Reaper. I kept him under a hand towel near me during the game until it was parlay time. So they've seen him.

They saw THAT mini and still believe they can take him on? A life (or is it "death") lesson is in order. I mean, c'mon.

I'm intrigued to read how this plays out ....... players pull some crazy solutions out of their hats sometimes.
 

TarionzCousin said:
The dragon should be able to cast Purify Food and Drink on the camel before eating it.

Cool recap. I'm interested in reading what happens next.

This is the first time I've run a dragon and I totally skipped over spell casting. Thanks for the heads up! :D
 

Echo wanting to hear how this turns out. Have been following the whole thread with interest.

players pull some crazy solutions out of their hats sometimes.

I'd say they pull crazy solutions out of places other than their hats. I know I do when I'm playing. :D
 

Well, you've already defined the dragon as a "give me the goods and nobody gets hurt" type.

The way I see it, perhaps he's amused by the players' foolish courage, if not particularly tickled by their selfishness, and decides to teach them a lesson.

Now, a dragon is entitled to do non-lethal damage just like anyone else if he so chooses. Just have him backhand, and otherwise smack the crap out of them until they're all unconscious.

He gets their camels anyway, and whatever gear they may have been hauling, and then, to teach them a lesson, he makes them do his dirty work. In other words, he forces them to ambush passing caravans for him and bring him their livestock.

Make them walk a mile in his... um... dragons don't wear shoes... But you get the idea!
 

If the players ask for an ass kicking, hand them one. You have given them a reasonable out, and made it plain that the fight would probably be ill advised.

I would suggest offering them untenable options ("Drop your gear and run like the mewling worms you are"). I also suggest that you do what you can to have the dragon keep the players from being able to sleep. Force them to make a decision now rather than rest. Given the dragons motive, there is no reason for it to be patient. So go ahead and blast lightning down the cave hold all night. That way no one can memorize spells and you can inflict the Fatigue penalties on top of the fear penalties when they do decide to fight. You can have quite a bit of fun messing with the players that way. On top of that, I doubt that cave stone is completely immune to lightning.

Unworked Stone has 900 HP for (5 feet of Thickness) or 15 per inch, and 8 Hardness. Lightning will do about half damage. An Adult Blue will do 12d8 damage or 74 total damage on average. This in turn will work out to about 32 damage per blast into the cave wall. When it cannot use the breath weapon, the dragon will be doing 2d8+8 + 2x 2d6+4 + 2x 1d8+4 2d8+12 on a full attack action. That works out to roughly 32 if you average up the damage output and remove the hardness on each attack. I would disregard the bite and wing attacks and drop that down a bit more myself. The wing attacks wont exceed the hardness very often, and it is pretty hard to imagine a beast digging with its mouth unless it can eat rock. It will take a while, but if the players refuse to come out to play, the dragon is perfectly capable of bringing down the cave on them.

END COMMUNICATION
 

Don't forget Blues also have a burrow speed. Since they can likely 'hear' decent enough or cast something like alarm, you could have him hidden right outside under the sand and still notice things. Maybe something PC's won't expect.
 

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