Looking for cool twist on a dragon hunt

Bedrockbrendan · March 06, 2012, 08:08:08 AM

So in my playtest of Slayer the players have gone questing for an ailing duke dying of wasting sickness. Basically there is a spell that can cure the duke but it requires an offering of a dragons egg. So they are taveling east to a land with lots of dragons (and dragon worshipers) to steal an egg and bring it back to the duke. Looking for interesting ideas for the dragon lairs and the surrounding regions. All i have dcided is the people living in the shadows of the mountains where dragons are common vaguely resemble vikings and perform annual living sacrifices to keep the dragons from attacking.

jibbajibba · March 06, 2012, 08:29:45 AM

Just actually play the dragons as smart, intelligent beings and not giant lizards. That normally confuses the fuck out of PCs.

Thief: I sneak round the back of the dragon..
Opening one heavy lidded eye, " I can see you you know. Do you think I lived to be 450 years old without setting a few early warnings round my lair to detect intruders. Now explain yourself before I char you to a crisp. And no I am not in any way interested in answering a riddle, unless that is what tasty snack comes in a magical leather wrapper?"

Bedrockbrendan · March 06, 2012, 08:39:03 AM

Quote from: jibbajibba;519949Just actually play the dragons as smart, intelligent beings and not giant lizards. That normally confuses the fuck out of PCs.

Thief: I sneak round the back of the dragon..
Opening one heavy lidded eye, " I can see you you know. Do you think I lived to be 450 years old without setting a few early warnings round my lair to detect intruders. Now explain yourself before I char you to a crisp. And no I am not in any way interested in answering a riddle, unless that is what tasty snack comes in a magical leather wrapper?"

The thing is, in this setting they are basically cunning giant firebreathing lizards, but dont speak or anything like that. About as intelligent as a dolphin.

Spike · March 06, 2012, 09:21:44 AM

Drat, there goes my idea of having the Dragon Hunt sponsored by rival dragons in disguise sending adventurers after their enemies in some sort of twisted game...

Really, spicing up a hunt of a large and dangerous beasty is a bit of a challenge. You might as well have asked us to spice up a boar hunt...

Really: beastie is aggressive and attacks hunters. SPice up further? Its actually smart? But we've already gone against the grain by declaring it stupid.

Hrm...howabout the dragon in question is 'secretely' the pet of some evil wizard type who has trained it and may even keep tabs on it and will not appreciate some adventurers tromping along and trying to kill 'Cuddles'.

Tahmoh · March 06, 2012, 09:44:22 AM

There are alot of dragon shaped creatures of myth who's to say the egg they really need to steal is actually a dragons and not say a wyverns? when your suffering a wasting disease sometimes your memory isnt what it should be, also sometimes ancient texts get mistranslated.

Silverlion · March 06, 2012, 09:46:27 AM

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;519954The thing is, in this setting they are basically cunning giant firebreathing lizards, but dont speak or anything like that. About as intelligent as a dolphin.

Dolphins are no slouches, it still might be smarter than the PC's--maybe not in a book sense manner but cunning and plotting. Is it also as sex focused as a dolphin? That make for some uncomfortable questions about why the egg is needed to cure the person in question and who else was involved. Or what else....

You wanted something different and then take away options, might consider putting them back in--maybe this one is smarter than normal. Maybe it has given up on going to the sacrifice, and simply sleeps among the nearby villagers. They protect it, in return they sacrifice to it and it doesn't eat them. Dolphins understand "easy food."

jibbajibba · March 06, 2012, 10:24:07 AM

Okay put aside the smarts of the beastie and focusing on the environment . What if the lair was in a volcanoe and the PCs had to cover themselves in a heat resistant balm made available by the villagers but it only lasts for 4 hours makes the a time race as well as a hunt the balm might also provide some fire resistance -2 per die on fire attacks.
Has to be applied to the bare flesh ofcourse so that desperate reapplication would leave them all exposed

Elfdart · March 06, 2012, 10:25:52 PM

After watching For Your Eyes Only, I got the idea to put the dragon's lair on top of a very steep mountain, where climbing to reach the lair is just as dangerous as the lair itself. You could have the lair carved into the side of a ridiculously steep cliff, where the only way in is by flying in -sort of like Count Dooku's hideout in Attack of the Clones.