I'm putting together a short Burning Wheel scenario that revolves around the classic situation of a maiden captured by a ferocious dragon.

Character sheets and slightly more detailed discussion of the scenario can be found here: http://www.nwarpg.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1326

I need help with ideas for some cool magic items suitable for helping the party defeat a Burning Wheel dragon.

Here are some qualities of BW dragons:
-Invulnerable to normal weapons.
-Cause great fear in their opponents.
-Breathe fire that is pretty much instant death for a normally equipped character (bypasses normal armor and such).
-Incredibly persuasive.
-Have poisonous blood.

The characters essentially have no chance of defeating a BW dragon in their present state. They're going to need to go on side quests and assemble some tools to help them overcome this Smaug-like dragon.

I'm looking for general concepts (hopefully flavorful ones...+3 sword ain't gonna cut it), here, that are tailored for the characters (a knight, a sorcerer, a huntsman/master of hounds, and an elf warrior). The general mood I'm going for is dark fairy tale. Magic items with consequences are quite welcome. Anyone want to take a stab at an idea or two?

Thanks!

Tim

P.S. Just to be totally clear, I don't need stats...just concepts. I mean, if you come up with stats, that's cool, but it's not required.

A slim book of self-published poetry, and earplugs for the PCs. Optionally authored by the Viking chief Erik the Well-Read.

-clash

Pastilles or potions that explode into a cloud of dust or gas when smashed, they are meant to be breathed in. Could have several kinds that affect the dragon in different ways. Maybe some would moderate his invulnerability, disable his fire breath, or even cause him direct damage from internal injuries through the lungs.

The ingredients would be exceedingly rare. Maybe even one of a kind powerful magic items in their own right. The owners would have to be found and 'convinced' to give it up. Maybe some ingredients are rare artifacts important to the elves or the religions of the PC's. Or maybe it even needs components from the dragon itself.

Then of course they would have to learn how to make them or find somebody who can and convince them to help. At least another adventure and possibly a huge expense.

Then finally they need to be smashed close enough to the dragon for it to breath them. Maybe dragons can smell them, some major trickery could be required, or a suicide mission.

Quote from: darThe ingredients would be exceedingly rare. Maybe even one of a kind powerful magic items in their own right. The owners would have to be found and 'convinced' to give it up. Maybe some ingredients are rare artifacts important to the elves or the religions of the PC's. Or maybe it even needs components from the dragon itself.

This is a pretty cool idea and very workable, especially if I re-jigger the sorcerer to have an alchemy skill. The only problem with potions is that they don't have the same sort of gravity that an artifact would.

Then again, if the ingredients of the potions are things like a leaf from the world tree and a gem from the dwarven king's crown, or whatever...hmmm

Thanks!

Dare I suggest some sort of dragonlance?

Ultimately a long pole with a very hard (enchanted?), barbed end that can get stuck inside the beast, hinder its movement and do nasty damage if it tries to remove it.

Quote from: TrevelyanDare I suggest some sort of dragonlance?

Ultimately a long pole with a very hard (enchanted?), barbed end that can get stuck inside the beast, hinder its movement and do nasty damage if it tries to remove it.

Yes, you dare! A magic lance is very cool, especially since there's a good chance it will break when successfully delivered. Being wounded in Burning Wheel affects your stats, too, so that would cover the hindered movement thing quite well.

Care to inject some color? What's its provenance? Are there any consequences or requirements to use it?

Thanks!

Quote from: TimYes, you dare! A magic lance is very cool, especially since there's a good chance it will break when successfully delivered. Being wounded in Burning Wheel affects your stats, too, so that would cover the hindered movement thing quite well.

Care to inject some color? What's its provenance? Are there any consequences or requirements to use it?

Thanks!

The dragon descritpion and lance sound very western medieval.  Such a lance may require a peice of a holy artifact, think Rood, but getting it could be a problem.   Such weapons may also be only magical/effective if wieled by one of pure heart.  Your knight may qualify but given this you wouldn't just be able to take the base holy artifact component to make the weapon (since that woud probably kill any pure hear requirement).

There is the old dress up in spiked armor and goad the thing into swallowing you trick.  Since the dragon is pretty much straight out of medieval stories look to the solutions those folks came up with to defeat a thing impervious to normal weapons.

Sounds like they should get him drunk...

You know, some amazingly hard-to-get concoction that dragons simply cannot say no to, and leaves him so wasted that it blurs his judgment, disarms his legendary speaking abilities, and eventually makes him pass out and sleep off a hangover for a decade or two.

Kinda like a Saturday night at university, in fact.


TGA

A magic axe carved from the rib of the dragon, the only thing hard enough to cut through the creature's armour. The dragon gave the rib to an ogre axesmith many years ago to repay an unspecified debt, and the PCs have to hunt down and find the axesmith and then convince / force him to give up the axe.

I'm not familiar with BW, but how about a wizard who's just about to complete his newly invented dragonslaying spell? If the characters can help him acquire the last few (extremely rare and hard to get) components, he'd be willing to test it on a dragon of the characters' choice.

Or, how about a moral quandary? Someone already has the magic power to kill or weaken the dragon (maybe make it vulnerable to normal weapons through a curse), but the person is a very, very, very evil and dangerous sorcerer/witch/warlock/demon/whatever. The characters CAN strike a deal with him, but he probably wants something out of it, something that will eventually make him an even worse threat to the world as the dragon was in the first place.

A hunting horn, carved from the ivory of an ancient dragon's tusk and etched with his acidic blood and banded with the purest gold from his hoard. If a true huntsman blows it, it will instill mindless animal fear in the dragon, making it unable to respond except as an animal would; however, blowing it may also breed unclean bloodlust in weak-willed men who hear it sound.

Quote from: LeSquideA hunting horn, carved from the ivory of an ancient dragon's tusk and etched with his acidic blood and banded with the purest gold from his hoard. If a true huntsman blows it, it will instill mindless animal fear in the dragon, making it unable to respond except as an animal would; however, blowing it may also breed unclean bloodlust in weak-willed men who hear it sound.

Now we're cooking with fire! This fits in awesomely with the knight's hidden desires which will make for some interesting consequences if it's blown. Evocative color. You definitely nailed the whole 'dark fairytale' thing.

The horn is, of course, taken from the tusk of the current dragon's centuries-dead mate.

Quote from: PseudoephedrineA magic axe carved from the rib of the dragon, the only thing hard enough to cut through the creature's armour. The dragon gave the rib to an ogre axesmith many years ago to repay an unspecified debt, and the PCs have to hunt down and find the axesmith and then convince / force him to give up the axe.

This is groovy and quite fairytalesque. Gaining the axe probably wouldn't devolve into your typical smash/murder/grab routine, either. I'd probably make the ogre a 'smart' troll, though. Maybe he cured the dragon of a toothache, or somesuch.

Quote from: The Good AssyrianSounds like they should get him drunk...

Kinda like a Saturday night at university, in fact.

Draconic Animal House! Hah!

Quote from: PremierI'm not familiar with BW, but how about a wizard who's just about to complete his newly invented dragonslaying spell? If the characters can help him acquire the last few (extremely rare and hard to get) components, he'd be willing to test it on a dragon of the characters' choice.

Or, how about a moral quandary? Someone already has the magic power to kill or weaken the dragon (maybe make it vulnerable to normal weapons through a curse), but the person is a very, very, very evil and dangerous sorcerer/witch/warlock/demon/whatever. The characters CAN strike a deal with him, but he probably wants something out of it, something that will eventually make him an even worse threat to the world as the dragon was in the first place.

Cool ideas, Premier. I'm loathe to let the dragon-killing be done by some uber-npc, though. Seems like it would be robbing the players of the glory. If he was some sort of back-stabbing power-mad lich that they have to face afterwards, though. Hmmm. Could be interesting. Sounds like a full-fledged campaign!

Pliers and a blow torch.

Quote from: TimCare to inject some color? What's its provenance? Are there any consequences or requirements to use it?

Dragonlances appear in the D&D setting of the same name. While I've not seen any game setting material, I can give you some information about the weapons based on the novels.

Dragonlances are long, wood shafted weapons with silver tips. In the books those tips are crafted from some sort of magical silvery material with the aid of a mythical hammer and a blacksmith with divine authority to craft them. Once the raw materials are available (blacksmith, silvery material, magic hammer) the lance tips can be churned out pretty quickly.

The weapons apparently require some sort of special training to use, but the books are not clear on the nature of this training (it may require knowledge of dragon anatomy so you know where to hit, or it may simply be training in weilding a large polearm).

The lances are always epicted as having barbed heads, and that combined with the wooden shaft suggests that the tip is intended to stick in the target and break off. When used mounted, the lances are attached to the saddle in such a way as to be easy to remove, again suggesting that they are a "fire and forget" weapon.

If you want to extract the setting specific background, I'd stick with the "rare conditions to create but easy to make under those conditions" approach. The idea is that mortals really need to mob a dragon to take it down, and everyone involved should have one of these weapons.

If you want to make them more durable then have the whole thing made out of metal, but keep the whole "barbed" bit. Perhaps require some sort of strength check to pull the lance out and re use it (injuring the dragon on the way).