Draconic Plots
August 3rd, 2010
Hello everyone, and welcome back to yet another exciting Grave Plots, where we bring you new adventure ideas and plot hooks. This week we will be looking at adventures with a couple of fascinating and often overlooked monsters as the center of attention. Specifically, we will be dealing with a pair of dragon-like creatures who are not true dragons, or in the second case not even dragons at all. I hope you enjoy the following scenarios.
Pseudodragon
Apart from making an occasional appearance as an improved familiar, the pseudodragon probably doesn’t often make it into your games. After all, they’re pretty wimpy, and usually there simply isn’t call for a wimpy dragon creature; even for those occasions when you would want a wimpy dragon, usually a wyrmling will suffice. The adventure that follows is designed to shine a little light on the often shuffled away pseudodragon, maybe even giving him a chance to wreak a little revenge on the true dragons who force him out of the spotlight.
Rion’s Revenge
As the PCs are about to enter the Great Eastern Forest (or substitute a campaign-specific forest region), they are greeted by a group of assorted forest dwellers, including no less than 4 centaurs, a pair of surly ettercaps who look uncomfortable, a host of woodland animals, and a gorgeous nymph. The nymph, apparently the group’s leader, steps forward to make introductions. She introduces herself as Nessalla, acting leader of Rion’s army, and asks, ever so sweetly, if the PCs would be willing to help her with a problem, offering a suitably tempting reward (possibly a magic reward, if your players are the type to ask nosy questions like where woodland creatures would get such rich treasure) for their services. If the PCs accept or inquire about the details of Nessalla’s problem, she begins to explain the situation.
Seven months ago an evil group of green dragons moved into the forest, displacing many of the forest’s natural inhabitants and preying on travelers and forest dwellers alike. For months their tyranny went unopposed, until one day an unlikely hero raised a rebellion against them: Rion, a pseudodragon whose family had lived in the forest for over 100 generations. Following the death of his mate, Iera, at the hands of a pair of young green dragons, Rion vowed revenge and began to organize a resistance. Over the past few months his army has conducted daring guerilla raids against the green dragons. Rion and his followers struck many blows against the dragons until yesterday, when, while covering the army’s retreat, Rion stayed behind to fight with Nyrthaxil, a particularly vicious adult green dragon. During the battle Rion was captured and taken to Nyrthaxil’s lair, deep in the forest. Nessalla’s pixie scouts report that Rion is still alive and being tormented by Nyrthaxil in his lair; unfortunately, though, Rion was the only one within the resistance who stood a chance in combat against a creature like Nyrthaxil and so the others have no hope of rescuing him on their own.
However, Nessalla believes that with the PCs’ help the resistance fighters could regain their leader.
She offers to guide them to Nyrthaxil’s lair and to reward them handsomely if they will help rescue Rion. The trip to Nyrthaxil’s lair is rather uneventful, as Nessalla knows all the hidden routes in woods to avoid trouble. Roll only once for any random encounters (or plan just one encounter, maybe with an injured unicorn or a green dragon scout) even though the journey should take a few hours.
When the PCs and Nessalla arrive at Nyrthaxil’s lair (a cave in one of the forest’s swampier areas), they find Nyrthaxil and his mate, also an adult green dragon, prepared for their arrival. They fight fiercely against the PCs, aided by a pair of pixie scouts the dragons strong-armed into serving them when Rion’s army had become a serious threat. If at any time the PCs seem to be winning against the dragons, the pixies quickly betray their former masters and join the PCs’ side. After the battle they offer their apologies to Nessalla, explaining that Rion’s capture was all their fault; if they hadn’t reported the rebels’ locations to Nyrthaxil, none of this would have happened. After begging for forgiveness, the pixies sign up to join Rion’s cause.
Rion himself can be found near the back of the cave: past a trap-infested tunnel (if the pixies are with Nessalla and the PCs they warn them about the traps and help them circumvent them), and trapped in a golden cage just a little too small for the tiny dragon, nestled atop Nyrthaxil’s treasure horde. Rion is glad to see Nessalla and the PCs, telepathically thanking them for the rescue. Once freed Rion flies enthusiastically around the room a few times, telepathically explaining, “I needed that,” before settling down. He makes quick introductions with the PCs and the pixies before asking for their help once more. He explains that the PCs are, of course, under no obligation to help him, and that he would understand if they wanted to just get on their way, but promises to reward them if they would lend him their aid again.
If the PCs agree to help him again, Rion explains that while he was imprisoned, he overheard the dragons discussing a plan to attack the nearby human settlement of Rev’pal. They plan to strike when Irvan, Lord of Rev’pal, leaves with a sizable number of the town’s knights for a trip to the capitol, scheduled to occur in the next few days. If Rion can convince Irvan to help him set a trap for the dragons, then they can deliver a decisive blow against the draconic invaders. Unfortunately, Rion believes that the lord will not listen to him, a lowly pseudodragon, and would like the PCs’ help in securing his aid.
The lord of Rev’pal is willing to hear the PCs out but will need some strong convincing to agree to postpone his trip. Provided they convince him of the danger, Irvan insists that the PCs stay to help defeat the dragons when they come. Following an epic struggle containing many dragons, descending on a town they thought to be poorly defended, Rion and Nessalla thank the PCs for all their help, deliver the promised rewards, and offer them their help if should they ever need anything in the future.
Behir
Chances are, if you own a monster manual or pathfinder bestiary, you have passed by the behir before, maybe even looked briefly at its entry, and decided for whatever reason not to use one, except maybe as a filler monster. Well, I’m here to tell you that the behir has a lot of interesting features which makes him a fun combat encounter, but in addition, this monster has a lot of personality. Moderate intelligence, territorial and animalistic instincts, and a fierce, yet unexplained, hatred of dragonkind all make the behir first-class adventure material, and yet they always seem to take a back seat to more well known and generally accepted monsters. Well, no longer! What follows is a short adventure idea where the mighty behir is finally the center of attention.
The Lord of the Sandy Hills
The town of Morach near the Sandy Hills (or substitute your campaign-specific desert region) recently received a warning from the government of Nezumar (a city-state across the sandy hills) that trade across the Sandy Hills may be in jeopardy, as a terrifying, serpentine, dragon-like monster has attacked several of their caravans attempting to cross the desert. So far no one has been seriously injured, except for a handful of guards foolish enough to attack the beast. Since Morach relies on trade with Nezumar for all their economic needs, the news that trade from that far-off city might be in trouble is highly disconcerting, and the municipal government has hired the PCs to deal with the monster.
In the Sandy Hills (a hot desert) the PCs have to fight numerous forms of desert life fleeing the new apex predator in town. After fighting through a horde of random beasts (if you’re feeling a little pro-behir you could include a couple of blue dragons), they reach a sheer rock outcropping with a crude cave carved into the limestone. The cave contains the corpses of a pair of large blue dragons, a good deal of gold and silver treasures, and a massive battle-scarred behir (advanced, and giant template + further advancement as necessary). The behir looks long and hard at the PCs before addressing them in draconic, asking why they have invaded his territory. If the PCs move to threaten the behir or else don’t speak draconic, then a simple fight will likely end this adventure as the PCs match might with the fearsome beast. If the PCs do decide to talk with the behir, then he explains he has moved into the Sandy Hills region from a neighboring desert territory in which an ancient brass dragon decided to make his home. Since the behir will not coexist with the dragon, and he couldn’t hope to defeat him, he fled to claim a new territory. He is willing to make a deal with the PCs to leave this land if they can get rid of the brass dragon.
The behir gives the PCs directions and, after some more wandering in the desert (and accompanying encounters with desert monsters), they locate the ancient brass dragon. The brass dragon, Ixelthumatur, like all brass dragons, is interested in talking with the PCs – so interested, in fact, that it will take considerable patience and fortitude to hold any kind of conversation with the beast. He is more than willing to make some kind of arrangement to give the behir (whom he was unaware of) his desert back, provided they can find a place for him to make his lair, preferably in a place where he can be mostly left alone. The simple solution then is to have the behir and the dragon switch deserts. Ixelthumatur will even agree to protect the desert caravans in exchange for a small tribute from the nations of Nezumar and Morach.
Well, that’s it for this week’s Grave Plots. If you would like to like to suggest a topic for a future article, please send me an email. Until then, I wish you all the best in your gaming endeavors.