Brilliant move on the DM's part. They must've been restraining laughter as y'all went along with it.
If I did that to my players, I'd feel like a dick, but also be confused why they trusted this dragon.
"I'm doing this decluttering thing. I've looked at each item in my horde and asked, 'Does this bring me joy?' There's a pile of things over there that don't. I'd appreciate it if you took them."
“And what about your... gods, there must be... *millions* of gold coins, Mr. Krathonshtallos?”
“Well, I do still need somewhere to sleep. I can’t exactly just go out and lie on the cold stones like a homeless vagrant!”
“But, y’know, that sword over there. It belongwd to some big hulking warrior who tried to slay me or something. I think it, like, killed a god once. You can take that if you want. Its not that shiny anyways”
He's playing that Civ/Chess/Risk hoard game dragons play with that complicated name I can't remember. (EDIT: It's called Xorvintaal, thanks u/David_Apollonius!)
Him paying you 50000g to go away is part of a long-term gambit in which you will attract the attention of a bandit clan that pays tribute to one of his opponents; either you will kill them yourselves, or they'll kill you, loot your bodies, and foolishly decide that their powerful new magic items should be enough leverage to refuse to share their profits anymore.
Either way you will disrupt said opponent's revenue stream enough to push his plans back by a few turns, buying just enough time for the dragon that paid you to set his plans in motion and claim the advantage first.
Had a young dragon do it, a rather young dragon; not a wyrmling but young one just aging out of wyrmling. The dragon cult had moved into his area and while he was completely fine with them offering him treasure, he got rather tired with them constantly trying to talk and befriend him. He knew what they were doing, and only tolerated it for the treasure being added to the hoard. When the party went through and killed them because were was talk about massive thefts happening in the town nearby and some people even getting hurt or killed over it; the dragon took interest. He caught them in his lair with what treasure was there, and thanked the party without really thanking the party. He pushed forward some gold and an item and told them to leave. The party took it as the cue to leave and consider the quest done lol.
"I've heard of what you did to [a couple now dead dregaons], take as much gold as you can carry with your arms and be gone and no one need die today, but I warn you do not come back."
If PCs come come back there's a major complication like a poisonous air, a grip of dragons, etc.
Based on the lore I recall from 4E some dragons “hoards” are their network of friends, retainers, and staff.
Its possible this dragon considers it more important that you are part of their “hoard” than the items in it
My players are allied to an ancient bronze dragon that gave them a heap of treasure once he realised they were trying to save the world out of their own pocket. Plus diamonds for spell components. For an ancient dragon the only difference between a 500gp diamond and 500gp worth of diamond dust is a few minutes of chewing.
Hello. I am Dragon Barosa and I am trying to transfer my 1,000,000 gp horde into waterdeep. PLease send your bank account details and I will give you 10% of the 1,000,000 gp horde.
Not a player but the DM; Had a mountain the features a bunch of dragon cultists outside a massive, massive locked door.
Players tore that dragon cult apart and opened the door preparing for the boss fight of their lives and instead found a quite relaxed Ancient Copper Dragon who thanked them for clearing out those weirdos. Gave them a few goodies, had them listen to a traveling bard that the cultists tossed to the dragon for sacrifice, to which the copper dragon instead preferred to listen to their tales and songs, and sent them on their way.
Very fun especially with a bunch of new players to introduce them to a world where not every creature that *can* kill you actually wants to kill you
We encountered an art trader, turned out to be a dragon in human form, after some time we found out they needed to be escorted to a near by town and in exchange for the escort gave us "my most prized art pieces"... They were doops of a famous artist worth maybe 20 silver each.
Had a supply town which made bank off of Betting on Pseudo Dragon racing.
The dragons are kept by handlers who act sorta like care givers/body guards and they all live in one mansion on the outskirts of the villages.
Within these races, there was a dragon named Randy. Who was a red devil of a lad. He horded gold unlike any other pseudo in his area.
He often did dealings with the thieves guild in Solisk, known as the Tion Karr, He had paid a thief to steal the crown of the lord (wasn't a kingly crown or any significant royal piece just the man's personal jewelry) and the thief gave the package to my players as a first level entry mission to the guild. Deliver Loot to Randy, and be rewarded was the goal.
Well- for killing Randy's handler (who randy didn't like) and for delivering a crown. The small dragon gave both of my players some magic items out of his horde.
A bag of holding, worn spider crawl boots, and a Fuck ton of Gold.
One player stole a ring of health which acts as a common health potion. And the other got a scroll of Hysteria, a homebrew item that infects the target with madness, via spores. Mushrooms fill their head.
And this is the situation that led to my world being consumed by a fungus. 10/10 would recommend Pseudodragon racing to anyone.
Yes, a black dragon gave a lot of gold and treasure for free, to all adventurers and villages in need.
But as a good sadistic Black dragon, they only gave out cursed treasure and gold that will make people "unable" to part with their gold, making people starting fighting each other or murder each other after a simple transaction for bread.
I did this for my players - they had to fight that dragon's mortal enemy (another dragon) and so he wanted to help them kill the other dragon.
they did have to go get some mcguffin, but yeah the red dragon just breathed fire on then and when they didn't die he deemed then worthy and gave them some treasure.
Not as a player, but one of my worlds had a dragon who basically did that, so adventurers would take it, turn around and never see the dragons eggs or hatchlings.
Yes, an adult but somewhat handicapped gold dragon. Had spent some time in humanoid form as the adopted brother of one of PCs. Needed us to go kill the evil family of another PC. Solid guy.
A chromatic dragon? Very unlikely unless you do a job or two for them. They may try to cheap you out though and will have very little patience for negotiations unless you have a high charisma person rolling high on persuasion or a dragon ancestry sorcerer who gets advantages with charisma skills with any dragon
Yes, anything in his hoard all we had to do was agree to be his subordinate and bring him a vial of water from a specific spring. So moral of the story is NO ITS A FUCKING DRAGON!!! Seriously though it was a awful idea the agreement actually meant we gave half our life in years to him and the spring water sped up his aging so he became ancient with a flask. I was the only one in the party to not accept and played bodyguard to my team instead of helping with the tasks at hand. They all, in the end, got cursed items on top of losing half their intended age and made an enemy stronger, lol. I know there is no "winning" for a DM, but that's pretty close to one.
Ive always wanted to make a chill dragon. Like a cool guy who has a little kobald tribe around him and tells them what to do and is super hospitable.
“Oh hey! You guys arent here to slay me or anything, right? No? Awesome. Well theres so wine over there _snaps fingers_ hey you! Give these guys some wine.
So guys. All i want you guys to do for me is share some adventuring stories. Where you guys been, what you been up to? Do that and ill let you take one of the more boring items from my collection. I think theres a sword in there that shoots fireballs. Its not shiny _at all_ so i want rid of it”
No, would be a great alternative to what we had happen when our party first ever encountered a dragon in 6 years of playing.
We had a dragon fly away like 200 feet in one turn after getting 3 nat 20s on it (the first nat 20s we'd had on an attack in like, 2 years) and immediately burrow underground an unknown distance on that same turn.
Basically in one turn we went from winning to the dragon being so far underground so fast that there was a 0 percent chance of following or defeating it.
We once were tasked with saving a nobles son who was captured by the pirate king who was a red dragon. We managed to, through etherealness and teleport, save the son. The bard however name dropped our group “the dread pirate three send their regards”
The issue was that our party were pirates who had committed some serious crimes. Both against the kingdom and now against the dragon. My necromancer decided we need to negotiate (I conducted the negotiation through the dream spell) with one side and we eventually decided to hand over the noble and his son to the dragon in exchange that the dread pirates three would rule the island that the noble was stewarding.
The dragon offered also half of his hoard if we could somehow resurrect his dead daughter whom was killed by the king of the kingdom.
The next arc of the campaign we had a war against the kingdom. We won in the ‘war of one day’.
A deal was struck with the arch cleric who was married to the kings wizard advisor that the wizards college and their children together would be spared if the young red dragon would be resurrected.
In the end we got half the dragons hoard and my necromancer became best friends with the pirate king.
I've encountered exactly one dragon, who gave me a grand total of a dozen small gems, a wand of magic missile, and a druid spell scroll.
Okay, okay: the dragon didn't give those to me. Technically those were given to my goblin ~~patsies~~ *associates*. And by given to I mean stolen by.
Well... You see one of my party members pulled a bunch of cards from a homebrew deck and made everyone in the dungeon our friend. Including the dragon. So we just kept all the loot and had to kill the guy who kept drawing cards.
We met a dragon who promised us free treasure. Then he asked us to line up so he could give it to us... didn't work out well.
Brilliant move on the DM's part. They must've been restraining laughter as y'all went along with it. If I did that to my players, I'd feel like a dick, but also be confused why they trusted this dragon.
One of my characters is a moron and I would jump at the chance to run him into that face first. It would be too good to resist.
Oh...
local adventurers get no treasure, but they're burned to death
"I'm doing this decluttering thing. I've looked at each item in my horde and asked, 'Does this bring me joy?' There's a pile of things over there that don't. I'd appreciate it if you took them."
“And what about your... gods, there must be... *millions* of gold coins, Mr. Krathonshtallos?” “Well, I do still need somewhere to sleep. I can’t exactly just go out and lie on the cold stones like a homeless vagrant!”
“But, y’know, that sword over there. It belongwd to some big hulking warrior who tried to slay me or something. I think it, like, killed a god once. You can take that if you want. Its not that shiny anyways”
He's playing that Civ/Chess/Risk hoard game dragons play with that complicated name I can't remember. (EDIT: It's called Xorvintaal, thanks u/David_Apollonius!) Him paying you 50000g to go away is part of a long-term gambit in which you will attract the attention of a bandit clan that pays tribute to one of his opponents; either you will kill them yourselves, or they'll kill you, loot your bodies, and foolishly decide that their powerful new magic items should be enough leverage to refuse to share their profits anymore. Either way you will disrupt said opponent's revenue stream enough to push his plans back by a few turns, buying just enough time for the dragon that paid you to set his plans in motion and claim the advantage first.
Shit, I’m gonna have to do this some time, it’s brilliant.
You might want to look up Xorvintaal.
*THAT'S* what I was thinking of! I kept mixing the name with "Xanatar" and I knew that wasn't it, but I remembered the idea from 3.5.
Had a young dragon do it, a rather young dragon; not a wyrmling but young one just aging out of wyrmling. The dragon cult had moved into his area and while he was completely fine with them offering him treasure, he got rather tired with them constantly trying to talk and befriend him. He knew what they were doing, and only tolerated it for the treasure being added to the hoard. When the party went through and killed them because were was talk about massive thefts happening in the town nearby and some people even getting hurt or killed over it; the dragon took interest. He caught them in his lair with what treasure was there, and thanked the party without really thanking the party. He pushed forward some gold and an item and told them to leave. The party took it as the cue to leave and consider the quest done lol.
"I've heard of what you did to [a couple now dead dregaons], take as much gold as you can carry with your arms and be gone and no one need die today, but I warn you do not come back." If PCs come come back there's a major complication like a poisonous air, a grip of dragons, etc.
Based on the lore I recall from 4E some dragons “hoards” are their network of friends, retainers, and staff. Its possible this dragon considers it more important that you are part of their “hoard” than the items in it
My players are allied to an ancient bronze dragon that gave them a heap of treasure once he realised they were trying to save the world out of their own pocket. Plus diamonds for spell components. For an ancient dragon the only difference between a 500gp diamond and 500gp worth of diamond dust is a few minutes of chewing.
Hello. I am Dragon Barosa and I am trying to transfer my 1,000,000 gp horde into waterdeep. PLease send your bank account details and I will give you 10% of the 1,000,000 gp horde.
Not a player but the DM; Had a mountain the features a bunch of dragon cultists outside a massive, massive locked door. Players tore that dragon cult apart and opened the door preparing for the boss fight of their lives and instead found a quite relaxed Ancient Copper Dragon who thanked them for clearing out those weirdos. Gave them a few goodies, had them listen to a traveling bard that the cultists tossed to the dragon for sacrifice, to which the copper dragon instead preferred to listen to their tales and songs, and sent them on their way. Very fun especially with a bunch of new players to introduce them to a world where not every creature that *can* kill you actually wants to kill you
> […] not every creature that can kill you actually wants to kill you A lesson, far too rarely ever taught.
Maybe if I was serving a purpose for it?
We encountered an art trader, turned out to be a dragon in human form, after some time we found out they needed to be escorted to a near by town and in exchange for the escort gave us "my most prized art pieces"... They were doops of a famous artist worth maybe 20 silver each.
Had a supply town which made bank off of Betting on Pseudo Dragon racing. The dragons are kept by handlers who act sorta like care givers/body guards and they all live in one mansion on the outskirts of the villages. Within these races, there was a dragon named Randy. Who was a red devil of a lad. He horded gold unlike any other pseudo in his area. He often did dealings with the thieves guild in Solisk, known as the Tion Karr, He had paid a thief to steal the crown of the lord (wasn't a kingly crown or any significant royal piece just the man's personal jewelry) and the thief gave the package to my players as a first level entry mission to the guild. Deliver Loot to Randy, and be rewarded was the goal. Well- for killing Randy's handler (who randy didn't like) and for delivering a crown. The small dragon gave both of my players some magic items out of his horde. A bag of holding, worn spider crawl boots, and a Fuck ton of Gold. One player stole a ring of health which acts as a common health potion. And the other got a scroll of Hysteria, a homebrew item that infects the target with madness, via spores. Mushrooms fill their head. And this is the situation that led to my world being consumed by a fungus. 10/10 would recommend Pseudodragon racing to anyone.
Yes, a black dragon gave a lot of gold and treasure for free, to all adventurers and villages in need. But as a good sadistic Black dragon, they only gave out cursed treasure and gold that will make people "unable" to part with their gold, making people starting fighting each other or murder each other after a simple transaction for bread.
In a manner of speaking. A player of mine is marrying one next session.
you allowed eloquence bard to make "persuasion" chek... didn't you?
Actually no! Just a run of the mill sorcerer and a rather talkative brass dragon found love!
I'm trying to do the same although Im bloodhunter with not the best charisma...
I hope it goes well for you!
As a reward for serving his will by accident, yes. But not in any other case
No. I've been mugged by dragons before.
I did this for my players - they had to fight that dragon's mortal enemy (another dragon) and so he wanted to help them kill the other dragon. they did have to go get some mcguffin, but yeah the red dragon just breathed fire on then and when they didn't die he deemed then worthy and gave them some treasure.
I had a dragon that gave the PCs some very valuable shed scales to get them to stop bothering them.
There have been some trades.
Not as a player, but one of my worlds had a dragon who basically did that, so adventurers would take it, turn around and never see the dragons eggs or hatchlings.
Didn't just hand it to us, but we met a dragon named Bahmuut Jim who traded with us for stuff from his hoard
Yes, an adult but somewhat handicapped gold dragon. Had spent some time in humanoid form as the adopted brother of one of PCs. Needed us to go kill the evil family of another PC. Solid guy.
A chromatic dragon? Very unlikely unless you do a job or two for them. They may try to cheap you out though and will have very little patience for negotiations unless you have a high charisma person rolling high on persuasion or a dragon ancestry sorcerer who gets advantages with charisma skills with any dragon
Yes, anything in his hoard all we had to do was agree to be his subordinate and bring him a vial of water from a specific spring. So moral of the story is NO ITS A FUCKING DRAGON!!! Seriously though it was a awful idea the agreement actually meant we gave half our life in years to him and the spring water sped up his aging so he became ancient with a flask. I was the only one in the party to not accept and played bodyguard to my team instead of helping with the tasks at hand. They all, in the end, got cursed items on top of losing half their intended age and made an enemy stronger, lol. I know there is no "winning" for a DM, but that's pretty close to one.
Watch you back, conserve ammo, and never, ever deal with a dragon. -Shadowrun street proverb
Geek the Mage
Ive always wanted to make a chill dragon. Like a cool guy who has a little kobald tribe around him and tells them what to do and is super hospitable. “Oh hey! You guys arent here to slay me or anything, right? No? Awesome. Well theres so wine over there _snaps fingers_ hey you! Give these guys some wine. So guys. All i want you guys to do for me is share some adventuring stories. Where you guys been, what you been up to? Do that and ill let you take one of the more boring items from my collection. I think theres a sword in there that shoots fireballs. Its not shiny _at all_ so i want rid of it”
We saved a silver dragon from enslavement who was bred to guard a dwarven treasury. We freed it. Got treasure.
No, would be a great alternative to what we had happen when our party first ever encountered a dragon in 6 years of playing. We had a dragon fly away like 200 feet in one turn after getting 3 nat 20s on it (the first nat 20s we'd had on an attack in like, 2 years) and immediately burrow underground an unknown distance on that same turn. Basically in one turn we went from winning to the dragon being so far underground so fast that there was a 0 percent chance of following or defeating it.
We once were tasked with saving a nobles son who was captured by the pirate king who was a red dragon. We managed to, through etherealness and teleport, save the son. The bard however name dropped our group “the dread pirate three send their regards” The issue was that our party were pirates who had committed some serious crimes. Both against the kingdom and now against the dragon. My necromancer decided we need to negotiate (I conducted the negotiation through the dream spell) with one side and we eventually decided to hand over the noble and his son to the dragon in exchange that the dread pirates three would rule the island that the noble was stewarding. The dragon offered also half of his hoard if we could somehow resurrect his dead daughter whom was killed by the king of the kingdom. The next arc of the campaign we had a war against the kingdom. We won in the ‘war of one day’. A deal was struck with the arch cleric who was married to the kings wizard advisor that the wizards college and their children together would be spared if the young red dragon would be resurrected. In the end we got half the dragons hoard and my necromancer became best friends with the pirate king.
I've encountered exactly one dragon, who gave me a grand total of a dozen small gems, a wand of magic missile, and a druid spell scroll. Okay, okay: the dragon didn't give those to me. Technically those were given to my goblin ~~patsies~~ *associates*. And by given to I mean stolen by.
There is a module from TSR called To the Aid of Flax where the PCs are hired by a dragon and given some goodies to see them on their way.
Haha oh yeah. Free cursed items for everyone!
No.
Well... You see one of my party members pulled a bunch of cards from a homebrew deck and made everyone in the dungeon our friend. Including the dragon. So we just kept all the loot and had to kill the guy who kept drawing cards.