By Aaron Gustwiller
Aaron's Gaming Stuff
S&W
Levels 2-3
Recently, and much to the despair of the nearest residents, a Young Red Dragon, Malurax, has taken up residence within the ruins. Shortly after moving in, the young dragon began preying on the livestock of the local peasantry, driving many to the brink of ruin. Harold, one of these peasants, called a fool by some but egged on by others, decided to try and slay the beast himself, but never returned.
This eight page adventure uses two pages to describe nine rooms in a young dragons lair. It flirts with some decent imagery at times but comes off very flat. It’s just a room with a drgon in it.
Ok, so, good on Harold! I bitch all the time about the locals not taking their fate in their own hands. And, it just goes to show you … sometimes you get the dragon and most of the time the dragon gets you. But, still, I admire Harold. We don’t get anything about Harold, but, I’d have loved to have seen some shit about Harold being desperate, in dept, loansharks on his ass, or hating his wife, or great with the local always volunteering and stuff. And then some shit about finding harolds body. And, maybe, the villagers caring more about Harold than they do the party at the end. These are the things that really ground an adventure and tha ta DM can really riff on. I guess the fact that I’m brining it up at all means that it DID spark some interesting thoughts for play, but, as always, I want the designer doing a lot of the heavy lifting here. Or, better said, some medium lifting through heavy work.
And. then, there’s the dragon. At levels two or three. That’s an AC2 (ouch!) and 9HD 18HP dragon. What is that, like, 18HP of damage, save for halfsies? I’m not sure that halfsies is gonna matter. There are some giant bats present in one of the rooms, but other than that it’s just a dragon sitting on its hoard. (Which, I appreciate. The classics are always the best.) Anyway, this is gonna take some work. Any dumbass party is gonna get cooked. You’re gonna have to go in with some poisoned cows or some shit. Or a fuck ton of men at arms. Which you aint getting at the local village (not detailed.) That AC2 man. Ooph. That’s gonna be a rough one. But, hey, at least you’re not a dirt farmer!
The villagers offer some cash for killing the dragon. 600gp as I recall. And you get 1200xp for turning down the gold. *hrumph* Not a fan of imposing morality in an adventure. There ARE gods in D&D, and an afterlife, so, I guess there IS a morality inherent in a land without Neitzsche. But it just seems wrong.
The map has some small castle ruins, just the ouline of walls really, running up to a creek with a hole in a cliff wall and six chambers inside of it. There are a couple of loops, and a couple os passages that the dragon can’t get down .. .which, as the adventure points out, is not true for the dragons breathe weapon. Still, it offers some opportunities. It is, in the end, just a lair map.
Room one, the courtyard of the ruins. “Scattered around the ruin’s courtyard are the bones of cows, horses and sheep.” Ok, so, we’re going minimalistic here. Nice concept, with the bones of the livestock the dragon has been preying on. I could use a little more viscereal in it though. Room two, the ruines of a small one room building in the courtyard: “ Inside the ruined building are the remains of a half-eaten horse, being picked at by crows. The crows fly away when a
character enters the doorway.” So, a little bit of padding here. But, the crows, dead horse, and them flying off? That’s good. It SEEMS dynamic even if it is still static. That is the extent of those two descriptions. There is nothing more to those rooms. We’re clearly working up to the dragon. Adding some foreboding and such. Not bad, but still a little lacking if were just gonna shove a dragon in a room on the inside. Which is what hte adventure does.
Room three, the stream crossing from the ruins in to the cliffside cave mouth: The land bridge between the ruins and the lair entrance is made up of dirt and the scattered remains of the castle walls that washed away in the flood. The footprints of a small dragon can be clearly seen in the dirt.” This is a little interesting, from an evocative standpoint. Land bridge, dirt, huge chunks of stone. Th dragons footprints could be a little more ominous, but, I’ll take on that challenge.
I won’t do all of nine rooms, but I’ll do one more “ There is a pool of murky water in the southwest corner of the room. The pool is about 1ft deep.” With just nine rooms I think I’d like to see just a little bit more going on. Some viscera? Harolds body? The dragon is kind of an afterthought. Just The dragon sitting on its hoard, with no description beyond that.
Not much lead in at all here beyond what you’ve read in the intro. A little bit of “theres a dragon here” window dressing in the ruins, but not much at all in the cave. And then an aggressively minimalistic approach to the descriptions. With just nine rooms to work with, it feels like more could have been with the lead in, or to build an environment in which the characters and dragon face off. I’m not the biggest fan of set pieces, but, a nine room set piece, or some room count like that, could have been an interesting concept. (I wasn’t exactly mad at some of the 4e adventure concepts in which encounters spanned a larger larger with multiple chambers)
You’re not really buying anything here. Figuratively or literally.
This is free at DriveThru.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/515288/malurax-lair?1892600
I’m gonna keep on dancing
Re: imposing morality. Is it just wrong to impose positive morality, i.e. a bigger reward for “good” behavior? Because otherwise it is strongly imposing selfish behavior: take the money or get nothing. Here, there is a choice: take the money or refuse it, maybe getting something else instead.
I always prefer what I call the James Bond option: you do the Right Thing AND you get fame, fortune, and The Girl.
Assuming xp for gold is in effect, I’m very okay with this instance. 600 xp and spend the gold, or 1200 xp and no gold.
But I’m also assuming a minimally competent GM, not playing both sides of the screen. No “are you sSuUrReE?”, no “you get the feeling,” guiding players away from taking the reward, just a neutral arbiter not screwing over the players for roleplaying a certain way.
Anonymous, if you turn down money in the expectation that you will get something as good or better, that is still selfish behaviour. The neutral option would be if you can take the gold and its associated XP, or turn down the gold and still get the same XP – since in real life showing moral fibre doesn’t get you any closer to learning Fireball.
I think so long as the choice isn’t telegraphed, it shouldn’t be too egregious. Keeping the more XP reward for turning down the money should be a surprise. That way it’s not “imposing” morality, as Bryce puts it (because you can’t really impose with something the players don’t know about). A nice little thematic reward for those who choose to do good, as a good character. Don’t make it commonplace/standard/default (i.e. don’t allow the players to expect it), and it shouldn’t be a problem.
I don’t ever think about it, really. I set up situations, players can resolve them (or not) however they see fit for the gain type (gold, items, XP, sense of justice, etc) that matters to them. I almost never include any sort of XP of XP bonus of multiplier that comes from resolving a situation according to some particular moral fashion. If some entity in the situation has what you want, work it out however you see fit.
I think a little morality from time to time can be a DM’s tool to keep paladins in check since they have all the goodies. Anyways, almost a cool name for a lair, but I might be bias…
Low level dragon lair with a simple map, fixed. The dragon is away when the players get in. The treasure hoard is valuable enough to level everyone in the party, but some of it is cumbersome. Silver or copper coins, or a random collection of stone idols, something. Play decision: grab the best and run, take it all and cross your fingers, set up an ambush to fulfill your original mission, come back with more guys and a better plan now you know the layout… Could get more mileage out of the same map and level of detail.
There is a short story by Lawrence Watt-Evans about a dragon who basically does this. They got a dragon hunter (who originally they wanted to sacrifice to the dragon) who simply poisoned it by putting out poisoned food for it to eat.