I recently acquired "Storm King's Thunder. One of the reasons to get it was the amount of locations described on the Savage Frontier. I love the material, but now, as I'm reading through it I have run into something I cannot wrap my head around. There are many factions in the Forgotten Realms. The Zhentarim is one of those factions. Over the past hundred years they changed their attitude a bit and did a great PR campaign. They're not as evil as they used to be. That much is clear. The organisation is still involved in illicit trade. Poison, drugs, slaves, anything that will make money, while keeping up appearances for the rest of the world. It is a great faction for players who don't want to do a "Knight in shining armour" campaign. In the Dragon Heist adventure there's even a split in the Zhentarim factions in Waterdeep. One thoroughly evil, the other less so. The description for the faction states that it will approach evil characters and those who seem morally ambiguous. So "Evil" and "Morally Ambiguous" are the descriptors for potential Zhent agents.
At what point does it make sense to have an adult! Bronze Dragon on the Zhentarim payroll. I mean I get making the Zhents more likeable, to create more player options. But an adult Bronze Dragon? Unlike humans, who can have any alignment, a metallic dragon is "Good" by definition. It is over a hundred years old. It could know about the Zhentarim history and was probably aware of the Manshoon clone wars. The Monstrous Manual tells us the following about Bronze Dragons; "Bronze dragons actively oppose tyranny..... They are also fascinated by warfare and eagerly join armies fighting for a just cause." I think the Zhents would qualify for the former and not the latter. And considering the nature of metallic dragons; "In it for the money", does not cut it as an explanation.
Or is it just me who finds this exceptionally strange?
Stats blocks are not necessarily set in stone, especially for alignments.
That said, when a detail in an adventure is vague, it is up to the DM to define it better. In the case of a bronze dragon working for the Zentharim, it could be an old debt? They have some kind of leverage? Those could make for an interesting hook of a side quest.
I was wondering this same things as the town of Daggerford had become a major plot place for my current campaign. But the fact that an Adult Bronze Dragon named "Zira" disguised as a half elf is working with the Black Network just does not jive with me. Granted as the moderator stated as the DM you can further define the reason. But I found it just an odd choice and had to wonder if the writers made a goof. Now granted as will all things D&D the rules are just suggestions, which goes for alignment as well. Bronze Dragons are listed as Lawful Good, but there is nothing to state you could not have a metallic dragon be evil or ambiguous in its alignment, or one of the chromatic dragons not be evil. Anyway I am sorting out if I will use the NPC in SKT as is or makes some changes.
I know it's an old string so probably wont be seen but I just ran into this myself while I've been prepping to run SKT. I agree for the most part that a Bronze Dragon would not work for the Zhents under normal conditions. So that leaves me with a few options if I want to use this quest. As the OP stated, the dragon could be a bit morally ambiguous. While I don't think that this is a bad plan, I don't particularly like it for my campaign. Especially since I'm either going to make this dragon Felgolos or a friend of Felgolos, who HATES the Zhents. So i'm thinking either that the faction in question is a different faction, maybe the Gauntlet, or that Zira is not working FOR the Zhents but rather is working WITH them to learn about what she believes is a greater evil, the Karaken Society. She has discovered that the Zhent's have been infiltrated by KS agents and she's working with some of their agents to gather intel. Bonus foreshadowing of the Kraken Society. Thoughts?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hey all,
I recently acquired "Storm King's Thunder. One of the reasons to get it was the amount of locations described on the Savage Frontier. I love the material, but now, as I'm reading through it I have run into something I cannot wrap my head around. There are many factions in the Forgotten Realms. The Zhentarim is one of those factions. Over the past hundred years they changed their attitude a bit and did a great PR campaign. They're not as evil as they used to be. That much is clear. The organisation is still involved in illicit trade. Poison, drugs, slaves, anything that will make money, while keeping up appearances for the rest of the world. It is a great faction for players who don't want to do a "Knight in shining armour" campaign. In the Dragon Heist adventure there's even a split in the Zhentarim factions in Waterdeep. One thoroughly evil, the other less so. The description for the faction states that it will approach evil characters and those who seem morally ambiguous. So "Evil" and "Morally Ambiguous" are the descriptors for potential Zhent agents.
At what point does it make sense to have an adult! Bronze Dragon on the Zhentarim payroll. I mean I get making the Zhents more likeable, to create more player options. But an adult Bronze Dragon? Unlike humans, who can have any alignment, a metallic dragon is "Good" by definition. It is over a hundred years old. It could know about the Zhentarim history and was probably aware of the Manshoon clone wars. The Monstrous Manual tells us the following about Bronze Dragons; "Bronze dragons actively oppose tyranny..... They are also fascinated by warfare and eagerly join armies fighting for a just cause." I think the Zhents would qualify for the former and not the latter. And considering the nature of metallic dragons; "In it for the money", does not cut it as an explanation.
Or is it just me who finds this exceptionally strange?
Stats blocks are not necessarily set in stone, especially for alignments.
That said, when a detail in an adventure is vague, it is up to the DM to define it better. In the case of a bronze dragon working for the Zentharim, it could be an old debt? They have some kind of leverage? Those could make for an interesting hook of a side quest.
I was wondering this same things as the town of Daggerford had become a major plot place for my current campaign. But the fact that an Adult Bronze Dragon named "Zira" disguised as a half elf is working with the Black Network just does not jive with me. Granted as the moderator stated as the DM you can further define the reason. But I found it just an odd choice and had to wonder if the writers made a goof. Now granted as will all things D&D the rules are just suggestions, which goes for alignment as well. Bronze Dragons are listed as Lawful Good, but there is nothing to state you could not have a metallic dragon be evil or ambiguous in its alignment, or one of the chromatic dragons not be evil. Anyway I am sorting out if I will use the NPC in SKT as is or makes some changes.
Are you willing to accept a good drow? But not a neutral Bronze Dragon?.
I know it's an old string so probably wont be seen but I just ran into this myself while I've been prepping to run SKT. I agree for the most part that a Bronze Dragon would not work for the Zhents under normal conditions. So that leaves me with a few options if I want to use this quest. As the OP stated, the dragon could be a bit morally ambiguous. While I don't think that this is a bad plan, I don't particularly like it for my campaign. Especially since I'm either going to make this dragon Felgolos or a friend of Felgolos, who HATES the Zhents. So i'm thinking either that the faction in question is a different faction, maybe the Gauntlet, or that Zira is not working FOR the Zhents but rather is working WITH them to learn about what she believes is a greater evil, the Karaken Society. She has discovered that the Zhent's have been infiltrated by KS agents and she's working with some of their agents to gather intel. Bonus foreshadowing of the Kraken Society. Thoughts?