I am writing a standalone module (2-4 sessions I expect) which will likely culminate in a fight against a dragon, where the party will be in the town and the dragon will be angrily trying to destroy them/it.
My current thought is that the town (which is all high towers with bridges between them) will have ballistas on the rooves of the buildings to protect against this sort of thing, and that the party will have access to these to help destroy the dragon. The dragon will also be obsessed with recovering the artefact that the party has on them, so thye can bait it with that.
I am interested in other props I can have lying around (foreshadowed in descriptions from before the fight) to give the party some cool stuff to play with, preferably with a different purpose than the crossbows. I'm thinking several large water towers would be cool (probably bolted to the cliff above the town, in a manner which can be brought down if the players want to). There will also be a magical book which the players will know about which they fought in the previous game in this town, so they might decide to try and use that.
I certainly don't want to try and write the fight out for them, but I know that the best player plans come about from having stuff to work with in the immediate vicinity - the last time they played here, they tried t odrop a boulder on the BBEG from the cliff, because I mentioned there was one there!
So what can I add to the town which is not critical but could be relevant in killing a dragon?
A Limbermill? That's a big saw and can spin pretty fast.... A stone quarry? Probably lots of explosive powder and/or pully system to get the heavy heavy stone that would be a shame if that stone fell on top of someone... Large shipping dock? Anything could be on a boat, who knows.
A Limbermill? That's a big saw and can spin pretty fast.... A stone quarry? Probably lots of explosive powder and/or pully system to get the heavy heavy stone that would be a shame if that stone fell on top of someone... Large shipping dock? Anything could be on a boat, who knows.
Ooh, that's a good call. The town is predominantly a farming town, with cattle - they make cheese and sell the meat. The cows (which are a key part of the plot, actually) are huge (10ft' at the shoulder), so there is a reasonable call for them to have a massive slaughterhouse, which may well have a huge bandsaw in it for cutting the carcasses! that's definitely going in!
I had a similar situation a few months back, in which a young blue dragon attacked a town with three ballistas. The party had a sidekick that casted Earthbind and then hid behind a few houses, it made the fight trivial with one of the big bads of the campaign dying to random guard manning the siege engine.
My advice would be to be careful if the party has one such spell. Immediately after it died I realized that I might have avoided this if it was a spellcaster variant with thunderstep to close the distance and attack the caster or if I had given it a legendary resistance.
What type of dragon and how old will it be? Different breath weapons would open the way to different gimmicks.
Current plan is probably going to be a blue dragon. I'm expecting a party of 4-5 level 8 players with 2 uncommon or 1 rare magic item each, plus a steed for the chase scene back to town (they will be in sight of town when the dragon catches up to them).
Current key items in the city are that it is being modernised by a tribe of gnomes who have moved in since the last adventure:
The city is small buyt very tall, lots of very high towers, linlked by bridges (and now pipes)
several huge water tanks bolted to the cliffside above the town, which could be brought down on it
lots of pipework leading to the tanks (which could be used for earthing the lightning)
ballistas on the rooves of several towers
The Gnomish tower has an elevator which leads directly to the roof in 6 seconds flat (little bit of meta knowledge for the players there)
A Gnomish automated slaughterhouse for the giant cows, which is kind of like a huge golem but in the form of a building - it's under the command of the foreman of the guild of slaughterers.
So this gives us:
towers and bridges to jump onto the dragon from
a quick way up the towers
ballistas to shoot at the dragon
water tanks to drop on the dragon
slaughterhouse to use to trap & attack the dragon
copper pipes to conduct the electricity
That's all good ambience for the players to learn about before the fight, so they should have their choice of cunnng plans to kill the dragon! the slaughterhouse will also be a good red herring for the players as they will be on the lookout for something that can go wrong!
If the city is in the process of being modernized maybe you could add cranes and buildings the are still under construction?
Like, have the arm of a crane move/rotate horizontally if you pull a lever so that the tip of it is near different buildings depending of its position. Or you could make a note that the faster you pull the lever the faster the arm moves and it risks sending the cargo flying (because gnomes have no sense of what is safe and reasonable). Or have them getting ready to demolish a building with explosive charges already set.
Another thing to consider is that the dragon won't attack at range every turn, so maybe add some of the props for the dragon to use? Like, a half built building that it can collopse, giant glass windows so that it can go through the buildings (and those below have to dodge the raining glass)... Speaking of glass, maybe the gnomes made a giant lantern to work through the night that can be used to blind people when it hits the windows the wrong way or their faces directly?
Definitely adding the cranes, I can imagine the players wanting to snag a dragon! Giant lanterns is also a cool concept, so they can definitely be included!
As for demolishing buildings, that's already in the pipeline - I'm not going to let the players sit on top of a building with a ballista for several turns now, am I?
Fun fact! Flour mills had had a bad history of exploding HORRIBLY in GIANT FIREBALLS ( lots of fine dust suspended in air + fire = kaboom), so if this is an agrarian area that's a fun one to add.
You could add a caravan transport for meat delivery if you want to diversify the target pool a bit.
Perhaps the gnomes have a glue gun apparatus to immobilize rambunctious cattle.
Or have availability of Iron Bands to restrain the cattle with a higher DC than normal. Perhaps the bands can immobilize a wing and force the dragon to land until it breaks the band. It would make the ballista bolts have a more interesting effect than just damage.
This isn't something that helps fight the dragon but since it is a vertical city maybe there could be ropes going from one building to another to line dry clothes? To help the players move across streets.
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I am writing a standalone module (2-4 sessions I expect) which will likely culminate in a fight against a dragon, where the party will be in the town and the dragon will be angrily trying to destroy them/it.
My current thought is that the town (which is all high towers with bridges between them) will have ballistas on the rooves of the buildings to protect against this sort of thing, and that the party will have access to these to help destroy the dragon. The dragon will also be obsessed with recovering the artefact that the party has on them, so thye can bait it with that.
I am interested in other props I can have lying around (foreshadowed in descriptions from before the fight) to give the party some cool stuff to play with, preferably with a different purpose than the crossbows. I'm thinking several large water towers would be cool (probably bolted to the cliff above the town, in a manner which can be brought down if the players want to). There will also be a magical book which the players will know about which they fought in the previous game in this town, so they might decide to try and use that.
I certainly don't want to try and write the fight out for them, but I know that the best player plans come about from having stuff to work with in the immediate vicinity - the last time they played here, they tried t odrop a boulder on the BBEG from the cliff, because I mentioned there was one there!
So what can I add to the town which is not critical but could be relevant in killing a dragon?
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What sort of industry is in the town?
A Limbermill? That's a big saw and can spin pretty fast.... A stone quarry? Probably lots of explosive powder and/or pully system to get the heavy heavy stone that would be a shame if that stone fell on top of someone... Large shipping dock? Anything could be on a boat, who knows.
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"Play the game however you want to play the game. After all, your fun doesn't threaten my fun."
Ooh, that's a good call. The town is predominantly a farming town, with cattle - they make cheese and sell the meat. The cows (which are a key part of the plot, actually) are huge (10ft' at the shoulder), so there is a reasonable call for them to have a massive slaughterhouse, which may well have a huge bandsaw in it for cutting the carcasses! that's definitely going in!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread - latest release; the Harvest Sprite, a playable Jack-o-Lantern Race!
Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: The College of Fisticuffs Bard!
I also dabble in art on here (my art thread)
I had a similar situation a few months back, in which a young blue dragon attacked a town with three ballistas. The party had a sidekick that casted Earthbind and then hid behind a few houses, it made the fight trivial with one of the big bads of the campaign dying to random guard manning the siege engine.
My advice would be to be careful if the party has one such spell. Immediately after it died I realized that I might have avoided this if it was a spellcaster variant with thunderstep to close the distance and attack the caster or if I had given it a legendary resistance.
What type of dragon and how old will it be? Different breath weapons would open the way to different gimmicks.
Current plan is probably going to be a blue dragon. I'm expecting a party of 4-5 level 8 players with 2 uncommon or 1 rare magic item each, plus a steed for the chase scene back to town (they will be in sight of town when the dragon catches up to them).
Current key items in the city are that it is being modernised by a tribe of gnomes who have moved in since the last adventure:
So this gives us:
That's all good ambience for the players to learn about before the fight, so they should have their choice of cunnng plans to kill the dragon! the slaughterhouse will also be a good red herring for the players as they will be on the lookout for something that can go wrong!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread - latest release; the Harvest Sprite, a playable Jack-o-Lantern Race!
Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: The College of Fisticuffs Bard!
I also dabble in art on here (my art thread)
If the city is in the process of being modernized maybe you could add cranes and buildings the are still under construction?
Like, have the arm of a crane move/rotate horizontally if you pull a lever so that the tip of it is near different buildings depending of its position. Or you could make a note that the faster you pull the lever the faster the arm moves and it risks sending the cargo flying (because gnomes have no sense of what is safe and reasonable). Or have them getting ready to demolish a building with explosive charges already set.
Another thing to consider is that the dragon won't attack at range every turn, so maybe add some of the props for the dragon to use? Like, a half built building that it can collopse, giant glass windows so that it can go through the buildings (and those below have to dodge the raining glass)... Speaking of glass, maybe the gnomes made a giant lantern to work through the night that can be used to blind people when it hits the windows the wrong way or their faces directly?
those are some amazing ideas!
Definitely adding the cranes, I can imagine the players wanting to snag a dragon! Giant lanterns is also a cool concept, so they can definitely be included!
As for demolishing buildings, that's already in the pipeline - I'm not going to let the players sit on top of a building with a ballista for several turns now, am I?
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread - latest release; the Harvest Sprite, a playable Jack-o-Lantern Race!
Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: The College of Fisticuffs Bard!
I also dabble in art on here (my art thread)
Fun fact! Flour mills had had a bad history of exploding HORRIBLY in GIANT FIREBALLS ( lots of fine dust suspended in air + fire = kaboom), so if this is an agrarian area that's a fun one to add.
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If the party is generally good, they may choose to engage the dragon outside of town, to avoid "civilian" casualties.....
You could add a caravan transport for meat delivery if you want to diversify the target pool a bit.
Perhaps the gnomes have a glue gun apparatus to immobilize rambunctious cattle.
Or have availability of Iron Bands to restrain the cattle with a higher DC than normal. Perhaps the bands can immobilize a wing and force the dragon to land until it breaks the band. It would make the ballista bolts have a more interesting effect than just damage.
This isn't something that helps fight the dragon but since it is a vertical city maybe there could be ropes going from one building to another to line dry clothes? To help the players move across streets.