I’m planning to run a PBP version of the Sunless Citadel pretty soon, and use the Gulthias tree to bridge the dungeon over into Barovia and a contest with Strahd.
I’m placing Oakhurst about a days ride North from Neverwinter. The bartender at the Old Boar Inn is going to start recruiting 1st level characters to join the Oakhurst Adventurers Club and try to earn Gold, Honor and possibly even Renown by running a variety of low level missions. The barkeeper is a Tier 4 human fighter in his early eighties , and very friendly.
Depending on who shows up at the Old Boar Inn, I will offer a hook for the Sunless Citadel or one of the side missions from Lost Mines of Phandelver.
I will offer a somewhat future version of the Citadel. The Kobolds Control the top level and are friendly (yet still evil) to humans, based on the efforts of the last humans to pass through. The White Dragon is starting to be too big to be called a Wyrmling, and is quite vicious, but it too remembers that humans sometimes like to flatter and bribe, and the last humans that came through gave him a very large quantity of copper pieces. Meepo is now the equivalent of a 5th level Rogue with resistance to cold. Meepo loves visitors and is itching to join the party. Not every single Kobold is evil. Meepo is not evil.
The hobgoblins are gone and so are the bugbears. The goblins stay on the lower level and are ruled by the goblin shaman. Not every Goblin is evil, however some goblins are starting to be influenced by the mists.
Belak is gone, captured and taken into the Neverwinter Woods to be questioned by the Druids. The Gulthias Tree was burnt to the ground by a determined assault of radiant energy, but it was not destroyed. It regrows, and with it, the mists of Barovia reach out through the darkness from where it grows. It hasn’t become a problem for the surface yet.
The rolling plains to the east of Oakhurst and the foothills leading up to the woods make good land for a variety of farmsteads, and the folk all appear to be modestly prosperous. This is in fact a retirement community for Good Aligned Tier 4 human and halfling characters who are old now, and too busy with family matters to go on adventures any more, but they do like to meet up in the town center to drink and catch up regularly.
I would like to invite you all to participate. I would appreciate help as DM, but joining as a player is fine too since I want to try out some of the lesser used game mechanics like honor and renown, which should make the new and different from previous editions. If nothing else, maybe one of your old characters would like to retire in the hills around Oakhurst and possibly offer advice to young adventures meeting up at the Old Boar Inn.
The beginning of this adventure in TftYP mentions the Old Road but none of the Sword Coast maps I have or can find online identify where the Old Road is. I get that we're supposed to be over by Thundertree and Neverwinter but it'd be nice to know what the Old Road is supposed to connect to. My party didn't go to Thundertree when they played through LMoP so I'm going to tie that one back into this since it had a green dragon there. When they're in Thundertree it would be logical for the next destination to be Neverwinter or Phandalin which could lead them to Oakhurst. I'm just trying to place it logically and it would be nice to know about the Old Road. Anyone know of a map that would have this? Or where did you all put it if you ran Sunless Citadel in the Sword Coast? (We're playing Hoard of the Dragon Queen right now and I'm using every resource I can to flesh out motivations and the adventure itself a bit more. SC is the perfect addition since it was already once a cult stronghold.)
Just rename the Old Road to a road that fits with the region your in. First 10 levels of my campaign takes place in the far south-east of the continent. More tropical setting. There wasn't an old road and I just drew it myself to make stuff fit. That's what we DM's do. Most adventures aren't simply copy and paste even though some like to run it that way :P
I imagine that the old road was on the north side of the Neverwinter River and led from an ancient boat landing on the coast to a bridge or a ford across the river near Thundertree. The old road crosses the high road about one days travel north from Neverwinter. It was used in the days before the bridges at Neverwinter were reliable. Neverwinter has been around for over a thousand years although it has been rebuilt several times.
I’m using this location to combine elements of LMoP and SC together.
Thanks guys. I currently have it 15 miles from both Thundertree and Neverwinter. After our next session or two when we've played through Dragonspear Castle I'll know better if I'm going to get to this one next or not. I appreciate the input for location of the citadel.
How about there's just a back door that they know about? A secret tunnel?
Was this at me or WizTropics?
If me, I could maybe use the back door idea unless they decide to head an entirely different direction. Depending on player choices, the Sunless Citadel may or may not come up any time soon. There are a few different directions the group can head after getting through the next dungeon they're going to be facing.
Had a fun bit of gameplay in my sessions thus far in the Yawning Portal series (in which the Sunless Citadel is the first adventure).
The party fought a homebrew creature of my own design, the Corpseblighter, formed from the vampiric 'murder' of a dryad against a dead tree, and after defeating it, the party recovered the dagger used to turn the dryad as she seemed to recover. Emphasis on 'seemed to'. :3
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Working on a supplement for the adventure-minded. A project including (and crediting) homebrew subclasses from the community, a world of my own design, premade characters, magic items, and even a prologue adventure to start things off!
Past and Current Characters: Morgann 'Duskspear' Solbeard, Hill Dwarf Paladin/Fighter/Warlock; Ephemeral 'Skye' Solbeard, Hill Dwarf Artificer; Zaldrick Lawscrip of Orzhov, Hobgoblin Wizard; Eremys Spydrun, Shadar'kai Monk; Cuchulainn, Wood Elf Blood Hunter.
So I'm a day way from the boss fight vs Belak and his minions. Running a larger group that has received some pretty big boons through good Roleplaying and DM twerks. I changed the goblins to be goblin grenadiers that throw bombs and sticks of dynamite. Albeit poorly sometimes throwing dynamite with 1-2 round fuses. I also removed the hobgoblin boss from the end of the first floor and replaced him with RipNugget and Stick foot from pathfinder. Goblin warrior riding a giant gecko (reskinned giant spider). They defeated this adversary though lost a player in the process. Befriended the giant gecko through magic means (druids), rolled to craft 3 sticks of dynamite from the goblins supplies, found two potions of alchemists fire and are now prepping to bust in on Belak.
This has all been working up to the final fight and I'd hate for them to walk in and kill him in 1 or 2 rounds. So I'm debating giving him some lair/legendary actions. Basically 3 uses of create water out of turn sequence. To prevent the burning of the gulthias tree too early. I think it'll make it more fun, as it'll catch them off guard and buy the rest of the monsters some time. I'm also leaning towards twig blights spawning everytime the tree takes damage. 1d4 twig blights as the trees reaction. So only once per round. To slow them down and make it more perilous.
Not really, you have put a lot of thought into rebalancing it. When my group got to that fight we were running it at a little higher level than published, I'd done some upgrades but the rogue still one shot sneak attacked Belak to death before conversation, let alone combat had begun.
The Lizardman Druid in my party ate him after he died meeting the Dragon. Meepo and Druid had both agreed to feast on each others corpses as a mark of respect....
The beginning of this adventure in TftYP mentions the Old Road but none of the Sword Coast maps I have or can find online identify where the Old Road is. I get that we're supposed to be over by Thundertree and Neverwinter but it'd be nice to know what the Old Road is supposed to connect to. My party didn't go to Thundertree when they played through LMoP so I'm going to tie that one back into this since it had a green dragon there. When they're in Thundertree it would be logical for the next destination to be Neverwinter or Phandalin which could lead them to Oakhurst. I'm just trying to place it logically and it would be nice to know about the Old Road. Anyone know of a map that would have this? Or where did you all put it if you ran Sunless Citadel in the Sword Coast? (We're playing Hoard of the Dragon Queen right now and I'm using every resource I can to flesh out motivations and the adventure itself a bit more. SC is the perfect addition since it was already once a cult stronghold.)
The Old Road is a hangover from the original 3.0 edition of the module, I guess the editors who updated it slipped up there.....
The original module had a blasted wasteland to the western edge of the map, the Ashen Plain, the Old Road run down the east side of the Ravine the Citadel sits in, starting at Oakhurst which lays to the northeast of the ravine and it connects to the New Road within the Town, the Old Road run off the bottom of the map to who knows where, as it wasn't actually set in a specific game world.
If Belak is surprised, he doesn’t stand a chance, but he should know they are coming and stay hidden. He has access to the control flames cantrip which could control non-magical fire threats,, and charm person seems like a spell that should be his specialty.
He could use wild shape to become a tiny spider to crawl to a hiding place on the ceiling, where he could charm vulnerable party members to sow chaos while twig blights and goblins take cheap shots. He can slow down groups of people and possibly restrain them with his wand of entangle..
The moment it doesn’t seem like things are going to work out for Belak, he wild shapes into an appropriate form and flees. He is a great NPC to pop back up from time to time whenever you need someone insane to move the story along. If the party manages to catch him, they should be rewarded with the wand of entangle, which is a great low level magic item that will get tons of use.
I'd like to run my extended lore by anybody interested. I am mashing up SC into the start of a DoIP (and the expansion modules) campaign. Furthermore, I have turned Cryovain into Electrovain, a young blue dragon, and followed suit with Calcryx, turning him into a blue dragon wyrmling instead of white, although that change is not necessarily relevant right now.
The story so far is that the players were helping Meepo (who one is absolutely enchanted by and the others kinda like, but not enough to die for). They reach Calcryx but are already a bit bashed and battered. Calcryx is about to unleash death on them as Meepo entered the room, but the party persuade him to parlay first. They send Meepo out of the room, realizing that Calcryx wants just one thing while Meepo is there, and manage to calm the dragon down a bit. He is a boastful thing and talks about how he has made this magnificent lair and has the goblins serving him now. They don't, really, but they unlock the door every now and then and throw some rotting meat in. They are terrified, but Balsag left them instructions and they are also terrified of Balsag. Anyway, Calcryx considers this much better than the arrangements with the kobolds, since breaking the chain, and he has no interest in leaving. He's about to roast the party when they pull out a jade figurine (of Tiamat), an obsidian figurine they looted from the goblins and a load of meat they were hauling around. This buys them reprieve as Calcryx considers it proper tribute, but he still wants Meepo and he instructs the party to send him in as they leave. Obviously the party doesn't, and Calcryx blasts Meepo (and the PC who wants to adopt Meepo as a pet) with his lightning breath, roasting them both. I allowed the party to stabilize Meepo and they boarded themselves up in a goblin room they had cleared earlier. Eventually they limped back to the kobold territory with Meepo sure Yusdrayl will know what to do. So, from there, I need to extend the story a bit with proper motivations for all the parties, giving Yusdrayl and Calcryx a proper relationship, and this is what I came up with:
Electrovain and Calcryx are brothers. Their mother was Idrizraele of the Blood of the Morueme Clan (Nether Mts). The kobolds served the Morueme Clan and worshipped them as gods. Idrizraele was cast out of the clan after a coup on her mate, and many of the kobolds followed her. She traveled westwards with her young son, Electrovain and an unhatched egg. They settled in the Dessarin Hills, making a lair out of one of the Dwarven ruins. Calcryx hatched here. However, a few years passed, and when Idrizraele tried to extend her reach southwards, she was mortally wounded by Cultists of Myrkul near the town of Goldenfields. The kobolds couldn't save her, and she gave Yusdrayl two tasks: accompany and serve Electrovain, and protect Calcryx. Electrovain was young and proud, and scorned the wrteched ruins where they had made their lair. He took the clan westward to the sword mountains, but was increasingly scornful of the kobolds' short legs and Calcryx's pathetic attempts at flight. Eventually, reaching the Sword Mountains, he set off on his own, leaving the Kobolds and Calcryx to their own devices. Yusdrayl had heard of a great dragon temple in the western foothills of the Sword Mountains, and she led the tribe there.
Calcryx has known nothing but the constant "mothering" of the kobolds, and a few months after settling into the Sunless Citadel, Calcryx rebelled against their custody, wanting to fly free in the skies and hunt for food and riches. Meepo, the new dragonkeeper of the kobold clan, could not convince Calcryx to stay hidden with them, and soon resorted to caging Calcryx to stop him from flying out of the citadel. When the Goblin raid came and found Calcryx' cage one week ago, he went along gleefully, thinking these goblins would be easier to bully/persuade than his kobold minders. He was partially right, but after leading him even deeper into the citadel, Balsag chained him up and left him in a room.
Calcryx is a prideful blue dragon wyrmling, very young and very sure he can take care of himself. He will not accept being chained again, and wants revenge on Meepo and Balsag. He is willing to talk to other kobolds. He both yearns to fly out, and is apprehensive of making a break for it and having to find a new lair. He does like the Sunless Citadel.
Yusdrayl is queen of the kobolds. She worshipped Idrizraele, and feels she failed Electrovain. She does not want to fail Calcryx. She listened to Meepo's reasons for caging him and acquiesced, but with the party's report from talking to Calcryx, realizes that caging Calcryx was a grave mistake. She replaces Meepo with Savnu, an experienced Dragonshield warrior, who she hopes will better resist Calcryx's rages, and also assigns her own daughter, Ekuu, a talented Scale Sorcerer to serve Calcryx in any way he needs. She sentences Meepo to death by sacrifice to Calcryx. She very much wishes for Calcryx to return and allow the kobolds to care for him and worship him. She now understands he has grown from the baby wyrmling they had to escort to a new lair to a strong and powerful dragon in his own right, albeit still very young. The kobolds are there to serve him, not his mothers' wishes for him to be kept safe.
Yusdrayl can offer Calcryx three options: (1) his old room back, (2) he can stay where he is, but only if the goblins are wiped out. Calcryx could help with that, or (3) the dragon wing. Calcryx will outright refuse (1), and will consider inspecting (3) after the kobolds (and thus, the party) have made adequate arrangements there. He is happy with the status quo (for now), and doesn't care whether kobolds or goblins feed him. He lets the kobolds and party know that the kobolds may serve him where he is, and the goblins are not his problem , except for Balsag, who he demands is delivered to him. Regardless of the solution, Calcryx demands Meepo is left to him as food, and he further demands Balsag is delivered to him.
If the party harms Calcryx, Yusdrayl and the kobolds will wage holy war upon them. If any kobolds survive such a war, they will seek out Electrovain and pledge their life to him. If the differences between Calcryx and the kobolds cannot be reconciled, Yusdrayl will do as Calcryx wishes and leave him the Sunless Citadel as his lair, to do with as he pleases. She will lead the kobolds to find Electrovain.
Electrovain doesn't much care what happened to the kobolds, but if he learns Calcryx is harmed, he will swear vengeance. Similarly, later on, if the party kills Electrovain and the kobolds hear of it, they will become hostile. If Calcryx is not killed, he will eventually emerge as a new dragon threat to be dealt with (years down the road).
Can we talk about Meepo for a second? Probably the greatest character in The Tales form the Yawning Portal. I had heard that he was lovable and fun to interact with, but holy shit, I wanted to bring him with us for the rest of the adventure. One of my party members insists that if his character dies, he's rolling Meepo as his next character. He was just great, and I really liked the way our DM played him. Anyone else love Meepo like I do?
Only our whole party! I used this adventure as the intro to a bigger campaign and the party brought Meepo with them when they left the dungeon. He ended up training in class levels after the party reached the mighty tower of Skyreach (no relation to the official WotC Skyreach) and became a more powerful NPC. He actually rescued the party from annihilation in the plane known as the Town that Borders Eternity. Meepo was epic.
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I’m planning to run a PBP version of the Sunless Citadel pretty soon, and use the Gulthias tree to bridge the dungeon over into Barovia and a contest with Strahd.
I’m placing Oakhurst about a days ride North from Neverwinter. The bartender at the Old Boar Inn is going to start recruiting 1st level characters to join the Oakhurst Adventurers Club and try to earn Gold, Honor and possibly even Renown by running a variety of low level missions. The barkeeper is a Tier 4 human fighter in his early eighties , and very friendly.
Depending on who shows up at the Old Boar Inn, I will offer a hook for the Sunless Citadel or one of the side missions from Lost Mines of Phandelver.
I will offer a somewhat future version of the Citadel. The Kobolds Control the top level and are friendly (yet still evil) to humans, based on the efforts of the last humans to pass through. The White Dragon is starting to be too big to be called a Wyrmling, and is quite vicious, but it too remembers that humans sometimes like to flatter and bribe, and the last humans that came through gave him a very large quantity of copper pieces. Meepo is now the equivalent of a 5th level Rogue with resistance to cold. Meepo loves visitors and is itching to join the party. Not every single Kobold is evil. Meepo is not evil.
The hobgoblins are gone and so are the bugbears. The goblins stay on the lower level and are ruled by the goblin shaman. Not every Goblin is evil, however some goblins are starting to be influenced by the mists.
Belak is gone, captured and taken into the Neverwinter Woods to be questioned by the Druids. The Gulthias Tree was burnt to the ground by a determined assault of radiant energy, but it was not destroyed. It regrows, and with it, the mists of Barovia reach out through the darkness from where it grows. It hasn’t become a problem for the surface yet.
The rolling plains to the east of Oakhurst and the foothills leading up to the woods make good land for a variety of farmsteads, and the folk all appear to be modestly prosperous. This is in fact a retirement community for Good Aligned Tier 4 human and halfling characters who are old now, and too busy with family matters to go on adventures any more, but they do like to meet up in the town center to drink and catch up regularly.
I would like to invite you all to participate. I would appreciate help as DM, but joining as a player is fine too since I want to try out some of the lesser used game mechanics like honor and renown, which should make the new and different from previous editions. If nothing else, maybe one of your old characters would like to retire in the hills around Oakhurst and possibly offer advice to young adventures meeting up at the Old Boar Inn.
“Surviving Port Nyanzaru” - Dungeon Master Tier 1
The beginning of this adventure in TftYP mentions the Old Road but none of the Sword Coast maps I have or can find online identify where the Old Road is. I get that we're supposed to be over by Thundertree and Neverwinter but it'd be nice to know what the Old Road is supposed to connect to. My party didn't go to Thundertree when they played through LMoP so I'm going to tie that one back into this since it had a green dragon there. When they're in Thundertree it would be logical for the next destination to be Neverwinter or Phandalin which could lead them to Oakhurst. I'm just trying to place it logically and it would be nice to know about the Old Road. Anyone know of a map that would have this? Or where did you all put it if you ran Sunless Citadel in the Sword Coast? (We're playing Hoard of the Dragon Queen right now and I'm using every resource I can to flesh out motivations and the adventure itself a bit more. SC is the perfect addition since it was already once a cult stronghold.)
My Homebrew Backgrounds | Feats | Magic Items | Monsters | Races | Subclasses
Just rename the Old Road to a road that fits with the region your in. First 10 levels of my campaign takes place in the far south-east of the continent. More tropical setting. There wasn't an old road and I just drew it myself to make stuff fit. That's what we DM's do. Most adventures aren't simply copy and paste even though some like to run it that way :P
I imagine that the old road was on the north side of the Neverwinter River and led from an ancient boat landing on the coast to a bridge or a ford across the river near Thundertree. The old road crosses the high road about one days travel north from Neverwinter. It was used in the days before the bridges at Neverwinter were reliable. Neverwinter has been around for over a thousand years although it has been rebuilt several times.
I’m using this location to combine elements of LMoP and SC together.
“Surviving Port Nyanzaru” - Dungeon Master Tier 1
Thanks guys. I currently have it 15 miles from both Thundertree and Neverwinter. After our next session or two when we've played through Dragonspear Castle I'll know better if I'm going to get to this one next or not. I appreciate the input for location of the citadel.
My Homebrew Backgrounds | Feats | Magic Items | Monsters | Races | Subclasses
How about there's just a back door that they know about? A secret tunnel?
What if there's just a back door or a secret tunnel that they know about?
Was this at me or WizTropics?
If me, I could maybe use the back door idea unless they decide to head an entirely different direction. Depending on player choices, the Sunless Citadel may or may not come up any time soon. There are a few different directions the group can head after getting through the next dungeon they're going to be facing.
My Homebrew Backgrounds | Feats | Magic Items | Monsters | Races | Subclasses
Had a fun bit of gameplay in my sessions thus far in the Yawning Portal series (in which the Sunless Citadel is the first adventure).
The party fought a homebrew creature of my own design, the Corpseblighter, formed from the vampiric 'murder' of a dryad against a dead tree, and after defeating it, the party recovered the dagger used to turn the dryad as she seemed to recover. Emphasis on 'seemed to'. :3
Working on a supplement for the adventure-minded. A project including (and crediting) homebrew subclasses from the community, a world of my own design, premade characters, magic items, and even a prologue adventure to start things off!
Past and Current Characters: Morgann 'Duskspear' Solbeard, Hill Dwarf Paladin/Fighter/Warlock; Ephemeral 'Skye' Solbeard, Hill Dwarf Artificer; Zaldrick Lawscrip of Orzhov, Hobgoblin Wizard; Eremys Spydrun, Shadar'kai Monk; Cuchulainn, Wood Elf Blood Hunter.
He shares it knowing those who take it will plant the seeds. Spreading his army of twig blights.
So I'm a day way from the boss fight vs Belak and his minions. Running a larger group that has received some pretty big boons through good Roleplaying and DM twerks. I changed the goblins to be goblin grenadiers that throw bombs and sticks of dynamite. Albeit poorly sometimes throwing dynamite with 1-2 round fuses. I also removed the hobgoblin boss from the end of the first floor and replaced him with RipNugget and Stick foot from pathfinder. Goblin warrior riding a giant gecko (reskinned giant spider). They defeated this adversary though lost a player in the process. Befriended the giant gecko through magic means (druids), rolled to craft 3 sticks of dynamite from the goblins supplies, found two potions of alchemists fire and are now prepping to bust in on Belak.
This has all been working up to the final fight and I'd hate for them to walk in and kill him in 1 or 2 rounds. So I'm debating giving him some lair/legendary actions. Basically 3 uses of create water out of turn sequence. To prevent the burning of the gulthias tree too early. I think it'll make it more fun, as it'll catch them off guard and buy the rest of the monsters some time. I'm also leaning towards twig blights spawning everytime the tree takes damage. 1d4 twig blights as the trees reaction. So only once per round. To slow them down and make it more perilous.
Does anyone else have any ideas or suggestions?
Not really, you have put a lot of thought into rebalancing it. When my group got to that fight we were running it at a little higher level than published, I'd done some upgrades but the rogue still one shot sneak attacked Belak to death before conversation, let alone combat had begun.
The Lizardman Druid in my party ate him after he died meeting the Dragon. Meepo and Druid had both agreed to feast on each others corpses as a mark of respect....
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe....
The Old Road is a hangover from the original 3.0 edition of the module, I guess the editors who updated it slipped up there.....
The original module had a blasted wasteland to the western edge of the map, the Ashen Plain, the Old Road run down the east side of the Ravine the Citadel sits in, starting at Oakhurst which lays to the northeast of the ravine and it connects to the New Road within the Town, the Old Road run off the bottom of the map to who knows where, as it wasn't actually set in a specific game world.
"I am The Ancient, I am The Land"
If Belak is surprised, he doesn’t stand a chance, but he should know they are coming and stay hidden. He has access to the control flames cantrip which could control non-magical fire threats,, and charm person seems like a spell that should be his specialty.
He could use wild shape to become a tiny spider to crawl to a hiding place on the ceiling, where he could charm vulnerable party members to sow chaos while twig blights and goblins take cheap shots. He can slow down groups of people and possibly restrain them with his wand of entangle..
The moment it doesn’t seem like things are going to work out for Belak, he wild shapes into an appropriate form and flees. He is a great NPC to pop back up from time to time whenever you need someone insane to move the story along. If the party manages to catch him, they should be rewarded with the wand of entangle, which is a great low level magic item that will get tons of use.
“Surviving Port Nyanzaru” - Dungeon Master Tier 1
I'd like to run my extended lore by anybody interested. I am mashing up SC into the start of a DoIP (and the expansion modules) campaign. Furthermore, I have turned Cryovain into Electrovain, a young blue dragon, and followed suit with Calcryx, turning him into a blue dragon wyrmling instead of white, although that change is not necessarily relevant right now.
The story so far is that the players were helping Meepo (who one is absolutely enchanted by and the others kinda like, but not enough to die for). They reach Calcryx but are already a bit bashed and battered. Calcryx is about to unleash death on them as Meepo entered the room, but the party persuade him to parlay first. They send Meepo out of the room, realizing that Calcryx wants just one thing while Meepo is there, and manage to calm the dragon down a bit. He is a boastful thing and talks about how he has made this magnificent lair and has the goblins serving him now. They don't, really, but they unlock the door every now and then and throw some rotting meat in. They are terrified, but Balsag left them instructions and they are also terrified of Balsag. Anyway, Calcryx considers this much better than the arrangements with the kobolds, since breaking the chain, and he has no interest in leaving. He's about to roast the party when they pull out a jade figurine (of Tiamat), an obsidian figurine they looted from the goblins and a load of meat they were hauling around. This buys them reprieve as Calcryx considers it proper tribute, but he still wants Meepo and he instructs the party to send him in as they leave. Obviously the party doesn't, and Calcryx blasts Meepo (and the PC who wants to adopt Meepo as a pet) with his lightning breath, roasting them both. I allowed the party to stabilize Meepo and they boarded themselves up in a goblin room they had cleared earlier. Eventually they limped back to the kobold territory with Meepo sure Yusdrayl will know what to do. So, from there, I need to extend the story a bit with proper motivations for all the parties, giving Yusdrayl and Calcryx a proper relationship, and this is what I came up with:
Electrovain and Calcryx are brothers. Their mother was Idrizraele of the Blood of the Morueme Clan (Nether Mts). The kobolds served the Morueme Clan and worshipped them as gods. Idrizraele was cast out of the clan after a coup on her mate, and many of the kobolds followed her. She traveled westwards with her young son, Electrovain and an unhatched egg. They settled in the Dessarin Hills, making a lair out of one of the Dwarven ruins. Calcryx hatched here. However, a few years passed, and when Idrizraele tried to extend her reach southwards, she was mortally wounded by Cultists of Myrkul near the town of Goldenfields. The kobolds couldn't save her, and she gave Yusdrayl two tasks: accompany and serve Electrovain, and protect Calcryx. Electrovain was young and proud, and scorned the wrteched ruins where they had made their lair. He took the clan westward to the sword mountains, but was increasingly scornful of the kobolds' short legs and Calcryx's pathetic attempts at flight. Eventually, reaching the Sword Mountains, he set off on his own, leaving the Kobolds and Calcryx to their own devices. Yusdrayl had heard of a great dragon temple in the western foothills of the Sword Mountains, and she led the tribe there.
Calcryx has known nothing but the constant "mothering" of the kobolds, and a few months after settling into the Sunless Citadel, Calcryx rebelled against their custody, wanting to fly free in the skies and hunt for food and riches. Meepo, the new dragonkeeper of the kobold clan, could not convince Calcryx to stay hidden with them, and soon resorted to caging Calcryx to stop him from flying out of the citadel. When the Goblin raid came and found Calcryx' cage one week ago, he went along gleefully, thinking these goblins would be easier to bully/persuade than his kobold minders. He was partially right, but after leading him even deeper into the citadel, Balsag chained him up and left him in a room.
Calcryx is a prideful blue dragon wyrmling, very young and very sure he can take care of himself. He will not accept being chained again, and wants revenge on Meepo and Balsag. He is willing to talk to other kobolds. He both yearns to fly out, and is apprehensive of making a break for it and having to find a new lair. He does like the Sunless Citadel.
Yusdrayl is queen of the kobolds. She worshipped Idrizraele, and feels she failed Electrovain. She does not want to fail Calcryx. She listened to Meepo's reasons for caging him and acquiesced, but with the party's report from talking to Calcryx, realizes that caging Calcryx was a grave mistake. She replaces Meepo with Savnu, an experienced Dragonshield warrior, who she hopes will better resist Calcryx's rages, and also assigns her own daughter, Ekuu, a talented Scale Sorcerer to serve Calcryx in any way he needs. She sentences Meepo to death by sacrifice to Calcryx. She very much wishes for Calcryx to return and allow the kobolds to care for him and worship him. She now understands he has grown from the baby wyrmling they had to escort to a new lair to a strong and powerful dragon in his own right, albeit still very young. The kobolds are there to serve him, not his mothers' wishes for him to be kept safe.
Yusdrayl can offer Calcryx three options: (1) his old room back, (2) he can stay where he is, but only if the goblins are wiped out. Calcryx could help with that, or (3) the dragon wing.
Calcryx will outright refuse (1), and will consider inspecting (3) after the kobolds (and thus, the party) have made adequate arrangements there. He is happy with the status quo (for now), and doesn't care whether kobolds or goblins feed him. He lets the kobolds and party know that the kobolds may serve him where he is, and the goblins are not his problem , except for Balsag, who he demands is delivered to him. Regardless of the solution, Calcryx demands Meepo is left to him as food, and he further demands Balsag is delivered to him.
If the party harms Calcryx, Yusdrayl and the kobolds will wage holy war upon them. If any kobolds survive such a war, they will seek out Electrovain and pledge their life to him. If the differences between Calcryx and the kobolds cannot be reconciled, Yusdrayl will do as Calcryx wishes and leave him the Sunless Citadel as his lair, to do with as he pleases. She will lead the kobolds to find Electrovain.
Electrovain doesn't much care what happened to the kobolds, but if he learns Calcryx is harmed, he will swear vengeance.
Similarly, later on, if the party kills Electrovain and the kobolds hear of it, they will become hostile.
If Calcryx is not killed, he will eventually emerge as a new dragon threat to be dealt with (years down the road).
Only our whole party! I used this adventure as the intro to a bigger campaign and the party brought Meepo with them when they left the dungeon. He ended up training in class levels after the party reached the mighty tower of Skyreach (no relation to the official WotC Skyreach) and became a more powerful NPC. He actually rescued the party from annihilation in the plane known as the Town that Borders Eternity. Meepo was epic.