Reversal of the Heart is a 2011 animated short film that tells a very Disney like story that opens when a prince kills a baby dragon for the glowing gem heart in its chest, as a gift for the princess he loves... not knowing that the mother of said baby dragon has put a curse on the gem that turns the princess into a dragon. Mistaking her for a dragon that has murdered his love, he tries to kill her, with the princess only nearly escaping.
Afterwards, she recruits a young, commoner, amateur wizard to help her go on a quest to undo the curse, as her former love tracks them down. In the end, the dragon princess and the wizard arrive at the dragon mountain, but the prince is waiting for them. In the ensuing scuffle, the princess is mortally wounded and her heart gem shatters, turning her human again. But through some disney magic stuff, she's brought back... and the prince realizes he tried to kill the woman he loved. But by this point, she's fallen in love with the wizard and he with her. And then the pissed off mother dragon confronts her babies killer, breaths fire on him, and when it clears there's a baby dragon where the prince stood. It's left ambiguous if she turned the prince into a baby dragon, or killed the prince to bring back her baby.
Offhand, if this were a D&D campaign, the PC's would probably get the Wizard's role and have to help a princess who's been turned into a dragon turn back. Ironically, I think Chromatic Dragons would probably work best for this story. Because the mother clearly wanted the prince to kill the princess... so he would suffer just as the mother suffered. And I doubt Bahamut would endorse a curse like this. Tiamat, on the other hand, probably would. Plus, turning someone into a baby dragon or killing someone to resurrect a baby dragon sounds like dark magic. So perhaps a theme is even Chromatic Dragons deserve justice and compensation when they are the victims of terrible crimes. Plus, their colors can affiliate with certain gems. What else could you add? By the way, here's the short. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHLwG3ioD4Y
Act 1: There is a young knight recruiting a band of mercenaries to hunt down a dragon with a brilliant gem for its heart, he sends each prospective group on a series of tasks to prove they are up to the challenge of hunting and killing a dragon.
Act 2: They hear rumours the dragon has been sighted far away, and journey across the land to track it down, when they reach the lair of the dragon they find it is protected by various magical traps and some elemental creatures attracted to the lair. At the heart of the lair is a young wizard, the wizard proclaims that the dragon is gone he convinced it to leave and go somewhere it will harm no one, and offers to split the treasure in its horde. The knight is angry and clearly not interested in the horde, instead demanding the revenge and threatens to harm the wizard / attacks the wizard to force the wizard to tell him where the dragon went.
Choose a Side: The party can either side with the wizard or with the knight.
Act 3 (Knight) : the Knight forces the wizard to tell him where the dragon went, and it is to a cursed land either filled with demons + led by a powerful hag or a land filled with undead ruled by a powerful sorcerer (or make up your own dangerous local + powerful magic user), the wizard claims the dragon just wants to cure itself of a curse but the knight doesn't listen, and might even kill the wizard for insisting the dragon is innocent or might make the wizard teleport the group there. The Knight then leads the group to the cursed land to seek out the dragon, whom is negotiating with the spellcaster how to undo the curse, the Knight decides both the dragon and the spellcaster are evil & subplot with an opposition group trying to defeat the spellcaster / undoing the curse on the land.
Act 3 (Wizard) : The Knight is defeated, and withdraws, and the Wizard explains that the dragon is actually a person cursed to look like a dragon, and they have gone to seek this powerful spellcaster in the cursedland to undo their curse. He teleports the party to the area and they set out to find the dragon, when they do, the dragon tells them the spellcaster can cure the curse but requires [magic artifact] as payment triggering a subplot for the party to seek out and obtain the magic artifact - optionally involving the opposition group. Meanwhile the Knight arrives having finally figured out where the dragon is.
Act 3 Climax: the knight, party, dragon, wizard, and spellcaster encounter each other either as Party+Knight trying to kill the dragon + spellcaster, or as the Party + Dragon trying to cure the curse and getting betrayed by the spellcaster. In any case the spellcaster is against the party, the Knight is against the dragon, the wizard is with the dragon, the party by either be with the dragon or with the knight. At some point in the resulting battle, the knight breaks the gem in the dragon's chest, causing them to revert into a beautiful woman - revealing the spellcaster was lying about how to cure the curse - and the party will have to kill the spellcaster.
Denoument: The knight proclaims their love for the woman, the woman proclaims her love for the wizard and the wizard proclaims his love for the woman, this causes the Knight to challenge the Wizard to a duel for the woman, which the wizard refuses. Mama dragon shows up breaking the stale mate
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Reversal of the Heart is a 2011 animated short film that tells a very Disney like story that opens when a prince kills a baby dragon for the glowing gem heart in its chest, as a gift for the princess he loves... not knowing that the mother of said baby dragon has put a curse on the gem that turns the princess into a dragon. Mistaking her for a dragon that has murdered his love, he tries to kill her, with the princess only nearly escaping.
Afterwards, she recruits a young, commoner, amateur wizard to help her go on a quest to undo the curse, as her former love tracks them down. In the end, the dragon princess and the wizard arrive at the dragon mountain, but the prince is waiting for them. In the ensuing scuffle, the princess is mortally wounded and her heart gem shatters, turning her human again. But through some disney magic stuff, she's brought back... and the prince realizes he tried to kill the woman he loved. But by this point, she's fallen in love with the wizard and he with her. And then the pissed off mother dragon confronts her babies killer, breaths fire on him, and when it clears there's a baby dragon where the prince stood. It's left ambiguous if she turned the prince into a baby dragon, or killed the prince to bring back her baby.
Offhand, if this were a D&D campaign, the PC's would probably get the Wizard's role and have to help a princess who's been turned into a dragon turn back. Ironically, I think Chromatic Dragons would probably work best for this story. Because the mother clearly wanted the prince to kill the princess... so he would suffer just as the mother suffered. And I doubt Bahamut would endorse a curse like this. Tiamat, on the other hand, probably would. Plus, turning someone into a baby dragon or killing someone to resurrect a baby dragon sounds like dark magic. So perhaps a theme is even Chromatic Dragons deserve justice and compensation when they are the victims of terrible crimes. Plus, their colors can affiliate with certain gems. What else could you add? By the way, here's the short. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHLwG3ioD4Y
I would adapt it as thus:
Act 1: There is a young knight recruiting a band of mercenaries to hunt down a dragon with a brilliant gem for its heart, he sends each prospective group on a series of tasks to prove they are up to the challenge of hunting and killing a dragon.
Act 2: They hear rumours the dragon has been sighted far away, and journey across the land to track it down, when they reach the lair of the dragon they find it is protected by various magical traps and some elemental creatures attracted to the lair. At the heart of the lair is a young wizard, the wizard proclaims that the dragon is gone he convinced it to leave and go somewhere it will harm no one, and offers to split the treasure in its horde. The knight is angry and clearly not interested in the horde, instead demanding the revenge and threatens to harm the wizard / attacks the wizard to force the wizard to tell him where the dragon went.
Choose a Side: The party can either side with the wizard or with the knight.
Act 3 (Knight) : the Knight forces the wizard to tell him where the dragon went, and it is to a cursed land either filled with demons + led by a powerful hag or a land filled with undead ruled by a powerful sorcerer (or make up your own dangerous local + powerful magic user), the wizard claims the dragon just wants to cure itself of a curse but the knight doesn't listen, and might even kill the wizard for insisting the dragon is innocent or might make the wizard teleport the group there. The Knight then leads the group to the cursed land to seek out the dragon, whom is negotiating with the spellcaster how to undo the curse, the Knight decides both the dragon and the spellcaster are evil & subplot with an opposition group trying to defeat the spellcaster / undoing the curse on the land.
Act 3 (Wizard) : The Knight is defeated, and withdraws, and the Wizard explains that the dragon is actually a person cursed to look like a dragon, and they have gone to seek this powerful spellcaster in the cursedland to undo their curse. He teleports the party to the area and they set out to find the dragon, when they do, the dragon tells them the spellcaster can cure the curse but requires [magic artifact] as payment triggering a subplot for the party to seek out and obtain the magic artifact - optionally involving the opposition group. Meanwhile the Knight arrives having finally figured out where the dragon is.
Act 3 Climax: the knight, party, dragon, wizard, and spellcaster encounter each other either as Party+Knight trying to kill the dragon + spellcaster, or as the Party + Dragon trying to cure the curse and getting betrayed by the spellcaster. In any case the spellcaster is against the party, the Knight is against the dragon, the wizard is with the dragon, the party by either be with the dragon or with the knight. At some point in the resulting battle, the knight breaks the gem in the dragon's chest, causing them to revert into a beautiful woman - revealing the spellcaster was lying about how to cure the curse - and the party will have to kill the spellcaster.
Denoument: The knight proclaims their love for the woman, the woman proclaims her love for the wizard and the wizard proclaims his love for the woman, this causes the Knight to challenge the Wizard to a duel for the woman, which the wizard refuses. Mama dragon shows up breaking the stale mate