chromatic dragons.pdf - Free

70worth a few hundred gold pieces or a few thousand,depending on local monsters, ruins, and the generalimportance of the site.For obvious reasons, a treasure map can also be aspringboard to further adventure. When you determinethe value of a map that’s part of a dragon hoard,you also decide whether the map is authentic. If it is,then it points the way to a cache of the given value. Ifit’s not, then the value of the map represents the bestpossible price the PCs could get for it if they triedto sell it. If the characters make a copy of the mapbefore selling it, then the map leads to another adventureof your own design rather than a treasure cache.Otherwise, if the PCs opt to follow the map, it shouldlead to a relatively safe location (easy encounters only)that contains treasure equal to the map’s worth.Pick one or more kinds of valuable papers thatyou prefer, or roll d20 to choose randomly from thekinds given on the following table. If you want thispart of the process to be entirely random, roll 1d6and use that result to dictate how many times youroll d20.ODDITIES: VALUABLE PAPERSd20Item1–4 Promissory note5–8 Deed to a ship9–12 Deed to lands13–16 Deed to lands and structures17–20 Treasure mapCHAPTER 2 | DM’s Guide to DragonsPrisoners: Fearful peasants, cruel priests, anddesperate lords might all offer up a sacrifice toappease an angry and threatening dragon. A dragonmight also scoop up a prisoner or two while ransackinga town or castle for its treasure, and in doing sogain a hostage to ensure that no one comes after itlooking for revenge. Prisoners can be in any conditionyou need them to be, but dragons that don’t eat theirprisoners right away are conscientious enough tokeep them fed (perhaps to make a good meal of themlater).Rescuing a prisoner brings its own challenges. Notonly do the player characters have to worry aboutthemselves, but also they must protect the innocentsthe dragon keeps in its lair. Some prisoners mighteven come to love their captors and interfere with thePCs as they struggle to defeat the dragon. Providedthe characters can keep the prisoner out of harm’sway, a prisoner as treasure provides interesting roleplayingopportunities and gives you a ready-madequest to deliver the prisoner to back to his or herproper place. Cashing in on a rescued prisonershould not be too hard—the characters did just defeata dragon, after all. But it might involve skill challengesto negotiate for a suitable reward (which couldresult in additional treasure), keep their prisonerfrom running back to the dragon’s lair, and ultimatelyensure that their rescued victim stays alive.For a prisoner to be worth the trouble to takehome, the reward has to be considerable. Otherwise,a party might just turn the hapless victim loose andexpect the wretch to find his own way through thedark. In all likelihood, this poor rescue just getsgobbled up by another terror of the night. Therefore,when adding a prisoner to a dragon hoard, considercarefully the makeup of the party and the likelihoodof their escorting a rescued prisoner back to his orher proper place. If the PCs are in the least bit callous,it’s probably best to account for this part of thehoard in a different way.Other Oddities: Any other anomalous thing thatreveals a historical quirk or psychological aspectof the dragon can be incorporated as an oddity ina dragon’s hoard. Animals preserved in odd casesor placed frozen in time through magical rituals,games of skill or chance, divinatory items, artist’sand artisan’s tools—let your imagination run wild,assign a value, and describe the item. Oddities arethe spice of a hoard, though, not the meat. A littlegoes a long way.Example: Derek’s hoard has 3,150 gp worth of oddities.He thinks the treasure already contains enough“spendable stuff,” so he decides to put a prisoner intothe hoard. The unlucky “oddity” is the son of themayor of the nearest town, who went missing whileon a hunting trip a couple of weeks ago. The rewardfor his safe return is, coincidentally enough, 3,150 gp.DEVON CADDY-LEE