I have been playing since '81 and for most of us, there were a number of wonderful modules that had come out that taught everyone how to map, stock a dungeon, outfit it, run the adventure, and take even the most printed of pre-printed modules and make it your own.
With the youths (and some of my group who are younger), they do not have the pleasure of playing some of these classics. So I've been giving them run throughs since they're 12. But one of the main things that Gary and his ilk did was to remember the main trop of the game - first you go through a Dungeon and then you fight a Dragon.
This was the dragon fight at the end of B5. It was very close for a few party members, and we did have 1 death, but a few feet in any direction or 1 or 2 bad rolls, and we'd have had more.
Write up follows:
Icemonth the 20th, 11:10 AM. We continued with care down the passage, knowing there was a dragon, Netherathraxus, somewhere ahead of us. Fjord’s dragon slaying sword was dragging the half ogre forward and the rest of us were lined up 2 or 3 abreast behind. The passage grew warmer and there was light ahead, wavering like a flame. “Brian! Oh my!”
Fjord went to step forward fast but Yandr and Hrimvir stepped in front of him. “One moment, we need to get ready.” Cara and Carl cast a number of Resist fire and protection from fire spells on everyone that was going to be in the front line with the dragon. While the druid and cleric were finishing up, Hrimvir handed out 2 scrolls of bless to the 2 divine casters while the rest of the party bounced extra shields around.
“Thrym!” “Thor!” “Odin!” Three voices rang out, setting off 3 bless spells, Hrimvir upcasting his so it lasted 12 rounds and not 6.
“Now.”
We followed behind Fjord who plowed forward into the cave and we beheld the great dragon, Netherathraxus. 70’ long, 50’ of tail, its head rose 25’ off the ground and its wings, still sizeable, were stunted a bit and would not support the great red dragon on flight. It growled something in draconic, that both Nevah and Atlas understood to be, “Damn! The kobolds weren’t bullshitting me. There really are people here!”
The battle was joined. The dragon swept its claws at Fjord, ripping the half ogre’s arm and chest open, armor shredding on impact. It lunged down and tried to bite him, but he hunched under his shield and let it take the brunt of the attack. Even so, he was still scratched up from the contact. Nevah loaded up his Aine bow and fired off a pair of arrows, pegging the dragon once, the enchantment on the clothyard shaft allowing it to piece his scales. The group charged down, anxious to get closer to the fight. Cara and her boar tried to spear the dragon and Yandr tried the same, neither of them having much luck. Hrimvir drew closer, checking his enchanted brass knuckles and getting ready to fight.
“IN BET GRAV POR!” Atlas’ magic missiles flared out, 2 bolts of chaos hitting the dragon and making it howl in pain. Dragon was hurting and glaring down the hall where the arrows and missiles were coming from. Thobar, Gun, at least one of the boars, Atlas, and Nevah were there.
Netherathraxus grew angry and steam came from between his lips, flaming drool hitting the floor. “Damn it.. Move!” The party in front of the dragon quickly dove to the left and right, splitting up to avoid being in the line of blast.
And the dragon breathed fire. A cone of flame shot out, coating both sides of the entrance of the passage while the rest of it roared down the corridor, setting the boar there on fire, Nevah on fire, and Gun on fire. Their armor took the worst of it as 8 seconds of dragon fire ripped into the hallway. Atlas and Thobar jogged back, the magic user just outside the range of the fire, but still singed from the close call. The boar ran off, badly hurt and miserable. Nevah and Gun were burned but still alive. “Thobar!” Gun called out. “I’m gonna need a healing!”
The front hit the dragon, most of their shots just bouncing off. A few hit but the damage reduction the dragon had made any killing blow ineffective. Yandr took blow after claw swipe, splintering his shield as need be, reaching ever for the next. Fjord was badly hurt as his next shield only blocked some of the damage. Cara ran around to the dragon’s distant front and threw her enchanted spear, the point hitting and then falling free. The dragon was not taking much damage from the front.
Still smoking, Nevah took aim and fired an enchanted arrow, ripping through scales, a second one followed. Atlas called out a spell again and more magic missiles tore into the dragon. Thobar gave Gun a Aine Healing Elixir and the assassin was debating on running down to the dragon, looking at his dagger. “Am I really gonna do this?”
We hit and struck the dragon, blades bouncing off scales but every so often, one would pierce. But it was Nevah and Atlas who were doing the most damage, enchanted arrows and magic missiles whittling hit points away. Gun was running down the passage, dagger in his hand, trying to get to the front.
But Netherathraxus was breathing in deep and the Halfling had to RUN. He tried to keep to the shadows, hitting the wall twice to pick up some fresh soot as the dragon finished inhaling. “Move!” Yandr yelled out after slapping Fjord with the last of his lay on hands. Spear flew and Hrimvir punched and the dragon held its breath half a beat as Gun burst out of the cave and dove to the left.
“Ah….fuck,” Nevah muttered turning to run away.
The red dragon breathed again, and this time his fiery breath was hotter, angrier. Deadlier. We watched in horror as Nevah the gnome was immolated, his body and flesh burned so hard and so hot that it vaporized to ash, coating Atlas and Thobar in burning chunks of meat, the two of them hunching back and yelling in terror.
We hit and ripped and slashed. The cleric dropped a heal on Fjord and the damned dragon flashed around, its tail knocking Cara down but the druid rolled with it, her shield blasting away. One of the skeletons was crushed under a claw. It tried to bite Yandr but the paladin’s shield took the blow, more broken armor bits littering the area. We were running out of shields fast. The boar Yandr had ridden was snatched up and chewed hard and then swallowed.
Gun came from the shadows and swung his dagger right after the dragon turned around, hoping to get a back stab but the enchanted blade ran across the scales and did NOT hit. The dragon was under half hit points now and the party was bleeding.
The battle grew difficult as 2 of our 3 blesses expired at this time, making our hits fewer and further apart. Carl took a nasty swipe and his shield was gone. Then at another time Hrimvir was hit, teeth savaging the half orc. The clerics changed their tactics, daring to get close enough to CAUSE light wounds, but the dragon was able to dodge most of the touches enough to make enough contact ineffective and spell gone.
The dragon was running out of hit points and the party was yelling for Atlas to fire more missiles. “I’m out!” he yelled back. “How about your book? Rip the spell out of the book!” “What!? I’m not doing that!”
The dragon ripped the skeleton apart and Gun rolled with the tail slap, his shield disintegrating. Its mouth came down to bite Fjord but Yandr tried to get in the way, the paladin’s own shield up, but failed to get their in time and Fjord was bit, his armor punctured, the half ogre lifted 8 feet of the ground in Netherathraxus’ mouth before being cast to the floor, unmoving and unconscious (-6).
The dragon was hit, stabbed, slashed, and finally, Hrimvir got a solid contact with one of his few remaining CAUSE Light wounds spell, the negative energy running through the dragon and then its heart stopped and it fell over. Dead.
Half of us were broken, the other half well enough. Hrimvir and Cara worked on Fjord, stabilizing him before administering enough first aid that we drew a ragged breath. A very small amount of spells followed, enough to get the half ogre conscious.
We took stock. For the next hour we went over the area. Nevah was gone. The two skeletons were broken but Hrimvir felt he could get them upright again. Only Cara’s touched boar remained, the others had fled or been eaten. We cut out a tooth and looked over the dragon’s scales. Gun used the syringe for blood, filling it for the Rosa witch sisters. The rest of us got what vials and flasks we could.
There were tens of thousands of copper, silver, gold, and platinum coins. 5 pieces of jewelry, 42 gems of assorted value and size, a book of Aine, a ring, a rod, a wand, and a bag. Detect magics were cast and we spent hours (6 of them!) going through every coin and riches we could find. The bag was a bag of devouring, Gun took that but we put the Grazzt symbol within first, letting the bag eat it. The rod was a rod of cancellation and Hrimvir took that, giving the brass knuckles back to Carl. Carl took the ring of protection. And Atlas took the rod of detect magic.
Yandr and Thobar went over the treasure again and again. We dumped our bags and swapped stuff around. At the end we took all the platinum, all the cold, all the gems and jewelry and magic, and half the damned silver. Everyone was moving at slow speed from now on, Gun being the exception since the Halfling already moves a bit slower than the party normally.
It was 5:30 PM on Icemonth the 20th and we were all feeling pretty good at our haul. But we needed to find our way out and the last passage here was most likely the way. The cave was already cooling off without the dragon’s flame anymore. And we wanted to get the blood to Rosabella and Rosalinda to get the runes off of Illi so the damned priest, Moray Vaco, could not find the boy and finish his despoiling of the land.
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