A QUEST!! When Dragons Cry

This week was the awesome Monster Week, Dragon Edition, put together by Ginny Di (https://www.youtube.com/@GinnyDi) and Pointy Hat (https://www.youtube.com/@pointyhatstudios), and here at Enchanted Lore our resident Loremaster put together a quest made especially for the event. Feel free to use this as a stand-alone mission (one-shot) or you can even integrate it into an ongoing campaign!

Synopsis: The adventurers must discover the source of the corrupted and vile water, which leads them to a water dragon and a hag. This uses the Night Hag, which is a CR5 and a Young Blue Dragon, CR 9. We recommend scaling this up or down as appropriate for your group.

PART ONE – THE SETUP

The quest begins with your group of intrepid adventurers coming across a village or otherwise small town. Immediately, the townspeople notice the outsiders and begin to beg for any water that they might have.

How will your players react?

 If the players offer aid, the people will be extremely thankful and will quickly share whatever water is provided among themselves.  If the players do not offer help, roll 1d100.

• For 50 and below, the townsfolk will walk away muttering curses.

• For 51-100, the townsfolk will attempt to attack the group and steal the water.

  
  

These are recommended options, but feel free to handle as appropriate for your group. Now, depending on the class of the characters, they may notice different things around the village/town.  Several buildings are boarded up.  Some of the families are loading up cars and wagons with their belongings.  All the plants look withered.  No livestock can be seen or heard.  The townsfolk look tired, their hands are dry, their lips are chapped, and theyspeak with croaky or raspy voices.

The players will soon learn that the waters in the village have become sour and tainted. The nearby river is drying up, making it difficult to get fresh water or fish. This all started a few months ago, and the issues seem to be emanating from the nearby forest. If there is anybody with a create water spell or purify water spell, they can use it to temporarily alleviate the situation. Knowledge nature is a good skill to determine that the water contamination is unnatural.

Will the characters hear the plight of the village and help them? If they are reluctant, the townsfolk can promise to collect funds if the heroes can remedy the problem before they are forced to leave their homes. If the players still cannot be convinced, then they will move on past the village and the quest ends here.

PART TWO – THE FOREST

There are basically two paths that can be taken if the party decides to help the townsfolk. They can go directly into the forest from the town or they can travel up the river. Either outcome should lead them through the forest. What was once a vibrant forests is now a hushed and dying land. Towering oaks and pines, once green and proud, now twist towards the sky like wretched claws. Many plants look withered, brown, and sickly.

As the adventurers move deeper into the forest, have them perform a perception check to notice things in their surroundings. Passing a DC 12, they will notice that there are little wooden effigy dolls scattered about. If they roll higher than a DC 15, they will notice some small vibrant blue flowers that appear to be healthy and untouched by the corruption. Those with knowledge arcana may be able to identify that the little effigy dolls are signs of a hag marking her territory, while those with knowledge medicine may be able to recognize the flowers as having healing properties to calm and clear the minds of those inflicted with insanity. A survival check may lead the group deeper into the forest, where they notice that the corruption becomes even stronger.

This gives an opportunity for combat against a corrupted woodland spirit. This being looks like a black blobby water drop, and we recommend using a Large Water Elemental CR 5 as an example for this being.

PART THREE – THE DRAGON AND THE HAG

As the heroic group moves forward, they will find a chained blue dragon near a lake that feeds into the river. A black, oily substance stains its azure scales, dripping onto the ground and into the water.

A creature will cackle at the adventurers: “I see that you found my pet. Perhaps those of you that my dragon does not devour will become my servants, heeheehee!”

What will the players do?

 If the characters ask the hag about the dragon, she will respond: “My business is my own, but unfortunately for you, you are now my business!”

 Knowledge arcana

• DC 10 identifies that the collar on the dragon is magical in nature.

• Rolling a DC 15 will allow them to determine that the collar seems to be corrupting the dragon.

A note for the GM – the collar is a magical item crafted by the hag. It is corrupting the dragon and forcing him to obey her will. The effects of the collar can be temporarily suppressed as we will note later.

Here is a critical moment for the players! How will they proceed?

•  If they flee → they will not be able to save the village and would conclude their adventure in the area.

•  If they kill the dragon → the forest will not heal and the lake will dry up.

•  If they defeat the hag and are able to save the dragon → the land and waters will begin to purify.

To get this final option, the dragon needs to not die and the players must remove the collar. Encourage creativity in your players and see how they will come up solutions to this problem! Here are a few options and their consequences:

•  knockout the dragon – there is a risk of accidentally killing it instead

•  try to damage the collar – there is a risk of injuring the dragon

• attempt an acrobatics and a sleight of hand check to get onto the dragon and attempt to undo the collar – high risk of death/severe injury

• The healer of your group could attempt to make a medicine from the flowers discovered earlier, and this can temporarily suppress the effects of the collar.

• Or, if someone can purify water, casting the spell can also give a temporary reprieve to the dragon.

If the dragon has regained control, it will not fight the characters during the moment of clarity, but will attack the hag if she is still up and fighting.

CONCLUSION

Once freed, the dragon will thank the adventurers and then slink back into the waters, leaving behind a mysterious orb emanating with a strong magical essence.

What is it and what can it do? That’s entirely up to you! Have fun, and tailor the prize to your campaign and party.

We hope that you found this quest to be interesting and useful. If you give it a try, please let us know how your group fared and what the orb ends up doing in your story! We’d also love to hear about some of your own dragon related stories, so please comment on our YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjO3_9bL0k8), in our Discord channel (https://discord.com/invite/g2NBTssuMh), or even in the comments below.

Until our next adventure!