4e help with setting up Dragon encounter

[jjhighberger]

I'm new to D&D and currently playing/DMing 4e. *I'm looking for encounter ideas that include a dragon to coincide with my lvl 3 party of 4. Trying to stick to a goblin race theme.

Any Hook/flavor text ideas would be greatly appreciated also as the toughest part of DMing is my story telling.

So far they have defeated a lvl 4 named Goblin Underboss to retrieve what they thought was an *Orb of Farseeing 3* they were sent for by a church, only to find out it was an *Orb of Seeing* which they will use to open a secret passage to an underground labyrinth, leading to the actual *Orb of Farseeing 3* by defeating a lvl 6 named Bugbear Strangler and *competing a puzzle challenge to obtain the orb (success grants access - failure summons skeletons which after defeating skeletons grants access). The church and other local churches feel that in the wrong hands this *Orb of Farseeing 3 *could wreak havoc in massively destructive ways. I'm thinking i would like to tie the Dragon somehow into this as a mastermind behind the whole operation.

Thanks all for future input as it is greatly appreciated

[Felhammer]

Why does the church think the Orb will wreck havoc?

What will the Church do once it gets a hold of the Orb?

Who constructed the labyrinth?

Why would a Dragon dwell in this labyrinth and rule over the Goblinoids?

[Ashdate]

I think the classic would be the young dragon who has been captured/found and raised as a "pet" for the goblins. It could go one of two ways; they could either have found an intelligent breed (such as a red dragon), or a really dumb one (such as a white dragon). If the former, the dragon - despite it's young age - has managed to become the leader of these goblins, and is enjoying the fruits of their labour. If the latter, the dragon may not see itself as a pet, but it is willing to take orders from the goblin chieften (who is, unbeknownst to it, much weaker than him).

As an aside, an Orb of Far Seeing (even a +3 version) is not exactly an artifact. Is there a particular reason for picking it? Did you think about giving it some extra powers (perhaps it can temporarily control a specific colour of dragon)?

[Mando Knight]

Also, which church? Of Bahamut? Pelor? Moradin? Gruumsh?

And to be clear, this is a Level 3 Orb of Far Seeing +1, not a Level 13 Orb of Far Seeing +3, the latter being far out of the normal price range for an entire party of level 3 characters, right? An Orb that's frankly lackluster for a "game changer" and an "Uncommon" item as opposed to a Rare item or an Artifact?

[jjhighberger]

As previously stated I'm pretty new to tabletop games (DnD) and creating something is an even bigger challenge to me. There are many things I haven't considered and didn't even realize was that important.


Why does the church think the Orb will wreck havoc?

Sad to say this is still open ended at this point.



What will the Church do once it gets a hold of the Orb?

protect it? - i pulled the orb from the PHB1 because it sounded cool and i was trying to rush the initial session for a quick game as our original DM was disliking his campaign success. after some turn of events with the orb initially i decided to try to give it more of a purpose in the 2nd 'boss' fight


Who constructed the labyrinth?

unknown - i would say goblins but since you're asking i assume this is not the type of thing they would do. - not up on all of the history/lore etc.
could be something that is yet to be told.


Why would a Dragon dwell in this labyrinth and rule over the Goblinoids?

this is definitely something i think i would be addressing as part of this session.

[jjhighberger]

As an aside, an Orb of Far Seeing (even a +3 version) is not exactly an artifact. Is there a particular reason for picking it? Did you think about giving it some extra powers (perhaps it can temporarily control a specific colour of dragon)?

as stated in previous reply i literally picked this from PHB1 because i thought sounded cool and would just be an arbitrary item to quest for. To add to the previous - this quest was created originally as a side quest 'half-assed' to give our DM a break. and after the initial run, I turned players ideas into some thoughts for the next session intentions and changed other ideas i had and expanded on them.

[NecroRebel]

If your level 3 party is amongst the most powerful heroes around, a +3 item is very strong relative to all the other stuff available. It would be kind of like an AK-47 in the Napoleonic years - vastly superior to everything else available, and what if somebody manages to duplicate it? That could be the sort of "wrong hands" the Church fears, somebody who might be able to make more of these weapons that are far superior to anything anybody else has.



This idea can help you decide what the Church will do with it once they get it. They might try to study it themselves to make sure the "right" hands get mass-produced superweapons, or they might give it to one of their champions (probably not a party member, at least not for another 5-6 levels) to spread the word of their faith, or perhaps they'll try to destroy it due to fearing any weapon so mighty.



Goblins aren't really known for crafting structures other than settlements for themselves. They're usually depicted as barbaric and kind of dumb. In particular, under default fluff they wouldn't usually use puzzles as a defense... However, there's nothing that says that your depiction of goblins can't be more clever, or perhaps the degraded remnants of a once-wise race.

[Felhammer]

What if...

There is an Evil Dragon who has a whole network of Draconic Children (be they full dragons, half-dragons, Sorcerers, Dracoliches, etc.) who work for him.

This Dragon wants to construct a super powerful clockwork artifact that can be used to slay anyone on the material plane with there merest click of a button.

However, he needs lots of powerful magical items to finish his Death Machine.

He has sent his network of allies out across the material plane to find these items.

However, he knows that he will draw the ire of other Dragons and good-aligned people if he starts to openly construct this device.

That is why he came up with a clever ploy.

This Evil Dragon has murderered the highest ranking (local) Priest of The Church and polymorphed himself to assume that slain man's identity. Using this guise, he gathers a band of adventurers together to go out and find the first of these items.

The Adventurers battle some goblins and a Dragon and return to the Priest with the item. The Priest then informs the PCs that he has heard of another Dragon at location X and asks that they slay the vile beast. While on that quest, the PC's find another powerful magic item and give it to the Priest.

After a few more of these missions the Priest "realizes" that there is something fishy going on here and "discovers" hints that these items could be used to create a powerful clockwork artifact. He tells the Adventurers that this is obviously some kind of major Draconic plot to take over the world. He and the Adventurers are the only thing standing in their way.

After a fashion, the Priest uses his "Divine Magic" to figure out where the next item will be, which the PCs dutifully retrieve for the Priest, who takes each item and "destroys them".

Secretly the Priest, who is really the Evil Dragon, is constructing the clockwork device.

At some point the PCs are going to realize something isn't right about this. That's when the "Priest" is conveniently murdered by a Dragon. This draws the ire of a nearby "King," who was replaced just like the Priest. With the aid of the King, the PCs complete their quests until finally, it is time.

The whole castle crumbles as the clockwork artifact ascends from beneath the keep. The "King" then Transforms into his natural Evil Dragon form and cackles madly as he clicks the button several times, slaying throngs good people across the world.

Big fight, PCs win. They destroy the device and save the world. End campaign. :smallsmile:

[jjhighberger]

all good information. definitely more than enough for me to chew on for a while.

Thank you ALL!

[ScrivenerofDoom]

I have a young green dragon in one of my games whose grandsire was a green dragon who learned a lot of elven magic. Some of this has been passed on to the young green dragon who, coincidentally enough, is now searching for an orb.

In this case, the orb is what is known in the Forgotten Realms as a kiira: it's a crystal or gem that the elves store memories in. If the players want to use it, they will be find it is a +3 orb of something; if they research it further they will learn a bit more elven history.

In the context of your backstory, what if your orb was similar to this? Besides be an orb of farseeing it also stored some forbidden knowledge and that it what the church is worried about. And it's this knowledge - which could even be the soul of an ancient dragon, perhaps an ancestor of this dragon in your game - that the dragon wants.

The beauty of this also is that you don't even need to quantify what the secret knowledge is yet. Perhaps it can only be unlocked when the PCs are higher in level or have access to a particular ritual.

Hope that helps.

[jjhighberger]

Oohh that's interesting, and since i haven't had a chance to get to this encounter yet with my group i still have a chance to implement something like this. My orb could have an elder black dragon soul (ie. Cheyenth, aka Slyborns mother) trapped

Thank you!