A unsual reward

[AlanBruce]

Greetings! My party just finished off against perhaps one of the deadliest encounters they;ve had so far.

Being all between ECL 12-13, they ventured under an Atoll and had a fight against a seahag with a few sorcerer and PrC levels from stormwrack, one that deals with storms and lightning.

She was not alone, of course. she had 4 Echinoloths (Stormwrack) as meatshield fodder.

Battle begins. The sea hag opens with targeted GDMs to cause the party to lose their ability to breathe underwater. The yugoloths close in and rend, slap and bite and summon when able.

The party's warforged summons greater water elementals and has the yugoloths dancing in vortexes around the cave.

The party's god wizard is playing rocket tag with the sea witch as he attempts to counter every single spell the monster throws at them (and she was mean, using her metamagic reducer feats to empower and even quicken chain lightning, arc of lightning and disintegrate, amongst others from her arsenal- on top of her magic items, which gave her blink on round 2, making this a difficult battle.)

Honorable mention when he used Celerity to cause an illusion of a beautiful sirine (MM2) in front of the hag when she used her Horrific Appearance and save the party from losing a bunch of Strength.

I have never seen so many celerities thrown back and forth. It was an action economy fest as the paladin and druid went after her toe to toe (courtesy of dimension shuffle and other short range teleports) as she used the flooded underwtaer cave to her advantage with her swim speed + haste + blink from her runestaff.

This hag was no pushover.

The bard was doing her thing, using Words of Creation and readying silence on the hag, which helped tremendously.

However, the hag was brutal and rolls did not go as well for the heroes and so, she DDed to the surface, where she was ready to sink the entire place under water using her PrC granted power while the PCs where in single digits and one dead (the bard), who was brought back via limited wish scroll (revivify).

The heroes leave the warforged below with his elementals and the fiends (now 6, due to their summoning ability) after he tells them to hurry and stop her above ground.

The hag was flying a hundred feet in the air and calling up a fearful storm - tsunami included- as she threatened to sink the entire atoll.

Cue in the party spamming dispel magics on her until they overcome her CL and the hag drops 100ft onto shallow waters...

But she wasn't dead yet.

Cut and bleeding and burnt and shocked, she still managed to use black tentacles on the paladin and druid as the crew the party was traveling with shot her a harpoon through the back which kept her in place until she managed to unhinge herself (hags are quite strong) and used her celerity + teleport to flee, not before dropping her cloak and faceplate- some of her gear.

The party still has to deal with the incoming tsunami, but that's a GDM away from being resolved. The real treasure will be offered by the grateful islanders as they have no need for gems, something they have kept hidden in the cavern where the party fought the hag.

However, the real reason the hag was down there was to snatch three dragon turtle eggs and give them to her master- an as of yet unknown and unseen villain of the high seas. The islanders will give the party the jewels (which should be about 15-20K worth in gold) and a dragon egg, since their mother is dead.

The warforged (a retiring player) is a spirit shaman and has decided to stay in the atoll as a Guardian Spirit for these people and will not tag along in their nautical voyage.

However, the question is (and sorry for the long exposition): What do you do with a dragon turtle egg? Selling it is what comes to mind first, but how much should it go for in the market? It's a rare treasure and conoisseurs would pay a lot for it, but how much?

Another option is for the druid to want and keep it and rear the dragon turtle. Any checks/feats necessary for that? How long until the creature reaches an age where it can be of use to the party? They will not be in the sea forever, so that might be a problem as well.

Any ideas are more than welcome. Thank you in advance.

[Gildedragon]

Leave it burried in the sand where it will hatch?

Dragonturtle egg drop soup?

[Red Fel]

I don't know how much a buyer would pay for it, but if you're thinking of giving it to the party, consider it a quest hook. If they can find a way to hatch the egg and endear themselves to the critter, give them the Dragon Cohort feat (Draconomicon) for free, applying solely to the Dragon Turtle.

Note that Dragon Turtles (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/dragonTurtle.htm) are (1) aquatic, and (2) huge, so they won't be bringing the guy everywhere they go once he's full-grown. Note also that, if you're following True Dragon growth (and I don't know if a DT even counts as a True Dragon) he'll probably be only Medium for decades, if not a century, so he won't offer much by way of a ride or other benefits. In other words, they won't get much out of keeping the little guy unless they want a mascot.

[AlanBruce]

Note that Dragon Turtles are (1) aquatic, and (2) huge, so they won't be bringing the guy everywhere they go once he's full-grown. Note also that, if you're following True Dragon growth (and I don't know if a DT even counts as a True Dragon) he'll probably be only Medium for decades, if not a century, so he won't offer much by way of a ride or other benefits. In other words, they won't get much out of keeping the little guy unless they want a mascot.

I had considered that they are aquatic. I could've sworn I saw a progression for DT somewhere, like True Dragons, by age. Maybe it was some other dragon.

I am aware it would take decades for the dragon to reach medium size, but it was a plot centric sidequest- the dragon turtle and her legacy, so giving an egg to the party and see what they do with it should be interesting.

The Dragon Cohort feat is a good idea. This party has access to limited wish. I don't kniow if they'll try it (saw it done ina different game a long time ago, 2 ed.), but they just might attempt to wish the thing to different size categories until its huge.

Still considering that option and if it'll work...should they attempt to use it.

[Virdish]

Well if it does age through categories you could always drop hints at your party to age curse the thing until it is of the desired size. IIRC limited wish should be able to recreate the age curse.

[AlanBruce]

Well if it does age through categories you could always drop hints at your party to age curse the thing until it is of the desired size. IIRC limited wish should be able to recreate the age curse.

It's an interesting idea. If limited wish can in fact increase the DT's age category (assuming there is a list somewhere for it), then yes, it is certainly a viable option.

The issue I see here is that the party will not be on the sea for too long (they just want to reach their destination on dry land and ideally, stay on dry land). On top of that, they are headed for a big city, which most likely will not want a giant dragon turtle tagging along the streets behind the party.

I'm sure they'll come up with something, though.

[Red Fel]

As a possible alternative, you could throw them for a loop - has it been conclusively established that these are, in fact, Dragon Turtle eggs, and aren't simply assumed to be Dragon Turtle eggs? There are many creatures that could leave massive dragon-like eggs, creatures native to watery areas. And unlike a Dragon Turtle, some of these creatures have a fly speed. For example, many classical True Dragons (such as Black, Green, Bronze, and Gold) have both swim and fly speeds. Further, some Lung dragons have both a swim and a fly speed. The Pan Lung is a Dragon with the Spirit and Water subtypes, a fly speed, and a swim speed. (Although it is usually assigned to protect crypts and other spiritual locations.) The Li Lung, an Earth Dragon, has a fly speed, a swim speed, and a burrow speed. The Chiang Lung, a River Dragon, has a flight and swim speed as well, and can Polymorph Self once a day (e.g. to assume human form).

Imagine your players' surprise if they decide to keep the thing, and get much more than a monstrous sea creature.

[torrasque666]

But hey, at the very least when the thing is all grown up it can go back and find the warforged.