Wyrmblooded

[Blakey]

One of my PCs, the Battle Sorcerer called Camero, has the Wyrmbloodied trait from the back of the HC. I am wanting to work this into the storyline somehow, more than just having him look slightly unusual - he has lizard/reptile eyes and 18 charisma and is making a bit of a hit with the ladies, especially Shensen who he just rescued from the Lucky Monkey.

I'm thinking, as he's descended from a black dragon and in chapter four there is that black dragon who is known to have sired many sons of various natures that there has to be a chance to make something of this link, but I can't think what to do, given that the dragon in Chapter Four is in a room and will die in seconds in the campaign no doubt.

Unless the twist is that Camero recognises the dragon as his kin through some inborn dragon link and has to decide what to do? Does he kill his kin? Does he try and save him? What is his reaction to the situation?

What do you think? And also is it possible that the dragon is actually his father? I dont have the HC with me now so dont' know how old the dragon is but I guess not all that old. Or perhaps it was the dragon's father who was Camero's father and thus they are half brothers?

I want the dragon to remain an evil git and it will be cool if he hangs around in the campaign for a bit - I dont want the dragon to become Camero's mount or cohort or anything as he's evil. I want it to be a cool campaign twist/plot/moment but I dont want the player to feel like he's been hard done by due to his trait.

Anyone have any comments?

[siege]

I think the intent of Wyrmblooded is to tie the PC to Dhorlot (the dragon in Chapter 4). That's why the trait specifically mentions having an ancestor who was a black dragon.

There's also a half-black dragon that shows up in a later chapter (don't recall which), who is supposed to be another of Dhorlot's offspring that confronts the party about their run in with "the Dragon Father."

In my game, I have a player who took Wyrmblooded and is now putting ranks into dragon disciple, with the ultimate goal of becoming a half-dragon himself. This has worked out very very with the Dhorlot tie-in, especially since the character is rather self-loathing and believes he's turning into a monster (the physical transformation into a half dragon has been ongoing since first level with the useful powers only now manifesting).

We're actually in Chapter 4 now, and I expect the group to run across the big D in the next couple of games. The exciting thing, for me as DM, is that I really don't know what will happen. Either the Wyrmblooded character will go berserk and try to kill off the dragon (who is, in fact, his grandfather), or he won't be able to bring himself to fight. In either case, Dhorlot will try to weasel his way out of the situation by talking or running (he won't be able to best the party in combat).

If Dhorlot escapes, he'll haunt the party (and the one character in particular) for the rest of the game. If not, I'll find a way to use his memory or legacy to haunt them. Basically, my player wanted to play a tormented character, and having a black dragon grand dad makes it easy for me to come up with good material to make that work.

In my grand scheme of tying everything to the big A in the end, and given the chance to do so, I may make Dhorlot a wee bit crazy. Perhaps his whole cross-breeding shtick is a result of the madness he suffers due to A's fractured mind (I use "sudden onset madness" a lot in my campaign - though the players haven't picked up on it yet). That makes the Wyrmblooded character's whole existence something akin to a mistake.

All in all, it depends on your players. I've found the whole black-dragon/Wyrmblooded thing to be a great tool to tie one of my characters very deeply into the game and the campaign's overall plot line. That's just how it worked out for me, but if you have the chance, you can certainly make it work out well for your game too.

[Lee Hanna]

We started playing before the hardcover book, so we didn't have access to Wyrmblooded. One of our players took a hiatus right before we took down Big D, and she didn't come back until we had gone about 4-5 levels down the road. The DM let her back in, with her choice of levels to catch up. Since she had been desiring Loremaster PrC since the beginning, we noted that Dragon Disciple would get her the ranks needed. She & the DM negotiated the Wyrmblooded thing, which apparently didn't kick off until after we had met and defeated Dhorlot. (IIRC, it was her spells that finished him, after both melee guys had gone down and our shooter couldn't roll for spew.) So, it came out that meeting him triggered or exacerbated changes she had been feeling, and she left to go home and sort things out. And learned that grandma the herbalist had had one wild night back in her youth!
Also, it was a shock to the character (mine) who once dated her, that she came back after an unexplained absence, with... scales. It's not a self-loathing thing, but more of a "adjusting to changed life-circumstances" thing.

When the other half-dragon guy showed up, we talked him down from a fight. Instead, there was an acid-spitting contest while he flirted with her. He appreciated her brow ridges.

In the OP's case, Dhorlot could be rather hostile to any of his children challenging him, so he would not be inclined to be your battle-sorc's mount or cohort.