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I too am on board with the ultimate terror that is losing one's self - consider a certain Wraith: The Oblivion element.
Alternatively: Thread!
I too am on board with the ultimate terror that is losing one's self - consider a certain Wraith: The Oblivion element.
Alternatively: Thread!
When I read Thread I thought you were linking to another forum :P
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Tax collectors?
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The idea of intelligent dragons fearing a plague that turns them into non-magical brute beasts is a fascinating one. This plague could be deliberately spread by a group seeking to control dragons as beasts of war (or more humiliating, beasts of burden).
There could even be collateral damage, for example the disease affects all intelligent dragonkin and scalykind. Maybe it was developed in response to damaging kobold attacks on settlements, but started spreading to dragons. The people who produced the plague go from victims to oppressive overlords in a decade or two by harnessing Kobold, Lizardfolk and Dragon Slaves to build an empire.
This corrupted empire could use their slaves and dragon mounts to raid dragon lairs and steal their eggs as adult dragons are impossible to train. The dragons aren't fleeing to save themselves, but for the sake of their young.
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Ares Macrotechnology has created a rift in space-time and is sending teams of Shadowrunners armed for bringing down dragons and taking them back, alive, for testing.
WITH SCIENCE!
I also like the brain-drain / revert to animals option.
Perhaps caused by some kind of parasite; the larval form of the parasite is passed on by the dragon's bite. So Mr. Dragon finds it's kin has become a dumb animal that's desperate to bite him. And if it does bite him, the larvae will spread in his blood, then take up residence in his brain and slowly grow into a host of vile little wriggling worms. They release hormones that increase aggressiveness, while making the host feel hungry. Then the second stage - over the space of a few, say 13-24, hours, it's Int would decrease to 2 or 1. Then after a few days of biting everything it can, the brain damage would drive it to a maddened, excruciating death.
A certain poison may target the parasite - but it'll take a lot of work to discover that.
Something affecting how dragons age, making age no longer be a benefit to them. Instead of ever-progressing strength, this terror brings dragons infirmity and oblivion if they stay around it.
This could be a disease, some kind of radiation or other scientific phenomenon, a lessening of the world's magic, or something plot-specific such as an aberrant invasion of the dreamland sleeping dragons go to and replenish their power.
Solving the problem requires studying many dragons very closely and revealing and comparing the individual weaknesses of dozes of dragons, something they are loath to do themselves and deathly afraid to allowing others to do.
Desperation born form this danger also makes makes dragons much more risk-prone than normal. No longer to they lie quietly in their lairs for decades growing in power, suddenly they have the drive a genuine fear of death brings.
A very simple solution could be famine. For years,the dragons have been breeding in a rather small area, and suddenly there were too many and the ecosystem collapsed. The dragons tried to reduce hunting (Mainly by stronger dragons culling/chasing off weaker ones), but like the Atlantic cod, the ecosystem never recovered and now even the more powerful dragons have to seek new hunting grounds. Very prosaic, and dragon power is just not applicable.
This has the odd but useful advantage of making the dragons return in order of reverse power, weakest first, giving the heroes a chance to grow in power to match.
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Tacticslion.... You have some amazing ideas there. I really like the essences you presented, preys upon the fears of the individual rather than trying to look at it as a omnipresent fear. Kudos sir!
Thank you, Faelyn! I really appreciate that, and it means a lot to hear!
Glad you like it, The NPC!
So many great ideas, here! So much to inspire and be inspired by! :D
I also like the disease angle. Combine it with the fear personification maybe? Further Hmms...
Actually, yeah, I was going to say, that first spoiler point I made would work really well if you wanted to do that (which I touched on in my second spoiler).
The blightburn sickness weakens their constitution and charisma (the latter exceedingly important for skills), while the mindfire lowers their intelligence. Combine these two diseases, make it drain instead of damage, and replace (or... horrifyingly... augment) the Animate Dream's nightmare curse ability...
The latter is perfect for a non-sentient living spell template, who is a carrier - immune to the effects of mindfire, it'd just carry and spread it around. Simple disease, tremendous effect.
EDIT: I forgot: brainworms via kobolds. Make 'em have a blink effect and invisibility for extra horror (completely invisible things that can seemingly limited range teleport. EDIT 2: and/or sleeping sickness to make it better/worse... (and more vulnerable to nightmare lord domination)...
Also, neither blightburn (at least, presumably, not until later stages) nor mindfire (nor brainworms) have a visible impact on the subject, meaning that they're likely difficult to notice.
Having a reveal true shape rider could be terrifying and frustrating for them, making those who've integrated themselves into human society suddenly revealed (undoing many plots), while those who flee might not be able to integrate themselves...
Baphomet's Blessing is also a terrifying thing - 2 INT gore-attack immune-to-polymorph unable-to-use-spells rage beast? Frightening. Even if it's a swarm of kobolds.
Terrifyingly enough, if an affected dragon is also affected by a sympathy effect - either bringing the various swarms to it repeatedly, or, perhaps, binding it to a location so it can't leave, making it all the harder to tell which dragons are suffering from paranoia and being shut-ins, and which dragons are "sick"... or perhaps something is putting on masked or hidden "sympathy" effects on dragons, causing them to draw infected kobolds towards them... making the revelation (and lack of knowledge of who or what is doing this) all the more terrifying...
Explosion of Rot/Nature's Ravages (greater) might make a spectacular way for a dragon's life to end... (i.e. after they become savage and brutal, they automatically have an explosion of rot effect contingent on their death... perhaps dropping a cursed earth, unhallow (with bane and/or cause fear rider effect(s), naturally), and/or antipathy (causing them to be extremely disquieted in the area)... or, if you really want to get creepy/evil, you might combine one or more (just not antipathy) of those with a sympathy... making them unable to leave the horrifying rot-filled evil place filled with mind-crushing disease.
Sadomasochism spell-effect means they like it. :(
Symbol of Debauchery is just as horrifying for its own reasons.
EDIT 2: Oh, and also [url=http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/r/rage]rage, naturally.
Terrifying age-related effects on dragons include draconic suppression (with or without the effects of...) Sands of Time.
Mythic Deeper Slumber could be a thing with younger dragons... or older dragons under the effects of draconic suppression... making them perfect "starting carriers" of the disease (or the perfect first dragons to fall into permanent domination by the nightmare boogeyman).
A combination of boil blood and/or transmute blood to acid as side-effects of whatever disease, could mean that certain kinds of dragons appear not susceptible (or only partially susceptible), increasing the paranoia and suspicions of the other dragon types).
Vision of Doom is an especially potent variant of nightmare, but I don't know that you particularly care to go that route.
A method of making undead harder to comprehend (if you go that route) also exists... reverse-engineering it for living doesn't seem to hard.
Spellscourge might be interesting for villains... but it seems too obvious for what you want, too noticeable or traceable.
I know it's a lot, but I like throwing things out there to see what sticks.
Same caveats as before... and enjoy!
EDIT 1 and 2 and 3: added some more in the spoiler that I'd forgotten.
If you have ever read the Chronicle of Thomas Covenant, Donaldson has three Ravers, ringwraith-style uber-power spiritual entities that take over physical bodies.
The giants in the Chronicles are very powerful but morally good people, and when they find that they are vulnerable to these Ravers they commit suicide rather than be responsible for mass bloodshed when controlled by the Ravers.
A proud and powerful race like dragons would surely fear being psychically controlled, especially if the controlling entity allowed them to see what it was doing with their body. Good or evil, chaotic or lawful, no creature wants to be completely enslaved to that extent (well, apart from some of the people you read about on the internet...).
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They all fear the mighty Gumbo!
An epic class Half Goblin BBQ Pit Master...with a pit big enough for a dragon...
"WAUGH!!!!!"
"They don't want my horde..they want to eat me!!!"
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whith permision of M. Night Shyamalan, you can make a nice plot from the idea behind "the happening", where the dragons flee from unexplained strain of "rampaging/berseking" dragons that fight their kind to death (or other beings with the potential of killing them) instead of just harming themselves like in the movie(that I find dull...). Thats the reason they flee, because not only the invisible and unpredictable strain is harmful, but it makes them harm its own family or friends.
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whith permision of M. Night Shyamalan, you can make a nice plot from the idea behind "the happening", where the dragons flee from unexplained strain of "rampaging/berseking" dragons that fight their kind to death (or other beings with the potential of killing them) instead of just harming themselves like in the movie(that I find dull...). Thats the reason they flee, because not only the invisible and unpredictable strain is harmful, but it makes them harm its own family or friends.
But then they are stopped by Wooden Doors! and water melts them ;)
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Damn wood, damn doors, damn water, saviors of the last dragons! or something :P
This is perfect for the campaign I'm planning!
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whith permision of M. Night Shyamalan, you can make a nice plot from the idea behind "the happening", where the dragons flee from unexplained strain of "rampaging/berseking" dragons that fight their kind to death (or other beings with the potential of killing them) instead of just harming themselves like in the movie(that I find dull...). Thats the reason they flee, because not only the invisible and unpredictable strain is harmful, but it makes them harm its own family or friends.
It could be transmitted via bite, as a virus--the dragon equivalent of "28 Days Later". Awesome idea!
Miley Cyrus twerking
Wal-Mart
Cliffracers
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Apologies in advance for the accent, I figured it fit the image in my head best.
"The dragons were first sighted flyin' towards the western coast from sea a couple'a hours before sundown when a mass'a writhin' wings and scales 'bout blotted out the sky. The captain was absolutely terrified - you should'a seen the look on his face! - and within minutes all hands were on deck with cannons loaded 'n at the ready. Dunno what he was thinkin' myself, even if we could'a pierced their hides we'd not put a dent in their numbers anyways, but we never got the chance to try - they just flew by faster 'n a bat outta hell. Few of the guys complained 'bout not seein' any action but even with just my one eye it wasn't hard to see the relief masked behind those brave words.
Thought that'd make one helluva tale when we docked at the capital later that week, though nobody'd believe it, so imagine my surprise when we find a few'a them lizards layin' about the docks like nothin's wrong! Firs' thing I did was find my buddy Veske - he's one'a them fancy guards or whatnot - 'n asked him 'bout it. Didn' know any details ("jus' an honor-guard", sure, 'n I'm "jus' a trade merchant"), but 'e said they were fleein' from somethin', right terrified in fact.
An' you wanna know the weirdest thing? They don't even know what. Yeah, tha's right, jus' struck by some bout'a fear outta the blue an' took off. The crew's of the opinion that they're jus' cowards not worthy of all those legends. Me? I jus' pray the crew's right. Don't much like the alternative.
...Hey, bartender, 'nother drink over 'ere. Got a feelin' the seas'll be rough these comin' weeks."
Apologies in advance for the accent, I figured it fit the image in my head best.
"The dragons were first sighted flyin' towards the western coast from sea a couple'a hours before sundown when a mass'a writhin' wings and scales 'bout blotted out the sky. The captain was absolutely terrified - you should'a seen the look on his face! - and within minutes all hands were on deck with cannons loaded 'n at the ready. Dunno what he was thinkin' myself, even if we could'a pierced their hides we'd not put a dent in their numbers anyways, but we never got the chance to try - they just flew by faster 'n a bat outta hell. Few of the guys complained 'bout not seein' any action but even with just my one eye it wasn't hard to see the relief masked behind those brave words.
Thought that'd make one helluva tale when we docked at the capital later that week, though nobody'd believe it, so imagine my surprise when we find a few'a them lizards layin' about the docks like nothin's wrong! Firs' thing I did was find my buddy Veske - he's one'a them fancy guards or whatnot - 'n asked him 'bout it. Didn' know any details ("jus' an honor-guard", sure, 'n I'm "jus' a trade merchant"), but 'e said they were fleein' from somethin', right terrified in fact.
An' you wanna know the weirdest thing? They don't even know what. Yeah, tha's right, jus' struck by some bout'a fear outta the blue an' took off. The crew's of the opinion that they're jus' cowards not worthy of all those legends. Me? I jus' pray the crew's right. Don't much like the alternative.
...Hey, bartender, 'nother drink over 'ere. Got a feelin' the seas'll be rough these comin' weeks."
My point is simple - play up the atmospheric tension and fear. There's a reason that people fear the dark and the unknown, and it's the same reason why games like Amnesia are scary.
As for the source of the fear, there's an innumerable amount of things you could do. Perhaps a powerful wizard used an artifact to boost the power of a Cause Fear spell in order to get rid of the locals so he could research his dark magic in peace. Maybe they have some instinct that subconsciously warned them of impending disaster, such as an incoming meteor or cataclysm, and their instincts kicked in telling them to flee as a result.
One crazy idea is that a neighboring country used some combination of spells and powerful artifacts to develop a long-range and widespread Compulsion effect. The first trial run cast the spell into what was thought to be open ocean with a simple command for the wildlife to go to the country the PCs come from, but what nobody knew was that there was an uncharted island with dragons living on it. The dragons are scared because they suddenly lost control of themselves. Obviously the trial was a huge success, and now they want to test it on another country and start wars among their enemies, using the conflict to conceal their nefarious deeds.
Dahak, Rovagug, Groteus, Demon lords, Archdevils, etc.
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Government regulators that have decided the carbon footprint of dragons (especially fire dragons) is too big and must be eliminated before the ice caps melt and flood the world at some indeterminate point in the future that is always 20 or 30 years away.
Fleas and ticks, or maybe Tribbles, or a Smurf's movie sequel.
Michael Bay or Uwe Boll.
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Government regulators that have decided the carbon footprint of dragons (especially fire dragons) is too big and must be eliminated before the ice caps melt and flood the world at some indeterminate point in the future that is always 20 or 30 years away.
David Suzuki is in Government?! *Shudders*
You could combine the debilitating disease angle (making them feral dragons) combined with an zombie apocalypse angle that focuses the feral rage upon their own species. So, in essence, they are running from themselves.
Eventually, the disease mutates into a inter-species plague...
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What would cause a population of dragons to panic and flee?
Pugwampis.
LOTS of pugwampis.
Pugwampis as far as the eye can see, marching through the world and multiplying like a plague. They bring forth a blight of misfortune and disgrace that not even dragons can resist. Not even the luckiest of charms can hinder their unstoppable aura of mischance that will tear all civilization asunder.
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"Tiamat is not worshiped on Golarion. All dragons live in fear of her, and none willingly name her."
So... dragons in golarion feel copyright infringement and lawyers?
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Fairy-type Pokemon.
A group of Kaiju.
What were they running from?
Thanos.
Fairy-type Pokemon.
I will never forgive Nintendo for that
Twentieth-level kobolds with ten levels of mythic. The apprentices become the masters.