Lvl 1: Hollow's Last Hope
Lvl 2: Crown of the Kobold King
Lvl 5: Revenge of the Kobold King
You would need to fill in some of the rest of the blanks, but I think it could work. I am sure you could find/create some stuff to make the jump from kobolds to dragons.
About saving money: You would only need to purchase Crown of the Kobold King. The other two were free RPG day releases that I should still be available. Hope that helps! If you want to bounce more ideas (different/custom/expanding above) feel free to pm me or I'll try to remember to check back on here as well.
Sorry, I had mis-read the initial post. I thought the module started at level 7... I'll get back to you with a better idea later.
I like the idea that the PCs would have to deal with the dragons quietly to prevent others from knowing they were the ones killing them. I feel it adds a level of intrigue to the play.
You might also want to limit how many dragons they fight. That's 16 in 20 levels right there. That's not hunting to me, that's outright massacre.
I think you should make it a challenge to find the dragons and space out the combats more to make them feel more imposing. After the 4th dragon I'd start having the "same-old" feeling.
^Very much this. Recently, I was in a five-man 3.5 group where we face three dragons. There was an amazing build up to the first one and we were legitimately excited. There was a blatant mention of the second one with no build up and the idea had already fizzled. Build each encounter up to this big thing. It doesn't have to be huge encounters leading up to each one. Maybe the party finds themselves in the middle of a Kobold city and has to fight their way up to kill the dragon this city worships as their deity and the kobolds keep coming in bigger, tougher swarms, until you reach the top of the mountain... and the dragon is flying in from bejind them!
Don't just go DRAGONDRAGONDRAGON etc.
That's just my opinion,though. If your group is gung-ho for that concept then go for it.
The thing about Dragon's Demand is yes you're combatting a dragon, but the dragon WANTS something and that something is worse than just the dragon. Focus on that and write your own story. For example, what if you just expanded on Aeteperax a bit?
Imagine if the green dragon was an outcast from a secret society of chromatic dragons bent on world domination. This group isn't going about it flying around at night eating cattle and doing dragony things. Instead they've cultivated mortal lives using arcane magic; they've engineered whole power groups around themselves and these creatures stand on the precipice of godlike power.
The Lord of Obsidian is a black dragon controlling a network of underground-dwelling slavers. Not just kobolds, but dwarves, aberrations and even undead. They provide muscle to the group and also fodder to feed the draconic tyrants.
Elsa the Ice Queen is a vain and bitter white dragon who controls a network of witches, rogues and flying creatures. These are the scouts, spies and communications of the dragons and on top of these duties they also CONSTANTLY scour the lands for treasure to add to the hoards of the draconic host.
Greenmantle the Deceiver is a powerful green dragon who manages the group's image. He's a total slimeball and a hedonist; not surprisingly he allies with the fey and provides a lot of the arcane support needed for their ventures. He's also the public face of the dragons and poses as a chancellor or second in command to some mortal ruler. He's the politics of the group.
Balathunda, the Lightning Bringer is an intensely impulsive and ruthless female blue dragon. She lives on a remote island but even though blue dragons live in arid conditions this one has a lot of power centered on weather and storms. She uses these powers to dominate trade and controls a vast network of sea coasters and overland transports that support and aid the other draconic powers.
And finally there is simply Apocalypse. This ancient red male dragon is the penultimate of his species. He is favored by Tiamat even while he is reviled by most others who know of his existence. Apocalypse is the mastermind who has carefully engineered centuries of breeding, cultural upheaval and magical tumult to put things exactly where he wants them. He poses in mortal society as a humble lord of the land; not a king or some ostentatious overlord but just some simple country baron or count. Yet his influence tips whole nations should he decide it needs doing.
Apocalypse has but one goal - dominance. He is currently engineering a global threat that will bring all nations to their knees. Once this is done he will rise up as the savior, the only force that will spare humanity. I'll leave this up to you - is it a comet strike, a global pandemic, or perhaps the collapse of a major fault line? Who knows, but in the end the world will be his.
Aeteperax was seeking the power of the Far Shores because he guessed at Apocalypse's plans and knew secretly that NONE of the draconic society would survive his mechanizations. However the red dragon guessed at his minion's duplicity and set things in motion to lead to his destruction before Aeteperax could achieve any measure of success.
Now how you modify all of this into your game is up to you but I could see this going a dozen levels before it reaches it's end.
Also get ideas from your players, they know what they like and are interested. Listen to what they like from the module, the ideas they throw and the things they say they want to do. Make them want go after the dragons. Make it clear at the beginning what the story is about so they can select the relevant options (Paizo's AP player's guide are a good example)
In the last session I ran, I had two half-orcs, one sitting by a quest giver and another one attacking them later on. A player asked if they were the same guy, they became the same guy at that point and I will be bringing him back later on since he survived the encounter.
I will echo the idea that you need to have your dragons have motivations. Dont just have it be about hunting down and killing dragons in their lairs. Have these dragons be the movers and shakers of your world. Have them doing something the players want to prevent.
For instance, in a game a friend of mine is running, a Black dragon is essentially the main villain here. But we didnt just find out where he lives and go kill him. He sent minions (kobolds) to raid, gather resources/information from and generally terrorize our home town.
First they were stealthy invasions, where we had to investigate, and then find the kobolds who had set up a lair in the sewers. Then it was a full scale raid on the city, with a big battle. Then it was a persuit through the country side tracking the kobolds to the dragons home. Then it was a dungeon crawl through the kobolds lair and finding out more about the dragons motivations and plans. Now we expect to have to face the dragon (along with any remaining kobold minions).
Do stuff like that. Maybe one dragon is secretly manipulating a war between two kingdoms. Maybe another dragon is behind a criminal organization. Maybe 3 dragons are banding together to lay waste to a country. Turn each individual dragon into a campaign arc all on its own This way you can have variety of feel (wilderness adventure, investigations, political machniations, etc) as well as interesting stories and encounters.
I was told that Wardens of the Reborn Forge was kinda designed as a sequel to Dragon's Demand. Even though they have nothing to do with each other it was sort of assumed the same characters would be in both.
I don't know if that is true or not, but that is what I was told.