So my players have started heading Eastward after having made contact with Maegar Varn and set up an embassy there. As they've been running around exploring things, I noticed that at the very bottom of the Nomen Heights Random Ecounters chart (on page 79) there is this:
1 Silver Dragon (CR 14, Bestiary 110).
What the...
Maybe it's just me, but the idea of of a silver dragon being a "random" encounter seems really, really odd to me. Not only should a dragon of that power have a name and a lair nearby, but given that there's a certain unspoken assumption that your players are good aligned, and are not likely to just attack a Silver Dragon. Even if they are a bunch of evil bastards, the silver dragon isn't likely to know that and isn't likely to attack. (In fact, it isn't even likely to land...)
Anyone have any thoughts on how to run this encounter?
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So, how I plan to handle this when my group gets to this part of the AP is as follows:
Hope this helps.
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I am totally going to use Eranex from Dragons Unleashed.
Even if she's a CR16 creature that encounter is highly risky in and of itself so players willing to get beaten to dust would find their mettle even with a normal silver adult dragon, but mthe point is that she's so damn fitting in KM! for her being a Fey creature and her BG!
Well, encounter is a rather generic term. Who says the PCs have to deal with the dragon in combat. Besides, what intention would a good/neutral party have to attack a NG dragon or a dragon to attack a wandering group of humanoids?
The dragon could be seen frolicking in the clouds, heading straight east, in battle against another air-borne monster, in conversation with the centaurs.
Ruyan.
Creative Director
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Usuall when we put something like this on a wandering monster list, the expectation is that the GM will breathe a bit more life into the encounter than simply having a silver dragon swoop in and attack. And as folks have pointed out, there is a history of silver dragon stuff in the region that the GM can use as inspiration.
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I rolled the Silver Dragon encounter in my game, and it was one of the most fun and memorable encounters I ever ran.
The Dragon landed heavily in front of the players, and being a Silver Dragon and thus quite knightly said:
"Greetings! Doughty adventurers, I am Vylithria, and I am looking for my Aunt, she is supposed to be a resident of this area though I have not managed to find her."
This foreshadowed that there is a Silver Dragon lair somewhere on the map. The players had a conversation with Vylithria, who was on his way to the World Wound, and was recruiting other Silver Dragons to help with the war effort:
"The danger of the Wound effects the whole world, and the honour of our kind demands we destroy the blighters if we can."
Anyway the players used Diplomacy and the Dragon stayed over night listening to their tales, as they tried to convince it to be an ally of their Kingdom. At the end of the encounter Vylithria gave the PCs a small scale from its tail and said:
"Should you find my Aunt, or require my assistance please use this to call. I will come as fast as I am able."
Later on the players were trying to sneak into Vordekai's lair, and didn't want to fight the Wyverns. They were dawdling so I rolled a random encounter. I ROLLED THE SILVER DRAGON AGAIN! Well, this was awesome, I had Vylithria show up again landing with the players:
"The search continues friends, what have you found?"
The players explained their Wyvern problem, and how they needed to get into the dungeon to rescue the souls of the lost village. Vylithria was moved by such noble intentions and offered to fight both the Wyverns so the players could sneak into the dungeon undetected.
Eventually the players did end up finding the lair of Amvarean, realized that she had been killed by Black Dragon and called Vylithria once more. Vylithria was heartbroken, but thanked the players for their help. He asked if they could send soldiers to the World Wound as soon as possible, and he told the players that they could keep Vylithria's lair as their own to do with as they pleased.
The players agreed to this, and Vylithria is still one of their fondest memories to this day.
Usuall when we put something like this on a wandering monster list, the expectation is that the GM will breathe a bit more life into the encounter than simply having a silver dragon swoop in and attack. And as folks have pointed out, there is a history of silver dragon stuff in the region that the GM can use as inspiration.Besides, when something random attacks, it should always be ninjas.
But then, surely it wouldn't be random, by definition? :p
Just to be clear, I wasn't assuming that all of the Random encounters should be combat encounters. I was just wondering how other folks had run the Silver Dragon encounter.
In our campaign, a huge silver dragon showed up for the official completion of Erastil's Cathedral / Queen & Staglord's renewal of vows.
It was a long oft-delayed process from shrine to temple to cathedral and the Queen's Consort was reincarnated human to half-elf, so we had a big ceremony.
Huge silver dragon showed up out of the blue with Erastil's blessings & a secret message for the dragon-born Magister, so we named it Erastil's Cathedral of the Silver Dragon.
In the Slough, we are hunting down the sole remaining of a trio of black dragons that ambushed us in the hills N and E of Hookton (Ft. Drelev).
They ambushed us at a river crossing, a small bridge 50'-60' long, one upstream, one downstream, one in the woods on the far bank. We managed to kill two of them and the third withdrew. The Magister "called" a large adult silver to help and it died, the Magister almost died. The High Druid and his cat got beat up pretty good, as did the dwarven ranger and his raccoon. The 2 Paladins (the Staglord & General) made it through without problems, they just couldn't get to the third dragon before it withdrew after killing the silver.
The ranger used a treasure map spell to find the lair, but it saw us coming and used one of those transport horde spells or net to carry off the combined horde. The lair, behind a waterfall, had an infestation of dracolisks as well as a female basilisk.
The High Druid just did some scouting around the headwaters of the Siltstrand River and he thinks the dragon is near there now.
Black dragons have been a real pain so far, and we haven't even found any in the swamp yet, plus they'll mate with anything!
So, how I plan to handle this when my group gets to this part of the AP is as follows:
** spoiler omitted **
Hope this helps.
Basically what I did with it. I think the party's current plan is to try to find the black dragon so that they can convince the Silver Dragon to become their kingdom's treasurer.
I am totally going to use Eranex from Dragons Unleashed.
Even if she's a CR16 creature that encounter is highly risky in and of itself so players willing to get beaten to dust would find their mettle even with a normal silver adult dragon, but mthe point is that she's so damn fitting in KM! for her being a Fey creature and her BG!
This is what I did as well. Eranex has become one of my group's most important allies.
I used her encounter area from the book as well, with the Ankou and the Fetchling cleric. Since they're tied to Count Ranalc, it even further cements them into Kingmaker's story.
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I ended up rolling this encounter 3 times in 4 rolls while the PCs were traveling through some lands they had already claimed, so I caved to the dice and had a silver dragon arrive, and stop the PCs to warn them about a number of evil NPCs that the PCs had already sent packing.
The PCs got along well enough with the dragon that they eventually convinced her to send one of her young offspring to the PCs' kingdom to learn from them. Since the PCs have a very young black dragon as a member of their kingdom (alignment-switched to be NG from a cursed helm), I figured that there might be some interesting RP potential.
I am a PC. In our campaign we landed the silver dragon encounter a few times. The first was with Amvarean before she had been killed by Ithuliak. A year later, we found her lair and realized she was dead.
Afterword, we met her son Shargarius who had begun searching for his mother after fighting in the World Wound and occasionally helps us fight evil things. So far he helped us kill a Huge White Dragon and two Large Black Dragons as well as convert some kobolds and a flight of wyverns to Apsu.
Apparently are GM is gonna start leveling him in sorcerer.