A Dance of Dragons: Raising the Stakes for My D&D Players
Those among you who’ve stuck around throughout the course of Vox Felicitas will know that I’m the proud Dungeon Master (DM) of my very own homebrewed Dungeons & Dragons campaign: The Draconomachy, a tale of heroics set in Magic: The Gathering’s Theros. The basic premise involves a party of heroes setting forth to dispel a dire threat posed to the entire region by an extraplanar empire known as Skaros — which, predictably enough, makes use of various dragon kinds as weapons of mass destruction. The storyline is, for all intents and purposes, a merger of three: Wizards of the Coast’s own Tyranny of Dragons campaign, the 300 movie/graphic novel series by Frank Miller, and Homer’s Iliad. I was originally going to run the Tyranny of Dragons campaign itself, having both books at my side, but since everyone was hyped for the new Mythic Odysseys of Theros book (being MTG nuts), I’ve been making a few adaptations to accommodate them (because I’m nice like that, y’see).
Being inspired by Greek mythology, Theros is an excellent setting for awesome heroics, offering player characters to champion the cause of one of its many gods and receiving power boosts as a result. Fantastic, I think! I’m well-versed in the myths of Hellas, and even (yesterday) managed to pull off a shout-out to Disney’s Hercules, one of my favourite childhood movies of all time. This will be a good campaign, so I set into my mind as I lead my hapless players into the waiting jaws of the dragons that await…
Except come session four, I run into a rather unique problem that can only ever happen in Theros.
That problem goes by the name of Grexes Steadfast.
I’ve introduced you all to this heroic leonin before, in Vox Felicitas XI. For those of you who’ve got no idea who I’m on about, Grexes has “honour in his heart and fire in his eyes, willing to throw himself in danger to protect those who can’t defend themselves in the harsh land of Theros. Grexes got the title of Steadfast, for he is unwavering and rises to any challenge for glory”.
Session four of The Draconomachy involves the infiltration of an enemy war camp. Said war camp is populated by enemy bandits and soldiers of a rogue Skaroan general who has just rampaged through the party’s starting village with help from a vicious blue dragon. Getting into the camp is easy enough, since the bandit assigned to guard duty is literally sleeping on the job. No problem. Now comes the part where the group sneaks into the enemy fortress and then-
“Send me your best warrior for an honourable challenge!” shouts a leonine voice from the outside.
The hapless door guard is jerked awake by an angry lion man looking for a fight. With a shaking hand the bandit directs Grexes to a Skaroan soldier, who promptly makes his way over to one of the war tents to fetch the camp’s finest warrior. Moments later, a hulking brute of a man with an eyepatch marches to the camp’s gate and demands to know what the fuss is all about. Upon receiving Grexes’ challenge to a duel, the musclebound monster smirks … and with hasty application of shapechanging magic, reveals himself to be the blue dragon that raided the village they came from.
I’m sat behind my computer screen with a huge grin on my face. I know how this battle’s going to end. Grexes is level 4. The dragon he’s about to fight is designed to demolish a level 16 character. His breath weapon does 12d10 points of damage — which translates to “copious owie”. He loses the initiative roll, but what can Grexes do to harm a dragon? I’d never specially go out of my way to kill a player character, but at the same time, I don’t hold back on consequences. The dragon’s turn comes, and sure enough, he elects to end the duel quickly with a blast of lightning.
The rumbling thunderburst subsides. In the midst of a smoking black crater stands a certain leonin, completely unharmed by the strike, brushing a speck of ash off his left shoulder — to the dragon’s total shock. Did I mention that Grexes’ god has given him the power to shrug off a heavy blow?
What follows can only be described as complete and utter chaos. The other party members have variously disabled the dragon’s wings and set the camp on fire, burning the enemies who were supposed to help the badly wounded dragon — who is now being mercilessly whaled on by the party. It gets better: the main villain of what’s meant to be a story arc spanning a month notices the madness going on outside, readies his weapons and charges, only to be swept up and incinerated by a fire tornado. The first and only time as a DM that I have loudly and openly facepalmed.
Silver lining: I was able to put my improv skills to the test that day. The new main arc villain is Artemisia, a lovely, friendly individual who goes by the title of “Burnt One”.
Artemisia the Burnt wasn’t supposed to be fought until much later on in the campaign. She’s one of Skaros’ five Sorcerer-Satraps, powerful magi who rule minor kingdoms as vassals of a God-Emperor named Hersephon. Each of the five have their own theme, modelled upon the chromatic dragons of Dungeons & Dragons. Artemisia’s theme is the red dragon, with a fiery temper and equally tepid attack style.
She’s also a cyborg. Her backstory is that she’s one of the last survivors of a demonic invasion of her home realm, Flagros, which saw her friends and family slaughtered in the typically savage fashion that comes with the demons of the Abyss. Artemisia herself was captured by the demonic horde, enslaved and tortured with fire and claws before being left to die, having gone mad with terror and despair.
Then along comes the Serpent Witch and a flight of dragons, who swoop in and mercilessly obliterate the demons, kill their lord and absorb Flagros into the fledgling Skaroan Empire. The Serpent Witch picks up Artemisia, teaches her pyromantic magic, and orders her artificers to rebuild the poor girl, giving her a flashy new adamantine body, a triangular flameblade built into her arm and a warhammer whose blows can literally melt enemy armour. Not long after, Hersephon crowns her and gives her an army of fire soldiers and a wing of red dragons at her command. (Wait, why does this remind me of someone else?)
The reshaping of my campaign to put what was meant to be a side baddie fought later on front and centre so soon, despite being one challenge level short of a balor — one of the most feared monsters in D&D — is a matter of necessity. The guys I’m running The Draconomachy for aren’t newcomers to D&D. They’re seasoned veterans who know the tips and tricks to get them through heavy fighting against much stronger opponents than what they’re meant to battle, and the gods are on their side.
So, to make sure they don’t get bored, the fights have to be ramped up to maintain tension. My style of dungeon mastery is problem/solution-based: I present an adequate problem to the party, and the party is tasked with solving it by themselves. Not to mention, Theros is a setting of awesome heroics — the player behind Grexes certainly won’t be forgetting shrugging off dragonfire any time soon. Bragging rights are par for the course, and if every challenge is really easy to resolve, their awesome factor is greatly reduced.
It’ll be a while before the party crosses paths with Artemisia again, and they’ve got plenty of draconic heads to bust before they do. But when they meet for the final time, I want the fight to be a memorable one. A party of divinely blessed heroes standing before and vanquishing a pyromantic tyrant in a pitched battle to the death that’ll be told in tales on countless worlds centuries after the deed is done.
Thank you for reading, and as always, I’ll be seeing you again next week.
~ Harry