So the last time I stated that Dragons should be used in campaigns and that even a 1st level party can get into combat with dragons and win. So here is a possible encounter a 1st level party can have with a Dragon. Now I can’t take credit for this encounter. Inspiration came from an adventure made by the good people at Wizards of the Coast.
The Encounter
Your PCs have entered some buried ruins. They are controlled by two factions. One is a faction of Kobolds and the other a faction of Goblins. The Kobolds have somehow gotten their hands on a wyrmling White Dragon which they planned to use against the Goblins to gain control of the ruins. Unfortunately for the Kobolds is that they can’t actually control the Dragon and it killed one of its handlers and walked off. At the same time a Goblin war party was heading to attack the kobolds and saw the raging dragon and tried to run away. Somehow they managed to lock the Dragon in a room.
There are several possible ways to have your players come across this Dragon.
- The first is they randomly come across this room.
- They meet the Kobolds and they offer the PCs an assortment of treasures (at least one of which should be a minor magic item of some sort) to get their pet back for them
- They meet the Goblins who offer the PCs an assortment of treasures to kill the Kobolds horrible monster
Maybe you don’t want them to fight a Dragon. Maybe you want to make it more enticing to help the Dragon. Hey, a Dragon getting out of being imprisoned can have a long term affect on your campaign world. It could also be a helpful friend (though more likely for long lived races like Elves and Dwarfs, not short life spanned races like Humans or Half-Orcs). So instead of a White Dragon make it a good Dragon (I suggest not a Gold Dragon) and the PCs have to assist it in escaping.
