My home Dungeons & Dragons group have finished the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth and are now heading south in search of the third section of the Rod of Seven Parts, but they stopped along the way to kill a white dragon.

That is all Mike “Sly Flourish” Shea’s fault.

In Sly Flourish’s Fantastic Adventures, he placed a suit of armour that could detect white dragons. And so, each session, the players ask me if there are any white dragons within thirty miles. Typically, I roll percentage dice, and if they are sufficiently low, I say yes. Assuming that the characters are in the right terrain, which they were. At the end of the last session, they asked the question. The dice came up 03. And I had to design a white dragon lair.

Although, when I say, “had to” and “design”, this did not involve putting pen to paper. I drew no map of the dragon’s cave. Instead, I thought about the possibilities of the encounter. When I ran the session, it was entirely Theatre of the Mind. We used no map. I just described what was happening to the players, and they responded.

About the only thing I decided on in advance was that the dragon would begin the encounter concealed.

Cuteness and the Hoard

Greg’s sorcerer scouted the area first. He found the main lair and the dragon’s hoard, but also a white dragon wyrmling – something I invented on the spur of the moment.

You hear a clattering sound in front of you, and a large diamond rolls into view. A small white dragon – only a foot long – chases it, grabs the diamond in its mouth, and then turns around and gambols back from whence it came.

I wondered if the players would decide that the wyrmling was the dragon they had sensed, but – alas – no such luck. They suspected an older dragon was also present. And there was!

The adult white dragon clung to the roof of the cavern, almost invisible. And the sorcerer failed to see it – his passive Perception was not high enough!

So, he called the other adventurers forward, and they came to look at the hoard and search for the dragon.

Of course, now that everyone was there, it was time for the dragon to attack!

Surprising the Party

The standard way of determining surprise in 5E is for each hidden creature to make a Dexterity (Stealth) check, and compare the result against the passive Perception scores of the other combatants. I often reverse that – everyone makes a Wisdom (Perception) check, and try to beat the passive Stealth scores of the hiding creatures. When combat is imminent, it allows the players some variability in who is surprised.

Low rolling ensued so that only two of the party were not surprised. The barbarian used an ability to activate his rage and not be surprised. And combat was joined.

One of the problems facing the party was that they were all bunched up together when the dragon first acted. So, breath weapon! Some characters are resistant to cold. Others are good at failing Dexterity saving throws, but the first attack took no-one down.

But it was the first Lair Action that caused problems – as suddenly an icy mist rose from the ground, inflicting cold damage and making it impossible to see the dragon.

The floor was also icy – any creature moving at above half-speed needed to succeed at a DC 10 Acrobatics check or fall prone. So, they were in the fog cloud, and it wasn’t easy to get out!

Fire and Chaos

The wizard and sorcerer cast fire spells in the general direction of the dragon, while the fighters essayed some ranged weapons. And the dragon breathed on them again.

This attack caused problems. Characters started falling unconscious and failing death saves. The dragon flew down to engage everyone in melee. It had blind sight, so ignored the effects of the fog. Chaos ensued, though the paladin was able to get to it in melee – before it used its wing attack and moved away.

“Can I use healing word on the fighter?” “You can’t see him.” “Hell!”

Why was the dragon in melee? Partly it was to make use of its legendary actions. Being able to make three additional attacks each round is terrifying, especially when the player characters only have a few hit points left.

Half the party ran back towards the exit, but some slipped on the ice and fell prone. Then those at the cave mouth split up again, some returning to defend those who were unconscious. Pure chaos!

The Power of Fireball

Soon, only the sorcerer stood by the exit. The dragon flew to him and attacked him. And, a wall of ice appeared behind it so no-one else could get to them. (This is a lair action).

The sorcerer had only a few hit points left. He responded to the threat with an empowered fireball spell! It hit the wall of ice and detonated, dealing a lot of damage to the dragon, and destroying the wall of ice. However, he was also in the radius of effect! Failing the save against his fireball spell, he quickly activated absorb elements (as otherwise he would be killed outright!) and slipped unconscious.

These events caused a last flurry of activity from the players. While the dragon had inflicted a lot of damage on the characters, and they had had a lot of trouble striking it in return, the party had not been entirely ineffectual. These are twelfth-level characters. While the paladin and cleric tended the sorcerer and fighter, the barbarian finally managed to engage it and got in a couple of good hits. The dragon met its end when the wizard hit it with another fireball spell, against which it failed to save.

It crashed to the ground, dead. The party, severely damaged, were victorious!

The Spoils of Victory

My game is an odd fusion of elements from 5E and AD&D. For the defeat of the dragon, nothing would do but using the old AD&D Monster Manual treasure tables – treasure type “H”! (H for “hoard”)

The players made the die rolls to determine the treasure. I had not prepopulated it; instead, I let them have the fun of seeing what they would get.

The results?

• 20,000 gold pieces
• 99 gems (20 x 10 gp, 20 x 50 gp, 10 x 100 gp, 20 x 500 gp, 30 x1000 gp)
• Ten pieces of jewellery (5 of wrought silver worth 500 gp each, 5 of wrought gold worth 1000 gp each)
• Potion of controlling shadows (undead)
• Scroll of Cleric spells- Bless, Aid, Silence, Aerial servant
• Longsword +1, Dragon Slayer
• Longsword +3
• Scroll – Protection from magic
• Medallion of ESP (30 ft. range, only permits reading of thoughts)

There are a few quirks with the magic items that the players are yet to discover. And yes, some of the spells and items come from AD&D; providing a more antique feeling to the game than just using “modern” magic. And that’s a lot of gold. I expect some stronghold building to commence shortly!

Also, the characters might be trying to tame a white dragon wyrmling! Let’s see what happens.