Dragon Agendas

inspiration

#1

Hey shield wall. I’m making an adventure in which a dragon attacks an unsuspecting mountain mining town. I want the adventure to have some replayability, so I’d like to have five different dragons with five different agendas. I’m requesting a little help with ideas.

So, why would a dragon burn down a whole town?


#2

That one punky kid in town—you know the one—royally pissed off the local dragon.


#3

They’ve learned of a relic inside the town that is extremely dangerous to their kind. Each one wants to use it against the other.


#4

Obviously somebody stole some precious loot from the dragon’s hoard.

a) That somebody is not from the town. Track that somebody down and get the loot back, before the dragon destroys the town. He stole the loot because… he was paid to do it / he is from a rival town that wants to see this town destroyed because they want the mine for themselves.

b) That somebody is from the town but he wants the town to be destroyed because… someone there had wronged him terribly / some evil power possessed him to do this / some external force or event drove him mad. You get the idea.


#5

The town had agreed to pay the Dragon protection gold, but they have not been paying. The Dragon came a while ago to give them a warning that the town ignored. Now there is another fire breathing creature coming in and destroying the town. The dragon is unmoved by their plight, but now is being blamed.

The adventurers have been told it is the dragon’s fault.


#6

Mining operation tunneled into his lair and woke him.

Town is mining coal. Dragon likes to eat coal. Everyone thinks he’s after the villagers, but he’s actually just trying to get the delicious carbon.

Mining operation unearthed an artifact that actually summons dragons. Accidentally summoned one. Another will arrive in X time. Then another in Y.


#7

Dragon is under teh control of a jealous land prospector who wants to scare teh town away to hog the mining rights… scooby doo ending.

And I wouldve gotten away with it if it werent for you medling adventurers!


#8

The dragon needs the red hot embers to nest her almost hatched eggs in. If the adventurers defeat her, what will they do with the eggs?


#9

The dragon protects the world above from what lurks below and the miners are making enough noise to possibly wake it. Doing what needs to be done, the dragon is trying to drive the miners off to save them from an even worse fate!


#10

Pure and simple vengeance. The dragon made a deal with residents hundreds of years ago marking territorial boundaries. That deal was forgotten over time and the dragon wakes to find the terms have been broken and the townsfolk have moved in on its land. This sleight cannot go unpunished.


#11

Thanks everyone for your ideas! There are some doozies there.

I realized while processing this I’ve been angling all wrong. It’s not about a dragon, necessarily, but about the town going up in flames. I playtested this last year and had the players light a literal candle at each map location as fire took it. I want to keep that visceral, grim theme going, but it doesn’t have to be a dragon that causes the fire. Now I’m thinking bandits, wizards, maniacs, demons…