Golden Dragon

This is just a follow up on my adventure: Emancipation of the Golden Dragon. (Spoiler Alert just in case you ever want me to run this for you!)

I have run four sessions of this adventure with my local group. Session five is coming up! They have managed to clear about a level per session. So it really seems to be working out nicely. Here is the hook provided on the Meetup site:

A chance encounter with golden dragons is unpredictable at best, but these two want to recruit your party. Appearing in human form, they explain that one of their own has been captured by Mormadock, an evil wizard. The Dungeon of Mormadock is a twisted living laboratory where exotic monsters are housed and harvested in wicked experiments and bizarre alchemical research. The evil wizard is bent upon chaotic domination and he believes he holds the key!

But he needs one more ingredient to perfect his formula: he must harvest the dragon parts of a living Golden Dragon. He has captured one, but it wisely refuses to take dragon form and allow such harvesting. It is ancient, strong in its own magic, and therefore highly resistant to the wizard's ordinary magic. Mormadock is therefore off on dimensional explorations in order to find what he needs to force the golden dragon to his will.

Now, the other two golden dragons explain, is the time to mount a daring rescue. The wizard is absent, but his dungeon is active and garrisoned. It will take a carefuly planned attack by a crack team of seasoned dungeoneers. Are you the right ones for this mission?

It was a lot of fun putting together. I imagined each of the six dragons in 0e as the center piece of each level of a six-level dungeon (with some side red herrings, e.g., one seeming "level" is really just the lair of a mighty purple worm! (Rad!)).

Each dragon moves up the scale of age and HD, so, e.g., the white dragon is very young, up to the golden dragon himself, being ancient. Each dragon's lair is carefully maintained by the evil Wizard himself, providing, as much as possible, the "native" environment of the particular dragon. So, e.g., the white dragon resides in an ice house. The red dragon resides in a cavern full of artificial hills, etc. Each level has a particular intelligent race serving as its keepers, e.g., evil magic users, clerics, goblins, giants, etc.

With this hook I managed to employ just about every type of monster available in 0e. It was tough to design, and, well, perhaps a bit artificial in the end. I know I will change some things and make them better if I run it again.

But it was and is fun! Fight on!