The Dragon
Since the "clock" of stamina is tracked by players, there is hopefully a bit of mental bandwidth budget to determine where the dragon is and track it's movement when characters are delving through the castle's cursed lands. Event rolls happen roughly every 20 minutes in real time or whenever characters move between areas. Roll a 1D4 and 1D6 at the same time.
Event Rolls:
- Characters lose 1 Stamina
- Characters lose 1D6 Stamina
- The Dragon flies in a random direction (1-6 Directions)
- The Dragon flies to a random area (1-6 Areas)
 |
| A sketch of the kingdom divided into areas |
Behavioral Absolutes: The Dragon never leaves the kingdom. The Dragon does not retreat from battle. The Dragon attacks all non-sleeping outsiders, and will attempt to tire them out or kill them. The Dragon does not kill any Sleepers. The Dragon avoids destroying any part of the Castle. The Dragon finds human flesh distasteful and avoids biting or eating unless he is extremely desperate.
 |
| Rough flowchart of Dragon actions |
Dragon Behaviors
Tracking - The Dragon begins tracking the character's movements.
I'm still tinkering with different ways to have this background function
run once it starts.
Trapping - The Dragon flies around the perimeter of the kingdom looking for signs of entry or any sort of path left by characters. If he finds this he lies in wait for their return, if not he flies to the Castle and lies in wait there.
Fighting - The Dragon immediately flies into the air where he cannot be hit with melee attacks and most projectiles will be deflected by his beating wings. The Dragon spams fire if there is no wooden structures nearby. If characters are out in the open (a field of thorns) he will spend 2 rounds drawing a large ring of flames around them to trap them in. If a character deals more than 15 damage to the Dragon in a single round, the Dragon will single them out, attempting to grab them and hold them to his mouth while he spits flame. This does enough damage to instantly kill any mortals. When fighting a group he knows to be dangerous he may begin the battle by dropping a tree or boulder upon them as a surprise attack. The Dragon learns the patterns of how groups navigate through the castle the more times they have been and will always adapt to these patterns. The Dragon can be tricked by refusing to abide by past patterns (leaving a yarn path behind you but leaving through a different way, etc.)
Secrets of the Slumbering Castle
Skip this part if you care at all about spoilers.
The Law Stone - The Law Stone describes the laws of the nameless kingdom including the succession of monarchs. The heir to a monarch is their eldest child by default but can become anyone who defeats them in combat initiated or agreed to by the heir.
The Goddess - She is a goddess of sleep, protection, witchery and the home and the former patron of this kingdom. The locals of nearby villages still worship her, though with great fear of her wrath. Her name is rarely spoken in these villages.
The Witch-Priest - The King's eldest child was the high priest of the Goddess. They were challenged to a duel by their younger brother who defeated them, taking the title of heir. The Princeling then manipulated their aging father to lock them up in the dungeons beneath the Castle. During the night of a great feast the Witch-Priest escaped the dungeon, quietly killing two guards and under cloak of invisibility made their way to the treasury, taking enough gold to make a large sacrifice to the Goddess. The enchantments were then made.
The Princeling - The Witch-priest's final curse was placed upon the Princeling and new heir to the kingdom. The Princeling is the Dragon, cursed by an invocation which targets whoever the current heir is. Killing the Princeling causes the title of Heir to pass to the slayer.
No comments:
Post a Comment