Introduction
Dragons in Dungeons
Nothing is more quintessentially Dungeons & Dragons than gathering a group of heroes to face a mighty dragon in a mysterious dungeon. These classic elements link players across time and space, from the first adventurers who forayed into the gloom more than 50 years ago to players beginning their first adventure now.
Dragon Delves is a celebration of this shared tradition. Each of the ten adventures in this book features a dragon in a lair. Designed for characters of levels 1 through 12, the adventures offer a range of challenges, from defeating evil dragons to working with good dragons, as well as navigating more complicated moral dilemmas. The dungeons where the dragons make their lairs range from cavern complexes to ruined cities and more.
Where there are dragons in dungeons, there's always adventure!
Using This Book
The adventures in an anthology such as Dragon Delves are versatile resources that can fill a variety of needs at your gaming table: as one-shot adventures, as "filler episodes" in an ongoing campaign, or as a series that forms a campaign, bringing characters from level 1 to a climactic conclusion at level 12.
These adventures are designed to require minimal preparation (see x later in this introduction).
One-Shot Adventure
Maybe you're normally a player in an ongoing campaign, but you want to try your hand at being the Dungeon Master. Maybe you're trying to pull a new group together, and you want to see how all the players get along before you start a whole campaign. Maybe your regular DM is sick or has a scheduling conflict, but everyone else is ready to play. Or maybe your group needs a break or a diversion from the ongoing campaign. In any of these cases, you can pick an adventure from this book and run it.
In an Ongoing Campaign
Maybe your players' characters know what they have to do to foil the evil boss's plans, but they're not quite high enough level to accomplish their goal. Or they've just hit a significant milestone in the campaign, and you want to give them a change of pace before they get immersed in the next act of the unfolding drama. Or they're traveling halfway around the world, and you're looking for something to keep the journey interesting—a little adventure along the way. Or you're not prepared for the next adventure, and you need a diversion! In any of these cases, you can pick an adventure from this book to serve as a "filler" episode or side quest in the ongoing campaign.
When the characters are the appropriate level for the adventure you wish to run, simply narrate how the characters end up in the adventure's locale. Each adventure's beginning includes a simple setting description, such as "a village with a nearby forest." Beyond these basic details, feel free to alter the adventure's location to match your campaign.
But if you do have time to prepare, you can incorporate the adventure you're running into the themes and threats of your campaign. You can alter the names of people and places in the adventure to fit better into your world, link the adventure villains to organizations and events that are important in your campaign, and plant clues to the themes of your campaign in the dragon's treasure hoard.
Creating a Campaign
These adventures can be strung together as a complete dragon-themed campaign. Simply guide your players through the adventures in the order presented in this book and award story-based level advancement at each adventure's end, so their characters are the appropriate level for the next challenge they'll face. (No level advancement is necessary before the final adventure.) You can also use one of the following narrative frameworks to connect the adventures to one another.
Option 1: Mysterious Patron
Have a friendly patron whose true identity is somewhat mysterious befriend the adventurers early in their careers and send them on each adventure in sequence. The patron might be a charismatic young monk, a kindly teacher, a diminutive scamp, or a scatter-brained elder, and might or might not be accompanied by seven golden canaries or dazzling yellow butterflies, which are actually ancient gold dragons in disguise—the companions of the dragon god Bahamut, which is the patron's true identity.
Perhaps foreseeing that they are destined to become mighty heroes, Bahamut takes the adventurers under his metaphorical wing and sends them on adventures to deal with draconic concerns, great and small, across the world. The patron might feign surprise when an adventure that doesn't at first seem to involve a dragon (such as "The Will of Orcus," chapter 3) turns out to revolve around one, but of course that's exactly the reason Bahamut sent the characters to investigate.
You can use each adventure as written, with the characters' patron steering them in the general direction of the adventure hook without spoiling any surprises in the adventure ahead. Alternatively, the patron could let the characters in on the secret early on, telling them that dragons will be a particular focus of their adventures and altering some of the adventure hooks along the way.
Option 2: Brazen Egg
Begin the campaign with the introductory encounter of chapter 10, "Dragons of the Sandstone City," ending with Eldemere entrusting the Brazen Egg to the characters. Eldemere's instructions are different, though: she explains that the egg must be "steeped" in the hoards of ten dragons, one of each chromatic and metallic kind, to activate its power. She also suggests that the egg will lead the characters toward suitable hoards. In fact, any character who sleeps within 15 feet of the egg has vivid dreams leading them toward the start of the next adventure.
To draw power from a dragon's hoard, the egg must spend 8 hours in the midst of the treasure, covered with coins and surrounded by other items. However, as soon as the empowered egg is brought within Anthradusk's hoard chamber (area H16 in chapter 10), it reaches its full potential and begins to crack open, as described in that adventure.
Option 3: Hoard Magic Items
If you have Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, the hoard of magic items described in that book can provide an incentive for characters to seek out dragons of increasing power and different kinds. Add the following items to the rewards acquired in the first three adventures: a Scaled Ornament in "Death at Sunset," a Dragon Vessel in "Baker's Doesn't," and a Dragon's Wrath Weapon and a Dragon-Touched Focus in "The Will of Orcus." All four items are Slumbering when the characters first acquire them, but in later adventures, the items can be awakened by steeping them in dragons' hoards.
Running the Adventures
To run each of these adventures, you need the fifth edition core rulebooks: the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual. Spells and equipment mentioned in the adventures are described in the Player's Handbook. Magic items are detailed in the Dungeon Master's Guide, and monsters appear in the Monster Manual.
The table of contents summarizes the adventures in this anthology. Each adventure is designed for four to six characters of a particular level, but you can adjust for larger or smaller groups by changing the number of foes in an encounter and giving a small group additional resources, as explained in the Dungeon Master's Guide. Each of the adventures can take place in any world you choose, as long as the location has the basic elements listed at the beginning of each adventure.
Preparation
Every adventure in this book begins with a page that helps you prepare and run the adventure. It includes the following elements:
- Key Plot Points. A summary of the key elements in the adventure's story
- Preparation. Steps to get yourself ready to run the adventure, including a list of all the stat blocks from the Monster Manual you might need
- Key NPCs. A table summarizing key nonplayer characters in the adventure—their names, roles, stat blocks, and locations—to help you keep track of them during play
Player Assistance
As described in the Dungeon Master's Guide, you can streamline your role as Dungeon Master by delegating certain tasks to the other players, especially if this is your first time behind the DM's screen. Before play begins, work with the other players to divide any or all of the following tasks among them:
- Initiative Tracker. In combat, one player tracks Initiative for the characters and monsters.
- Monster Wranglers. Whenever the characters enter combat with Hostile monsters, one or two players run these monsters using the stat blocks in the Monster Manual. (Two players can share this role.)
- Rules Consultant. One player references rules in the Player's Handbook or other books as needed.
Adventures for One Character
While the Dungeon Master's Guide explains how to adjust adventures for different party sizes, three of the adventures (indicated in the table of contents) are particularly well-suited for play with a single adventurer. Each of these adventures includes instructions for ensuring the character faces an appropriate challenge.
Central to those instructions is the Blessing of the Lone Champion, a supernatural gift that bolsters the solo character's abilities.
[stat block: Blessing of the Lone Champion]
The blessing lasts for the duration of the adventure.