D&D 5E Question regarding Out of the Abyss campaign (*Spoiler!*) Help a floundering DM out!

[aumguitarist07]

Hello all. I sincerely apologize if this is a repeated question; I've browsed several forums, but haven't seen anything that satisfies my uncertainty. Now that that's out of the way, let's get down to brass tacks . . .

There is a point in OotA, wherein the PCs are in Gracklstugh (city of Duergar), on a mission to recover a stolen red dragon egg. My group of PCs includes a Dragonborn (red) Fighter, a Sorcerer of Draconic bloodline (red), and an Evil-aligned barbarian . . . all of whom might see fit to try to hatch the egg for their own purposes. What makes this interesting is that the campaign book specifically states that if the dragon hatches, it has the Wyrmling stats and "bonds" with the first creature it sees (i.e., "imprinting"). My concern is probably pretty obvious: If they hatch the egg, what happens here? My first thought is that the wyrmling won't outright attack, especially if it bonds with whomever it first lays eyes on. But it does have an Intelligence score of 12, and understands/speaks Draconic, so it's not exactly "baby" mentality. I'm thinking the wyrmling would understand that its best chance of survival is likely with the party at least until the group leaves the dungeon and city, and after that it would take a successful Animal Handling/Persuasion check (not sure which) to convince the dragon to stay along. My PCs will be 6th level by the time they are in a position to hatch the egg. I'd likely just write a character sheet for the dragon and control it myself, so that as long as the characters have it around it *might* be inclined to aid them in combat/various situations, etc, as determined by what my Rogue calls my "percentile dice of death".

It would be a substantial drain of their resources to keep it fed with actual meat as well (PCs are surviving off of boiled Darklake water and fungi . . . not exactly dragon diet material), and it would also demand at least half of whatever gold they found, with a percentile dice roll for whether it would be wanting any magical items they find as well.

But is this even a good idea? How would you assume the "imprinting" of a dragon works? How does its CE alignment work if it imprints on a character who is CG, or CN? Any insight you guys would be able/willing to provide is greatly appreciated. Thanks for your assistance!

 

[Herobizkit]

Starscream.

Your baby red dragon becomes Starscream - a sniveling toady but cunning and effective in his own right, always plotting to take the group leader's place the moment s/he shows weakness. So confident is the dragon that he reminds the players about it at every other turn.

A Wyrmling is a wyrmling for, what, 5 years? Odds are the Dragon won't grow an age category before your campaign is over. You could run the dragon "as-is" from the Monster Manual, but adding character class levels to it could be a fun treat... *lol*

[video=youtube;pLt-G5yA8dQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLt-G5yA8dQ[/video]

 

[ccs]

Also CE =/= Chaotic-Stupid.
Sure, it's a dragon. It's chaotic & evil in nature. And it wants as much of the treasure as it can get. But it's also a very small dragon, surrounded by larger, more powerfull, & more dangerous creatures (notably the PCs). And it can't possibly carry all the loot.... So for the time being it's in its best interest to work with these people. Or let them serve it (like my cat - if she had thumbs & could open the cat food cans/cook pork chops she wouldn't need me. So as long as I have opposable digits)
As for bonding with a CN or even good PC? It can have friends. Or at least someone it likes/will eat last.

 

[UnknownDyson]

Sometimes I feel like people take alignments entirely too seriously. Morality is learned, dragons are not demons they don't have to be foes. If you have an infant dragon, imo you should role play that dragon like an apex predator but also a child. The dragon would not know anything about right and wrong, that wouldn't make any sense.

Also, the adventure says that the dragon bonds with the first creature it sees after hatching. If that is one of the pcs, I would imagine that the dragon (given its 12 intelligence, as you mentioned) would develop a personality based on whatever its parent or parents taught it. If the dragons is traveling with an evil aligned party, it may very well turn into a "Starscream", quickly learning that might makes right and developing into a little reptillian opportunist.

But if the party is good aligned, shows the dragon love, and teaches it noble values. Why would it be evil? Unless you run a campaign based around lord of the rings or the bible I often see no reason for too many "black and white" creatures to exist,

 

[Razorak]

I personally find the idea of species alignments to be absurd, with the possible exception of extra-planar entities. He might have urges and instincts that lead it towards chaos or evil, but I believe it would most likely emulate whoever it imprints on. Also, even as a wyrmling it has above average intellect, and dragons are very long-lived and often play the long game. No reason that the wyrmling would push for conflict with the beings that are currently supporting and protecting it.

 

[Celtavian]

You'll have to decide if the dragon is a creature that can learn morality from the party. Given its intelligence, if it can reason that what the party wants it to do will please its "mother." I'm assuming imprinting means it becomes very attached to a particular party member as a parental figure. Now what it does when it is an adult is up to you. Red dragons become very intelligent and powerful. It might at some point realize it is not supposed to be listening to tiny humanoids and it might become very angry at being used in its opinion. That is a long ways off. So for now I don't see why the wyrmling wouldn't wander about with them. Given what they're fighting, they may just kill it. I would certainly control it myself as DM, giving the players some control using intelligent commands, but not generally suicidal stuff. I would have it act on its own on quite often given its chaotic nature. Dragons don't follow orders very well, especially red ones.

 

[UnknownDyson]

I agree with you there. All I'm saying is that its not like there are no previous cases of good aligned chromatics, even into adulthood.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

My group (which also has a CE barbarian and a draconic bloodline sorcerer, funnily enough), found the egg and fled Gracklstugh to keep the egg and hatch it rather than turn it over to Themberchaud/Keepers of the Sacred Flame.

It took them multiple adventures to figure out how to hatch the egg, with several close calls where it almost got smashed.

They did hatch it, and I guess it imprinted on the dragonborn sorcerer (he could speak draconic, too). But the dragon is evil, sullen, and lazy (I'm treating it a bit like an angry teenager). It already views the party as his servants, carrying its gold (I ruled that it needs a bed of coins to sleep, otherwise it throws a fit). Some of my gaming group are around here, I think, so I'll not say more as to what I plan in the future.

In your case, and my group has been arguing this one back and forth on this, is whether its evil is nature or nurture. My vote is that it's a magical being, and therefore it is its nature to be evil, but that's up to you in your campaign.