hahanoiwont:

so! further expanding on the dragon situation, and Why pizza bard is Going to Die Soon.

We encountered a dragon. It saw us, we saw it. This sparked frantic discussion on what we were going to do about the dragon. But it was also that time of the night where I as a player tend to go, you know, I think we can take this. And our DM says, yeah, if you get some good rolls you might be able to do this. So I suggest we sleep and restore spell slots, and then see if we can go fight.

Then I remember characterization. I have known Draconic for this whole campaign, and I have backed up my knowledge of Draconic in pizza bard lore, and why the hell would pizza bard be afraid of dragons? The only dragons he’s encountered have been on his deliveries or otherwise friendly, save for some that he’s seen defeated by adventurers. So yeah, he’s generally aware that they can and will kill him if he’s stupid, but no more than literally everyone else.

Some dragons are known to just sort of steal good conversationalists and keep them forever, because they love entertaining. pizza bard has almost certainly escaped this before. So he walks in and starts chatting. Talking real good is how he’s gotten out of every scrape he’s gotten into, after all.

Unfortunately, this dragon seems to be a little bit possessed atm? so my hopes for making a new friend are somewhat thwarted right now. We have a cure if we can get it into the dragon, but this’ll be our last dose. if one of our party members gets fucked up, sucks for us.

This is also a black dragon, which tends to mean evil, but moral standing has never stopped pizza bard from making friends before. It didn’t attack immediately, so I’m a little hopeful that we can reach a peaceful solution? It even gave pizza bard a warning shot before seriously trying to hurt him. This example of dragon-typical courtesy makes pizza bard think it may still be a little sane, which means there’s a chance the party can help it shake off possession and not have to kill it.

Which feeds into an interesting ideology of his. He doesn’t want to kill longer-lived and immortal creatures. It’s a cultural thing, mostly, but to him killing a human means decades that will no longer be lived, but killing an immortal means millennia, or even eternity. Dragons live about 1500-1700 years. He’s going to be very resistant to killing something that lives that long.

It’s going to be really difficult for me to find the line between his self-preservation and [SPOILERS] the kinship he feels with another quasi-immortal being. Also, his confidence in his ability to keep himself alive vs. his overactive flight response. And a fun dash of ‘this dragon is being Forced to Do Things and I am often Forced to Do Things and I will help it.’ [END SPOILERS]. Expect a lot of meta posts over the next week or so.