When it comes to creative writing, the best plan is whichever one that actually works. Individual habits, patterns, and needs of writers are mainly why there are so many plans to choose from in the first place.
in all seriousness though, i read an article a few years ago about grieving fictional characters, and it turns out that since they occupy so much space in our heads, they more or less become a “loved one”. we spend years immersing ourselves in these series, learning about our favorites, analyzing them, devoting so much to them, and then suddenly they’re taken away. and sure, you can go back and reread/rewatch, but it isn’t the same. not exactly.
so take your time to grieve and don’t you dare feel silly about it. your feelings are valid, and you are allowed to be angry and cry and comfort yourself.
So D&D black dragons are supposed to live in swamps, right? Pretty amphibious, live in swamps, lair in…
caves. With a main entrance and a back entrance.
In swamps.
I really have trouble with the idea that there’s these dragon-sized caves in an area with such a high water table, y'know? We have to go through miles of swamp to reach this lair, it’s not one little boggy place in a mountain valley otherwise filled with nice caves. And the cave has to have two entrances, too? I can believe in dragons, but not this geology.
So… maybe it’s not geology. Because a lair in a marshy place with exacting design specifications sounds a lot like a totally natural thing –
A beaver lodge.
So now I have this new image of black dragons industriously gnawing down giant trees to construct their mighty swamp lairs, and I am so much happier.
He’s building his lodge.
To anyone worried about this eliminating the fear factor, don’t worry; instead, imagine a lair full of sharp spikes formed from logs. Imagine previous, less fortunate treasure-hunters, dragonslayers, etc. being impaled on those spikes for your party to see.
That’s brilliant! I’d done a dragon with shrike behavior in my game before, but it was a red dragon. I had the wrong species. We do know that black dragons like to let their food decompose a bit before tucking in. So they put in on a meat hook for a while.
i figured they were burrows dug into the wet ground, with submerged entrances and the central lair soupy with mud. i still like this, but i like the beaver dam idea more, so i think i will combine them.
how about: black dragons dig a mud burrow when they’re small enough to need to hide, and live like salamanders or frogs. but as they get bigger, they start reinforcing the burrow with branches, then logs, as they expand it. piling brush and mud on top, maybe constructing mazelike branch tunnels to stash both food and treasure.
imagine raiding such a lair, chest deep in mud, slimy moss-hung branches spiking out of the walls. the reek of the dragon’s larder choking you. you’ve already killed the adult dragon, but from somewhere in this soggy deathtrap, you can hear a sound like baby crocodiles…
Does this also imply that a black dragon might make a swampy area by damming up a river if it can’t find a suitable one?
Imagining a party being called in to relocate a dragon that dammed a local river, flooding surrounding fields and villages.
what a hook! i love it! dragons could be such a force for landscape rearrangement, but i’ve never actually seen that be the problem in a campaign.
Creative and entertaining, but no drama! Slave to the muses. A mixed bag of femslash, a scoop of a couple m/f pairings and a dash of poly for spice. I have proclaimed myself Grand Poobah of the sturdy little dinghy that is AgentCorp! I also LOVE dansen and agentreigncorp. Huge Peggy Carter fan! 1st officer of the SSS Stegginelli. Angie Martinelli makes everything better. I want to be Steve Rogers, or at least my version of him.
