reidoth

A DM’s Guide to Venomfang

November 13, 2019 by Kenji 4 Comments

The young green dragon Venomfang poses several challenges to DMs. The first challenge is developing Venomfang’s motivations–what does a green dragon like Venomfang want? The second challenge is playing Venomfang intelligently: As a creature with a 16 intelligence who is practised in weaving layers of deception, how can we lie convincingly to our PCs so that they believe what he’s saying? The third and final challenge is dealing with the possibility of a TPK (either finding ways to prevent one or dealing with the consequences of one), as this is one of the most likely places in the whole module where the party could bite the big one.

Green Dragon Temperament

In order to answer these questions it’s important to get an idea of just what motivates green dragons and what separates them from other dragons.

Corruptors of the Virtuous and Masters of Deceit

While all chromatic dragons are vain, evil, and covetous creatures, each type of chromatic dragon has a different temperament, and green dragons are no exception.

For green dragons, wealth is measured by influence. A green dragon would love nothing more than to gain leverage with high officials of government and force them to cater to their will. The preferred form of this leverage is through deceit or blackmail but a green dragon may also make use of cruder methods like threats and coercion. While green dragons are happy to turn anyone into their personal slave, they particularly enjoy forcing or deceiving the pure of heart to do evil deeds. For green dragons, the world is essentially their chessboard and one of their main joys in life is to collect more and more pawns to do their bidding.

Patient Schemers

Because green dragons often rely on others to do their dirty work, they can be viewed as “lazy.” Green dragons, however, would likely prefer to think of themselves as patient. For example: if an enemy has wronged a green dragon, and should the outcome of a confrontation with that enemy be less than certain, the dragon would prefer to wait years or even decades for more favorable circumstances. During this time, they are calmly stacking the deck against their enemies.

Should a green dragon be at the losing end of an encounter, they will attempt to parley. As Keith Ammann says in his article about chromatic dragon tactics:

As soon as [a green dragon] is moderately wounded, it will stop fighting and parley, making full use of its proficiency in Deception, Insight and Persuasion (skills no other type of chromatic dragon is proficient in) to keep itself alive. It will even surrender, albeit on terms favorable to itself, and always with an eye toward any opportunity to turn against its new “masters.”¹

Venomfang’s Motivations

The Lost Mines Module mentions that Venomfang has moved into the the wizard’s tower since the last time Reidoth the Druid was there.². Also, considering that Venomfang has just started laying waste to the resident giant spider population, we can assume that he has arrived within the last month or so.

Venomfang’s Enemies

We could deduce a couple of reasons for Venomfang’s recent arrival. Either he was kicked out of the nest unceremoniously by his parents (there’s conflicting sources as to whether green dragons are good parents, I believe canonically they are not), or he was driven out by an enemy. Some possible enemy candidates are:

Cryovain, the White Dragon of Icespire Hold: This idea has been suggested by several commenters in the Lost Mines of Phandelver Facebook Group. Cryovain and Icespire Hold are creations of the D&D Essentials Kit, a module which provides a whole bunch of side quest type adventures around Phandalin. Even if you don’t have the essentials kit, it wouldn’t take much to homebrew a young white dragon in a keep in the Sword Mountains vs. a Green Dragon near the southern end of Neverwinter Wood. This makes for an interesting contrast between dragons, since whites are more primal and less intelligent, while Green dragons are the craftiest of all chromatic dragons.
A relative of Venomfang: There is an excellent, excellent reddit post (like seriously really good) about how to run the Venomfang encounter that suggests Venomfang should lie about a half-sister determined to capture his lair after having been wounded by adventurers. There’s no reason, however, that this can’t be a real sibling rivalry. I like the idea that the relationship between green dragon siblings is a deadly one, and that green dragon parents raise their young in a “survival of the fittest” fashion.
Hill Giants: While doing research for this article, one of the best videos I found on Green Dragon lore mentioned that Hill Giants and Green Dragons are natural enemies. Apparently, green dragon babies are considered a delicacy among Hill Giants. I imagine that this could extend to older dragons as well. Perhaps a party of Hill Giants tried to hunt Venomfang down for food. This may make for a good segue into Storm King’s Thunder or another Giant related adventure.
A Fey Being: Thundertree already feels feywild-esque and thus it feels appropriate that perhaps a fey being of moderate to great power has interests there. One possible idea includes a stronger/smarter than normal boggle-like creature (boggles are fey creatures born out of feelings of loneliness and loss–feelings that certainly pervade Thundertree). This arch-boggle wants to increase the feelings of loneliness around Thundertree and all the recent activity generated by Venomfang, Reidoth, and the Cultists jeopardize this fey creature’s prospects of creating the perfect garden of loss. Venomfang may understand that there is a fey presence in Thundertree, and is keeping his eye out for it. I’ll likely put out another article to flesh out the fey angle further.

Venomfang and Thundertree

While it has been suggested that Thundertree is more of a temporary lair because it’s not located in a deep forest, to me it seems like an ideal spot for the young green dragon. The ash that had settled into the town after the eruption of Mt. Hotenow has the unsettling properties of corrupting anything it touches–animating corpses and causing the very plant life to lash out against those who may trespass here. Apparently, the eruption and the ash was the byproduct of a godlike fire primordial‘s anger at being awakened from a long slumber. The corruption in Thundertree is essentially a manifestation of this anger. More ancient and powerful green dragons than Venomfang have the power of causing a very similar sort of corruption by their very presence, so Venomfang must feel right at home here. Furthermore, the wizard’s tower overlooking the rest of the town allows the dragon to keep an eye on any interlopers who may venture nearby.

Venomfang’s Stalemate with Reidoth

Venomfang is loathe to give up a promising new lair. Unfortunately for him, however, a meddling old druid by the name of Reidoth has settled in a cottage at the Eastern end of Thundertree. This frustrates Venomfang’s plans to quietly recover from whatever drove him from his previous lair and plan revenge. At the moment, they seem to be at a stalemate, with one warily watching the other and waiting until one of them lets their guard down. Venomfang knows that it’s unwise to attack a spellcaster whose power has yet to be determined, and so he has kept an eye on Reidoth to see what he does. Reidoth, likewise, knows that Green dragons can be the most treacherous and dangerous of all dragons and hasn’t yet made a move on the wizard’s tower because of this.

Venomfang’s Ambivalence toward the Cultists

To oversimplify things, you can break down cultist motivation into three camps:

Worship and adulation of chromatic dragons and Tiamat, their goddess
Desire for power by forging alliances with dragons
Both 1 and 2.

Since Favric, the leader of the cultist group, is “an evil and ambitious man”³ it’s fun to think of him as a member of the second camp. The other cultists who don’t share Favric’s ambition are likely to be in the first camp. Of course, Favric would likely pretend to be in the first camp as well. While it may not change how the cultists interact with Venomfang, it’s worth noting.

While the cultists (Favric excluded) are worshipful of all chromatic dragons and wish to become servants of Venomfang, there’s nothing to suggest that Venomfang would ally himself with them. It’s true that in the Tyranny of Dragons module the cultists manage to recruit many chromatic dragons to do their bidding, but they do it by using legendary magical items called Dragon Masks. Favric, a low ranking member of the cult, possesses no such mask (and is likely not aware of their existence). He’s a bit full of himself, and thinks he can gain the allegiance of Venomfang through persuasion alone.

I imagine that Venomfang would be friendly to the cultists. After all, here’s some free minions that have plopped up on his doorstep. However, Venomfang may secretly be repulsed by these sycophants fawning over him. Should the party ask Venomfang about the cultists, Venomfang would likely share his true feelings about them.

Venomfang’s Plans

As a green dragon, Venomfang knows that the party will regard it with a decent level of distrust. He knows that should any brash adventuring party stumble into Thundertree they will likely side with Reidoth against him. Thus his first goal is the sow falsehoods about Reidoth using a third party. To me, the best candidates for starting this smear campaign are members of the Zhentarim.

Venomfang and the Zhentarim

The Zhentarim are basically what you’d get if the mafia had been established by worshippers of a dark god of ambition and tyranny. Members of the Zhentarim tend to adhere to a “survival of the fittest” and “anything goes” attitude when it comes to advancing the personal ambition of its members. The only loyalty they have are to their own members, and even this loyalty is somewhat a facade. The only reason why members don’t often betray each other is because there are severe penalties (likely the worst kind of torture and death) for doing so.

The Zhentarim and the Cult of the Dragon are enemies (the former wants to control the world, the latter wants to destroy it). Given their mutual animosity, it wouldn’t be unusual that the Zhentarim would have a spy in the ranks of the Cult. Thus, whatever tipped the Cult off that Venomfang was in Thundertree could also have been picked up by a Zhentarim agent. To me, I feel like the Zhentarim are more organized would have sent an agent to meet with Venomfang before Favric and his friends could get their shit together.

Venomfang’s Smear Campaign Against Reidoth

The Zhentarim represent perfect allies to Venomfang. As a young green dragon that doesn’t have the ability to polymorph himself, Venomfang can’t infiltrate the ranks of Neverwintan society as he would like to. In exchange for Venomfang guaranteeing a safe smuggling route around Thundertree (Venomfang is free to eat non-Zhentarim who may pass through), Zhentarim agents agree to be Venomfang’s information channel to and from the civilized world.

Venomfang’s request to the Zhentarim is to spread misinformation that an evil druid named Reidoth has been spawning plant monsters throughout Thundertree. Apparently this is part of Reidoth’s effort to kill any would be hunters and lumberjacks attempting to exploit the natural wealth of Neverwinter Wood.

While the Zhentarim smear campaign against Reidoth would likely be focused in Neverwinter, Halia Thornton, the owner of the miner’s exchange in Phandalin and secret Zhentarim member, may be asked by her Zhentarim contacts to spread the rumors in Phandalin as well. I imagine a scene where the party manages to overhear an argument between Qelline Alderleaf (who has known Reidoth all her life) and one of Halia’s goons:

“All I’m saying is I heard that the old fool druid Reidoth has gone plum bonkers and has been raising plant monsters all around Neverwinter wood. My mate was out there with a couple woodcutters and barely escaped with their lives!”

“Ye got it all wrong! Reidoth might be a little strange a’ times, but there’s no way he’d harm a soul!”

Should the party venture north to Thundertree, they may encounter a Zhentarim spy in the guise of a hunter who warns them against venturing forward because of the evil druid Reidoth. This is the perfect place to drop clues that they are being deceived. For example, anyone proficient in Nature may notice that the fox pelts that the hunter is carrying is of a breed not native to Neverwinter Wood.

If the party insists that they want to go to Thundertree, the “hunter” suggests that they can meet a possible ally, a green dragon by the name of Venomfang (It may be good to change Venomfang’s name so that it’s less evil sounding and more draconic–something like Asverathmasil.) The hunter assures the party that although Asverathmasil is a green dragon, not all of them are evil.

When Venomfang meets the party, he can try to convince them that there is a corruption in Thundertree and Reidoth has become its servant. The only way to clear the corruption is to kill the druid. If the party doesn’t buy the story and Venomfang notices this, he may unleash the poison gas on the party right away.

Which leads us to our next question…how might we avoid a TPK with venomfang?

Avoiding a TPK with Venomfang (Or Not)

This became a rather long section, so I made a separate article for it: Avoiding a TPK with Venomfang (Or Not)

Other Venomfang/Green Dragon Content

Venomfang has inspired a lot of online content, perhaps more than any other NPC in the module, thus it would a disservice not to mention and summarize some of the best remixes I’ve found out there.

Writeup by u/Brosequis on Reddit: The first comment on this reddit thread is one of the best writeups on Venomfang I’ve seen. Indeed I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from this for my own game. In addition to a useful synopsis of the natures of green dragons, this provides a lot of a sample dialogue (lies) that Venomfang may tell the party. It also provides a pretty convincing story about why Reidoth is not looking out for the good of the party.
Tweaking Thundertree, or How I Built a Better Thundertree (LMoP) : In addition to providing some additional advice on how to run Thundertree as a whole, this reddit article provides a really interesting take on how to play Venomfang. In this example, Venomfang has already trapped Reidoth in a chest and has polymorphed herself so that the party thinks that she is Reidoth. Also, this article provides a stat block for Reidoth, which is super handy should the party manage to persuade Reidoth to join forces with them against the dragon.
[VIDEO] What they Don’t Tell You About Green Dragons: One of the best resources online that I have found about green dragon lore. 100% worth the watch.
[PDF] The Monster Harvester’s Handbook: Should the party manage to defeat Venomfang, this PDF provides a list of ingredients that the players can harvest from a young green dragon, as well as DC for extracting the various parts. Since some green dragon parts have a shelf life, it may help to jot down some notes for an apothecary in Neverwinter so that they can sell their harvest before it spoils.

How have you run the Venomfang encounter? Please feel free to share in the comments!

Looking for more? Check out other articles from the Lost Mines of Phandelver Guide!

Avoiding a TPK with Venomfang (Or Not)

October 29, 2019 by Kenji 1 Comment

One the perennial questions that I’ve seen come up online when it comes to running Lost Mines of Phandelver is “How can I avoid a TPK when the party faces the green dragon Venomfang?”

There are certainly some ways you can do this, but the first question you need to ask is, “Should I try to avoid a TPK at all?”

As a newbie DM, I was afraid that a TPK would completely demoralize my players. I felt that forcing my players to start all over again would perhaps scare them away from coming back to the table. However, after giving this issue some thought and reading how other DMs have dealt with Venomfang (and the prospect of a TPK), I realized that my fears surrounding a Venomfang TPK were misplaced.

Essentially, there are two ways you can deal with it. The first is to address the prospect of character death and TPKs in a session zero and the second is to be prepared with narrative escape hatches should the party be facing near certain death.

Address character death and TPKs in a session zero

Because I was so eager to get started with Lost Mines of Phandelver, I only spent about 10 minutes with my group establishing ground rules and expectations for the game. Although I have a wonderful gaming group and all of us seem to be on the same page as to what we want to get from a game, I still wish I had spent more time to ask my players more questions during a session zero.

One thing I failed to ask about was how my players felt about character death. As a player who had initially spent hours writing out the backstory for my first few D&D characters, I became very attached to them. I dreaded character death and assumed my players would too.

I was absolutely wrong. I remember a point in one of my games where the players were facing the prospect of death and a conversation started up about how they were excited to try out new characters should their current ones die. I hate to admit that I may have pulled some punches before this conversation and now I absolutely don’t.

TPKs, however, are a different issue than character death. While it’s easy to slot in a new character should one die, a TPK is disruptive to the narrative. It forces the entire party to roll new characters and it forces the DM to come up with a slightly contrived reason to connect the severed narrative thread with a brand new party.

I believe TPKs are avoidable in most cases. However, if the party decides to do something incredibly unwise, it may happen. It’s best then to be upfront to your players about it. During your session zero explain to them that a TPK is rare but should the party make a very bad decision that results in a TPK, they can start again as a new party and pick up where the old one left off. Either that or the players can start a new adventure at level 1. Ask them which would they prefer.

I missed this discussion during session zero, but as we approached Thundertree I did discuss the TPK issue with my players, and to my surprise everyone was on board with it. All of them felt that decisions should have consequences, and if their decisions resulted in a TPK, so be it. This is what sets D&D apart from other games, after all. After this discussion, I prepared the Venomfang encounter to make it as challenging as it deserves to be.

Preventing a Venomfang TPK

While the first step regarding TPKs is to discuss them in a session zero, there are a couple ways that we can prevent a TPK with Venomfang that fit with the story and aren’t a Deus Ex Machina.

A Hostage and a Favor

Remember that Green Dragons more than anything relish the thought of corrupting the heroic and pure hearted. While they would prefer to do this through deception, they wouldn’t be against using a hostage to force others to do their bidding.

Should the party engage Venomfang in combat and should a TPK become inevitable, Venomfang can grapple a fallen party member in its claws and threaten to kill them if they don’t parley.

“You have come into my home, sought to kill me and steal my treasure, and now I hold one of your lives in my claws. I am well within my rights to tear the flesh from your bones and no one would fault me. However…if you listen to what I have to say, perhaps I will let this one live”

Should the party agree with Venomfang, you can move out of initiative. Venomfang then proposes the following deal: he will hold a party member hostage and kill them should they not do a favor in return.

The hostage will most likely be a fallen party member, but there could be other ways to resolve the issue (drawing straws, etc). The fallen party member will then have to roll up a new character to replace the one being held hostage.

What might Venomfang ask the party to do? Here are some possibilities:

Drive Reidoth out from Thundertree (Or Kill Him) – If you really want to put the party in a tight spot, you could have Venomfang pit them against Reidoth. If the party is smart enough they could possibly convince Reidoth to leave temporarily.
Kill Cryovain, the White Dragon – Cryovain kicked Venomfang out of his territory and Venomfang wants revenge. This option would require buying the D&D Essentials Kit, but you could easily substitute Cryovain for another dragon or monster of your own devising.
Steal a Magic Artifact – Perhaps Venomfang heard of some valuable object that could grant him the ability to polymorph into a human (green dragons love subterfuge, so being able to assume human form would be a dream). Of course, Venomfang would lie about the nature of the artifact, but it’s possible a canny party member would see through the deception.

What happens after the party delivers what Venomfang wishes of them? If I were Venomfang, I wouldn’t want a group of heroes wandering loose who I couldn’t control and who could potentially become a liability. If possible, Venomfang would devise some sort of trap for the adventurers and kill them after they have completed the task. Of course, Venomfang may feel that the outcome of a fight is uncertain and so decide to honor the agreement, In this case he would turn on the charm and graciously release the hostage. The characters should feel as though Venomfang is letting them off easy. Green Dragons, however, never forget a slight against them, and will spend years or even decades to even a score. The party who insulted him shouldn’t fare any differently.

TPK Insurance

Another way of avoiding a TPK involves a little setup. For this, I took some inspiration from a post in the Lost Mines of Phandelver Facebook Group. If I remember it correctly, the post essentially described a magic elixir which the party drank (Likely as a reward for rescuing someone). This elixir essentially has the effect of bringing the party back 10 minutes before making a decision that lead to a TPK. The party would fall to Venomfang and later wake up with an incredible hangover, the elixir bottle which had been half empty now completely empty.

Of course, you don’t have to use the idea of an elixir. The basic premise of TPK insurance is to have set something up so that when the party finds themselves in a dire situation, the DM has a way to get the party out of it that they aren’t aware of.

TPK Insurance: A Foray into the Feywild

I really liked the elixir idea myself and decided to extend it a little further. On the way to Thundertree, the party encounters some Ghouls assaulting a Gnome family. Should the party rescue the family, they are brought in to see the village elders who live in hollows of a massive tree about three times the diameter of the largest tree on earth. The elders give them the sap of the tree to drink as thanks for saving them.

The sap of this sacred tree has the unusual property of transporting a recently deceased soul to a lifesize wooden statue in the feywild. Once imbued with a soul, these wooden statues have the ability to move as though they were flesh and blood. The party wakes up in a workshop full of these statues and are greeted by a fey servant of Baervan Wildwanderer, the god of the forest Gnomes. In order to return to the material plane, the party must find a way to turn their wooden bodies back into flesh. When they return, whoever killed the party will think that they are dead.

I plan to write a more detailed article about the Forest Gnome adventure soon, but I thought I’d share the summarized version as an example.

Don’t let the party off too easily

A TPK is a big deal, and you don’t want the party to get off lightly for it. In the case of the forest gnome adventure, I felt that a few sessions lost in the Feywild felt like a reasonable consequence for whatever unwise decision they choose to make.

In both sessions I’ve run Phandelver, both parties defeated Venomfang. I still have the TPK insurance ready to go, though. It will likely activate at a time that they have completely forgotten about it 😉

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