10 min read

20 Encounter Locations for Fizban's Treasury of Dragons

We've put together 20 new encounter locations to help you make the most out of Fizban's Treasury of Dragons.

Dragon Encounter ideas for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.

Table of Contents

  1. Alley Encounter (Red)
  2. Dangerous Crevasse (Black)
  3. Dwarf Fortress (Shadow)
  4. Fairy Forest (Pseudodragon)
  5. Forgotten Oubliette (Blue Dracolich)
  6. Infernal Realm (Chaotic Evil)
  7. Metallic Wilderlands (Brass)
  8. Sinister Lighthouse (Red)
  9. Sunken City (Blue)
  10. Underworld Entrance (Black)
  11. Giger-esque Lair (Dracolich)
  12. Ancient Burial Mound (Red)
  13. Cursed Armor (White)
  14. Dank Crypt (Black)
  15. Evil Monastery (Gold)
  16. Fallen Star (White)
  17. Massive Web (Copper)
  18. Peculiar Village (Dracolich)
  19. Prankster's Bridge (Copper)
  20. Secret Temple (Shadow)

Alley Encounter (Red)

A tiny red dragon has been seen chasing rats in the neighborhood alleys, and most residents appreciate having something around to manage the vermin. It's been active for several months and hasn't grown at all in size, so the locals are convinced it's a safe and welcome blessing from a compassionate deity.

It's actually a very ferocious Adult Red Dragon that tried to eat the wrong wizard, who shrunk the beast and took away its voice, breath weapon, and wings. Unfortunately, the wizard is gone and his spells are due to wear off in 2d8 days: when that happens, the city will have an implacable monster on its hands...

Dangerous Crevasse (Black)

Travelers arriving from the south relate a strange story. A recent earthquake has opened up a great rent in the earth, in the soggy moorlands just a few miles north of this small town. They were dissuaded from closer investigation by periodic rumblings, strange vapors, and a loathsome smell: some unique peril lurks at the bottom of this fuming abyss.

There resides Qilizith, an Adult Black Dragon that has rested quietly for over a hundred years in its lair beneath the earth. Now its sleep is disturbed: it's only a matter of days (6d6) before it awakens fully and arises in anger to torment the surrounding communities.

Dwarf Fortress (Shadow)

Undercleave is a ruined underground Dwarf citadel, haunted by the shades of its dead. A trove of Dwarf relics is said to be hidden among the shattered vaults and rubble-sealed chambers, but the ancestral spirits temporarily soothe their lamentations with the murder of trespassers.

Sheboatha, a Shadow Dragon of fearsome power, also lingers in these broken halls, still savoring its victorious pillage of a thousand years ago. It is eager to talk of the outside world with visitors who overcome the ghosts, and it enthusiastically recounts the tale of its triumph over the Dwarfs of Undercleave before making a meal of its guests.

Fairy Forest (Pseudodragon)

Deep within the enchanted forest (any enchanted forest, in fact, because this location transports randomly through space and time), sunlight flickers through the trees onto a magnificently clear and pure 20' diameter, 10' deep pool. Thousands of coins, gems, and jeweled treasures can be seen heaped at the pool's bottom.

Any humanoid that submerges into this water is magically transformed into a Pseudodragon; their alignment, INT, and WIS remain unchanged. This transformation persists until someone, on behalf of the victim, casts treasures worth at least 2,500 gp into the pool. Entering the pool in Pseudodragon form, using tools, or deploying magical spells to recover treasures results in a weird distortion: no depth of swimming, means of prodding, or skillful ensorcelling brings them closer than 10' distant, the treasures always appear beyond reach.

The water loses its peculiar enchantment if removed from the pool.

Forgotten Oubliette (Blue Dracolich)

Deep in the dungeon is a long-abandoned oubliette, a dismal space that surpasses time and memory. The floor of this room is a smooth and steep funnel that plummets to a hole just large enough for a mortal to slip into.

Traversing this room is difficult, anyone trying must succeed on a DC 15 DEX check or slide into the hole and drop 1d6x10' (suffering appropriate damage). The pit is never empty (roll 1d3)...

  1. Corpse Pile: The moldering remains of previous victims, compressed in a dusty pile. Random common gear may be recovered at the rate of 1d2 items per 10 minutes of unpleasant searching, also 25% chance each 10 minutes 1d6 Zombies erupt out of the debris.
  2. Lost Treasure: As above, also buried amid the detritus and recovered in the first search is a piece of jewelry worth 1d6 x 1,000 gp.
  3. The Dragon: As above, also an Adult Blue Dracolich rouses itself in fury. The jewelry found above is its phylactery and is worth 1d6 x 10,000 gp.

Infernal Realm (Chaotic Evil)

Deep within an infernal plane of fire and suffering is a great citadel carved in the shape of a demon prince. From its eternally burning parapets, demonic minions hurl the damned into a sweltering void, to be snatched in midair by flying Dragons of all chaotic evil types. The Dragons are vast in number and insatiable in appetite.

The plain below is covered with charred monoliths that glow with filthy runes of power. Only a handful of the damned make it through the Dragon gauntlet, to plummet here to their doom. On the horizon is a boiling toxic lake, where the Dragons gather to slake their thirst: here, on the ground, they are vulnerable to attack, and perhaps to vengeance meted out by powerful heroes.

Metallic Wilderlands (Brass)

Far beyond the Utter Vast is an area even more peculiar and inhospitable: the Metallic Wilderlands. Here the grasses and trees are transformed into alien, metallic versions of familiar vegetation, fed by quicksilver springs and tended by Aluminum Bees. The heat here is ferocious and visitors from the more familiar lands must succeed on a DC 20 CON check each hour, or suffer 1d10 damage.

Each hour spent searching the Metallic Wilderlands yields a prize (roll 1d4):

  1. Gold Pollen: Pure gold dust worth 1d6x100 gp.
  2. Titanium Thorns: 2d6, a skilled weaponsmith can use these to make non-magical +2 arrows.
  3. Cobalt Leaves: 1d6x10 pounds, a skilled armorsmith can weave 10 pounds of these into a set of chain or scale armor to add a non-magical +2 AC bonus.
  4. Platinum Seeds: 1d100, worth 10 gp each.

The Ancient Brass Dragon Nyrvax calls this realm home, and there's a 10% chance each hour it flies overhead and notices newcomers. It always investigates and chats with visitors to learn what they're doing in such unfamiliar territory. It is forgiving of those who harvest thorns and leaves, but is stern with any thieves who dare take from the Metallic Wilderlands the precious gold pollen and platinum seeds.

Sinister Lighthouse (Red)

On a scarcely traveled portion of the coast is an abandoned lighthouse, still intact but visibly in disrepair. Locals know better than to explore nearby: a generation ago, a Young Red Dragon destroyed a neighboring village and took the lighthouse as its lair.

The sea in this area is notoriously treacherous. On stormy nights, the Dragon uses blasts of its fiery breath to mimic the ship-saving beacon the lighthouse used to provide. It delights in tricking unfamiliar captains into smashing their ships onto the hidden rocks, then plucking sailors and waterlogged treasures from the shore.

PCs who slay this beast would be celebrated by local mariners as great heroes.

Sunken City (Blue)

From the right vantage atop the precipitous seaside cliffs, the ruins of an ancient city are visible beneath the encroaching waves. Persistent watchers may catch a rare glimpse of a serpentine shape that slowly prowls the seaweed-choked boulevards and wave-tumbled columns of this watery metropolis: the ruins contain the lair of an aquatic-adapted Ancient Blue Dragon, with no wings and a very long, snakelike body. Fishermen and boats carefully avoid these waters.

Over many years, the Dragon has gathered the treasures of the city into a vast hoard secreted within the mostly-intact temple of a sea deity. This beast is so unused to trespassers that diligent thieves may carry away loot unnoticed for a time, however eventually the dragon takes notice of burglary and responds with fury.

Underworld Entrance (Black)

Few mortals know where to find this great crack in the earth, which seems bottomless and dark except for the dim glow of ghostly figures that descend a crumbling staircase into its depths. Dense steam occasionally billows from the crack, making the stairs slick and troublesome.

If any mortal dares attempt the stairs, a great roar sounds at the instant a foot steps on the 23rd step: this is the bellow of Skorgzz, an Ancient Black Dragon cursed with immortality and the burden of guarding this entrance into the underworld. Unless the trespassers flee within one minute, Skorgzz heaves its great bulk from the depths and attacks without mercy.

The destiny of adventurers who somehow surpass Skorgzz and enter the underworld is certain to be sung of by bards forever after.

Giger-esque Lair (Dracolich)

Beneath a dead landscape blasted clean of vegetation for miles around is the lair of V'Tilmitorix, a Dracolich of sinister legend. Descend through an opening into the earth and enter an architecture of profound madness: tunnels and chambers made of extruded, scaled plates and organically curved structures, with obscenely corrugated surfaces covered with tubes and apertures. It's a nightmarish realm of claustrophobic darkness with no counterpart on the surface world.

V'Tilmitorix lair lies beyond a maze of irising valve doors, hidden chambers and fluid-leaking voids. It hungers for followers, so death is not certain: clever trespassers can turn the Dragon's desires and vanity to their own purposes.

Ancient Burial Mound (Red)

This hillock, the burial mound of a great king, overlooks a busy road and is a well known local travel marker. Now it's changed: overnight a massive hole has been dug into the side, from which a fume of thin black smoke wafts. An Adult Red Dragon has burrowed its way into the treasure chamber and taken the ancient hoard for its own.

The Dragon is content for the moment, but this peace will not last long. Soon it will begin to ravage the countryside, steal livestock and search for ever more gold. The local authorities seek heroes to vanquish this malign threat.

Cursed Armor (White)

The magical Hide of Arciliryx is typically found by dungeon delvers far below ground, in areas that are unusually rich in ancient silver treasures. It appears to be a type of enchanted leather armor, made from the hide of a white dragon: such things are known to be particularly powerful artifacts of Dwarf manufacture, and are coveted by warriors and kings.

However, this armor is cursed: when donned, the wearer is instantly transformed into an Ancient White Dragon (no saving throw) bent on death and destruction. This form is maintained until the Dragon is killed, at which time the corpse of the wearer appears and the armor vanishes. Scholars of evil dragons believe the cursed armor teleports to a new location, however they cannot predict where it may appear next.

Dank Crypt (Black)

In the moist depths of a lakeside crypt, a torpid Adult Black Dragon slumbers fitfully. Some bizarre glamer has placed this wyrm into an enchanted sleep, and also caused its natural pigmentation to fade into an unhealthy gray hue. It quivers here in these dank caverns, weakly squirming when any warm-blooded creature comes close to it.

If the Dragon is actually touched, the charm is dispelled: in an instant, its normal ebony color returns and it erupts in frantic violence. It seeks to kill without thought or mercy, but will not leave the crypt to pursue its vendetta.

Evil Monastery (Gold)

A long-abandoned monastery has been seized by a group of foul cultists dedicated to one or more demonic princes. Rumors abound that they have in their possession a massive cubic vault, made of some unearthly metal that weeps blood and speaks to them in ecstatic dreams. The cult has sent agents far and wide proclaiming the imminence of an apocalypse. Clerical orders are beginning to take notice of the threat, with one declaring a crusade to destroy this cubic icon of evil.

The spirit contained within this evil-seeming vessel is actually that of an Ancient Gold Dragon, captured in a demonic ceremony whose perpetrators have been lost to the ages. Previously content to bide its time within contemplating inscrutable mysteries of the cosmos, now the Dragon has reached out to the cultists and is teaching them a terrifying ritual that it hopes they use to annihilate themselves.

Fallen Star (White)

The remote taiga forest gradually transforms into a blasted landscape of ice and destruction, where toppled trees point away from a central nexus of destruction consumed within an icy tempest. Years ago, a star fell here and erupted across the frozen earth and chilly forests. The explosion of its impact awakened Yrlminth, an Adult White Dragon that had slumbered long eons in the frozen ground.

Now the Dragon rages within a perpetual blizzard of unnatural intensity. The blinding snow and raging winds cause trespassers to this land to suffer disadvantage on all their rolls, along with cold damage expected from such a hostile environment. Yrlminth is somehow the source of this violent cyclonic disturbance, and conquering this beast would restore a measure of peace to this cursed land.

Massive Web (Copper)

In the farthest reaches of a notoriously formidable and largely unexplored jungle, explorers may hear a frantic roaring in the near distance. It only takes a few minutes to discover the source: a Young Copper Dragon is caught in a massive spider web. It pleads for help and warns of the Spider, a beast easily twice the Dragon's size, which patiently lurks in the treetops.

The Dragon will do its best to help defeat the Spider, however it needs at least its arms cut loose to contribute to the battle. If rescued, it will be generous of its time and resources, offering to fly benefactors anywhere within a several league radius.

Peculiar Village (Dracolich)

Humantown is a village that shouldn't exist. Located deep in the savage wilderlands, where monstrous threats are abundant and severe, there's no explanation for how such an innocent community of farmers, woodworkers, crafters and shepherds could possibly survive... and yet somehow it persists.

In fact, this is a mock village where the Dracolich Praxifragge studies the imprisoned humans closely from its lair beneath the village granary, hoping to learn secrets to either rule or destroy the entire race. The Dragon uses various means of mind control to restrain its prisoners and accomplish its goals, and villagers are sometimes removed at night for more intrusive experimentation. It won't take long for visitors to notice something is amiss, as the villagers behavior varies from overly solicitous to unsettling. Nosy interlopers earn Praxifragge's ire.

Prankster's Bridge (Copper)

A massive fallen tree creates a natural bridge across an 80' wide river that winds through a lush and fragrant jungle ravine. Lairing beneath this bridge, in troll-like fashion, is a Young Copper Dragon that spends most of its time peacefully asleep. It rouses itself to challenge explorers: in a gruff and dangerous-sounding voice, it demands gold, jewels and magic items for the right to navigate this very convenient crossing.

The joke only lasts a few moments, and the Dragon will laughingly reveal itself and invite anyone to cross freely, though it may playfully jostle the tree with its tail as they cross. It speaks freely of those it has allowed to cross recently and is a valuable source of local information and rumors.

Secret Temple (Shadow)

In a little visited adytum separated from the larger dungeon by a well-disguised secret door, sinister braziers mark the points of a magic circle scribed with obscene Elder runes. If the braziers are lit and the runes read (requires Read Magic spell), billows of choking yellow smoke coalesce into a draconic form within the circle. This is the great Ilvitorix, a Shadow Dragon that is a herald of Tiamat. At its feet materializes a king's ransom of precious gold, gems and jewelry.

Ilvitorix has been bound within the magic circle for almost a millennium. Still only partially empowered, it offers a bargain: if the binding runes are rewritten as it directs, it rewards benefactors with half of its 100,000 gp treasure trove. Refusal provokes increasingly irate behavior from the Dragon. If the instructions are carried out, Ilvitorix says, “As we agreed, you may help yourself” and teleports away. Any amount of the trove up to half may be taken without consequences, however if even a copper piece more than half is removed, Ilvitorix will appear within a week's time to revenge itself on the thieves.

Published
Written by Cephalic the Scribe

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