We spend an awful lot of time getting around to fighting dragons when we play D&D, and woe to the DM who doesn’t include at least one good dragon fight in his campaign (speaking of that, where the heck is the dragon in Keep on the Shadowfell?). I was trying to think about the most fearsome dragon I ever fought, or ran against a party of heroes, and I think it might have actually been the black dragon in Forge of Fury.

Warning: Possible Spoilers Ahead.

I was running Forge of Fury and the party had come into the dark, wet cave where the black dragon lives. They were trying to figure out how to navigate the “stepping stones,” especially with a dwarf in plate armor in tow. So that’s exactly what they did, they towed him. They tied themselves together with rope, leaving the dwarf at the end in case he actually did fall into the water, so he’d have enough rope slack not to pull everyone with him.

Well, the dragon comes swooping out of the darkness and hits the party with his breath weapon…why not, they’d lined themselves up neatly, right? They frantically prepared during the next round, the dragon had gotten the drop on them. Seeing their predicament, it turned around and flew straight into the dwarf, knocking him easily into the inky underground lake…down, down he sank.

Of course, he’s got an 18 Constitution, so he can hold his breath an awful long time. He decides that he’s going to cut the rope and non-chalantly walk across the lake and climb his way out. The rest of the party, in the meantime, could really use his brawn against their foe! In the end, they ended up abandoning the dwarf, who then made his way out as well. They beat a hasty retreat and never looked back at that cavern, the pile of treasure in the middle of the lake be damned. Good times.