GM:Into the Greedy Green

X Worldbuilders:

GM James R

Dragon Research

Going into Greedy Green (not knowing the massive success it would become), DM James planned a more lowkey exploration into traditional dragon mythology. Some of the notes and research are now held here, perhaps to come in handy down the line:

KEEP IN MIND NOTHING BELOW IS CANON UNTIL ACTUALLY USED IN A D&D GAME. THAT'S WHY ITS LIVING HERE ON THE GM PAGE AND NOT IN ANY OTHER PAGES.

Dragon Poem

by H.D.C. Peplar (1916)

Child:

Are All the dragons fled?

Are all the goblins dead?

Am I quite safe in bed?

Nurse:

Thou art quite safe in bed,

Dragons and goblins are all dead.

Child:

When Meikl’s angels fought

The dragon, was it caught,

Did it jump and roar,

(Oh Nurse, don’t shut the door),

And did it try to bite?

(Nurse, don’t blow out the light).

Nurse:

Hush, thou knowest what I said,

Saints and dragons all are dead.

Father (to himself):

Oh Child, Nurse lies to thee,

For dragons thou shalt see,

Please God that on that day,

Thou may’st a dragon slay,

And if thou dust not faint,

God shall not want a Saint.

Historic Dragon Types

• Amphiphtere were flying snakes
• Piasa was the dragon with a face of a man and an extra long tail
• O-Gon-Cho was the Golden Feathered Bird Dragon
• The Dragons of Ethiopia had four wings and no arms. They were mortal enemies of Elephants (which I tried tying into Loxo lore, womp) they feasted on poisonous plants.
• The Tarrasque in french mythology was also a dragon, ties into how Quelmar's World Breaker is also tied to dragons.
• Amphisbaena was the African dragon which had a head at each end of its body.
• The Midgard Serpent's body enncircled the whole world, maybe could be tied into multiversal dragon slayers
• The Midgard serpent is said to awaken at the end of the world (Jormungandr)
• Chinese Dragons: Laid eggs on rivers or lakes, their eggs looked like stones. The Rain and thunder would rock when the eggs would crack and hatch. It took 1500 years for a dragon to grow into a full size, and they'd get their wings at age 3000.
  • Tien Lung (Celestial Dragon)
  • Shen Lung (Spiritual Dragon)
  • Ti-Lung (earth dragon, rivers streams)
  • Fut-Lung (Underground dragon, gems and metals)
  • The myth says that a boy swallows a pearl and becomes a dragon, leading to the inclusion of the Pearl Dragon in the campaign, a marshy dragon who controls the waters. Also contemplated whether a Pearl of Power magic item could connect to this.
  • The Gaoliang Bridge was a bridge in which the dragons lived on, it sat over some marshes, because dragons had powers over the waters.
• The Lambton Worm
  • An english story about a limbless dragon who drank milk. The moral of the story was that dragons can be fought by wearing a powerful armor with spikes on it that makes it when dragons squeeze you they get torn into. This made it into one of Sro's rules.
• The Mordiford Wyvern
  • Another myth from the UK, it established that Wyverns (dragons) enjoyed milk. It was said because they were hatched from eggs, Milk was a luxury and not a necessary life ingredient. Like the Lambton worm, the hero of this myth used a barrel of spikes and hooks and blades and tricked the dragon into squeezing it, killing it when all the weapons popped out. Was going to look at the connection between these two stories and see if I could draw a line between ancient Quelmar heroes of the The Holy War who in theory would have invented these tactics long ago.
• The story of St. George and the Dragon
  • Towns used to put out sheep to feed dragons as a truce, but when they run out of livestock they would beging to put out their own people, starting with the children, which influenced the missing children stories in early Greedy Green
  • Finding two sheep/goats/cows in the wild are typically a sign from a nearby town to keep a dragon from attacking them.
• Sigurd & the Dragon
  • Norse story about the Dragon "Fafnir" who was slain from below when Sigurd could stap his soft belly. He dug a deep pit and let the dragon crawl over the bit, making his belly vulnerable.
  • This story is where Dragon's blood granted Sigurd the ability to speak with animals, which became a homebrew rule in Greedy Green
  • Apparently eating a Dragon's heart gives wisdom, unimplemented in GG
• the Golden Dragon & Cadmus
  • Only lesson learned from this story is that if you plant the teeth of the golden dragon, it will grow into a crop of fully armed soldiers
  • Not used in the campaign, but a possible lore explanation for where Draconians are born?????
• Hercules and the Hydra
  • A dragon with 9 heads, could be a reference to the 10 types of Dragons (chromatic/metallic)
  • To kill the dragon Hercules used Flaming Arrows, this would make it onto one of Sro's rules as well.
• Indra
  • Ancient india story about a hero who slayed Vritra. Indra was the god of warriors and rain, which could possibly make him something like Obad Hai? Maybe Obad Hai fought off the dragons in prehistory?
  • Vritra was killed when Indra "took the sun for his chariot and thunderbolts for arrows" -- again the elemental arrows proving to be thematic and making it into Sro's rules.
  • "Water flooded out of Vritra and down to the sea starting the first dawn of the new world" - this in turn encouraged me to use the Dragons as forces at the beginning of everything, connecting them to the Quelmar Creation Myths about the Water and Fire.

Tiamat and Absu and Marutak

These are notes verbatim from my notebook as I tried to piece together the four dragon histories by combining D&D lore with the Mesopotamian lore of Tiamat (like the source of the word).

• Tiamat had a second half named Abzu. She was salt and he was fresh.
• Ea was the child of Tiamat and Abzu. Ea could see the future. Was Ea Chronepsis? Was she pulled from prehistory where she was originally Tiamat's child.
• Marutuk was the slayer of Tiamat. He said if succeeded he would be lord of whole universe. Marutuk had chariot of four fierce horses.
• Marutak was Pelor? Marutak was first cleric of Pelor? Apollo? Obad Hai?
• Tiamat's split heads are a result of Marduk splitting a sword down her throat as per the IRL mythology story?
• Humans formed from the blood of the 11th herald? Humans ARE the 11th Herald?????
• Tiamat wants to destroy humanity because in doing so she will be rejoined with Abzu????
• Tiamat created demons: Demon Lions, Savage Dogs, Scorpion Men, and Eleven Glittering Dragons.
• Tiamat created 11 monsters

These were her own offspring:

• Bašmu (“Venomous Snake”),  - Valstrath the Green
• Ušumgallu (“Great Dragon”),  - Ith the Black
• Mušmaḫḫū (“Exalted Serpent”),  -  Sorventh the Brass
• Mušḫuššu (“Furious Snake”),  - Vezoth the White
• Ugallu (the “Big Weather-Beast”),  - Maylanth the Silver
• Uridimmu (“Mad Lion”), - Corduth the Copper Dragon
• Girtablullû (“Scorpion-Man"), - Blue Dragon
• Umū dabrūtu (“Violent Storms"),  - Mesanth the Gold
• Kulullû (“Fish-Man")  - Kevalth the Bronze
• Kusarikku (“Bull-Man”). - Barroth the Read
• N(L)aḫmu (the “Hairy One”),  - Human

"The Hero"

In contrast to X (The Paladin) from Ancients Alive, a lot of the historic dragon stories above featured a sole hero, and I toyed with the idea that Indra IS Marutak IS Hercules IS Sigurd IS Esau IS Saint George, they were all stories of a famous dragon slayer from the Holy War that over time became many different bastardized stories of different heroes. Ultimately scrapped because I couldn't make the story about an NPC when sooooooo many PCs were now part of things.

Unresolved Plot Threads

• Fate of Tragdor
• Return of Krampus
• Pearl Dragon
• Wisty
• Church of Innovation and their genocides
• Fate of Longfang
• Harold's fylgja (fox in his head)
• Gharzolv the Black
• Reuniting Amethyst mother and child
• Losith and the Illuminant Order
• Getting Ensign, Blaze, and Violet back to their homeworlds
• Wintertusk's original people
• Cult that killed Xander's grandfather
• Cult that killed Dug's tribe
• Cult that killed Kihlek's family
• Silithym's war on Lolth
• Return Xarzith-Dian out to the Astral Sea to rebuild his own court
• Why Sro, Flame, and Velatheidros went to Synàra together
• Kidnapping Blaze's boyfriend so they can live in Quelmar forever
• Fate of the Baron
• Kihlek embarking on the search for the lost Kobold eggs of the Ixen Jonal tribe
• Airavata going home and the heir to the Taakat farm
• D'Kacilius' mission to preserve Silent's memory and legacy after they left the realm, and to ensure no one else is forgotten

Important Links

Trello Threads

https://trello.com/b/WdXMe7bS/into-the-greedy-green

Google Drive

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11vaCw57QnlZPw2ryZPl5YV9K-CkkgNqT?usp=sharing