Never deal with a dragon, Deals gone horribly awry Options

[WiredWeasel]

So we all know the old saying of "Never deal with a dragon" but here's my question. Have youself or your players ever done so? How'd that go for you/them?
Any other deals gone sour or any good stories of such? Just curious.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

We did it in our Detroit Campaign. At the tail end of 3rd Edition.

We took a run against a Small AA Rated Research Corporation. We found out that the Corp was owned by a Dragon (to my knowledge, he was not a Great), but only after we were catured during the run (with at least one casualty in the process). We were offerred a choice. We could grace the diunner table, or perform this teeny tiny little favor for the Dragon. This favor entailed the live capture of an Ant Queen who had been doing its thing in the Detroit area, and whom we had been at odds with (well the Shaman and his minions anyways) for several months. We were sent into the Hive with some resources provided by the Dragon, and were told to not come out unles we were succesful. It was an amazing end to the campaign story we had been working on, and was epic in scale. Good thing we brought the 70 or so Grenades and the Laser. We managed to scrape through the Hive, and even managed to actually capture the queen, though it was a close one. I think we were all at serious level wounds and above by the end of it.

We literally CRAWLED out of the Hive in the end, and the Ares Firewatch teams took over for the remaining cleanup. But we had our prize (The Queen). And received a hefty reward to boot. We received some (minimal) reward as provided by the Dragon (he gave us our lives after all, but we got to keep the 3 Lasers he gave us), but after meeting with Damian Knight (or one of his Doubles, we were never sure if it was really him) who was apparently an ally of said Dragon/Corp, we received a several months long luxury get-away (complete with Medical Care) to recover and recuperate, paid for by Ares. It was pretty awesome. My now Ex-Ganger Troll (name of Spikes) eventually moved to Hong Kong to later become a mover and shaker in the HK Shadows. He retired a year or so later. Far as I know, the character is still there, doing his thing.

NEVER Deal with a Dragon, You always seem to end up on the short end of the Stick. Of course, when you are not given much of a choice...

[Smirnov]

Never had any deals, precisely because of the proverb. To me even those dragons who are not actively xenophobic, are utterly inhuman and ruthless (with the possible exclusion of Dunkelzahn, but only possible, and he is dead), so dealing with any dragon will always be serving his needs and furthering his goals, nothing more. Some runners may enjoy the privileged position of being dragons pets and may even salvage some profit - scraps from the dragon's table, but hardly anything more. One of the characters in our recent game had a dragon encounter in his backstory, which started the whole trouble for him, which ended with him being a runner in the first place.
Though I know a gaming group where there's a neko-kawai Celedyr who cares for the runners, grants their wishes as rewards for runs and so on.

[Lionhearted]

With the possible exclusion of Dunkelzahn, but only possible, and he is dead

Dead is a strong word... More like preoccupied.

[Smirnov]

He's not a dragon anymore, as I see it. More Free Spirit type

[Fatum]

utterly inhuman and ruthless
dealing with will always be serving his needs and furthering his goals, nothing more.

Uh, so how's that different from megas, again?

[Smirnov]

Well, some of megas are run by inhumans. Or all of them if you believe the other set of rumors.
But in case of metahumans, they are, pardon, only metahumans. They may silence their qualms or consciousness in order to do business, but they need to do it. Dragons have no such problems to start with. And also they have rather different approach to every thing in life. For one, humans tend to think a lot about their mortality, Dragons have no problem with dying of old age or disease.

For example, I'm pretty sure Lofwyr would never strike a deal with insects like Knight did.

[Larsine]

So we all know the old saying of "Never deal with a dragon" but here's my question. Have youself or your players ever done so? How'd that go for you/them?
Any other deals gone sour or any good stories of such? Just curious.

Back in the days (1989-1994) our GM used to run nearly all the official adventures, incorporated in his own campaign, although he used to change them to fit his overall view of the 6th World, and his master plan.

So I've had to deal with Geyswain and Arleesh (Bottled Demon) and with Eliohann (Dragon Hunt).

We managed to help Arleesh defeat Geyswain, she took the Idol and we never heard from her again.

Eliohann joined Ares, and we never heard from either.

Our main Mr. Johnson, which was always helpfull, and suggested new runners, if others dissapered or died, turned out to be a dragon himself, although my character only found out when I had to quit the campaign, so I never managed to roleplay that part.

So all my dealings with Dragons have been OK, although dealing with elves was always a bitch.

[Lionhearted]

Hence the other part of the saying... Never trust an elf!

[Smirnov]

although dealing with elves was always a bitch.

...says the guy with Harlequin for avatar %)))

[CanRay]

My group now uses a Ghoul-Employed Taxi Service due to refusing to deal with a dragon. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Umidori]

I'm actually tossing around an idea for my players where they stumble across a dragon who is just waking up for the first time since the 4th World, and who is suffering something akin to culture shock. The Great Dragon he served previously was killed off by a rival, and he's entirely out of the loop on draconic doings in the modern age and is somewhat paranoid about which of his fellows dragons he can turn to for aide in acclimating to this strange new world.

Naturally the runners can't keep this quiet, even if they want to. They have a head start, being present at the time of this dragon's revival in a remote locale, but they have some hard choices to make in the short amount of time before the drek hits the fan. Some very powerful people (and dragons) become suddenly very interested in capturing the new arrival for their own agendas.

~Umi

[Fatum]

Shouldn't he know at least the greats from the Fourth World, though?

[Umidori]

He would be aware of them and their reputations, sure, but he has no idea what has changed in all this time, or of how he'll be received.

I'm kind of envisioning it as almost a ronin situation. This dragon wasn't a major player - he simply swore fealty to a greater lord, akin to a daimyo. When his lord was assassinated in the chaos of the closing chapters of the fourth world, he had nowhere to turn. With the mana levels constantly dropping and fear of betrayal or reprisal from other lords, he struck out alone to secure a safe haven to ride out the ebbing magic of the coming age.

Basically, now that he's awake again, he needs a "safehouse" to crash in long enough to start putting out feelers and catch up on all that's he's missed so he can reestablish contact with any remaining allies of his prior lord. And the players are just the sufficiently non-threatening saps he needs to try to pull that off.

I imagine they'd have about four hours before the first gunships arrived.

~Umi

[bannockburn]

Sounds very much in keeping with what we know about dragon society, Umidori (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

For me, my characters have always avoided dealing with dragons. My face / sam tries to do it actively, but she has also had very bad experiences with elves, especially Jenna.
My other characters do not seem to have the opportunity, at least so far. Maybe this has to do with the fact that I don't get to play very often.

As a GM, I'm running Survival of the Fittest right now, with a few changes. The worst thing the PCs have witnessed so far is Ghostwalker eating a poor sap in front of them and basically telling them to get the hell out of his city, or else (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)
Poor guys were very shaken afterwards, but fortunately no one was stupid enough to attack the plot device.

[Critias]

Hence the other part of the saying... Never trust an elf!

Bah. Slanderous Humanis propaganda.

[Fatum]

I like that dragon idea. In fact, I might just steal it :3

[Umidori]

It offers some interesting options.

The players can help this dragon, potentially being rewarded by him or his allies, but at risk of angering their powerful enemies. Or the players can help his enemies, who may not reward them nearly as well or possibly even at all, but risk the wrath of his allies, which, while the lesser power, are still dangerous in their own right.

Or they could even risk it all to cash in big, "helping" get the dragon somewhere "safe" and hidden from the rest of the world, then subduing or killing him (if they can) and using or selling off his body parts. With a mere talon clipping worth 100,000 nuyen, having a full dragon to harvest meat, blood, bones, and other Exotic Reagents from would be incredibly lucrative, if monumentally dangerous. ("Here's that information you wanted on the individuals selling dragon burgers, Mr. Lofwyr, sir.") Or maybe just sell him whole to a corporation crazy and resourceful enough to research and experiment on him secretly.

~Umi