I've been GMing SR4 for almost a year now and I think I'm an alright GM. But I've hit a bit of a roadblock with what I've got going on. I'm trying to come up with the end of the current arc my players are a part of, and possibly the current campaign.

As of right now, through a series or ridiculously complicated events which would take me far to long to explain the PCs have come into the possession of a dragon egg. And it's the egg of a great dragon to boot. (They're yet to find out whom it belongs to.) And they know Saeder-Krupp has shown significant interest in claiming the egg as theirs. A representative of SK has approached them offering half a million nuyen to each of them to hand the egg over no questions asked. They've only recently figured out it was the egg of a dragon. Calling upon contacts within the mob they got an informant to them and with a series of firefights that ended with a freighter exploding in the Seattle docks they've made a run to Vancouver and hiding out with their informant ("The Translator") who know mush more than she lets on.

Thats pretty much where we're at, they're on their way into Vancouver now... and I'm stumped as to what to do. Anyone have any cool ideas that they want to throw out in the open. It would be much appreciated.

Well, if SK is willing to pony up 500K newyen per party member, which probably means a cool 2 mil, or 2.5 mil for the average party size. As an opening offer... and the party didn't take it or seriously deal with them. Then in my campaigns the next step would be multiple runner teams hired with that 2.5 mil to kill the team and get the egg. If a corp is willing to drop that kind of scratch and the party is too greedy/stupid/principled (or mix thereof) to take it, then the carrot gets taken away and the stick is employed next.

If your looking for a more involved idea, then another corp,/greater dragon, the mom. gets wind of the team and the egg, and the party really has to jump to avoid the multiple major league players now involved. If this is as hot as you make it seem, then have some fun squeezing the group. That amount of newyen means the players are most likely in over their heads, have their contacts start drying up as word gets out that they are on the run. If they have safe houses in Seattle have them start getting raided as various corps "beat the brush to drive the hair". The "informant" especially as they are from the mob would be playing this for as many angles as he/she possibly could.

I think somewhere out there a quote exists for this kind of situation "Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and taste great with ketchup."

I'd say this isn't complicated enough yet. Sure , SK (meaning Lofwyr) wants the egg. But other Greats would want it too. Who is the mother/father? Who is the caretaker for the egg (dragons mate, lay a clutch of eggs, then give them to another Great to raise until they hatch, and the children are the type of dragon who watched the eggs regardless of what types the parents were)? Maybe Humanis or an anti-magic group could catch wind they have it and try to destroy the egg. Or, if you REALLY want to screw with them, one of the IEs that was doing downtime hunting during the 5th World.

Basically, right now what you have is a situation. You need at least two more elements to turn it into a clusterfuck.

(BTW, info on dragon mating and life cycles is available in Dragons of the Sixth World, one of my favorite 3rd Ed sourcebooks)

I agree. If S-K wants the egg that badly, they'll take it.

In fact, I think several Great Dragons will be interested in the fact that they have an egg.

Or perhaps the egg is a key component in a blood magic ritual? Perhaps the Azzies are interested in it?

Also, how does a Dragon Egg hatch?

Better yet, how does a Denver omelet taste...

Yeah, they've been talking of trying to find a way to hatch the egg or at least when it will hatch so the baby inside can choose, because it might just be me, but I think baby dragons are probably just as smart as your average person, probably smarter. (Or is that my D&D "Every dragon is a Level 20 wizard" mentality kicking in?)

I like the idea of throwing even more into the mix, but I'm trying to keep it a little simpler these days. I had a habit for a long time of making plots so deep and confusing that they needed a user's manual to even attempt to figure out. So I'm going with a slightly more straightforward approach. I'm thinking of maybe having them get jumped in the streets of Vancouver by another party. (As if there weren't enough interested to far. So far I've got, S-K, Triads, Yakuza, Mafia, Shiawase, and Ares. But hey, what's one more? )

Specifics are vague because the dragons don't let info out easily, but basically, the Great looks after the egg and does some sort of voodoo on them including telepathically imprinting on them, causing them to change type to be the same as the Great minding the clutch as well as giving them knowledge and skills to survive once they hatch. After about 50 years, the eggs hatch (with rumors flying around that Wyverns are actually the hatchling forms that morph once they mature, but that hasn't been confirmed yet).

BTW, the rumormill consensus is that the secret of Madagascar is that it's a gianormous clutch of dragon eggs being looked after by some Great.

If they won't sell it, have the egg's owner turn up and ask, very politely, for her egg back, please. And just to hammer it home, have her wearing a bib and carrying a jumbo sized bottle of tomato sauce.

I don't think most of those really fit wanting a dragon egg. Well, maybe for some faux-Eastern medicine or talisma...but still, I wouldn't worry about the yaks or even Ares if I had friggin' Lofwyr on my ass.

I say that close, you should have Hestaby get involved. Maybe even Ghostwalker. Ghostwalker on one side, Lofwyr on the other, Hestaby trying to mitigate the situation, and the poor runners trying not to end up appetizers.

BTW food for thought...the first dragon popped on on December 24, 2011...most of the rest followed over the next decade, waking up all over the place. That gives us a range of 2011-2021. Dragon eggs take about 50 years to hatch. Dragons mate rarely, but would probably want to add to their species especially after those lost to accidents and non-accidents after the downcycle, so give them a couple of years to hook up. What year would that make it?

Screw Horizon, I want to know when all the wyrmlings will be attacking!

One last thing...baby dragons are born HUNGRY.

canonically* speaking, the egg will actually probably hatch a developmentally disabled dragon.

dragons are actually instructed by their great dragon mentor (as a general rule, it will be a great dragon. a regular dragon holding onto their own eggs is about as socially acceptable in dragon society as kidnapping someone else's children to raise as your own is in our society) before they hatch.

so by keeping it away from it's mentor, the shadowrunners are essentially causing the hatchling harm. it's going to hatch a feral dragon. assuming they can even get it to hatch. (on a side note, hatchling dragons are also always the same type as the great dragon mentor, not the parent, by the way).

finally, it is unlikely that other greats would be after the egg, in my opinion. if it's lofwyr's assigned egg, then it's his responsibility, and none of the other greats would want to get involved on the opposing side to him. (and lofwyr wouldn't be about to ask them to get involved either). then again, there's always celedyr (or is it rhonabwy? which one swiped the leviathan eggs again?) as an example of a great taking an interest in another great's eggs.

other people who might be interested in the egg:

1) downcycle hunters aren't likely to be picky about whether or not it's the downcycle. if there's a vulnerable egg, and they hear about it, they're going to want to destroy it and the hatchling inside.

2) magicians with a tradition that uses inhabitation rather than manifestation or possession. ex: insect spirits (imagine what kind of flesh form you could get from that!)

3) completely insane parazoologists (for study: very little is known in the 6th world about dragon life cycles). note that they're not insane for being curious, they're insane because they're going to be faced with a very angry great dragon if they don't give it back. also note that i basically just called your group insane... because they are.

4) wild card. pretty much anyone could be interested. they'd probably make pretty good natural radicals, unique enchantment materials, and who knows what else. heck, there's even a horror who could take an interest (although that might be a bit beyond the scope of your run. then again, lofwyr is already involved).

* it should be noted that the canon in question is pretty much earthdawn canon, not shadowrun canon per se.



in any event, i will absolutely 100% agree that the group is going to be facing some really unpleasant ambushes. lofwyr likely has a network of informants that don't even know they work for him, and you can bet the group isn't going to find it easy to hide, and the things that come looking for them in whatever hiding place they do manage to find isn't going to be amateurs, it's going to be prime runner equivalents.

personally, i think the shorter version would be to give them an ultimatum... give back the egg, now, or they are going to die. and sooner or later, they *will* die if lofwyr comes after them (which he will, at least until he gets the egg back). if they're lucky, they might manage to get away with only severe injuries rather than being outright killed though (provided lofwyr manages to get the egg back and thinks they're dead at the time, he probably wouldn't invest extra effort in hunting them down i'd say... as long as they don't make a habit of getting in his way).

Rhonabwy. And he didn't swipe her eggs so much as he seduced her in an alternate form, then took the eggs to raise himself rather than let her choose which Great would raise them (as is the normal custom).

And it is possible the other Greats might get involved. They're basically in Hestaby's back yard with a stolen dragon egg Lofwyr's obviously willing to pay for. And don't forget, at the end of Survival of the Fittest,

However, I doubt a couple of weeks would cause serious harm for an egg that will be gestating for 50+ years. The dragon(s) would be more worried about harm coming to them or them being out of the right climate (even heat, typically geothermal heat buried in a sandy soil) than the damage from imprinting.

This is basically a kidnapping situation which the players have fallen into.
As long as they're in the position to destroy the egg, no one can fuck with them, unless the destruction of the egg is the goal.
So, SK putting a straight bounty on them is a terrible move.

Also, them handing over the egg in a straight swap is a terrible move, because they're likely to die just for the offense, or simply because their lives aren't worth that much cash to SK.

As a GM, I'd say find a way to point them towards the darknets where they can put out a call for help from some epic prime runner to take this shit off their hands. This is not the kind of weight an SR team should be able to move on zero notice. They need to spin this into a massive contact in the shadows and take what they can get for the egg or scramble real hard to get clear of it and be happy to keep their lives. If they think they can beat half a mill apiece, maybe you could point them towards the Sea Dragon. She'd pay large for eggs and would be happy enough to do so that the runners could get out of there with their reward. They should even net enough scratch to casually afford the multiple genewipes they'll need to do to keep from being murdered in their sleep afterwards.

Love the idea of aztechnology wanting the egg for a blood ritual!

actually (other than all-wings) greats don't raise their own hatchlings. it is also considered to be extremely socially unacceptable, as i recall.

and no, rhonabwy pretty much swiped the eggs.

I think you should at the very least have the option to find out where the egg belongs and let them return it of their own accord. Some people play the Robin Hood types. I imagine the caretaker and mother would be very pleased with that and offer them protection from any possible fallout from the others interested in the egg. Provided they weren't the ones that stole it in the first place that is.

Well, kinda...but technically, what I was saying was that the eggs wouldn't have existed in the first place if he hadn't taken a sea dragon's form and seduced her.

And what's the deal with the sea dragons? I think she's the only one and that's what the big deal was, she wanted to raise them herself so there'd be more sea dragons. *shrug*

Ghostwalker took the egg from Dunkelzahn's lair after the rift. The hatchling was initially imprinted by big D, and subsequently guarded by GW. Lofwyr arranged to steal it because it's nearly ready and he's afraid of Dunkelzahn's Legacy, but it got intercepted in transit.

Does the team have any mages on it? Any magically aware contacts? The mother is going to be able to find the egg via ritual magic rather quickly.
If I were them, I'd send a watcher (or hire a magician I deeply trusted) to find the mother ASAP. You don't want a mama dragon to even for a second think you kidnapped baby.
Also, regardless of which great is the mother, I'd hand over the baby and in lieu of payment I'd ask for a favor. I know, I know "Never deal with..." But, look, they're already well past that. Now they're into cut the best deal you can and run. IMO that's a favor from a GD.

If you're talking about the biological mother, it's not necessarily a Great. However, only Greats can raise eggs. Well, they're the only ones allowed to be dragon tradition/law.

Based on the ED canon you're added, you're right. Question, though: if the telepathic bond is magically based, wouldn't the mentor GD know where the egg is at all times anyway? I mean, isn't this team sorta already hosed?

You could always offer just one of the PC's the 2.5Mill for the egg, no questions asked.

Of course that would generate intra-party conflict...just a little.

Not necessarily. Dragon eggs have been stolen before in canon. It ended up getting...well, let's just say I'm betting that when eating the son of a Tir Prince, I'm betting you pull out some beurre blanc instead of just ketchup.

Perhaps - but if several parties are trying to claim the egg, they're fighting all the -other- factions in a race to get there first, and get away undetected afterwards.

Dragon egg all snuggly in its hand-weaved detcord basket. Biomonitor all redundantly backed up and beeping healthy life-signs.

"The longest distance between two points is a kidnapper and his money." -Mr. Parker

And who says that the people offering the 2.5 Mil really work for SK or have 2.5 Mil.

Or that they will take no for an answer.


Just a thought if you want step back a bit.


That way after the smoke as settle you can have Mr. Drake and a bunch of real SK company men show up to collect the egg.