Something About Dragons and Two Magical Instruments

One of thing about being a dragon is that you have lots and lots and lots of time on your hands. As powerful beings who effectively can live forever (unless they run afoul gods, an army of seriously angry dwarves, or some other source of certain doom), existence itself can become boring. Ancient dragons deal with this growing risk of losing a zest for life in different ways. 

Brigid, an ancient red dragon, meditating in human form.

    Many aging dragons retreat into well-hidden and meticulously guarded places of refuge along with their most valuable and/or prized items from the treasures they've horded. Here, they sleep for centuries at a time, awakening once in a while to enjoy their treasured items and the memories associated with them. They might even venture out into the world to see what has changed and if there's anything new that can hold their interest. After a few weeks or months, these dragons return to their slumber.

   Other dragons leave our world, and even the Elemental Planes where many of them make their homes, to seek out the very edges of reality, beyond which it is believed that the Creator of All dwells--a being from whom dragons still want answers to questions from.

   Some dragons band together in conclaves, pooling their treasures and knowledge to entertain each other, settle disputes between younger dragons and magical societies, and to share wisdom with and guide the younger dragons onto less difficult paths than they trod. Sometimes, "lesser beings", such as normal humans, can be chosen by a conclave to benefit from their knowledge and wealth. (The largest of these conclaves has grown into a great magical city located in Australia, in a particularly isolated and frigid part of the Arthur Range of Tasmania. Maybe we'll tell you about it on the blog someday.)

   The rarest of ancient dragons do not withdraw from the world but instead keep learning and studying and creating, changing as the world around them changes. Some do this to amuse themselves, some do it out of a sense of duty to the "lesser beings", and some do it for a combination of the above. Even these energetic and creative ancient dragons will sometimes retreat into some distant mountain caves and slumber for decades or centuries surrounded by their favorite treasures.

   Not counting dragons who are in conclaves, there are currently 21 ancient dragons active in the modern world, all of them interacting with human civilization to one degree or another. There is one gold dragon (Count Ouro), three silver dragons (Argento, Gumus, and Hopea), five black dragons (Adalet, Cole, Iustus, Pravda, and Unmei), three blue dragons (Celeste, Dagda, and Taron), two green dragons (Dadirri and Nerthus), five red dragons (Azar, Branton, Brigid, Cyrus, and Enya),and three white dragons (Batak, Buzz, and Donmus) that travel around the world, visiting with each other and checking up on their various homes and any long-lived or Immortal friends they have.

Showing that ice and fire can co-exist, the white dragon Domus
visits with the red dragon Brigid at his home in Lappland (aka Sapmi).

   One of the most active of these dragons is the red dragon, Brigid. She has been mingling with humans since their earliest civilizations emerged in Morocco 350,000 years ago. Throughout the period, she has perfected the ability to mimic human forms; become proficient with nearly every human-made melee weapon invented; mastered 142 human martial arts styles and two dragon ones; has mastered every language spoken on Earth (including those of otherworldly beings such as Atlanteans and Olympians); become a virtuoso with 1,491 human-invented instruments and 10 dragon ones, as well as mastering 52 human singing styles; mastered 312 dance styles, with ballet, swing, and Irish dances being her favorites; writes music and lyrics in 563 different styles and 2,845 languages; become a master chef of 604 types of cuisine; learned to brew all kinds of alcoholic beverages discovered and consumed by humans; mastered the art of building 98 human musical instruments; mastered architecture and engineering, designing and personally overseeing the construction of the many different homes she's had over the millennia; mastered many different forms of graphic arts, jewelry-making, weapons-smithing, and gained at least some slight ability in nearly any other arts and crafts invented by humans; become an expert at enchanting magic items and brewing potions; and mastered all types of elemental magic, protection/warding magic, enchantment/charm magic, illusion magic, and divination magic, as well as gained some (comparatively) slight skill with evocation magic, necromantic magic and summoning magic.

   If this seems like a lot for one being to achieve (while traveling the world and engaging with human civilizations and they rise and fall), Brigid has been alive for more than 400,000 years. Also, unlike many of her kind, she has yet to feel compelled to rest on her treasure piles for centuries at a time; instead, the older she gets, the more energized and curious and creative she seems to become. It's as if her very life is a manifestation of the chaotic and uncontrollable nature and spirit of red dragons--she is growing more active and excited about the world around her as she ages, not falling victim to ennui like the typical dragon.

    Brigid maintains her passion for life by constantly looking for new things to learn about, spending festivals and holy days with humans living near her homes, and by applying the many skills she has mastered to creating works of art, musical instruments, weapons, and inventing unusual magic items. Two such items--both enchanted musical instruments--are described below, in d20 System terms.

Cyrus and Brigid, red dragons in human forms, jam in Brigid's home in China.

THE ACCORDION OF GOOD TIMES

This item appears to be a vintage piano accordion that is both well-used and well-maintained. In the hands of a skilled player, it put out music that rivals that you'd expect from the very finest accordions. If examined with a detect magic spell, the instrument is seen to radiate strong enchantment magic with an undertone of protection magic.

   Functions: The Accordion of Good Times grants the musician playing it a +2 bonus to Perform (Accordion) skill checks, as well as a +4 to AC/DR versus thrown weapons and objects, such as rotten tomatoes. These bonuses last from the moment the character picks up the instrument to the moment he or she puts it down.

   Additionally, all who hear the music played following a successful Perform (Accordion) skill check on the part of the musician feel their spirits lifted and general outlook on life improved. Everyone hearing the music will also have a positive view on the performer unless the performer is found to be associated with someone they view as an enemy or attacks them in some way.

   If the performer shouts, "Let's all sing!", everyone hearing the music must roll a Will save (DC15) or sing along with him or her. The audience continues singing, feeling joyous and happy even if the performer stops singing but keeps playing. Once the performer stops playing, the crowd stops singing and breaks into cheers and applause. They also stop singing if attacked or confronted by some obvious danger. Unless the performer is the one attacking, those who sang along with him or her are considered to be under a charm person spell cast by the performer (caster level 12).

   If the performer says, "Everybody dance now!", everyone hearing the music must roll a Will save (DC15) or dance until the performer stops playing. Once the performer stops playing, the crowd stops dancing and breaks into cheers and applause. They also stop dancing if attacked or confronted by some obvious danger. The dancers respond to any threats by attacking back, gaining a +2 bonus to all attack rolls. Unless the performer is the one attacking, those who sang along with him or her are considered to be under a charm person spell cast by the performer (effective caster level 12).

   For three days (72 hours) after watching and listening to a character performing live, all who were present gain a +1 enchantment bonus to all saving throws and skill checks, because the feel happy to be alive.

THE RED UKITAR

This instrument is a finely built, bright red ukitar--a cross between a guitar and a ukelele, also known as a ukitar, with a sound that's closer to a guitar than a ukelele. It's smaller that a guitar and thus more portable, or more easily played by children and small beings like kobolds, dwarves and halflings. If examined with a detect magic spell, the instrument is found to radiate a powerful mingling of elemental and evocation magic 

   Functions: The Red Ukitar grants the musician playing it a +2 bonus to Perform (string instrument). If he or she spends at least one round playing the tune of a song involving fire as part of its topic, then plays and sings the song's refrain and/or lines involving fire while pointing the ukitar's arm at an intended target, a fireball streaks from the tip instrument as soon as the final syllable is uttered, striking the target for 4d6 points of fire damage (with a successful saving throw reducing the damage by half).

   The performer can cast up to three fireballs through the ukitar per day by following the process described above. If the campaign is set in the "real world" after 1960, if the performer uses "Great Balls of Fire" as the song, and prepares the launch of the fireball by ending with "... goodness gracious, great balls of fire!", the damage increases to 6d6+6. (with a successful saving throw reducing the damage by half).

xxx