3 Dragon Group Patrons to Use in Your Campaign – Posts

Recently, Yabinamou has amassed followers to help her carry out simple tasks like finding food and bathing. These include local Chult explorers, grung, and kobolds, all of whom have been enticed by Yabinamou’s immense horde. The dragon knows that her followers are secretly pocketing bits and pieces of her horde, and threatens them with death on a regular basis. Unfortunately, the dragon is but a shadow of her former might, and can do little but rant, rave, and weakly lash out with her claws when she hears someone grabbing one of her jewels.

Yabinamou suffers from an increasingly severe fear of death. She would never admit it, but she is also fiercely intimidated by the red and black dragons who have inhabited Chult in the last few centuries.

Yabinamou as a patron

Yabinamou would be a useful patron for explorers embarking on a Tomb of Annihilation or other Chultan campaign. Green dragons are renowned for their manipulative tendencies, but ironically, Yabinamou is now at the geriatric age where she can be easily manipulated. A party of self-serving adventurers can masquerade as her helpers while stealthily picking from her horde, while more sympathetic characters might find it worthwhile to humor the old dragon’s nostalgia and carry out her last requests.

Parties with Yabinamou as their patron might receive the following perks:

• Though she can no longer see, Yabinamou retains a detailed map of Chult in her head. She knows the exact location of various landmarks, from Nangalore to the lost city of Omu, and can describe the fastest means of getting to these areas. Considering that much of Tomb of Annihilation is a hexcrawl, Yabinamou’s advice will be greatly valuable to any jungle explorers.
• Yabinamou’s horde — while decreasing each day thanks to pickpockets — still contains more gold and jewelry than can be found in all of Chult’s Port Nyanzaru. Players who dig through the treasure mounds while Yabinamou sleeps can expect to quickly become rich, while powerful artifacts can greatly change the lives of any low-level character. Other items like a deck of illusions and a wand of wonder can also be uncovered.
• Any party choosing Yabinamou as a patron will not be alone, and can ally with the dragon’s Chultan, grung, and kobold followers. These non-player characters can act as hirelings and serve as replacement characters in Tomb of Annihilation, where the threat of death is constant.

Parties with Yabinamou as their patron might embark on the following quests:

• If the players appear sympathetic, Yabinamou might ask them to determine which of her followers are unscrupulously stealing from her horde. This might lead to a classic whodunnit adventure in the same vein as Knives Out, where members of an extended family are all fighting over an elder’s inheritance and accusing each other of chicanery. In this instance, though, the elder is a dragon!
• Yabinamou is far from the only dragon in Chult, a fact that causes her great consternation. In short, she wants those other whippersnappers to get off her lawn, and she’ll be immensely pleased if her followers hunt down rivals like Tzindelor, a young red dragon residing in Chult’s Wyrmheart Mine.
• Peace and quiet are valuable commodities to Yabinamou these days, and she’s likely to request the player characters quiet things down in the area. Undead monsters, including the likes of tyrannosaurus zombies, rampage too close to her lair, and if there’s anything Yabinamou hates more than dinosaurs, it’s undying dinosaurs who won’t shut up. She’ll eagerly enlist the players to dispose of the beasts and bring their remains back for feasting. (In her old age, this ornery green lady isn’t picky when it comes to food.)

Tiamtoh, the gold dragon

The Sagacious Bibliolater was a handsome shop, filled with shelves after shelves of hardbound books and permeating with the musky scent of aged paper and worn leather. Customers could always hope to be greeted by Tiamtoh, a kindly little woman with hair the color of ink, eyes that gleamed with a golden hue, and a soothing voice that was always quick to comment on the latest happenings in Waterdeep.

Only a keen and educated observer could discern that Tiamtoh was a dragon in disguise.

A Waterdeep resident for decades, Tiamtoh enjoys the city’s cosmopolitan nature and often speaks with fascination about its local history, typically making comparisons to draconic events that occurred around the same time. Regarded as little more than a bibliophile by most, Tiamtoh’s true identity is only known to her assistants and a few notable Waterdeep personages, including the likes of Mirt the Moneylender and Durnan, owner of the Yawning Portal Inn.

Those who investigate Tiamtoh’s past might find evidence that she was once a member of the Harpers who ventured into the depths of Undermountain and bested Halaster the Mad Mage in a magical duel in her human form and won several precious spellbooks in the process.

Tiamtoh as a patron

Tiamtoh can appear in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, providing players with details about the City of Splendors and the multitiered dungeon beneath it. Her intimate knowledge of dragon affairs also makes her an attractive patron for Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat. Tiamtoh is most interested in working with good-aligned adventurers recommended to her by either Durnan or Mirt, and she will eagerly engage dragonborn in spirited philosophical discussions about draconic history.

Parties with Tiamtoh as their patron might receive the following perks:

• Like many gold dragons, Tiamtoh possesses a strong sense of justice and can detect evil creatures in her vicinity. She can pass some of this magic on to her followers, granting characters the ability to cast both detect evil and good and protection from evil and good once per long rest, without requiring any material components.
• Tiamtoh has links with the Harpers and can provide the necessary introductions for characters hoping to enter the exclusive organization, potentially giving them the ear of advisors connected with Waterdeep Open Lord Laeral Silverhand.
• The Sagacious Bibliolater has a restricted section that Tiamtoh keeps walled away from the general public. Within it are multiple sets of stat-increasing books like the Manual of Gainful Exercise and the Tome of Clear Thought. Tiamtoh is willing to bestow these wondrous works to those who win her trust.

Parties with Tiamtoh as their patron might embark on the following quests:

• Tiamtoh will ask characters to map out the various levels of Undermountain for her, purchasing any spellbooks they happen to find. She is also curious about the changes that the Mad Mage has made to his mega-dungeon in the years since she won her duel.
• Thanks to a special relationship with the Avowed of Candlekeep, Tiamtoh often gets her hands on rare books that are inaccessible to most. She may ask characters to visit the great library, presenting Dungeon Masters with the perfect chance to insert an adventure from Candlekeep Mysteries into their campaign.
• Tiamtoh is a frequent fixture in the Yawning Portal Inn, and enjoys sipping a mug of mead in the corner and exchanging words with Durnan. She can be a quest-giver for any of the adventures in Tales from the Yawning Portal. Her knowledge of dragon-related affairs means that she will take a special interest in the events of The Sunless Citadel, The Forge of Fury, Dead in Thay, and Against the Giants, all of which feature draconic creatures. 

Quemmathyr, the sapphire dragon