Into the White Dragon's Lair

Buried deep in the snow and ice a white dragon’s frigid lair is a terrifying locale.

Outside the Lair

Use this list, to determine what the characters find as they approach the lair.

Huge furrows and chunks of bloodied ice show where something huge landed on its prey before flying off.
Blood stains the walls of the crevasse where the dragon has dragged its prey down to its hidden lair.
Channels have been ploughed through man-high drifts of snow. Obvious tracks in the snow show where some huge and clawed walked.
Icy cliffs and drifts give way to deep, pitch black crevasses.

Use this list, to determine what is happening at the lair, when the characters arrive.

Chunks of ice collapse into the crevasse and crash to the distant floor.
The dragon mutters and curses to itself, its voice echoing around the frozen halls, as it drags a large corpse deeper into its lair.
The crevasse crumbles sending a frozen whale corpse tumbling down into the darkness where it shatters into a thousand icy chunks.
The dragon moves large boulders away from the walls into the centre of a sagging chamber.

Use this list, to determine the lair’s major feature(s). These features are obvious to the characters.

The bones of a whale frozen into the ceiling give this huge chamber a cathedral-like feel
The crowned head of a massive statue buried in the ice acts as a perch and resting place for the dragon.
A stone altar lies partially buried in the snow. Dragons and carvings of primitive humans worshiping them cover its surface.
The body of a colossal white dragon is frozen beneath the cave’s icy, transparent floor.

Use this list, to determine the lair’s minor feature(s). These features may, or may not, be obvious, to the characters.

A pillar of basalt has been pushed into the chamber by the moving ice and has collapsed across the chamber. Inscriptions of dragon worship covers its surface.
Hundreds of wooden floats bearing a single candle are visible beneath the icy floor.
Ancient stone steps click mechanically when trod on, but the trap that once lurked here has long ago succumbed to the intense cold and ice.
Frozen bones hidden beneath a thin layer of soft snow crunch beneath the feet of passersby.

Use this list, to generate a dragon’s general appearance and other characteristics.

The scars from hundreds of desperate battles, giving it a mottled browny/white appearance, cover this dragon’s sinuous body.
This female dragon has the distended belly associated with recent egg-laying.
Black scales surround its eyes and run down the spine of the otherwise white dragon.
This dragon has bright blue wing membranes that shine brightly when light hits them.

Use this list, to add items of value to the dragon’s hoard; determine the value of each item to suit your campaign.

A heavy-bladed sword with an intricate demon-skull hand-guard and pommel is thrust deep into the ice. It seems to resists all attempts to free it.
A purse made from a bear’s scrotum contains several odd green stones and a bright red feather.
A suit of leather armour with hundreds of crow feathers sewn into it lies near a similar, but torn cape.
The horn of a narwhal tips this long spear. The bloodstained end looks like it was impaled at least three feet into something before being cast aside.

Use this list, to add items of interest, but little value, to the dragon’s hoard.

A frozen sludgy substance fills a cracked stoneware cup. It may have once been food or an ancient healer’s salve.
A collection of cracked skis and snow shoes all in need of repair are discarded in a side tunnel.
A carved stone of an earth mother-type figure, the size of a man’s head, lies half buried in the snow.
A barrel of pickled, now frozen, herrings lies on its side, and has spilled some of its contents onto the floor.

This is an extract from Monstrous Lair #51: White Dragon Lair, a System Neutral resource by Steve Hood.