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honourablejester · 3 months ago

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Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons, Dragon Hoards, and Storytelling

Apparently it’s dragon week on D&D youtube? Unfortunately I wasn’t aware of this until today, so I’m not really in time to do anything, but just as a small gesture towards the event, I wanted to talk about something from my favourite 5e published book: Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons. Because dragons make everything better, but also this was a genuinely fun and fascinating book, and it gave a lot of tiny story hooks and worldbuilding suggestions involving dragons. Including, among other things, what sort of bric-a-brac you might find in the hoards of various dragons.

Now. I love objects in games. I love archaeology, I love the stories inherent in objects. I don’t just meant magic items, useful objects, but any object. Things you can put into your world to tell stories. And in the Draconomicon section of Fizban’s, along with suggestions for creatures the various dragons might interact with, they also provide a section on what types of treasures each type of dragon might stereotypically enjoy, including some specific examples.

So. Squeezing this in on the last day of dragon week, I’m just going to mention my favourite suggested object from each type of dragon’s hoard? As well as some of the storytelling potential of same:

Amethyst Dragon

A two-foot-long rod of pale crystal that gives off eerie sounds when touched, with the tone varying up and down the length of the rod.

Amethyst dragons apparently favour scholarly or philosophical treasures, so honestly the interiors of their lairs sort of sound like university lumber rooms or the contents of a wizardly magpie’s nest. It’s all books and scrolls and orreries and weird gadgets. And, apparently, magical theremins? Because this very much is, in essence, a magical theremin. That you play, uh, rather suggestively? Let me sing you the song of my people while stroking my magical rod. I don’t know if that was intentional, but … I mean. If you want to add levity to your game, feel free to put this item in? I do wonder if the amethyst dragon themselves are aware of the suggestiveness. It might certainly be interesting to find out.

Black Dragon

A beautifully enameled urn holding the desiccated heart of the dragon's former green dragon rival.

The thing about black dragons is, regardless of their alignment, they’re spiteful. They like getting the last word. They also like collecting the last of things in general, which on the beneficial side often means their lairs function as essentially mini-museums of lost cultures, civilisations, artists and craftspeople, and on the more malevolent side means that they hoard those mementos to themselves and deny them to whoever of that culture might be left (to say nothing of what killed that culture or civilisation, and whether or not the black dragon had anything to do with it).

But. All of that aside. The reason I picked this object is because black dragons are spiteful, and I kind of love that about them? A black dragon will go out of their way to beautifully present a grisly reminder of what happens to their enemies, because they’re just bitchy that way, and I love that.

Blue Dragon

A glass bell that creates the sound of rainstorms and thunder for 1 hour when struck.

Blue dragons are just incredibly snobby about their hoards. They’re obsessed with provenance and standards and quality of craftsmanship, as well as symbols of their own power and status, and symbols of the power and status of mortals or kingdoms they have sponsored. They’re, honestly, very nouveau riche about it? Which you probably shouldn’t say to a blue’s face, because you will get smote for it.

But they also, on something of a more whimsical note, love objects that evoke the weather, by sound or scent or scene. And that’s why I picked this one. It’s something less … artificial, ‘put on’, something the dragon wanted for its own sake, not for the prestige of it. A little bit of something whimsical and real in the middle of a power display.

Brass Dragon

A finely carved bust of a long-dead human ruler, which the dragon has named Cornelius and argues with incessantly.

The thing with brass dragons is, they thrive on interaction. On gossip, spycraft, debate, conversation. So a somewhat whimsical and somewhat sad detail about their hoards is that the dragons often ‘invest them with imagined personality’. They want objects they can talk to. They tend to favour things that depict beings, portraits, statues, little toy creatures, etc. So, you know. If you wanted to make friends with a brass dragon? A gift for their hoard that they can actually talk to, such as a sentient magic item, would probably work quite well.

Bronze Dragon

Framed blueprints of a siege engine called the Moonhammer.

Okay. So a thing you may or may not find charming about bronzes is, they’re essentially military historians? Varying from ‘hobbyist’ to ‘various historical generals were actually this dragon in disguise’ levels. Though admirals are more likely than generals, since bronzes are also rather coastal. So their hoards tend to be … well. Full of military memorabilia, for a start, along with more genuine mementos of the dragon’s own career, and then some more dangerous bits and bobs. A bronze dragon hoard is very much where you’re going to stumble across powerful weapons, for example. But the reason I picked this one is … it’s not just magical weapons and ancient superweapons. Bronze hoards are where you can also find much more mundane type superweapons, products of ingenuity and bloodshed, like the above blueprints. So they’re a great place to put plot relevant items.

Copper Dragon

A smooth piece of amber with what appears to be a tiny sprite frozen inside it.

Copper dragons are fey. They’re tricksters. They’re the dragons folk stories are told about. So their hoards are where you’re going to find just … weird and wonderful things. Puzzle boxes, things they stole from people (well, not stole, but tricked them out of), the odd doomsday weapon shoved down the back of a couch, a random collection of musical instruments, a full set of crockery, you name it. Any random object you can think of, put it in there. A singing teacup? A copper dragon would love it. I only picked this one because it’s indicative of the overall whimsy and randomness you’ll find with coppers. Did the dragon somehow manage to snare that sprite itself? Quite likely. Will they tell you how they did so? Eh. Depends how entertaining you are.

Crystal Dragon

A vast number of colored glass bottles collected from dozens of cultures and historical periods.

Crystal dragons are sweethearts, and they like pretty sparkly things. The relative value of those pretty sparkly things is irrelevant, what matters is how cool and shiny and interesting they are. So their hoards will range from fascinating things like a crystal armillary sphere showing unknown planets, to a children’s coin bank shaped like an owlbear, to a collection of historical glasswork, to a series of really pretty windchimes that catch the sunlight. And. To be perfectly honest? The reason I picked the glass collection to highlight is because I myself also adore glass, and I would have that hoard myself. If I met a dragon with a collection of historical glassware, arranged by colour and presented so they’d catch the light, you would lose me for a full half-session because I am grilling that dragon about the details of that collection. We are going to be best friends.

Deep Dragon

A magic chandelier that projects images of the most inaccessible places in the world on the wall, changing the images each time the chandelier is relit.

Deep dragons are scholars, and also somewhat orientalists, or kind of fantasy equivalents, in that they most enjoy objects from far away lands and areas that they, in their subterranean lairs, won’t often get to see. They like to explore mentally in a way they usually can’t physically, and enjoy the strange and exotic. So you descend to a fungal lair deep in the stone beneath the earth, and then find vistas of and items from all sorts of other environments. I like the chandelier in particular just for the … the exploration of it, and also there’s a fair bit of plot relevance too, because how did the creator of the chandelier get images of some of the most inaccessible (and well defended?) places in the world?

Dragon Turtle

A pipe organ that the dragon turtle refers to as "Bubbles," which works underwater.

Pirate hoards. A dragon turtle’s hoard and a fantasy pirate’s hoard will have a lot in common, because there’s a similar theme going on. And that theme is, shipwrecks. Also the ocean. Coral and pearls, yes, strange nautical magic items, and then dozens of bizarre odds and ends that they salvaged from various surface ships that met misfortune. Often in the form of the dragon turtle themselves.

This one, though, is absolutely fascinating to me, because who made it? Who made a pipe organ that you can play underwater? Was this actually an intentional gift to the dragon turtle? And likely one from the surface, for them to come up with a pipe organ of all things, but one intended to grace an underwater lair. So that’s immediately a whole bundle of worldbuilding thrown in, a hint towards a relationship between this dragon and some surface power capable (and whimsical) enough to commission a quite involved item for a dragon.

Emerald Dragon

A trophy cup engraved with a pumpkin, awarded each year at the harvest festival of Riksdell before that settlement fell to a plague.

It deeply amuses me that emerald dragons are the coin collectors of the dragon world. Not in terms of the value of the metal, but literally in terms of rare and historical coins: “Emerald dragons are unusual among gem dragons in their preference for coinage over gemstones when amassing treasure. They are fascinated by the various designs of coinage and often strive to collect rare mintages.” They are … very nerdy. They also have a lot in common with bronze dragons, in terms of … not necessarily military memorabilia, but historical memorabilia. (Also black dragons, but emeralds don’t require the cultures to be dead before they start collecting them). So you will find stuff in an emerald dragon’s hoard that is not necessarily monetarily valuable, but is usually historically or culturally priceless. Or at least interesting.

And, occasionally, bizarre. As with the above. Small histories are just as interesting to emeralds as the big stuff. And that’s honestly very sweet, in its way?

Faerie Dragon

A tiny scale model of a castle that opens like a dollhouse to reveal the chambers and secret passages within.

Faerie dragons are copper dragons’ cat-sized little cousins. They are tiny tricksy little bastards, with tiny attention spans, and they like to be entertained. So, again, they like things that they can play with, that intrigue them, or things that come from their own tricks and adventures. Or just random things that they took a shine to. Think ‘cat’, think ‘magpie’, think ‘fey’. But also … think of the fantasy you read as a kid. Think of the key from ‘The Secret Garden’, think of the bedroom in ‘The Secret of Moonacre’. A faerie dragon’s lair should feel like the most magical playroom you’ve ever encountered. A theatre’s prop room, a elder relative’s mysterious attic, the workshop of a fairy tale toymaker. It’s not about value, necessarily, although some of the things in here could be stupendously valuable, it’s about the whimsy and the playfulness and the fantasy.

Which is why I went with the dollhouse castle full of secret passages. It hits exactly the right notes.

Gold Dragon

A black dragon skull with a crack down the middle and gems fixed in its eye sockets; a plaque along the bottom reads, "So too shall ye be".

An elaborately decorated tea set, each of its cups themed after a different plane of existence.

I’m going to cheat with gold dragons and put two objects, just because … When people picture gold dragons, they tend to picture them as the most paladin-like dragons, pure forces of law and order, rigid and unbending. And they are that, they can be that, they’re wonderful weary and slightly grim champions of good. But that’s not all that they are. They can be spiteful as well as wise. They can be whimsical as well as wise. They are sagacious and proud and dignified, and they can also collect teacups. Educational teacups, mystical teacups, but still teacups. They can have grim trophies of fallen foes just like black dragons themselves, and have a bit of grim humour about it, a reminder deliberately placed beneath it of memento mori, remember you too shall die. Golds are grim and weary and dignified, but they have layers. And their hoards can show that.

Green Dragon

The polished skull of a unicorn, latticed with luminescent blooms.

Quartz terrariums carried on the backs of tourmaline jaguars, overgrown with misshapen cacti.

Greens, on the other hand, I’m going to put two because I basically want to put the entire suggested list of green treasure items on here, because green treasure hoards as suggested by this book enchant me. Because green dragons weave their hoards into the landscape around them. They interweave nature and treasure, often in darkly beautiful and even somewhat sadistic ways. Hence the unicorn skull woven with beautiful luminescent flowers, two gorgeous things arranged gorgeously together, so beautiful that you might miss that that’s a dead unicorn there. That’s the corpse of a sentient creature arranged so artistically into a dragon’s hoard. But even on the less sadistic end, green dragons enjoy treasures that emphasise the natural, making their hoards as much art installation and garden as treasure trove. Which is just fascinating. This description caught my imagination so hard and skyrocketed green dragons, already one of my favourite types, to possibly the top of the list.

Moonstone Dragon

A vast bookshelf full of dream journals written by creatures the dragon has befriended over the years; the dragon has each entry illustrated by a different celebrated artist, making the library one of the largest art collections in the world.

Moonstone dragons are feywild dragons, but they’re less trickstery than copper or faerie dragons, and more dreamlike. Quite literally, they hang around in the land of dreams a lot. So they tend to be on the more … wispy, ethereal, fantastical end of both dragons and dragon hoards. You’re looking for elegance, mystery, silver-and-moonstone, and more fairy tale type objects. (They also violently dislike gold and copper and other yellowy metals, because they’re not elegant like platinum and silver and mithral and other white metals, and yes, they will take issue if you try to offer them the wrong metal). They are very much about the aestheticTM, and that aesthetic is very much ‘ballet version of Midsummer’s Night’s Dream’. But if you want to get embroiled in the Feywild, in dreams, in a more ethereal sort of fantasy, they’re great dragons to interact with. And their hoards can have some very interesting items. Such as entire library of dream journals for all your ‘questing in the dream lands’ needs?

Red Dragon

A beautifully inlaid mosaic map of the region within a 100-mile radius of the dragon's lair.

In some ways, red dragon hoards are some of the most basic hoards, because they really just like money. They like gold, they like wealth, they like raw monetary value. They are, in a lot of ways, the quintessential dragon hoard. If you need enough money to set you up for several lifetimes, this is where you find it. But they do also have their quirks. And two of them are somewhat exemplified in this item here. Firstly, red dragons like ruling things, so they enjoy objects that essentially display or enumerate their territory. And secondly, they tend to pick objects that aren’t easily burned. Meaning, essentially, that they don’t like books or paper. (Or leather, or other generally flimsy materials). So while you can find books and maps and other information in a red dragon’s lair, the form it takes might be … interesting. Books written on metal. Maps in the form of mosaics. If you want to put a book in a red dragon’s hoard, it better be fireproof. Which I enjoy.

Sapphire Dragon

A music box that plays a haunting song; the dragon claims the music is very popular on another world.

Sapphires, like bronzes, tend to be military collectors. They’re very martial dragons, they are actively involved in war efforts, they tend to collect military memorabilia and weaponry and things of that nature. The difference between them and bronzes is the type of military conflict they tend to engage in. Sapphire dragons, as subterranean dragons, tend to war with aberrations. Extra-planar threats. Mind-flayers and other, weirder entities. So some of their hoards tend to be a bit more … bizarre. If you wanted your players to find a lament configuration and wind up fighting cenobites, for a random example, a sapphire dragon’s hoard is a good place to stumble across one. There’s a lot of focus on psychic damage, protection from psychic damage, and otherworldly objects.

Like beautiful and melancholy little music boxes that play songs from another world. For a less deadly and more beautiful example.

Shadow Dragon

A seemingly plain gray tapestry; close inspection reveals a tableau in shades of dove, ash, and slate.

An ornate scepter marred by soot and grime.

I deeply love shadow dragon hoards, because they’re such an excellent story-telling tool. They set the atmosphere so well.

Shadow dragons are afflicted by the despair of the Shadowfell, to the point where beauty becomes painful to them, a reminder of everything they’ve lost to the corruption of that dark realm. So while they have treasures, they’re still dragons and no amount of corrupting shadow realm can change that, they’ve been rendered unable to enjoy them. So they try to make them less painful to look upon. They blacken them, they tarnish them, they leave them to rot and moulder. Or, sometimes, they commission or choose objects that are more subtle, that show skill and artistry and value in more muted ways. Shadow dragon hoards are so melancholy. Tattered and tarnished, hidden and muted. They’re such a fabulous gothic, dark fantasy sort of vibe, the tragic lair of a corrupted creature, a pained homage to lost beauty and joy.

They also make an excellent ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ sort of testing ground, in that the party might have the opportunity to attempt to identify the true value among the tarnished and crumbled remnants arrayed around them.

Silver Dragon

A pearl-handled switchblade, its blade eaten away by salt water and its handle emblazoned with a crest.

The thing with silver dragons is that they love people. They get attached to people. They’re the single most likely dragon to find knocking about in mortal form, pretending to be just another adventurer or sage or even farmer. They’re the single most likely dragon to find getting married, having families, keeping family trees and the fantasy equivalent of photograph albums in their lair. They keep keepsakes. A silver dragon’s hoard, while it likely will have beautiful art and gorgeous silver objects in it, will also look a lot like your grandma’s sideboard where they keep all the photographs of their grandkids and weird tchotchkes and letters and mementos from distant friends. They’re sentimental. They have stuff like their three-hundred-years-dead best friend’s salt-eaten pocket knife, a set of portraits showing their mortal child in several stages of life, a preserved rose given to them by an old lover, a twisted chestplate from a fallen champion that they carried from the battlefield. They’re … They’re romantic. They’re tender and sentimental and romantic. You will find so many stories in a silver dragon’s hoard. I love them.

Topaz Dragon

A set of seven levered brass mirrors that can be adjusted to direct light in different directions.

A large, shallow dish filled with water on which floats a set of delicate wooden ships; speaking different command words creates waves and whirlpools in the bowl.

Topaz dragons, a little like crystal dragons, are obsessed with light, and also the water. Their perfect fantasy lair is a beautiful beachside resort, one with no people in it, where they can lie back and chill and bask in the sunshine and look at the water. So their hoards tend to focus on things that enhance or play with light, and things that recall the beauty of the ocean. Which, excellent aesthetic, do approve. I also love that, like green dragons, they like to enhance their hoard via arrangement, and they deeply enjoy using tricks of the light to bring out beauty. This is why the mirror device is one of my favourite suggested items from the hoard. A topaz dragon’s hoard is as much art installation as collection of valuable objects, and I adore that.

White Dragon

A mammoth tusk engraved with images depicting the history of a nomadic tribe; the dragon uses the tusk to mark the spot where it has buried its pile of gold.

A huge wooden door carved and painted to depict a monarch enthroned with sword and scepter; the dragon occasionally raps the door with its knuckles, pauses, and then chortles, "Nobody home".

The prow of a ship carved to look like a pouncing lion; the dragon occasionally roars at the lion.

A bell engraved with images of an angelic host, still attached to its splintered belfry; the dragon tolls the bell with its tail, growling the name of one of its defeated foes with each ring.

… I’m not going to put the whole damn list of white dragon hoards, I’m not. I just. I love white dragons. I love their emphasis, again, like green dragons, on natural materials. They love whalebone and mammoth ivory and furs, they love their icy environments, they love the materials found there. They also love trophies, things like ship’s figureheads and castle doors and bells with the whole damn belfry still attached. They’re environmental. They’re part of their environment, part of the history of their environment. You can read the dragon’s whole history from their hoard, and they’re tell you their whole damn history by their hoard, knowing the origin of every coin and every object within it to minute detail. And they can tell other people’s history too. White dragons are so embedded in their environment, emblematic of it. A white dragon’s hoard immediately evokes the perils of winter, ships crushed by icebergs, villages and settlements buried under the snow. But there’s also room for something more communal. Mammoth tusks engraved with the history of a tribe. White dragons as the memory of a people. I just. I love them a lot?

End Thoughts

And the thing I love about all of these, about Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons as a whole, is the emphasis on storytelling. These are not dragons as pure monsters, not dragon hoards as a pile of money and magic items for adventurers to pocket after they’ve slain them, these are dragons as characters, the hoards as illustrations of their characters. These are objects that give the dragon personality and tastes and connections to things.

And they suggest … They suggest different ways to interact with dragons. Because to interact with these objects for the full, in a lot of cases you’d need the dragon to still be alive. What are the chances of someone seeing a still-living dragon’s hoard? Honestly, it depends on the dragon. Maybe some bronze dragons genuinely do operate their hoards almost as a museum, with a much more terrifying night guard than many you’d find.

But even if you don’t get to see the main hoard, there’s also …

Dragons can shapeshift. And maybe their non-dragon guise might have partial or mini-hoards attached to them. Maybe that’s a clue. If you’re invited up to a fine woodland manor, or even a city manor, and it has an absolutely stunning Victorian-style greenhouse conservatory attached, with art and statues woven in among the plants, maybe don’t rob that house? Because that could be a green dragon. Or maybe that weird-ass wizard in his tower with the collection of magical knick-knacks fully is an amethyst dragon in disguise. That ‘agent’ for a wealthy buyer arguing ferociously with a merchant about the quality of a piece? Blue dragon. That mysterious gothic manor full of broken and tarnished remnants of old glory? Could be a vampire, could be a shadow dragon.

Just. Interact with them more. Put plot-significant items in dragon hoards. Not just magic items, not just world ending stuff, but clues. Send the party to ask a moonstone dragon for help tracking the activities of a coven of night hags. Send them to a sapphire dragon for information on a mind flayer plot three centuries ago that might suddenly be relevant again. Have your party of rogues try to stealth into a deep dragon’s lair because the only information on the location of a lost treasure is contained on a tapestry they’re rumoured to have acquired.

There’s stories there. Dragons are not just bags of hitpoints and gold, they’re fascinating characters in their own rights, and amazing plot devices to strew around your world for your players to interact with in so many more ways than just combat.

I do love Fizban’s Treasury. Easily my favourite book 5e ever published.

#d&d #fantasy #dragon week #dragons #fizban's treasury of dragons #storytelling #worldbuilding #archaeology #the stories inherent in objects

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