Just came up with this question in a game. Would a dragons kidney stone be worth anything? Are there other creatures that would have kidney stones worth a lot?
There are certainly real-life analogues. Pearls and ambergris, for example. I can’t think of any official material about it off the top of my head, but your table, your rules!
Bezoars, too
I’d fight a bezoar. What’s the CR?
Sounds like a wonderful story arc. Looking for a buyer for a kidney stone while at the exact same time, infuriatingly, fending off assassins trying to steal the kidney stone. Which you would ABSOLUTELY SELL TO THEM if they would just reach out.
Do you advertise even more publicly, risking more assassins? Or do you stay more quiet, do research, try to figure out why people want this stone so badly and yet won’t just buy the damn thing?
That is a great story line, I have to save it for when I run my next game.
I would imagine them being chunks of sulfur, which could probably be used dyes, explosives, or fertilizer. So they could be quite valuable.
So dragons eat a lot of sulfur?
Those breath weapons gotta come from somewhere.
Wasn’t there some AD&D supplement that said dragons were conduits to the various elemental planes, and channelled their breath weapons straight from there? Maybe that was Grayhawk specific. I seem to remember it.
Then I would make the material from that plane. Ever burning coals, obsidian that is always hot to the touch, heat resistant chunks of brass. All as plane of fire example.
Third edition draconomicon explained the “draconis fundamentum” in a similar way I believe. Maybe that’s what you’re thinking of?
Make them a magical gem that does a small amout of elemental damage on contact like 1d4. The element should depend on the type of dragon/breath weapon they have. Ive heard they feel like acid or fire when coming out.
Depends on whom you’re trying to sell to. The village trader? Probably not. The court’s urologist? Per chance.
As far as other creatures, you would want to look for kidney stones from creatures in unique environments. In most earthly mammals, they’re composed of (mostly) calcium. Look for things that have kidneys, but either don’t have bones as such, or that have bones likely composed of something other than calcium. It would have to be a seriously magical creature, too; something so stuffed full of magic that it literally pees it.
The only thing I can think of off hand that fits all the criteria might be an Aboleth, and you can almost certainly get better components from them.
Have you considered the chance of bezoars or ambergris?
Stalking a dragon for the chance of the animal expelling such things would be a terrifying endeavour.
My insight on your question: if nothing else, some crazy fool would tout a dragon’s kidney stone as an invaluable ingredient for alchemy or some obscure potion or the cure/treatment for some disease, just like rhino horn or pangolin scales or deer penis for chinese traditional medicine. So considering this possibility alone, even in our current reality a dragon kidney stone could be sought after.
