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?
About half a gazebo.
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.
Third edition draconomicon explained the “draconis fundamentum” in a similar way I believe. Maybe that’s what you’re thinking of?
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.
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.
There are two routes to go here:
Science route: kidney stones are largely made of calcium, oxalate, urate, cystine, xanthine, and phosphate in our world. Presuming dragon physiology is roughly the same as our world, there’s nothing inherently special about these elements in game. Short of “reliquary” type of usages (think finger bone of a saint), there’s no reason to think it is special. Considering dragon scale is used in armor, I have to assume any less exciting dragon “parts” would pale in comparison. Might have value as a trade good or interesting conversation piece to the right collector.
Fun route: this chunk of phosphorus can be used 1d8 times in place of normal phosphorus from your material components pouch, upping the damage die of any [fire] spell cast using it.
Guess it kinda depends on what it’s made of?
Even if as a material it’s mundane, it could be worth something to the right buyer, as a natural curiosity?
Anything from a dragon would be valuable, I’m sure even their pee is used to make an elixir of some kind. And even if there’s nothing inherently magical with a dragon’s kidney stone, there’s bound to be somebody that doesn’t know that that you could sell it to.
Depends on whom you’re trying to sell to. The village trader? Probably not. The court’s urologist? Per chance.
