How to avoid a TPK next session

[dmteeter]

Rain down hell upon them. Burn every village, town, or city they try to escape to. Hell raise the countryside as well. Make sure no one will help them or give them shelter.

They stole the hoard of an ANCIENT RED DRAGON any way you try to spin that it was a terrible decision. If you have made it obvious how powerful this enemy is then their deaths are the only logical result.

Red dragons are not a forgiving lot...

[Darkstar952]

If the players try and proactively do something, but the GM has decided they failed before they started, then that's not a matter of "deserving". There was no way for the players to succeed at this, their failure was totally out of their hands because of a decision that was made that they had no way of knowing (and the OP even says that it was information hidden from them).

This seems totally ass backwards, the players didn't immediately fail they merely had a complication. So what if the target wasn't in its lair, they still have choices, they can gather information, set a trap, leave information to lure the dragon out into a trap on their terms. Instead the players decided to just forget the task at hand, kill everything, steal its hoard and kidnap the wife & child.

The DM is not to blame here, this is entirely on the heads of the players.

[tchntm43]

Level 14 is "enough" as far as having gotten to play these characters. I don't think the DM should feel a need to protect them from an early demise since that time passed long ago.

That said, there are alternative lessons the DM could employ if desired. Are there NPCs the party values? Like family members? It would be entirely within a Red Dragon's character to seek out and murder those NPCs so that the party members would have to suffer knowing that those NPCs died because of their own actions. Remember that Red Dragons are both extremely intelligent and utterly evil.

[Louro]

Well, given that the Ancient Dragon is also the King, maybe he won't be willing to burn his own cities. But he'll put a big effort into making sure that whoever helps the party is gonna regret it, and everyone will know about it.

He'll track his coins and stuff, and send the SEOS (special elite operations squad) after the party.
Being the King, if he has to track them personally, his subjects might think their Kingdom isn't that great is the King himself has to track down some thieves: "Doesn't have him competent personal to deal with such mundane things?"

[Man_Over_Game]

Well, given that the Ancient Dragon is also the King, maybe he won't be willing to burn his own cities. But he'll put a big effort into making sure that whoever helps the party is gonna regret it, and everyone will know about it.

He'll track his coins and stuff, and send the SEOS (special elite operations squad) after the party.
Being the King, if he has to track them personally, his subjects might think their Kingdom isn't that great is the King himself has to track down some thieves: "Doesn't have him competent personal to deal with such mundane things?"

Red dragons are the most selfish, most angry of the dragons. A Blue might use logic. A Green might trick you into ruining your own life to spite you. A Red Dragon will burn you and everything within 20 miles of you.

I wouldn't be surprised if the local kingdom gave him the crown just in the hopes that he doesn't eat them. Assuming the DM is maintaining how the standard chromatic dragons interact, I sincerely doubt the dragon has any respect for the kingdom, other than the fact that it's "his".

It's his; he'll do what he likes with it.

[Louro]

Red dragons are the most selfish... A Red Dragon will burn you and everything within 20 miles of you.

He will then be burning his own kingdom. Not most wise action, if he is that sort of King whose political agenda is to take over neighbor Kingdoms, and them the next ones.

That would be a more interesting Ancient Dragon that one who's just sitting on his throne.

[MaxWilson]

Should I pull a deus ex machina, saying that all of his wizards were assassinated by one of the King's other enemies, preventing scrying? Or should I play the dragon king like his shock has made him foolish, making him go in alone and forget that he has access to resurrection, should the party use their hostages? Or should I let the party pay for their decisions, and bring the full might and an ancient red to bear, no holds barred?

I'm fairly new to DMing, help and opinions would be appreciated please.

I would think hard here about what your goals are for DMing. If you're running a simulationist campaign--one which tries to pretend like players sitting at the table don't really exist, focusing only on the logical in-world consequences of PC actions--then you might just kill the PCs and be done with it, because that does seem like the most probable outcome. If you're running a hybrid simulationist/gamist campaign, you might want to look for a way to apply logical in-world consequences which will also be fun for the players at the table even if they're not fun for the PCs, e.g. getting stripped of all their gear and equipment and dumped naked on a desert island (which turns out to have a magical dungeon in it, unbeknownst to the dragon king).

In short, either kill the PCs off or treat this as a chance to railroad them into anything you want because it's not railroading now--they totally earned it. Gladiatorial combat without weapons? Check. Marooned on a desert island? Check. Branded with magical tattoos and forced to hunt for the MacGuffin? Check.

I would keep my pulse on the players' reactions though. If they feel like death would be better than being branded with magical tattoos and forced into slavery, make sure they know that you won't mind if they want you to just say, "And you spend the rest of your lives as slaves. The End," and move on to a new campaign instead of playing out this one and trying to level up/eventually get revenge on the dragon king.

Edit: I didn't realize the PCs were level 14. At that level, it's entirely possible they will beat the Red Dragon in a straight-up fight, and so gladiator scenario/prison break/whatever will never happen. If so that's perfectly fine. When I wrote the above I was assuming the PCs were low-level chumps who stood no chance to withstand the dragon.

[CantigThimble]

Infidel defilers. They will all drown in lakes of blood. Now they will know why they are afraid of the dark. Now they will learn why they fear the night.

But seriously, walking into a red dragon's lair is attempted suicide (with a small chance of failure) as far as I'm concerned. Walking out again with his hoard and family without a VERY good plan to avoid complete annihilation is suicide to the power of 4. Bring hell down, make them brutal. If they want a blaze of glory then give it to them but mercy is not an option.