How Does an Immobilized Ancient Dragon Feed Itself in 5E?

[Thorongil]

So I’m running my players through a low-magic Arthurian setting (it’s not that magic doesn’t exist, it’s that humanoids with class levels are quite rare).

They’re about to run into an ally/quest-giver NPC: an Ancient Red Dragon whose hoard consists of scrolls and books rather than gold. Whole races of creatures with a single alignment isn’t really a thing in my setting, so this particular dragon is lawful neutral (and so isn’t a threat the players unless they piss him off with some truly heinous murder-hobo shenanigans).

A couple centuries ago, a devastating plague swept through the country, killing about a quarter of the humanoid population. The dragon contracted said plague, and while it didn’t kill him, it did leave him crippled, and basically unable to leave his cave. I inserted this detail so the players can access an ancient being with a lot of knowledge, without introducing a being that can solve the BBEG with a snap of his claws (and thus render the players obsolete).

My question is, since dragons don’t get a ton of innate magic in 5E, and since I want to avoid doling out wands of Create Food and Water willy-nilly, how has the dragon been feeding himself for the past couple of centuries? My first instinct was to give him a dedicated staff of librarians/servants who can hunt food for him, but since he’s an Ancient Dragon, that’s a lot of food per day. It’s not a bad fallback, but I was wondering if the playground had any other ideas for this conundrum?

For an idea of the setting, it’s more historical Arthurian than fantastical (I.e., Romanised Britain).

[noob]

The dragon died long ago from the plague (a few days after falling ill it died) and a mediocre illusionist wizard is pretending to be the dragon(with silent image and thaumathurgy shenanigans) and that illusionist did spread the rumor that the dragon absolutely hates people using magic in its cave so the adventurers might not use detect magic or true sight or the like to see the dragon is an illusion.
The wizard is knowledgeable because it did read all the books of the dragon and did trade secrets a lot with his fake identity as a dragon (it also did write the secrets in books placed in an hidden cache it shows only to its successors).
Every few decades an illusionist discovers the illusions and becomes the successor of the previous illusionist.

[Tvtyrant]

So I’m running my players through a low-magic Arthurian setting (it’s not that magic doesn’t exist, it’s that humanoids with class levels are quite rare).

They’re about to run into an ally/quest-giver NPC: an Ancient Red Dragon whose hoard consists of scrolls and books rather than gold. Whole races of creatures with a single alignment isn’t really a thing in my setting, so this particular dragon is lawful neutral (and so isn’t a threat the players unless they piss him off with some truly heinous murder-hobo shenanigans).

A couple centuries ago, a devastating plague swept through the country, killing about a quarter of the humanoid population. The dragon contracted said plague, and while it didn’t kill him, it did leave him crippled, and basically unable to leave his cave. I inserted this detail so the players can access an ancient being with a lot of knowledge, without introducing a being that can solve the BBEG with a snap of his claws (and thus render the players obsolete).

My question is, since dragons don’t get a ton of innate magic in 5E, and since I want to avoid doling out wands of Create Food and Water willy-nilly, how has the dragon been feeding himself for the past couple of centuries? My first instinct was to give him a dedicated staff of librarians/servants who can hunt food for him, but since he’s an Ancient Dragon, that’s a lot of food per day. It’s not a bad fallback, but I was wondering if the playground had any other ideas for this conundrum?

For an idea of the setting, it’s more historical Arthurian than fantastical (I.e., Romanised Britain).

There is a local pagan cult that worships him as a god. They bring him food and an annual sacrifice, he in turn supposedly brings good weather and factually provides them with the heat to make glassware and obsidian which they sell as "magical" items.

[the_david]

A clear spindle is orbiting his head. (Sustenance Ioun Stone.)

There used to be a Ring of Sustenance too, but it's not in the DMG.

[Chronos]

I was going to suggest a cult, too, but for thematic reasons, make it mostly kobolds.

Is this dragon a spellcaster?

[Tvtyrant]

I was going to suggest a cult, too, but for thematic reasons, make it mostly kobolds.

Is this dragon a spellcaster?

I had assumed from the description that the setting was human only or mostly human, being low magic arthurian. Otherwise yeah Kobolds are the obvious answer.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

It could have servants. Two or three dedicated caretakers who received the gift of the dragonborn in return, or golems, or mildly stupid princes who are under the illusion that they'll free a princess if they do this job for 7 years.

No, I don't know where two or three individials get the food to feed a dragon. But they might be more fun to interact with than a larger group, they get individual personalities.

[Bohandas]

Are they not still lithovores in 5e? In 3e they could eat anything, including stone

[brian 333]

Summon Monster, chomp.

Actually, sleeping for many centuries is an ancient dragon's schtick.

It could:

Dream itself to be awake but live through an avatar whose form is that of whatever the civilization around it has, so if it's in a kobold mine the avatar would be a kobold. In an Arthurian setting he would be a Black Knight in a dream-castle. The questor might have to defeat the Knight to break the dream, but that might wake the dragon...

Be magically imprisoned by Merlin or the first sire of the Pendragons or someone. This enchantment locks it in stasis, and no time passes inside its prison until its door is opened.

Have consumed a moon and be satiated for a thousand years, but it will wake ravenous...

Be dead and not yet realize it. Thus it may be undead or a spirit. (Either animating the corpse or not. Both would be undead, I guess.)

Be the ancient sire of the Pendragons, waiting for a scion of the line to take his place as guardian of Britannia so it can die in peace. In this, the name Pendragon becomes literal, Dragon-chief or Dragon-General, as opposed to the generally accepted interpretation of General,(pen or head,) of Warriors, (draco.) As guardian of Britain, the dragon's life is tied to the life of Britain, and thus it requires no sustenance.

[rferries]

Is this something the PCs are likely to ask? I'd just handwave it as "dragons don't need to eat, or can survive for eons on very little sustenance".

Otherwise...it feeds on cave fish and fungi that that are farmed for it by servants, or receives tribute in the form of livestock from local peasants/nobles or as payment for its lore services.

[Vogie]

The Dragon's Hoard is actually used as the gold-standard-esque basis for the fiat currency for the realm. Evil government and banking sector families open and restrict access to the dragon's lair, and actively encourage only low-level adventurers to "fight the dragon" to their doom, turning potential issues into dragon food.

[noob]

The Dragon's Hoard is actually used as the gold-standard-esque basis for the fiat currency for the realm. Evil government and banking sector families open and restrict access to the dragon's lair, and actively encourage only low-level adventurers to "fight the dragon" to their doom, turning potential issues into dragon food.

That is until the level 1 chemical and biological weapon experts that have no sense of ethics comes and set everything on fire, poison, acid and noxious plagues.(especially since that dragon is vulnerable to diseases)
Nothing can survive indefinitely to adventurers without the key immunities.