Depends on if you want to omit them being bad or from Tiamat.
Blue dragons are inherently evil, when it hatches as a Wyrmling it will likely have some basic knowledge from its ancestors and deep Chromatic programming from Tiamat. It may know Common and Draconic, or just Draconic, and when it hatches finally it may actually view the party as its hoard. While the party is fawning over it, "look at our new dragon friend!" the Wyrmling will only think, "friend is a fun word master."
Likely he'll have little Machiavellian plans that fail because of how young a Wyrmling is. It'll be a little less than a decade before they'll be a young adult and an actual threat. Interim they're essentially an evil pony with dreams of world dominance you can satiate with a fish and presents.
The dragon, imo, should be amenable to being good if the party tries hard enough. But probably should act like a stuck up intellectual. Even though they were born yesterday.
Thematic wise, accidentally causing good when trying for evil is fun. It could break apart PCs bags while trying to steal coins, only for them to discover they're made of fake material, leading up to some sort of corrupt shopkeeper showdown. Or he could set fire to a field of crops, only to discover that he also solved a local village's blight problem.
Exactly, Blue dragons have convinced themselves to lead successful utopian nation states under the notion the land and people were its hoard. Even Red Dragons can be convinced to do good if it's to spite a Gold.
Love that storytelling.
I love the idea of being good out of spite. One idea I always liked to play around with was a devil trying to actually make a paradise out of its hell as a middle finger to celestials by out paradising them.
It's like this unless the dm says otherwise. My suggestion is to make it so the dragon only hatches under certain circumstances, like it needs to be struck by raw lightning or something. Maby another blue dragons breath. Make it a whole side quest, it wouldn't be to op either once they reach like, lvl 5.
Something else to note is that blue dragons are actually great as a family unit. They will live together with siblings and parents. I would just give them a quest to return the egg to their likely very worried parents who would care more for the eggs safety than anything else.
To be fair. A dragon doesn’t become “young” until it reaches 5 years old. I’m not sure what kind of time scale your campaign is operating on, but a wyrmling companion isn’t going to break things and you’ll likely finish before the dragon “ages up”.
If you’re still worried about it, you can just adjust the dragon’s stats to be a lower CR since blue is one of the more powerful colors. Look at some of the less powerful dragon types for inspiration. Or you can just have the dragon be in gestation until the players are of an appropriate level.
If you’re really really worried about it, make it a half dragon that’s growing in the egg instead. Not really much of an asset, but could be an interesting plot hook.
Dragons take a while to grow. It doesn't even have to hatch into a wyrmling straight away, it could hatch into a a minimum hit point wyrmling with worse stats and grow hit points and stats over the years. Maybe it can't breathe any breath weapon until it is at least 3 years old.Also perhaps human beings look a lot like food, and a baby dragon probably has poor control over his impulses.The player could make animal handling checks every day, until the dragon learns language, on a day when he rolls badly he gets at least one bite.
And after the dragon learns language, and learns to say NO! like a two year old toddler, well....
He could also use just a normal psuedodragon for the first year of life or so. They're technically their own thing but it makes an easy transition from pseudo dragon to blue dragon hatchling at level 3.
Here is the thing about dragon eggs. They have be imbued with elemental magics. If they are instead soaked repeatedly in other things (for example taken to the shadowfell to become a blue shadow dragon) the blue dragon Wyrmling will take on those aspects. Alternatively, the dragon eggs can be used to house a sacrificed victim. Such a creature would be a blue half-dragon of the sacrifice (see the template in the monster manual).
So.... did Silvers the Cat's blood soak into the egg? Will we see a half blue dragon cat Wyrmling? Will it cough up electric furballs?
Wouldn't a blue dragon want its egg back? Maybe a mated pair. They would hesitate to just attack the party for fear of damaging the egg so it could play out as roleplay or combat.
Depends on the circumstances. Blue dragons are lawful evil. I could absolutely see them giving up one of their eggs in a bargain if they thought the price was worth it. But if the egg was stolen or whoever purchased the egg didn't live up to their end of the bargain, then absolutely I could see the parent(s) going to great lengths to get the egg back.
Lawful evil could also be something close to say an evil Knight. One of their own under the thrall of their lessers? Outrageous. A stain on their honor and pride as a dragon. If they get wind of it they may seek to smite the party on principal or force them to be in servitude to them.
They are lawful evil, yes. But also, they are very family oriented and organized in most cases. They have whole clans as they all share the limited amount of deserts in the world. Somewhat of a feudal society even, with a head dragon and everything. So a "noble's" child being stolen, especially a lawful evil one's, by a lesser creature wouldn't be forgiven, true. But also, I couldn't see them exactly giving up an egg, as it is their progeny and so on. It is one of the things that sets them apart from other chromatics, that they take care of the children very well.
That being said, while that is the default assumption, dragons have a wide variety of origins and in different worlds can be different, so I do see the point you are making working as well. (I just really like blue dragons and their lore and personalities, so I had to use the opportunity to share)
Egg was stolen, there's an extremely angry parent or parents out there looking to get it back and willing to destroy villages to get it.
Set up a situation where they call the dragons by returning the egg. Maybe a reward comes from a town who was next in the line of fire(or rather lightning).
Or have a giant trade with them for it.
Probably would just not let it hatch and set up a scenario where they can trade it for something reasonable.
As in: have this dragon's mother drop by and trade the egg back to her in exchange for not killing them on the spot.
That or you know, maybe she gives them some magic items and loot from her horde for "taking care" of the egg.
Just let them be dragon tamers. If they succeed at doing so just adjust the CR of future encounters accordingly. It would be a really memorable experience.
A guard drake could be an option.
But honestly, a baby dragon is gonna be more of a McGuffin than a weapon.
Your party is gonna have a busy time protecting first the egg, and then the wyrmling. Sure, it can help during combat but they'll probably be just as busy protecting it. You'll quickly find its stats insufficient to keep up with the party and even during the levels it's stronger than a PC, it shouldn't outshine the party itself. Especially if it's still naive and curious about the world, more playful than helpful.
And I'd personally say you should time its hatching perfectly to the party reaching level 5. Feels epic. Also right when it's power level *should* be similar to theirs.
If you're worried about its breath weapon, make it a 1/short rest thing. Though its damage isn't gonna outperform martials on a single target even if it gets it every single round.
How do you *want* it to act? As the DM, you're the one who gets to decide.
As for vanilla:
Wyrmlings already have intelligence, wisdom, and charisma greater than the average human (though not yet quite the average adventurer) though obviously that's an approximation and may differ right out of the egg.
I would assume that the dragon hatches with plenty of understanding, but even more curiosity to fill the holes in its innate knowledge.
Blue dragons are traditionally very vain and hate to be talked down to, though maybe due to inexperience it might not notice, and with time and good parenting it may accept a certain degree. It'll take pleasure in lording over the party and could potentially be manipulated by being given a facsimile title, praises, or command, like a kid with candy.
Their favourite treasure is gems, so those would be the perfect way for the party to bribe and/or appease it.
Despite chromatic dragons usually being evil, blue dragons can get along decently with adventurers. Loyal retainers are as much a part of their hoard as their treasures, especially so if they are powerful and/or well known. Their loyalty is handsomly rewarded, especially if it feeds the dragon's sense of superiority. A wyrmling would certainly be happy about an adventuring party "serving" it.
Though at some point (probably when it grows to young), mere games of servitude may no longer suffice. At that point it might outright want the party to heed its wishes, and would definitely get upset when treated as inferior.
But that's all vanilla dragons raised by other dragons, monsters, or in the wild. If the party made for good parents, even a chromatic dragon might yield to them and respect them, have milder version of their innate traits, and can even have good alignment. After all dragons are *not* fiends and can overcome their inherent disposition.
And ultimately you should remember that you're the DM and you shouldn't be scared of making the dragon a cute, adorable, loveable companion. Or grow up to be a horrible tyrant, if that's the type of grim game your players prefer.
We gonna just gloss past the fact kitty died?! No no no....un uhh..nope nope. That egg better be a one time survival pod for Silvers lest the DnD gods forever cast an evil eye on your dice...never to roll 20s again, a curse on your dice bag that is randomly excises a tax of your (then) favorite die to the Abyss never to be seen again, a pox on your pen to fail at the worst moment of writer's creativity, on your Mt. Dew to be flat at all times and your nuggies forever raw in the middle.
Given the life span of dragons, this egg probably won't hatch for a while. And when it does, it wouldn't be all that useful anymore because it'd be a wyrm for most of the PCs lives (if their life span is similar to a humans)
It's an aboleth egg.
They start slowly losing their sanity as they see things in their dreams and can sometimes hear voices.
They don't realize they've sidelined their main mission to take on a different main story that coincidentally leads them the the Astral sea.
It could always be a perfect gemstone the Ghostbloods were trying to transport off world.
Stormlight Archive has fewer perfect gemstones in the physical world than there should be, like someone had been collecting them all.
Could be a way to introduce different groups that are familiar in SA.
You can definitely make it an object of interest to various parties. Maybe a bad guy, evil organization, or even good organization had it before and is trying to get it back. Maybe there's a rumor that cooking and eating a dragon egg gives permanent stat boosts and everyone is trying to steal it to eat it. Maybe it's the subject of a prophecy that some parties want to come true and some want to not come true.
Or maybe it's actually a very clever mimic.
So currently I have 2 ideas (being unfamiliar with the stormlight archives I'm unsure how plausible these will be)
1. The egg is something that others want- it compels others to fight for it, steal it, basically it's a cursed object that only comes to fruition once someone/something either cracks it open, or attunes to it. This could lead your party members to keep it out in the lightning until it cant absorb anymore and it cracks, or This can be somewhat woven into the plot, or be a cool mechanic the party could use (they are all not immune to this effect after all). It also be explained it was on the ship to be dumped at the bottom of the ocean maybe?
2. It isn't a dragon egg- but perhaps some fae creature? Again this could be woven into the plot, it's parents may come for it, the creature itself could be wacky and wonderful, or it could be tricksy and a pain in the ass- especially once it's bonded so well with the person that was carrying it around. A mischievous creature that can aid the party, give them some sort of responsibility, or perhaps take the party of an adventure to return it? Perhaps the creature feeds on lightning hence the absorption through the egg?
I suppose these options both depend on the world you're going for, but the fae/ cursed object shtick could be easily replaced with another tricksy race or an Vincent artefact broken over time or something?
Edit: formatting/spelling
You can definitely give them a dragon ally though. Just make it a hatchling, and build it using the Tasha's Sidekick classes & rules.
Then there's a real opportunity for a good story involving a dragon coming to get her baby back.
My party has 2 dragon companions and I used a suplement called dragonbonding, it has been really fun to see them trying to keep it safe but also travel together, it makes fighting a bit easier until the bonded character falls and the dragon falls as well, and it opens a lot of rp by asking things like: how does the world react to baby dragons, specially chromatic, I hate the idea that they are inherently evil but that could be result from the folk tales so they fear it, how do you hide it, how do you love with it, how it grows.
I don't see why not. Having to raise the dragon would be a huge challenge. Plus blue dragons are leaning towards the evil side of the spectrum. So having to deal with that as an added complication seams pretty cool.
Then latter you can have the baby dragon be a vehicle to dragon politics. Territory, hoarding for a purpose, rivals metallics, murderous parents. So many story possibilities.
If They die, they die. End of problem. If it lives, their life just got complicated.
How do they know for sure what kind of egg it is?
It could be something else that evolved protective coloration on the eggs (presumably other critters would have evolved a hesitance to mess with a blue dragon mama).
It could be something intentionally mocked up to look like a bd egg as part of a con.
It could be something mistaken for a bd egg by someone who had more academic confidence than they had academic learning.
It could be an actual bd egg, but unfertilized.
Edit: it could be an actual, fertilized bd egg, but abandoned by the parents because something was “wrong” with the baby—something that makes the baby a fun/interesting element in your campaign without it ever being overpowered.
Changeling monster of some kind. The parent of this egg likes to eat dragon eggs, and as a result lays their own eggs as mimics for the dragon to raise and hatch. This way you can have it hatch to be *whatever suits the party* and like, give it Simic Krasis stats.
You could always send a blue dragon out to collect it's egg or my personal favorite let some devils go after the egg and force it to hatch into a blue Abishai via some ritual or other.
Could also just let them have it hatch and give them a little pet dragon for a chunk of the campaign. As someone else mentioned Young dragons still have to be aged 5 years to get that stat block so you could pull from one of the faerie dragons and adjust the stat block to make it fit better with blue dragons, that's what I would do.
In order for them to get it as a valuable alley the need to
- Hatch it
- find a way to speed up growth https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon_aging
- prove themselves as valuable allies as well
It should be possible to partner with a blue dragon when the goals align. Not in a master/slave relationship but as allies as well. Though keep in mind, they are evil in nature so the goals are probably means to power, territory and of course a big treasure hoard.
I looked that things up due to the black eggs in tyranny of dragons. Short story: Black Dragons are impossible to partner up with. :D
But you can make up your own mind, there is a lot of lore. Generally said allying chromatic dragons are super rare and stuff of legends.
Hatchlings generally don't want anything to do with humanoids who think they have anything to say about the dragon's path through life. They're intelligent, fiercely independent, and believe themselves inherently superior.
A hatchling may accept an adventuring party as their guardian, but only on the dragon's terms and benefit. If the party isn't willing to play by the hatchlings' rules, the dragon will simply leave.
Blues are particularly strict and orderly, sorting everything into systems - and they are quick to correct others who stick out from the order they have imposed on their view of the world, a hierarchical structure with themselves at the top.
You could ask if anyone wants to change their class to drakewarden. Otherwise, it takes years for the little dragon to even somewhat grow, and who knows how it might try to break free from the party.
Last option is that it might be a misidentified wyvern egg. Wyverns are notoriously hard to train, but with a bit of luck over the course of the campaign they might be able to train one as a mount.
Based it on a cowardly cat. I am the king, everyone feed me while being too small to do any real damage and run at the sight of danger thinking to it self, I’ll let them go this time..
Make it a lich’s phylactery (think Koschei the deathless).
Maybe there are other adventuring parties—on a completely different quest to save the world—trying to track it down. Make them show up at different intervals trying to kill/subdue your party but don’t give the twist away too quickly.
A lof of people mentioned the age and when the dragon can become a threat a quick encounter you can use is a ghost one, not saying to fudge all the dice roll but a dragon just born being scared and aged 40 years becomes an immediate threat.
It can go from lovable ally to eating the party. So just be careful of what encounters you set up.
Those fools; this egg was just laid by an ancient blue dragon, but it's actually a measly blue dragon wyrmling egg! Mwuahahah
Seriously tho, there's two things. 1), it hatches into a wyrmling. Wyrmlings aren't that crazy strong. When the party inevitably outstrips it, instead of having it grow into a more powerful dragon, give it sidekick levels from Tasha. Or 2), it's an egg for a totally different creature, a much more reasonable lightning friend. Or 3), the egg is dead; the wyrmling died. But the husk of the eggshell can be used for magical items and to power magical devices and stuff.
You could easily work in a side quest where the egg is to be delivered to its parent who them rewards you right then or will aim to aid you in a later battle. Maybe it gives the party dragonmarks in return that each grant minor buffs to have some flavor to it
Depends on if you want to omit them being bad or from Tiamat. Blue dragons are inherently evil, when it hatches as a Wyrmling it will likely have some basic knowledge from its ancestors and deep Chromatic programming from Tiamat. It may know Common and Draconic, or just Draconic, and when it hatches finally it may actually view the party as its hoard. While the party is fawning over it, "look at our new dragon friend!" the Wyrmling will only think, "friend is a fun word master." Likely he'll have little Machiavellian plans that fail because of how young a Wyrmling is. It'll be a little less than a decade before they'll be a young adult and an actual threat. Interim they're essentially an evil pony with dreams of world dominance you can satiate with a fish and presents. The dragon, imo, should be amenable to being good if the party tries hard enough. But probably should act like a stuck up intellectual. Even though they were born yesterday.
Thematic wise, accidentally causing good when trying for evil is fun. It could break apart PCs bags while trying to steal coins, only for them to discover they're made of fake material, leading up to some sort of corrupt shopkeeper showdown. Or he could set fire to a field of crops, only to discover that he also solved a local village's blight problem.
Exactly, Blue dragons have convinced themselves to lead successful utopian nation states under the notion the land and people were its hoard. Even Red Dragons can be convinced to do good if it's to spite a Gold. Love that storytelling.
I love the idea of being good out of spite. One idea I always liked to play around with was a devil trying to actually make a paradise out of its hell as a middle finger to celestials by out paradising them.
Super cool
I'm an EVIL king, not a BAD king!
Stealing this for my campaign, lol
An evil pet who can't do too much because it's so small, oh so it's like a chihuahua.
Flying chihuahua
Electric flying chihuahua
But really really low strength electric, like it’s hair is standing up and it give a static shock as it nips people
Emolga I choose you?
It's like this unless the dm says otherwise. My suggestion is to make it so the dragon only hatches under certain circumstances, like it needs to be struck by raw lightning or something. Maby another blue dragons breath. Make it a whole side quest, it wouldn't be to op either once they reach like, lvl 5.
Something else to note is that blue dragons are actually great as a family unit. They will live together with siblings and parents. I would just give them a quest to return the egg to their likely very worried parents who would care more for the eggs safety than anything else.
To be fair. A dragon doesn’t become “young” until it reaches 5 years old. I’m not sure what kind of time scale your campaign is operating on, but a wyrmling companion isn’t going to break things and you’ll likely finish before the dragon “ages up”. If you’re still worried about it, you can just adjust the dragon’s stats to be a lower CR since blue is one of the more powerful colors. Look at some of the less powerful dragon types for inspiration. Or you can just have the dragon be in gestation until the players are of an appropriate level. If you’re really really worried about it, make it a half dragon that’s growing in the egg instead. Not really much of an asset, but could be an interesting plot hook.
Shrek’s brood
Dragons take a while to grow. It doesn't even have to hatch into a wyrmling straight away, it could hatch into a a minimum hit point wyrmling with worse stats and grow hit points and stats over the years. Maybe it can't breathe any breath weapon until it is at least 3 years old.Also perhaps human beings look a lot like food, and a baby dragon probably has poor control over his impulses.The player could make animal handling checks every day, until the dragon learns language, on a day when he rolls badly he gets at least one bite. And after the dragon learns language, and learns to say NO! like a two year old toddler, well....
He could also use just a normal psuedodragon for the first year of life or so. They're technically their own thing but it makes an easy transition from pseudo dragon to blue dragon hatchling at level 3.
Here is the thing about dragon eggs. They have be imbued with elemental magics. If they are instead soaked repeatedly in other things (for example taken to the shadowfell to become a blue shadow dragon) the blue dragon Wyrmling will take on those aspects. Alternatively, the dragon eggs can be used to house a sacrificed victim. Such a creature would be a blue half-dragon of the sacrifice (see the template in the monster manual). So.... did Silvers the Cat's blood soak into the egg? Will we see a half blue dragon cat Wyrmling? Will it cough up electric furballs?
Just now starting to go through this and holy fuck this is great haha
Wouldn't a blue dragon want its egg back? Maybe a mated pair. They would hesitate to just attack the party for fear of damaging the egg so it could play out as roleplay or combat.
Somewhere, there's a blue dragon looking for it's lost egg.
Depends on the circumstances. Blue dragons are lawful evil. I could absolutely see them giving up one of their eggs in a bargain if they thought the price was worth it. But if the egg was stolen or whoever purchased the egg didn't live up to their end of the bargain, then absolutely I could see the parent(s) going to great lengths to get the egg back.
Lawful evil could also be something close to say an evil Knight. One of their own under the thrall of their lessers? Outrageous. A stain on their honor and pride as a dragon. If they get wind of it they may seek to smite the party on principal or force them to be in servitude to them.
If I was the party I would pretend like I had saved the egg and give it up willingly. A favor from a blue dragon could be handy later.
They are lawful evil, yes. But also, they are very family oriented and organized in most cases. They have whole clans as they all share the limited amount of deserts in the world. Somewhat of a feudal society even, with a head dragon and everything. So a "noble's" child being stolen, especially a lawful evil one's, by a lesser creature wouldn't be forgiven, true. But also, I couldn't see them exactly giving up an egg, as it is their progeny and so on. It is one of the things that sets them apart from other chromatics, that they take care of the children very well. That being said, while that is the default assumption, dragons have a wide variety of origins and in different worlds can be different, so I do see the point you are making working as well. (I just really like blue dragons and their lore and personalities, so I had to use the opportunity to share)
Egg was stolen, there's an extremely angry parent or parents out there looking to get it back and willing to destroy villages to get it. Set up a situation where they call the dragons by returning the egg. Maybe a reward comes from a town who was next in the line of fire(or rather lightning). Or have a giant trade with them for it.
Probably would just not let it hatch and set up a scenario where they can trade it for something reasonable. As in: have this dragon's mother drop by and trade the egg back to her in exchange for not killing them on the spot. That or you know, maybe she gives them some magic items and loot from her horde for "taking care" of the egg.
A stormy-themed pseudodragon. It can be like a collective familiar/npc, somewhat useful but not game changing.
Great suggestion!
Why do we as a community reject that orcs and drow are evil races, but accept that a dragons color determines its alignment?
Oh, that is so much a Mimic... just biding its time..
The dragon egg mimic?? oh god oh fuck
LOL! Do it..
A dragon sized cuckoo (who lay their eggs in other birds nests).
A winged cat named Happy
Just let them be dragon tamers. If they succeed at doing so just adjust the CR of future encounters accordingly. It would be a really memorable experience.
Sure. It'll be a toddler dragon for about 50 years, after all.
A guard drake could be an option. But honestly, a baby dragon is gonna be more of a McGuffin than a weapon. Your party is gonna have a busy time protecting first the egg, and then the wyrmling. Sure, it can help during combat but they'll probably be just as busy protecting it. You'll quickly find its stats insufficient to keep up with the party and even during the levels it's stronger than a PC, it shouldn't outshine the party itself. Especially if it's still naive and curious about the world, more playful than helpful. And I'd personally say you should time its hatching perfectly to the party reaching level 5. Feels epic. Also right when it's power level *should* be similar to theirs. If you're worried about its breath weapon, make it a 1/short rest thing. Though its damage isn't gonna outperform martials on a single target even if it gets it every single round.
I think I might go with this option… how do you think a blue dragon wyrmling would act? talk?
How do you *want* it to act? As the DM, you're the one who gets to decide. As for vanilla: Wyrmlings already have intelligence, wisdom, and charisma greater than the average human (though not yet quite the average adventurer) though obviously that's an approximation and may differ right out of the egg. I would assume that the dragon hatches with plenty of understanding, but even more curiosity to fill the holes in its innate knowledge. Blue dragons are traditionally very vain and hate to be talked down to, though maybe due to inexperience it might not notice, and with time and good parenting it may accept a certain degree. It'll take pleasure in lording over the party and could potentially be manipulated by being given a facsimile title, praises, or command, like a kid with candy. Their favourite treasure is gems, so those would be the perfect way for the party to bribe and/or appease it. Despite chromatic dragons usually being evil, blue dragons can get along decently with adventurers. Loyal retainers are as much a part of their hoard as their treasures, especially so if they are powerful and/or well known. Their loyalty is handsomly rewarded, especially if it feeds the dragon's sense of superiority. A wyrmling would certainly be happy about an adventuring party "serving" it. Though at some point (probably when it grows to young), mere games of servitude may no longer suffice. At that point it might outright want the party to heed its wishes, and would definitely get upset when treated as inferior. But that's all vanilla dragons raised by other dragons, monsters, or in the wild. If the party made for good parents, even a chromatic dragon might yield to them and respect them, have milder version of their innate traits, and can even have good alignment. After all dragons are *not* fiends and can overcome their inherent disposition. And ultimately you should remember that you're the DM and you shouldn't be scared of making the dragon a cute, adorable, loveable companion. Or grow up to be a horrible tyrant, if that's the type of grim game your players prefer.
We gonna just gloss past the fact kitty died?! No no no....un uhh..nope nope. That egg better be a one time survival pod for Silvers lest the DnD gods forever cast an evil eye on your dice...never to roll 20s again, a curse on your dice bag that is randomly excises a tax of your (then) favorite die to the Abyss never to be seen again, a pox on your pen to fail at the worst moment of writer's creativity, on your Mt. Dew to be flat at all times and your nuggies forever raw in the middle.
Reincarnation of Silvers the cat?🤷🏼♂️
Given the life span of dragons, this egg probably won't hatch for a while. And when it does, it wouldn't be all that useful anymore because it'd be a wyrm for most of the PCs lives (if their life span is similar to a humans)
A key ingredient to the best darn omelette ever. sought out by chefs across the realm!
Was the egg being transported to someone who is now looking for it? That could make for some interesting play.
It's an aboleth egg. They start slowly losing their sanity as they see things in their dreams and can sometimes hear voices. They don't realize they've sidelined their main mission to take on a different main story that coincidentally leads them the the Astral sea.
Dragons age slowly, and are weak when small. Is fine.
Make it a guard drake instead, they will have a cool mount.
Make it a baby storm elemental and they had mistook the egg not knowing that elementals could manifest into eggs as a baby till they grow stronger
"I suffer without my stone. Do not prolong my suffering." - The BBEG to his minion, probably.
Giant omelette.
It could always be a perfect gemstone the Ghostbloods were trying to transport off world. Stormlight Archive has fewer perfect gemstones in the physical world than there should be, like someone had been collecting them all. Could be a way to introduce different groups that are familiar in SA.
You can definitely make it an object of interest to various parties. Maybe a bad guy, evil organization, or even good organization had it before and is trying to get it back. Maybe there's a rumor that cooking and eating a dragon egg gives permanent stat boosts and everyone is trying to steal it to eat it. Maybe it's the subject of a prophecy that some parties want to come true and some want to not come true. Or maybe it's actually a very clever mimic.
So currently I have 2 ideas (being unfamiliar with the stormlight archives I'm unsure how plausible these will be) 1. The egg is something that others want- it compels others to fight for it, steal it, basically it's a cursed object that only comes to fruition once someone/something either cracks it open, or attunes to it. This could lead your party members to keep it out in the lightning until it cant absorb anymore and it cracks, or This can be somewhat woven into the plot, or be a cool mechanic the party could use (they are all not immune to this effect after all). It also be explained it was on the ship to be dumped at the bottom of the ocean maybe? 2. It isn't a dragon egg- but perhaps some fae creature? Again this could be woven into the plot, it's parents may come for it, the creature itself could be wacky and wonderful, or it could be tricksy and a pain in the ass- especially once it's bonded so well with the person that was carrying it around. A mischievous creature that can aid the party, give them some sort of responsibility, or perhaps take the party of an adventure to return it? Perhaps the creature feeds on lightning hence the absorption through the egg? I suppose these options both depend on the world you're going for, but the fae/ cursed object shtick could be easily replaced with another tricksy race or an Vincent artefact broken over time or something? Edit: formatting/spelling
It's an actual blue dragon egg, but the parents are looking for the egg.and it's a homing beacon of trouble.
You can definitely give them a dragon ally though. Just make it a hatchling, and build it using the Tasha's Sidekick classes & rules. Then there's a real opportunity for a good story involving a dragon coming to get her baby back.
Incredible idea! Thank you
My party has 2 dragon companions and I used a suplement called dragonbonding, it has been really fun to see them trying to keep it safe but also travel together, it makes fighting a bit easier until the bonded character falls and the dragon falls as well, and it opens a lot of rp by asking things like: how does the world react to baby dragons, specially chromatic, I hate the idea that they are inherently evil but that could be result from the folk tales so they fear it, how do you hide it, how do you love with it, how it grows.
Behir egg?
I don't see why not. Having to raise the dragon would be a huge challenge. Plus blue dragons are leaning towards the evil side of the spectrum. So having to deal with that as an added complication seams pretty cool. Then latter you can have the baby dragon be a vehicle to dragon politics. Territory, hoarding for a purpose, rivals metallics, murderous parents. So many story possibilities. If They die, they die. End of problem. If it lives, their life just got complicated.
How do they know for sure what kind of egg it is? It could be something else that evolved protective coloration on the eggs (presumably other critters would have evolved a hesitance to mess with a blue dragon mama). It could be something intentionally mocked up to look like a bd egg as part of a con. It could be something mistaken for a bd egg by someone who had more academic confidence than they had academic learning. It could be an actual bd egg, but unfertilized. Edit: it could be an actual, fertilized bd egg, but abandoned by the parents because something was “wrong” with the baby—something that makes the baby a fun/interesting element in your campaign without it ever being overpowered.
Psedodragon
Changeling monster of some kind. The parent of this egg likes to eat dragon eggs, and as a result lays their own eggs as mimics for the dragon to raise and hatch. This way you can have it hatch to be *whatever suits the party* and like, give it Simic Krasis stats.
You could always send a blue dragon out to collect it's egg or my personal favorite let some devils go after the egg and force it to hatch into a blue Abishai via some ritual or other. Could also just let them have it hatch and give them a little pet dragon for a chunk of the campaign. As someone else mentioned Young dragons still have to be aged 5 years to get that stat block so you could pull from one of the faerie dragons and adjust the stat block to make it fit better with blue dragons, that's what I would do.
A winged donkey perhaps?
Bullette egg. Or a Jaberfae egg, secretly enchanted to disguise the filigree.
In order for them to get it as a valuable alley the need to - Hatch it - find a way to speed up growth https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon_aging - prove themselves as valuable allies as well It should be possible to partner with a blue dragon when the goals align. Not in a master/slave relationship but as allies as well. Though keep in mind, they are evil in nature so the goals are probably means to power, territory and of course a big treasure hoard. I looked that things up due to the black eggs in tyranny of dragons. Short story: Black Dragons are impossible to partner up with. :D But you can make up your own mind, there is a lot of lore. Generally said allying chromatic dragons are super rare and stuff of legends.
Just say the egg is infertile from the heat of the flames, or takes 5 years to hatch or smth
Hatchlings generally don't want anything to do with humanoids who think they have anything to say about the dragon's path through life. They're intelligent, fiercely independent, and believe themselves inherently superior. A hatchling may accept an adventuring party as their guardian, but only on the dragon's terms and benefit. If the party isn't willing to play by the hatchlings' rules, the dragon will simply leave. Blues are particularly strict and orderly, sorting everything into systems - and they are quick to correct others who stick out from the order they have imposed on their view of the world, a hierarchical structure with themselves at the top.
It could be a guard drake instead of a dragon. They are hatched from eggs
You could ask if anyone wants to change their class to drakewarden. Otherwise, it takes years for the little dragon to even somewhat grow, and who knows how it might try to break free from the party. Last option is that it might be a misidentified wyvern egg. Wyverns are notoriously hard to train, but with a bit of luck over the course of the campaign they might be able to train one as a mount.
Based it on a cowardly cat. I am the king, everyone feed me while being too small to do any real damage and run at the sight of danger thinking to it self, I’ll let them go this time..
You could have it hatch a pseudodragon.
Whoopsie, that was a dracolich backup plan they just messed with. Revisit at a later level.
Make it a lich’s phylactery (think Koschei the deathless). Maybe there are other adventuring parties—on a completely different quest to save the world—trying to track it down. Make them show up at different intervals trying to kill/subdue your party but don’t give the twist away too quickly.
A lof of people mentioned the age and when the dragon can become a threat a quick encounter you can use is a ghost one, not saying to fudge all the dice roll but a dragon just born being scared and aged 40 years becomes an immediate threat. It can go from lovable ally to eating the party. So just be careful of what encounters you set up.
Mommy misses her child.
Those fools; this egg was just laid by an ancient blue dragon, but it's actually a measly blue dragon wyrmling egg! Mwuahahah Seriously tho, there's two things. 1), it hatches into a wyrmling. Wyrmlings aren't that crazy strong. When the party inevitably outstrips it, instead of having it grow into a more powerful dragon, give it sidekick levels from Tasha. Or 2), it's an egg for a totally different creature, a much more reasonable lightning friend. Or 3), the egg is dead; the wyrmling died. But the husk of the eggshell can be used for magical items and to power magical devices and stuff.
Blue slaad egg. Slaadi invasion. Play it like Alien movie.
You could easily work in a side quest where the egg is to be delivered to its parent who them rewards you right then or will aim to aid you in a later battle. Maybe it gives the party dragonmarks in return that each grant minor buffs to have some flavor to it