Chasing the Dragon and Not Finding Happiness

A recent thread on EN World begun by Bullgrit of Total Bullgrit Blog fame took up the discussion of what happens when a group of adventurers defeats a dragon but somehow doesn't find their treasure.  In the thread I recount one such event in a game I ran . . .

In a scenario I ran for a one-shot (therefore missing the treasure had no long term campaign implications), the adventurers fought and defeated a Steam Dragon (a sort of modified Mist Dragon) in his cavernous lair on a rocky coast. Despite the treasure being within reach, just beyond some steam geysers that were active enough to obscure the hoard from sight, it was not found. In the quick postmortem after the game I almost didn't have the heart to tell them what they missed, but I did since I knew some were wondering why there was seemingly little reward for their struggles.