I had that exact shit happen to me. Got to a underwater treasure filled with a dragon's horde. And long story short, we get attacked, go back to the surface, hurricane we havent saw before right on us, and the onky things we kept was that IF you managed a save you kept 1 fucking item. Nevermind me saying to the DM : I put as many rings and necklaces and bracers on me as I can.

If you are going to give your party the allures of a big treasure and they beat your protections, you fucking better not pussy out and let them keep it all.

When we played Waterdeep Dragonheist I let my party keep 10% of the embezzlement money when they reported it to the city watch. That's 50 000 good pieces. Didn't derail the following campaign at all. DMs should stop being scared to give out some fat loot occasionally when appropriate.

In Skies of Arcadia, you find the treasure trove of a legendary pirate that contains only a copper coin and a note saying "the real treasure is the friendship that led you here". The heroes are naturally upset that they're still broke. Luckily, it turns out the copper coin is recognisable as belonging to the legendary pirate, so it's worth a significant sum by itself.

leave the dwarf in there. he can dig himself out, and doesn't suffer full encumbrance even carrying the entire dragon hoard single-handedly.

My campaign economy cannot sustain an influx of funds, do you realize what an economic catastrophe that would be? I'm doing you the favor, I am controlling loot inflation!

Hey cool a meme format inspired by the guys from Buzzfeed Unsolved, great show

Ah, yes, the Sierra Madre trick.

But getting to it. That's not the hard part. It's letting go.