So the party is in Savith's Crypt.
They have battled past two ante chambers that are beyond their CRs, and they "know they shouldnt be here" But are continuing.
I have the inner sanctum (final burial chamber room) that they are trying to figure out how to get into now.
My idea is that the Burial Chamber of Savith is (or maybe was) guarded by a dragon. If the Savith died 10000 years ago even the oldest dragon would have died from old age right now.
So My idea is this:
A) the party find the remains of an ancient wyrm in the final chamber, there is no guardian and the final tomb is ripe for plundering/discovery.
B)The guardians of saviths chamber were a mated pair of dragons and the current dragons are decedents of the originals.
C) stat up a clockwork dragon (draconic golem) as all the other tomb guardians have been golems, or other machinery/clockwork stuff (traps etc) that are timeless.
Thoughts?
An ancient wyrm (even if it was still alive) would be poof TPK.
I know the party REALLY wants to fight a monstrous dragon, but I dont want to give them more than they can handle, They are 9th level, there are 5 Pcs.
Undead dragon? Even the purest of guardian could succumb to the evil arts to preserve his life.
Option A sounds very cool if you're ok handing your group lots of loot.
yea... undead dragon, but how would that have happened sworn to guard the tomb, vampire snuck in and bit him? Otherwise he be so powerful in order to turn himself undead, that again the party would be lunch before they could run away.
Im thinking of this clockwork dragon, that births baby dragons during combat so there are a bunch of little ones that come out and attack, would be real weird.
But you're right. breaking through to the final chamber (they did already defeat 4 alchemical golems and almost get wiped by a clockwork golem) only to find the final guardian had passed with time and here is this giant skeleton would be really cool scenery.... anti climatic, but cool if i describe it right. There are due for some decent treasure.
In all honesty, I would not have allowed them to even get into the tomb at 9th level.
I am currently running this AP, and my players are also 9th level, but under no circumstance am I going to allow them to break in at this level. However, depending on how the adventure end, I would like to have them explore the tomb perhaps to find the remains of Savith's weapon to possibly destroy the skull once and for all.
I do really like the idea of exploring the tomb, but not at such a low level.
But that is just me. And seeing as your players are inside, it would be fun to see what ideas there are.
I do like that clockwork dragon idea, that could be fun. If you have the Sanctum of the Serpent God book, maybe use something similar to the Siege Serpent creature?
Perhaps an ancient dragon guardian went insane in the tomb and came to believe that he actually was Ydersius himself?
a)A magical ward makes sure the dragon never ages, but also curses the dragon to be bound to the tomb and makes sure it never ages (could explain how the dragon hasn't become a great wyrm over the centuries).
b)The dragon has become a ghost.
c)The dragon is imprisoned or kept in a stasis field until someone breaks into the inner sanctum, at which time it awakens.
d)an ancient order of dragons watches over the tomb using an artifact keyed to the tomb, and teleports in to deal with intruders.
I would put in an ancient wyrm, a good one, descendant of the original one, with at least part of the accumulation of loot from all it's ancesters.
That dragon won't let them in, will obviously kill them if they try to force the issue, but may let them in if they are able to do deeds similar (or of equal merit) as Savith.
This will also allow you to introduce any magic item that you want, without breaking RP immersion, using the dragon as a patron or sponsor.