| Dhrakoth the Corrupter |
|
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cold, manipulative, and utterly evil, Dhrakoth represents the pinnacle of undeath. Dhrakoth resembles a black dragon with scarred, oozing, membranous wings. The creature's empty eye sockets pulse with sickening green light.
Dhrakoth speaks the draconic tongue common to all evil dragons. In addition, it can communicate with any creature with a connection to the Negative Energy Plane.
Combat: Dhrakoth eschews personal combat, preferring to command its legions of undead followers against any threat. If forced to melee, it uses its breath weapons before clawing and biting its way to victory. The creature's first breath weapon, a blast of pure decay, causes 10d8 points of damage to any creature caught within its blast radius (a cone 5 feet wide at its point of origin, 45 feet long, and 15 feet wide at its base). This excoriating stream painfully corrupts any living tissue, permanently reducing a character's Charisma score by 1d4 as skin, hair, and other matter decay beneath the blast. A successful saving throw vs. breath weapon reduces the damage by half, but even those who save still suffer the Charisma loss. A regeneration spell restures 1d2 points of Charisma, but only one such spell can benefit victims of the breath weapon.
When sorely pressed, Dhrakoth releases a stream of negative energy 10 feet wide and 35 feet long. Anyone who is caught within the stream must make a successful saving throw vs. breath weapon or lose two life energy levels. Dhrakoth can use this breath weapon only once per day. Those protected by the Priest spell negative plane protection gain an additional saving throw vs. death magic to avoid the effects if they fail the original save. However, Dhrakoth does not suffer any damage from the blast of positive energy summoned by the spell. In addition, the dragon can attempt undead control on any undead creatures within 180 yards, at will. The targeted undead creatures' saving throws against this ability suffer a -3 penalty.
Due to its connection to the Negative Energy Plane, Dhrakoth is immune to charm, sleep, enfeeblement, polymorph, cold (magical or otherwise), electricity, hold, death spells, and symbols. Weapons of less than +2 enchantment do not affect this creature. Dhrakoth cannot be turned.
Habitat/Society: Dhrakoth makes its home in ancient underground tombs, slowly exerting its evil influence over the rotting corpses buried within. In fact, Dhrakoth can animate dead as often as it wishes, limiting the size of its undead army to the availability of corpses.
Born in the heart of the Negative Energy Plane, Dhrakoth's essence was fused with a corporeal dragon through Tiamat's dark magic. The foul creature once served Tiamat unswervingly. As Dhrakoth's power grew, however, it began to seduce several of Tiamat's key generals. The small but powerful cadre seceded from Tiamat's court and began a centuries-long campaign to annihilate every living thing in the multiverse.
Although still fiercely independent, Dhrakoth has recently sealed a pact with the court of Tiamat. Thus, the creature bides its time, building its dark forces until Tiamat is ready to begin her conquest of the multiverse. Though a potentially unstoppable pair, these two dragons hold no love for each other. Tiamat knows that Dhrakoth's ultimate goal is the destruction of all life - including her own - and has set several of her servants to watch this necromantic beast for treachery. Dhrakoth, for its part, feels that Tiamat's resolve is weak, and it plots to overthrow her and assume her role as the ruler of all evil dragons.
Ecology: As an undead creature, Dhrakoth does not require physical sustenance. Rather, the beast feeds on the life energy of its victims. As a result, any creature slain by this undead monster cannot be raised from the dead, resurrected, or wished back to life. In addition, the spirits of these unfortunates cannot travel to the plane of their alignment upon death; they are irrevocably destroyed.