!!Dracolich

Draconic Tyrant Reborn

The vilest dragons seek to escape the grip of death, employing ageless secrets and blasphemous magic to become horrors called dracoliches. These deathless dragons bind their spirits to gems and magically animate their rotting corpses. Eventually becoming skeletal horrors, dracoliches continue the centuries-spanning plots they pursued in life, seek revenge on those that brought them low, and strive toward vicious goals they couldn't indulge in life.

Dracoliches combine the corrupt immortality of the undead with the legendary power of dragons. A dracolich retains a breath weapon, but it is a chilling necrotic blast. These terrors gradually sicken the land near their lairs and attract sinister followers—usually other undead or cultists seeking to revel in their terrible might. Living dragons of all types loathe and seek to destroy dracoliches, viewing them as distortions of draconic magic.

There are untold profane routes by which a dragon might become a dracolich. However one is created, a dracolich chooses a gem that becomes the anchor for its spirit and binds the deathless dragon to the world. So long as a dracolich is on the same plane of existence as its soul gem, the dracolich can survive the destruction of its physical body. Its spirit retreats into the gem if the dracolich's body is destroyed, and the monster might one day regain its terrifying form. Dracoliches often sequester their soul gems within meaningful treasure from their hoard or in unassuming baubles. Roll on or choose a result from the Dracolich Soul Gem Vessels table to inspire what holds a dracolich's soul gem.

!!Dracolich Lairs

A dracolich lurks in a corrupted version of the lair it had in life.

And naught will be left save shattered thrones with no rulers. But the dead dragons shall rule the world entire...