The Undead Dragon King

Nearly two thousand years ago seven sorcerer tyrants slew the Dread King of an ancient city, and he soon rose again as the undead dragon king. He is unique, but his state resembles that of the desert world's sorcerous liches: neither alive nor dead, and caught halfway between man and dragon.

He keeps the shape he had at death, one stage from true dragonhood: 30 feet tall and 20,000 pounds, winged, scaled and clawed. The ambush that killed him left torn wings, open wounds and patches of bare bone where his armored hide, now drawn thin over the skeleton, has given way. Green fire smolders in his eyes. He speaks and understands every language.

He wields the spells and psionics of a 29th-level dragon on top of his undead gifts. His powers span all five disciplines, among them disintegrate, death field, life draining, metamorphosis, teleport, banishment, domination and ultrablast, plus a long roster of devotions such as ego whip, dimension door, dream travel and shadow walk.

Two claws rake for 2d10 each, plus 10 apiece for his enormous strength, and his jaws bite for 4d12; his tail lashes for 5d10. He breathes a cone 50 feet long that widens from 5 feet to 100 feet, searing everything inside for 20d12. His undead touch adds 1d10 cold damage and paralyzes anyone who fails a save vs. paralyzation until the effect is dispelled.

Creatures of 8 Hit Dice or fewer within 60 feet must save vs. spell or run in fear for 5d4 rounds. Weapons below +2 cannot harm him. Charm, sleep, enfeeblement, polymorph, insanity and death spells fail against him, as do cold and electricity. He saves as a 21st-level wizard and cannot be turned.

He once served an ancient sorcerer of war as a champion and general in the purging wars that ruined the world. Seeing that his master would betray the champions, he helped imprison him and then helped make one of their number into the great dragon that guards the prison. The others, now sorcerer tyrants, feared he would go mad next as the great dragon had, so they fell on him in his own palace with psionics, spells, blades and fists. Caught unaware, he died, and his city with him.

Now he rules the buried city, hidden deep under the wreckage of the ancient fallen city, beyond reach of the red sun. He created two kinds of wyrmkin, one of which worships him. Between stays in his palace he roams the planes seeking true divinity, never realizing his world makes godhood unreachable.

His people never see his ruined body. In public he appears either as a tall, majestic wyrmkin, the god-king most citizens believe in, or on rare occasions as a living 29th-level dragon, his body as it was before death. Rings and amulets charged with spells and psionic power uphold these disguises, which he can drop or swap at will.