May of the Dead: Crypt Wyrm

This is my first entry into the blog festival month exploring concepts of the dead and undead. Since I'm also celebrating the year of the dragon with a series of thematically related posts detailing the majesty in the draconic heritage of the game, I thought I'd unite the two. So BEHOLD, the mighty Crypt Wyrm!

Ser'Aurann was a silver dragon and protector of a great city once. As a tremendous warrior in the fight against evil, Ser'Aurann made adventurers almost unnecessary in his region as he single-handedly thwarted any threat that arose to threaten his people. Unfortunately, his protective nature and his incredible self-confidence were the undoing of this draconic protector. When fighting off a necromancer of Orcus who was attempting to turn his protectorate into zombie chattel, Ser'Aurann barged into a horde of ghouls; ripping and tearing his way through undead monstrosities. In the center of the group, leading the ghoulish horde, was a fiendish Wight commanding the undead. In order to disrupt the forces of undeath, Ser'Aurann quickly swallowed the Wight removing his leadership from the battlefield. Surely this would end the battle as the mindless ghouls ran off without their leader's guidance.

Thinking he had won the day, Ser'Aurann returned to have his wounds bound and to receive the praise of his people. Little did he know that the Wight lingered and survived. Feeding on the innards of the silver dragon, the wight commander continued to rip and tear into the flesh of the dragon while its open wounds poured necrotic filth into the blood of Ser'Aurann. The pain in the silver dragon's side soon grew to a significant internal wound and because of the wight's presence, it could not be healed magically. As Ser'Aurann grew increasingly desperate for release, he eventually hired some local (low-level) adventurers to enter his digestive tract and clear out whatever was "disagreeing" with him. The wight had been working for some time at this point and was prepared to deal with a threat as simple as the adventurers, but an idea had occurred to the evil, undead fiend. Instead of merely killing the adventurers, he changed them into wights as well and with their new found strength they all began to tear into the dragon from the inside, bringing devastating harm to and eventually killing the majestic beast.

illustration by David Wilcox
(i.e. HumorousEndeavors)

As Ser'Aurann fell, the people began to worry about what to do with his corpse. Their concerns were short lived as soon the sounds of moaning coming from inside the beast's grew louder and the very flesh of the mighty silver dragon began moving in a horrific mockery of life. The wight had tapped into dragon's motor functions and now Ser'Aurann rose as a mere vehicle of undead destruction controlled by a malevolent and undying mastermind who was now thoroughly protected by a slowly dying shell of draconic might.

The Crypt Wyrm is a huge creature, so it takes up a lot of space and has a tremendous reach. Using it in the crowded streets of a city or somewhere where quarters are tight will make navigating the hulking beast difficult, but will lend to some excellent flanking opportunities for the vomited wight spawn. In combat, the Crypt Wyrm will try and get as centrally positioned as possible and use its ragged wings to grab and pull enemies close. Within the rotting rib cage of the Wyrm are many grasping wights trying to grab hold of the enemies brought close by the enfolding wings. The breath of the dragon has decayed to the point that now it is merely a shower of necrotic flesh which bellows forth. Once bloodied, the dragon will roar and belch forth  a wight spawn for each member of the party, drawing attention away from itself and changing the dynamic of the fight. Once the Crypt Wyrm is defeated and it erupts in putrid flesh and an Oath Wight from the Dark Sun Creature Catalog spawns to finish the fight. Enjoy and happy hunting!