ZEITGEIST [ZEITGEIST] (Adventure 3 Spoilers) The Museum

Karma Kollapse · Nov 13, 2017

So next week my players are facing off against Xambria/Sijhen in the Museum. The players are convinced that the dragon skeleton is going to come to life, since the map very clearly shows it there.

I'm now thinking.... do I go with player expectations and have a chunk of Gidim suddenly surround the dragon and bring it to life? As opposed to the usual motley crue of implants and maws?

If so... do you think a skeletal dragon would be too much for a party of 5-6 Level 5 players (plus Rackus)? Even without the special abilities and a lowered STR stat?

RangerWickett · Nov 13, 2017

Adventure 9 has a skeleton dragon. War of the Burning Sky adventure 6 had a skeleton dragon. I suppose you could put one in this adventure, but I feel like it would put a lot of attention on the dragon, rather than the real villain of the encounter.

Tormyr · Nov 13, 2017

Maybe have the shard of Gidim start to animate it and then fail? It takes a step and then collapses.

Karma Kollapse · Nov 13, 2017

Tormyr said:
Maybe have the shard of Gidim start to animate it and then fail? It takes a step and then collapses.

That sounds like a great fake out

Tormyr · Nov 13, 2017

Karma Kollapse said:
That sounds like a great fake out

Please tell us how it goes if you do it.

Karma Kollapse · Dec 4, 2017

Tormyr said:
Please tell us how it goes if you do it.

I ended up doing the encounter with a 'gidim-controlled skeletal dragon'. I revealed afterwards that the skeletal dragon wasn't actual real dragon born, but a cast (similar to Dippy in the London NHM). I'm quite glad I went with that approach - the party were pretty on the ball about taking out Xambria/Sijhen and I didn't really have much of a chance for her/it to react in the encounter. I had the dragon operate as six separate gidim entities which controlled an attack each... the players spent a couple of rounds trying to attack the skeleton, before realising they could use Mind Over Matter to overcome the tentacles controlling the dragon and bring it to a collapse. At that point I revealed the dragon bones were fake ("Ah, like everything else in this museum!").

Currently Sijhen is making its big break for the starmap whilst the Ob kill team have broken in, but the players have correctly identified the Ob kill team as a distraction and are zooming towards Sijhen. I suspect I might have to throw a lot in the way of them if I want Sijhen to get at least part way through his ritual!