Can you help me flesh out an adventure concept?

[Imaginary Number]

I'm starting a new 4e D&D game this weekend, and I'm trying to finish an adventure for my group. Although they're starting at 1st level, the players are experienced and are very familiar with the "low-level dungeon filled with kobolds with a young dragon boss fight at the end" idea. I'd nevertheless like to throw that at them this time again, but with a twist: the dragon who led the kobolds here earlier was slain by another group of adventurers (which the PCs will hear about), but unbeknownst to the PCs the dragon recently has arisen as an undead and has returned (with some new abilities and goals, and perhaps allies) to lead the kobolds. That's as far as I've gotten. I'd appreciate any suggestions concerning thematically-appropriate modifications to the abilities of the dragon and/or the kobolds and any suggestions for possible other encounters that could keep my players on their toes.

 

[Yabanjin]

In the foothills of the Razorpeak Mountains, the town of Incherot served the miners working a large iron deposit nearby for many generations. That is, until the Great Brood began to take flight, terrorizing the civilized nations of the world. Children of a terrible Ancient Wyrm, the thousand dragons of the Great Brood criss-crossed the continent, leaving ruins and terror in their wake. One such dragon spawn, Xiangjue the Ravenous, made her nest in Incherot's mine. In the intervening twenty years, Incherot became all but a ghost town.
Then a band of Dragon Slayers rode through. Charged with a holy mission from the Council of Sages, the Dragon Slayers served as an example to all those who still had the will to fight. They slew Xiangjue, and news soon spread of their deeds. The people of Incherot made plans to return to their homes. A caravan is now assembling, and the players are charged with defending the caravan from bandits on the roads and with assisting them in retaking their land.

Encounters before the mine:

• Bandits on the road
• (Optional fork: chase the bandits to their camp)
• Run a few kobolds out of the church so the refuges can set up camp (ZOMG foreshadowing)

Encounters in the mine:

• Kobolds (give the players a chance to use the knowledge they gained of kobold tactics)
• Kobolds + traps (make 'em clever!)
• Trapped floor breaks away and drops the players into a pit full of zombies! Oh crud, Tordek, now we have to fight our way out through zombies!
• Kobolds leading zombies on chains
• Mine car ride, because the laws of drama demand it! Kobolds jump onto mine car from an adjacent mine car, naturally.
• Track crumbles, party falls into an underground lake. Guess who made her nest on the side of that lake? THAT'S RIGHT, SON, IT'S A ZOMBIE DRAGON. Party leaves mines through an exit that the dragon used to use before it became a shambling, drippy abomination.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Now that the dragon is undead perhaps it desires undead servants?
Here are a few suggestions:

1) The dragon has returned and turned some of the kobolds into skeletons or zombies.

2) The living kobolds are terrified of the undead dragon, but are too scared to leave its service.

3) The PC's may be able to convince the living kobolds to ally with them in order to take out the dragon. This will be difficult because :

A- the kobolds have thier traditions and are reluctant to harm thier deity.

B- don't believe the PC's have what it takes to get the job done anyway
(perhaps a test is in order, there is a tough solo antagonist the kobolds wouldn't mind getting rid of..........)

4) The dragon has made a pact with an entity from the underworld to pay for its new unlife. The souls of the entire kobold tribe must be fed to the entity in order for the dragon to maintain its undead status permenantly.
(If the kobold tribe learned of this betrayal the party would have some allies for certain!)

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Just a thought - some of the kobolds fled and were taken in by another young dragon nearby. That dragon, learning of the abomination of the undead dragon is coming with his kobold minions to "save" the reamaining kobolds and take them under his control.

PCs can choose to temporarily ally with one side or the other, fight both at the same time, or try to avoid most of the kobold on kobold fighting hoping to mop up the winning side. Might be especially frightening if they are unaware of the new dragon in town, finish off the undead dragon, think they are pretty much done and then discover there is still another dragon to fight. I would make the undead dragon an easier fight than expected in that case.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Maybe a shaman among the kobolds caused the dragon to arise (via a ritual or something)... so the real bbeg is the kobold caster/spiritualist who controls the dragon zombie.

 

[Imaginary Number]

Thanks for all the excellent suggestions. Thus far, I'm partial to having:
- early encounters with bandits and kobolds to foreshadow what the party will encounter later
- some sort of conflict between a faction of kobolds loyal to the undead dragon (led by a corrupted kobold priest, perhaps) and another faction that does not want to follow the dragon but is afraid to leave its service unless they see that the PCs are tough enough to take out the dragon
- and an encounter with moving mine cars -- because the laws of drama indeed demand it.

I'm also looking for specific ways to modify something like the standard young green dragon in the MM to turn it into a suitably shocking undead solo monstrosity of about Level 3 -- new powers, power substitions, etc. If anyone has any suggestions in that regard, I'd appreciate those as well.

 

[Phaezen]

Maybe a shaman among the kobolds caused the dragon to arise (via a ritual or something)... so the real bbeg is the kobold caster/spiritualist who controls the dragon zombie.

Just a small twist, which I have used to great effect on this.

An artefact has been stolen from the Kobold lair by bigger humanoids, causing the clans water and food sources to become tainted. The kobolds have turned to necromancy in order to protect themselves from larger humanoids in the area.

When the shaman is dropped to bloodied, he will call for parley (immediate reaction), if the players agree to the parley, he will explain the situation and ask the players to hunt down and return the artefact in return for the kobolds giving the players aid in the future.

For added flavour, the shaman has been aiding the clans trap builders with necromancy. Think 10' pit traps with zombie arms keeping the victims in the pit, zombie minions bullrushing pcs into flaming pits, arms bursting from the floor to entangle and slow players in the area.

 

[Cyronax]

Now that the dragon is undead perhaps it desires undead servants?
Here are a few suggestions:

4) The dragon has made a pact with an entity from the underworld to pay for its new unlife. The souls of the entire kobold tribe must be fed to the entity in order for the dragon to maintain its undead status permenantly.
(If the kobold tribe learned of this betrayal the party would have some allies for certain!)

That's a pretty cool bullet point. Very modular too. All you need is a nameless Elder Evil, a new sentient undead, and cannon fodder servants.

Consider this stolen.

C.I.D.

 

[Piratecat]

It's also worth pointing out that undead don't need to breathe. A final fight where the PCs are jumping from bobbing platform to platform in a lake, and the undead dragon is hiding underwater and surfacing to attack, could be really fun and scary.

 

[Snoweel]

I'm also looking for specific ways to modify something like the standard young green dragon in the MM to turn it into a suitably shocking undead solo monstrosity of about Level 3 -- new powers, power substitions, etc. If anyone has any suggestions in that regard, I'd appreciate those as well.

It's a lot of work to build a brand new level 3 solo that resembles an undead dragon.

If you're interested in using the undead dragon in an encounter with allies, there's a few existing zombies you could reskin.

Corruption Corpse (Level 4 Artillery) goes down well at the table. Just say its ranged attack is the zombie's breath weapon (a glob of fermented poison it coughs in the PCs' direction). You should change its size to Large and if you want you could change its necrotic attacks to poison.

Zombie Hulk is a Level 8 Brute and it's Large already, but it would make for a tough fight for 3rd level characters. You could always drop it a couple of levels. The cool thing is, its slam attack could be its head, because its jaw is missing. Maybe another NPC in the adventure has the dragon's jaw as a decoration, or divine implement or magic item?

Here's an idea...

Maybe the PCs are off after a nest of metallic dragon eggs they know to exist in the caves. Maybe the PCs don't know it (yet) but they've been beaten to the eggs by Somebody Naughty who has turned the unborn wyrmlings into Rotwing Zombies (Level 4 Skirmisher).

For a 3rd level party you could have an awesome fight with 5 Rotwing Zombies and the baddie who animated them (either an Eladrin Twilight Incanter, or a Troglodyte Curse Chanter - both Level 8 Controllers) without having to modify any stats at all.

If you go with the Eladrin you could make him Evil or make them chromatic eggs or just run it all as is.