Desperate dragons and wayward wishes

[humble minion]

(... and awesome alliteration!)

So, this is the situation. The PCs have entered a black dragon's lair and are beating up on the dragon. Their motivation is pure greed - the know (thanks to a tenuous alliance with one of the dragon's rivals) that the dragon has a Ring of Wishes (1 wish remaining), and they want it (and any other treasure they can get their hands on). 3.5e game, if it matters - 14th level PCs.

It has been established that the dragon is not very powerful compared to the PCs and compared to rival dragons, so I decided that the dragon was entirely aware of this, and it had made him paranoid. So paranoid, that he's attracted the attention of a devil servant of Dispater, who seeks to bargain the dragon's soul away in exchange for security. What this means in game terms is that the dragon has some 'enhancements' and some allies (legion devils, an iron golem as well as the devilish tempter himself) for the PCs to deal with. But despite all this, the PCs are steamrolling him (I may have to rethink allowing the Master of Many Forms PC to pick his shapes from EVERY damn monster manual - curse whoever it was on the WotC character optimisation boards who made that guidebook that the player uses all the time...)

Anyway, it only makes sense that the dragon will attempt to use the wishing ring to avoid death. I'm planning to have the dragon wish out loud for something, only for the devil to hijack the wish before the ring can work, say "wish granted!" and do something that will a) make a mess of the PCs, and b) monkey's paw the dragon into the service of Dispater. The devil is a unique homebrewed critter - in its role as a tempter I have no problems allowing it to grant the wishes of others, just like an efreet or something.

Any suggestions? What does a desperate dragon wish for? It's only int 12, so I think it's reasonable that in the heat of the moment with only a handful of hp remaining he'd make a wish that a very intelligent tempter devil can subvert. And how do I have the devil subvert the wish so that a) the dragon is chained to Dispater's service, and b) I can make what looks so far like a walkover into a decent fight?

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

The obvious answer would be to copy the end of Disney's Aladdin: The dragon wishes to be powerful enough to defeat the PCs (or words to that effect) and gets transformed into a powerful devil/some sorta fiendish templated dragon/whatever, bound to Dispater's service. The PCs are now either in a much tougher fight or outclassed and forced to grab treasure and run (perhaps the transformation is a multi-round affair so that if they will be outclassed they have a chance to deal instead of being forced into battle with a more powerful foe).

Alternate route to the same basic outcome: "I wish that these people are incapable of killing me in this fight." Done! You're now an outsider who is effectively summoned to the prime plane, so killing you just sends you home to your home plane. Oh, and have a buff template and a heal effect to boot. Now there's a dramatic fight, and then (assuming the PCs still win), the dragon is banished back to the Hells, not slain. Since it's not truly slain, it can recur to fight the PCs again later in the campaign.

 

[pawsplay]

"I wish for power to defeat these foes!" works pretty well, and opens up almost any kind of effect you like. I think a heal effect and some fiendish grafts might do the trick.

 

[Alzrius]

Perhaps something along the lines of "I wish I wouldn't die!" with the result being that it instantly becomes some type of undead creature - the actual dying is bypassed as it goes straight from life to undeath.

 

[amnuxoll]

I wish those PCs had never heard of me.

 

[frankthedm]

I wish my mother was here!

 

[humble minion]

The problem with having him wish for power to defeat his enemies is that - if the wish is to be honoured, he actually does have to become powerful enough to defeat the PCs! If the PCs win, or even have a decent shot at winning, you could argue that the wish wasn't fulfilled...

I was thinking of something transformative though. Maybe pinching Investiture of the Hellfire Engine from Fiendish Codex 2 would be a decent quick and dirty way of doing things, though it does mean sacrificing flight and I'm not sure it would do the job power-wise anyway.

 

[Bullgrit]

The problem with having him wish for power to defeat his enemies is that - if the wish is to be honoured, he actually does have to become powerful enough to defeat the PCs! If the PCs win, or even have a decent shot at winning, you could argue that the wish wasn't fulfilled...

How about when the dragon says, "I wish for power to defeat these foes!" (or whatever to that effect), and the devil says, "OK!" (or whatever to that effect), the dragon disappears.

It leaves the PCs with a WTF? moment right then, and maybe gives them a bit of paranoia for the future. "When will that dragon show up to defeat us?"

In the background, maybe Dispater brought him "home" to be buffed in some way. May take rounds (not as fun), may take days, weeks, years.

Maybe, then when the PCs are epic level, and resting on their laurels, and maybe you want the campaign to go out with a nuclear-level bang, have the dragon reappear ready to complete the wish.

Bullgrit