Ominous things found in an abandoned (?) dragon's lair

[Aeolius]

The party enters a massive cavern with a checkered pattern etched into the stone floor. Suspended from above are dozens of cages, each holding skeletal remains dressed in tattered royal garb. Those familiar with the game of chess will realize that the board is one move shy of checkmate.

In the center of the lair is a stagnant subterranean lake. The murky water is nearly opaque, concealing both the cache of orichalcum coins and the swarm of undead feejee mermaids. (One has to wonder if breathing chlorine gas into a body of water would keep the waters crystal clear)

A winding hallway is riddled with dozens of natural niches. Within each is a block of dried tree sap (amber). Inside of each block an unusual forest animal has been preserved. Those familiar with such creatures would recognize an al-mi’raj, carbuncle, and faerie dragon.

 

[Mark CMG]

A giant, empty Starbucks cup . . .

 

[Aeolius]

A giant, empty Starbucks cup . . .

 

[Scott DeWar]

a skeleton with carapace-full and intact- of a green dragon. Same size as she should be. A piece of a lance is poking through her outer scale carapace to where her heart should have been.

in her mouth is the skeletal remains of an arm from the elbow to the hand. the hand is still clutching a sword.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Really screw with their heads, have the somewhat fresh corpses of two young red dragons, apparently dead of asphyxiation with the slight smell of mustard emanating from their bodies. (Chlorine gas smells like mustard not bleach - that's why chlorine gas used in trench warfare in WWI was called "mustard gas" (its actually ammonium chloride - highly toxic))

Make sure the hides are useless otherwise you have 5 - 6 level characters running around in dragon sale. (Very large claw slashes should do the trick). But otherwise, the lair is just as it should be, deserted and by the looks of it, for quite some time... So the real question, what killed two young red dragons using chlorine and claws if Gax doesn't live here anymore? ...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

So the real question, what killed two young red dragons using chlorine and claws if Gax doesn't live here anymore?

The Umber Hulk cleaning woman who mixed chlorine bleach and Windex in a misguided attempt to REALLY tidy up...then tried unsuccessfully to drag them to safety.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

What about a partially buried Statue of Liberty or a gleaming metal missile...

 

[RPG_Tweaker]

A chamber is filled with many crystalline statues. Some have clearly been bitten, and some appear to have been worn down.

The statues are made of halite (rock salt). Green dragons consume large quantities of salt, extracting the chloride to power their breath weapon.

Gax had the kobolds make statues of people she finds interesting or doesn't like, and depending on her mood would either chomp or lick them to ruins.


The creep factor is, the PCs will discover salt statues of themselves.

 

[Stormonu]

The dwarven royal family, seated in their ancient thrones, twistedly mummified after exposure to something that reeks of chlorine. In fact, the entire royal hall is filled with dwarven skeletons propped up and dressed in attire, like some sort of display...

A dwarven tomb, it's entrance too small for a dragon to fit in. The tomb is littered with kobold corpses, cut to pieces by the self-resetting traps that guard the tomb's treasures.

A crude, bird-eye's map of the area scratched into a floor. Stone tokens marked "K", "G", "H", and "E" are scattered about the map in small clusters. A large "X" has been deeply scratched into an inaccessible area of the map.

A smallish stone passage has been widened by the dragon forcing itself through the hall in ancient times. The mortared stone has been cracked and buckled, and sand sifts in through the cracks in the ceiling as the whole thing groans and shifts, threatening to come down on anyone moving through the passage.

The remnants of a lone dwarven defender stands at his post behind a fortified barricade. Though his armor has rusted into an immovable heap, what he was defending lies unmarred behind him.

Pterodactyl-like bats grace the ceiling of the dragon's ancient chamber.

 

[Quickleaf]

A tenser's floating disc loaded with gold (creeping coins) is half embedded in a wall, along with a strangely preserved hand holding a fragile ritual scroll with the "excavation"/"dig" ritual. Using the ritual to dig out the hand unearths a spellcaster in robes similar to those used by kobold priests. He is held fast by petrified arms reaching from deeper inthe earth. He breathes his final breath, dying with the words "We are betrayed..."

A prison cell separate from the rest of the lair with a faint crack which let's in a ray of light only at noon for a few minutes. The walls are covered in obsessive riddles and fevered words ("find the one" & "the dragon knows") - the writing is made of blood combined with crushed lodestone. When metal objects are near the walls they vibrate slightly and the writing slowly blurs and grows disfigured.

Old dwarven distillery and cache of barrels filled with turpentine and tallow. Some of the barrels contain dismembered dwarven corpses soaked in turpentine.

A shattered mirror of eladrin make for communing with the shadow faerie realms - staring at the mirror long enough reveals the fleeting image of a foggy demonic face. One shard of the mirror is conspicuously missing. Carved pine totems adorn alcoves in the room, depicting phantasmagoric images of dragons, half dragons, draconians, and eladrin copulating.

A tremendous bone-carved throne at the head of the green dragon's old audience hall. Careful observation of the spot where supplicants would have come to offer tribute and negotiate cessation of hostilities has a pressure plate. When triggered, a scything blade flies across the floor at about knee high (cutting a supplicant's knees out from under them as it were). The blade is in the stylized image of a dragon's tail and is fashioned from a dragon's talon/tooth.

A tangle of stalactites and stalagmites, several shattered as if hit by an ungodly force, obscure sight of a massive chasm until the PCs are ten feet from it. A tattered child's doll lies at the chasm's edge.

Opening a massive door, PCs are greeted by falling skeletons (lacking gear) - the other side of door is covered in nail scratches. Following the passage PCs pass ripped clothing and bleached bones. The floor drops slightly and a putrid green gas (chlorine) rolls across it. Immediately their eyes begin to sting and they want to get as far away from gas as possible. There is an old dwarven "sluice gate" which can be used to drop the gas into a lower chamber.

Later the PCs explore that lower chamber and find the ceiling riddled with murder holes. The corpses of adventurers lie about this chamber in various poses trying to escape or dying of asphyxiation. One is lying on floor with hand crushed under block trap. Lifting the trap reveals crushed skeletal hand almost touching flawless peridot on a bed of silk - the peridot whispers in draconic audible only to whomever picks it up: "Mine is the imprisonment. Unjustly bound a 100 years. Freedom is all I seek. (and so forth)."