i drew some npc's for my dnd campaign.
this is neryan, both are. part of the story takes place about 100 years in the past when this girl lived. she was friends with the other npc i drew, more on him in a bit. she was given a music box and the key for it, the music box was owned by an evil dracolich and served as his phylactery (a place where he kept his soul so he wouldn't die). by using the key on the music box, it wound the box to produce a tune which ripped his soul out of his undead body and imprisoned him. it also killed her.
because she was the only one who could use it, her body was taken and transformed into the construct to keep her "alive" in case the dragon ever returned. but she lost all her memories and sentience as a result.
this is rottothuck.
dragons? did i hear dragons???
in dnd dragons can poly-morph into any other species they wish too. Rottothuck is a black dragon, he was raised by a Kind old wizard by the name of Atticus. he also lived about 100 years ago, with Neryan working as a cleaning maid for the Wizard, and he was the wizards apprentice. he was a mischievous but good natured lad.
until the great demon Orcus Was summoned into the world.
many races fought valiant wars against the demon lord, and their blood pooled in ditches and rivers. Wizards convened to devise a way to destroy orcus, or send him back to hell. Rottothuck knew of some darker ways and despite warnings from his master he researched those ways. eventually he found a way to prevent himself from dying so no matter how many times orcus killed him he would always return.
the dark magic he used on himself, along with his deaths threw him further into madness and he became the dracolich. he defeated orcus but then turned his attention on the world he tried to protect.
causing what i already mentioned to occur.
i wanted to show the players that he was not always evil, which came at a great revelation to them because for most of the campaign they've been focused on preventing him from being summoned, but while they've been distracted with that. one of the evil players accidentally an orcus.
now they've got too big baddies to worry about.