animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

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pblackcrow
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animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by pblackcrow »

Hello All,


It's been a while since I've done a new post. As you may have guessed, I have rather recently slain a dragon. And had the thought idea of what if a necromancer were to got ahold of it...turned it in to a zombie, then removed both the insides when he found out it could no longer breathe fire, reinforced the torso with iron wood, added a platform in the mouth and an alchemists ballista, and made it into an animated mobile home?
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by Veknironth »

Well, isn't this what the villains from the Byzantium book do? I apologize for not remembering their names.

-Vek
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by pblackcrow »

? Don't know...Not had time to read that yet.
Last edited by pblackcrow on Sat May 14, 2016 9:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by ShadowHawk »

great idea, Shannon. how much SDC & HP? how many levels in the torso? also how do you access the platform from the torso? stairs or a latter?
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

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I can't do it with this character...He's principled. However I'm not sure about the SDC or HP. 1-2 for reg sized people, 3-4 for halflings, 4-6 for gnomes. A rope latter will suffice, because it must be able to bend.
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by Reagren Wright »

Yes it was the Iceborn. The Necroilus (Dead Serpent Ship) is a dead sea serpent turned into a
sea vessel. It doesn't decay and thanks to the necro magic regenerates any damage done to it.
It's not animated dead or undead. Its an inanimate object with necro magic sustaining its
existence.

A dragon would be something very similar. Iceborn would love to get their hands and axes into
one :twisted: .
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by ShadowLogan »

pblackcrow wrote:Hello All,


It's been a while since I've done a new post. As you may have guessed, I have rather recently slain a dragon. And had the thought idea of what if a necromancer were to got ahold of it...turned it in to a zombie, then removed both the insides when he found out it could no longer breathe fire, reinforced the torso with iron wood, added a platform in the mouth and an alchemists ballista, and made it into an animated mobile home?

I'm not sure if a stock Necromancer could turn it into a Zombie because it requires a host of requirements:
-no more than 6hours dead
-lay it on linen
-draw a circle around it (I'm thinking the size of a dragon would make this difficult)
-done in secret and in a graveyard/burial place
-night of a full moon

Add to that I'm not even sure if a CoM's corpse (or even just a dragon) can be turned into a Zombie or Mummy via their known rituals (secret/rare variations can exist as suggested by another poster). A necromancer would still be interested in the corpse no doubt due to their other abilities (IINM, at least for Rifts I'm not quite sure how the PF and Rifts version differ exactly) and potential spells (like Transfer Life Force).

Now a Necromancer could turn the corpse into a home as you suggest (not counting the Zombie ritual) and use Animate and Control Dead (either the basic or advanced versions or even ability) to move it as needed and such. The main limitation though will be PPE cost for time and the Speed in this approach, and regeneration of any damage incurred . A diabolist (or Alchemist) could put a permanency ward in place once A&CD is actively cast on it (though I would think you might want to have other spell buffs in place to).
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by Library Ogre »

That's ****** up. I love it.
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by pblackcrow »

RW, Thanks for the reference.
SL. Okay, then. Very easy to solve. After a necromancer kills it, have him animate it, and walk it to a grave yard in one of the abandon towns (why would a town be abandoned you may ask...because there is a dragon near by), where a very large linen sail has been tied and staked into place and is waiting for it to lay down upon, then with levitation and use telekinesis to make a circle.
MH, Thank you. I know. Have fun with the idea GMs and players.
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by ShadowHawk »

this is very interesting. I had the same thought of using a sail to lay the drgon on.

and you're right, people find out there's an evil dragon threatening a small town or village, the smart leaders would definitely be like "evacuate the town, and send a message to the lord requesting a dragonslayer be sent, immediately."
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by Axelmania »

Is there a spell to prevent the dragon rotting so it remains convincing? Otherwise eventually it smells or becomes a skeleton people can shoot at you through the ribs unless you put up some walls or curtains.

Since animated dead has a duration, wouldn't it be better to make a dragon into a zombie or mummy so it works indefinitely and has more intelligent autopilot?
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

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Permanency ward will make the animated dead spell permanent
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by Library Ogre »

Animate Dead also leaves you vulnerable to Turn Dead, which isn't nearly as impressive... and a permanency ward won't, IIRC, ward off putrefaction or decay.
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by ShadowLogan »

pblackcrow wrote:SL. Okay, then. Very easy to solve. After a necromancer kills it, have him animate it, and walk it to a grave yard in one of the abandon towns (why would a town be abandoned you may ask...because there is a dragon near by), where a very large linen sail has been tied and staked into place and is waiting for it to lay down upon, then with levitation and use telekinesis to make a circle.

There might be other things to consider to, like the Zombie's regeneration rate "the zombie will completely regenerate all its body parts and S.D.C. at the end of 48 hours" (PF2E pg213). That might make retrofitting interior spaces of the corpse difficult/impossible for long term use I would think since you did suggest removing the insides.

That would suggest that the stock Create Zombie Ritual will not work, the character will need to have/find a variant of the ritual of Create Zombie OR use another approach. Animate Dead seems the most likely to work, even without the Permanency Ward. Create Mummy might also work, but has issues concerning materials and if it can work on a non-humanoid sense the description considers it creating a humanoid robot.

Axeimania wrote:Is there a spell to prevent the dragon rotting so it remains convincing? Otherwise eventually it smells or becomes a skeleton people can shoot at you through the ribs unless you put up some walls or curtains.

Since animated dead has a duration, wouldn't it be better to make a dragon into a zombie or mummy so it works indefinitely and has more intelligent autopilot?

Depending on the species of Dragon (and hatchling or adult stage) though, people are likely to notice things regardless I think because be it a Zombie, Mummy, or Animated Skeleton, a by the book reading would create a construct with various noticeable aspects that seem off (some of which can be rationalized as "it's toying with us", but build up enough of a track record).

They don't necessarily need the spell to prevent rotting for the Animated Dead spell/ability. They could simply skin and prepare the hide, though that might have to be put back on later (sort of like taxidermy). Mummy/Zombie Ritual would seem to take care the rotting as IIRC they don't mention that being an issue, though I question weather it could actually be used on a Dragon.

Something else to consider is location. If you are in the Land of the Damned, people might put it down to a Dragon being cursed (there is one that appears as a skeleton), but elsewhere...
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by kiralon »

Petrify it, make your home on the inside, then animate it.
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

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Mark Hall wrote:That's ****** up. I love it.

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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by pblackcrow »

Very good suggestions all.

This will be an NPC who does it.

A dragon golem...hummm...That is an idea.
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by ShadowLogan »

Well if the Necromancer wants to pay double PPE for the Golem why not? Though Rifts FoM Automotauns are Golem-variants (IMHO), but can't have anyone/thing inside them, and they have a "Dragon" construct. Given the Golem variant can't have anything inside, it might apply to the regular golem to. Which puts a damper on using interior space.

I'm not sure about PF, but in Rifts they expanded the spells for Necromancers with them creating magic artifacts IINM. So you could give the Necromancer NPC:
-a necromatic version of the "Golem" Ritual (if you don't want to deal with the extra PPE cost)
-do it as something akin to Rifts Eco-Wizardry (basically Techno-wizardry using organic remains) as a magic experiment
-they create an "artifact" that animates dead with the result being more long lasting than the Animated Dead spell/powers, but not full blown Mummy/Zombie (like it works until it is disconnected)
-find a Rune Artifact (Rifts has Rune Statues)
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by Axelmania »

Would permanacy.wards work on magic.effecting a dragon corpse? They don't work on supernatural or creatures of magic but I don't know if those classifications still.apply after.death.
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by kiralon »

Well, you do need demon or dragon bone . . .
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by Library Ogre »

Axelmania wrote:Would permanacy.wards work on magic.effecting a dragon corpse? They don't work on supernatural or creatures of magic but I don't know if those classifications still.apply after.death.


It's dead, so it doesn't apply, IMO.
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by Whiskeyjack »

You can always go the route of the necromancer having access to lost magic that makes this possible. Maybe he found a tower from the time of a thousand magics and pieced together the spells based on his discoveries. This opens up some additional possibilities. You could have the magic preserve the breath weapon of the dragon, making it not only a mobile fortress, but a tank as well.
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by ShadowHawk »

Whiskeyjack wrote:You can always go the route of the necromancer having access to lost magic that makes this possible. Maybe he found a tower from the time of a thousand magics and pieced together the spells based on his discoveries. This opens up some additional possibilities. You could have the magic preserve the breath weapon of the dragon, making it not only a mobile fortress, but a tank as well.


true, you could, but you got to understand his thinking. unless he could do it without creating a bogus reason for it being that away, there is not much of a chance he would do it. Unless it's part of the overall plot mind you (at which point if the players have made the correct inquiries they can expect to have info about it before hand), he may bend the rules but he doesn't try to completely brake them too often.
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Re: animated dead dragon as a necromancers mobile home

Unread post by pblackcrow »

Eh, that's true. But it is a neat idea non the less.
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