How to use this encounter
This encounter presents a potentially deadly challenge for a four characters of 4th level. However, there are ways to avoid combat entirely. The encounter will take approximately 45 minutes to run. You can place the encounter in any area in which an isolated mage’s tower could be found. As always, feel free to modify, tear apart, or reskin this encounter to fit the needs of your game.
Encounter overview: Dragon-building gone wrong
In this encounter, the party tracks a magically enhanced wyvern to a mage’s tower. Jileus Amosyne, the mage within the tower had planned to “build a dragon” by experimenting with a stolen wyvern egg. Now, years later, the wyvern has attained a striking intelligence and a few magical capabilities. Jileus has lost control and is imprisoned in his own tower by his former dragon-to-be.
The party can choose to free Jileus either by fighting the wyvern called Drakeus or by lending it more magical empowerment in exchange for the mage’s freedom.
Encounter Hooks: Free the mage!
There are several ways to introduce this encounter to the players:
- The characters hear about Jileus in a nearby town. The mage has not visited the local tavern for days, and the townsfolk have started to worry. They ask the characters to investigate the nearby tower, and give them directions.
- The characters find remnants of an ambushed caravan while traveling overland. There are torn-apart, half-eaten bodies, and broken weapons that seem to have shattered while defending the caravan’s cargo which is missing. A lone survivor tells the party of the ferocious beast that descended on them from the sky, attacking them with cunning precision and even taunting the merchants while killing them. It looked vaguely like a wyvern but with many strange mechanical appendages. The survivor points the characters in the direction in which the wyvern flew away.
- Drakeus tracks the characters down, having heard of their most recent exploits. The wyvern asks the party to hand over a magical item (see “Barter or battle?” below) in exchange for safe passage through his hunting grounds.
Running the encounter
At the mage’s tower
The encounter truly begins once the characters arrive at the mage’s tower. Here is the situation at the tower when the characters arrive:
- Drakeus, the enhanced wyvern, sits at the top of the tower overlooking the plains around it.
- Jileus is locked in his room on the second floor. He is taken out of the room from time to time to perform enhancement procedures on Drakeus.
- Drakeus has fooled a group of kobolds into thinking he is a true dragon. These kobolds now serve the wyvern, and guard Jileus’s room.
How the characters approach the situation is up to them. They might sneak across the plains and infiltrate the tower unseen. They might taunt Drakeus to draw him away from the tower, or they might openly charge the tower and try to attack Drakeus directly.
Barter or battle?
At some point the characters are likely to confront Drakeus directly, either because they choose so or because they are spotted by him or his kobold guard. Drakeus isn’t immediately interested in combat. He has gained some measure of intelligence through the magical experiments, and sees a potential benefit to be gained from the characters. He offers to let Jileus go in exchange for a sufficiently powerful magic item. Any item that could potentially improve Drakeus’s combat prowess is acceptable to the wyvern. He plans to have the item attached to his body later on.
If the characters refuse, Drakeus calls for his kobold guards and attacks. He has seen some of the wealth of the characters and won’t let them go easily.
If the characters hand over an acceptable magic item, Drakeus takes it and thanks the characters. He then leads them into the tower, has his kobold guard free Jileus, and bids the characters farewell. But the wyvern actually needs Jileus to further enhance his body and mind…
Drakeus attacks
Once the characters and Jileus are out of the tower and on the plains, Drakeus flies after them. He laughs and shouts down at them, “Well, I did let Jileus go, as promised. But I’m afraid now I need him back!”
Then, Drakeus attacks the characters. Depending on how far away from the tower they’ve gotten, the wyverns kobold guard come rushing to aid their “dragon” master. Here are some “combat outs” with which players could attempt to end the combat early, without fighting to the death:
- Offer Drakeus that they, the characters, will help him build his latest enhancements into his body. A series of Arcana checks or checks with the appropriate tool might let the characters do this in the tower’s magical lab. Helping Drakeus further enhance his body might earn the characters a long-term ally in the wyvern.
- Let Drakeus have Jileus. Jileus will protest but the wyvern will let them go. The characters are then free to leave. Or they might regroup and attempt to free Jileus a second time.
- Tell the kobold guard that their master isn’t actually a dragon. With a successful Charisma (Persuasion) check this might turn the kobolds against the wyvern.
Treasure
If the characters successfully free Jileus and let him reclaim his tower he offers them the following weapon as a reward. This was one of the items Jileus was still planning to build into Drakeus’s body. The PCs might also find the weapon inside the laboratory in the tower:
- A magical +1 weapon (choose one which is useful for the characters) which can cast dragon’s breath (DC 15, no concentration required) once per day.
NPCs
- Jileus Amosyne. A nervous young male human mage with bright green eyes and exceptionally large ears. He inherited the tower from his late mentor, and is obsessed with creating his own dragon.
- Drakeus. A scheming male wyvern with modest intelligence who speaks Common. He was first stolen as an egg which was later bought by Jileus. He bears the signs of many magical experiments, and arcane enhancements such as glowing blue crystals embedded along his spine. Drakeus wants to continue his enhancements but loathes Jileus for the power he held over him.
- Gundo. Captain of Drakeus’s kobold guard. Gundo is an arrogant overweight kobold who wears thick black fake eyebrows. Gundo is the leader of a nomadic tribe of kobolds who have decided to serve their “dragon” master Drakeus after stumbling upon him in “his” tower.
Monsters
- Drakeus. Use the wyvern stat block with the following changes:
- Drakeus has an AC 15 because of plates embedded in his skin.
- Drakeus has Blindsight 10 ft. thanks to special lenses that enlarge his eyes.
- Drakeus gains the following new Bonus Action:
- Cold shield (3/day). Drakeus casts armor of Agathys as a bonus action on himself through the blue crystals on his back.
- Drakeus gains the following new Action:
- Stinger Volley (Recharge 5-6). Drakeus fires a barrage of stinger missiles from arcane launchers on his tail at up to three creatures he can see within 60 ft. Each creature can only be targeted by one stinger at a time. Each targeted creature must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage and 3 (1d6) poison damage.
- Gundo is a bandit captain but his size is Small and his creature type is humanoid (kobold).
- Gundo has 12 kobolds who are able to fight under his command. Additionally, there are three elders and four hatchlings who are members of his tribe and who don’t fight.
