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Rithla "Shadow of the Charnel Land"

by WingofCoot

Greater Night Dragon, 20HD

1590 local years old (~2970 Mystaran years); 1470 local years (~2750 Mystaran years) spent as a Night Dragon

Ages ago, Rithla was a cruel and ambitious blue dragon who dwelled on the southern edge of the Tharsis Plateau, between the southernmost sandfolk tribes and the (then) semi-arid grasslands farther south. She had developed her spell-casting abilities and was eagerly seeking more magical items to increase her power.

Then the great cataclysm occurred, and Rithla was caught in the ruin of the landscape as the Arsia super-volcano tore itself apart in a colossal eruption. She cried out to any power that might save her - and Entropy answered. Accepting a dark bargain in her last moment of life, even as the lava seared her scales and withered her wings, Rithla was re-made as a Night Dragon and rose shrieking from the lava torrents and ash clouds, a new shadow of death over an already dying land.

As a Night Dragon, she is forever outcast from dragon society. Rithla is one of the most powerful servants of Entropy on Vaniae, though a few nightshades might contest that claim. Over her long undead existence, she has slowly expanded the "dead lands" of southernmost Tharsis and created a great many undead. The rise of Mygalla's population and arcane power in recent centuries has prevented further expansion in that direction; instead, she has preyed upon the sandfolk of Steep Cliffs and the geonids. Much of her recent work has focused on creating geonid undead.

Rithla's lair is in a large cavern in a system of lava tubes, set amid the region known as the Charnel Land in Noctaurus and Mygalla - the ruined, lava-scorched landscape of the broken Arsia super-volcano south of the southernmost sandfolk tribes and northwest of Mygalla. This lair also holds a number of undead minions, including conventional undead such as mummies and strange local creations.

The treasures of Rithla's lair are wondrous, but horrifically guarded. Her magic items are not necessarily merely lying in her treasure hoard; they are likely used by her most powerful minions, either in defense of the lair or out on missions. In addition, much of the lower elevations of the lair are filled with poison gases (harmless to Rithla and her minions, being undead), and magical traps are designed to harm the living and not the undead.