Colmma Noldray

Captain of Don Joswee
Dracolich

Spiritjammer and Mapreader are in the crevasse at the bottom. Spiritjammer sits at the bottom as a way to provide travel to orcs to the bottom. Mapreader has been tasked with aligning old maps with new maps.

Orcs that are unable to fly are told to jump into the centermost point of the crevasse. At the bottom, their spirits are jammed back into their bodies. Somehow, this works. It is known as the First Death for many. It is not the last.

I see the chain of events happening something like this:

Ancient evil is put to slumber, phylactery and red dragon orb in tow.

In the process of shifting tectonics, phylactery and orb are displaced but in different than expected locations.

Both are able to be located through Colmma Noldray's Find Object spell and mines are being dug by orc workers to find them.

This means two separate shafts going different directions.

Why the macguffins are important: Phylactery contains the Dracolich's soul. Red Dragon Orb will allow control of red dragons.

If players go for the Phylactery first, Colmma Noldray will fight them to the death. If he is defeated and the crystal containing his soul destroyed, he is finished. However, the orb will be found and secreted away.

If players go for the RDO first, Colmma Noldray will fight them until quasi-death to be returned by the Phylactery. If he is defeated, the players recover the Orb and the Phylactery is instead found and secreted away.

Both tunnels are near completion.

It is possible to win complete victory (Phylactery and Orb) but it will take careful planning and execution.

Hmm, do you have any ideas about how to provide that information to the players so that they know what the stakes are?

So I've been thinking. Colmma Noldray actually can't be a Dracolich. Don Joswee is the God of Death. It has been established that the Frost Giant clerics of Don Joswee ritualistically hunt down Vampires because their undeath is an effrontery to the God of Death and a bastardization of the normal order (Lawful Neutral).

Therefore, Colmma Noldray is a Death Dragon and possible Demigod or Avatar.


Back, near the end of the second age, when the Undying finally put their plan into motion, Colmma Noldray and the servants of Don Joswee had largely interrupted the Ordening and had created a new order. Using the Books of Names in conjunction with other strong magicks, the Undying locked Colmma Nodray in a time loop and sunk his tower into the earth to lay trapped for all of time.

That is, until the machine that fueled their reality was broken by a group of adventurers and the time lock was broken. Now Colmma Noldray is risen and his cold, evenhanded wrath only needs to be directed.

Don Joswee is misunderstood by the orcs. They have simplified his message to a phrase that they understand.

The truth is that the theme of Don Joswee is Conversion. He seeks to purify the living with the truth of order.

Death is a form of order and surely his conversions are a form of death.

The tower is full of reskinned aberrations and some constructs.

Mapreader is in the library trying to make sense of maps of the tower to find the artifact maguffin.

Spiritjammer is in the Conversion Pits helping Colmma Noldray convert Orcs while also using her spirit jamming to subvert the order of Don Joswee.

In essence . . . Don Joswee and his minions are mechanical creations or pinnacles of mechanics. The time stop existed to prevent the spread of mechanical conversion. Now the machines are being powered back up, the orcs are being converted, and they are looking for the red dragon orb so that they can control and convert the strongest creature on the planet.