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SilverClawShift
2008-10-21, 04:29 PM
...or "When Is A Good Time To Abandon The Kingdom?"

So at the moment my gaming group is in the midst of a campaign we expect to go well into epic levels, and we're experiencing a problem that we collectivelly don't really know how to tackle.

First the critical background. There's four of us in this campaign, all at 14th level right now. Since the beginning of the story, we've been fairly loyal to the mid-size kingdom we find ourselves calling home. The higher-ups have been good to us, and we've been valuable to them, so it's been win win.
The plot's been foreshadowing where it's shifting to now from the start, but it seems our attention is coming to rest on one of those chlid-of-destiny types, the kings 9 year old daughter. The one who's been plagued with horrible nightmares her whole life, and has been manifesting psionic powers during tantrums.

Well recently, the kings daughter fell ill with one of those almost-incurable screw-you diseases, and a necessary component for her cure? A heaping batch of pipin' fresh dragon blood.
Unfortunately, dragons are actually rare in this campaign. Double-Unfortunately, the only dragon even CLOSE to the kingdom was nothing more than a rumor (as he was a red dragon who hadn't left his mountain caves in since before anyone alive today had been born). Triple unfortunately, the dragon was legendary in centuries past for having a terrible temper. The world at large was lucky he simply pulled into his little nest, content to lounge in his treasure until god-knows-when.

Quadruple-unfortunately? Me and my group were busy with another quest when the kings daughter fell ill, so he went with his B-Team, a large group of paladin-knights.
We weren't there, but this is how the paladins relay the events that occured. They say they went into his caves intending to try diplomatic relations, requesting some of the dragons blood for a magical cure, but not intending any harm.
The dragon scoffed and threatened them. Paladins don't know fear, so they stayed and continued to plead with the dragon to part with some of its blood (given a dragons size, enough blood for the cure wouldn't have amounted to much of its trouble).
The dragon arrogantly suggested they make him some kind of offer, such as the kingdoms entire treasury, or a virgin sacrifice.
The paladins refused to make a "Deal" with an evil creature. The dragons temper flared, the paladins righteous-righteousness flared, and the two heads came to a front. The dragon wiped out 7 of the 10 paladins, but in the end, they slew the beast and returned with more than enough dragons blood.
The princess was cured, hooray hooray, and everyone lived happily ever after.

Except the dragon was ticked off enough that it refused to stay dead.

It attacked the kingdom two weaks later, a much more horrifying creature - spectral, eyeless, rotting visage, howling in rage, the size of a large two-story house, and demanding the life of the kings daughter. Between the three remaining paladins, and the entire kingdoms worth of combatants, they managed to 'kill' the dragon ghost. Of course, 'killing' a ghost is a very temporary solution. The dragon came back again the next night. And the next. After the third assault, the kingdom was on the brink of being shattered, unable to realistically survive another attack.

Fortunately, that's when -WE- came back. Four high level adventurers and the remaining forces of the kingdom were enough to off the thing one more time.

************************************************** **

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd, that's where we are right now. We know we have until sundown of the next day before that waking nightmare decends on us again. Fighting it once was rough, and even with a nights recovery, we're just not going to be in the shape to keep doing this.

We can realistically kill the thing another three or four times, sure, but to what end? It's not going to STOP unless we can find a way to break out of the current cycle. And things are just going to get worse. Right now the dragon's in a constant berserker-rage, but dead or not, it is a DRAGON. it's intelligent enough to start making better use of its new advantages. It might not have occured to our DM yet (and I'm damn well not going to suggest it) but if the creature realizes it can simply drop into the earth and rise out of the floor below us ,we're HOSED.

Our group honestly isn't sure what to do here. We're not comfortable giving over the princess to the dragon under any circumstances. Even if the dragon is justified in being mad, SHE didn't have anything to do with this, she just got sick and someone decided to go get her cure.
That doesn't stop the mob of angry citizens with torches and pitchforks outside the castle walls, demanding we stop this brutal rampage by any means necessary, cute little girl be damned.

I honestly don't know what our DM expects us to do, but if he thinks we have some cunning plan? We don't. We've been in contact without him, basically talking about how we're totally boned. I work with one of the other players, and we spent our lunch break today trying to figure out if there's anything we can freaking do. We couldn't think of anything.

So, I'm turning to the unwashed masses (that's you guys). Is there any magic-bullet spell or technique in some obscure sourcebook that we're not thinking of? Is there a way to forcefully exorcise a ghost? Or a dragon ghost? A spellcasting dragon ghost :smallfrown:

Our party makeup, since it's relevant: We have
- A straight Fighter, DEX based, focused on two-weapon fighting. He's dual-weilding Spellshot Pistols (from my groups dustland campaign setting, in my sig. Lemme tell you, the Cursebreaker ammo for those things is coming in handy right now).
- A Changeling Soulknife with a lot of twinked out soulknife-only gear and a ridiculous amount of possible mindblades he can manifest (including mind-spiked chains, mind-goliath-greathammers, ect, ect).
- A Favored Soul, mostly healing and buffing spells.
- Me, a Wasteling Archivist (with a very random list of spells, I'm not going out of my way to go all caster-zilla on the game)

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them. Our next game is thursday, and we at least want to have some kind of game-plan before then.

Lochar
2008-10-21, 04:36 PM
First things first. The thing is still intelligent, as you state.

Next thing. It was killed by the paladins, after offering to bargain for it's blood. This is the cause of it's rise.


Solution: See if you can pin the thing down long enough to have a couple rounds of conversation. Ghosts and other undead that come back for vengeance have a set of conditions that will release it from undeath. See if it is willing to bargain a new deal. You'll quest for it to get some major, uber great treasure. Also, promise that once you get back, you'll also pony up for a free True Rez for it. (Make sure whatever quest you promise it lasts long enough for the archivist/favored soul to get true rez).

You need to make amends for the country. A promise to restore it to life along with a major increase in it's wealth might be enough to abate it.


If not. Soul Trap. *shrug* It can't return when it's soul is trapped in an itty bitty gem, sealed to the bottom of the royal outhouse.

Hzurr
2008-10-21, 04:48 PM
Cut off the changling's finger. Have the changling take the appearance of the princess, and be "sacrificed" to the dragon. The dragon thinks it ate the princess, and disappears, then you go back and resurrect the changling using the finger you cut off.

BRC
2008-10-21, 04:48 PM
Could you possibly trick it into thinking the Kings daughter is dead? Say she committed suicide after seeing the carnage that was being wrought because of her, but knowing that her father would never allow her to give herself to the dragon. I mean, it's worth a shot, sure lying in this manner will get the dragon mad at you if it sees through your bluff, but it's already pretty PO'd. You could even make a fake corpse or somthing.

Stupendous_Man
2008-10-21, 04:58 PM
Cross beams and reverse polarity.

ocato
2008-10-21, 05:00 PM
First things first. The thing is still intelligent, as you state.

Next thing. It was killed by the paladins, after offering to bargain for it's blood. This is the cause of it's rise.


Solution: See if you can pin the thing down long enough to have a couple rounds of conversation. Ghosts and other undead that come back for vengeance have a set of conditions that will release it from undeath. See if it is willing to bargain a new deal. You'll quest for it to get some major, uber great treasure. Also, promise that once you get back, you'll also pony up for a free True Rez for it. (Make sure whatever quest you promise it lasts long enough for the archivist/favored soul to get true rez).

You need to make amends for the country. A promise to restore it to life along with a major increase in it's wealth might be enough to abate it.

First of all, this sounds like a really fun campaign. Second of all, I think that this is the "best" solution, assuming that if you resurrect him and he breaks the deal by attacking you, that he won't come back as a ghost again. Presumably the king would rather pony up for a cleric than give away his daughter.

quick_comment
2008-10-21, 05:10 PM
Trap it in a permanency-ed forcecage.

BRC
2008-10-21, 05:11 PM
Cross beams and reverse polarity.
That might work, but whatever you do, Don't Cross the Streams.

Keld Denar
2008-10-21, 05:51 PM
Trap it in a permanency-ed forcecage.

I think you might be on to something here. Do you know where it spawns every night to burn/smash/destroy the countryside? I suggest spend the next few nights trying to pinpoint this location with some Gather Info checks and some advanced scouting. Keep dispatching the dragon as you can. Your character should spend his time in magical research. What you need is to lock down the spell Wall of Force. Its in the Force domain, forgot the sourcebook. Do you have any crafting feats? Craft Wonderous would be ideal. If Craft Wonderous, see if you can do some rushed but extensive research to pull together some research on crafting an item that projects Walls of Force continuously. Doesn't matter how expensive it is, since you have almost all of the kings treasury at your disposal (I'd assume money ain't a thang when the life of EVERYONE in his kingdom, not to mention all the treasure anyway, is in danger of extinction). Craft up something crazy, something that'll permanently project Walls of Force to form the 6 sides of a cube (I know they can't be horizontal, but this is a custom magic item we're talkin aboot) or better yet, spherical, more volume/surface area and thus more efficient! The area has to be sizeable, probably about 20' diameter to cover for a garganuan sized dragon, or possibly collossal. It also has to be continuous, or you'll be a slave to go and activate it every night over and over based on the duration of the Walls you make it produce (or introduce human error by having someone else do it). It'd be pricey, but would get the job done.

Alternatively, you could create a magical trap (covered by Craft Wonderous) that would be based on proximity to the energies of an incorporial creature. The trap would then throw up the Walls of Force whenever the creature spawns, thus keeping it trapped. Carve the runes for the trap into the very walls of whereever it spawns (presumably its lair?). That would be a pretty hands off solution if you could swing it. Again, devote all research into it, read books till your eyes bleed, recruit every apprentice on the continent, spend the whole treasury, etc.

The great thing about Walls of Force, is that they extend fully into the Ethereal Plane, which is where ghosts manifest from. Provided it doesn't have any extraplanar travel itself (Plane Shift, Teleport and friends, Dim Door, etc) it'll be stuck there. Dispel Magic won't free it, only Disintegrate/Disjunction/Negation/Annihilation will free it.

Last ditch, kill your fighter off a 1/2 dozen times or so, and keep rerezing him. Then have one of those training montoge things like they do in the movies, where he spars with his sensi, balances on a log, and roundhouse kicks a dummy, until he gets 10 levels in Hunter of the Dead from Complete Warrior. They have an ability that makes undead slain by them stay dead...forever. Not practical, but hey, its a freakin ghost dragon. This would put it down forever.

If any of those ideas don't work, just sit back and wait for the Deus Ex Machina. I can almost garuntee your DM has a cop out, if you guys can't figure it out, the kingdom burns, the people die, and your characters will probably die too, and thats the end. Game ovah, time to reroll new characters.

quick_comment
2008-10-21, 05:53 PM
Another idea: Isnt there some spell in BoED that gives peace to undead with souls, and frees them from undeath?

Starbuck_II
2008-10-21, 06:02 PM
...or "When Is A Good Time To Abandon The Kingdom?"

So at the moment my gaming group is in the midst of a campaign we expect to go well into epic levels, and we're experiencing a problem that we collectivelly don't really know how to tackle.

First the critical background. There's four of us in this campaign, all at 14th level right now. Since the beginning of the story, we've been fairly loyal to the mid-size kingdom we find ourselves calling home. The higher-ups have been good to us, and we've been valuable to them, so it's been win win.
The plot's been foreshadowing where it's shifting to now from the start, but it seems our attention is coming to rest on one of those chlid-of-destiny types, the kings 9 year old daughter. The one who's been plagued with horrible nightmares her whole life, and has been manifesting psionic powers during tantrums.

Well recently, the kings daughter fell ill with one of those almost-incurable screw-you diseases, and a necessary component for her cure? A heaping batch of pipin' fresh dragon blood.
Unfortunately, dragons are actually rare in this campaign. Double-Unfortunately, the only dragon even CLOSE to the kingdom was nothing more than a rumor (as he was a red dragon who hadn't left his mountain caves in since before anyone alive today had been born). Triple unfortunately, the dragon was legendary in centuries past for having a terrible temper. The world at large was lucky he simply pulled into his little nest, content to lounge in his treasure until god-knows-when.

Quadruple-unfortunately? Me and my group were busy with another quest when the kings daughter fell ill, so he went with his B-Team, a large group of paladin-knights.
We weren't there, but this is how the paladins relay the events that occured. They say they went into his caves intending to try diplomatic relations, requesting some of the dragons blood for a magical cure, but not intending any harm.
The dragon scoffed and threatened them. Paladins don't know fear, so they stayed and continued to plead with the dragon to part with some of its blood (given a dragons size, enough blood for the cure wouldn't have amounted to much of its trouble).
The dragon arrogantly suggested they make him some kind of offer, such as the kingdoms entire treasury, or a virgin sacrifice.
The paladins refused to make a "Deal" with an evil creature. The dragons temper flared, the paladins righteous-righteousness flared, and the two heads came to a front. The dragon wiped out 7 of the 10 paladins, but in the end, they slew the beast and returned with more than enough dragons blood.
The princess was cured, hooray hooray, and everyone lived happily ever after.

Except the dragon was ticked off enough that it refused to stay dead.

It attacked the kingdom two weaks later, a much more horrifying creature - spectral, eyeless, rotting visage, howling in rage, the size of a large two-story house, and demanding the life of the kings daughter. Between the three remaining paladins, and the entire kingdoms worth of combatants, they managed to 'kill' the dragon ghost. Of course, 'killing' a ghost is a very temporary solution. The dragon came back again the next night. And the next. After the third assault, the kingdom was on the brink of being shattered, unable to realistically survive another attack.

Fortunately, that's when -WE- came back. Four high level adventurers and the remaining forces of the kingdom were enough to off the thing one more time.

************************************************** **

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd, that's where we are right now. We know we have until sundown of the next day before that waking nightmare decends on us again. Fighting it once was rough, and even with a nights recovery, we're just not going to be in the shape to keep doing this.

We can realistically kill the thing another three or four times, sure, but to what end? It's not going to STOP unless we can find a way to break out of the current cycle. And things are just going to get worse. Right now the dragon's in a constant berserker-rage, but dead or not, it is a DRAGON. it's intelligent enough to start making better use of its new advantages. It might not have occured to our DM yet (and I'm damn well not going to suggest it) but if the creature realizes it can simply drop into the earth and rise out of the floor below us ,we're HOSED.

Our group honestly isn't sure what to do here. We're not comfortable giving over the princess to the dragon under any circumstances. Even if the dragon is justified in being mad, SHE didn't have anything to do with this, she just got sick and someone decided to go get her cure.
That doesn't stop the mob of angry citizens with torches and pitchforks outside the castle walls, demanding we stop this brutal rampage by any means necessary, cute little girl be damned.

I honestly don't know what our DM expects us to do, but if he thinks we have some cunning plan? We don't. We've been in contact without him, basically talking about how we're totally boned. I work with one of the other players, and we spent our lunch break today trying to figure out if there's anything we can freaking do. We couldn't think of anything.

So, I'm turning to the unwashed masses (that's you guys). Is there any magic-bullet spell or technique in some obscure sourcebook that we're not thinking of? Is there a way to forcefully exorcise a ghost? Or a dragon ghost? A spellcasting dragon ghost :smallfrown:

Our party makeup, since it's relevant: We have
- A straight Fighter, DEX based, focused on two-weapon fighting. He's dual-weilding Spellshot Pistols (from my groups dustland campaign setting, in my sig. Lemme tell you, the Cursebreaker ammo for those things is coming in handy right now).
- A Changeling Soulknife with a lot of twinked out soulknife-only gear and a ridiculous amount of possible mindblades he can manifest (including mind-spiked chains, mind-goliath-greathammers, ect, ect).
- A Favored Soul, mostly healing and buffing spells.
- Me, a Wasteling Archivist (with a very random list of spells, I'm not going out of my way to go all caster-zilla on the game)

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them. Our next game is thursday, and we at least want to have some kind of game-plan before then.

What books are allowed?
Psionics, Tome of Magic, Spell compendruim?

Use Speak with Dead on the Dragon's body.
1) Ask it why it would haunt the kingdom as a ghost (it may know).
2) Does it have any weaknesses (like greed, etc)

Has the DM been rolling the survival check for the Ghost?


In most cases, it’s difficult to destroy a ghost through simple combat: The "destroyed" spirit will often restore itself in 2d4 days. Even the most powerful spells are usually only temporary solutions. A ghost that would otherwise be destroyed returns to its old haunts with a successful level check (1d20 + ghost’s HD) against DC 16. As a rule, the only way to get rid of a ghost for sure is to determine the reason for its existence and set right whatever prevents it from resting in peace. The exact means varies with each spirit and may require a good deal of research.

So if he rolls a 1, he fails.
Alternatively, Wish after next defeat that he fails his next check from returning. Wish can do that. Expensively as heck, but it can be done.

A ghost dwells on the Ethereal Plane: Use that info.
A wall of Force or Ectoplasm blocks etheral creatures.

You can shape a wall of ectoplasm to trap the thing (PR/SR No). Dur: 1 min/legvel, but will give you time to speak to it.

Can an Archevist use magic device/psionic Device?

A Power Stone would be so useful right now.

Spells:
1) Black Blade of Disaster disinegrates him and hits as a force effect. 9th level spell, but useful.
2) Corpse Candle: Denies undead etheral miss chance. So no more missing him , k. All attacks are like Force.
Wu-jen 3 spell or Wiz 3.

3) Wu Jen 4 spell Creeping darkness (complete arcane) SR no, save no. Total loss of sight/sound.

4) Spirit Binding: Like Planar Binding but spirits (elementals...crazy ghost dragons maybe...) Up to 24 HD for G. Spirit Binding.
Don't forget the Magic Circle vs. evil pointed inward.

5) Commune with Spirit: Another Wu jen spell, ask the dragon what the Beep is up. Similar to speak with dead, but you ask the dragon who obviously knows unlike his corpdse which might not.

6) Etoplasmic Feedback/Armor: buffs versus incorporeals

7) Control Undead: if you make the SR check and he fails his save... you get a pet dragon.

8) Ghost Trap: Level 6 spell, negates incorporeality. No SR, no save. They just cannot affect the area. Good for a scroll.

9) Ghost Touch Weapon spell; makes weapon ghost touch. nuff said.

10) Holy Storm: No SR/No save, 1 rd/level deals 2d6. extra damage I guess.

11) Hide From Dragons: dragon no see, dragon no do.

12) Lucent Lance: can deal 15d6 in bright light, no save.

13) Make manifest: if need a ghost to on material plane.

14) Moon Bolt: Undead Struck are helpless if fail save (will save) for 1d4 rounds. Even after take -2 penalty to will saves and attack rolls for 1 minute.

15) Persistant Blade: 1st level spell, makes a force dagger that attacks the dragon. Why not you can afford a scroll.

16) Spark of Life: Remove Undead defenses like Crits work,immunity to effects that require Fort save, vulnerable to poison, sleep, and death effects (etc, etc).

17) Spirit Jaws: Grapple/Force effect. Maybe useful.

18) Undead;s Eternal Foes: Lots of goodies vs. Undead. But 9th level spell.

Jack_Simth
2008-10-21, 06:19 PM
Let's see....

Assuming the Dragon has at least the 15 Hit Dice needed to auto-pass the level-check, the DM has already house-ruled something: it normally takes 2d4 days for a ghost to come back (average 5, vs. the average 5.5 for a Lich, but that's neither here nor there), which is a minimum of two days - your dragon is respawning in one.

Which means you're not dealing with your average, run-of-the-mill ghost. Point this out, make a Knoweledge check, and ask the DM. That's what those skills are there for.

If that doesn't work, trap him. Soul Bind, Trap the Soul, Shades to duplicate Trape the Soul, use an Illusion to trick him into a Portable Hole (which you then close, and bury). If he's not actually dead, he can't respawn. Do note that if you can go to the Ethereal plane, this becomes much, much simpler, as he's not incorporeal on the Ethereal plane.

If that doesn't work, get access to Command/Control undead and order him into a trap.

Mewtarthio
2008-10-21, 08:29 PM
I doubt the DM intends for you to permakill the dragon-ghost. You just don't have the resources. I agree with Lochar: Your best bet here is to negotiate to resurrect it and maybe fetch it a treasure of its choice on top of that. Remember: It's all your fault, because you were to busy to deal with the dragon and left it in the hands of some incompetent paladins. Yes, I know it's not fair, but you're the adventurers here.

Alternatively, you could use your Archivist powers to hunt down a Tome that tells you how to permakill ghosts. Really, your best chances are with anything that gets you questing.

Zeful
2008-10-21, 08:30 PM
So if he rolls a 1, he fails.

This is only true if the variant attack roll rule is in place, and only applies to attack rolls (unless otherwise mentioned). If this dragon has 15 or more hit dice it cannot be destroyed, only appeased.

Lycan 01
2008-10-21, 08:45 PM
This sounds grossly one-sided...


I'm all for negotiating with the dragon...


But perhaps you could just grab the daughter of a villager or something, and use her instead?


Or, if you're alignments won't allow for that, is there a magic spell to change the way something looks? If so... maybe a scarecrow will do? Or a kobold? :smallbiggrin:

quick_comment
2008-10-21, 08:53 PM
Perhaps you could create a duplicate of the daughter?

Polymorph a sheep into her?

Iku Rex
2008-10-21, 09:06 PM
I'm not convinced you can just negotiate with it. A ghost doesn't keep coming back because it feels like it. Something "prevents it from resting in peace" (ghost template).

In this case it looks like the kings daughter being alive is that something.

So I'm with BRC. Trick it. Stage a scene where the princess gets killed. Follow up with a high bluff check. Glibness and/or voice of the dragon (SpC) would help ensure success.

With any luck the dragon ghost should fade away.

Of course, you may want to try some divinations to confirm your solution before going ahead with any big plans.

ocato
2008-10-21, 09:08 PM
Hmmm, in order to trick a powerful dragon with an illusionary little girl, you'll need one heckuva high DC. A Permanent Image cast by a Gnome Illusionist/Master Specialist has a DC of... 10+6 (spell level) +1 (spell focus)+1 (greater spell focus)+1(gnome bonus)+2 (minor esoterica) from master specialist)+INT (assume 22 INT for a +6. If he's casting 6th level spells he's at least L11, and with 2 stat bumps and WBL for a L11, 22 isn't unheard of)= 27. You can pump that up a little more by having the gnome cast disguise self on herself to look like the little girl, then using project image of herself (looking like the little girl) as the illusion. That way the gnome can talk to the dragon before "dying" and even scream and go "ooooooh nooooo" in an exceptionally dramatic way. If your gnome is casting L7 spells, you can probably afford one that started with an 18 in INT, put at least 2 level upgrades into int (20) and has a +6 item. Remember, this is a L13 character. That makes the DC 10+ 7(project image spell level) +1 (spell focus) +1 (greater SF) +1 (gnome bonus) +2(minor esoterica) +8 (int bonus) = DC 30.

Lovely! Except for one or two minor problems. You'd have to find such a caster, bring him to you, then try not to laugh when the dragon makes the save easily. An old red dragon gets +21 to will saves and a Great Wyrm gets +30. Assuming that the dragon in question is at least Old, the illusion path is probably uphill the whole way.

Negotiate!

aaron_the_cow
2008-10-21, 09:09 PM
maby your DM put somthing in its layer that would stop it from doing this, or some other thing, but I would sugest returning to the site of death and looking for cules.

Frosty
2008-10-21, 09:18 PM
Why Shades the Trap the Soul? You'll still need the material component...

Hal
2008-10-21, 09:20 PM
How much does your DM stick to RAW and how much does he go for thematic appropriateness?

If there's anything popular literature has taught me, it's that ghosts go away if you properly dispose of their body.

D&D doesn't play that way, but your DM might be flexible.

Flickerdart
2008-10-21, 09:25 PM
Why Shades the Trap the Soul? You'll still need the material component...
Higher DC, since the spell is actually 9th level.

Zeful
2008-10-21, 09:31 PM
Except that it's now it's a save or lose 20% of the effect on top of the other save. Your better of using heighten spell.

Copacetic
2008-10-21, 09:40 PM
Party: "Look, The little girl didn't stab you. These Paladins did."
Dragon: "Hmm, I guess you ar eright. *noms Paladins*"
Paladins: *is nommed*

See, it all works out in the End. Also, A SILVERCALWSHIFT CAMPAIGN! OH ZOMG!. ( I remember the last one. It was EPIC.:smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin:)

InkEyes
2008-10-21, 09:58 PM
I'm not certain if this has been mentioned before, but you and the Favored Soul should be researching and knowledge (religion)ing the crap out of the situation. Have someone use gather information on anyone in town who might remotely have information regarding undead and dragons.

While this is going on attempt negotiation, probably combined with a spell to restrict the dragon's movements long enough for it to come out of the berserk rage. If that doesn't work, then try destroying it with the knowledge you've gathered. If neither work, do what others have suggested and make a magical copy of the little girl for the dragon to eat.

amanamana
2008-10-21, 10:24 PM
This probably isn't RAW, as it was a homebrew world, and, if it is, probably get changed in the 3.5, but in a 3.0 game I was part, we had a bit of a problem with a black dragon ghost (and all his half-dragon children who still worked for dear old late daddy... hell of a campaign!).
We ended his menace by destroying him in the material plane and then going to his domain in the astral plane to destroy the rest of him, before it could appear again in the material plane.
Even if that's not RAW, someone up here said that is possible that your DM is not doing this thing by RAW. So, roll some knowledge tests and ask your DM if that's is possible.

greetings.

Lemur
2008-10-21, 11:47 PM
Trick him into getting trapped in a gem (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/trapTheSoul.htm). That one always works. Of course, things trapped in gems inevitably escape, but that usually doesn't happen for at least 1000 years, so the heroes of the future can deal with your problem. Nothing wrong with that. >.>

Just hope that it can't time travel.

The Glyphstone
2008-10-21, 11:58 PM
Maybe there's a vestige that'll be able to help you. :0

^Aren't heroes supposed to destroy the http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SealedEvilInACan, not create it?

Virgo
2008-10-22, 12:06 AM
Maybe there's a vestige that'll be able to help you. :0

^Aren't heroes supposed to destroy the http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SealedEvilInACan, not create it?

Well, someone had to seal it in there in the first place...

dspeyer
2008-10-22, 12:12 AM
Hmmm, in order to trick a powerful dragon with an illusionary little girl, you'll need one heckuva high DC.

On the other hand, a random animal polymorphed into her and dominate animal'ed into acting like her doesn't give the dragon a save, just a change to cast true seeing (tricky without material components). A disposable human in the princesses clothes and makeup doesn't even allow that. Finding such a human may be tricky, depending on your morals (there aren't a whole lot of 9-year-old serial killers).

I agree that convincing the dragon that it's killed her is your best bet, but it's worth using commune or contact other plane to find out for sure how to put the spirit to rest.

Leewei
2008-10-22, 12:56 AM
As an archivist, tell the DM that you're desperately researching for ways to contain, placate or destroy the ghost dragon. He probably has something in mind already. Meanwhile, brainstorm more tactics for holding the critter at bay.

Leewei
2008-10-22, 12:59 AM
Oh, also -- head back to its lair and see what it was guarding. Pillaging its hoard will probably tick it off to the point where it will disregard the princess in the short run. If the ghost shows up to object, slag it again while telling it to enjoy the ghost of its treasure.