D&D 5E Resurrecting a Dragon

[Kelly Kellogg]

So, i'm working on a campaign thats inspired by fairy tales. What I want to do is have an archfey Rumplestiltskin ressurect a long dead (600 years? Maybe?) Malificent. I want her to be an Adult or even Ancient Green Dragon, but if possible I want her to be brought back as a bone dragon first. My hopes is if the players dont stop the resurrection or bone dragon version of her, is that she can eventually gain her flesh back and become alive once more.

Now, I have NO idea if its possible to do it that way or even HOW to do it story wise thatll make sense (rituals, spells, materials to do this, ect).

Any ideas, advice, general comments?

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

if I wanted to do something like that, I'd probably seek inspiration on Clive Barker's Hellraiser, making each step of the Dragon's resurrection have a cost in human sacrifices. I don't know if that would work well in a campaign inspired by fairy tales, though.

 

[Sunseeker]

Personally I avoid using "from the book" spells for this sort of thing.

Making it make sense on the other hand is pretty easy. Archfey are very powerful but always want something. Perhaps this dragon was the last creature to know of a powerful spell that has now been lost to time and the Archfey requires this spell to complete his Big Bad Plan(TM). So the Archfey uses Dark Ritual (to add 3 black mana) to bring the dragon back to life, thinking that he can hopefully keep her only "partly" alive and gain the information he wants from her. Dragon, since the Archfey needed her mind as well as her body, is even as a half-animated corpse, still clever. So Dragon drags out telling the Archfey what he wants to know in order to gain enough semblance of her former life that she can break free of his control and complete her Master Plan(also TM).

I would suggest sacrificing "good dragons". Bronze, gold, copper, etc... You need a lot of life-energy to power the resurrection of an Adult or Ancient Dragon and I just don't think sacrificing humans will fit the bill (it'd be like paying your rent in pennies). Now, dragons are hard to come by, good, bad or otherwise. This is of course where the players come in, being sent on a quest to capture young dragons for some local wizard, being paid extra to not ask questions. All dragons are however, intelligent and capable of speech, so the dragon barters for its life, letting the players know what has been happening to his other little dragon friends, and assuming the players feel Maleficent and the Archfey pose some kind of real danger to them, they get invested and go save the day.

As [MENTION=36874]Giltonio_Santos[/MENTION] says, I don't know how well this will fit with a "fairy tale" theme. It's fairly dark even for Grimm Fairy Tales it's dark.

Some notes: the Archfey should be severely magically weakened after the ritual completes. He'll recover quickly, but otherwise its the window of opportunity both Maleficent and the players need to destroy him.
-Maleficent should likely engage the players for aid if she can get them alone while the Archfey is distracted. She will of course tempt them with dark magic, Unlimited Power! and wealth.
-The Archfeys Big Bad Plan needs to present a very real and present danger to Stuff the Party Holds Dear. The party of course needs find out that there is a plan and find out what the plan is (perhaps Maleficent will tell in trade for a Task) before they can understand the danger.
-Maleficent being alive again needs to present an equally dangerous threat to Stuff the Party Holds Dear, but differently. Maybe the Archfey wants to turn all non-fey non-elves into trees, while Maleficent will go on a warpath against the descendants of those who killed her (which of course are the Kinds & Queens of the kingdoms the party comes from/cares about). And her warpath will care little for civilians.

I mean, it's good stuff. There's no RAW rules that will help you do it though. It's also really dark.

 

[Kelly Kellogg]

Its not fairy tale themed, just has inspiration from fairy tales. Their names will change, as well as typical personality traits (for example malificent's inspiration is just the dragon. Thats literally it. Rumplestiltskin's inspiration is a powerful being who makes bargins. I also have a lich who was trapped in a tower for a long time, who will be my "repunzel". No long hair.) No actual fairy tale story retelling. Just ideas from the tales.

Given the souls idea, i can make it work. My "Rumple" gave a bard (pied piper) a set of pipes that would charm children in exchange for a rod of embassy, because the bard wanted to use the purity of a child's untainted soul to gain immortality. If children's souls can do that for the bard, enough should be able to ressurect a dragon. Over time.

If the ritual has souls added over years, it could possibly be done that way, no?

(As a side note: I'm a twisted individual so i cant help the dark over theme of the whole arch lol its not all that demented though. There's good things to balance the bad.)

 

[Warbringer]

Sure, just do it. Doesn't have to be a spell in the book.

Power her resurrection from the destruction of the Feywild - areas becoming poisoned, green morning mists, all foreshadowing here turn. Elsewhere, say the Shadowfell, her soul stirs, first empowering her bones to animation back on the material plane, while gathering to her the lost souls of her allies in life.

3 places of interest, all coming togeher at a single event ( I'd suggest the birth of a princess) as the culmination of the ritual...

 

[Sunseeker]

Given the souls idea, i can make it work. My "Rumple" gave a bard (pied piper) a set of pipes that would charm children in exchange for a rod of embassy, because the bard wanted to use the purity of a child's untainted soul to gain immortality. If children's souls can do that for the bard, enough should be able to ressurect a dragon. Over time.

If the ritual has souls added over years, it could possibly be done that way, no?

(As a side note: I'm a twisted individual so i cant help the dark over theme of the whole arch lol its not all that demented though. There's good things to balance the bad.)

IMO: you're the DM, if you say it can, then it can. Perhaps they don't even need very many, perhaps the "purity" of a child's soul makes it all that much more powerful than any adult soul. Any moderately developed quasi-medieval society is going to have destitute children that noone will notice go missing. But, given that it's easy...where's the hook for the players to catch on? A general love of all things small and adorable? I wouldn't count on that from a party.

Also, stealing babies is pretty darn classic fairy tale.

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

Personally, I'd consider making her either a black dragon, or a green dragon with the shadow dragon template (or warlock spellcasting). Admittedly the "foresty" aspects of the green dragon work, but a large part of the "evil" of Malificent was about the corruption of nature. Swamps (black dragons) have always been associates with death and destruction, while the shadow works nicely if you still wish her to be green. Plus l, in every incarnation of her every shown her distinct visual is to have two curved horns, much resembling that of the black dragon artwork.

Now, that all said, if you aren't wanting to make the character itself, but just a dragon inspired by her, cool. The above suggestion by Wartbringer is a great one.