Lore

The Laws of nature are unavoidable, absolute, and eternal. What is born surely dies. For every balmy, warm summer, there is a chilling, cruel winter. Day invariably gives way to night. Above has below- its opposite. Black is parallel to white, and all that is good has an equal in evil. In short, each thing that exists has its direct counterpart, a reversed mirror-image that balances its place, and indeed its meaning, in the whole existence of life.

All natural things have their respective opposites, except Zuth. Zuth is the personification of this harmonious force of balances and opposites. Zuth is ancient, it is enormous, and it is the ultimate expression of nature's absolute and impressionable will.

Legend tells that Zuth was created for all elements. The supra-personal Will of Nature drew from itself a powerful being to act as a counter to the presence of dragons. After all, being that they are creatures of magic, dragons are outside the bounds of natural order. Zuth rises from its deep slumber when it senses the call to restore symmetry between all dragons: good or evil, gold or black, fire or ice.

If there are too many green dragons in the world Zuth corrects that dysfunction. If there are a surplus of bronze dragons, Zuth restores the average.

Zuth is forever. Even if destroyed, it always takes birth again in time. When Zuth sheds one of its scales, that scale works its way deep into the Earth like an oak seed. There, within a cradle of dirt and stone and throughout several centuries, the scales form an exact duplicate of Zuth. Therefore, even if one version of Zuth is defeated, another will always return to take its place in order to restore Natures order.

Zuth possesses non-verbal intelligence. It thinks only in images and only has the base emotions of an animal. Its communication is telepathic, expressing its will with imagery and emotional impressions. Often it is to difficult to determine its exact motives and aims, as the images often have no context, leaving the guess work entirely in the hands of those who receives the impressions.

Obviously, the presence of Zuth has fueled many speculations as to why it exists in the world, and some druids have come to the revere this mighty creature, lending to it a status of a demi-god, or a potent spirit of nature.

Zuth awakens when the stars align in a particular formation. Once in a century and yet once every thousand years, a purge occurs. In this purge, Zuth rises to destroy dragons indiscriminately. Other dragons of all types seem to sense each upcoming cleansing. The world sees far more dragon activity as they collectively panic in the weeks and months before a forthcoming purge. Zuth destroys all unlucky ones among dragons that are in its path. During such purging events, the dragon population is culled without any logical pattern, and the events last until Zuth is destroyed.

A great mystery lies in Zuth designless cullings. How can there be any balance in absolute destruction? It is a question none but Nature itself can answer.

Hook

The PCs are approached by a gold dragon who has been pursued by Zuth for many weeks. They are encouraged to assist the dragon upon promises of riches, prestige, or from future aid from the dragon itself. Upon their investigation, the group discovers a druidic cult that has grown up around the stories of Zuth. Its members will interfere with the groups plans and try to thwart them at all passes. If the group gets to close to Zuth. If the group gets to close to Zuth, the cult will assemble in full force and attack. Should the group prevail, the final encounter with Zuth is imminent. If successful the gold dragon will reward the group appropriately. (This is only my suggestion of a hook do or modify what you will with this information.)

Encounter Conditions

The edge of a large forest or mountain range. (just to make fight manageable. Can be anywhere with a modified hook.)

Encounter

Tracking of following Zuth is relatively easy, given the potential trail of destruction, it may leave. However, if Zuth is below ground, the only indicator of its movement are the occasional earth tremors. Zuth is fully capable of emerging anywhere on the planet.

Tactics

Zuth's main tactic is surprise, leveraging its ability to Earth Glide 120 ft. It will use its advantage when stalking any prey, and it usually ambushes dragons within their lairs. If any encounter starts to become a challenge, Zuth will simply burrow down and emerge at a more strategic location. Essentially, rather than soaring the skies, Zuth "flies" underground.

Wealth

Tracking Zuth reveals precious metals, gems, and random items that may have stuck to its body over time. Such items were picked up as it burrowed through veins of gold and ancient geode pockets deep within the earth. The finds are quite random, but the PCs may collect the equivalent of a small goldmine's worth of treasure by following his trail above the surface and picking up what has fallen off its body.