Dragons¶
"John, you don't have to do this."
Sir John ignored his draconian friend.
"Maybe ditch the arms and armor," Bootblack said.
"Nah, I thought of that." John looked down at his gear. "This is who I am. I go in there under some... some pretense and I might foul the whole thing up." He shook his head. "Just another kind of trick."
He turned to Embers. "Any luck?" he asked.
Ember's eyes, currently solid starscape, faded into her normal, goldflecked azure eyes. "Yes," she said, and some tension fled from the group. "Choryvixiar, the Forge of Pain."
"Oh, wonderful," Jackson Bootblack said while the rest of the team groaned.
Embers recalled her void vision. "I know this dragon," she said and closed her eyes. "Wings like sword blades. Choryvixiar razed a dwarven city, the city of Kal Aethyrion."
Dazar gave John a look. "John, Kal Aethyrion was sacked twelve thousand years ago," he said.
"It wanted the legendary armory of Zor, the Metalmaster of Aethyrion. They treated with it. It allowed them to evacuate the city first." Embers opened her eyes and looked at John. "It can be reasoned with," she said, and nodded.
"I think it'll work," John said.
Vaantikalisax put a hand on the pommel of his mace. "Why?" he demanded.
"I'll tell you why," Jackson said. Everyone looked at the polder. "Well, we all know it's in there, right?" Jackson asked, gesturing to the cave. They nodded.
"Then it... or he, I guess, knows we're out here. And he hasn't roasted us, so... maybe he's waiting to hear our offer?"
John smiled at the troubadour having come to the same conclusion he had. He turned to Embers. "A crucible dragon?" She nodded. He sighed.
"The crucibles make fortresses of iron. Steel. And they burn with eternal heat," Dazar said, the second most qualified loremaster among them. "This is just a cave," he said.
Gwillyv appeared with what looked like a metal roof shingle. She passed it to A Mist Curls Around Dying Embers. You could see how heavy it was by the way she held it.
"Yes," Embers said, looking at the metal dragonscale made of blackened iron. She pressed her palm against it. Metal scored over centuries and impregnated with ancient soot. "This creature had a home recently, such as you describe, theochron. But something happened and it was forced to flee. Wounded, probably. This would have been years ago, and it slumbered here since. Then something woke it."
She turned the heavy, metal scale over in her hands. "When a dragon gets this old, all it knows is pain. It becomes hateful, spiteful."
"Yeah, I had a bad toothache once, it was a bitch, I know how it feels," Bootblack said. Everyone ignored him.
"There has to be some other option," Sir Vaantikalisax said.
"Well, I talked to Ffyllynvir or however you pronounce it," John said. "The Thorns are at an impasse. They can't pull back without exposing whole villages to this thing, and they can't bring it down."
"So we fight!" Dazar said and gripped his staff in a battle stance. John shrugged. "They tried that," he said. "If the Thorns couldn't take this thing down I doubt we could. Time to try something else."
Dazar came to inspect the dragonscale. Vaantikalisax grabbed John by the arm. "John, do you know what you're doing?" he said under his breath. Others had asked essentially the same question, but this was Vaant.
John smiled at his friend. "Yeah." He looked at the group arguing about the wisdom of his plan and gestured with his head toward a boulder before walking away from the group. Vaant followed. When they were out of earshot, John explained his plan.
"Look. I don't believe in coincidences, okay? We need the Thorns, at the keep, when Saxton shows up. So what happens? They're tied up with this dragon. Well that's pretty nice for Saxton, isn't it?" He left it at that. Waited for Vaant to catch up.
Vaant looked around. It took him a second. Then he looked at John. "You think Saxton got here before us."
"Yes, I do," John said. "I told you I talked to Ffyllynvir, right? Do you know what they said?" John paused for a moment and his eyes unfocused as he remembered what Embers said the dragon's name was. "Choryvixiar," he said, suddenly coming back to reality, "started this vendetta against the wode elves a week after Saxton came to power. And I think? It might have been less than a week."
"Ah," Vaant said, impressed. "And you don't believe in coincidences."
"If Embers is right, this dragon might be the most dangerous thing, of any kind, in the entire duchy. If I were Saxton? Getting that thing on my side would be my first priority."
"Because if it works," Vaant said, "you start your campaign with a powerful ally. And if it doesn't..."
"Then he starts with a powerful enemy. So, first thing he does is find out whose side the dragon's on."
"Because that dictates his entire strategy." Vaant was impressed and more impressed because he'd known John for years and was still surprised. "Well done, John." Vaant acted like the dragon was already on their side.
"Everyone thinks this is some big risk, some daring ploy," John was looking at the rest of the team. He shook his head, then looked back at Vaant. "But if Saxton did it, if he talked to this thing? I can. And I'm a better negotiator."
"Because you're not an... an 'unrepentant...'" He couldn't remember what the polder, Jackson Bootblack, had called Lord Saxton earlier.
"Cockbag," John finished for him. "I'm not an unrepentant cockbag, yeah, that's the idea."
"Smart," Vaant said and shook John's hand. "Good luck."
"Hey!" Jackson Bootblack said. John turned to look at him. "Saxton's armor is made from the whispering iron," he said. "It's only found in Hell. Pretty good prize for a dragon with taste who turned out to be on the right side. Or no side."
John looked from the polder to the others. "Is that true or did you make it up?"
"I'll tell you after you come out." Bootblack smiled. "If you come out." John shook his head with amused exasperation. Bootblack spread his hands and bowed deeply.
Sir John proceeded toward the cave.
"John," Embers said. John sighed and stopped. "Flatter him," the void mage said. "Appeal to his vanity. Remind him that he's the most powerful thing in all Omund's Land."
"I got it," John said and filed the information away. He didn't really know what he was going to say. He was going to present himself and see what happened.
"And if you're wrong?" Gwylliv whispered. John could barely hear her, but he could guess what she said.
John shrugged with one shoulder. "If I'm wrong, we're all going to die anyway. No point living in fear. Anyone else?" No one said anything. Only Vaant and Embers could look him in the eye.
"Wish me luck," Sir John said, and walked alone into the dragon's lair.
On Dragons¶
Terrifying behemoths. Harbingers of destruction and woe. Dragons claim the world for themselves, throw the innocent into despair, and inspire heroes to draw steel.
Where the Elements Meet Anguish¶
As elementals are pure expressions of the mundane world, their shapes can become hardened and bent by intense energies permeating that world. Over time, an elemental entangled in extreme concentrations of rancor or grief might crystallize into a terrifying creature known as a dragon.
Dragons are both a provocateur and a consequence of people's anguish. A thorn dragon will cover crops and forests in a fortress of bramble vines and threaten to starve the people living there, yet they were born out of decades of hunger and strife that came before them. Vanquishing a dragon might be necessary to save innocent lives, but unless the underlying problems are addressed, another dragon will take their place in time.
Draco Vulgaris¶
Many regular dragons share a number of commonalities between them, such as powerful wings, whiplike tails, and reptilian faces adorned with horns. People categorize dragons more specifically based on where they're found and how those environments have shaped their forms, such as the gloom dragon having a telltale mantle of fog. Some individual dragons retain a trait or two from their primordial forms, while more powerful dragons have been known to intentionally change their shapes to distinguish themselves even further.
Across all dragons, their breath is their most violent form of self-expression. Whether they roar to ward off threats or charge their breath with elemental energy, no good comes from a dragon opening their mouth.
Wyrmscale¶
Most dragons are covered in wyrmscale, a hardy plate that both absorbs and emits elemental energy. Wyrmscale not only protects dragons, but allows them to catalyze their bodies and further shape their environment. The crucible dragon, for example, erupts with blasts of steam that let them take to the air and rain down death upon their foes.
When a dragon feels threatened, their wyrmscale radiates massive amounts of energy and creates a barrier around them. This barrier buffers both incoming and outgoing force, allowing the dragon to become even more fearsome should their defenses break down.
Lords of Their Domains¶
It is said that a dragon's physical form includes the land they're found in. The longer a dragon spends time in a location, the more control they have over it. In an omen dragon's domain, for instance, the land becomes barren as old souls become suspended in its thickened air, with new life unable to breach the soil.
This impact is more than a passive consequence of a dragon's presence, for dragons use their magic to set seals upon creatures and lands they claim as their own. To be "dragonsealed" in this way is to become an extension of the dragon's might and subject to their fury.
Folk in cultures that have developed in close proximity to a dragon might give alms to a dragon as if they were a saint, and treat the dragon's seal as a blessing. There is some value to this, for few other predators are foolish enough to encroach on a dragon's territory.
Dragon Hoards¶
Legendary heroes protect the common folk from dragons. Foolhardy adventurers brave a dragon's lair to take their treasure.
Mature dragons hoard vast amounts of treasure and wealth as a hunting technique. The more valuable their trove, the more prey they lure into their clutches. Desperate kings have sent whole armies to their deaths for the opportunity to expand a kingdom's wealth. Their efforts only expand a dragon's hoard, though, as weapons, armor, and magic trinkets add to the wealth that can't be ignored.
Younger dragons still settling their domains have been known to scour ruins and ancient cities for treasures to start their hoard. It is not unheard of for a dragon to either repeatedly visit or settle near people who willingly give them their valuables and heirlooms.
What's In A Hoard?
It's said that the only creature greedier than a dragon is a dragon hunter. Dragons know this all too well, and their lairs are accordingly well-hidden and guarded. Even if would-be thieves stumble upon an absent dragon's hoard, their troubles are only beginning: some dragons magically know the locations of every treasure purloined from their hoard, while others maintain discreet contacts with local fences and dealers in rare goods.
The following are sample treasures from a dragon's hoard. The hoard contains the treasure from each echelon up to and including the dragon's echelon. These items can be found in Draw Steel: Heroes.
1st Echelon
- Components: Dragon scales, horns, or venom glands
- Titles: Dragon Blooded
- Wealth: Each hero earns 1 wealth
2nd Echelon
- Treasures: Kuran'zoi Prismscale, Purified Jelly
3rd Echelon
- Project Sources: Notes in Vastariax for the Dragon Soul armor enhancement, notes in Zaliac for a Thunderhead Bident
4th Echelon
- Treasures: Blade of Quintessence, Page from the Infinite Library: Solaris
Draco Nobilis¶
Regular dragons should not be confused with the elder dragons, otherwise known as true dragons. These legendary beings are said to be able to devour entire worlds. Even the most fearsome meteor dragon possesses only a modicum of a true dragon's power and wiles.
(The draco nobilis will be explored in future adventures and products.)
Thorn Dragon¶
Thorn dragons take root in the destitution of nature, and are cultivated by the suffering of those who struggle against the cruelty of drought, fire, flood, and more. Though a region's people might have long overcome past famine, the desperation of those who suffered long before has already nurtured their future scourge.
These dragons appear born of the wood, resembling living thickets bedecked in torturous thorns. With twisting briar horns and wings shaped by tangled roots, thorn dragons embody the richness of nature they so readily leech the life from.
Conquerors of the Green¶
Thorn dragons cultivate their lairs in lush farmlands or flourishing forests. They engulf these beautiful regions in massive briar thickets, choking out existing flora until their own brambles are the only things that grow. In forests, this process drives out local fauna smart enough to flee rather than foolishly fight against the wood's new ruler. When a thorn dragon establishes their lair over a village's farmlands, local folk either wisely relocate or slowly starve for the sake of stubborn pride.
Natural Curators¶
More intelligent dragons seek all forms of riches for their hoard, but thorn dragons have no eye for worldly treasures. Instead, they amass the wealth of the wild they represent. Thorn dragons stockpile food—even food they won't eat—alongside uncut gemstones, minerals and ore, wood, oils, and spices.
Bestial Instincts¶
Compared to more powerful dragons, thorn dragons are closer to beasts in temperament. They are incapable of speech and act primarily on instinct as they expand their territories, defend their lairs, and grow their hoards.
Despite this, the folk of certain settlements manage to avoid being driven from their homes or starved at the expense of being dependent on a thorn dragon's bestial ego. These farmers and woods folk come to a tenuous understanding with the dragon, trading them the kinds of treasure they desire in exchange for meager foodstuffs from the dragon's hoard.
Territorial Brutes¶
Thorn dragons are highly territorial, and are vigilant against potential threats to their lairs. To defend their homes, these dragons take advantage of their thickets by dragonsealing intruders, pushing and pulling them across the briars, and letting the thorns bleed them dry. When mere brambles aren't enough, thorn dragons either imbue those brambles' barbs with poison or breathe out those toxins directly, taking pleasure in slowly draining the life from their enemies.
Thorn Dragon's Domain
If the encounter map is a location the dragon has occupied for 1 week or more, all surfaces on the map are covered in overgrowth. Any creature other than the dragon who starts their turn on the encounter map has their speed reduced by 2 (to a minimum of 1). Any creature made restrained while on the ground is also made bleeding.
Gloom Dragon¶
Where twilight spills long and cold over the lands and chilling fog hangs heavy and wet through long autumns and winters, there you will find gloom dragons. Wreathed in churning shadows and wrapped in glittering dark scales, gloom dragons bring with them heavy fog and mist that manifests hallucinations, trapping their prey in nightmares.
Thrill of the Hunt¶
While many dragons command grand enclosed spaces, gloom dragons make their lairs within sprawling, murky wilds, commanding vast territories. As clever as ravens and as cunning as hunting beasts, they use mimicry and hallucinations to draw unsuspecting travelers ever farther into the mists of their domain, until the fog swallows the sound of those travelers' screams.
In areas where gloom dragons settle, people are known to have more nightmares than usual.
Intangible Treasures¶
Gloom dragons are eerie collectors of voices, memories, and nightmares, as well as material items. Though able to speak, they can only repeat exactly what they've already heard, and so they prize their vast collections of voices and phrases, using these sounds to lure mortals close enough to draw out their memories and fears. Endlessly curious and fascinated by terror, gloom dragons are keen to see what hallucinations terrorize their prey before they slaughter them.
When a gloom dragon slays a victim, they take not just their valuables, but also whatever is most meaningful to their fears. A broken mirror from a dead lover will always fascinate a gloom dragon more than a perfect ruby brooch.
Unnerving Neighbors¶
Instinct and curiosity drive these enshrouded hunters. It is rare to find a gloom dragon who can be reasoned with, but some might develop an understanding with nearby settlements, such that each leaves the other to their business. Since gloom dragons focus on individual terrorizing over mass destruction, it is relatively easy to coexist with one lurking in the swamps nearby. But in such cases, these dragons become the subject of stories told to children, warning them to never follow voices into the fog.
Gloom Dragon Languages¶
Eerie myths surround the gloom dragons, for they wield languages they do not themselves speak. These draconic nightmares can mimic any sound they've heard. But more mysteriously, the magic that produces their hallucinations also mimics the sounds a foe's mind produces, no matter their language. If a hero hallucinates a loved one dying, everyone around will hear that loved one's screams for help.
Gloom Dragon's Domain
If the encounter map is a location the dragon has occupied for 1 week or more, illusory magic suffuses the location with shadowy malevolence. Each creature on the encounter map other than the dragon takes a −2 penalty to saving throws made to end the frightened condition. Additionally, whenever a frightened enemy on the encounter map takes damage, they take an extra 3 psychic damage.
Crucible Dragon¶
Crucible dragons are born from metallic elementals touched by the toxic combination of fiery rage and ice-cold grief—often the result of failure in the pursuit of perfection. Each dragon is a dark forge of abandoned creativity melted down in fires of spite, jealousy, and hate.
These metallic dragons are massive, heavy creatures requiring an immense release of heat to engage in flight. Their scales range from gleaming silver to blackened iron, depending on how fastidious they are about cleaning, and are occasionally gilded with more-precious metals. Their long tails terminate with a massive, hammer-like tip that can freeze over and instantly cool hot metal.
Bastions of Steel¶
Crucible dragons make their homes high in the mountains, most commonly in peaks cut through with thick veins of iron ore. Occasionally, one will take over a fortress or outpost, but wherever they settle, the first thing a crucible dragon sets in place is a colossal anvil. From there, the dragon consumes vast amounts of iron, slagging that iron in their belly to create a fortress of steel around them. Much of the slag is expelled into heated vats for forging, but a dragon keeps a small reserve inside their gut in case they need to melt any intrusive adventurers.
Discerning Collectors¶
Crucible dragons are obsessive collectors, and have a habit of narrowly focusing on a singular creation when it comes to collection and replication. Bynirak, the Rain of Ten Thousand Spears, is known to collect only the most finely crafted and powerful magic polearms in Vasloria. Joris'nyrathi, the Scorching Aegis, is said to have a collection of shields that would rival any god of the forge.
All crucible dragons manage to accrue large amounts of armaments and armor in their hoards. They care little for gems and gold, other than for melting down as filigree or embossing the weapons and armor they forge.
Flawed Pursuits¶
The failure that spawned a crucible dragon drives their obsessive pursuits. They endlessly attempt to reproduce the perfect treasures they count among their most prized possessions, but can only recreate flawed copies at a fraction of their original power. Discarded projects, melted heaps of raw iron, and scrap angrily embedded into cavern walls perpetually surround a crucible dragon as examples of their failures, perpetuating a cycle of obsessive rage, grief, and inescapable decline.
Crucible Dragon Languages¶
The oldest of crucible dragons are known to speak some Vastariax, though younger dragons are typically silent. However, survivors of an encounter with a younger crucible dragon sometimes report the monster using the Caelian phrases "not enough" and "mine."
Crucible Dragon's Domain
If the encounter map is a location the dragon has occupied for 1 week or more, melted metal and blades coat nearly every surface. Any creature other than the dragon who starts their turn in physical contact with a surface on the encounter map takes 5 damage. Such creatures take an additional 5 damage when they take damage from being force moved into a surface on the map. Whenever an enemy in the encounter uses an ability that deals lightning damage, they take 1d6 damage to themself and each enemy and object adjacent to them.
Omen Dragon¶
They have been known by many names: Reaper, Blight, Sorrow, Stillness, Vengeance, Grief. The omen dragons carry as many meanings and interpretations as death itself—for they are death embodied. This dragon is a coalescing of wayward souls, the stench of death solidified, that clings to the last vestiges of this world—to the detriment of their surroundings.
Life and Death¶
The opposite of life isn't death—it's stagnation. When a soul refuses to move on, it lives outside the cycle of life. Souls can have any number of reasons to linger: anger, fear, sadness, a thirst for revenge. One skilled at dealing with the undead might even be able to shepherd such a soul back into its cycle. But when hundreds of souls with hundreds of unique motivations bind themselves to an elemental and form an omen dragon, the only practical way to stop them is to destroy what they've become.
As the embodiment of these wayward souls, the omen dragon wields them like weapons. They can send restless souls to grab creatures and pull them in, or to possess their attackers, compelling them to distraction in the middle of a fight. They even wrap themselves in the most durable of souls, creating a stifling aura.
Life Outside Life¶
Just as the omen dragon exists outside the cycle of life, so too does their domain. The omen dragon's dragonseal brings desolation and stagnancy to all living things. Growth does not happen. Living things that grow or creatures who dwell near an omen dragon's domain do not age. One can often find secret societies researching lichdom residing in such sites, for what better place to study than a stagnant wasteland that grants one infinite time?
The effects that surround an omen dragon also mean that new life cannot begin. Civilization cannot exist, let alone prosper, without a reliable food source. When living creatures die in these dragons' domains, their bodies do not decompose. Their souls are sucked into the omen dragon, granting the creature ever more power.
Wicked Visions¶
To face off against an omen dragon is to stare down death itself. One can spend only so long near a choir of restless souls before being compelled to sing. For the sin of defiance, this dragon bestows upon their attackers an omen of their own death. Tarry too long near the creature, and a hero risks fulfilling that prophecy, even if they can weather the dragon's unrelenting attacks.
Omen Dragon Languages¶
An omen dragon speaks with the voices of all the souls they have collected. In addition to Vastariax, the dragon speaks and understands whatever languages those souls knew in life.
Omen Dragon's Domain
If the encounter map is a location the dragon has occupied for 1 week or more, any creature on the map who regains Stamina regains only half the expected amount. Additionally, when a creature on the map who has a soul dies, the dragon absorbs the soul, granting the Director 1 Malice. The creature can't be brought back to life until the dragon is destroyed.
Meteor Dragon¶
They dwell in the cold, airless depths of space in lair-cities built of stolen kingdoms for centuries at a time. Then without warning or mercy, a meteor dragon attacks.
Kingdom Killers¶
A meteor dragon's territory is hard to define. Their attacks might come ages apart, and not every dead civilization or ruined city is the work of a dragon. But when a city grows too great, an empire too powerful, or a culture too advanced, the meteor dragon descends. Their violence isn't mindless or wanton, but cold and calculated. Often, they breach dams, trigger landslides, and devastate granaries and fields, knowing that the chaos and devastation they unleash will continue long after they return to their lairs.
Cities in the Sky¶
Other dragons hoard trinkets and baubles. Meteor dragons claim their domain over infrastructure. Palaces, fortresses, monuments, and towers are often stolen by these creatures and brought back to their spacefaring lairs, arranged into dilapidated tableaus of the places they have obliterated. A meteor dragon's floating lair-city is both their hoard and home, fused together and secured by the dragon's glittering crystal dragonseal. Within this labyrinthine jumble of ruination, a meteor dragon lurks in wait for the next civilization to grow too comfortable.
Avatar of the Infinite¶
Meteor dragons have an innate mastery over gravitational forces that allows them to crush enemies and buildings on a whim. They're among the smallest of the dragons, but the density of their bodies exudes an intense field of the cold, airless void of space around them wherever they go.
A meteor dragon's body is infused with crystalline starlight, which they can convert to a barrage of white-hot energy rays. At any distance, the dragon's presence can forever sear the minds of lesser creatures.
Voidlight Annihilation¶
Voidlight is the name given to the unique energy produced by the breath of a meteor dragon. It is anathema to existence, an evil energy that destroys all. Anything that exists, no matter its material, strength, or potency, is inverted and ceases to exist when bathed in voidlight.
Meteor Dragon Languages¶
Meteor dragons are not known for their conversational habits. When they do deign to speak, it is exclusively in Vastariax and the First Language.
Meteor Dragon's Domain
If the encounter map is a location the dragon has occupied for 1 week or more, each creature other than the dragon has their stability reduced to 0 and automatically obtains a tier 1 outcome on Agility tests. Additionally, any creature who is suffocating during the encounter takes an extra 1d6 damage at the end of each round.
Crucible Dragon
- Solo MonsterTrait
- Magnetized Wyrmscale AuraTrait
- Slag SpewMain actionSignature
- Forge Hammer Tail SlamMain action
- Heat BufferTrait
- Thermodynamic FlightManeuver1 Malice
- Hammer and AnvilFree triggered action1 Malice
- Polarize AuraTriggered action1 Malice
- Heart of the ForgeVillain Action 1
- Subdermal ShieldingVillain Action 2
- Polarity ChaosVillain Action 3
Gloom Dragon
- Solo MonsterTrait
- Gloaming Wyrmscale AuraTrait
- Breath of BrumeMain actionSignature
- Phantom Tail SwingMain action
- Shadow SkulkTrait
- Visions in the DarkManeuver5 Malice
- Encroaching DarknessFree triggered action1 Malice
- Enveloping UmbrageVillain Action 1
- Pall of NightmaresVillain Action 2
- Absence of All LightVillain Action 3
Meteor Dragon
- Solo MonsterTrait
- Voidshroud Wyrmscale AuraTrait
- Gravity WellMain actionSignature
- Cosmic Tail RayMain action
- Crescent ClawsTrait
- Investiture of GravityManeuver5 Malice
- Field CollapseFree triggered action
- A Hero Faces the VoidFree triggered action2 Malice
- Impactful ArrivalVillain Action 1
- Burning AuroraVillain Action 2
- Voidlight BreathVillain Action 3
Omen Dragon
- Solo MonsterTrait
- DeathcountTrait
- Stagnant Wyrmscale AuraTrait
- Corroding BreathMain actionSignature
- Barbed Tail SwingMain action
- Death or VictoryTrait
- DetonationManeuver5 Malice
- Don't Turn AwayFree triggered action1 Malice
- Repent!Free triggered action2 Malice
- What You DeserveVillain Action 1
- Souls of the BrokenVillain Action 2
- So Long and GoodnightVillain Action 3
Thorn Dragon
- Solo MonsterTrait
- Withering Wyrmscale AuraTrait
- Virulent BreathMain actionSignature
- Spinous Tail SwingMain action
- Provoking NettlesTrait
- Investiture of VerdureManeuver5 Malice
- Prickly SituationFree triggered action
- Thorny ScalesFree triggered action1 Malice
- Briar BindingsVillain Action 1
- Thorned ArmorVillain Action 2
- Malign ThicketVillain Action 3