Dragons

      Winged Serpents, also referred to as Lesser Dragons, Common Dragons (the term we will use here), or (by the irreverent) “Dragonettes”, are found throughout the Western world, in virtually every environment and habitat type known.  They are generally defined as large, winged creatures of either lizard or serpentine form, but specifically with four “walking” limbs and separate wings.  The latter definition sets them specifically apart from creatures with wyvern-like (bat form) or roc-like (bird form) appendages.  Fully grown, these creatures can easily reach lengths of 60 feet or more in length as adults, with a wingspan even greater.

     Dragons are an ancient race, one of the oldest, with some sages believing they trace their lineage to the very creation of the Prime Material plane itself.  As individuals, their lifespan is measured in centuries, possibly reaching a thousand years or more.  As a rule they have average to exceptional intelligence, and are conversant in a wide variety of languages, including human dialects and their native Draconic.  All are highly magical creatures, and most have extensive arcane knowledge and ability commensurate with their tremendous life spans.  They come in a wide variety of shapes and colors, which vaguely tends to correspond to the habitat types they prefer.   

      Although we technically call them "Lesser" Dragons, there is really nothing lesser about them.  A Lesser Dragon, even a young one, is still going to be a class 9 or 10 encounter on the Guild scale, meaning about as dangerous as anything an adventurer can encounter.  They are enormously powerful creatures, with big claws and big teeth capable of tearing through magical armor, and a scaly hide virtually impenetrable to non-magical weapons.  Their senses of sight, smell, and hearing are extraordinary, rendering them generally immune to illusion magic (including invisibility).  Their magical nature gives them an inherent magic resistance, usually slight to moderate, and those that aren't  actual spellcasters tend to have magical abilities relevant to their natural habitats.  Of course they can fly, but they can also be strong enough to pick up a man and horse fly, high enough to make the fall a truly terminal ending.  

     And then there is dragon breath.  There are many kinds, and contrary to popular opinion, an individual dragon's breath weapon isn't inherently predicted by it's color.  There are, indeed, tendencies, but many an adventurer has lost their lives assuming it's a hard and fast rule.  Of all types, fire seems the most common by far, and reported in dragons of every type and color, but frost, lightning, gaseous, and acidic-reactive breath weapons can be considered "standard" expectations.  There are some records of dragons with more than a single type of breath weapon ability, but these incidents seem rare.  In any form, it's deadly even in very young dragons and clearly grows stronger as the creature ages.     

    It's not surprising that wherever they are found, Lesser Dragons are always the apex predator of their area.  They tend to be highly territorial, favoring either a specific habitat (swamp, mountains, etc.) or a specific location (ancient ruins or landmarks), and there's very little that happens in a dragon's territory that it won't soon learn about.  They are also active; unlike the Elder Dragons, Lesser Dragons have a relatively short sleep cycle, perhaps only a few days, in between weeks of activity.  Fortunately, they are highly individualistic creatures that lead predominantly solo lives, and despite the legends of the fabled " Dragon Hills", there are no known examples of dragons living in groups.  Mothers do, of course, raise young for a brief period of time, but it is believed that even then juvenile dragons fairly quickly set out on their own.  

     Lesser Dragons have a wide range of motivations and interests, and their long life spans give them time to indulge them.  Some become substantial historians and lore masters, often with a surprising degree of knowledge in affairs well beyond their individual territories.  On the other hand, some appear interested in little more than eating anything that looks tasty.  So it's fair to say there is a fair amount of variance from dragon to dragon.  But whatever their personal inclinations, one thing does appear universal amongst them, and that is their legendary propensity for treasure collection.  Some are fairly active in this endeavor, others seem to simply keep souvenirs from dead intruders.  But where there is a dragon, there will be a dragon horde;  the compulsion to collect wealth and treasures is as universal amongst their kind as the teeth, claws, and the rest of the package.  The importance of this cannot be overemphasized, as understanding a dragon's motivation can make the difference between having a successful negotiation and ending up as dragon dinner. 

      Although there are no Lesser Dragons known to be active in the Blackmoor area as of the current  publication date, there have been a number of these creatures prominent in Blackmoor adventuring history.  Early in the 8th century PC, a powerful white dragon was identified in the northern Barrier Peaks, but it seldom flew into the valley area, and the few attacks it inflicted on Blackmoor appear to be more retaliations against intrusive adventurers than the normal campaign of dragon-terror.  It appears to have died in some kind of conflict with Frostcrag Peak, possibly the Mistress of the Castle itself, in 1205.  Rumors of its unfound treasure horde persist to this day.  The Razorbacks, on the other hand, have hosted dragon lairs four separate times in Blackmoor's history, the last in the middle to late 1700s.  While each proved a terrible curse in their time, all eventually fell to efforts of Blackmoor's military and adventuring communities.  And in the middle 1200s, a black dragon named Marrion was first confirmed in the Misty Marsh, a creature who, over the centuries, would prove to be both elusive and reclusive, but also a passionate loremaster and student of arcane art, and one open to negotiation and exchange.  It was common to say that it wasn't Marrion that was dangerous, just that darn Marsh around him.  However, the last known contact with this dragon is now well over two hundred years old, and there is speculation as to whether Marrion (known to be very old) may have simply died of natural causes.  On the other hand, no one has found any bones yet, either.  

       True Dragons, also known as the Elder Dragons, are the absolute pinnacle of Prime Material plane creatures, and truly deserving of the title "Legendary".  There is nothing else like them on the Prime Material plane; they are the most singularly powerful creatures we know of, so much so that they have been worshipped as gods by not just numerous humanoid cultures, but even by primitive human cultures early in mankind's development.  They are probably the oldest creatures in existence, possibly true Immortals, apparently present in elven and dwarven legends that predate humanity by tens of thousands of years.  They have intervened in and affected human history probably since before its recordings even begin.  Throughout all, they are the ultimate symbol of terror and power, of mass destruction and overwhelming disaster.  Yet the are also the source of fabled wealth and magical power, and the known lairs of Elder Dragons have become the ultimate symbol of adventuring risk and opportunity. There really is nothing else even in their category.

      The scale and power of each of these creatures defies belief, but the historical record has left clear enough descriptions that exaggeration seems unnecessary.  They are creatures of truly nightmare proportions; the size of a small building, big enough to seize an elephant in their jaws and powerful enough to fly away with it, capable of crushing stone structures and even castle walls just by landing on them.  The scales covering their lizard-like bodies are tough enough to turn aside not just normal weapons or projectiles, but even most magical ones.  The immense strength of their massive hands can snap bones like paper, a strike of their tail can knock a knight unconscious, and a single strike of their razor-sharp talons will slice through armor and can disembowel a horse.    

       As if they could be more formidable, Elder Dragons are creatures of a magical nature whose use of arcane power has been recorded by known arch-mages as "off the human scale".  The power they channel is so strong it gives them godlike magic resistance, and they don't so much cast magical spells as cause magical events, using power at a deeper and more fundamental level than we understand.  It is no exaggeration to say it takes not just mages but guilds of mages to try and defend against an Elder Dragon's magical power.    

      And of course they have dragon breath, and it is on the same scale they do everything else -- overwhelming.  While Tarestor specifically has never been known to use anything except fire, we're pretty sure they all can breathe the full range of known breath types.  Unquenchable fire, stone-shattering lightning, a deadly freeze destroying animal and plant alike, a toxic acidic rain that melts flesh and wood, a vast gas cloud in which breathing is impossible, sonic vibrations that can knock down entire castles, take your pick, they've got it.  In whatever form used, it is unquestionably the most devastating mass-attack possessed by any creature native to the Prime Material Plane.  

       With perhaps the exception of the Gold Dragon Magua Ti, every time an Elder Dragon appears, complete disaster inevitably befalls whatever peoples are there.  It's no exaggeration to say these are creatures capable of destroying not just cities and towns but entire kingdoms and even cultures.  Many ancient historians believe that early human development may have been set back by centuries by the interventions of these creatures, and in our recorded history, there are repeated examples of what an Elder Dragon on a rampage really means.  There's no such thing as "beating" an Elder Dragon, not in the sense of killing one, certainly.  That's universally accepted as not possible by any known means.  They can occasionally be driven away, usually by assembling a coalition of mage guilds, heroes with artifact weapons, and the greatest priests of a kingdom's combined churches, or something similar.  That's a win, although whatever survives may take decades to repair or replace.  But that's the best-case scenario, and it doesn't happen very often.    

      If there is anything "good" about Elder Dragons it's that their appearances are relatively rare.  This is because there aren't that many of them, and they aren't active very often.  The Elder Dragons do not appear to be breeding population but a specific group of unique individuals, the exact number of which is unclear.  While most experts believe there are more, we actually know of only six, and of them only four seem to regularly appear in human affairs.  And fortunately, regularly does not equate to frequently.  While each Dragon is a little different in its habits, they all tend to have active periods measured in years, followed by dormant periods measured in decades.  As a result, each of the active four typically makes an appearance at most once or twice a century, adding up to maybe five or six appearances every century across the Western world as a whole.  While each is a tragedy for people somewhere, in the grand scale, they are painful, but not mortal, wounds.  

      The actual number of Elder Dragons is a hotly debated topic amongst sages.  It is generally accepted that there are ten natural dragon colors, five grouped as "chromatic" (black, blue, green, red, white) and five as "metallic" (iron, copper, bronze, silver, gold), and that further there should be one Elder Dragon of each color type.  Yet this theory is immediately contradicted by the facts.  The six we know are Alcagon the Black, Jurgathar the Green, Magua Ti the Gold, Ssesterus the White, Tarestor the Red, and Kaladrax the Red.  Why there are two red dragons is a question that has no theory has an answer for.  Whether this is just an anomaly, or whether it means all the theories are wrong, we just don't know.   

     At the same time, there is at best between marginal to zero empirical evidence of further dragons of different color.  While the existence of a blue dragon named Penthar is generally accepted based on indirect evidence (the Blue Orb of Dragonkind) and ancient legends of both Elven and Dwarven origin, there is in truth no hard proof for this creature, and even less can be said for potential others.  Evidence for an Iron Dragon and a Silver one exist in Dwarven and Elven tales respectively, but are arguably based on questionable translations of already vague historical tales.  Until just recently, both the Bronze and Copper Dragons had not a shred of evidence supporting their existence, a condition abruptly changed by the recent (1841) discovery by Frankish heroes of the Bronze Orb.  

       Ironically, while the Elder Dragons represent the most singularly dangerous thing any adventuring hero could want to encounter, their lairs they inhabit represent the pinnacle of adventuring opportunity.  While we don't really know very much about Elder Dragon motivation, it is clear they collect treasures, both precious and magical, on a scale commensurate with their status as the apex of the Prime Material plane, and all of these end up in the Dragon's lair.  These aren't just caves, they are intricate labyrinths usually containing not one but many treasure rooms, guarded by underlings and minions of every type imaginable, and containing wealth and treasures so old as to be lost even to dragon-memory.  Any one of these vaults can contain more wealth and treasure than any adventurer group might carry away.  

      Many try.  They say it is a simple gamble:  the lair is like a giant chessboard with many pieces, and only one is the Wumpus.  Avoid it, you can win;  and if not, well, game over and thanks for playing.  Some try stealth, some try speed, some try misdirection, and those that know when to run often actually survive.  There are even those who advocate up-front negotiation (read: sacrifice), gambling that what is offered will be enough to satisfy greed and desire.  Some succeed, some don't.  A few come home rich, stupendously fund-your-own-kingdom wealthy.  Others have returned with power in the form of magical artifacts lost for generations, perhaps millennia, items whose influence has changed the course of kingdoms and empires.  And while there are surely more that end as dragon dinner as those who return with glory, there are enough of the latter that the lairs of the Elder Dragons represent an allure to the professional adventurer that cannot be matched anywhere else.    

      Details on the individual Elder Dragons are given below.

       Of all the Elder Dragons, the red dragon Tarestor is probably the most known and feared of them all.  In some cultures to this day, his very name is a symbol of fear, and many a misbehaving child has been put to bed warned by a parent that "Tarestor will get you if you don't watch out!" Almost every major kingdom and civilization in the west has at some point directly felt his wrath, his deprivations have without question altered world history, and it is impossible to even guess at how far back he has set the civilizations of the Western world.  

     It's fair to call Tarestor an iconic symbol of evil, for wherever he strikes, it is a disaster of the highest magnitude.  His assaults are violent and without mercy, and he seems to delight in destruction simply for its own sake.  Every fortress and castle, every city and town, every motley collection of buildings in the area is under a death watch, and he has been known to literally depopulate entire kingdoms.  His behavior is capricious, but inevitably cruel.  While his favor can be courted, through tribute of magic, wealth, and sacrificial victims, in most cases it will only buy time.  The extortion is repeated, the price climbs higher, until of course it can no longer be met.  

       To make matters worse, his very presence in an area seems a stimulus to every malevolent and evil creature in the realm, and particularly humanoid populations like orcs and goblins.  Cities and towns shattered by dragon fire become easy prey for forces previously held in check, and these often become the final agents of destruction for all but the strongest of communities.  Some fight; most lose, very few win, and it's often hard to tell the difference.    

      Stories of Tarestor date to very early in human history, beginning with the pre-literate early cultures of the Celtic Isles during the First Age, where he was considered a terrible and vengeful god whose wrath had to be continually placated.  Many scholars of human history consider the slow cultural development of these lands a distinct result of possibly seven to eight centuries of the Dragon's domination, and it is surely significant that real civilization in the Celtic Isles clearly begins only when Tarestor is driven out of the Isles in approximately -455 PC in circumstances that remain historically unclear.  

      For the next five centuries, history loses track of Tarestor.  There are during this time a number of cities or young kingdoms which are abruptly destroyed across the Western world whose demise is attributed to the Dragon's intervention, but since there are no records there is no tangible proof.  It is not until 183 PC that the Dragon makes a confirmed re-appearance by beginning a nearly decade-long assault on the kingdoms of the Vikings, eastern Rus, and Teutonic states.  Not long after, his lair was identified as a rocky and still-volcanic island north of the primary Celtic Isles.    

      Since 183 PC, with the exception of the period of roughly 850 to 1271 PC, Tarestor has regularly appeared somewhere in the Western world roughly two times every three centuries or so, and for somewhere between five and ten years, terrorizes a wide geographic area.  Distance is not an issue, as Tarestor has appeared as far east and south as Babylonian lands, but probably half of his appearances are focused in the northwestern kingdoms of the Vikings, Teutonic States, Germans, and Franks, where few generations grow old without having at least one memory of this creature's wrath.      

       Tarestor's long residence in a single lair has made it an obvious target for adventurers, but it is not an easy road.  The sea voyage requires sailing through wild waters featuring ship-breaking sea creatures and malevolent elemental spirits of both air and water.  The Dragon's rugged island is honeycombed with endless caves and passages, and with at least three treasure vaults each filled with unimaginable riches.  The halls are also well filled with minions and defenses, all of whose purpose is merely to alert Tarestor that thieves are afoot.  Raiding Tarestor's lair is considered to be essentially a gamble with time.  If you get in and out quickly enough, you can win.  Stay long enough, and Tarestor will find you.  He's even been known to pursue fleeing explorers out to sea.  There aren't a lot of successes on the record, but there are plenty of failures.  And with Tarestor, even success is a qualified term.  On more than one occasion, it appears that Tarestor has identified individual thieves (as he sees it) who have stolen from him and deliberately raided their homelands in retaliation.      

      In the category of Bad Dragons, Tarestor may have to rank at the top of the list.  He has been given many names; the Destroyer, the Scourge, the Red Death, the Firebringer, the Cruel;  they are all appropriate.  He is considered the archetypical Dragon, Chaotic Evil to the core, a creature without pity or mercy that delights in its ability to terrorize and to destroy. Unpredictable, capricious, greedy, vain, and destructive, he is an embodiment of physical force and violence and a scourge on mankind's existence for which there appears to be no answer.

      The green Dragon Jurgathar is often called "the Wanderer" by sages who study the Elder Dragons.  This nickname comes from his habit of periodically changing lairs.  Unlike most of the other Elder Dragons, Jurgathar will generally take a lair in a deep forest or remote hills, remaining there for anywhere from five to eight centuries and appearing once or twice each century to ravish nearby civilizations.  Then he will abruptly leave.  He is never forced out or driven away, there is seldom any particular event one can point to, or any "state of destruction" he inflicts before moving onward.  One day Jurgathar is there, the next day he isn't, and might next appear halfway across the continent, starting a new lair.  

      Stranger still, each time Jurgathar moves, he leaves behind a vast treasure horde that represents the results of his depravations over his time there.  We don't know if there are treasures he takes, but what he leaves behind each time is the stuff of legends.  Yet it also gives justice to the fabled curse of dragon treasure, for when Jurathar moves on, wars have erupted over claims on what remains behind.  If the Dragon takes satisfaction in this, or if he is oblivious, we don't know, but it is an incontestable part of his legacy.  

      The earliest reports of Jurgathar come from early Sumerian and pre-empire Phoenician histories, as early as -1000 PC.  After at least six to seven centuries of regular raiding, the Dragon abruptly disappeared;  when his abandoned (by the dragon only) lair was famously captured in -362 PC, the wealth obtained propelled the developing Sumerian empire into its first Golden Age.  The Green Dragon re-appeared on a small rocky island in the northwestern Phoenician Sea in -320 PC, from where he absolutely devastated the kingdoms of the western and central Gauls, and further prevented virtually seaborne exploration of the western Phoenician Sea west of Sicily for nearly five centuries.  His last sighting came in 170 PC, and the well-garrisoned lair he left behind took decades for adventurers to fully plunder, and legends contend that there are still unfound passages and storerooms.        

     Jurgathar next appeared in the deepest forests of the central Western continent, lands still wild to this day.  From there he raided human, elven, and dwarven kingdoms throughout the northwest continent, appearing as often as three times per century between roughly 182 and 766 PC.  When he finally abandoned his lair, probably around 780 PC, the resulting "gold rush" invoked an entire series of wars that lasted over a century and left scars between races and kingdoms that still remain.  

      For almost five centuries, Jurgathar is absent from the historical record, but he re-appears late in the late 12th century to begin raiding first the early Greek city-states, and ultimately extending his reach to the Ostragoths and even raiding the western Babylonian Empire in 1423-1424. Some time shortly after 1500, he again made a typically abrupt departure, and once again the riches he left behind ignited a series of particularly bitter wars between kingdoms eager to claim them.  In 1582 he appeared again, attacking Teutonic kingdoms along the Baltic coast.  Since then he has regularly attacked communities Russian, German, and even Celtic lands across the northern half of the continent.  His lair was identified in the early 1600s, this time in the mountainous woodlands of the western continent, and he remains there since.

      Of all the Elder Dragons, the one surrounded by the greatest mysteries is Penthar the Blue.  Sages and scholars are certain that he exists, but beyond that, we know almost nothing. 

       As far as direct human experience goes, Penthar is a story without substance.  There have been many claimed sightings of this Dragon, always a vague blue dragon-shape, in the air at some distance, flying in essentially a random direction towards an unknown destination.  None have any real credibility.  Stories of supposed encounters with this Dragon, or of finding evidence such as shed scales, broken teeth, claws or horns, all pop up periodically, and again, none are ever validated.  We've never really had any empirical evidence for this Dragon, but experts still place him on the "known to exist list", based specifically on credible sources that predate humanity entirely. 

      For it appears both elven and dwarven lore contains virtually identical descriptions of a great Blue dragon, named Penthar, alternatively called "the Watcher", "the Guardian", "the Keeper", and several other names as well.  What we know is sketchy, and based on often-controversial translations of partial texts or records, and not made easier by a notorious reluctance by either race to reveal or confirm much about their own history or legends.  As the names make clear, he is implied to have some kind of guardian, protective, or defensive responsibility, but regarding what, or how, the translations break down.  A place, an item, a gateway, secret knowledge, infinite power, the doom of the world, you can take your pick, it's just not clear.   But what is clear enough is that the fragments we know are part of larger legends accepted as historical fact by their respective peoples, and for that reason alone, they must be considered credible.   

     The black Dragon Alcagon has been a regular, probably even frequent plague (pun fully intended) throughout human history, but proof of his presence is difficult to document.  Unlike his brethren, Alcagon's assaults are neither spectacular nor overwhelming, but are instead subtle and gradual affairs which begin small and slow yet inevitably bloom into uncontrolled disasters.  

      Alcagon, often called the Slow Death, is the bringer of disease, poisons, and deadly plagues to civilized communities.  It is thought that his method is to actually take residence in human form in a human community of choice, usually a large city but on occasions a strategic rural site has served equally well.  Slums and ghettos are his favored abodes, the more naturally loathsome, the better.  At first he holds his power back, and instead uses his knowledge and influence to recruit corruptible community members, typically rogues and wizards.  

      With a satisfactory network in place, the Dragon's assault begins.  Plagues and diseases will break out across the community, rapidly appearing not just in the central location but across entire kingdoms within days.  The miasma will spread not just through the population, but will spread as well into rural areas and the natural environment itself.  Crops fail, trees sicken and die, natural animals will flee if they can and will become themselves infested if they cannot.  All of it is unusually resistant to curing or cleansing, through arcane, holy, even druidical magic.

      And yet there are always a few places that appear almost magically plague-free, and a few special individuals with true healing powers.  These are, of course, Alcagon's secret chosen, and they are allowed to profit from their new power as they see fit, as long as they meet the Dragon's price.  And like any good blackmail (sorry) artist, that price inevitably increases as the miasma spreads.  As they exist only at the Dragon's whim, it is perhaps not surprising that in the end, most inevitably fall victim themselves to a terrible demise before the plagues finally come to an end.          

      It is a true measure of the black Dragon's evil character that the diseases his presence brings are typically not of themselves highly fatal.  Instead, they tend to be debilitating, severely and for long periods, sometimes permanently.  A sick person requires a healthy one to care for them, and when enough people are removed from their daily lives, societal collapse quickly follows.  Farmers can't bring in food, merchants can't move goods, broken items can't be fixed when there aren't enough artisans to meet demand.  Neighboring kingdoms or peoples might offer help, but at what risk to themselves?  The famine and internal rioting that occurs as life beaks down will kill more than the diseases themselves, but it seems that it the mass suffering rather than actual death count that gives the Dragon satisfaction.  

      Yet while his pattern is consistent, his actual presence is often a difficult thing to prove.  He almost never appears in Dragon form, always taking the guise of either an arcane or unholy conjuror of some type, and remaining a "behind-the-scenes" power rather than a front man.  There are a few occasions where he has revealed himself, each time essentially at the end of his particular assault, but more often he simply disappears, inevitably having devastated populations over a vast area.  As a result, the constant question always accompanies his legends -- "yes, but was it really him?"  

      Alcagon has a second element that adds to his mystery;  no one has ever found his true lair, the place where he (presumably) sleeps in between his assaults.  His "rampage lair" established during an attack typically becomes a lucrative dungeon once he leaves, both because of leftover treasures and leftover lieutenants.  But where he goes, nobody truly knows.  While most common black dragons are found in swamps or deep forests, most experts believe Alcagon permanently resides in one of the Western world's many mountain ranges.  Since it has never, as far as we know, ever been plundered, Alcagon's horde might represent the most spectacular of all dragon treasures.  Yet despite literally a millennia of searching, its location still remains elusive.

Ssesterus is a white dragon known to live in the arctic region of the high northeast, beyond the Rus and even the barbarian orc tribes.  Next to Tarestor, he might be the most widely known and most active of all the Elder dragons in modern times.  He is occasionally described as an uncaring force of nature, not so much evil as simply reflecting the cruel and harsh side of the natural world.  Undoubtedly, his victims would find this description entirely too forgiving.

      In human history, accounts of Ssesterus begin somewhere around -200 PC, but most scholars believe he is active many centuries before this and is simply not identified.  Like Tarestor, he seems capable of appearing anywhere, and in the post-War age alone he has been documented by Viking, Rus, Teutonic, Celtic, German, Frankish, Greek, Gothic and Byzantine cultures.  Although he may have a few more appearances in the more northerly parts of the continent, Ssesterus shows no real pattern or particular favor to any geographic area.  

      His rampages have their own unique pattern of development. Unprovable but consistent stories claim he often first visits kingdoms and countries throughout the area he intends to attack in the guise of a human sorcerer all dressed in white, the better to learn their strengths, weaknesses, and wealth.  In any case, he generally begins by secretly establishing a lair in a strategic location, itself preferably remote but providing access to a wider geographic area, preferably both well-populated and wealthy.  There he remains quiet, usually gathering a minor entourage of local creatures within his lair, but otherwise simply allowing his magic to take effect. 

     Winter comes early that year to kingdoms throughout the area, and Spring comes late, followed by a short summer of unusually bad weather.   Fall comes early, and winter begins even earlier, when the calendar still says Fall.  Only at this point is it clear it's not just a bad weather year, that the entire year's agricultural yield is shot, and that something is seriously wrong.  As the second winter sets in, the Dragon now begins to identify himself, overflying cities and towns and allowing himself to be seen throughout the area.  He often conducts small demonstration attacks on places of low value but high visibility, but at this stage it is time, not violence, that he prefers as a weapon.  

      At this point it is winter until Ssesterus says otherwise.  Cold, even frigid temperatures continue unabated, snow and ice remain throughout what the calendar claims are Spring and Summer months.  Ssesterus himself inevitably remains visible but largely aloof in his chosen abode.  Time is on his side, he is in no hurry.  

     What happens next largely depends on the reaction of the affected lands and kingdoms.  They can negotiate, or they can fight.  Ssesterus is perfectly content to be bribed to go away, but his price is always high.  He has a particular knack for demanding some of the most powerful weapons and artifacts possessed by a kingdom, even items otherwise kept concealed or even secret from normal knowledge.  If his demands are refused, he is content to stay until either they are met or he is driven away.  Fighting is not entirely out of the question;  experience proves that a local alliance that can produce enough heroes has a real chance to drive him from his lair, but it also proves the Dragon won't hesitate to retaliate if that attack fails.   

       For as long as any human history records, Ssesterus has always resided in the same place, a rocky and ice-coated mountain, actually an island in a sea half-frozen for a short part of the year and solid ice for the rest.  It was discovered by adventurers fairly early in the First Age, and was soon given the nickname "The Frozen Citadel".  It has continued to attract adventurers ever since, as its countless rooms and chambers are filled with two things to excite any adventurer -- guardians and treasures.

       Whereas we think of most Elder Dragons with one or perhaps several big treasure hordes, Ssesterus appears to have dozens upon dozens of minor ones.  A popular rumor describes the Frozen Citadel as "one hundred rooms of treasures", and while that might be true, a hundred rooms of monsters is more likely.  It's clear there is a vast amount of space under the mountain's ice-covered slopes, and the Dragon seems content to let much of it guard itself.  The prevalence and dangers of the guards and minions are not to be underestimated, and disturbing enough of them will quite literally "wake the dragon".  But for those willing to take a smash-and-run mentality, there's profit to be gained.  It's probably fair to say that more raids on the Frozen Citadel have both been attempted and have succeeded than those on any other Elder Dragon lair.  It's probably equally fair to say it has equally claimed more lives as well.  

      Known to various cultures as "the Loremaster", "Whisperer of Secrets", and "Keeper of Knowledge", Magua Ti the Gold Dragon is famous for both the extent of his knowledge and the price he will demand to share it.  The Gold Dragon is held by many to be the greatest source of arcane knowledge and lore on the Prime Material plane.  

      Unlike his brother Dragons, Magua Ti is a true recluse.  He lives in a high mountain valley in just about the most unreachable part of the High Alpine Mountains.  Unlike the other Dragons, he doesn't travel, and in fact never leaves his valley;  he is always to be found on a rocky outcrop overlooking a small lake in the center of the valley.  The surrounding land is a magically saturated realm with its own unique population of creatures and inhabitants.  It cannot be reached by magical travel, but there is a specific route known to lead through the mountains to reach it.  The trails and climbs involved are long, difficult, and dangerous;  the legends associated with them claim those who travel the paths are intentionally tested and that the Dragon is aware of all that happens along them.  

      To any who can survive the difficult trek to reach him, the Dragon is willing to share knowledge.  Legend claims there are no questions regarding the arcane that Magua Ti cannot answer, no puzzle he cannot solve, no mystery he cannot explain.  He is said to keep a series of books called the Tomes of the Ages which chronicle the history of magic on the Prime Material plane.  One book is said to contain a list of every arcane spell ever known or created, a second catalogues every artifact ever created, and a third records every locus of magical power on the Prime Material plane.  The magic of these books, and the scope of Magua Ti's awareness, is such that even as new spells, artifacts, or sanctified places are created, new pages appear to record them, and the catalogue of the Dragon's knowledge grows ever deeper. 

      In addition to the Tomes, there is Magua Ti's personal knowledge regarding the passage of time and the history of the plane.  Like all the Elder Dragons, he appears to have existed just about as long as anything on the Prime Material plane, and his knowledge of events and lore is unparalleled.  Legend claims Magua Ti has a sort of "cosmic awareness" that extends across the plane, which you can accept or not as you like, but his knowledge of the great events of history is said to be like that of a first-hand witness.

       It is not altruism that drives the great Golden Dragon, for whatever he gives requires a price to be paid.  Legends say Magua Ti holds that those who will not sacrifice for the truth must hold it in little value, and his terms are reputedly harsh, even cruel.  Of note, not a single supplicant to the Dragon has ever reliably spoken about what was actually asked, save to say that it was personal, and it was painful.  Many have found themselves unwilling to pay the price asked, but there is no negotiation, and Magua Ti does not care.  

      With any tome describing the creatures of the world, one question always arises:  Is there a baddest of the bad, an apex creature so powerful as to stand alone as the greatest creature of the Prime Material plane?   The answer, dear reader, is yes, and we shall introduce him.

      Meet Kaladrax Rex, the Great Red Dragon, without question the most spectacular creature of the Prime Material plane, and the evil dragon of your nightmares.  This Dragon can do the impossible:  make other Elder Dragons look puny.  Everything about this Dragon is colossal almost beyond description.  He is more than twice the size of any other Elder Dragon;  if standing erect, he could easily look into a tenth floor window.  His wings probably span 200 feet when stretched out, his clawed hands are over ten feet across, and he can swallow an entire horse (and rider) in an effortless gulp.  His strength is probably titan-equivalent;  he has been known to collapse reinforced stone structures just by brushing against them.  His natural magical aura will simply cancel out most magical effects without effort or even thought, and he can himself channel a level of magical power that would tear most arch-mages in half.  And the hellfire of his breath weapon is simply the end of everything, it can probably melt a mountain.    

       Just what makes Kaladrax so much "more" than any of the other Elder Dragons isn't known.  Some sages believe there may be an age difference, citing legends describing him as being already old when the other Elder Dragons were still young.  However, these legends describe a time already many thousands of years ago, a time distant enough for those others to have "grown up".  Another body of thought is that he has some kind of natural symbiosis with the natural power of the dark land of Iberia where he resides, which has fed and amplified both his natural power and evil.  Less accepted theories range from a special role as a dragon overlord, or even possibly a role as father or ancestor of all the other dragons. 

      Well before the advent of humanity, there seems to be clear enough evidence of repeated wars between elves, dwarves, and other good-aligned races (some now extinct) and either Kaladrax himself or unique minions and lieutenants with their own Iberian strongholds.  All appear to have involved appalling loss of life, not only in the attack, but quite probably the effective extinction of more than one sentient race in the retaliations that typically followed the less successful efforts. 

      However, in the human era, Kaladrax has remained more of a mysterious presence, an Evil power that is always present, yet has only once struck the human world outside Iberia.  In an eleven-year period known as the Great Rampage of Kaladrax, the mighty Dragon threatened to spread destruction across the entire Western continent, and was only stopped by the intervention of one of history's greatest Good-aligned artifacts, the legendary Runestaff.  Outside of this incident, Kaladrax has generally represented a known but remote evil, a legendary creature in a distant land, always present but never directly manifesting itself.  His danger is measured less in his personal action than in the minions he enables, for he is always willing to treat with those who seek a share of his power.  His magical knowledge is thought to be exceeded only by Magua Ti, and his willingness to give power to those that please him is a well-recorded fact.  Legends go so far as to claim Kaladrax had a hand in corrupting Vecna himself, though the story is controversial at best.  In any case, human history has probably been influenced far more by minions of Kaladrax rather than Kaladrax himself.  

      In addition to common dragons and Elder Dragons, the discussion cannot end without mentioning undead dragons. 

      The "common" form of undead dragon is known properly as a Bone Dragon (shown to left).  They are not naturally occurring creatures, but powerful undead spirits raised specifically by necromantic magic of the highest power -- the rituals are known to require 9th level spells.  The result is a dragon in skeletal form, powerful and intelligent, yet loyal to its creator.  The powers and abilities of these creatures are summarized below. 

      The Dracoliches are another thing entirely.  They are as deeply shrouded in legend as any creature in this handbook, and many scholars deny their existence entirely, holding them to be other creatures in a deceptive form.  Yet the historical record holds strong evidence to suggest they are real, and that they may be the most frightening manifestation of Evil known to this world.  

       Dracoliches are surely the ultimate manifestation of undead power (it's rather hard to think what could be worse).  There is a general assumption among scholars that their appearance in dragon form is a sign of actual dragon ancestry, that they were once normal living dragons and somehow became undead creatures, obviously in some ancient time well before the first humans came to be.  A few go as far as to equate them with Elder Dragons, but there is no evidence for this and what little we know of them doesn't really fit with Elder Dragon lore.

      Whatever they once were, they are now undead creatures of a unique type.  They have no natural physical existence, and normally exist in spirit form in some kind of unknown limbo.  They can only be brought into physical existence through a complex series of necromantic rituals and sacrifices on a scale requiring not individuals but entire guilds or communities of magical casters.  Once brought into existence, they take on a physical form not unlike an extra-planar avatar, although they are not subject to magical banishment or dismissal as an avatar normally is.  It is, however, a form subject to physical destruction, which banishes the spirit back to the limbo it came from.  

      This is no small proposition, however, as the amount of negative energy these creatures channel is almost beyond measure.  A Dracolich can regenerate physical damage almost as fast as it can be inflicted, if one even has weapons which can hurt it in the first place.  The negative energy they channel doesn't just cancel normal positive-energy magic, it can almost suck the energy out of a magician's head.  But of course, what is most fearsome is their breath weapon.  It has many names -- Zombie Breath, Death Breath, Black Breath, Death's Decay.  It is a cloud of life-sapping energy that will drain the life force not just from opponents, but anything living -- man, animal, even plant life dies when touched by the cloud.  The cloud dissipates as it cancels life energy, but it persists until all of its energy finds something to negate or destroy.  And if not bad enough, those slain by the breath can be revived in undead form by the natural aura of the creature.  The stronger in life, the stronger in death, and while most ordinary people devolve into ghoul-like forms, powerful opponents can manifest as revenants or wraiths, with their skills and abilities intact.  

      There are three unique Dracoliches known to human history;  if there are more of these creatures, we have no evidence for it.  They are known to us as Xanthis, Korag Tol, and Yrakis, and a brief history of each is noted below.  

     Xanthix the Dracolich appears as an enormous blue dragon, gaunt and scarred, probably sixty or more feet in length and with a wingspan even greater.  He is Chaotic Evil incarnate, so much so that he is believed to be nearly as dangerous to those who summon him as he is to those he is summoned against.  Cults dedicated to Xanthis are always highly Chaotic themselves, usually to the point of being nihilistic or even self-destructive.  The only purpose to summon Xanthis is to destroy;  he cannot be bargained or reasoned with, and it is said that once invoked, it is his sole intent to destroy every living thing on the Prime Material plane. 

      There are thankfully few recorded instances of this creature being successfully invoked, for each time it has occurred, the price paid to dispel and destroy the Dracolich has been steep.  In early Sumerian history, a civil war between the traditional Sumerian priesthood and a cult of powerful necromancers was resolved by the successful invoking of the dracolich, but not in the manner intended.  Xanthis destroyed the particular grand temple he'd been summoned against, but then promptly appears to have turned on his summoners, destroying their cult and then simply turning rogue.  Now confronted with a Dracolich instead of a necromantic cult of wizards, the priesthood nearly buckled, but eventually defeated the creature and emerged as the guiding force for the Sumerian culture.  

      In a similar manner, in the 15th century, the infamous Cult of the Timeless Path, a necromantic cult that plagued Western civilizations for centuries, finally succeeded in invoking the Dracolich.  This time, the creature didn't even wait, but turned immediately upon the cult, slaying its members and making a home of their great citadel.  For over a century and a half it remained in the cult's mountain fortress, periodically striking at western kingdoms until finally destroyed by heroes led by Priest Veritas Ladoras (according to legend carrying the Runestaff itself).  

      While only these two cases are confirmed, there are persistent legends of Xanthix being summoned at various other times, usually in the context of a kingdom or independent culture vanishing without a more standard explanation.  While some are quite plausible, all suffer from failing to explain how or why the Dragon went away after doing is supposed damage.  Given the scale of resources necessary to accomplish this, it seems unlikely that utterly no record or mention of such an effort would exist.  

     The Dracolich Korag Tol manifests as a rotting, half-skeletal dragon, green in color where the flesh hasn't decayed.  He is a Lawful Evil being, and it is probably this characteristic that makes him an attractive power for necromancers to worship.  Cults dedicated to him seem to periodically appear somewhere in western society, and despite being put down, inevitably arise again later somewhere else.  It is believed that the Dracolich is quick to give power to his supplicants, and is known to be the specific source of several necromantic artifacts including the Black Bone Mace and the Censer of Damnation.  In any case, it is clear that the dracolich has a deliberate and active agenda, to turn the world of light into one of death and darkness.  

      Despite many attempts, there are thankfully few times where his invocation has been successful.  He appears as a significant presence in Egyptian pre-history, as a green dragon who causes skeletons and mummies to arise.  Records are sparse, but from art motifs and jewelry items found, it appears he may have been in existence for several centuries.  How he came or how he was defeated, we don't know.  We know for certain he was successfully invoked by the great Arch-Lich Vecna, perhaps as early as 250 PC, and for several centuries terrorized kingdoms across the continent.  The dracolich was ultimately defeated by the Knights of Amber in 592 PC during the defense of the Gaulish city of Dernlay.  Finally, it seems likely Korag Tol was summoned in the 17th century by the infamous necromancer Athagoles the Damned while on the island of Chabros in the Aegean Sea.  This event is still clouded in mystery, and although the dracolich was prominent in destroying a major fleet sent against Athagoles' citadel, it is uncertain what further role it played, and ultimately was nowhere to be found when the island was finally conquered in 1666.  

     Yrakis takes the form of a white dragon, with an emaciated, rotting body and torn and shredded wings.  Wherever he flies, he is surrounded by a cold and deadening mist that saps both the strength of the body and of the will.  His voice is like the whispers of the dead, heard as much in your mind as by your ears.  Some call him the Soul Hunter, and claim those he slays are condemned to an eternal undead existence not on the Prime Material plane but in the Limbo-realm where this creature's essence naturally exists.   

      So say the legends;  in fact we know very little about this creature.  Since the later stages of the First Age, there were stories coming from east of Sumeria (later, Persia), and particularly merchants of the Silk Road, of an emaciated white dragon, occasionally encountered along the high plateau zones.  Thought for some time to simply be exaggerated reports of Ssesterus, it has taken western scholars time to accept Yrakis as a separate creature.   Reports are rare, they have occurred in widely separate locations and times along the Silk Road, with no particular pattern.  There is no record of it being seen anywhere in the Western realms, and no records ever found from any necromantic cult mentioning such a creature.  Attempts by wizards and sages to search for him, typically by accompanying annual convoys, have produced neither dracolich nor sign of a lair.