Seven Deadly Dragons: Envy
Seven Deadly Dragons: Envy - The legend of the crown
The opening account begins with the independence of dragons, then questions whether they have always lived without a ruler. A legend describes the Dragon's Crown, supposedly made of solid obsidian and wearable only by someone worthy of ruling all dragonkind. Its wearer would be their rightful king or queen. The account also admits that the crown has not appeared in recorded history and had generally been dismissed as a myth.
The Dark Dragon Maloth, called Maleth in the opening account, has now claimed it. The other clans resent the prospect of being ruled, especially by someone they regard as selfish and hungry for power. They unite against him, but each clan favors its own champion as his replacement. Their common cause breaks down into competition over who deserves the crown. The struggle for a better ruler becomes a civil war among the would-be rulers themselves.
Seven Deadly Dragons: Envy - Ash over the valley
Mariel explains that the clans are now too busy fighting one another to oppose Maloth. Their battles have devastated villages, forests, and crops, even as collateral damage. She believes the fighting will continue until the crown is found and destroyed, and asks the Hero to help. What the Hero first takes for mountain snow is ash. Galanoth sees the destruction as a threat to everything in the region.
A normal assault on the dragon's lair will not work, according to Mariel. Maloth's throne overlooks the valley from outside his castle, so he could escape before an announced attack reached him. The castle itself is a maze that strangers might never leave. Her plan is to gain a guide by pretending to support the new king, then ambush him once close enough that retreat would cost him his authority. Galanoth distrusts her without knowing quite why, but accepts their shared aim of ending the war.
Seven Deadly Dragons: Envy - Argo's price of admission
Talk to the Guard requires one Speak to Argo. The castle guard is immediately hostile to a human Hero offering support. He says that dragons fighting over the crown and villagers furious about the destruction have given the guards enough problems already. If the Hero wants to earn their favor, the Hero can solve those problems. Mariel tells the Hero to comply, and Talk to the Villager requires finding Wess beyond the gate.
A version of the conversation containing Chaos-saga revelations lets the Hero invoke being the reincarnation of the Eternal Dragon of Time as a reason their support should matter. Argo asks for proof, which the Hero cannot provide, and remains suspicious because of the Hero's recent dragon-slaying. His demands are hardly benevolent: he says the villagers can be killed, bribed, or burned out, so long as they stop troubling the guards. The Hero's actual response is to help the villagers survive.
Seven Deadly Dragons: Envy - Helping Wess
Wess describes a village caught between red dragons' fires and ice dragons' freezing attacks. Fire and Ice requires six Critters Thawed and six Fire Sprites Slain. Once the immediate hazards are reduced, Round 'em Up asks for five Llamas Rustled and five Boars Rustled. His instructions are to calm the animals and return them to their pens, not to slaughter the loose livestock. Repairing the damage begins with keeping both people and their animals safe.
The villagers also need somewhere to live while the fighting continues. Get Rockin' requires ten Strong Rocks and five Sticky Mud from the nearby elementals for a temporary shelter. Wess is grateful and agrees that the villagers will back off from the Drakel, provided someone stops the war. Stop Fightin' requires one Talk to Argo Again, carrying that concession back to the guard. The Hero has settled this part of Argo's problem by relieving the villagers' suffering.
Seven Deadly Dragons: Envy - Riddrug and the contenders
Argo acknowledges that the villagers have lowered their pitchforks, then turns the Hero toward the other half of his problem. Find Riddrug requires one Talk to Riddrug in the valley where the dragons are fighting. Argo says that defeating each breed's chosen champion will remove that champion's right to challenge Maloth for the crown. Riddrug is willing to help draw the contenders down to face the Hero.
Riddrug is watching the war rather than committing to a ruler. He intends to follow whoever proves strongest, and thinks any dragon beaten by a human would be unworthy of ruling anyway. He offers to taunt the selected champions into the valley. That reasoning aligns with the Hero's immediate goal of stopping the battles, while also helping Maloth by eliminating his challengers. The consequences of that overlap will outlast Riddrug's initial amusement.
Seven Deadly Dragons: Envy - The first five champions
The first challenges each require one named champion defeated: Torgat of the Red Dragons, Fressa of the Ice Dragons, and Radroth of the Undead Dragons. Riddrug begins by treating the first fight as a likely death sentence for the Hero. Survival changes his tone. After the next victories he admits that the Hero has lasted longer than he expected, and expresses relief at not being the target of that strength himself.
Nizex of the Water Dragons and Tathu of the Wind Dragons follow, again with one defeat required for each. Riddrug questions whether the Hero should continue so soon and worries about getting the Hero killed. Tathu inspires a specific warning about being blown away; after the fight, he says he could feel the hurricane from his own position. His reactions turn the sequence from an entertaining spectacle into evidence that the Hero might actually remove every contender.
Seven Deadly Dragons: Envy - The remaining five
Lanshen, the Yokai champion, and Ashax, the Green champion, are the next opponents. Riddrug warns that Yokai Dragons may be peaceful without being unable to fight, and calls Lanshen's contest a close one. With Ashax he alludes to the Hero's experience fighting Green Dragons, then marvels at the strength of this small mammal. Both quests require one champion defeated, continuing the removal of the clans' chosen candidates.
Letori of the Faerie Dragons proves dangerous despite an appearance Riddrug considers deceptively cute. He then particularly wants Nayzol, the Chaos champion, excluded from the kingship. Finally comes Zathas of the Void Dragons, another prospective ruler Riddrug dislikes. Each requires one defeat. By the end, he is astonished that the Hero has beaten all ten champions and uneasy that this leaves Maloth as king unless someone finds another solution.
Seven Deadly Dragons: Envy - The guard breaks his bargain
The Hero celebrates having stopped the Dragon War, but Letori objects that the challengers should have been allowed to fight. A Dark Dragon King, she warns, will be bad for everyone. The Hero answers that Maloth is not meant to keep the crown and that there is a plan. Argo nevertheless refuses entry after hearing that both the villagers and the contenders have been dealt with. He thanks the Hero for removing the competition, then dismisses the Hero's concerns because the Hero is human.
Argo says the Hero will have to go through him to enter, and Argo's Not Stopping Us! requires one Argo Defeated. Even beaten, the guard calls the Hero a traitor and refuses to guide them. Galanoth cuts the argument short with a blow and declares that they have wasted enough time. Mariel protests that they needed a guide through the castle's twisting passages. Galanoth trusts the Hero to overcome those odds, and the Hero agrees to find a way forward.
Seven Deadly Dragons: Envy - The castle's guarded ascents
The route continues inside Maloth's labyrinth. Three successive quests require defeating Ukki, Kagan, and Golgar, one guardian for each ascent toward the throne room. Galanoth maps the route after each success, establishing checkpoints for the next level. The Hero must navigate without the promised guide, while Mariel warns that the guards inside may be hostile regardless of how the party entered. Their advance replaces the failed social bargain with a path earned through the castle itself.
Mariel says two Shadow Soldiers protect the throne-room entrance and demand an entry code even from trusted advisors. Hand over the Entry Code requires five word tokens, one each for First Word, Second Word, Third Word, Fourth Word, and Final Word. The search leads through a Castle Guard, Scroll Keeper, Nervous Serf, Locked Chest, and Golgar. The challenge's guard notices a dragon scent despite the Hero's human appearance, but duty requires allowing a chance to give the code before attacking.
Seven Deadly Dragons: Envy - An unwilling ally
Confront the Dragon King requires one Maloth Defeated. Galanoth challenges the dragon when the party reaches him, but Maloth is amused rather than surprised. He has watched the Hero fighting in the valley and sees those victories as a service to himself. One by one, the people who wanted his crown have been taken out of contention. The Hero's campaign against the civil war has also protected the king it was meant to undermine.
The Hero denies being his ally. Maloth acknowledges that the help was unintentional and that Galanoth is a Dragonslayer, but says the result is unchanged: his challengers have been removed. He intends to let them watch him destroy the Hero as well. The apparent victory in the valley now becomes an accusation that the Hero has done the tyrant's work, making the final confrontation essential to the plan rather than a ceremonial end to it.
Seven Deadly Dragons: Envy - Light against darkness
Maloth uses darkness to make himself difficult to locate. The Hero loses sight of him and struggles to respond, while Galanoth insists this is not his first Dark Dragon. He tells the Hero to use hearing rather than sight. The Hero admits not knowing how to do that, leaving the party's confidence in its fighting ability insufficient against this particular obstacle.
Mariel offers help, and her light changes the encounter. Maloth reacts to it with uncertainty and a sense of recognition, asking whether he knows her and finally demanding to know who she is. The woman who had supplied the plan and warned of the maze has a power he did not account for. The answer will also explain Galanoth's earlier distrust.
Seven Deadly Dragons: Envy - The ally behind the disguise
After the confrontation, Galanoth condemns Maloth as a beast so hungry for power that even other dragons despise him. Maloth insists they are simply jealous and no better than he is, and Galanoth agrees with that judgment. Mariel intervenes before the killing blow. They do not need to kill anyone, she says; they need the crown. Her intervention puts the original aim of ending the war ahead of Galanoth's desire to finish another dragon.
Mariel reveals a luminous, feather-winged dragon form and confines Maloth within a cage of light. She is a Creatioux. Galanoth accuses her of deception and says he could feel what she was even when he could not see it. She apologizes, but believes a Dragonslayer would never have agreed to help a dragon, even one of her kind. The Hero recalls Elucidas, another Creatioux who helped against darkness. Mariel places herself within that same purpose, challenging Galanoth's assumption that her identity invalidates the help she has given.
Seven Deadly Dragons: Envy - No ruler and no true crown
With the crown in hand, Mariel admits that she could claim rulership herself. She refuses. Showing the object that the clans have been fighting over, she tells them she is not their new ruler and that no one is. She breaks it instead. Her solution denies both Maloth's claim and the competing champions' ambitions, rather than transferring the contested authority to a supposedly better owner.
The Hero is startled, but Mariel says the object was only a fake: the legendary Dragon's Crown never existed. The Hero realizes that Maloth had one made to trick the other dragons into accepting his rule. Mariel confirms that the attempt did not work as he hoped. Her explanation is that dragons are too jealous to accept a single ruler. The war has been sustained by belief in a symbol of authority that had no rightful power to grant.
Seven Deadly Dragons: Envy - Leaving Maloth to the clans
Mariel urges the party to leave as the other dragons turn their attention toward Maloth. The Hero, Galanoth, and Mariel get away from the throne. Below, she reassures the Hero that the dragons are not interested in pursuing them; their concern is the would-be king. Galanoth hopes what happens to him will discourage others from attempting the same deception. The scene leaves that reckoning with the clans rather than making Galanoth the one who decides it.
The Hero never wants to face so many dragons together again, and Mariel thinks their memory of this disaster will outlast the Hero's lifespan. Galanoth says he prefers dragons as solitary creatures, but remains troubled by being manipulated by a dragon he would have considered an enemy, even a good one. The region's crisis ends without a new monarch or a restored crown. The alliance has stopped the war while leaving Galanoth's distrust unresolved.