The Seven Deadly Dragons

Glutus, Dragon of Gluttony

After a week of training, Galanoth considers you ready to face the first of seven deadly dragons. Glutus has devoured the Dragonslayers sent after him, roasting anyone who comes within reach, but Galanoth has brought a shield to hold off his fire while you attack. Following the smoke to his cave, you find Sneevils barbecuing the missing slayers, and Galanoth vows to make the dragon pay. Glutus is so enormous that he cannot move, tempting you to laugh and walk straight up to him until his fire reminds you why you needed a plan.

With Galanoth shielding you from the flames, you strike at Glutus, but he is too large to hurt easily and takes far longer to wear down than you expected. Unable to cook you, he decides that it might be a sushi night instead, and the next thing you know, both of you are inside him. Galanoth dismisses forcing his jaws apart as no more promising than a beetle trying to open a person's mouth. Your suggestion of tickling his throat fares no better: according to him, dragons have no gag reflex. That leaves an exit you beg him not to name, though he explains the route down the esophagus and through the bowels.

Before descending, you coat your armor in dragon mucus to slow the stomach acid and build a ladder from rope floss and the bones of swallowed slayers. Waiting to be passed naturally would leave you in the acid too long, so you search for a faster way out and discover Falgar, another Dragonslayer who was eaten while trying to kill Glutus. Falgar brought a chest of dragon-sized laxatives to slim Glutus down. Once the dragon can move out of the cave, the Dragonslayers will be able to get behind him and avoid his fire.

Falgar still believes the plan can work, but the bile has dissolved his cartilage and scattered his bones. You light the darkness with glowing bowel worms, recover enough of his skeleton to put him together and borrow replacement eyes from the non-sentient Skeletal Slayers he says will not miss them. With Falgar back together, you recover the laxatives and get them into Glutus's bloodstream. All three of you barely have time to take cover before the dragon expels you in a rushing brown torrent.

Falgar celebrates completing his mission, but Galanoth refuses to rest while Glutus is alive. You nearly pity the deflated dragon until he reminds you that he still has fire and claws, and is now both hungry and furious. His smaller body also lets him chase prey instead of waiting for it to approach. Galanoth urges you to remember the people he has eaten, and together you exploit his reduced size to kill him, sending the Sneevils fleeing from the cave.

Inside, you discover livestock, canned meat and barrels of juice, food Glutus could have eaten instead of his victims. You struggle to explain why he ate all those people anyway, and Galanoth supplies the word: gluttony. He says that slaughter and destruction are what dragons do, recalling the evil that drove him to join the Order of Dragonslayers. With this part of the countryside safe and six more deadly dragons still nearby, he promises that he will not rest until the hunt is finished.

The sewage labyrinth is also home to Colonicus, a Guanotaur that devours whatever is flushed down from above. Feceus, who calls himself a Mythical Hero of Lore, has come to defeat it.

Valsarian, Dragon of Pride

Valsarian wants to restore the age when dragons were the feared rulers of Lore, before the Order of Dragonslayers gave humanity the means to oppose them. His Storm Drakel have occupied Darkmoor Village, where people are kept in pens and released only to work. One villager offers to rally the others when you and Galanoth arrive, but a soldier answers their protest with an electrical attack. The sight sends the others retreating into promises to return to work, and Galanoth declares that the occupation ends now.

You fight the Drakel and clear the ball lightning gathering around the wet village while Galanoth works out how to protect its people from the soldiers' prods. The occupiers have deliberately kept them barefoot, locking their boots in a supply cellar, so you recover the footwear and collect rubber for Galanoth to coat it. Taking the Drakel's own prods to make lightning rods gives him the other part of his plan. Once the rods are in place and the villagers have their boots, you open the holding pens, ready to resist another attempt to shock them into submission.

When a soldier orders everyone back into their cages, Galanoth explains that the village has been grounded and you challenge Valsarian to come down and face you. The Drakel insists that his master would never stoop so low, leaving you to go to him instead. Faced with the freed villagers, the soldiers retreat up the mountain and close the gates behind them, but you take the Elite Guard's key and fight your way through to the peak.

Valsarian suspends you and Galanoth inside a crackling sphere, demanding to know how mortal insects dare oppose him. He considers humans too weak and short-lived to challenge his magnificence, and intends to inspire other dragons by making an example of you. Galanoth answers that the Order will stop him from turning more villages into Darkmoor, while you keep the dragon occupied long enough for the people below to put their own plan into motion.

Rain has been falling throughout the fight, and the villagers have funneled it into the storage cellar before battling their way through the Drakel army. When Valsarian boasts that even the leader of the Dragonslayers could never defeat him, you allow that he might be right, then tell him what the people he dismissed have been doing. He cannot understand how they overcame his elite soldiers, and you assure him that they will bring him down the same way. Armed with hoses and the collected rainwater, they confront him, and electrical flashes surround the dragon as he falls.

Valsarian is still asking how humans could defeat him when Galanoth blames his arrogance: he never believed they could become a threat, giving them the chance to do exactly that. Darkmoor is free, though the hunt extends beyond this victory. A Mysterious Chest waits behind seven locks, each requiring a key from one of the Deadly Dragons, and Valsarian's is only one of the seven you will need.

Goregold, Dragon of Greed

Galanoth asks for your discretion when Gibbs reports that several lesser dragons assigned to the Order have already been killed. You see no reason to object until he explains that their hoards have vanished too. That wealth belongs to the villages the dragons robbed, and he fears that a Dragonslayer has been using the Order's name to enrich themself. Whatever brought its members together, he insists that they are meant to protect people, so you agree to investigate quietly at the latest raided cave in Aeryck Wood.

Sneevils are already picking over the remains, but a note among their boxes leads you past puddles of water to a room full of apparent treasure chests. When the chests turn out to be mimics, you have to find the clue in the right one without losing an arm. You also discover a Sneevil frozen solid and thaw him out to ask what happened. He was digging through gold when someone struck him from behind, though he never saw who it was. The ice suggests magic to you, but Galanoth knows no mages in the Order. Dedara's collection of spellbooks is their only magical resource.

At the next cave in Idarr Valley, you clear out the Cubes threatening to dissolve the evidence and find the place smashed apart. Galanoth thinks it would have taken tremendous strength, while an icicle driven through the dead dragon supports your suspicion of an ice mage. Most of the traps have been destroyed, but one was deliberately reset for whoever followed. Although Galanoth wonders whether the culprit knows you are investigating, he cannot believe that anyone in the Order, people he considers family, would try to kill another Dragonslayer.

Farther along, ice and gold cover a chamber whose spilled treasure has attracted kobolds. You recover what they are taking and follow human footprints into the cave, where Dedara, Gibbs and Senna explain that they have been investigating the thefts while you handled the larger threats. Instead of hearing them out, you announce that you have caught a rogue Dragonslayer and begin with Dedara's books. She protests that she is a Loremaster, not a banker, and Galanoth objects to your suspicion, so you ask who else could have used the spells.

Gibbs has the strength to smash the traps, but he points out that he lives simply and has no need for a fortune. You decide that Senna might have needed it for the Order's food, armor and weapons instead, then fit all three into your theory: she borrowed Dedara's books, used clumsy ice magic to kill the dragons and enlisted Gibbs's strength, while Dedara reset the trap. Senna rejects the accusation, and Galanoth refuses to believe that friends he has known for years would betray him. Confident that you can prove it, you lead them to what you call their secret hoard.

The gold is so dazzling that you stop paying attention to anything else, including Gibbs's attempts to warn you and Senna's concern about where you are standing. Then you realize that you are standing on the head of an enormous blue ice dragon. Goregold, Lord of Ice, declares the hoard his own and threatens to freeze you and smash you into shards if you touch it. Senna points out that you owe your friends an apology, while Dedara explains that ice dragons are known as the greediest breed. The magic, strength and cunning you attributed to three Dragonslayers could all belong to the creature before you.

You ask why he would kill his own kind for their wealth, and Goregold answers that humans have done the same for centuries. He even suggests that the Order should thank him for doing its work, but Galanoth refuses gratitude to a creature whose selfishness and destruction are everything he opposes. Together you defeat the dragon, who accuses you of being no better than him and asks whether you deserve the treasure more. Galanoth says that neither of you does: it belongs to the destitute villages it was stolen from, and he promises to return it before bringing his sword down on Goregold.

With the thief dealt with, you apologize to Dedara, Gibbs and Senna. Your explanation seemed to fit every clue, but you admit that you never seriously considered anyone outside the Order. Dedara had suspected a dragon from an obscure incident in its history, while Gibbs says their own investigation led them here and Senna remarks that listening would have saved you the trouble. When you wonder whether to abandon detective work, Dedara reassures you that even Hemlock Bones could not have done better. He turns out to be her favorite fictional detective, and she offers to lend you the books before Galanoth turns your attention back to the remaining dragons. You hope the next will be less mysterious.

Phlegnn, Dragon of Sloth

The dragon hunt leads to a village under quarantine. A figure in a hazmat suit startles you, then reveals himself as Lim: Phlegnn has been soaking in the hot spring that supplies the village's drinking water. Lim fears the illness spreading through the town may also be airborne and insists on protective gear before sending you to find survivors. You are delighted by the prospect of fighting a dragon and zombies. Galanoth had hoped for a more energetic opponent.

The first survivor overturns that expectation. The green, mucus-covered figures in the streets are alive, exhausted by dragon plague rather than raised from the dead. Relieved that you have not killed anyone on the way in, you promise that Lim is working on a cure. He needs samples and a patient before he can treat the town, so you collect the samples and subdue one of the afflicted villagers, tying them up for the test.

Lim's first attempt to neutralize the virus fails. Restorative kelp and mushrooms do not make the second formula work either. Only when he adds alchemy to his science, with a Health Potion from Reens and Airther Vitae from Phelan, does the patient recover and thank you for saving them. Then Phlegnn sneezes, and the symptoms return.

The cure works, but no one can stay well in a town that keeps infecting them. Lim prepares enough spray for the villagers and their surroundings. You treat the sick and send them outside to him, disinfect the slime in the streets, and clear the central water pool of its contamination and Snotgoblin Prime. The people, buildings and water are finally clean. Phlegnn is still in the spring.

Galanoth declares the village under his protection and accuses Phlegnn of deliberately making everyone too weak to resist. The dragon refuses to fight and asks to be left alone. That refusal stops Galanoth: attacking an unresisting opponent would dishonor him. You offer a way out without a battle. Phlegnn need only leave the spring, but he claims to be sick and in need of its steam. The villagers' drinking water, he says, is their problem.

You try Lim's antibiotic spray instead. It stings, and Phlegnn hurts you as you attempt the treatment. Galanoth can now act in your defense. Together you wear the dragon down enough to spray him, stripping away his sickly green appearance. A vigorous, furious golden dragon rises in its place. Galanoth and Lim realize that the cure has given him the energy to fight back, leaving you with a harder battle than the one you began.

After that fight, the green form returns. You wonder whether Phlegnn has caught the disease again, but Galanoth recognizes his natural state: he is a plague dragon. The cure hurts him even while it makes him stronger. That contradiction gives you a way to finish the fight. You tell Galanoth to wait, keep spraying Phlegnn until he becomes unstable, then signal the attack. Phlegnn explodes. Lim delights in the result and the data. You hope the remaining dragons will be less disgusting.

The village has clean water again, and its people are restored. Leaving Lim to his records, you ask for a hot bath and a nap. Galanoth encourages the rest, though he has heard that the worst of the hunt is still ahead. You later destroy an escaped infection after Lim loses a mutated plague sample, while Galanoth reports a dragon that is literally a sloth.

Lascivia, Dragon of Lust

At Ashfall, Galanoth introduces Princess Cecily, whose people have been abducted by a dragon. You assume that a male dragon has been taking princesses and perhaps threatens Cecily herself, but she corrects you: Lascivia is female, and has spent years collecting princes as well as some princesses. Taking Cecily's fiance, Prince Enzio, has finally brought her to the Order for help. When Galanoth offers her protection while you handle the rescue, she explains that she came for backup, not somewhere safe to wait, and intends to bring Enzio home herself.

The rescue requires more than opening cages, because many of Lascivia's admirers fight to stay with her. You subdue them without killing them and learn why they resist: her perfume carries a love spell, and new captives remain imprisoned until they become willing servants and guards. Enzio believes he is the only one not yet falling under it, and fears his own mind will soon begin to slip.

Galanoth proposes using the perfume to draw the captives toward their rescuers. Wearing Drakel leather and the dragon's scent, you lead the admirers out and free those still in cages. The disguise would fool nobody on its own, but Prince Honfroi warmly approves of your smell as Enzio celebrates Cecily's arrival.

Lascivia notices what is happening, and her guards move to stop you, forcing everyone to hurry outside before the rescue is finished. Enzio asks Cecily not to return, but she refuses to abandon the people still trapped behind the dragon simply because he is safe. Galanoth thinks you will need an army to get through the remaining guards, and Cecily knows where to find one. She rallies princesses whose partners have been taken, receiving an enthusiastic answer interrupted only while one of them finishes fastening her armor. Galanoth doubts their training, but believes their anger may be enough.

With the princesses supporting the attack, you break through to Viscyra, one of Lascivia's earliest captives and now her fierce champion. After you defeat her, Cecily confronts the dragon and demands the prisoners back. Lascivia surrounds her with pink haze, offering happiness at her side and forgiveness for the attack if she will replace Viscyra. Cecily rejects the invitation and orders the others forward, leaving you momentarily speechless until Galanoth reminds you that you are supposed to be fighting.

You seem close to victory when Lascivia releases a burst of pink mist, leaving hearts floating above you and Galanoth as she escapes. The Order can have this continent, she announces. She will find a cave in another land and build a new harem. With her gone, the captives begin recovering from the spell, though some still sob over her departure. Galanoth explains that people who spent years under her influence may take longer to recover, and acknowledges that you have driven her away rather than killed her.

You expect Cecily and Enzio to leave together for their happy ending, but she says that depends on whether he wants to marry a Dragonslayer. Lascivia is still free to hurt others, and recovering Enzio has not ended Cecily's determination to stop her. His surprise turns to enthusiasm at marrying her in this new role, and she formally asks to join the Order. Galanoth welcomes her and offers to train her, remarking that many recruits have lost people to dragons, but few recover them alive and choose to keep fighting.

Killek and Hwuargh

After the rescue, Dedara's research uncovers another prisoner somewhere in the caverns. Killek Deadchewer was the first to fall under Lascivia's influence, a powerful horc whose jealousy drove him to kill an entire squad of her guards. She locked him away to use as a weapon of last resort, and Dedara wants to contain him until the spell fades, though she fears he may already be beyond saving. You persuade an Elite Guard named Hwuargh to help find him, but he insists that you first repay the damage done in your earlier fight.

Hwuargh bargains for repairs to his armor and keepsakes of Lascivia before revealing Killek's cage behind a boulder. With your help, he gains the strength to move it while you recover the key hidden beneath her pillows. The darkness beyond makes you hesitate, but you refuse his offer to replace the boulder and continue toward the prisoner.

Killek treats you as a rival for Lascivia's affection, calling himself her true consort and threatening anyone who would take his place. When you tell him she has left, he demands freedom to follow her, then recognizes your voice from the battle and blames you for driving her away. You have to knock him unconscious before a transfer can even be attempted, and Hwuargh offers to secure him and carry him out. Despite your objection that you just won the fight, he persuades you to remain inside while he handles the supposed danger.

As Killek stirs, you realize that Hwuargh is waking him deliberately. The helpful guide admits that he used you: the leather was meant to restrain Killek, the perfume to prime his senses and the mushrooms to give him stamina for the journey. Hwuargh says that Killek's long attachment lets him track Lascivia's scent even from miles away, and your fight supplied the unconscious prisoner he needed to prepare. Urging Killek to lead them to her, he leaves you trapped behind them. Dedara eventually frees you after seeing the pair ride away together, regretting the lost chance to follow them to the dragon, while you have had quite enough of Hwuargh for now. She promises that the Dragonslayers will be ready if they return, and Hwuarghly takes the former guard's place in the lair.

In a cell beside candles and Lascivia's image, Killek vows to wait for her forever. An unidentified purple presence addresses a loyal follower and invites him to a new home, answering his devotion with repeated promises of forever.

Maloth, Dragon of Envy

The dragon clans have gone to war over the Dragon's Crown, a legendary relic said to grant its wearer the right to rule all dragonkind. Maloth has claimed it, but the clans opposing him each want their own champion on the throne, leaving them too busy fighting one another to challenge him. Mariel asks you and Galanoth to end the war by finding and destroying the crown, while the ash you first mistake for snow shows how much of the surrounding valley has already burned.

Mariel warns that Maloth can watch the valley from his throne and escape before an assault reaches him, so she proposes entering his castle as supporters and getting close enough to confront him. Galanoth distrusts her without knowing why, but agrees to the plan. At the gate, Argo refuses to admit you until you deal with the angry villagers and rival dragons troubling his guards. Rather than drive the villagers away, you help Wess rescue their animals from fire and ice and build a temporary shelter. In return, he agrees to leave the guards alone, provided someone stops the war.

Argo then sends you to Riddrug, who can lure the clans' chosen champions down to the valley. Defeating them will cost each the right to challenge Maloth, and Riddrug is happy to watch, convinced that no dragon beaten by a human deserves the crown. His amusement turns to concern as you survive fight after fight, until you have overcome all ten champions and he realizes that Maloth is the only claimant left.

Letori objects that the challengers should have been allowed to fight, warning what a Dark Dragon King could mean for everyone, but you assure her that Maloth is not meant to keep the crown. Argo has other ideas: he thanks you for removing his king's competition and still refuses entry, forcing you to fight him. Even beaten, he will not guide you through the castle. Galanoth ends the argument with a blow and trusts you to find the way, despite Mariel's warning that the passages form a maze.

You work through the castle's guarded levels while Galanoth maps the route behind you, then piece together the entry code demanded by the Shadow Soldiers outside the throne room. Maloth has watched your victories in the valley and welcomes the help you never intended to give him. When you deny being his ally, he points out that his challengers are gone regardless, and intends to make you his next victim.

Maloth hides himself in darkness, leaving you unable to see where he will strike. Galanoth tells you to listen for him, but you admit that you do not know how. It is Mariel's light that exposes him and makes him question who she really is. Once he is beaten, she stops Galanoth from killing him and reveals her feather-winged dragon form, enclosing Maloth in a cage of light. She is a Creatioux, like Elucidas, who once helped you against darkness. Galanoth accuses her of deceiving him, and she apologizes, believing that he would never have agreed to help a dragon if he had known.

With the crown in her possession, Mariel could make her own claim to rule, but instead tells the assembled dragons that they have no new monarch and breaks it. She explains that the legendary crown never existed: Maloth had this imitation made to persuade the clans to accept him, only for their jealousy to turn them against one another. As their attention returns to the would-be king, you leave with Mariel and Galanoth. She assures you that the dragons have no interest in following, while Galanoth hopes their reckoning with Maloth will discourage anyone from trying his deception again. He is still troubled that a dragon he would have considered an enemy has manipulated him, even one who helped end the war.

Gorgorath, Dragon of Wrath

Captain Rhubarb's fleet comes under attack after his pirates recover Evil Eye Grim's buried treasure. Gorgorath destroys half the ships, and when the survivors reach shore, her undead army is waiting for them. Rhubarb calls on both Artix and Galanoth, bringing an undead slayer and a Dragonslayer together against an undead dragon. Galanoth readily lets Artix lead against the army, but the creatures you defeat keep reanimating, threatening the Red Betty even after you extinguish the fires around it.

Artix has you assemble paladin-infused Grenades of Awe, complete with Holy Wasabi from Lightguard, and enjoys the explosions as you throw them at the attackers. When even those fail to keep the undead down, Rhubarb suspects something in the stolen treasure is drawing them back. The cargo manifest identifies the Jewel of the Undying, rumored to grant eternal life to the undead, but mutinous pirates have locked the hold rather than share their treasure with a dragon. You recover the key, find the jewel and defeat Droghor the Screecher when he intervenes, knowing that Gorgorath would be beyond even a paladin's power if she obtained it.

The partnership breaks down when Gorgorath herself arrives. Galanoth insists that the dragon is his to slay, while Artix claims the dracolich as his own, and neither listens as you try to interrupt. Rhubarb finally sends you to face her alone. After the confrontation, Gorgorath asks why you are helping thieves: Grim stole the jewel from her years ago, and she could neither sense nor recover it while it remained buried. She offers to leave everyone unharmed if you return it, admitting that she is bargaining because she knows you can beat her. Artix and Galanoth protest that an immortal dracolich could become impossible to stop, but before you can finish answering, she obtains the jewel.

Their separate attacks cannot undo the mistake, and Gorgorath leaves with a warning that another meeting will not end as kindly. Artix accepts responsibility for their failure, while Galanoth admits that their hatred of dragons and the undead kept them from working together. Rhubarb is relieved to have his crew safe but furious that they have allowed an immortal dracolich to escape, so both slayers promise to find her and put things right.

With help from the Order of Dragonslayers and the Paladins of Lightguard, you track Gorgorath to a castle built from the bones of the Dragons' Graveyard. Artix and Galanoth are ready to fight together, but their weapons cannot hurt her while she holds the Jewel of the Undying. Following clues from her servants, you reach a hidden cellar and recover it, then defeat Dragonshade to reach her lair.

Gorgorath accuses you of betraying the bargain, reminding you that she reclaimed her property and left without harming you. When she again invokes the jewel's protection, you show her that you have it, and it is broken before the battle begins. She declares that she does not need immortality to destroy you, but this time Artix protects Galanoth as he presses the attack, and the three of you bring her down together. You barely have time to question their celebratory banter before the bone castle starts collapsing and you must run.

Outside, Galanoth confirms that Gorgorath is gone and thanks both of you, admitting that none of you could have won alone. His newfound humility lasts until he suggests that a legendary Dragonslayer might have come close, prompting Artix to correct him in favor of a legendary undead slayer. You have to interrupt them again.

The Manticore Egg

The chest in a dragon's hoard, secured by seven locks whose keys were held by seven different dragons, contains an egg. You take it to Loremaster Maya, who recognizes a manticore from illustrations in her books, though the species has been missing from Lore for centuries. Unlike Lionfang's transformed Chaos Beast, this would be a naturally born manticore. Maya says manticores and dragons once kept each other's numbers in check, and wonders whether dragons caused their disappearance before hiding this last egg. When you ask why they would have preserved it at all, she notices what appears to be Creatioux stasis magic and suggests speaking to Mariel.

Before you seek her out, Maya helps prepare for the hatchling: a nest of heated elemental rock and lava, dragon meat for its first meal and potent elemental water. With its mother gone, she also has you assemble a shaggy mane and scorpion tail so that you can dress as a manticore and comfort it. The remaining problem is the stasis spell. Maya has heard that Mariel lives in the Void and directs you to a Void Larva who might know the way.

The Larva is unimpressed that Maya has volunteered his help and reluctant to reveal someone who has chosen to remain hidden. He nevertheless has you gather Void energy that will let you travel as the realm's inhabitants do, then leaves you to find the path yourself, advising you to look to the stars when you cannot go forward. When you reach Mariel, she recognizes the egg as the last survivor of the species that once nearly drove dragons to extinction.

Mariel asks why you want to bring back her natural enemy. You can argue that dragons without a predator threaten Lore, though she challenges whether you mean to extinguish her own kind, or insist that both species deserve to survive despite the danger. She explains that, as a dragon of creation and life, she could not accept a species' extinction even when it protected her own. She saved the egg from destruction and agreed to the chest as a compromise, intended to open only with the consent of all seven keyholders. Now she is willing to help break the stasis, while leaving the decision to use the counterspell with you.

You gather a Void husk and condensed Void for Mariel's scroll, but its power must come from a different kind of dragon. A Creatioux can preserve life in stasis, she explains, whereas undoing that magic requires a Decadere, a dragon of entropy. The creatures called Void Dragons belong to that kind. Saying they cannot be reasoned with, she sends you to take a soul from one. With it, she completes the counterspell and wishes you luck as you return to Maya.

Maya jokes that the scroll looks easier to use than her filing system and sets it alight beside the prepared egg. The shell opens much sooner than either of you expects, and the baby manticore greets you with a squawk. You agree with Maya that it is cute, though it has yet to grow into a deadly monster, and ask whether bringing it back was the right decision. She hopes its species can restore the balance that was lost when dragons no longer had a natural predator, but admits how little she knows about manticores. The ancient egg has become your new companion. Mariel, too, wonders whether hatching it was right and says that only time will tell.