The Old Dragonslayers

Before the first Dragon Wife bathed herself in blood, and indeed for centuries afterwards, the Old Dragonslayers were simply just the Dragonslayers, and they were the heroes of men. They recruited veterans at first, then seasoned soldiers, and then boys and girls of all ages, for there were no armies left to recruit from, and the dragon's tide would not ebb.

Old & Majestic they are.

Old Dragonslayers are those who cling to the tradition. They believe that well-made equipment, battle tactics, and now-forgotten but once-innovative spells are all that are needed to bring an end to the end of all things. They ignore the fact that once there were hundreds of Dragonslayer orders, and now there are but three. They ignore the evidence that is their destroyed monasteries and their broken landings and the graveyards of artefacts drowned beneath ash and radiance.

They are not welcome in the City of the Dragon Wife. Though they were once the favorites of the gods and even drew power from their symbols and arts, with the death of the King and the corruption of Fertility, those divinities that remain put their faith into wives, not slayers. Thus those who are disillusioned with this prolonged apocalypse or foreigners brought in by Gatekeeper Metamm are the prime recruits for the orders that remain.

Underneath dunes and buried beneath blackened walls are countless weapons, pieces of armor, and grimoires. These are reminders of what once was. Gatherers find them and give them to the Dragon Wives so that they may hone their craft. Others use them as protection while out in the field. Others trade them to aristocrats for favors or break them down to be used somewhere else. They are the only true magic left in the world, relics of the age of wizards and gods. As no one works spells anymore, they cannot be be reverse engineered, nor can they be recreated.

When you encounter an Old Dragonslayer, roll a d6 for its encounter-reaction.

1-2: Driven into a craze by the elements, the bloodshed, and the loneliness. Attacks on sight, and will cannibalize who they kill. When they roll damage, roll twice and take the highest result.
3-4: Wary and unhelpful. If a Dragon Wife is in the party, they will trail the party and try to kill her in her sleep. Will only assist if Dragon or Drake threat is near-by. Reroll encounter-reaction after battle to see mindset of Old Dragonslayer.
5-6: Glad to see another face and looking for a comrade. Is tracking a dragon and in need of assistance to kill it. If a Dragon Wife is in party, will consider this to be option 3-4.


Below are the three remaining Old Dragonslayer orders, as well as some tables to create your own.

Order of the Gold-Fanged Lion
Led by Jornstei, a man bordering his 60s, the Order of the Gold-Fanged Lion prides themselves on their pragmatism and ability. They are best known for wielding old lightning spells that flay the scale and skin from dragons, making it easier to kill or track them. They have a monastery in the Opal Mountains, gilded from ground to dome. It is under constant draconic assault. Rare is it they venture out into the Bless'd Lands.

St. Xolotl's Paladins
A group of 12 Old Dragonslayers of various ages who have no leader. They vote democratically on all issues. They roam from ruin to ruin, homeless, looking for the Old Opal King that first initiated their order. They believe that by finding his corpse, they will discover a grimoire whose contents will teach them how to crash the first moon into the world, ending the dragon threat forever. They are correct.

Fierce & Flaming.

Fraternity of the Bless'd & Burned
A fraternity of lepers who, through powerful artefacts, are able to keep themselves going as warriors. Their armor burns their flesh and holds their ruined forms together with dragon teeth harvested from their kills. Old Dragonslayers of this fraternity fight until their bodies are mush and their minds destroyed. They believe that draconic radiance will free their minds from their ills, and so they bathe in the blood of their skills, not knowing that it merely contorts their bodies further.


Order's Name
Choose or roll 1d10.

1. Survivors of Ruin & Redemption.
2. Order of the Scorched Knights.
3. Fraternity of the Direwolf
4. Order of the Full-Crescent Sun.
5. The Watchers of the Opal Gates
6. Annihilation's Apostoles
7. Those That Remain
8. Brotherhood of the Glass Spear
9. Slayers of the Second Moon
10. Order of the Bloodied Messiah

Defining Features

Choose or roll 1d10

1. They wear golden armor engraved with predator faces.
2. They blind themselves, replacing their eyes with opals through which they can see.
3. They ritually scar themselves for every drake or dragon or dragon wife that they kill.
4. Their armor is lacquered wood dipped in god blood.
5. They prey to the sun during their battles.
6. They are celibate, only having sex with one another when a dragon has been felled.
7. They sew their mouths shut, removing the stitches to pray only when a dragon has been felled.
8. Their armaments consume light, shining brightly only when making contact with dragon flesh.
9. They are immune to draconic radiance.
10. They are highly susceptible to draconic radiance, and ritually flay those who succumb to it before sewing their skin back to their bodies.

Defining Tools

Choose or roll 2d10

1. Sacred helmets emblazoned with cosmic imagery.
2. Spears made from glass and opal.
3. Armor made out of dragon hide.
4. Shields with a dragon's face sewn into them.
5. Crossbows whose bolts are dyed in god-blood.
6. Ropes made from the tendons of women slain by dragon fire.
7. Masks made from the bones of children consumed by dragons.
8. Poisons made from the ammonia found inside a dragon or drake's brain.
9. Traps designed to suck in anything with even a slight amount of draconic radiance.
10. Grimoires containing Old Dragonslaying spells.

Goal

Choose or roll 1d20. This is in addition to "Slaying Dragons."

1. To domesticate wyrmlings for steeds.
2. To hunt beasts of all kinds.
3. To remove the stain that Dragon Wives leave by killing them.
4. To devour the flesh of the First Dragons so that no more drakes can be created.
5. To rebuild the second moon, and to seal the Dragons away inside of it.
6. To break open the second moon, in hopes that something powerful will come from it.
7. To earn the favor of the gods.
8. To create a God of Dragonslaying.
9. To purge Tiamat of her radiance so that fertility returns to the world.
10. To rebuild the orders of old.
11. To rebuild the cities of old.
12. To bring about an end of all things, in hopes that dragons die too.
13. To restore the half-sun to its full splendor.
14. To build a safe place free of radiance and gods.
15. To create a world where sex and alcohol and drugs exist.
16. To gather all the old relics of the Old Dragonslayers.
17. To destroy the City of the Dragon Wife in hopes that it will placate the dragons.
18. To travel through the Opal Mountains and to discover a new afterlife beyond.
19. To be reborn in the world of the living, should such a thing exist at all.
20. To ruin the plans of a Radiant Saint.

Base Location

Choose or roll 1d10.

1. A temple in the Opal Mountains carved of tungsten steel.
2. The chest cavity of a First Dragon.
3. Underneath the City of the Dragon Wife.
4. An old pyramid, half-buried by ash, desecrated by dragon fire and consecrated with god-blood.
5. A tower made of ivory, stained black and grey, surrounded by a mile-wide moat of radiance.
6. A monastery built into the clouds.
7. Surrounded by mile-high dunes.
8. Built into a broken chunk of moon.
9. In the blood-stained lair of a slain ancient dragon.
10. Inside of an Old Opal King's mausoleum.

Dragonslaying Tactic

Choose or roll 1d10.

1. Pierce their wings with giant ballista bolts and kill them via the crash.
2. Throw vials of reactive chemicals into their mouths when they Breath, killing them via the explosion.
3. Use lightning bolts to strip skin and scale from flesh and let them bleed out and die.
4. Create poisoned objects that are added to the dragons horde and let it rot in its lair.
5. Lure the dragon into caves, tunnels, or canyons and then collapse the stone on top of them.
6. Force the dragon to fly higher into the sky and, eventually, freeze and plummet to its death.
7. Lure the dragon to the ground with horde-objects and then ambush it via jumping onto the skull and cleaving the neck.
8. Track Ereshteteo, Goddess of Death & Annihilation, and let her kill the dragon.
9. Send one dragon into a craze and bait it into battle with another dragon, leading to mutual destruction.
10. Brute force.

Better have rolled up a good ass sword.

Old Dragonslayer Artefacts

Below is a list of abilities. Choose or roll a 1d30. Attach them to random items at your leisure and throw them into treasure tables. The master is whoever owns the artefact in question.

1. Has a dragon heart inside of it. Drinks the blood of dragons and drakes, restoring half-damage dealt as HP back to master.
2. Made from dragon vocal chords. Allows master to issue commands to drakes, who have a 3-in-6 chance of listening.
3. Makes master resistant to dragon fire.
4. Makes master resistant to emotional breath weapons.
5. Makes master resistant to non-elemental, non-emotional breath weapons.
6. Gives master the ability to follow green-gold trails of radiance that dragons leave behind.
7. Makes master immune to the effects of Draconic Radiance.
8. Uses dragon teeth to sew master's wounds shut. Master cannot die at 0 HP unless brain is destroyed.
9. Gives master the ability to dispel draconic magic.
10. When master rolls a critical hit against a dragon or drake, kill it instantly.
11. When master rolls a critical miss against a dragon or drake, it becomes a critical hit.
12. Gives master the ability to run for 40 leagues before tiring.
13. Gives master the ability to go without food or water for a number of days equal to their total Hit Dice before feeling negative effects.
14. Allows master to sleep, and in their dreams, see the location of a random dragon.
15. Makes master's skin hard against the teeth of Direwolves or Cackles of Hyenas.
16. Allows master to walk in deep ash as if it were flat ground.
17. When master is wounded, bleeds out radiance at a rate of 1 point per round.
18. Allows master to conjure item by merely thinking about it, no matter where it is.
19. Seals master's soul into item when dead, allowing them to continue fighting by possessing it.
20. Allows master to attack twice per round.
21. Raises master's AC by +3.
22. Gives master a pair of wings on which to fly at x2 human speed.
23. Allows master to reflect breath weapon back on the breather.
24. Allows master to destroy one mutation caused by radiance.
25. Makes master move at x2 human speed.
26. Makes master invisible to dragon eyes for 1 hour each day.
27. Allows for master to destroy the heart(s) of whatever creature kills them.
28. Allows for master to live for 100 years in their prime starting at age 25.
29. Gives master the ability to break stone with a single strike.
30. Uses a dragon's tail to give +3 to hit and +3 to damage.

Old Dragonslayer Curses

Artefacts have a 1-in-6 chance of being cursed by their former masters, draconic radiance, or the will of the dragons slain. If cursed, choose one from below or roll 1d6.

1. Requires the master to consume dragon meat daily or else cannibalize their comrades.
2. The master can understand the pained screams of dragons and, slowly, becomes sympathetic to them. 1-in-6 chance every month of seeing them as allies.
3. The artefact increases the master's radiance score by +2 every day.
4. The artefact thirsts for dragon blood, and compels the master to kill dragon wives to slate it.
5. The artefact has a pull that calls dragons to it from up to 100 miles away.
6. The master has dreams of all the violence the artefact has seen, and cannot recover hit points until the curse is broken.

The Five Spells of Dragonslaying

The following five spells were devised during the opening wars of Armageddon. They must be memorized, and only one can be memorized at a time, and only a single one of these spells can be cast per day. Attempting to memorize or cast another results in the character falling to 0 hit points and their radiance increasing to its threshold. One spell of dragonslaying fills an entire spellbook. When a character casts a spell, they must save vs Magic or else have their radiation score increase to its threshold.

Here's one.

One Trillion Hunters Coming Forth From Ash & Soot & Hatred All

If the gods and handless priest are to be believed, than the Bless'd lands is an afterlife reserved for those who have hunted well in their lives. The dragons, therefore, are damnation; sin made manifest and intent on reducing souls to ash and soot. The Old Dragonslayers saw the truth in this, and devised a spell to call forth the trillions killed in order to hunt Armageddon to the end of time.

After invoking the spell, the caster must stab a bladed weapon into the ground. Then, 10d100 skeletons rise from the ground, burned black and made of ash and soot. Each skeleton is another victim claimed in the Radiance Wars, and, at times, appears to be a fully-formed human being, and at others the charred remains of a fallen hunter.

These 1 HD undead hunters will all molest a single dragon of the caster's choice. They will climb over each other to form great pillars to reach them if they fly and will bite and tear at their prey's wings, throat, and eyes. The weapon the caster used to invoke the spell appears in the hands of every undead hunter.

Every turn that the undead horse spends swarming the dragon, roll 1d6. If the dragon is a wymrling or young, it dies automatically. If it is adult, it has a 4-in-6 chance of being slain. If it is ancient, it has a 3-in-6 chance of being slain. If it is a First, it has a 1-in-6 chance of being slain. Every round the dragon goes without being slain, it loses half its total hit points.

Once the target dragon is dead, the hunters return from whence they came and become mounds of ash. A dragon that successfully use its breath weapon 1 time per 100 (rounded down) skeletons on the horde destroys it, increasing by 1 time for each age category below first.