Post by DM Leverage on Mar 9, 2013 5:15:15 GMT -5
Orzogoth
- Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast -
In the heart of the High Moor stands a notorious ruin—a beacon for treasureseekers from all over the Sword Coast, especially Amn. Tales of heaps of gems caught the imagination of greedy Amnian merchants so strongly that Orogoth found its way into the lore learned by every wide eyed child. No guidebook to the Coast is complete without mention of this lure for adventurers—a lure that brings swift death to almost all who seek it.
Orogoth was a gigantic, sprawling villa, the luxurious home of a Netherese family of cruelty, idle wealth, and magical might. They dabbled in strange magical experiments involving captured dragons—yes, their magic was that strong—with the aim of gaining dragon powers for themselves. Most accounts say the senior mages of the Orogoth family perfected not only means of acquiring dragon powers, but also of taking on dragon shape. The tales go on to say that they flew away in dragon form and never returned. Some tales swear they were trapped in dragon shape when their human bodies collapsed under the strain of changing, and a hasty retreat into dragon shape was all that saved their lives. Other accounts say they preferred dragon form, and still others that they were magically bound into dragon shape by treacherous young relatives.
The elders vanished, and Orogoth became the playground of the arrogant, spoiled, willful, cruel family members, who magically compelled dragons—perhaps their shapechanged elders, perhaps not—to wing about the Realms, seizing treasure, and bringing it back for the amusement of the young Orogoths. This treasure was usually acquired by slaying other dragons and seizing their hoards, but also by tearing open castles and plundering known treasuries within. A dragonlike hoard of heaped treasure accumulated.
Inevitably, there was strife among the proud younglings, resulting in some sort of titanic battle. Some say it was over some magically mighty plundered item, but it is clear that dragons were blasted from the sky. Orogoths died screaming as they burned like torches, towers were toppled—and when all was done, the villa was a ruin, the Orogoths were dead or fled away, and all that remained to guard the treasure was a dracolich (an undead dragon, the result of some horrible spell).
Ever since, adventurers and the Cult of the Dragon have come to the ruins to seize the treasure—and been killed, transformed into beast shape, or sent fleeing across the Moor. Some folk say other dragons aid the dracolich in defending the hoard, or that one or more deranged surviving Orogoths lurk, invisible, in the ruins, wielding strange and awesome spells and magical items. Whatever the truth, Orogoth remains a deadly fascination to all who have heard of it.
- Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast -
In the heart of the High Moor stands a notorious ruin—a beacon for treasureseekers from all over the Sword Coast, especially Amn. Tales of heaps of gems caught the imagination of greedy Amnian merchants so strongly that Orogoth found its way into the lore learned by every wide eyed child. No guidebook to the Coast is complete without mention of this lure for adventurers—a lure that brings swift death to almost all who seek it.
Orogoth was a gigantic, sprawling villa, the luxurious home of a Netherese family of cruelty, idle wealth, and magical might. They dabbled in strange magical experiments involving captured dragons—yes, their magic was that strong—with the aim of gaining dragon powers for themselves. Most accounts say the senior mages of the Orogoth family perfected not only means of acquiring dragon powers, but also of taking on dragon shape. The tales go on to say that they flew away in dragon form and never returned. Some tales swear they were trapped in dragon shape when their human bodies collapsed under the strain of changing, and a hasty retreat into dragon shape was all that saved their lives. Other accounts say they preferred dragon form, and still others that they were magically bound into dragon shape by treacherous young relatives.
The elders vanished, and Orogoth became the playground of the arrogant, spoiled, willful, cruel family members, who magically compelled dragons—perhaps their shapechanged elders, perhaps not—to wing about the Realms, seizing treasure, and bringing it back for the amusement of the young Orogoths. This treasure was usually acquired by slaying other dragons and seizing their hoards, but also by tearing open castles and plundering known treasuries within. A dragonlike hoard of heaped treasure accumulated.
Inevitably, there was strife among the proud younglings, resulting in some sort of titanic battle. Some say it was over some magically mighty plundered item, but it is clear that dragons were blasted from the sky. Orogoths died screaming as they burned like torches, towers were toppled—and when all was done, the villa was a ruin, the Orogoths were dead or fled away, and all that remained to guard the treasure was a dracolich (an undead dragon, the result of some horrible spell).
Ever since, adventurers and the Cult of the Dragon have come to the ruins to seize the treasure—and been killed, transformed into beast shape, or sent fleeing across the Moor. Some folk say other dragons aid the dracolich in defending the hoard, or that one or more deranged surviving Orogoths lurk, invisible, in the ruins, wielding strange and awesome spells and magical items. Whatever the truth, Orogoth remains a deadly fascination to all who have heard of it.
