Vychan the Flamespewer
Most Dragons live to accumulate wealth and crouch upon heaps of gold, content to slag troublesome heroes into cinders and distaining the company of men to absolute solitude. Vychan is not such a dragon.
Appearance
Vychan the Flamespewer follows the standard physiology of the occidental dragon. He had two large and robust hind limbs capable of holding the entire body of the dragon erect, matched by a set of slightly smaller forelimbs that are capable of limited manipulation and able to support the weight of the beast on all fours. A strong pair of leather wings fold over the back. The head is long and crocidilian, with a robust and reinforced jaw. Unlike most dragons, Vychan usually has what could be considered an amused expression on his scaled and toothy face.
History/Background
Vychan is a dragon of exceptional pedigree, the first spawn of Xeatoxx the Fiery Terror who laid waste to the NorthDales, and single-clawedly laid siege to the dwarven hold of Byrox. It happened that in Vychan's youth, the wyrmling was snatched by an especially large and vicious tunnel-weaver, a spider like creature that dwells in the remote places that dragons are wont to frequent. Vychan, started, had been drawn down into the nest, but did kill the Tunnel-Weaver by expelling a rather large and phlematic gout of flame on the creature. The wyrmling, however, was stuck and couldn't get back out.
Xeatoxx was forced to find alternate help to extricate his spawn. Digging at the earth was futile as the stone was very tough and it would be too easy to collapse the nest, or even rip his own spawn to pieces in the attempt. Xeatoxx was forced to swallow his pride and seek the assistance of a small band of heroes. The heroes did help the wyrmling escape, but also instilled in him an unexpected sense of respect for humans.
Vychan grew into the great wyrm that a spawn of Xeatoxx, himself Spawn of Scagga the Red, was worthy of. But the pride of a father for a son was fouled when Xeatoxx discovered that Vychan had developed an appalling love and respect for humans. The Flamespewer claimed himself to be an ardent supporter of the arts, donating parts of his treasure heap to humans! Xeatoxx was enraged by this and draconic urges demanded that he end this fiasco.
The Battle between Xeatoxx and Vychan was a colossal struggle that devastated the region where it was fought. Xeatoxx was stronger by age, but his time among humans had made Vychan both deceitfully cunning and gave him an unexpected advantage. In the fight, Xeatoxx was assaulted by spells cast by hired magi. Distracted, the elder dragon was defeated and left the younger to his purposes, secretly harboring fear and hatred towards his own offspring.
Special Equipment
Vychan is enormously wealthy, his treasure trove rivaling most kingdoms entire value. He doles out small portions of it to those he finds worthy, especially musicians, actors, and sculptors. He also is a patron of the magical arts, providing seed money and a few artifacts to various schools of magic to show his 'goodwill' and to keep dragonslayers away from his den.
Roleplaying Notes
Vychan is old as far as humans are concerned, nearly two centuries in age. By dragon standards he is still a youngling, still wet from the hatching. He retains a certain youthful vibrancy, but has the accrued wisdom of two sages, a mage, and a room full of politicians. Unlike most dragons, Vychan is fascinated by humans and has been since he was rescued as a wyrmling by a group of them. He likes to play the role of Benefactor to small groups, sometimes as experiments, other times as moving them about like chess pieces.
After his two centuries, the young Flamespewer is noticing the movements of other hidden factions and is irresistibly drawn to the machinations of vampires, liches, immortal elves, and the like.
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? Responses (12)
I didn't think a new kind of dragon was possible but you have created one.
Great addition to Manfred's plot, and a great submission on its own. It's interesting to see a dragon who doesn't spend most of his time torching heroes.
This makes me want to hear the rest of 'the story'. Maybe someone should pick it up where scrasamax left it, just like Scras did where Manfred started it.
I like it when we are able to build and flesh out each other. Well done scrasamax.
Well, it took nearly four years for the sequel to The Oversized Baby plot, which means that working at this George Lucas Star Warsian pace means that the sequel to Vychan should be released in January 2010. The only thing is that it started as a plot, continued as an NPC, so the next submission has to be something different.
We're almost 3 years late on the next leg
Wheeee! What a sequel! And a follow up of my own precious work! *shines with pride*
Even between the good ole dragons there must be a 'black sheep' that likes those filthy humans. Now a question: where is his great hoard from? He doesn't seem like he would get it in the traditional dragon way - by looting and burning humanoid settlements. And if he is not killing other dragons (does not sound likely), there must be another source of his wealth.
- Perhaps he is minding such trivial things as bandit activity; and once there are bandits that manage to loot a few caravans, he simply takes their loot. (Given time, it can get quite a coin.)
- Perhaps he has started living off human trade - allowing a few select businessmen to transport their wares through his territory. If he controls a strategic pass or some other fitting place, it could pay nicely.
- Or maybe he has given an ear to all the human legends of treasure, and can salvage what other consider lost or unrecoverable. Ancient cities covered with the sands of time, or sunken fleets come to mind first. Dragons do not share such stories, and humans often consider a fairy tale which has a grain of gold.
In all this cases, to be friendly disposed towards humans is not only good for his 'hobby', but also for his hoard. Nothing wrong with that for a dragon, I think.
Outstanding, its always beneficial when a writer can take an old cliche thing and turn it into something more pliable. I can see the possibility here for a Dragon version of 'Mycroft Holmes', running a great empire from behind the throne.
I can envision an excellent plot outline in the period leading up to the collosal struggle whereby the machinations of Vychan are creating strange alliances and tensions among the human factions. The PCs would have to navigate these relations under stress.
However as Manfred suggested, where does his money come from? Perhaps rather than reward adventurers with gold, maybe his reward is the funding of commisioned work. Hiring artists to write epics about them (or make busts, or paint, etc). That way he can keep most of his gold horde.
THe one concept that hasn't been mentioned was that he took the hoarde from Xeatoxx, unlikely but possible. I would expect that Vychan accumulated his mountain of gold by a hearty mix of Manfred's suggestions, investing in human endeavors, raiding the bandits and carvans that don't pay some sort of a protection fee, and following human leads to find lost hoardes.
As for dealing with other dragons, Vychan is no weakling. For his age he is both exceptionally large and dangerous. While he does have a large degree of respect for humans, one cannot forget that he is a large and dangerous creature.
Extremely good - why shouldn't dragons take an interest in human affairs? An excellent submission and a great follow-up to 'The Oversized Baby'. A great idea would be if you had included 'The Oversized Baby' in a campaign then when the campaign was completed (and that incident all-but forgotten as a minor subplot), start a campaign 200 years later with the same gaming group so they can encounter Vychan as he is today.
You have all pretty much covered what I would of said.
My only thought is that he could begin to see himself as a 'protector' for a country. That way he becomes an advisor to those short lived kings and a major military force for its defense. That could bring up new pro- and anti- dragon sentiments.
A fairly standard dragon with some twists making it stand out from the usual run of the mill. Well written and well presented.
Another sub rife with potentials. Moons comment about political involvement by the dragon is sparking something.....
