The Dread Gloom¶
An ancient black dragon — in truth a dracolich — "a bitter enemy of the Order" of the Diamondback from ancient times, that destroyed Castle Shain and killed Quinon Hexshade. Killed for good roughly ten years later by Trout Brightshield, Elysia Moreau, and Rodrick.
Overview¶
Described as announcing itself with a cry that "almost sounded like words" ("I am coming. Tremble"), the Dread Gloom attacked Castle Shain without provocation, dissolving Blood Hunters with streams of acid breath and crashing through the castle's towers before being driven off (or simply leaving triumphant) after killing most of the order and Quinon. Per legend recounted by Rodrick, a few generations of Diamondback hunters before Trout's found a dragon egg in a necromancer's lair and, thinking it inert, left it rather than destroy it — the egg hatched into what became the Dread Gloom, which the order fought (and repeatedly believed it had killed) as it grew over the generations, never realizing they were dealing with an already-undead creature that simply reconstituted itself.
Its motive for attacking Castle Shain when it did is never conclusively established — Trout speculated it wanted the order's secrets of Hemocraft, alchemy, and mutagens (a theory borne out by Additional Materials/The_Last_Diamondback_or_Bound_by_Blood.md, whose horde room is stacked floor-to-ceiling with ancient books and scrolls of arcane knowledge rather than treasure), while Rodrick favored simple revenge for a wound the order had once dealt it.
History¶
Roughly ten years after Castle Shain's fall, the Dread Gloom resurfaced near Moonveil, seizing a vassal lord's castle from Duke Athtar and slaughtering its inhabitants (this ruined castle later becomes Castle Orion), then ravaging the surrounding duchy — poisoning the land and water, gathering lizardfolk and ooze followers, and killing every mercenary and adventurer sent against it. Duke Athtar's bounty eventually drew Trout, Elysia, and Rodrick to hunt it.
At the castle, the party discovered the Dread Gloom's true nature: its immunity to Elysia's necromancy (Finger of Death did nothing) and the fact that a chapel of Demeter on the grounds was sacred ground it could not enter revealed it as a dracolich. Its phylactery — a black, dark-green-glowing gem — was hidden in the chest of an amnesiac warforged (later named Hephaestus) discovered unconscious among its horde; Elysia shattered it, rendering the dragon mortal again. This account of Hephaestus's origin conflicts with Wolfgang Windsor Backstory.docx's claim that Lucca Dragonaire built him — a contradiction the GM's corrections didn't explicitly address and which remains logged, not resolved, in Contradictions and Open Questions. In the ensuing battle it bit off Rodrick's arm and killed him with a single claw through the heart before Trout, transformed into a demonic "blood angel" by three simultaneous Mutagens, finished it for good with a Bolt of Dragon Slaying gifted to him years earlier by Demeter — striking its eye and delivering a burst of radiant power that brought it down permanently. Trout claimed its remaining eye as a trophy.
Per the Ending Outline (Planned Canon, written before this fuller account existed), the kill is described more briefly as "closing the wound left by Quinon's death and the destruction of Castle Shain" — consistent with, and now filled in by, the Bridge Material account above.
Sources¶
Trout Brightshield.md/Trout Brightshield.docxTrout stories.docxQuinon backstory.docxOlder Trout Stories.mdChrono_Conundrum_Ending_Outline.docx.mdAdditional Materials/The_Last_Diamondback_or_Bound_by_Blood.md