Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast.

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Another original monster!

The Lore

The largest human settlement in the Vale in our narrative present is the city of Fallcrest, which is more or less exactly in its center and connected by roads to the other major towns. It’s a big point of light, but the darkness starts just beyond it. Those roads are dangerous, and even the areas just outside the city’s walls contain their own threats.

Take the Moon Hills, for example, which are just to the south of the city. On the blackest of nights, a fearsome beast is said to roam the hills and moors of that region, hunting the unwary. No one has ever seen the Dark Drake and lived to tell the tale - its existence is only known by the gruesome remains it leaves behind.

The Dark Drake is in some ways Fallcrest’s pet monster, as it features in many stories told in taverns or to children. These tales attribute all sorts of weird abilities to it, and also talk about its extensive brood. These “lesser” drakes have been frequently spotted in the area, and they’re also clearly more dangerous and malignant than simple natural animals, but the Dark Drake itself has remained elusive for decades, evading even experienced monster hunters. Serious scholars dismiss it as just a myth. It doesn’t help that opportunists from Fallcrest sometimes stage hoaxes to make a buck or cover up a more mundane murder. Nevertheless, these smaller drakes and hoaxes can’t explain all the bodies found on the Moon Hills.

The Numbers

The entries below assume that the Drake does indeed exist, and that it has some connection to its “brood”. You are likely to find them together. They’re all Natural Beasts with the Reptile keyword. As a reminder, “Natural” only means it’s native to the middle world, and “Beast” means it looks and behaves like an animal. We’re still dealing with a weird mystical creature here.

Dark Drake of the Moon Hills

The Drake itself is Large, and a Level 8 Elite Lurker with 148 HP. That’s a hell of a thing to meet just outside the Vale’s premier “starting town”. It has Darkvision and a speed of 6. Its basic Bite is quite strong for a lurker, and it can use Double Attack to bite twice in an action. Instead of biting, it can use the Ghost Drake ability to gain insubstantial and phasing for a turn, move its speed, and then become invisible until the end of the encounter or until after it makes an attack.

Being invisible allows the Dark Drake to use its Unseen Killer power, a melee attack that targets Will and does heavy psychic damage - about double that of a bite. It can also use its Terrible Aspect as a weapon, a minor-action melee attack against Will that pushes the target 1 square and immobilizes them for a turn. This recharges whenever the drake hits with any of its other attacks.

The Dark Drake can sustain the same damage output whether it decides to stand and fight or to employ the more lurkerish tactic of alternating Ghost Drake and Unseen Killer. The latter is still a bit better since as a lurker its defenses and HP are a bit low for its level.

Hellghost Dark Drake

One of the two “dark brood” stat blocks we get in this entry. Hellghosts are Large Natural Beasts and Level 6 Brutes with 85 HP. It has Darkvision, a Speed of 8, and Fire Resistance 5. It projects an aura of Ghostfire Radiance (1) that makes creatures inside Vulnerable 5 to fire. I wonder how that interacts with a tiefling’s natural resistance.

The creature uses a Fiery Bite as its basic attack, which deals heavy fire damage even before you account for the aura. Once per encounter it can use Ghostfire Rampage, which is a standard “trample” ability: the drake moves its speed and can cross enemy spaces. Every time it does so, it makes an attack against that enemy. On a hit, it deals fire damage, knocks prone, and inflicts ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends).

Also once per encounter, when the drake is immobilized, restrained, or stunned, it can use Pulsing Ghostfire to attack a Close Burst 2. On a hit it deals fire damage and knocks the target prone, on a miss it still deals half damage.

Adderbrood Dark Drake

This one is highly venomous. It’s a Medium Natural Beast, and a Level 7 Skirmisher with 79 HP. Its bite deals poison damage and slows for a turn. It can attack these slowed targets with a Venomous Strike that deals the same amount of poison damage and inflicts ongoing poison damage (save ends). After the first failed save, the victim also becomes immobilized. A successful save clears both this and the ongoing damage.

Adder’s Mobility ensures that enemies slowed or immobilized by the drake cannot make opportunity attacks against it, and that the drake can enter their spaces. So it can, say, bite a defender and move through them to reach the squishies.

Final Impression

The Drake’s lore sounds a bit commonplace at first, and its stats while mechanically interesting are far from the most powerful thing we’ll see even in this book… but the full impact of it all hits when you look at a map of the Nentir Vale.

If you’re starting a campaign in the Nentir Vale, there’s a very high chance that Fallcrest will be your PC’s starting home base. It’s big enough to offer all the standard services, and it’s centrally located so they have plenty of choice of where to adventure. The only reason not to start here is if the GM has a more specific campaign or module in mind.

And the Moon Hills are right beside it, to the south. The road connecting Fallcrest and the Harkenwold goes through them! If you still hold any notion of D&D being “like a MMO” that demands every fight be “fair” after reading this far, this is where you drop them. A MMO would surround the starting town with low-level trash enemies you can grind for levels. This book puts a level 8 elite newbie-killer where those would be.

If deployed by a cruel GM against Level 1-2 players, the Drake is a terrifying threat they must escape from. It can kill a PC in one round of attacks no matter which approach it chooses. Against a party of experienced monster hunters who are closer to it in level, you’ll want to deploy the Drake alongside some of its brood to make a proper boss fight.