Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast.

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This is another setting-specific group.

The Lore

Dythan’s Legion is a large all-dragonborn military organization. As the name implies, their leader is Legatus Dythan, an ambitious and charismatic leader who dreams of seeing Arkhosia restored to its ancient glory, presumably with him at the top.

The Legion uses the same ranks and organization as the ancient armies of Arkhosia, and numbers about 500 members in total, usually operating in platoons of 20 to 24 people. These are supported by war-trained drakes and behemoths, and sometimes even by salvaged Arkhosian battle constructs.

Upon admission into the Legion, every member is branded with a symbol that used to be a Turathi slave marking. Dythan’s ancestors in the Drakerider clan used to live in the border between Arkhosia and Bael Turath, and were taken captive in a Turathi raid. After they were freed or escaped their enslavement, they took the mark for their own as a reminder of what Arkhosia was fighting against, and passed it onto their descendants. Dythan himself bears such a mark, and makes sure his soldiers remember as he does.

Though the Legion usually operates far south of the Vale, a contingent of them arrived here recently looking for ruins of Arkhosian outposts that are said to have been here back in the old days. One of them, Rolaz-Gaar, is somewhere along the shores of Lake Nen (in the NE corner of the Vale). Another might be somewhere beneath the Ogrefist Hills near the Vale’s western border. The Legion detachments concentrate in these two locations.

Despite being fairly small when compared to those ancient imperial armies, the Legion is still a large force by the standards of our narrative present, and its members are well-trained and well-equipped professionals. They’re not interested in conquering the Vale, but they’re unlikely to be very nice to anyone who stands in the way of their search. It’s unclear from the text whether Dythan himself is in the Vale at the moment. If the GM judges the ruins contain something really important, then he’s likely to be here overseeing the searches personally. If he’s not, a sufficient challenge to the Legion’s operations in the area might result in him appearing with reinforcements.

The Numbers

The actual people who make up the legion are all dragonborn, and their elite training places them as early Paragon threats. We also get stats for their salvaged Arkhosian siege towers, and for the Liondrakes they use as mounts. They use other drakes and behemoths in various roles, but those use the base stats for these creatures, perhaps leveled-up to match their handlers.

As dragonborn, all members of Dythan’s Legion can use Dragon Breath, which like the PC version is an encounter power that lets them breathe energy in a Close Burst 3 vs. Reflex. The damage type varies per stat block, and can be changed to match specific individuals. They also have Speed 6, and the non-minions have the PC trait that gives them +1 to hit while bloodied.

Alignment-wise, every dragonborn here including Dythan has the Evil alignment, which paints us an interesting picture combined with the slave marking story in the Lore section. You could perhaps see them as greedy and ruthless imperialists who are nevertheless vehemently against slavery in all its forms. It would also be relatively easy to say they focus on the less-bad parts of Arkhosia’s past and make them Unaligned. Making them actively heroic is more of a stretch, I feel, and would require bigger changes to their background.

Like we did with the Daggerburg goblins, we’ll look at them in order of increasing level.

Dythan’s Legion Warrior

The rank and file of the Legion is made up of these veteran soldiers. They’re Level 10 Minion Skirmishers wearing leather armor and carrying heavy shields. They fight with spears in melee, and can throw javelins at range.

Their Phalanx Formation trait gives them an extra +1 AC per adjacent ally, up to a maximum of +4. This would be a big no-no on a regular monster (remember MM1 hobgoblins?) but it’s OK to have on a minion since you only need to hit them once.

The Spear Attack deals a bit of extra damage when they have combat advantage, and allows the warrior to shift 1 square before or after the attack. The Javelin is a standard ranged attack. Their breath is lightning.

PCs are unlikely to meet legionnaires in numbers smaller than a platoon, and this stat block helps fill out those numbers without making the encounter impossible. They can be easily made into regulars if you need more powerful infantry for an encounter.

Dythan’s Legion Archer

These are battlefield archers, so they’re trained to put a lot of arrows into a group of clustered targets. They’re Level 10 Artillery with 84 HP. The short sword and Longbow basic attacks are solid, with the latter being the better option. They can also fire an Arrow Volley (recharge 4+) that targets enemies in an Area Burst 1 within 20 squares and does light physical damage to each one it hits.

Their dragon breath deals cold damage and also pushes 1 square on a hit, making it a good “keep-away” emergency power.

Dythan’s Legion Vanguard

Vanguards march into battle at the front of the Legion’s infantry formations, engaging the enemy directly to give space for the mobile Warriors to flank them. They’re Level 11 Soldiers with 111 HP, wear plate, and carry swords and heavy shields.

They have the same Phalanx Formation trait as the Warriors, which means they punch above far above their weight as far as AC is concerned. If you can’t isolate them from their allies, hit them in the non-armor defenses!

Their basic Longsword attack marks for a turn on a hit, and they can use minor actions to shield bash marked targets. This does no damage, but dazes for a turn. Vanguard’s Mark (recharge when first bloodied) allows them to mark a target that’s up to 5 squares away with a minor action. If the marked target doesn’t end their next turn adjacent to the vanguard, the vanguard can charge it as a free action that doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks. This makes the power an excellent way to hit the PC’s squishies.

Their Dragon Breath does poison damage.

Dythan’s Legion Dragoon

Real-world dragoons were so named because they were cavalry that carried firearms (so their weapons “spat fire”). The dragoons of Dythan’s Legion got this name from the fact that they ride the next best thing to an actual dragon.

Dragoons are Level 12 Controllers with the Leader keyword and 119 HP. They wear leather like the infantry, and carry lances into combat. Most of their abilities are related to mounted combat. The Masterful Rider trait negates 1 square of all forced movement imposed upon them if they’re mounted; the Incensed Mount reaction allows their mount to make a free basic attack against an enemy who damages the rider; and even their basic lance attack knocks prone on a hit if the dragoon is mounted.

Their Battlefield Mastery power (recharge 4+) is a minor action that allows every ally in a Close Burst 2 to shift 1 square. And yeah, the mount is an ally. Their Dragon Breath does acid damage.

Dragoons are quite dangerous when mounted! Canny PCs will seek to knock them down and prevent them from remounting again.

Liondrake

Captured young in the distant deserts of the south, these Large Natural Beasts are the mount of choice for Dythan’s Dragoons. They look a lot like dragons, and have many of the same attacks, but are not sapient and lack breath weapons. The specimen statted up here has been trained as a war mount and is a Level 12 Skirmisher with 122 HP. It has a ground speed of 7, a fly speed of 10, and Darkvision.

The drake’s Fierce Mount trait gives both it and its rider a +4 bonus to defenses against opportunity attacks. It has both a bite and a claw as basic attacks, and can perform Battle Leaps that allow it to shift up to 4 squares and then either bite once or claw twice. It has a Terrifying Roar encounter power that is kinda like dragon breath, targeting a Close Blast 5, doing thunder damage, and dazing (save ends).

Liondrakes are dangerous even on their own, but they synergize very well with Dragoons. They also make great mounts for other kinds of paragon-tier “rider” opponents.

Arkhosian Siege Tower

Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast.

These are ancient constructs built by Arkhosia and salvaged by the Legion. They were either brought to the vale from the South, or salvaged from local Arkhosian ruins depending on how you want to play it in your campaign. They are 30-foot tall and 15-foot wide stone towers that move on 10-foot tall granite rollers.

A tower can transport troops in its two internal floors, allowing them to disembark on enemy battlements. On top of it is a sculpted dragon head that can swivel in a 360-degree arc and shoot fireballs at enemies. Being a construct, the tower is capable of driving and shooting by itself, though if it gets too damaged its occupants will dearly feel the lack of internal safety equipment.

Arkosian Siege Towers are Huge Natural Animates with the Construct keyword and 336 HP. They’re immune to charm, disease, and poison, and have Resist 15 to all damage originating from outside themselves. The rest of their stat block really stretches the format in an attempt to model all they can do, starting with a trio of very interesting traits:

All-Around Vision means they don’t grant combat advantage when flanked; Juggernaut means it ignores difficult terrain and doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks, but it also can’t squeeze, make OAs, or grab creatures. Living Building has a list of effects as long as my arm:

  • The tower can occupy other creature’s spaces, and other creatures can end their movement in its spaces. That’s rules-talk for “it can fit people inside itself”. When it moves, creatures inside move along with it as if it was a vehicle.

  • The tower is 30 feet tall and has two internal 15-foot tall levels. The Athletics DC for climbing it from the outside is 20.

  • The lower level has two iron double doors (break DC 25) that it can open and close as a free action. When the doors are closed, there is no line of sight or effect between the inside and outside.

  • The upper level has arrow slits that allow occupants to shoot outside. It’s linked to the lower level by 2 ladders.

Finally, the Rough Ride trait models how damage impacts the tower. While bloodied, the tower is slowed and inflicts a -2 penalty to attacks on all its occupants.

As a construct, the tower has two attacks. The Dragon’s Head shoots fireballs (Area 1 within 20) that deal immediate and ongoing fire damage, half on a miss. And it can Crush with its move action, which allows it to make attacks against any creatures whose spaces it enters during the move.

When the tower drops to 0 HP, it Collapses, making an attack vs. the Reflex of every occupant that deals heavy damage and knocks them prone on a hit. The tower’s space becomes difficult terrain (a giant pile of rubble!).

The stats make no mention of a disembarking ramp on the second level, but it’s easy to say there is one there. It’d be as sturdy as the ground floor doors, and controlled in the same way.

The best way to fight a siege tower is from inside, where you can bypass its DR and “only” have to contend with its occupants. These are likely to be a combination of vanguards and archers.

Legatus Dythan

Dythan is big and imposing even for a Dragonborn. He wears an ornate suit of plate adorned with Arkhosian heraldic devices done in gold inlay. He’s not just a competent general, but an extremely skilled combatant as well.

Dythan is a Level 15 Elite Soldier with 290 HP and the Leader keyword. He wears his nifty armor suit and carries a shield, a sword and a brace of javelins into battle. He has the same Phalanx Formation trait as his vanguards, and projects a Last Stand aura (5) that gives allies inside a +2 bonus to damage while they’re bloodied. He also gains at +2 to hit while bloodied himself, instead of the usual +1 for dragonborn.

Dythan might be a Soldier but he doesn’t mark anyone. Instead he wants the PCs to mark him! His longsword deals bonus damage if the target is marking Dythan or has an active defender aura. If an enemy marks an ally within 5 squares of Dythan, he can use Dythan’s Challenge to transfer the mark to himself.

As a minor action he can perform a Shield Bash, which damages, pushes 1 square, and allows the legate to shift 1 square to follow. This is a full attack with standard damage because he’s an elite. Those javelins are Shock Javelins that deal lightning damage. And finally, his Dragon Breath is the traditional fire.

Final Impressions

I really like Dythan’s Legion. They’re a major threat compared to almost everything else in the Vale, but they’re focused on doing their own thing and have no reason to be immediately hostile to the PCs.

Depending on how villainous you want to make them, they might make a good late-game antagonist faction when they find those ancient ruins and start bringing in their full numbers to the Vale looking to conquer it and make it their new base of operations. They might also work as uneasy allies against other Vale-wide threats, like a full-scale Bloodspear invasion or one of the big dragons.