Dregoth on his throne, looking very stately and about to deliver a villainous speech.

In our narrative present, everyone in Athas believes the Dragon of Tyr is the only dragon on the planet. Even the Dragon himself.

But there is one other.

The Lore

Every Sorcerer-King wants to ascend in the same way their buddy Borys did, but for some of them that feels more like a side project. They all have other things going on, lands to rule, vices to indulge. Dregoth, on the other hand, made “I shall become a god!” his whole personality. While they partied, he studied defiling magic.

Dregoth completed his draconic transformation ahead of everyone else except Borys (who had help!). He created a whole new species in his image (the dray), and was in the process of perfecting their design and teaching them to worship him when Abalach-Re decided to see what he was up to and became terrified.

She warned the others, and they banded together to eliminate the threat because the community of Sorcerer-Kings works exactly like a bucket of crabs. The ensuing battle was titanic. Dregoth was slain, and his city of Giustenal was shattered, scattering the survivors and flooding the spirit world with the souls of the dead (many of whom haunt the ruins).

And then Dregoth got better. He returned in secret as an undead dragon, setting up in a giant cavern far beneath the surface and calling his surviving loyalists there. Every inhabitant of this New Giustenal is required to undergo transformation into a dray, if they weren’t one already.

The plan remains the same: gather enough worshippers to undergo apotheosis and become a real god. By now, centuries after his death, Dregoth has a sizable army of dray, undead, and other creatures under his command. Real Soon Now (TM), he’s going to invade the surface to get revenge on his former “buddies” and gather all the worship he needs to finally complete his unlife’s work.

Dregoth’s undeath works like that of a lich. His soul is hidden in an artifact somewhere in New Giustenal, and if he’s killed he will reform next to that artifact within three days. The only other person who knows this is Absalom, his high priest. Absalom used to be human, and was one of the first of Dregoth’s subjects to be transformed into a dray after Giustenal’s fall. Dregoth then killed him and raised him as a unique undead being, which explains why he’s still around.

Absalom is a competent high priest, but his true loyalty is to the dragonborn of New Giustenal. Should he ever have to choose, that’s whom he’ll pick. Canny epic-tier PCs might be able to discover this.

The Numbers

As usual, let’s see them in order of level.

Absalom

The high priest is a Medium Natural Humanoid with then Shapechanger, Undead, and Dragonborn tags. He’s a Level 22 Elite Soldier with 414 HP, Speed 8, and Darkvision. Like many undead, he’s immune to disease and poison, and has 15 Resistance to both fire and necrotic damage.

His main weapon is an ancient Bastard Sword that’s probably made of metal. Its blows do light damage for his level but inflict ongoing 10 damage (save ends). Slicing Maneuvers lets him attack twice and make his move action between these attacks. At range he can use Spirit Siphon (range 20, recharge 4+) to inflict 45 ongoing cold+necrotic damage (save ends both). Each time an enemy takes damage from the power, Absalom or a nearby ally gain 10 temporary HP.

Instead of running like a pleb, Absalom can use Dread Wings as a move action to teleport 8 squares and gain a flight speed equal to his speed for a turn. This is at-will, so it can be the movement he does between Slicing Maneuvers.

His soldierly skills live in his minor and triggered actions. Overshadowing Oath marks a visible enemy within 20 squares for a turn, and can be used multiple times per round. If a marked enemy ends their turn in a square that’s not adjacent to Absalom, they take 20 damage as a reaction and grant combat advantage for a turn. This means the high priest wants to stay away from marked enemies, generally.

Other minor actions include Swirling Breath (recharge 6+), which does a blend of necrotic and fire damage, and slides 3 squares on a hit; and Change Shape, which lets him shift between his natural undead form, a disguise as a living dragonborn, or a specific individual he’s seen. Equipment and clothes don’t change. The DC to pierce the disguises is 41, though I imagine it would be lower if he turns into a specific individual without changing out of his robes.

Absalom is a strong melee combatant, but he’s much better as a ranged nuisance. Mark someone at the limit of his Oath’s range and then stay away from them while attacking with Soul Siphon. When someone gets close, use Slicing Maneuvers to stab them, and teleport to a distant squishy to stab them too.

Dregoth, Sorcerer-King

The scale of that illustration is a bit misleading: Dregoth is a Huge Natural Magical Beast with the Undead and Shapechanger tags. Interestingly enough he doesn’t have the Dragon tag, so maybe he isn’t quite done with his transformation yet. It could also be an oversight, as he has pretty much everything he’d need to be a dragon in his stat block.

Dregoth is a Level 30 Solo Controller with 1072 HP. His ground speed is 8, his flight speed is 10, he’s immune to disease and poison and has 20 resistance to both fire and necrotic damage. His special senses include darkvision and Blindsight 5.

He projects a Soul Defiler aura with a radius of 3, which is a lot given he’s Huge. Whenever an enemy starts their turn inside, they take 10 damage and Dregoth gets to roll a save if he needs one.

He has a reach 2 bite that damages and inflicts ongoing 10 necrotic (save ends), and a reach 3 claw that does the same and also slows. He can attack at range 20 with a Defiling Gaze that deals necrotic damage and dazes (save ends). Dread King’s Wrath lets him do a bite/claw or claw/claw combo, though the fact that it has both “ranged” and “melee” icons next to it seems to indicate he could replace one of those attacks with a Gaze too. I wonder which version (melee only or melee and ranged) is the right one.

Anyway, his Breath Weapon (encounter) is a close blast 5 that deals a blend of cold and necrotic damage, immobilizes, and inflicts a -4 penalty to AC and Fortitude (save ends both). Supreme Defiling (encounter) covers a Close Burst 3, deals heavy untyped damage, and crits on a 17-20.

As a move action, he can use Nightmare Travel (encounter) to become insubstantial and phasing, and shift 8 squares. If he passes through a creature’s space during this movement, the creature takes 15 psychic damage and is knocked prone.

So many encounter powers, that means he becomes a lot less dangerous once they’re all used up, right? No, because he can use Spellmaster (recharge 5+) as a minor action to recover any of them. He can also Change Shape to appear as a Medium dragonborn, or as a specific individual he’s seen before. The DC for seeing through such a disguise is 47.

When Dregoth is hit by an attacker within 4 squares he can use a Tail Riposte as a reaction. This does some damage, inflicts 15 fire+necrotic damage, and slides the target 5 squares.

Being in melee with Dregoth is extremely dangerous, because it puts you within easy reach of nearly all of his attacks. Plus the more PCs are inside his aura, the better he is at shrugging off negative conditions. Trying to snipe him from a distance works better, but he’s very mobile and his gaze attack can make it hard to maintain that distance. And if he has any idea at all that the PCs are coming for him, he’ll be smart enough to pick a battlefield that forces them to stay close.

Encounters and Final Impressions

I like that Absalom is a unique undead being that you can’t easily slot into any classification. Dregoth is technically one too, though the individual components of his schtick are more familiar. He is a dragon who is a lich, but he’s not a dracolich. Savvy?

In any case, he feels to me like better villain material than the Dragon of Tyr. The Dragon and the other Sorcerer-Kings mostly want to maintain the status quo, while Dregoth has an intrinsinc motivation to shake things up. At least, he would make much better villainous speeches about how he’s going to Show Them All than any of the others.

Any campaign with Dregoth as an active antagonist will have the PCs meet his troops much earlier. They’re mostly dray, both alive and undead, who tend to be evil assholes and consider themselves superior to those who have ties to the old Giustenal. They often have the Psionic Adept monster theme (more on Monster Themes later).

Absalom is dangerous, but his level is so much lower than Dregoth’s you’re not likely to meet both of them at once. He’s either the guy you convince to ally with you against Dregoth, or the guy you defeat on the way to enlisting Dregoth’s aid to fight the Dragon of Tyr.