Knights of the Tarnished Dagger: Part 7

The Knights of the Tarnished Dagger are an organization of NPC creatures with a strong vendetta and desire to destroy the Platinum Dragon god. They are a cadre of demon-like beings who seek mortal hosts and through the offer of power would slowly coax them under their control eventually subsuming their host's personality completely.

Click here for the pdf of the final two members of the Knights of the Tarnished Dagger. Ak'dur, Ritualscribed  Warrior is a creature now made of raw magic who grants his host access to an array of magical abilities that far outstrip the mere parlor tricks of his fellow Knights. This also includes the only member of the Order who was not corrupted by the shard of evil, Xergel, Uncorrupted Radiance. Xergel was once the leader of the Knights of the Platinum Dagger and when the shard of evil struck them all, he was trapped in his blade, like his friends, but was otherwise unaffected. He blames himself for what happened to his allies and to this day seeks their final redemption as penance for his sins.

The compilation document of the Knights depicted at this time is kept here on a separate page. This project is the fruit of well over a year of thinking and dreaming about what I could do with 4th Edition and now in the twilight of 4E, I'm glad I was finally able to put this out there. I hope that it has inspired you, or at least entertained you for a bit, it has been a blast to write and is going to hold a special place in a campaign coming soon.

The Librum Secerno

Dark tomes and musty books often hold secrets of great darkness. These secrets can hold hidden lore which will open a scholar's eyes to the mysteries of the planes, or they can proclaim dark secrets to which none should ever gain access. The god of secrets, Vecna, has few true divine followers. As a god of secrets, it would be against his nature to have an order that instructed others in his ways. Instead, Vecna recorded a number of secret tomes which hold the secrets of his dark powers. In order to follow the lord of secrets, you have to discover one of his ancient books and discover the secrets yourself. The power the lord of the undead has secreted away is great, but the cost of that knowledge is also great. 


Anyone who dares open the book of the dark god Vecna, will discover the pages to be empty. Only by offering a sacrifice of the flesh to the god who was maimed will reveal the full text of the Librum Secerno. If an offering of willfully given flesh is made, the giver will gain the ability to read the text of the otherwise blank book. Inside are many secrets and powerful spells that would otherwise take a lifetime to learn. Vecna offers this power to those who prove themselves worthy and who will take his secrets to the world and bring death to those who would stand against him.

Knights of the Tarnished Dagger: Part 6

The Knights of the Tarnished Dagger are an organization of NPC creatures with a strong vendetta and desire to destroy the Platinum Dragon god. They are a cadre of demon-like beings who seek mortal hosts and through the offer of power would slowly coax them under their control eventually subsuming their host's personality completely.

Click here for a pdf of the next two members of the Knights of the Tarnished Dagger: Shiel, Psionic Ghost and Taelt, Sealed in Stone. These two are a powerful dichotomy of stuck between the spiritual and physical. Shiel was a psionic prodigy in life and as a Knight warped by the shard of evil is now a psychic ghost stuck in astral form while Taelt is one stuck with a physical curse. He was a fierce warrior half-petrified by a medusa who now can pass his curse of stone on to others. With the two of these warriors you can grant your players powers that pull them away from their normal physicality and maybe make them question the nature of their being.

With these two members of the Order, only two remain. The compilation document of the Knights depicted at this time is kept here on a separate page.

May of the Dead: Crypt Wyrm

This is my first entry into the blog festival month exploring concepts of the dead and undead. Since I'm also celebrating the year of the dragon with a series of thematically related posts detailing the majesty in the draconic heritage of the game, I thought I'd unite the two. So BEHOLD, the mighty Crypt Wyrm!

Ser'Aurann was a silver dragon and protector of a great city once. As a tremendous warrior in the fight against evil, Ser'Aurann made adventurers almost unnecessary in his region as he single-handedly thwarted any threat that arose to threaten his people. Unfortunately, his protective nature and his incredible self-confidence were the undoing of this draconic protector. When fighting off a necromancer of Orcus who was attempting to turn his protectorate into zombie chattel, Ser'Aurann barged into a horde of ghouls; ripping and tearing his way through undead monstrosities. In the center of the group, leading the ghoulish horde, was a fiendish Wight commanding the undead. In order to disrupt the forces of undeath, Ser'Aurann quickly swallowed the Wight removing his leadership from the battlefield. Surely this would end the battle as the mindless ghouls ran off without their leader's guidance.

Thinking he had won the day, Ser'Aurann returned to have his wounds bound and to receive the praise of his people. Little did he know that the Wight lingered and survived. Feeding on the innards of the silver dragon, the wight commander continued to rip and tear into the flesh of the dragon while its open wounds poured necrotic filth into the blood of Ser'Aurann. The pain in the silver dragon's side soon grew to a significant internal wound and because of the wight's presence, it could not be healed magically. As Ser'Aurann grew increasingly desperate for release, he eventually hired some local (low-level) adventurers to enter his digestive tract and clear out whatever was "disagreeing" with him. The wight had been working for some time at this point and was prepared to deal with a threat as simple as the adventurers, but an idea had occurred to the evil, undead fiend. Instead of merely killing the adventurers, he changed them into wights as well and with their new found strength they all began to tear into the dragon from the inside, bringing devastating harm to and eventually killing the majestic beast.

illustration by David Wilcox
(i.e. HumorousEndeavors)

As Ser'Aurann fell, the people began to worry about what to do with his corpse. Their concerns were short lived as soon the sounds of moaning coming from inside the beast's grew louder and the very flesh of the mighty silver dragon began moving in a horrific mockery of life. The wight had tapped into dragon's motor functions and now Ser'Aurann rose as a mere vehicle of undead destruction controlled by a malevolent and undying mastermind who was now thoroughly protected by a slowly dying shell of draconic might.

The Crypt Wyrm is a huge creature, so it takes up a lot of space and has a tremendous reach. Using it in the crowded streets of a city or somewhere where quarters are tight will make navigating the hulking beast difficult, but will lend to some excellent flanking opportunities for the vomited wight spawn. In combat, the Crypt Wyrm will try and get as centrally positioned as possible and use its ragged wings to grab and pull enemies close. Within the rotting rib cage of the Wyrm are many grasping wights trying to grab hold of the enemies brought close by the enfolding wings. The breath of the dragon has decayed to the point that now it is merely a shower of necrotic flesh which bellows forth. Once bloodied, the dragon will roar and belch forth  a wight spawn for each member of the party, drawing attention away from itself and changing the dynamic of the fight. Once the Crypt Wyrm is defeated and it erupts in putrid flesh and an Oath Wight from the Dark Sun Creature Catalog spawns to finish the fight. Enjoy and happy hunting!