Dragons

Dragons are deadly. A matched hero dies in about three clean hits, and breath kills without resistance. Prepare.

Omens

A sky dragon of a land may come while you are outdoors there. First a shadow passes, then another, then it lands ten to fourteen tiles away on open ground. The music falls silent, people shelter, guards rally and animals flee. Leave the land and it never lands. Indoors it circles for a couple of minutes, then leaves. You are never troubled in your first half hour. A dragon will not enter a Dragon Beacon's reach, so every town is safe.

The battle

• It fights on the ground. Every damaging attack has a body tell and a ground telegraph (a cone, arc, ring, lane or circle).
• Its breath is a wide fan that ticks quickly for two seconds. Survive it by standing under its chest, behind cover (rocks, cliffs, walls, houses, ice pillars) or with resistance to its element.
• Heavy blows build its poise meter; when it breaks the dragon topples and takes more damage.
• It changes phase as its health falls, and from Adult up it tries to flee at 15%, then comes back scarred.
• Parts such as horns, wings and tail can be broken to disable specific attacks.

Ages

Young at first; Adult after one kill of its kind by you, Elder after three and Ancient after six. Each age is tougher, with more phases and attacks, and better spoils.

Death and spoils

Its carcass lies for ten minutes and each hero may carve it three times with any blade. A skeleton landmark stays forever. Spoils include graded scales, bones, fangs and glands (which feed dragon armour and weapons made at the Wyrmfire Crucible), a unique piece, a rare find for farming and crafting, a Dragon Flute and its heart. Eat a heart to bind its boon and gain a breath power. Prices of spoils never scale with distance.

Co-op

The host owns dragons; guests get their own carves and a heart for each hero who dealt a tenth of the damage. Look up each kind in the dragon list.