VALOR INICIAL PARA IRALE

Acquiring the abilities of dragons is not as unbalancing as it may seem. There are very high costs and risks involved in using many of the options in this book. These costs make the acquiring of skills and abilities a matter of careful choosing. For the powers requiring experience, buying many will definitely set the character back from his normal level progression, as many are relative to his current level rather than having a fixed cost. Getting these abilities is akin to buying class features one at a time. A character who spends his experience in dracomancy abilities will have more powers than one who does not but the other character will be of higher levels, while the dracomancer still needs to power and activate his abilities effectively.

Balancing dragoncraft is a matter of in-game balance. Dragon components do give many advantages but the real problem consists on getting them. Killing a dragon should not be an easy feat, and you could replace the dragon’s body for an equivalent part of his hoard, so that characters who really want that money should know how to keep their assets… fresh.

The chieftain of the Half-Moon Fang kobold clan was uneasy. His explorers had warned him that something was coming to the caves from the direction of the green dragon’s lair but that it was neither a dragon nor a party from the human king’s army. They just had not seen it, and it had evaded detection and capture as if it knew the layout of the clan’s traps in the forest.

A few years ago he had the clan’s shaman killed, accusing him of betraying the clan to some outsiders when the real reason was that he began spouting some nonsense about a ‘chosen one’ coming to lead all kobolds to victory. He scoffed and peered at the sun coming through the trees in its last throes before it sank below the horizon.

‘Find anything interesting, chief?’ A voice from the forest startled him. ‘I suppose you are waiting for the in- truder into clan lands.’

‘Guards!’ The small reptilian called as it drew its bone dagger, taking a couple of steps backwards.

‘They are all dead.’ The voice informed him politely. The chieftain knew that the voice was another kobold but its accent was strange. Only once had he heard his language spoken with such… finality. The owner of the voice did not let him ponder much longer, as it emerged from the foliage. A kobold all right, young too and it bore the markings of the Half-Moon Fang but the chieftain did not recognize him.

‘Hold.’ The stranger said with an unusually deep voice, and the chieftain found that he could no longer move. ‘Fear.’ The other went on.

The leader of the clan began shaking, his teeth rattling in his skull but he was unable to escape.

‘You should see yourself now.’ The strange kobold approached disdainfully. ‘Unfit to lead, trembling at the sight of a youngling, eh?’ Ah, I will answer the question in your mind… I am Killi’vaurr, whom you gave to the green dragon Verrthwynn under our shaman’s advice. Guess what? You are not rid of me.’

‘D-dragon?’ The chieftain’s eyes looked nervously at the first stars of the night.

‘Hee, hee…’ The kobold sorcerer giggled. ‘Do not worry about Verrthwynn. He is dead. He taught me just enough for me to see the path ahead. I had some adventurers find his lair and kill him, and then I killed them while they recovered from their wounds. Do you know why your explorers did not report anything about my coming? I bought them with the dragon’s gold, and they now work for me, the same as the Cleaved Horn clan and Hurwatt’s orcs upriver.’

‘What do you want…? I give it to you! You take it!’

Killi’vaurr grunted. Had he really spoken like that once? Now he understood why Master Verrthwynn was so annoyed at him. Several kobolds from his own clan had approached at the noise of his entrance to their homes. He saw some of his childhood friends and some of his clutch-brothers among them, and he smiled wickedly. With a single word, he unleashed a volley of energy bolts that pierced the paralyzed chieftain.

‘I take your life, and I take the clan.’ He said before turning to the rest of his former clanmates. He made his eyes glow with the power of his heritage, which leant towards red dragons rather than the greens. ‘Attention! I am Killi’vaurr and I am now your leader! I come to lead you to a new age for kobolds! We are dragonchildren! And we will take what has been long-denied to us! Riches, power and glory!’

There was much cheering from the reptiles. Killi’vaurr smiled again. Another stone was set in the foundations of his reign.

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