Dagourn

Dagourn Thundercrag was once a half-orc adventurer. He was an expert in the Genari Curse, an affliction Grog is currently under the effects of. However, after being captured and transformed into a Drakkyl by the stone giant wizard Mokmurian, his focus changed.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Dagourn was born in the village of Staffield to a human mother named Braya and a half-orc father named Sigurd. Sigurd had been an adventurer and had rescued Braya from hobgoblin slavers. The two travelled together for several months and grew close. The couple discovered Staffield as it was attacked by bandits who called themselves The Brawler Boys. Sigurd drove them off, and the couple decided to stay in the village and make it their home. Not long after, Dagourn was born.   Growing up, Dagourn put up with children making fun of his green skin and large stature. They called him ogre and troll and teased him mercilessly. His parents kept a wary eye on him. A family friend, a dwarven blacksmith named Kalaus, told Dagourn that he was being forged on Torag’s anvil. “Don’t let the bastards break you,” the dwarf told him.

Dagourn was in his teens when his mother started to become ill. She slowly started wasting away, and no one knew why. Sigurd sent for a cleric that he knew, hoping he would have some answers. The cleric was unable to help her. Frustrated, Sigurd reached out to a mage he had once travelled with. The mage revealed the truth - a curse of some kind was consuming Braya.
The cleric discovered the curse came from a taint in her blood and tracked back to the oni general, Sasuken. The oni had forced himself upon Braya’s mother, and his corruption carried through to Braya. Sigurd, the cleric, and the mage went to confront Sasuken and break the curse. They never came back, and Braya slowly wasted away and died. Dagourn was alone.
In 4715, the town was set upon by a hobgoblin hunting party. Dagourn, Kalaus and many villagers were taken as slaves. Over the next few years, the hobgoblins put Dagourn to work in their mines, digging up iron for Kalaus to smelt and use to create weapons for the hobgoblins.
During a "motivational beating" by several hobgoblins, Dagourn felt like he was being drawn to one of the hobgoblin officers. The hobgoblin felt it himself and sent his men to find the source. Ragg Firefist spared Dagourn further beatings and told him the source of their attraction. Ragg surmised that Dagourn was the offspring of the oni Sasuken and told him that Sasuken and four hobgoblin generals had raided a tomb and discovered a magical pendant. They fought over it and, in their battle, ended up destroying it. The magic cursed them all, but Sasuken more than the others. The five would pass their curse of the elements onto their offspring, bringing them power over one of the elements or bringing them death. Ragg himself was one of the cursed genari. So, apparently, was Dagourn.
Dagourn asked how the curse could be broken. Ragg told him that all roads led to Sasuken. Defeating him was the only way to break the curse.
Out of respect for Dagourn's shared history with Ragg, he was taken out of the mine and used to travel with hobgoblin scouting parties. He carried their items, acted as bait, and was little more than a pack animal for them.
Dagourn began searching for information about the curse when he could. He knew he had the same curse his mother did and hadn’t manifested power like Ragg's. He felt that his future would be one of a slow consuming death. The only way to be free of it would be to kill Sasuken. He wanted to do that anyway, moreso now that Sasuken had probably killed his father as well. But to do that, he would need power of his own.
Dagourn and the hobgoblins raided an old temple deep in Cheliax. Hundreds of feet beneath the temple, Dagourn discovered an old suit of armour partially crushed by a cave-in. The armour and the corpse inside were mangled, but the spiked gauntlets the skeleton wore were valuable and appeared brand new.
The hobgoblins were uneasy about touching the body and ordered Dagourn to remove the gauntlets. He pulled the right gauntlet from the corpse and suddenly had flashes of visions – the shadow of a dragon ridden by a beautiful human woman with black hair and dark eyes. Before the hobgoblins could stop him, he put the gauntlet on.
His regret was immediate. Lighting ran through his arm, chewing at his flesh like teeth. He screamed as the pain became too much, and an explosion of energy ripped from the gauntlet. There was a flash of light, and he was overcome with darkness. He thought he was dead.
In the darkness, Dagourn heard a woman’s voice. The voice was confident and powerful. She was the Dark Queen, and Dagourn had stolen something that did not belong to him - the gauntlet. One of her paladins had worn it proudly, and Dagourn had thought himself deserving enough to wear it. Now he would have to prove it.
When he awoke, days had passed. The temple was gone. The hobgoblins were gone. The damaged and burned gauntlet had fused itself onto his burned and ruined arm. Dagourn’s curse continued.
Dagourn spoke to clerics, sages, and bards. None could tell him anything about someone called the Dark Queen. His body ached, his damaged hand throbbed, and nothing helped with the pain. What he did know was that he felt driven to obtain gold. He started working wherever he could, and after a short time, he amassed a few hundred gold pieces. The more gold he gathered, the less pain he felt.
Months later, the woman’s voice came back to him. The confidence was there, but there was a sensuality too. She told Dagourn that if he presented his gold as an offering to her. she would give him knowledge. However, the pain would return as well. Dagourn agreed to the deal.
The gold vanished, and the pain returned worse than before. Dagourn fell to his knees, his vision swimming. But as his eyes came back focused, he saw a woman standing before him. She was human and the most beautiful woman Dagourn had ever seen. “Now we will begin,” the Dark Queen told him.
During the days, Dagourn would earn his treasure. Occasionally, the Dark Queen would come to him and teach him the ways of draconic magic at night. He learned of her long-forgotten kingdom, with mountains of gold that filled her vaults. Between that and her talents with ancient magic, she had earned the nickname “The Dragon Queen.” She told him of her quest to become a god, only to be imprisoned by the same pantheon of gods she wanted to join. They feared her, and through fear and jealousy, they allied against her. But rather than kill her, they locked her away to be forgotten. And she had been forgotten until now.
Dagourn needed to make some serious coin. He went to Riddleport and did a few jobs for the crime boss Clegg Zincher. When that well seemed to have dried up, Dagourn decided to go to Magnimar to try his fortune. Aboard the Stout Siren, the ship was overtaken by pirates. They managed to escape, but the ship was badly damaged. The crew tried to make it to port, but the ship broke apart and was swallowed by the ocean.
Dagourn washed ashore near Thistletop with the ship's captain, Captain Guntur. Goblins found him amongst the debris. When he awoke, he was in a cage along with Captain Guntur. The goblins gleefully tortured them both. Nualia Tobyn, a half-celestial half-demonic worshipper of Lamashtu, was leading the goblins of Thistletop. She could not bring herself to sacrifice Dagourn as she believed he was one of “Mother’s children.” He was powerful but damaged. She felt he was what she wanted to be.
The goblins were desperate to take Dagourn's gauntlet off. Nualia intervened and told them to leave it and Dagourn alone. The goblins turned their focus to a raid on the nearby town of Sandpoint, and the prisoners locked away in the dungeon of Thistletop were forgotten. The captain, already fragile from the torture and the loss of his ship and crew, snapped from hunger. Dagourn meditated and listened to the whispers of the Dark Queen. She would not let him die, and he loved her for it. “My soul is yours, my Queen,” he told her.
Soon after Captain Guntur died, Dagourn was rescued by the Saviors of Sandpoint. The Dark Queen worked in mysterious ways.
Free once again, Dagourn left Sandpoint and made his way into the countryside. One night, as he slept in a barn, the farm was attacked by a band of stone giants. Dagourn was once again taken captive. He felt as if he was being tested, and he remembered the words of Kalaus - “Don’t let the bastards break you.”
In the slave pen, Dagourn became the pet project of the stone giant wizard Mokmurian. The gauntlet Dagourn wore intrigued him. Dagourn was subjected to a ritual of draconic corruption that Mokmurian was using on slaves. Mokmurian wanted sacrifices of greedy souls, and few things were greedier than dragons. The ritual turned captives into Drakkyl, driving them victims mad. Dagourn was transformed into a white-scaled draconian and branded with the sihedron mark. However, the Dark Queen protected Dagourn's mind from the madness caused by the ritual. This also intrigued Mokmurian. Dagourn was deemed "fit to live" until Mokmurian had time to dissect him properly.
Once again, the Saviors of Sandpoint freed him from his imprisonment. They took him to Riddleport. They may have been Sandpoint’s saviours, but it was clear to Dagourn that they were servants of the Dark Queen whether they knew it or not.
In Riddleport, Dagourn was drugged while drinking in the casino of Clegg Zincher. When he awoke, he was a prisoner inside Zincher's Arena. Clegg told him he had made money on Dagourn's kind before and would do so again. "You're mine now," Clegg told him.
Dagourn prayed to the Dark Queen. Because of the brand on his chest, if Dagourn died in the arena, his soul would go to runewell of Karzoug, the awakened Runelord of Greed. Dagourn asked for Divine Intervention. He got it. The spirit of the Dark Queen came to his cell and used her draconic magic to blow a hole in the arena's wall. Dagourn was injured, and his divine powers were spent, but he was free. Again, the Saviors of Sandpoint were there to help him escape.
The heroes went to Magnimar with Dagourn in tow. They fell victim to a magical trap inside Echo's Mystical Oddities where they were sent to the nightmare realm of Leng. Depowered and wounded, Dagourn was captured by the denizens of Leng and taken to the Darklands to be sold as a slave.
Trapped aboard the denizen slave ship, Dagourn was visited by the k'thir Orrn. He had heard that Dagourn wore an old magic item and was intrigued. Orrn placed a cracked glass orb in Dagourn's gauntlet-covered hand, and the reaction was immediate. The gauntlet twisted and cracked while the cracks in the orb disappeared and began to glow with a greenish hue. Orrn agreed to buy Dagourn when the denizens reached the shore.
He never got the chance. Kumiko and Quilith staged a bold rescue, snatching Dagourn from the ship before the denizens or Orrn could stop them. Once in a safe location, Kumiko healed him and Quilith used a limited wish to heal the gauntlet. Jayvielle then offered Dagourn a healing job aboard his ship, The Bloodsworn. Dagourn agreed, feeling it would be a great way to spread the word of the Dark Queen to a wider audience.

Jealousy

During one of his jobs for Riddleport crime boss Clegg Zincher, Dagourn crossed paths with a half-orc named Arcaan. Arcaan wore a gauntlet on his left hand that looked very similar to the one infused on Dagourn’s right hand. Arcaan claimed he had recreated the gauntlet with the Dark Lady’s guidance. She had instructed him on creating it and had been with him ever since.
Jealousy crept into Dagourn’s heart. He had found her original gauntlet at great cost to himself. He had suffered for her, and she had rewarded him with divine gifts. Dagourn used those gifts to spread the word of the Dark Queen. And yet she found this other person and had him forge a new gauntlet for her. The gauntlet he now wore and sacrificed nothing in return. Did she favour this new champion more than him?
The two became rivals, both competing for the Dark Lady’s favour. Dagourn had her original gauntlet and her divine blessing. But she would speak to Arcaan more than Dagourn, and she had guided him to create a “better” gauntlet that didn’t explode when he put it on. Dagourn was constantly being abused, going from one bad situation to another. Arcaan would tell him that the Dark Queen punished him for stealing the gauntlet he didn’t deserve. Dagourn countered that she was testing him to prove he was worthy of her gifts. Gifts she saw fit not to grant to Arcaan.
Dagourn would tell Arcaan that he would be a better choice for Arcaan’s gauntlet since he was obviously her “chosen one.” He tried on a few occasions to gain possession of the gauntlet. The only time he did was during a fight with the stone giant wizard Mokmurian. He and Arcaan had allied with the Saviors of Sandpoint. Arcaan had been slain just before they engaged with the wizard. Dagourn took the gauntlet off Arcaan to claim for himself. Jayvielle, a grippli paladin of Desna, made Dagourn promise to return the gauntlet should Arcaan be resurrected. Out of respect for the people he believed had been repeatedly sent to aid him by the Dark Queen, Dagourn grudgingly agreed and kept his word when Arcaan returned to the land of the living.

Current Status

Voice of the First

Currently Boarded Vehicle

The Bloodsworn

Species

Drakkyl

Height

6'4

Weight

338 lbs

Belief/Deity

Tyranikra

Aligned Organization

Church of the First