Noxidus, the Green Shadow Dragon
Noxidus is a green shadow dragon that lives in the Pin Ruins north of the former site of Tavern Town. The village of Pin was once a thriving dwarven community, until an experiment involving explosives damaged the aquifer the settlement used for a water source and flooded the area. Years after Pin was abandoned, a coven of sea hags made their lair there while attempting to open a portal to the Shadowfell to summon monsters to serve them. They were partially successful and managed to open a one-way portal from the Shadowfell with Noxidus being the first creature to cross over into Nexus.
Noxidus saw no reason to assist the hags with their quest. Fearing the dragon, they offered to provide him protection in the time it took to set up his territory in this new world. Truly, the hags were biding their time until they could summon enough minions to force Noxidus to do their bidding. Noxidus, meanwhile, agreed and planned to kill the hags once his territory was established and their usefulness had ended. It was not long before rumors became to circulate in the nearby humanoid communities of a large shadow in the night sky, and people began to notice as farm animals went missing.
But the adventurers Kaylin Tramaer, All Smite, and Vinnie Vice were unaware of these rumors when they arrived at the Pin Ruins seeking the dwellberries that grew there for Sindri the Brewmaster. Though there were many berry bushes outside the cave, they had been stripped clean of berries by the hungry Noxidus who'd grown rather fond of them. Venturing inside in search of berries, they battled a group of sorrowsworn that had been pulled through the Shadowfell portal by the hags. The sound of this battle attracted Noxidus' attention and he slowly approached the group from the massive pool of water covering the center of the cave.
His voice echoed through the cave as the adventurers entered, greeting them as guests with a mocking tone. The voice asked that they stay a while and though they tried, the adventurers were unable to pinpoint Noxidus' location. Vinnie Vice traveled to the next room and saw several corpses floating in the water, dwarven adventurers killed by Noxidus and transformed into ghasts by the hags. When he threw a rock at one of the bodies, they rose and attacked while All Smite leapt to Vinnie's aid.
Kaylin, having been injured heavily while fighting the sorrowsworn, decided to hang back to begin treating her wounds. This proved to be a mistake as Noxidus emerged from the water and unleashed his breath weapon on the injured adventurer, severely wounding her with only her energized Threads of Fate protecting her from an instant death. Laughing, Noxidus retreated back into the water to watch the adventurer's next move.
When Vinnie and All Smite decided to keep their attention on the attacking ghasts in front of them, Noxidus crept up behind them and unleashed his breath weapon on the pair, injuring some of the ghasts in the process and even killing one of them. Retreating to the water once again, Noxidus contined to watch and wait while the two adventurers decided to keep their focus on the undead before them.
Seeing that Kaylin was still alive, Noxidus quickly surmized that something had energized her Threads of Fate. Fully coming out of the water, he grabbed the injured but medically stable adventurer and began dragging her towards the water with the intention of drowning her. Seeing this, Vinnie ran over and grabbed the dragon by its horns, earning Noxidus' ire as it began to bite and claw at him. Doubting the group's ability to take Noxidus in direct combat, Vinnie began attacking a cracked pillar next to them to bring the ceiling down on them both.
At the same time, All Smite used his divine magic to aid his allies with magical healing, getting Kaylin back on her feet as the remaining ghasts continued to attack him. Noxidus chose this moment to reveal a bit of magic of his own, summoning a magical darkness that enveloped himself, Vinnie, and All Smite. In this darkness, Vinnie did succeed on destroying the damanged pillar and bringing part of the ceiling down. Vinnie himself was injured badly by this blow and though it did injure Noxidus, it did not do enough damage to take the dragon out of the fight.
Briefly striking at Noxidus, Kaylin began to flee after concluding this battle was lost and not wishing to die. Noxidus unleashed his breath weapon on Vinnie and All Smite once again before chasing the fleeing centaur. All Smite used his magic to heal his allies once again as he and Vinnie also began to flee the cave. But the decision came too late as Vinnie and All Smite were struck down by the dragon. Though these blows did not kill the pair instantly, the injuries left them helpless and it took little time for Noxidus to finish them off.
Flying out of his cave, Noxidus searched for the fleeing Kaylin but was unable to locate her, his eyesight being weakened by the light of day. Despite his lack of total victory, Noxidus considered this day to be a resounding success. He stripped the adventurer corpses of their coin and magic items, adding them to his horde, before dragging their bodies beneath the water to soften the meat for easier consumption.
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